Thanks. Any no-miss places to eat? We LOVE to try local food joints when we travel. I know Austin is loaded with them, but was thinking there might be something closer to where we are staying just in case we don’t feel like venturing out one day.

Just left that area after bringing my daughter and grandson, but will be back (fairly often I’m sure). I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for specific things to do, places to see, and/or if anyone might want to meet up on my next trip over (likely late May). Downtown Fernandina was a FAVE, and I WILL go back there and check it out much more thoroughly!

My daughter and her family go to Austin every spring for the Lone Star Round Up antique car show. They usually stay closer to the car show, but this year their Air BnB is in Round Rock. She’s wanting to know if there are any no-miss places/activities in that area? Obviously we will still do certain things in Austin (I’m going with them this year for the first time), but she’s wondering if there are some things closer to where we are staying that are worth seeing/doing. She has 3 children (5, 3 and 7 months) that will be with us all the time. Thanks for the input!

Haven't read previous replies, but I can tell you that I would not, for a millisecond, be concerned what anyone in my family thought about my wanting to add another child to my family.

Great info in this thread! I've been struggling with this decision myself, as both my parents had different types of heart disease, and my brother was diagnosed with BOTH types in his 50's (although none of my sisters have seemed to have issues yet, and they are all now in their 60's). I've struggled with a vegan diet, mainly because I watched my mom's mental decline from B12 deficiency that was caught late. I don't want to go completely vegan. I've been doing Whole 30 for nearly 60 days (just to lose a bit of weight and reset my eating habits that I've really let go over the last year), and I feel SOOO much better when I eat NO sugar, dairy or soy. I feel okay with a small amount of grain, but it's almost easier for me to just eliminate it because I WILL go back to insane amounts of bread if given a chance. It's just hard for me to modify things and know my limitations. I like something I can follow, mainly because it's easy to find recipes, certain food items when shopping, etc. I just like a "label." At this point, I'm shooting for about 75%-80% vegan, with about 20% grass-fed meats, eggs (our own), and wild-caught fish/seafood. I'm not quite there because I struggle to keep enough fresh veggies around, but I'm working on it.

Doesn't seem like that would work for these particular recipes then. I may just have to buy a regular fryer and have my husband use it outside in his shop.

I've been minimizing, and I'm not a small appliance fan, but I HATE, HATE, HATE frying. Since doing Whole 30, I've found a few recipes that are absolutely yummy, but require frying in coconut oil, and I just can't deal with grease on my stove/counters/etc. So, I either need an air fryer (IF that would work well with something coated in an almond flour-type coating), OR some kind of fryer I can put oil in. I have zero clue how air fryers work, if any oil at all is required, etc., so I would need to know if it would work anyway. If I went with an actual fryer, is coconut oil an oil I could keep in a fryer and use a few times before throwing out? I use the refined for these particular things (grain-free chicken nuggets, and a grain free fried fish). Neither of these are particularly a "deep fry" kind of thing, and I don't think the fish would do well, but the chicken works great done like that because hubby did it outside - it just used WAYYYY too much expensive coconut oil. I do these often enough that I want a better alternative than my kitchen stove. Ideas?

Thank you for all the great suggestions for the baby!! We aren’t positive yet where we are cruising to; we have a few options, and dd’s fiancé will be picking from those. For dinners, do you have to have dressy attire, or are there some more casual dining spots? I don’t mean fast food casual, but casual sit-down dining. I need to. Know this I suppose because I own nothing very dressy. I definitely don’t want sandwiches and burgers though.

I might have to jump on that can opener bandwagon. I was just complaining to myself about mine a couple days ago.

Well now you just need an Apple Watch with cellular and your cards loaded into Apple Pay, and you can leave the house with nothing but your watch. 😜 Just kidding, although I do love my Apple Watch, and it would be even more convenient if places near me had Apple Pay, because I’d be able to go into stores with nothing but my car key. I honestly LOVE Apple Pay. I have zero clue how secure it is as far as having cards stored in there, but I like that I really would never have to carry any actual cards (and take a chance of them getting stolen if my purse were grabbed, or getting lost if I left my purse somewhere) if everywhere took Apple Pay.

Thanks for all the info! Staying on land and keeping the baby is NOT an option. He is a nursing 11 month-old (well, at the time they travel - he's 9 months right now), and has never stayed away from his mother. Honestly - not super worried about how I'll entertain him; he's a good baby, and we will bring him some toys. He'll be happy just walking around (he's not walking at the moment, but I mean walking around with me), checking things out, and when we can get off the ship and go to the beach or whatever, we will do that. I'm not really a big reader, and I'm fairly used to being busy, so I'm not expecting a bunch of relaxation. I'm also not paying for the cruise - my daughter's fiance is. So basically, yes, I'll be the babysitter a good bit of the time, and that's really okay. The bottom line is, they can't/won't go without the baby, and I wouldn't encourage her to leave an 11 mo for 5 days anyway. I'm taking one for the team here. I'm mainly just hoping for suggestions for places that are nice to exit the boat - we don't want to wind up somewhere that's dirty or unsafe. We are doing a 5-day, and I think we will have 3 sea days. It's not like I will have the baby 24/7 since his parents are going to be on the boat, and my daughter will have to nurse him, and he'll be sleeping with them, etc. Also, I'm going to have my own room - we won't be sharing one. So, with that in mind, where are some good places to go, and can yall make suggestions for things I CAN do on board with a baby/toddler, no matter how lame. 😜

My daughter and her fiance want to do a cruise. They want to bring me along to hang with dgs (who will be just under a year). They'll likely do Carnival (even though I'm a Disney planner and would LOVE us to do Disney, they are paying, and need it to be reasonable). Where are places you have gone that you loved, and places you'd never go again? Thinking of Cozumel, Yucatan, Bahamas, etc. We just need some ideas and suggestions so we'll know what to avoid or what places are no-miss. Looking to travel out of NO, or FL. Honestly, Galveston is an option also. Thanks!

We haven’t been to Big Cedar in over 20 years, so I really can’t help much, although we loved the restaurants on the property at the time. We didn’t do much in Branson when we went. I think they actually had a recommendation about that brunch already. I’ll definitely share about the Mexican restaurant; Mexican food is a favorite!

Does anyone have a book or website recommendation regarding home schooling a gifted child? I posted on the general board about my granddaughter recently, thinking she might be on the spectrum, and the more reading and talking to her speech therapist my daughter has done, the more she is considering that she may be gifted. Obviously, she’s going to go into more depth to make sure it isn’t something on the spectrum, but, in the meantime, she’d like to do some reading about home schooling a child who is gifted. Even if she does turn out to be on the spectrum, I think there is at least some aspect of gifted, based on what we’ve read, and what she knows/remembers. She’s extremely smart, and does like challenges in her learning. Granted, she’s only 5 1/2, but my daughter wants to get off on the right foot here, and would like some ideas. I’d appreciate it if anyone has suggestions.

Thanks for the suggestions! I will pass them on!

My daughter’s family will be taking a trip to Big Cedar Lodge. She’s hoping to get some restaurant suggestions. Anyone have any recommendations? Are there any healthy options in that area? Dd has some autoimmune issues, and is on a bit of a strict diet, so just some places that would maybe accommodate that, or serve healthier meals than your typical fried or “home cooking.” I appreciate any suggestions.

However, having measles does provide a benefit; lifelong immunity. Possibly people are willing to take a risk of their child having measles because it will provide them lifelong immunity, as well as the potential (shown in other studies) of protecting them from other diseases, including cancers, later in life. The shot only benefits them by protecting them (not 100%), from the measles, and not even for a lifetime. Also, though the shot may not have deadly risks very often, there are a lot of other risks that can affect a person’s health for their entire life. So yeah, we’re back to the beginning, where people should be able to CHOOSE which risk they are more comfortable taking.

No one, no way, no how has the right to insist another do anything that has the potential to harm their child. Period.

Does anyone have a book or website recommendation regarding home schooling a gifted child? I posted on here about my granddaughter recently, thinking she might be on the spectrum, and the more reading and talking to her speech therapist my daughter has done, the more she is considering that she may be gifted. Obviously, she’s going to go into more depth to make sure it isn’t something on the spectrum, but, in the meantime, she’d like to do some reading about home schooling a child who is gifted. Even if she does turn out to be on the spectrum, I think there is at least some aspect of gifted, based on what we’ve read, and what she knows/remembers. She’s extremely smart, and does like challenges in her learning. Granted, she’s only 5 1/2, but my daughter wants to get off on the right foot here, and would like some ideas. I’d appreciate it if anyone has suggestions.

I don’t think that’s amazing - I think it’s awful the amount of toxins that are injected into tiny babies. I also think if we look at the rates of other diseases, like the ridiculous amounts of autoimmune disease there is today, we can’t pretend these attacks on their immune systems are risk-free. So maybe your kid doesn’t catch a vaccine preventable illness, but instead lives a life with diabetes (and its own risks), or an autoimmune disease that affects them daily for their entire lives. How do we really compare the benefit of one over the other?

Not a tough call for healthy kids? Tell that to a mom whose perfectly normal 2 month old is injected with what, 7-8 vaccines at ONCE and then dies from “SIDS” within 24-36 hours. You can be rude and hateful about people making their own choices all you want, but these reactions can and DO happen, and a parent should be able to decide how and if they want to dump that load of toxins in their 10 lb baby or not.

Are we really comparing the US to non-first-world countries though when it comes to disease? It’s not quite apples to apples just based on health and hygiene factors alone. When we are looking at risks vs benefit, we should be focusing on the US, and not using other countries for comparison. I agree we take things for granted, but that’s also because we do have access to better care than many other countries as well. Of course, overall, if you look at our mortality rates in infants, we aren’t really doing that great, and we certainly give a lot more vaccines, and start them a lot sooner, than many countries that rank much higher.

Honestly, I think this is one of the biggest problems; the unwillingness of risks to ever be admitted. What they do is scare people off completely because side effects DO happen, and if they’re not willing to say so, people will assume everything else is a lie. The other thing is the lack of admission that vaccines such as this one (MMR) are able to transmit the virus themselves, so the recently vaccinated are a risk as well. To not make that widely known is, IMO, extremely irresponsible. There are some studies that show having measles actually lowers your risks for certain cancers later in life. I saw it recently, although I’m not sure where the study is from - would have to look that up. I think if there were more transparency and truth, people would be less skeptical.

As of right now, and I’m not quite finished, we are getting a good bit more than I expected, and so are all my adult kids who have filed so far. I was quite surprised because we’ve been bringing home more weekly too, and we have a pretty good income.

I still haven’t watched an episode (no Netflix here), but from all I’m reading, it doesn’t necessarily sound like my way of paring down. Honestly if I got rid of everything in my home that didn’t spark joy, I’m not sure there’d be much left other than the pictures of my kids and grandkids on my walls (and maybe my claw foot tub). I think I’m more in line with the minimalists, though not quite as radical as some. I really believe it’s easier and less stressful to maintain less “stuff.” I think most households have way more of everything than they need. I’ve helped quite a few friends clean out and organize (one has told me for years I should have a business/blog - shame on me for not doing THAT sooner), and it boils down to a mindset of not being owned/controlled by possessions (and not trying to keep up with what society tells us we “need”). It’s pretty freeing in every way when you reach that point. Certainly it’s financially freeing to not have to afford massive space to store unnecessary stuff, and also to not be purchasing random stuff every time you step in a store. It’s mentally freeing to not look around and see clutter at every turn. It frees time for more important things when you don’t have to spend extra hours weekly cleaning and maintaining it all. I’ve really enjoyed paring down even more in my home over the last month, and trying to work on projects (like dealing with photographs) that I’ve needed to do for a while. I wouldn’t call a couple of boxes of photos organized and stored neatly in a closet massive clutter, but it’s just something hanging over my head that I’ve been wanting to do, so time to get off the pot and get it done!