My house will be sinking under the stuff my DD is buying and collecting. Slow and steady....one pen cap and piece of paper at a time.

This is a great way to clean up the community, share unneeded things and recycle as much as possible. We had that in my old community but now that I am closer to town they don't do that. Great idea though.

Kbutton....all good points. So much is individual.

Believe me, when we lived at out old house on a busier road, it was amazing what went. Sometimes my kids would bring things down to the end of the long drive and by the time they came up to the house and brought the next load down, much of the first stuff was gone. This house I list anything usable (but too big to take to Goodwill) on FB for free and it goes. I just live on a private cul de sac now with 5 houses so no traffic This is stuff like packaging, broken pieces of plastic, dead ink pens, markers that won't write, dried up white out, shoes with holes in them, and on and on. All stuff that needs to go, just weird seeing the bags full up.

I am in the process..,again, still, never ending....of downsizing, de-junking, etc. I kinda feel bad though about how much I am adding to a landfill. We recycle what we can, donate the good, usable stuff, etc but there is still a lot of broken, old, yucky, random stuff that just needs to be gone out of my house. I am trying to reduce what is coming INTO the house but right now so much needs to leave.

Once my kids were a bit older...and fully capable. Me entering their bedrooms with a large black trash bag provided a lot of sudden, much needed motivation 🙂

I agree. Most people can at least cover up with a sheet, blanket, etc. when you call 911, esp. if they are not home alone and not severely ill. My friend was a paramedic up in a remote Alaskan village and they had so many calls for minor things that they started calling it the Whamulance. And here I felt bad calling 911 for my daughters allergic reaction. We lived 20+ minutes from a hospital and while she wasn't so bad, I knew that food allergy reactions could turn bad in a hurry and this was her first one so we didn't have an epipen, etc.

I have waterproof mattress covers (the nice soft cloth kind) on EVERY mattress in this house as the covers are $15-20 and washable but my mattresses are $$$$ and not washable. I personally have a full set of sheets on my bed. My kids opt for just the fitted sheet some/most of the time with a comforter. I don't fret about the top sheet thing but I am a stickler on the mattress pad (waterproof) and fitted sheet.

I didnt click in the link but I totally agree. Crosses all sorts of lines

I have done that too. Also, you might want to check out healthcare.gov and see what the rates would be for you. You can apply ANY time there is a life change...and losing employment counts. You might qualify as you income is likely to be much lower during layoff/unemployment. Also, depending on your state, the kids might be covered by a state health plan for kids. In Michigan it is Healthy Kids. Similar to Medicaid, very small premium payment and covers almost everything. Income limits are pretty generous. Then when your dh is employed again you can drop these when your new insurance starts...and your income increases

Yep. Happens with my sister's kids all the time.

Exactly. Or an out of town wedding, etc. I honestly hope to use one my personal days for heading north this spring and hiking with a friend. Her schedule doesn't allow for weekend hikes so I will take a Monday to go. Since it will be in May though I will know that I do didn't need to use those days for something else earlier in the school year. School schedules are great for extra days off but they are NOT flexible at all. Almost never can you take the day off before spring break or the day after memorial day off, etc. I get paid 20 pays....2 per month...for the year. That means I need to budget well so I have money in the summer. Also some pays are only 3-4 days and others are 16-17 days just depending on how the holidays falls

Likely the 2 days are 2 personal days in addition to your sick days and days that are not scheduled.

I spent 20 years as a foster parent. There is a huge need for foster parents, people to support the foster parents but also a huge need for people to help prevent the need for foster care. One or more families that can invest in the lives of an at risk family (parents and children) can make a huge difference. Lower cost car repair, emergency child care for a sick child, someone to help navigate social services, involving them in family activities, etc can go a long way to preservation ng family stability for lower income and single parents.

The police idea might be more to get a paper trail and try to get her dh some help if this is a mental health crisis. If he is normally a nice, loving, husband when stable/on meds then that is different than an abusive husband that continues to get worse. Atlanta should have some mental health hospitals to get him some help. Do they have any mutual friends where a few guys that he respects go to him and try to get him to go in for an evaluation?