We use Mucinex nasal spray and this technique:

People ARE judged in the end by their behavior...and they all are judged sinners in need of a Savior. It's not either or, it's BOTH, and you stated as much in the very next sentence. Every single person, Christian or not, must account for their life at God's judgment. We don't escape it! But then, yes, before the "verdict" is in, God does take into account our faith/fidelity to Christ status. Imagine how much more lovely God's grace will be experienced by those who have to confront the sin in their lives first and then get that wonderful reprieve, God's gift of Jesus?! THIS is the confidence that Christians have. Not that we're better than anyone else but that we do not have to fear God's righteous judgment of us at the end and that while we live here on Earth, our hope is in Him and He has been changing us to be more like Jesus, even little by little, so that we will be able to bless others until that day.

I reached my goal of 60 books this year last week. I finished Artemis by Andy Weir (The Martian) and it was ok/good. eh. I'm on The Whispering Room by Koontz, 2nd in a new series. Next will be Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, which has been raved about too much for me to ignore!

This was a book that kept me reading and up late!

I think this article is instructive for this conversation. It's not long, please read it. I can't imagine anyone feeling outrage at the injustices in this world, and seeing that outrage as JUST, believing that a loving God could exist without His own perfect outrage...especially given His goal of reconciliation and redemption, of putting things right in the end. A Wrath-less God Has Victims

Is that settled science? lol I think it's interesting that you use the term "fair" and yet universalism has at its heart a skewed sense of justice that we wouldn't tolerate in the physical world so why would it make sense in the spiritual? I'm not sure why it's hard to understand how Christians justify a position other than universalism--quite a few of us prefer logical cohesion with our religion. If everyone goes to heaven regardless of their actions here on earth, then sin or moral judgments mean nothing. If one doesn't get "justice" in this life, one certainly won't see it in the next. It would be like all the sex abusers being identified, *maybe* judged to be wrong?, and then given no consequence. If there is no consequence for thumbing one's nose at one's Creator (or harming one's fellow man), why does Christianity include a Savior? From what is anyone being saved? Surely there can't really be sin then...and yet even non-believers haul out the term "evil" for all sorts of human beings who don't meet their moral requirements and they expect retribution. If Jesus didn't need to die but just died as a result of human actions, why would God even send Him? Or say that we are judged in some way but all get the same outcome. You think that is fair? Do you think that everyone will choose God given a "second chance"? Not if free will is involved. And if we get a second chance at everything, or are forced into His eternal presence after death anyway, why in the world would God bother asking anything of His creation? So, there goes most Christian doctrine and practice. Hmmm, I wonder if that was the point of the argument after all? lol Having consequences in the afterlife doesn't have to lead to eternal torment, by the way, in my opinion. But only Christians who believe in some degree of moral relativism and/or atheists think that God doesn't actually care about sin even though many would deny it. Because that's what it comes down to. Having the humility to believe that sin is an actual thing, that it offends a holy God--who is unlike us enough that we tend to think that makes Him less than perfect, less than worthy of worship, or even ultimately unable to exist--AND that this is a problem from which we cannot save ourselves.

You could still use the traditional themes of each Sunday/week of Advent and find quotes or activity/service suggestions for those themes. Hope, Love, Joy, Peace.

Why didn't I think of a treasure hunt?! Great idea, thank you!

YES. Our landlord has a business next door to the house we rent and he just got one of those Rubbermaid cabinet type things for UPS to stick stuff in. He has no porch or anywhere to put packages so he made it easy for everyone involved. We have put a note on our Rubbermaid storage bench that is on the porch designating it for packages and UPS just opens the lids and plops it in there.

We bought our 11yo ds a Minecraft Modding with Java coding "course" for Christmas but it's online so I'm trying to think of a fun way to give it to him. I know I could buy a little Minecraft character and have it holding a card or something. Any other ideas? Also, here is the course if you're interested and "HOLIDAY" is a promo code for like 5 bucks off or something. https://www.educents.com/minecraft-modding-fundamentals.html

My 11yo has learned to snap REALLY well and loudly so that's what I get to hear lately. lol

We always get the Brach's Peppermint Christmas Nougats. I couldn't find them one year and you don't want to know what I paid on Amazon just to get ONE bag. LOL (These: https://www.target.com/p/brach-s-christmas-peppermint-nougats-12oz/-/A-52517404? ) Our tradition with stockings *before* Christmas is that I buy a bunch of cheap gift tags or blank note cards and the kids slip funny or sweet little messages into each other's stockings all month long. They started it about 12 years ago or more (using some note cards they found without asking first! lol), I think.

I have a very basic Aroma brand rice cooker and it works great. Inexpensive and I've had it for about 15 years. They can be found at many stores like Target, Amazon, etc.

I know this site has been shared before, but I'm getting our oldest ds a t-shirt printed with the text of his favorite classic book, The Call of the Wild. https://www.litographs.com/collections/the-call-of-the-wild/products/wild-tee

I think the morality of any display like this is the motivation behind it. I've seen many fellow Christians say, "Rejoice with us! We're going to St. Lucia!" or some such. That leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's like it's not enough to have so much more than is necessary in life that now you need to collect people's happiness for you, too? Real friends will be happy for you if it's important and no one will be as happy as you are anyway, so just chill. lol And I'm not convinced that some people posting about extravagances are really interested in "rejoicing" over a "blessing" and actually want to see envy. I've seen people--Christians included (and I mention them because I am a Christian)--post on Facebook about something material they bought or received, saying, "It's OK. You can be jealous." That's disgusting to me and shows the motives behind sharing it at all. And yet, I think that it's possible to share or display in a way that isn't gross. LOL It's not always possible to know someone's motivations and I'm OK with believing the best about them as long as it's not a continual, overdone habit.

I think these are trends in general and then women in community (like a church, etc.) take them on together. It can seem sort of clique-ish, but that's only because women tend to do things in exclusive kinds of groups, IMO, but more for support and camaraderie. No ill intent, usually. (Not saying you think so, but I've wondered at times! LOL)

Can I ask you to post your link here? Looking for some household/kitchen items! :)

My dd just spent a lot of money on a new Dell computer, picked up at Best Buy yesterday. Every time she closes the lid (without shutting down; this is just to take the computer with her to another room or something) and then opens it again just 5 minutes or so later, the keyboard is lit up, the power button is lit and on, but the screen stays asleep, just black. Touching the screen, the mousepad, keys, nothing seems to get it to wake up and take her to the log in screen. (She can shut it down and start it up again but that's not how this should work; she needs to be able to go back to what she was working on!) Is there some setting she can try to change? Is there a driver we need to install? Could this be related to Windows 10? Any ideas? She decorated this thing with a few special stickers she's been saving and we do NOT want to have to trade this in, it's new for crying out loud. Everything else works fine and we've had this issue with other computers in the past but I can't remember how dh resolved it. It seems like there must be a fix that we just don't know how to tackle. Thank you if you can help!

I'm so sorry. I'm in the midst of this, too, and I no longer know what to call "normal" for me. I've been faithfully taking my extra iron for the anemia for 2 months and I have my period right now. It's horrible. Day 3 of heavy bleeding and clots...I had to run awkwardly to the bathroom in the grocery store after attempting to just pick up 2 things quickly just so that a huge clot wouldn't fall down my pant leg and embarrass the heck out of me, horrify everyone else. Sorry, but it's just bad. Today we went out for something dh had to do and in 2 hours I had to use 4 thick pads so I wouldn't soak through my pants. I've tried many things and I'm just done. Dr. says the IUD is "better" than the pill but I really don't want that thing in me so I'm going to try the pill for a year and then see how I'm doing. I would call!

I think somewhere between 17 and 18 for oldest and middle ds seems to be headed the same way, but he's only 16.5 now. He grew about 2 inches in the past year.

I have a Cuisinart and, while I like it a lot, the buttons are located in odd places for how I handle it, IMO. I haven't used it in several months but I think the issue was that I was accidentally turning it off or something like that.

You might also consider asking around at local schools or organizations that offer ESL classes if they know of any GED resources.

My kids had financial questions way before they had jobs. Adding--due to some comments below about other people asking questions about income--we've always told our kids that financial discussions of our situation STAY in our family. No one has ever wondered if we're rich, though, so I can see how upper income folks may be more private about the issue.

Does he want to do all the studying on his own? Our two oldest took a class offered through the library where they took a small practice test and then continued with the class at a local career center. ALL free. In fact, in our state, all classes for GED prep are free and sometimes they have study materials to take home. Every state is different, of course. Here is decent info on the new computer test: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-computer-based-ged-test-31280

My 20yo dd, a microwaveable mashed potato connoisseur, likes Sam's Club's Yukon Gold mashed potatoes a lot! For a Thanksgiving potluck I almost threw 4 of those into a crockpot to heat up as a side dish. Turns out the event had only one bowl of potatoes so I wished I had! LOL