Against recreational use and for heavily expanded medicinal use. I’m against recreational use because young adults need to be functional. It’s a “for the good of society” argument. Medicinal use hasn’t gone far enough. There is significant differences between strains. I spent $100 getting a card, another $100 on a caregiver card, only to have virtually no control over what I bought out consumed. In Iowa, “medical” means pain control, so high THC. And here’s high irony: I can cross over to Illinois and buy recreational but with my medical card, still can’t purchase specific medical strains that Illinois citizens can. So I want a lower THC strain with higher anti inflammatory properties? Nope. But 21 year old College Joe can get high. SMH.

Good morrning! @ScoutTN (hugs) - is there the option of taking it at night? (That might be a dumb question for sugar control purposes, just many meds make me feel ick and some of them I can move to before bed.) I've figured out I need this thread to order my thoughts/plans when it's a "git 'er done" sort of a day. -Bible with kids -Run through poems -Poetry recital is tomorrow night -Figure out clothes for tomorrow night -Make a Sam's list -Make a Costco list -Run to my Mom's for chairs -Balance checkbook/pay bills -Laundry! (We sold this set and it leaves tomorrow. New set comes Friday but won't have it set up until the weekend. It's KID height! Hooray for teaching 8 & 9 yos how to do laundry!) 😉 -Clean up -Pick up from Lowe's -Read 1 chapter of my bookk & annotate -Have dd16 finish painting the chairs we started this summer! -Have dd14 finish painting the laundry room! *NO school today!

Deep breath - talk to me like I'm a small child. What do you use your Cricut for? Do you love it? How long have you owned it? Do you use it as much as you thought you would? Have you use it for mugs? Hats? Did you order the specialty "sidekicks" like the mug press to make it work?

This. What does DH say? She’s his mom. I’d follow his lead. If it was my mom, I’d say, “Hey, I have Saturday afternoon free. I’ll split the plants and leave everything pretty.” It would be a non event. On the other hand, I’d never do that to my mother in law. It’s really up to the individual and the relationship to determine if this is acceptable.

Yep. An occasional blood spot is normal. It happens in the formation of the egg and has nothing to do with fertilization at all. But what you’re describing is totally foreign to me.

Blend Tec - 8 year warranty. They’ve replaced it once and repaired it once. It works great.

I have PBS Masterpiece subscription but I’m unable to stream either on Prime. My understanding is that it aired 9/15. Ideas?

It’s an interesting thought. Moral obligation to society to do the greatest good one is capable of vs. personal fulfillment I have a friend who parents are both doctors, one was involved in research and one child psychology. Her son is exceptional, intellectually speaking. Her father had hoped he would go into medicine. The obvious and quick answer is that each person has the freedom to choose where their passion lies. However, while we have made a push towards STEM to open doors and we make it exciting and lucrative, we also *need* the “best and brightest” in STEM careers. It’s part of the reason schools try to identify gifted children - to shape the outcome. Discuss.

It’s funny, as in interesting and unfair how dresses fit differently. Designers fit these dresses on girls built slender with few curves. Now some of my girls are shaped like that. But some of my girls have very generous curves. You give them a scrap of fabric and it just doesn’t cover. My oldest daughter had a small waist but curves. Nothing for her the same as DD#2. She needed a few more inches of fabric! It didn’t mean she needed to go up sizes so clothes hung like a potato sack! It just meant designers and manufacturers need to plan on clothing going on REAL women. DD1 always has had a lot of challenges with clothes fitting - as a teen small waist, super curvy, very short… then I had DD2 as a teen - 5’4”, 98lbs - everything fits smoothly and perfectly. It was shocking to me how easy clothes are/were for her and, might I add, insanely unfair.

This almost hurts. 💕 I miss having a GS. The pictures are adorable. I’m not opposed to you posting new pictures every week for the next year or so. 😉 Congratulations!

I know three skilled tutors. They use Barton. Send me a pm if you want me to put you in touch.

ITA about sticking out when going against the norm. I think average teens are rarely seeking approval from another generation as much as social media and peer remarks. IMO, the black dress is a bit short. Would it have killed the manufacturers to add 2”? But here’s the rub - the girls tried on the longest “short” (knee and above) dresses in the department. The crazy short I’m thinking of really were a few inches shorter than hers and roughly half the fabric.

Yep. And I would say that we’ve become so numb to the sexualization of 14 year olds that we think nothing of insanely short dresses. @SKL I don’t think I said Homecoming dresses could define someone but I do think the approval girls get from wearing skin baring clothing further encourages a social cueing system that furthers girls’ self evaluation to rank physical attractiveness as a top trait. My girls wore short dresses. My oldest pictured here found this dress which she was very comfortable in all evening. She was not planning on going at all because she doesn’t take any classes at the high school but was asked by a good friend and accepted slightly over a week from the date. Younger dd loves the chance for fancy dress, shoes, hair, etc. She exults in being a girly girl on rare occasions. (Ironically, she’s probably my outdoor adventurous daughter.) So we let her go with a lovely group of ladies. At that point though, selections were pretty limited. I didn’t dare use Amazon. I’m limited in what I can alter at this point. I really resented the limitation between short short and cleavage, as did the girls. 😒 We used bike shorts and pinned the dress to them, but should I have to do that? Designers KNOW these dresses are for teens not adults! What’s wrong with a couple more inches?!

Meh, I’ll bite. I don’t think most teens wear short dresses because they’re confident about their body. I saw an awful lot of girls at our being park/Greenhouse area (a popular spot for photos) I think they do it for different reasons - maybe because there is a decided lack of cute dresses that are short without being crazy short, because of a desire to fit in, wanting to be deemed attractive, and sure, maybe body confidence. My Junior year I wore a dress that has very little fabric, and yes, I was very body confident, but I was still pulling my concept of what was important about me from my body and/or attractiveness, and while it’s easy to say, “How great that you loved your body,” the truth was (for me) it was really damaging to pull worth from attractiveness. I’m annoyed that designers want young woman to bare a lot of skin because I think it sends a message that by doing so and receiving approval/admiration for doing so that it reinforces with our value comes from attractiveness.

Shipping was rough. I thought prom was hard but HoCo was worse. DD14 found a dress that was cute but when she walked it went shorter. Black biking shorts and two safety pins later, it stayed put. Thank you YouTube! Mine, in dresses and heels, went to a haunted house with a group after. 👀 I’m shocked they didn’t break heels or necks, but all parties had a blast.

This is fascinating because DD2 and her DH have said they might send them to school K-6 but they want them home for high school. I have a friend who both homeschooled her older kids and chose to put her youngest in private school until 7th grade and brought her home this year. I really wonder if this have been great for us, but we did put our two toner in school for a year and hated it. Great school, great teachers, cute small connected town, but just missed that daily connection. DS enjoyed it but it was half day pre school for a VERY wiggly little boy. I think it would be a different story now because he really thrives on a lot of outdoor physically active time. DD hated it. She cried nearly every day. I went in often, volunteered in the classroom, etc., but her very extroverted self was overwhelmed. We were shocked.

My adult children have offered Insight and I have listened and, at times, solicited their feedback. My oldest daughter (26) has a five year old so she is officially homeschooling now. She is a believer in homeschooling and has a four year university degree in psychology with a focus in education, but wishes she’d had a solid friend group who were both her age and were also homeschooled. I tend to agree. She lives in our area with a very large homeschooling network which she makes the added effort to be involved. My oldest son (23) says his experience was the ideal - limited peer involvement to become his own person but then heavy engagement with activities and peers in high school while still homeschooled and college credit. Our third (21) had a similar experience and also met her husband in the same group. They’ll homeschool. She was glad for academic rigor and a lot of public speaking. Our fourth (18) was an incredible introvert. She’s homeschool for college is she reasonably could, lol. i think our fifth (17) will eventually have a legitimate complaint. We had a very rocky relationship because he hated school and I was the task master. We might have had a better relationship without homeschooling but that’s questionable because, that said? He was late to good judgement and likely might have made some really rough choices in school. We purposefully moved to an area within driving distance of a vibrant homeschool community. My kids have the ability to make a before/after comparison. The oldest six have all taken college courses too so they don’t have some idealistic notion that school would have been better in some way.

Truth. And three cheers for the guys who do 150% rather than just their 50. 😉

Dinner as in lunch or dinner as in supper? Lunch -yes, because my kids snack. Supper - unlikely

Question: I *love* mango salsa and DH *hates* hummus. If I serve cheese, grapes, an assortment of crackers - which two dips? Mango salsa, jalapeno jelly, artichoke spinach, hummus... etc. Thoughts reflective of the guys in your life?

Friday night and Saturday - I think it's largely talking & teaching. They'll be tent camping on church grounds. I'm thinking fruit plus carb filler/protein like cheese. Friday they'll be done around 3 so it's a small snack before they get on the road and travel, so maybe light there - like Chex mix and veggie tray with ranch is acceptable?

Great idea! They actually did ask folks signing up about necessary food accommodations and there were none so I'm smooth sailing there.

@Kassia I can’t separate my faith from my mental well being so it’s hard for me to give any advice here. I can hear that you don’t feel worthy of being loved. That is an incredible burden that you have to set down. I’ve had that burden and it is a weight that will sink you to the depths. I’ll say this and I hope it is not offensive and if it is I genuinely apologize. I believe you are more than your body, more than your health, more than the services you can provide for others. I believe you have a soul that has an inherent value - not for what you can do for another or because of your strengths, but that the internal you has an incredibly high value fast being what you “bring to the table,” and I pray that you will hear that and internalize it. Because for those of us who have a hard time believing we deserve love, we always feel we need to be worthy. Then when we experience hardship and can’t keep doing the acts of service, we can feel empty and useless and worthless. Your value is intrinsic and unchanging.

I have a daughter who was academically ready but we worried if she’d adjust well to college. She is the most introverted human I’ve ever met. She is roomed with her roommate from last year. They aren’t friends per se, but they are friendly. She’s kept a job (same one both years), has done well, and is considering a new one. (Amazing since she’s not a fan of new things.) They pulled her into the honors program. She joined a young adults group at a church that is active. She texted me yesterday - her greatest fear was that she would do poorly in Mandarin this year. Class average? 83. Her score overall? 99.6. Most recent test? Average score: 69%. Her score: 103%. Last year she chose to change from BioMed to TESOL. I wasn’t super thrilled. I couldn’t see her teaching, and I was worried. Now she’s planning a semester abroad (oddly in Korea or Japan) and excelling in these classes. I’m seeing her gain confidence. I’m so thrilled for her. She’s always been surrounded by extroverted bubbly sisters and you know how society applauds that type. It’s so enjoyable to see her in her own realm and finally realizing she is amazing, not just her mama saying nice things. 😉 ♥️ Homeschooling is awesome.

3rd, 4th, & 5th graders - AHG & Trail Life, poetry recital 2x year, a gym & swim class at the Y once a week 7th grader - one play, competitive mock trial season, a couple classes during fall and/or spring (currently a five week neuroscience class and a drawing dragons art class, AHG, youth group.) 9th grader - play, choir, competitive mock trial, youth group, AHG. We’ve outsourced a speech/writing class, art, Spanish, and a Biology lab class for this year. They meet Thursdays & Fridays. 11th grader - play, choir, competitive mock trial as a competitor and she co-coaches a middle school team during first semester. She is currently doing a 40-45 hour internship. We outsourced math, statistics, oral communication, Comp I & II to the community college this year. She works about 6 hours a week on Saturdays during this school year. We don’t load up on outside things until high school. That generally is for the purpose of being their greatest influence for foundational reasons. High school is about equipping them for life - being accountable, managing time well, try out interests, learn to write and speak powerfully and persuasively.