I thought the food was crunchier without the liners, and the thing is super easy to clean, so I don't see the advantage of using them to keep it cleaner. It takes just a couple minutes to wash out both the basket and tray after use.

We ended up dispensing with liners for the most part, but they are nice for small items that might fall through whatever tray you have (like skinny french fries). We mainly use it for things like fries, tator tots, chicken tenders, pizza rolls, etc - frozen items. They get way crunchier in the air fryer than even the convection setting on the microwave. I just use coated plastic tongs/spatulas with it to not scratch the coating.

Last night I had a Flute and an Albert Einstein. We had a neighborhood event over the weekend where youngest was a Mario Piranha plant. Last week at a costume party my oldest son was Dr. Frankenstein and youngest was Frankenstein's Monster. 🙂

For me, a minimum of 1 a day year round (cup of coffee or homemade latte in the morning). During the cold months, 2-3 per day - usually extra cups of hot tea, and sometimes a second cup of coffee.

I think the other difference between this and a destination wedding is with a wedding, the people who want to be celebrated (the couple) are doing the inviting, and they basically can say who they want to attend (but I agree, they really can't say who else can fly to the destination unless they are buying everyone's plane tickets!). In this case the person being celebrated (FIL) is not the one making the request, so it does seem more controlling to have the person planning the event (who wasn't offering to pay for everyone he invited) control who comes to the destination. If FIL wanted to have only his kids on the trip and no spouses, that would be totally different. On the other hand, it is kind of rude for the other siblings to demand that DH find accommodations to fit everyone who wants to come. It would be absolutely fair to say, "I've found a place for 5, who wants to stay with me". But also fair for sibs to say, my wife/kids want to come to Boston too, we'll get our own place. I don't see how DH can dictate who takes a trip at the same time as this baseball game. I think ultimately if there was no flexibility in the plans, it would have been better to either just invite FIL to a trip and a game alone (unless he can pay for everyone - then it is the payer's prerogative). I think I would be a little miffed if one of DH's siblings planned a trip and put such tight parameters on it. It's hard enough for holidays, where sometimes family members will have very limited availability and a family member says, "It's celebrate on December 25th or nothing". We are just having to choose between our special nuclear family celebration (could be held on a different day), and seeing extended family. With vacation time, it might be the difference of getting to take a whole family vacation or not that year if there was an extra request for DH to take a trip without us. Vacation time is limited for most people.

We had a phase where DH did this for me. When I had babies I was nursing they would wake up and want a long session in the morning, and DH would make me a latte and bring it to me. Our schedules are very different now - DH has a couple days a week where he has to get up super early, a couple hours before me. But then because he is short sleep from those nights, he often gets up later than me on the other work mornings. Weekends we are often getting up a different times also. We both do single cup brewing methods (latte for me, Americano or Aeropress for him), so it would be different I think if we were just making a pot of coffee that could wait and stay warm for the other person. But he does still make me coffee on my birthday and often on holidays. 🥰

This seemed like the best idea to me too, but as I got to thinking about it, if the leagues are on different days or have other different eligibility characteristics, OP might not be able to combine. The Tuesday team members might not want or be able to join a Friday team. Or if one team is mixed men/women but the other is an all women's league, the men couldn't combine into the ladies league team. If you are allowed to have try outs or some other selection criteria that makes it easier... otherwise it's probably easier to quit and find a better team to join. 😬

Years ago my daughter got an OG doll as a gift at about age 6 or 7, then ended up saving money when she was older to buy 2 American Girl dolls (over the course of a couple years when she was about 11-12). The big thing she noticed was that it was hard to keep the hair nice on the OG doll. It was sturdy and high quality in every other way. When DD was in middle school and even early high school she got into making stop motion animation movies with her dolls. With the OG doll she ended up learning to do a "wig replacement" and we ordered a new wig on Etsy, and then it had beautiful hair again too. 😍. She's saving all three of her dolls for her future children. 😊

None of my teens (so far) have had serious dating relationships while in high school so I am not looking at it from that angle. My daughter wanted to be able to drive 1.5 hrs each way to be able to visit a good friend in a major city as soon as she got her license. It is a slightly different situation because we formerly lived in the large city...but honestly a kid's knowledge of the major city at age 12 and what a 16 year old driver needs to know are very different! The neighborhood where friend lives has also gotten a bit more dangerous since we lived there in terms of crime stats (there was a carjacking across the street from friend's house within the past couple years 😞). It's a bit easier with a 1.5 hour drive than a 3 hr drive, but we started with having her drive all the way there and then back home with us in the car while she still had her permit, then once she had her license, her first trip "alone" we actually followed her in a separate vehicle so we could be right there if she had any trouble. Once we saw she could navigate to friend's house on her own, we felt more comfortable with her making the trip solo. We made sure she always has cell phone on/charged and usually sharing location while driving back and forth (we don't normally track location), and we got roadside assistance so she could call in case of flat tire, etc. We also talked about a variety of safety situations for driving in the city, how to make sure you are getting gas in a safe area, etc. So aside from the boyfriend situation, I would definitely allow a three hour drive to the city to visit a friend, but would just make sure she has proven skills first by going along the first time. (In your case that would also give you a chance to scope out where the parent's live, etc and make sure you are comfortable with her staying overnight there).

Thanks so much @forty-two!!! I forgot that the wayback archives files too!

Ultimately I can either switch to his new/updated books or buy something different...It just feels like such a waste to have spent $30 on printing, only to throw the whole thing in the recycling due to lack of answer key, or to use it and just always have to guess if we've gotten it all correct. I have a pretty good grammar sense, but not perfect.

No, unfortunately that's one of the new ones. 😞 Some of the exercises are the same as what I have printed and some are different. All his new files are dated 8/23 and newer, so I need one that was downloaded any time in the last 10 years through this past July, when I downloaded all my student books and sent them to the printer. 😅 I have definitely learned my lesson about downloading everything you need from a free curriculum right away...I feel like this is just my luck that something that sat pretty much static for 10+ years would change after I decided to use it. (This has happened to me with several expensive curricula that I bought in my earlier years of homeschooling thinking I would resell when finished, but then a new edition came out and my old one was almost worthless. I now never count on reselling anything!).

Earlier this summer I downloaded student workbooks for Grade 6 Levels 1-3.2 of KISS Grammar, and had them printed. I only downloaded the first two answer keys at the time thinking I would go back and download the other answer keys later. The author has completely wiped out everything that was on the site previously and is organizing the exercises differently now, so none of the previous files are available for download. 😖 I tried emailing the author and have really gotten nowhere. I'm not sure if he has the old answer keys or not. He tried to tell me more than once that if I just use what is on the site now, I won't need those answer keys anyway. 🙄 I get that it is a free program, so he can do whatever he wants. But since I paid to get them printed, I want to use what I have. Most of the time I can figure out the answers in the exercises we've done so far, but every now and then it's tricky and I need the AK. So...does anyone still have the old 6th Grade KISS answer keys from levels 3.1 and 3.2 and would be willing to share them with me? Photos of the cover page and part of table of contents of what I have are attached.

I agree with others that for that to work, you would also have to limit access to any other apps where it is possible to send messages. If he and the adults he is communicating with are determined, they could just keep installing other apps and agree to communicate that way. I guess if you have the phone very locked down and don't allow any apps to be installed without permission that might work. But I think on some sites (let's say instagram, facebook, etc) you could log in using a web browser and send messages through the messaging functions on those services in the web browser (chrome, safari, etc) rather than using the official app. They may not be using those sites to communicate now, but if other methods are cut off, I could imagine a determined teen creating accounts on social media sites to use for that purpose. Maybe very strict blocking software would block those type of sites as well? I guess I am not sure how tight the filtering can get.

Not the OP, but PhD isn't a career path? Academia isn't the only place PhDs get jobs. My husband has a PhD in an engineering field and has worked in industry basically his whole career (in R&D and product development). He works with a multi-disciplinary team that has people with PhDs in a number of different fields.

Sounds like you have some good steps! I think sometimes we have to face the hard decisions when it comes to sports or activities that are important to us. It will be harder and harder as your kids get older to have so much time taken up by your daughter's sport and still get everyone's school work done. If the sport is your family's priority, it's ok to own it and put other kids in school to focus on it. The other kids might enjoy being in school and not having to tag along to the activities of the kid who is in the time consuming sport. If the academics are the priority or you still feel like you need to be homeschooling for other reasons, the sport might have to go eventually. That's ok too, even if it is hard for the kid who has to quit and activity because it just doesn't work anymore. What's going to be hard is continuing to "do it all" and put so many hours in the week into the sport, and still have a strong academic focus.

We've never done online lessons, but as to the size - a 7/8 seems awfully close to a full size. My three older kids all started on a 3/4 size and were comfortably able to play the full size around age 13. My kids are "late bloomers" in terms of growth, so I could imagine some kids being ready for a full size sooner. But if a 7/8 is the "ideal" size for your nephew currently, I'd be really surprised if he couldn't play a full size. On the other hand, if he can't comfortably hold the guitar and get his hands in position to play the chords, it could be a frustrating experience. He could potentially try learning a basic chord or two from a youtube video and see if he is comfortably able to play it.

I've been in conservative circles that might even lean toward certain conspiracy theories, but were also just as likely as the "liberal crunchy granola moms" to be trying out some new diet fad or avoiding feeding their kids certain ingredients for health reasons. I have no idea if some people have negative associations with Teal Pumpkin project in particular, but I think a sign that says "non-food items available on request" or just a bowl of non-food items out alongside the candy would be very non-controversial.

We decided that my phone had wishful thinking and thought it was on vacation in California or Hawaii or something. 😁

No zombies here either...since I knew it was coming, it was much less "exciting" than the time the emergency alert went off at 11:30 pm or so...and in finding my phone it was giving me a Tsunami warning...and I live about 1000+ miles from any ocean. 🤪

I just looked up that CCS program in math...sounds so amazing. I know my DS16 would love it, but it would probably be a long shot for him to be accepted for sure (not to mention affording it!). He has already said he thinks CA is a bit too far from home for him. Makes me wonder if any other schools have anything similar!

Out of my four kids, three need/needed braces badly (the other could maybe have used them for minor cosmetic reasons, but with three other kids needing them we didn't want to invest just for small changes for him). I feel like two phase treatment is really becoming what most orthos recommend these days. By waiting, we avoided the two phases with the older two, but on the other hand both the older two had to get 2 permanent teeth removed to make space in their small mouths to deal with their overjet - the very same thing I had to have done when I was their age. With the youngest, we did agree to an expander - but he has both the overjet and the crossbite (I could clearly see it on the xrays and model) and the ortho hopes that by starting with the expander we should be able to avoid pulling the permanent teeth like we did for the other two . His could have been a two phase but technically is a one phase as he should be just ready to go into regular braces when he is done expanding. One thing I have learned is that different Orthos definitely have different treatment ideas, so I highly recommend people get more than one opinion/treatment plan/quote before starting. Then especially if different treatment plans are suggested, ask pointed questions about why one plan would be preferred over another. We did that especially with kid #2 with two orthos that had very different ideas on what to do. I chose the one I felt more confident in his reasoning and I felt was more upfront with me (it also happened to be cheaper and closer, which was a bonus). We didn't get two quotes with #3 since I really trusted the ortho we picked for #2 (kid #1 with braces started when we lived in a different city so we had different options) and #2 and #3 are overlapping, so it was in our best interest to stick with the same office since they can try and time the two boys appointments together.

I focus on freezing proteins or other meal components, like others have mentioned. I probably wouldn't do it for something where the meat is going to be front and center, but when it is going to be a component of a casserole, tacos, sauce, etc it doesn't seem to matter very much if there is a bit of dryness when it is thawed. If anything, my ground beef though is sometimes still a bit greasy after it's thawed, depending on exactly how well I drained it in the first place. Years ago I used to use a big stock pot on the stove with a couple cups of water added to cook maybe 8lbs or so of ground beef at a time. Now I use my instant pot and can cook maybe 5lbs at a time. If I have more I just do a couple batches. I use a gadget that looks a little bit like a stick with a pinwheel on the end to break up the ground beef in the instant pot before I drain it. I do shredded chicken breasts also - I just use very basic seasonings (salt/pepper/garlic) because I want to be able to use it in a variety of dishes). Sometimes I've done shredded pork or shredded beef ahead also, but only if I have found a whole bunch on sale and need to use it. That I am more likely to just cook as a meal, and use the leftovers the same week in another recipe (aka - shredded pork for sandwiches, followed by shredded pork that is served in tacos or an Asian dish with rice or shredded beef and using some for tacos and some for beef stroganoff. I do black beans that I cook in my instant pot and freeze some for later to use with tacos, in soups, or for things like black bean burgers. I used to do peppers and onions, pre sliced for fajitas or chopped for other meals and then frozen, but I got out of the habit. I am faster now than I used to be at chopping so I don't spend as much time doing it. I sometimes do also make a meatloaf and freeze it raw, or ham balls (like traditional meatballs, but with ham/ground pork). Sometimes it is nice to have those ready to thaw for a day and then bake. I've also done lasagna rolls in the freezer (thaws faster than a traditional lasagna), enchiladas, a chili bake casserole, and even a ham/potato casserole that has cheese and sour cream in it...you wouldn't think it would work, but surprisingly it does even with the sour cream. I don't do the full meals/casseroles very often, but a little over a year ago when my oldest DD19 babysat her younger brothers for a few days, I made her casseroles to take out of the freezer so she wouldn't have to do as much cooking while we were gone.

I think if I were in your shoes I would check out Pinwheels from Rooted in Language as well as EBLI. https://www.rootedinlanguage.com/pinwheels-program https://eblireads.com/ I have not used either of these, but people in the dyslexia groups I am in really like these, especially people that want to go in a different direction from Barton. Not having used them, I don't know if they are a great fit for ADHD kids, but they might be worth your further research.

Another reason (besides MB being weird as was already suggested) is copyright/licensing issues. When MB bought the rights to the text, the licensing agreement for those illustrations would not have been automatically included - it would have to be renegotiated and paid for separately. My guess is MB either didn't want to bother, or didn't want to pay what the owner of the rights to the comics wanted to charge. It's the same reason why reprinted books that are still in copyright sometimes don't include the original illustrations. The illustration rights are separate, and sometimes the cost to reprint the illustrations (in terms of licensing fees) is more than the new publisher wants to pay, or sometimes the illustrator refuses to give permission for the reprint or can't be reached.