Thanks everyone. I don't have any cardigans, so maybe I will just take a jacket to wear. The dress is sleeveless and it is on the cool side today.

My DD's college graduation is this afternoon. I ordered a cute sundress but the company sent me the wrong thing so now I am going with something I already have. I was thinking I could go with this dress but when I put it on it seems way too dressy for an afternoon graduation. It is floor length. I have to leave in about an hour and a half. We are in that PNW so not a very formal area. I also have a black and white floor length skirt with black shirt or a space skirt with lights as an other options. Or I could do jeans and a nice top like DH and DS. I will delete the picture because I dislike it. I am horrible at taking them, but hopefully it gives some idea of the dress and shall I am talking about.

Yes, we still mask when indoors in public or in crowded outdoor spaces. We will continue to mask at healthcare facilities even though the mandate has gone away in our state this week. One of DD's professors requires masks in her classroom. One of her classes is a tea ceremony class so she has to take it off to drink the tea, but otherwise she is masked. She also takes it off when she is competing in speech and debate only when giving speeches. None of us have gotten covid that we know of but we have all had colds of varying degrees. DS17 has had two in the last month. One right after a robotics tournament, and then one this week after a scout outing last weekend. There was a scout who had a "bad rabbit allergy". Interestingly, many of the other scouts caught the "allergy", including DS, who is fortunately recovering nicely and should be well by this weekend so his sister can come home for Easter. My DS who is in the Marines does not mask unless he is required to. So far he has not gotten covid, at least that he has told me, but he has also had all of his shots and boosters.

It is just going to be DD (coming home to visit from college) and DS17 this year, since DS20 is not able to make it home. I am going to make monkey bread and scrambled eggs for breakfast/brunch. And then have an early dinner so DD can get back to school. We are having ham, deviled eggs, fruit salad, and rolls. I am going to make a carrot cake for dessert.

I am an INFP, though sometimes I will test as a J. I have come out stronger as a P as I have gotten older.

It has been too cold to do much more than planning from indoors really. We had one really nice weekend, where we got in some time outdoors. This year we are focusing on re-working some of our landscaping to make it work better for us. I am moving my roses away from one of the the fences where the dog runs with the neighbor dogs. But that is proving to be a big undertaking. We found out that we are going to have to cut down two of our larger trees in our backyard because they are past their prime. One of them is developing cracks and some of the branches are starting to come down. Doing research revealed that they have a fairly short lifespan. I am pretty sad because it will take away a good deal of privacy along our back fence. It will take several years to grow new trees tall enough to make up for it. We are still trying to decide what to get to replace them. We want to go with evergreens, but we aren't sure yet. We are planning to leave the stumps from the previous trees and let them rot naturally. I want to create a kind of shade garden area along that fence line with ferns and salal. It will still have a cherry tree and lilacs. I am getting the soil ready for the pumpkins and tomatoes we are planning for this year in the planters DH made a couple years ago. I am hoping that the pumpkins will actually grow this time. The dog, however, loves the fertilizer I added, so I am having to work to keep him out of the dirt. I also pruned the blueberry bushes so they are ready for some warm spring weather to hit. I am hoping they put on more berries this year.

If left up to my 17 yo, he would sleep until noon or often much later every day. Sleep and wake up time has been our biggest contention point the last several years. It is funny because when he was little he was always up at the crack of dawn. He is now a night owl, and would stay up all night and sleep all day if I let him. He is a bear to wake up in the morning, and his sleep cycles get messed up very easily with just a few late nights. He jokes that he is Batman. I have tried to push him to be up by 10:30 every morning, which to me is really late for a school day, but it is the compromise we came to. I'd say this school year we have hit it maybe thirty percent of the time. It is frustrating to me. He has formed bad habits, which is a lot my fault. We have allowed him to have a computer in his room and don't limit screens in his room. He can have his phone, kindle, or whatever. But he has just, in the last few months, started to figure out what works to help him get to sleep on time, so we are making slow progress. We did bring up his sleep issue with his doctor at his physical a couple years ago, A lot of it really boiled down to DS just didn't want to get up because he didn't feel like he needed to, and he had some mild situational depression. He felt he had nothing to look forward to doing during the day. School work was boring, so what was the point in getting up. So I worked on trying to find things to make it worth his while to get up for. He can get up on time when it is something important to him. Last summer he had a job working at a scout camp as staff. They have to be up pretty early every day. He was only late once, and that was by like 3 minutes. He is never late if he has an appointment to be at, so really it is a choice he is making. I would have been much more concerned if he wasn't able to get up for things he enjoyed and it seemed like a more physical issue. I worried about the same thing with my eldest who also had issues with wanting to sleep late all the time, but she has managed to make it to early morning classes and jobs just fine now that she is an adult. And when she comes home on breaks from college she will still sleep until noon a lot of the time. My middle has always gotten up when asked, and naturally gets up about the same time as me which is around 8 am. Now he gets up when his commanding officer tells him to, which he tells me is 0400 lately. Would it be possible for you to just leave without your oldest a few times as a consequence of her not being up and ready on time? Not sure that the activities are something that can be missed, but that might be a motivator, and keep your younger DD and you from being late. Also, it isn't a bad idea to get her check by a doctor if you think their might be an issue like thyroid. Making sure she is getting plenty of physical activity and sunlight during the day can also help.

I only knew a few kids who homeschooled when I was a kid. My dad's cousin's kids were homeschooled. I only met them a few times growing up. I am not really sure why they homeschooled, but I think it was partially for religious reasons. Dad's cousin was a pastor and I think they also did some missionary work. I know my extended family all thought it was an odd choice, but they were always supportive. The only other homeschooler I saw was one who came to use the library at our school once in a while. I never actually met him, I just saw him in passing and knew he homeschooled. I never thought much about it really until I was in college and started working in youth ministry and met a number of homeschooled teens. Most of them were homeschooled for religious reasons, but were not the sort I hear about on here that were sheltered or where the girls were kept from higher learning. They took the education of their children very seriously, except for one family. I don't think I would have done well homeschooling. I doubt my mom would have had the patience for it, although I really hated going to school. I was and still am a very socially awkward person, I seriously doubt my school setting would have made a difference either way, but who knows. I have a lot of social anxiety. Interestingly, all of my children have done very well socially. Having read things on this board I started to worry a lot about this, but all of them have made a lot of friends out in the real world beyond our homeschool.

DD was pretty upset to learn that she was not able to go with us to her brother's boot camp graduation last year. She really wanted to be there, but she would have had to miss class. We took lots of pictures and tried to involve her that way. It was hard on her. Her college education is very important to her and she takes attendance very seriously. We try to plan family events like vacations and stuff around her school schedule as much as we can. Some things you can't plan for like illness, death, etc. but we do what we can. She can make her own choices as to missing classes or not, but some of her professors have pretty strict attendance policies, and some do not allow for excused absences even for illnesses. If you miss X number of classes your grade will go down no matter why you missed.

Editing to update: He has decided to do running start (our state's dual enrollment program), so we have him signed up. His classes for the first quarter are: College 101 It is an introduction class to college. How to study, how to use the resources on campus, etc. My DD helped design the class when she was working in the tutoring center a few years ago. College Algebra (he doesn't want to do calculus) Public Speaking Competitive Debate - his sister's influence. He is joining the speech and debate team. Then at home he will be doing: Physics with Dr. Wile (online class) Economics (half year) and Government (half year) PNW History Bible - this is just reading through the Bible and discuss, not a heavy class I am just having a hard time believing he is graduating next spring. He is my baby. He will be 18 in early fall, and I think he is ready to be moving on even if I am not ready to see him go. He is already looking at how to pay to finish his AA at community college since he will only get one year free because we start his senior year, then transfer to a four year like his sister did. ---------- All of our planning is very tentative at this point. We are looking into dual enrollment classes for some of his subjects, but haven't completely decided at this point. Math: likely at the community college, if not then TT pre-calc English: likely at the community college Physics: online with Dr. Wile (hopefully) Economics and Government: at home Bible: at home History: undecided, but likely I will be putting together some local area history. We have already done a lot of world and American history over the years, so I think doing something for the local area might be fun. Speech/Debate: likely at the community college, he is talking about joining his sisters former speech and debate team

Some kids just don't like school. It is hard to motivate someone who doesn't see the point of something, and your can't argue them out of it. It is not helpful that DH and I are both college dropouts. I have an AA degree, but never finished my Bachelors despite having over 4 years of college. DH has a great job now, but had to work his way up to it with years of on the job experience, and taking trainings and tests for certifications. With my middle, he had a goal in mind. He knew he did not want to go to college. He decided his best option was joining the military. This was something he researched on his own to decide which branch he wanted to join, joining requirements, etc. He spent hours on this which I knew nothing about until he came to me telling me what he wanted to do. He knew he had to have a high school diploma to join up, so that was his motivation to complete the classes I required for him to graduate from homeschool. He didn't enjoy it, but he was willing to do it. He is now a Marine and working as a mechanic. He will have skills coming out, and can go to college afterward if he wants although I don't think he is planning on doing that currently. My youngest is a bit more of a puzzle. I have never been able to convince him there is a reason to learn anything I have taught him. He is also very stubborn with the idea that taking classes that aren't directly connected to his chosen career or field of study is ridiculous and a waste of time. I think he will be starting some dual enrollment courses next year (his senior year) and see if that helps. He seems to do better with outside encouragement and accountability now that he is older. We are helping him look into different ideas past graduation like vocation schools, internships, and such. He is not likely to go the military route like his brother because of health issues in his childhood, but he isn't completely ruling it out at this point. He may be able to get a health waver.

I thought it was odd when my ILs decided to do this several years ago. They told us they were selling their house, buying a truck and camper so they could travel. They had never been much for traveling, but they have really enjoyed it for the most part. However, they have a good retirement plan and are able to afford it and had a plan in place for as many contingencies as they could think of when they planned it out. My FIL calculated out the cost of everything as much as he could and so far things are going well, although now that they are deciding to look at settling down again the cost of housing is ridiculously high in the area they want to live and I am not sure they can afford it. There is no way we would have wanted them to come park in our driveway as a backup plan long term. They may have suggested it as a joke, but we all knew it was a joke. None of us would seriously be happy with that as a solution. Even with a brand new truck and camper, they have had a lot of unexpected costs and repairs to pay for. I can't imagine doing it with an old, used camper/trailer. I don't think you are wrong to not want to have them living in your driveway. They are adults and are responsible for themselves.

I have been wondering this myself a lot this last year. I try to focus on the fact that they are transitioning pretty well so far, and even though it feels like it they aren't leaving me behind so much as pursing their dreams. I am also trying to figure out what I want to do with my life moving forward. I have about a year and a half until I retire from homeschooling, so I figure I should have some idea of what I want to do. Moving on to my own adventures outside of my kids I guess.

The big hit was the plane tickets to fly DS home for Christmas. He was granted leave and is here for two weeks, and we are all so happy to get to spend time with him. And he is loving some down time. Youngest loved the phone we got him. It was a last minute splurge. He has always had hand-me-down phones and his was starting to have issues, so we decided to get him one of his own. DD loved the knife set her youngest brother got her, and the family cookbook I made for her.

We have cable, but only because it is cheaper to have a bundle for our internet than to buy it alone. We never watch cable tv. We watch streaming services mostly on our computers or other devices. We have a TV but don't use it very often because we don't watch much together, though we have more so with the kids home for Christmas. We have Prime, Discovery+, Acorn, BritBox, and HBOMax. My DD has a Netflix subscription because she needed it for a college class but I think she is going to drop it soon, and we just dropped our Disney+ subscription.

My family growing up. We got presents on Christmas eve from my mom's side when we had our gathering, but didn't open them because they were saved for Christmas morning at home. Christmas morning we got up when the alarm dad set in the hall went off and we could look at our stocking presents and the present Santa gave us until my parents were up, mom had made her coffee, and dad had started the fire to warm the house. Then we would hand out presents and we could open them as we got them. It wasn't a big frenzy, but we didn't take turns. Paper was burned in the fireplace, anything not flammable or that shouldn't be burned was thrown away. We never had very many presents, only a few, so it never took very long. By the time I was in upper elementary it was just a present from my parents and one from my grandparents. In the afternoon, we went to my dad's side of the family where opening presents was a bit more free-for-all. My uncles would hand them out, and you opened them as you got them. Each person got two, one from nanny & grandpa and one from the name exchange with cousins. We always made sure to thank people afterward. It seemed like organized chaos. My DH was a bit overwhelmed his first time visiting, it was very much different from his quiet, well mannered Christmases. DH was used to sitting around quietly in a circle. Handing out presents and then opening them one at a time youngest to oldest around and around until they were all done. It took forever, and could get really boring, especially if you were new to the family and only got one or two things and had to sit through the whole ritual for hours watching everyone open presents. They had a couple large garbage bags to put wrapping paper in as we opened things. In our family at home now, we do it DH's way. It is his preference and I can see his reasons for it. However, when we go to my parents house, it is open presents as you are handed them and thank people afterward. It is a smaller gathering than my growing up years, because my siblings and I are a much smaller group so it doesn't really feel chaotic to me, though I am pretty sure my DH looks on with disapproval.

In our old house I used to put them in my closet or in the drawers under my bed. In our new house it is either our closet, the armoire, or my end table. Sometimes I put small things in my desk drawer until I take them upstairs, or just boxes sitting in my bedroom on dressers. DH leaves a lot of boxes sitting around that no one notices a bit of extra clutter. I did misplace a few things this year, but was able to find it after a bit of searching. I used to be a lot more organized and had a box for DH and each of the kids, plus one for extended family to keep things in, but this year I bought so few things that I didn't do that so things got scattered a bit more.

I think it would depend somewhat on the living situation. Do they living in a mother-in-law suite type thing, or a room in the house? If it is a separate apartment attached to the house, I would send a separate card, but otherwise probably just one. However, if I wanted to express separate greetings or a more personalized message to each, then I would send two regardless.

My worst experiences were when I would use my WIC checks. Cashiers would argue with me about stuff. They would tell me I couldn't get organic milk. I could. They would tell me I had to get everything on the check, and I didn't. I told them that I was not getting the peanut butter because my baby was deathly allergic and I couldn't have it in the house. Many of them would talk down to me like I was stupid, but fortunately I also met some very nice and helpful cashiers as well.

I pretty much exclusively do grocery pick-up, but if for some reason I do actually go into a store I will likely use self-checkout because it is likely just a rogue item I could not order online easily and need right away. When I used to shop in stores in my former pre-pandemic carefree life, I had switched to mostly a scan-bag-go method, where I took a scanner and bags with me through the store and then I could scan as I put things in the bags in my cart then, just quickly paid on the way out. It was so nice. In stores without this, I would do self-checkout for small purchases and cashiers for large orders because I am a very slow bagger. Although we do have one grocery store in town that has cashiers, but you do your own bagging. I made my kids do the bagging. They got pretty good at it, and I would get them lunch afterward for payment. My DD worked as a bagger at a grocery store for a while and heard a lot of people complain about the self-checkout. She is not against self-checkout. I think stores would be wise to have the option of both, because for some people self-checkout is not practical. It can be harder for some people with disabilities, parents with young children, etc., so having options available for customers would be the wisest choice.

I do stockings for my kids and DH. DH does a stocking for me. I always imagined I would continue that until the kids moved out, but I figured it would be more like when myself and my siblings did and there would be a spouse to take over stocking duties (if they decided to continue) because we all moved out as we got married, but I don't think that will be the case. I think I will continue to do stockings for my kids each year when they are home. However, if DS who is military is not able to make it home some years I will make sure to arrange for him to get a stocking of some sort with stocking stuffers. I can't imagine doing stockings for anyone beyond my kids and spouse though. MIL never did one for me and my mom never did one for DH when we were dating and visited for Christmas celebrations, but I suppose we also never stayed the night in each others homes just did day visits so that makes a difference. My current thoughts are that if my kids get married it will be up to them to do their own thing and form their own traditions. My first Christmas after I got married we stayed at my parents house, but my DH was the one who filled my stocking not my mom. But of course all of this is just thoughts, it might change when reality hits and we rethink things. My parents never did stockings for each other. In my growing up world stockings were only for children, but DH and I enjoyed doing stockings for each other so we have done that since we got married and I expect to continue doing it even after kids move out. We even do a stocking for our dog.

I think of it as you are looking at the bed from the foot of the bed, but I get my left and right mixed up all the time, so if I say left or right it doesn't mean much to my family because they wouldn't be sure what I meant for sure anyway.

I have mostly bought them from stores like Target and stuff, a few from the Lego site. We don't have a local Lego store, so have only been to one once or twice. I usually buy/bought whatever Lego sets that were requested. We don't have any huge family displays. Middle is the one with the most Lego, although he now has a huge Halo Mega Blox display set up in his room. He still does a lot with Lego when he has time. He has moved on to the Lego robots and car sets, which he displays in his room at home. He has one Lego car in his barracks on base, but I have no idea where he keeps it. I would like to get the Lego Death Star and a few other sets for myself, but I can't justify spending the money on it right now. When the kids were younger I used to buy Lego by the pound off of Ebay. I often would buy groups that had Star Wars pieces in them and things. Then I put them in a big plastic tote for the kids to use, but mostly middle is the only one who used them. The tote is in his closet. If you are looking just to build for fun/creativity this is a good way to do it. DS spent hours building things with these Lego. I have never seen it as an investment, just a hobby mainly for DS, who really enjoys it.

We don't wrap stocking stuff. Neither DH or I grew up with wrapped things in our stockings. Gifts from Santa were also not wrapped, they were just left next to the stocking or near the tree with a tag. Now we won't do big Santa gifts anymore, just stockings, and still not wrapped. I had never heard of Santa wrapping presents until I watched a show with my kids when they were little. They were very confused because at the time they still sort of believed in Santa. But they decided it was because all the countries have their own Christmas traditions and it was a British show, and Santa of course is good about sticking with traditions for people's countries.

I got him a kindle book he wanted using my saved up credits. A dice jail for D&D and some hand soap with a set of dragon dice in it. I also got him a t-shirt with a scout theme. After the new year when we get reimbursed for some expenses, I will be getting him a delayed present of a membership to an indoor gun range, so on Christmas he will get a note in an envelope or maybe something in a box telling him.