Echo Dot, nice hiking socks, hand lotion, fancy tea. My mom is super easy; I just buy her a bunch of little stuff I wish someone would buy me!

Uh, yeah. I know some people IRL like this. I really don't think they see it. I have weird food needs, so I try not to judge any food-related quirks from others, but it's the inconsistency of these folks that comes off as ridiculous. They're otherwise good people, so I just let them have their food issues. Don't we all? :lol:

Definitely. I've gotten unclaimed property twice. Once for $13, and another time a few years later for $55. I had to send a copy of my license along with something showing I lived at the address they had on file for me. Just search for "(Your state) Unclaimed property" and make sure the website ends in .gov.

I second this. I think mine is called "AAA Plus RV" but you don't need to own an RV to get the plan. It just means you have a longer tow distance available. I keep an emergency blanket, flashlight, first aid kid, and a light/signal thing in the trunk, but nothing compares to the peace of mind that comes with a roadside assistance plan. ETA: Oh! The other thing I keep that has been super handy is extra long jumper cables. Say I'm parked facing a wall and my car dies. Someone can just pull up behind me and I can still get a jump. No more pushing. (Yes, this is something AAA would happily do, but it's faster to get a jump off someone right there.) I think mine are 25', and I bought a bag to hold them.

I have never, ever had luck doing this. No amount of spray keeps eggy things from sticking, even in a brand new nonstick pan. I guess i need to try a silicon pan.

Huh! I never knew those existed. That's neat.

Thank you!

I give dd credit but make her fix every answer. After the tenth time of having to stop doing something else and fix forgotten labels on a math test, she starts to remember on future tests.

I was really surprised by the affordability of chiropractic services. I just started seeing one this fall. I think my first visit, with x-rays, was about $150.

Does he have AS/ASD? My teen on the spectrum is bad about this. "My ear kind of hurts" means "I have a raging double ear infection, have probably had a fever for 3 days, and need to go to Prompt Care immediately." "My toe looks different" means "I've had an ingrown toenail for a month and it's now swollen, infected, and pus-crusted. :huh:

Ours is 60' wide x140' deep with another 100' of woods behind (city owned.) Our house is 37' wide. We have a single car driveway that can hold 3 cars deep. We lived in a townhome before this, so it seems like plenty of space for us! :) Edited for clarity of depth/width

You can get a college degree entirely online. At the end of that journey, you're going to put "University of _____" on your resume, not "(Invented school name)." You do not need to be physically present in school to earn a diploma or degree. Why should elementary or high school be any different? Because you had to oversee the child's work? So do public school parents and afterschoolers. Perhaps not to the same degree, but the degree you choose to oversee is somewhat arbitrary and varies greatly among parents anyway. ETA: This came out with the wrong tone from me. I don't actually care what parents of public-school-at-home students call their school. I was just bringing up the existence of non-classroom education in the public realm.

I'm giving dd12 Bears vs. Babies, and dh is giving the family Illimat. To be honest, Illimat came in and dh was so excited he just showed it to everyone and then we played a round. So it's hard to say whether or not it still counts as a holiday gift or if it's just a December splurge. :lol:

Re: Moving past sabotaging myself: If I buy something and binge it, I don't allow myself to buy that item again. I'm gluten/legume/(mostly)dairy free, and the other day, I bought a GF cornbread mix that tasted *exactly* like regular old yellow cake. It was ridiculous. I ate half the box at least. I'm not allowed to buy it ever again. I don't have a problem with gluten at all, but I found that making myself go GF causes me to (1) think about what I'm eating, every single time, and (2) read labels, wherever I am. I can't find a GF option? I've learned to bring almonds everywhere and start the day with as much coconut as possible, because it's filling. Just setting one arbitrary rule for myself has caused me to have to consider everything I eat. W30 is not sustainable, nor is it meant to be. I don't even quite understand the purpose. What worked for me was setting an attainable rule which can be sustained for the course of my lifetime. Another thing that helps: Give yourself permission to spend more money on food. I promise, it won't be more expensive forever. I spent considerably more my first few months of eating for ME, and then costs began to decline for me. I really don't spend any more now than I used to. I know what foods I'll buy and use, justifying the extra cost (coconut aminos!) and what foods will just get thrown out (tapioca starch.) I'm sorry. I was there and I know the pain of wondering "Why can't I stop doing this? It physically hurts!" I think everyone is different, and there's no one set of answers that will work for everyone. I hope you find your path. Please be kind to yourself. :grouphug:

Whoa. That's such a huge violation of boundaries. I probably wouldn't even celebrate the holidays with that family member again unless it was a mental illness which caused them to misstep so completely.

Same here. Only in the past year or two have I really had a partner, and it's been wonderful! FTR, we did adjust our schedules a bit to fit Dad's as much as we could, but there is only so much you can do. As kids get older, their activities become important parts of their lives and we eventually had to schedule around those. Having 2 working vehicles at all times is necessary for this lifestyle.

Mine is at 72 during the day and 69 from 11PM to 7AM. Sometimes I'll manually bump it up to 73 during the day if it feels particularly cold. We have an EdenPure (infrared electric heater) downstairs that runs 24/7 and a generic infrared heater in our bedroom we run for about 90 minutes before bed. Fortunately, we live in a split level and the bedrooms, kitchen, main living room, and thermostat are all on the upper floor. It's always 5 degrees colder downstairs (unless the woodburner is going. We have an old woodburning stove that we sometimes run on the weekend. 5 or 6 big logs will heat the whole house to above 70 all day. We'd use it exclusively, but it's not the safest thing so we don't use it unattended or overnight.) We would not get ANYTHING done if the furnace was set below 70 during the day. We'd just sit around in blankets. None of us have any cold tolerance.

I wrap them as soon as they come in. No one else in my family could wrap a present if their lives depended on it, so I'm not in great danger of the "sneak peek & re-wrap" tactic here. I just keep them in the basement on a shelf with a bunch of clutter.

I'm giving ds the D&D Starter set for Christmas. It includes a set of dice, character sheets, and a couple of handbooks. It was under $20. But if she just wants character sheets, here's one link to show you what I mean.

Is she talking about character sheets, maybe?

Is that for the whole family? That's about what ours would be through dh's work if we had all 4 of us on his plan. It's a sad state of affairs when I see your options and think, "Hey, that's not bad." Those Marketplace plans are crazy expensive.

That's absolutely awful! I understand once or twice a year, but weekly??

Can you give her a meal plan and ask her to bring anything she will need in addition to what you have planned for your family? Also, I absolutely agree with the pp who suggested thrift store pans. As for her self-cooking mess, that's probably something you'll just have to grin & bear. Gross kitchens are part of the holiday hosting "fun." I'm mostly Paleo, and I greatly prefer this method. My lovely mother would bend over backwards trying to meet the needs of my diet and still miss some things. It makes me so uncomfortable! She need not do this. It's better when she just tells me what she has planned and I just bring my own extras.

I have a love/hate relationship with that show. It's a good show, but it isn't anywhere near our experience with ASD. The most accurate portrayal I've seen (at least, the one closest in appearance to my particular Aspie) is Sheldon on BBT, and he's not even officially on the spectrum! ETA: BBT is another of my love/hate shows. I can't stand the show itself, but I do appreciate the "quirkiness" portrayed by Sheldon as well as Amy's struggles to share a life with someone like him.

Getting one of the kids the dx/medication/counseling they needed to improve their life, despite pushback from others re: whether or not ADHD was "real" :glare: