Hugs, mama. It is so hard when the basics are SO hard. ♥️

Good morning! And afternoon! The adult girls and spouses came over this morning and we did presents with them. The four of them are fun. ♥️ DD#2 and hubby have to work this afternoon and evening so they left at lunch. DD#1 and hubby stuck around. Agricola ✅ Chili for this evening ✅ Kids are staying here while they go to their service. We’re doing our service online. My muscle contract and cramp painfully if I shiver. Then watch the Nativity Story and off to bed. ♥️ DS is coming in the AM for the day. Super low key and I admit I’m loving it this year.

My husband was dealing with fatty liver and his metabolic numbers were looking a bit alarming. We were able to change them drastically through a modified GF keto Mediterranean diet. He then quit but plans to return this year.

Heard. Abundantly clear. I’m sorry. And, in retrospect, I should have also known LIW sarcasm on a homeschooling board is also not amusing. 😉

It was a poor call on my part. I was trying to be sarcastic/funny. I obviously failed spectacularly. Growing up in the rural Midwest, I’d heard “white out” conditions many times. It’s been a long running joke between me and my best friend that moving here was going to ruin all her Little House and Amish daydreams. The NYTimes article has a video of “white out” conditions… and you can still see trees. The conditions are a nightmare for anyone driving but if I were testing to walk from my house to my shed - it’s doable. I’d never heard of the Schoolhouse Blizzard. What a truly heartbreaking and awful thing. I can understand how people got lost on the prairie in those days. Open area, obscured landmarks, larger space to travel. Our joke centered around that Pa used a route to walk to his barn. Barns were generally fairly close to the home. While not as large as present day barns, they were still large enough to hold a few horses and/or cows, chickens, a pig, etc., so not tiny, generally speaking. My sarcasm was ill timed and misplaced.

The chickens will be fine. It’s better they don’t have the heat bulb due to condensation or something I don’t understand well. Chickens cope well with cold.

They couldn’t see it in time to stop. I totally get that! Absolutely! The road conditions are incredibly bad. But, let’s say you’rea healthy 30 year old guy with normal eyesight. Walking slowly, life dependent on it, can you find the barn? Yep. Sigh. Explains why they’re in fiction.

It’s still largely an equipment issue. Early winter and early spring we get freezing rain and melting days worth freezing nights. The difference is equipment and workers. Preceding potential hazardous comditions, out go the orange plow trucks to all major roads and less major roads in order of most traveled. They lay these little black things across our roads in summer to determine how heavily traveled roads are… 🤷🏼‍♀️ I assume it’s for road maintenance priorities. The trucks spray brine to prevent ice buildup. Later they will plow, salt, sand, but that brine is a game changer. Oh, and we have incredible supplies of salt, sand, trucks, employees, and a budget to deal with this kind of stuff. It would be silly for other areas to do this. But still, in our area it is taken for granted. Today our road is almost entirely blown shut. I can almost guarantee county maintenance will make it past our house by 9 a.m. People complain if the plows don’t go past, but have they ever stopped to consider how amazing it is that we function the day after 8”-12” blizzard? Plow map Last I looked 110 plows working on Iowa roads this evening. That’s amazing.

This seals it. I present the following evidence: NYT story- video from rural Story County Iowa No way did Pa need a route to reach the barn or death on the prairie would ensue. I can totally see trees at a distance. I even sent a kid out to walk the dog without a rope in the dark! And they found their way back!

Our baby boy is eight now too. ♥️ It’s funny, I always thought he’d be dreadfully spoiled - five sisters directly above him before the next boy did make him extra cute to them. But he has the nieces & nephews (5, 4, 2, 1, and -4 months) to look out for. It’s made him better with little kids than siblings ever could have! It’s so cute. 🥰

Her hubby has to work this afternoon/evening so she is coming over to play games and watch movies. 💕 i secretly love that so many of them have Christmas break birthdays. We get extra time with them with no outside activities!

We're warming up here in the middle of the country. We're up to -7/-35. Everything was a bit of a non event for those of us who don't have to work outside in it. Feeling awful for USPS, UPS, etc. But for those who now want to be amused:nvmd. Watched it & it was really just snarky and not funny.

I'm mostly good with it, but I can remember doing the math years & years ago, that this year I'd have FIVE teens at the same time for 2 weeks. Today we have a 13yo, a 14yo, a 16yo, a 17yo (for 5 more days), and a 19yo (12 more days.) Today my little Ella is 13! Unbeleivable. She was (mis)diagnosed with a terminal illness 01/23/10, just days before we'd move cross country to the PNW. She's a birthday buddy to our Lizzie, 21 today, married & expecting our third grandson. And on the HIVE for all of it, one of the constants. It's so weird to think of the ups & downs & twists a life takes. I'm feeling nostalgic today. I found thirteen years of "birthday buddy" pictures. ❤️

24” or 48”? I can’t imagine! How long does that impact, like days until roads are clear? Wicked cold tonight, currently -43 but we didn’t get nearly the snow expected, only about 4”. It will be brief. Next weekend’s forecast is nearly 40! Then it will be sledding weather! 😉

😂 This is one of our local stations. Wonder where the Schnack was… he’s pretty popular for an Iowa weather guy. (They’re generally not popular… too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, you get the picture.)

This. It’s possible the responders have just never lived out of their bubble? We moved to the PNW after an inch of icy snow. I thought what in the world is the hubbub about? I could not fathom it being a big deal. They essentially had no ability to deal with it until it melted a couple days later. Us northerners like to believe our success at winter driving is the result of attained skills. It’s really just the guys in the giant orange trucks that work incessantly to save us from our over developed self assurance.

Whoa. Now THAT is cold. Is your furnace keeping up? Ours is only a year old and I can already tell a big difference between this one and the old one. We live out in the country with zero windblock and our room gets chilly. I'm wearing boxers & a t-shirt. Love the new furnace. Cheers to hoping no ice on lines - but it's looking like we expect snow and not ice thankfully.

If it is any comfort - any frozen food - freezer can be moved to a garage. If you lose electric, wrap pipes near exterior walls with a blanket. You can force a flush with a bucket if you fill your bathtub and/or five gallon buckets ahead of time. If it's yellow let it mellow was our theme song during derecho. We're on a well too and didn't have electric for a week. Cooking is my concern, but I guess nobody ever died on PB&J.

It wouldn't be so bad except DS is scheduled to unload truck at 6 a.m. Thursday & Friday 20 minutes away. He's a horrible (truly) driver in bad weather and there is 0% chance he'll stay out of the ditch which means DH will drive him. 😕 They're forecasting 4-8" which isn't bad but up to 50mph winds which will cause white out conditions with as low as -40 windchills. We've been advised there will be travel bans so if you must travel, take blankets because you won't get towed. Oh hooray. We'll bring in our two adult barn cats and I am so glad we don't have cats or goats right now. My DH and kids get trophies as they are currently installing the underground dog fence on the last possible day of the year it will happen again until thaw. -2 windchill today will be balmy comparably.

DS works outside a lot and layers are key, along with a good hat, warm boots, and gloves. I want him to love it too, but even Iowans hate Iowa in January and February. ♥️

Bombas wool socks Ticket to Ride - Nordic TTR is his favorite and I read many reviews that feel Nordic is the best version.

Once, wearing two babies, one on front and one on back, obviously with a few others with me, a young man said, "They're like cockroaches - they're just all over." I think I probably looked like a fish with my mouth just opening and closing, not knowing what to say. Another time a cashier at Menards counted us as we left the store and then exclaimed, "J***s C****t!" loudly. I looked at her and said, "Yep, He gave them to us." I was hopping mad and did call the manager on that one. She was 40 something, no pass for young and stupid. Those were the bad ones. Most amusing? A few years ago when TLC was doing all the large family shows, people would often remark we should have our own show. But the best was at Costco. This sweet lady, 60ish, came up to me gushing about how sweet our family was, but it came out as, "I've been following you through the whole store, watching you, and..." It was cute. Taking 6+ kids always elicits comments. Taking 9+, it's a shock when you DON'T get comments. These days I usually have 4-5 and two are teens. It's very peaceful.

This. For the survey to represent any meaningful end, it would need tighter perameters. If my husband loses his job tomorrow and finds another at half the salary, a way to *live* must be found. People downsize houses, change to an apartment. Their version of healthy goes to dried beans, rice, bone broth, eggs, seasonal veggies. If you're facing an income loss that is bare bones, college what? State college is $10K. Pell would kick in for half. Kiddo works to pay the rest. It can be done without parents. Entertainment budget goes to $0. Internet is used at the library. Essentially I marked what we would need to maintain a similar lifestyle if we cut down our "extras" but maintained same basic needs expenses.

I'm searching all your suggestions - thank you! This thread might be the most perfect example of how the Hive works, lol, adding just a little info each time. I woke up in the middle of the night and read the thread. When we got up this AM, I was telling DH it might be impossible to find the little paper Dixie cups because ... And he asked if I dreamt it. 😉 Nope. The Hive knows all the things! As an alternative I did find on Pinterest how to make "snowman soup" with the white styrofoam cups so maybe I'll go that route.

I did research. The issue is I don't trust the reviews. Most of the wireless systems have "American" names but are obviously not writing American English. Therefore I doubt all the positive reviews. Likewise I've found several "articles" that gush about the top 5, etc., but they seem like paid reviews. I want a real human to say, "Worked for me," and explain how well their dog learned the obscure boundaries and ideally a few people. I checked Consumer Reports but found nothing. I think at this point we're just going to rewire all of it. We have the PetSafe system, just need to rewire it. I think DH is just resigned to wiring it again. We'll use 16 gauge. Sigh.