I'd suggest a few boxes of Jiffy corn bread made with eggs -- I see boxes for $0.50 each. Another thing to think about is that Dollar Trees have food in them. You can make quesadillas -- flour tortillas + cheese. Black beans + tortilla chips. Pasta + sauce. Spiced nuts. There's usually Marie Callendar's biscuit mix available, as well (you just add water). DS10 loves to make "punch" from Jumex Mango Nectar and sprite-like soda. For building a pantry, the Dollar Tree has a wide variety of spices.

I'm so sorry about your DH. I don't remember what field your DH is in. Mine lost his job in mid-June, and he's an electrical engineer. To get updated skills in certain areas (for resume building/skill building), my DH has taken a number of udemy.com courses -- he got much more traction after adding them to his resume. Also, if he isn't already doing it, consider using jobscan.co to optimize his resume for specific jobs. Now... all that being said, we ended up really shaking things up. I started back to work full time. DH now stays home with the boys and takes care of homeschooling. So... yes, absolutely, life is strange sometimes.

I was in a training earlier this month that indicated this is the tip of the iceberg. Many stores and fast food joints are poised to replace humans with robots because of reduced costs. It was very sobering and I ended up rather worried about what we as a society would do wth all the displaced workers. Ugh.

I have taken multiple classes, and all have been at least ok. Some have been amazing. For $12 per course, you can't really go wrong, though!

I dearly love you ladies! Thank you all for the suggestions! The Safari Toob seemed to have mythological creatures, so we might do that + peg dolls.

This is totally random, but... my oldest wants to make a diorama of Mt. Olympus and we're having trouble finding little figurines to represent the gods and goddesses. Maybe three or so inches tall? By any chance does anyone have ideas for figurines that we can fashion into gods and goddesses? We have little one-inch Civil War soldiers, but I'm not really convinced we can successfully re-purpose them. Any suggestions would be welcomed. My googling has not been particularly helpful, but maybe I'm just not being creative enough.

Melon sorbet! Just purée a melon in a blender and then toss it into an ice cream maker. It also works well with peaches, berries...

I would call the landlord. Most decent landlords are going to want to proactively manage disruptive tenants, so just letting the landlord know might be a great first step.

I did this a number of years ago... much easier than carving.

I'm sorry you're feeling so poorly! Try little sips of whatever sounds like it would work... if milk seems like a good idea, I'd actually try chocolate milk. They give it out at the end of marathons and what not because it's supposed to speed recovery (it has all the fat, protein and sugars you're allegedly supposed to need). When my son was feeling poorly, we also did a lot of beef or chicken bone broth (just throw broth bones into a pan with water and some aromatics and an onion and let it boil). I hope the doctors get to the bottom of this soon. Please do take care of yourself and rest!

I worked there, as well! And yes, the work boots are terrifying. I'm a bit surprised as to how poorly the house smells, given that the boys are always leaving doors open. :huh: We have forced air heat, and we use electrostatic filters. We just cleaned them, and they are drying in the bath tub as I type. Hopefully those will help. Leaving the bathroom fans on is a good idea, and I'm on that!

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I'm thinking this is going to require a lot of little steps to improve this situation! J-rap, can you recommend shoe inserts? Is that a Dr. Scholl's thing? I didn't know such a product exists! Can you recommend a brand/place to start researching these? Amazon has a dizzying array of options! :-) I have a good number of plants in the house -- mostly philodendrons and African violets. Do those help?

We live in the Pacific Northwest, and we're in the rainy season. Unfortunately, it means that the house takes on a rather unpleasant overall smell... it's the kids' stinky shoes inside, DH's shoes (he has a lot of them... really likes shoes), the 90 lb wet dog flopping everywhere, having the windows closed, and just that damp, wetness of five days of rain. I open the windows when it's warm enough, keep up on the cleaning (ish), have eucalyptus wreaths in the bathrooms where the showers are, put out baking soda in bowls, bathe the dog periodically, and try to keep the shoes contained in closets, but... I need to do more. I'm pretty sensitive to smells. My sister diffuses "high quality" essential oils, but they tend to give me ferocious headaches. The baking soda just isn't enough. What else can I do to tame the stench?

I'm starting The Artist's Way as a way to reconnect with my underdeveloped creativity...

I'm sorry the resident gave you a hard time. We also had many problems with crappy residents/students. My sister is a RN and gave me the following "order of escalation" in case of obnoxious residents: 1. Resident's attending (if that person doesn't deal with it, go to 2) 2. Chief of Staff 3. House Supervisor

Well, last year I ended up on a ladder during the day PDX got two inches of rain in December to clean out gutters. I learned my lesson and got it taken care of today while it was sunny, just in case. :-) We are generally pretty well-prepared for emergencies, but I do need to run out and pick up water, just in case. DS has a birthday party at our house on Saturday... So I figure we'll lose power sometime on Saturday.

Keep advocating hard for her! You're doing great. They don't have to like you. They need to diagnose her.

Yes, I'm sorry. That was my son's diagnosis. Of course it could be dozens of different things, so please don't assume the worst. DS was worse in the mornings and when he went from lying down to standing up, so perhaps add those sort of facts to your headache/vomit diary. DS's pediatrician diagnosed him. We had been seen by dozens of doctors, but she ordered the MRI. I wouldn't wait for a referral to get the MRI in the works, if your pediatrician can make it happen. Please do keep updating this thread. I will be thinking about you both!

Does she have a headache, followed by vomiting? Is that the cycle? If you are already referred to neuro, please request a MRI. My son had prolonged vomiting due to neuro issues.

Time truly did help, as did cooperative games (everyone working together to "win" against the game). We also started playing UNO ... frequently. Like four or five "hands" in a row in a sitting. The games take only a few minutes (you can do five or six cards per hand, "winner" is the person who is out of cards first, no counting points), and it's easy to win and lose enough in a sitting that you realize it just. doesn't. matter. We also played hundreds of games of tic-tac-toe. Games are a way to pass time. It's not important who winds or loses. At least that's what we go with.

How about something like this (LINK to Home Depot) with Command strips (another LINK)?

DH leaves his address off his resume, and is sure to indicate his "roots" in Wisconsin. He's gone so far as to indicate he won't ask for relocation assistance... I'm almost thinking that he should perhaps relocate to our target area (stay with his mom) and we'll follow when he gets a job... It would be hard for all of us to descend upon her house... four people, huge dog, all our stuff. But if it's just DH, that might work. I'm just not good at patience.

We're planning to move to be near DH's family. My sister lives near-ish to us, but not close. She can't really help with childcare like the family will be able to in the Midwest. Also, the cost of living would be about 1/2 to 1/3 of where we live now. We can sell our house and have one paid off with the proceeds of the sale (just because houses cost so much less). The area we're looking at seems to have a decent number of job openings for DH... he's just not getting the interviews.

DH lost his job in June. He's been looking since then, but he's not really had a lot of traction. (Electrical engineer in his mid-40s...) We are trying to move to the Midwest from the West coast, but we really do need a job for DH when we land. I was offered a job in August, but due to a series of wacky events for the company I *still* haven't started (for example, the person who does the on-boarding for contractors in the group I will work in has been out on medical leave), and just learned yesterday that I won't start until November, and that the hours will potentially be less than initially promised. I don't know if it will happen at all, in all honesty. It seems like we are just stuck in a holding pattern for some reason, and we can't get things to move forward. While all this is happening, we've reduced our budget, packed, purged, improved the house to get ready for selling it, DH and I are doing trainings (acquiring new skills and sharpening old skills), we spend quality time together, and we talk to the kids about how things are going. Are there other things we should be doing? Do you think I should look for a different job? I've been out of the workforce for a while, so I'm not sure I can find anything else, honestly. If you've ever been in this situation, what did you do? How do you deal with the frustration and monotony?

This is just all venty rage, and I apologize in advance. My life is downright stupid lately. I'm a bit at the end of the rope. DH lost his job in June, which was bad. We were supposed to move to the Midwest, but DH has had just no traction on the job search. He's being super selective about what he wants, and I just don't know how it's going to happen. A friend asked me to work for her in August, which was great, but due to a series of unfortunate events with her (and her colleagues), I actually haven't started yet. I just got off the phone with her, and now it looks like I won't be able to start until November. :banghead: DH took over teaching the kids a few weeks ago, and he hates it. The kids are acting like monsters due to all the changes. Both kids are pretending that they don't know stuff and DH just keeps slowing down more. DS10, who was doing 5th grade work suddenly can't figure out 3rd grade work. DS7 no longer likes to read. Little monsters! There is just nothing good happening right now. This sounds really pathetic. We just really need something good to happen -- a job for DH, my job to start, something.