With kids 2 and 3 -- closely spaced ages -- I was miserable but also really wanted more kids but not really because I was miserable. It was hard having two close together, I couldn't make sense of the feeling that I was so overwhelmed but I still wanted more kids. We didn't have more right away because we were both drowning and DH was pretty done. But then life got easier and I still wanted another and so my youngest is here and now I am soooo freaking done. Apparently infancy and toddlerhood means that I am miserable, but this time, I'm miserable with no desires at all, not an ounce, for another child. Done! Done! Done! I could not say that before -- before, I could say I was exhausted and miserable and couldn't image having another, but I didn't feel done. So - people would say that when you're done you feel it and now I agree. However -- that's not to say that there is not also the point of when you decide to have no more, that can be a totally different feeling. It's not a feeling of being done, but simply a feeling that you're not going down that path anymore. I kinda wish I could have understood that more before and also accepted it more because then I could have given myself permission to want something so much but also permission to tell myself that it was no longer the best choice for our family. I'm also one of those people that says the taboo thing that you can totally have a child and regret that choice -- socially we don't seem to give people space to do that. I guess because people can't grasp the idea that someone can wish they didn't have a child and still love that child with all that they are. But hey, that's okay, to each their own.

All food waste goes into the compost bin. We're one of those people that composts EVERYTHING - including all that stuff you're supposedly not supposed to. Been doing it 11 years now and it's never been a problem. We had our very old septic system inspected (and they pump when inspecting) when we bough the house 11 years ago... and then 2 years ago I had someone come pump it because of all the "you must pump every 2 years" fears -- the tank was just fine then... so I don't see us pumping it again in the next 5-10 years most likely.

I would say the Life Planner, the teacher one just didn't really match with what I wanted to do. Maybe because I prefer vertical planner and the teacher does it weekly horizontally. Also the teacher planner ignores weekends and my schooling never did. So, I liked the Life Planner better- but it all depends on how you plan. I was able to use the 3 vertical sections as: 1 for out of house appointments or classes or whatever, 2 for subject based lesson planning, 3 for to dos or reminders. And then, I'd also say the Recollections brand at Michael's is a very close substitution if you wanted to save some pennies -- I loved my EC planner but after one year I decided the alternatives available were worth the savings. I switched to the Happy Planner from Michaels and I love it!!! I thought I would *HATE* the discs but turns out I love them because I can add pages to it as needed, especially my own bullet journal pages and what not. Had the Recollections planner come out a few months sooner, I probably would have switched to it, but well, I'm glad I didn't because the Happy Planner really suits my needs. I love that I can constantly continue forward -- I take out months that are long gone and add new ones as needed -- never do I have an "old planner" that needs replaced with new. But you weren't asking for other planner info, so feel free to ignore the unrequested info. :)

Sorry - this detail is driving me crazy. Are you dealing with wasps/yellow jackets or bees like honey bees???? You keep mentioning wasps and then mention bees again and this bee keeper is curious. Sorry you're dealing with this - it sounds awful. We kept getting wasps in our house this year and finally found 3 areas they'd built a nest as were getting in -- it is disturbing to find wasps in the house.

This is great timing -- I just got a trial because I wanted a book that has too many holds from the library to justify. But I doubt that I will keep it. I get most things from hoopla and overdrive. Unfortunately this book I had to have - I don't like the narrator and am finding it would be better as a physical book.

I have started wearing them more and more. I usually wear them in the fall and almost always in the winter. I wear the same things often as I only have a few outfits so scarves allow me to feel like there is variety -- though I often pick my 2-3 favorite ones most often. Or which ever one is hanging by the door.

Mine is on silent at the foot of the bed -- it's always on silent. Everyone that might need to reach me for an emergency knows to call my spouse, his phone is on the night stand. I'm surprised at those sleeping with it under a pillow - that makes me anxious. I don't wear a tin hat all day, but I wouldn't want to sleep on top of my phone, my antenna engineer husband agrees with me.

did you get the 10" or 12" one?

I'll join the dissenters - direct sales models don't bother me, they can be a great option for some women. I've run a few businesses (one being a direct sales business) and the direct sales was the easiest to get started, provided the most support, and was instantly profitable. For someone just trying to add income but without the drive to create their own business from scratch, it can be a great option -- but it's important for them to know what they're really getting into. Most of the time, it's about being a successful leader and helping others succeed; people are right that rarely will you get rich based on sales alone. There are good ways and bad ways to run a direct sales business -- I'll admit that I started mine poorly before learning how to not be obnoxious on social media and with friends. But I know several people that run theirs very well and I'm proud of the success they've had doing so. For those that do it poorly - I just unfollow or unfriend. I have been shocked at the high cost to get into things like LLR - that model runs counter to most direct sales that I know. Most have very low start up costs and the costs are covering product that the person could use if they just wanted the consultant discount and didn't even plan to run a business. I've almost become a Thirty-one consultant several times just for the consultant kit - it's an excellent price for what you get. There is a board game company that I'm frequently tempted to join as well. I (probably) won't ever do direct sales again, but I don't fault people that give it a try and hope they'll have good support to be successful -- not all do it in a predatory way and exploit all their relationships. You can do it without doing that, but sadly, many people don't learn that until after they've stepped on some toes. Yes, there are some bad companies and I think they should be called out on it. But I think that it's still a great opportunity for the right person and it's amazing that someone can start a supportive business with such a small start up cost (again stuff like $5k on LLR is excluded from this statement).

I used bestvaluecopy in the past when I have multiple things I want printed and spiral bound. Generally i find that I need at least 5-10 things to make it worthwhile to pay the shipping.

I have a silicone oven mitt that works just fine for removing the pot when done cooking -- I like it better than the cloth ones because I can easily rinse off the gunk that inevitably gets on the mitt when removing it from the IP.

You can put a collapsable steamer basket in the bottom if you have one of those. You can also place the potatoes in a metal bowl on the trivet -- this sometimes needs a couple more minutes cooking time to compensate for the bowl.

I've eaten home canned chicken years after canning - it was just fine.

Well if no one feels better -- there is always 2024. Hopefully a few extra days will have everyone feeling better and you'll still make it in time.

Maybe elderberry and echinacea -- but generally, I make some garlic-ginger-onion soup. There might be other stuff in the soup but it'll have massive amounts of those three things and then I'll be eating that for dinner and breakfast too. ETA - I also will take mass doses of Vitamin C -- I have a powdered form that makes it easier to take large amounts.

As a Girl Scout leader and my girls are in two different troops, some of the expectations sound a little high but not completely unexpected. Our troop dues were $25/year but we had to raise them to $35/year because the price of badges went up. That only covers the cost for 11 badges and nothing else. No supplies, no trips, no fun patches, no service projects, nothing else. We spent about $400 on badges and patches last year for 10 girls, dues didn't cover it. We had an excellent cookie season last year (honestly - because of my daughter's sales and motivation to do a lot of booths) so we won't be charging dues this year because we carried over enough money from last year to cover dues. But if sales are low this year, then we will have to charge dues. Our parents pay for registration and for uniforms, we don't get any money from that -- we don't require a parent from each family to join but most of our families do anyways in order to volunteer. I can see why a troop would require at least one (two seems excessive) parent join if they have an expectation that every family volunteers. The requirements for fundraising sounds high but I understand the reasoning, we don't make requirements for our families, but I admit that it annoys me that we have a family that sells no cookies at all and her daughter only does one booth when it is the cookie sales that fund the majority of our activities. This year, we sold enough that we were able to pay for every event fee, which, even with low cost events, adds up. Our cookie profits averaged out to about $125/girl. Our council doesn't have candy/nuts -- it's really just cookies for us We spent over $400 on events last year for just 10 girls. The year before, parents had to pay for every event we attended - so it was nice the cookies were able to cover it. We spent $200 on service projects that support our community. We are an averagely active troop. My other daughter is in a more active troop that sells a ton of cookies (I think their cookie profit is more than $250/girl) and they spent about the same on badges but their activities and service projects spending was $1,700 and they're saving up for a Savannah, GA trip this year --- her troop will probably cover the total cost of the trip, versus other troops where parents still have to pay hundreds of dollars for trips like that. Her troops also covers registration fees and uniform costs, but again, they sell a lot of cookies to cover the cost. You can always search out another troop because every one will be different in how they manage the troop.

Ugh!!! I just found out that our plans changed. We were staying at a campground in totality where my mother was working -- well she isn't working there anymore but she went and booked another nearby campgroud.... This is outside of totality, ugh!! So now we will have to drive down small mountain roads (I think -- or at least "slow" roads were her description) just to cross back into totality. There is a cultural center having a free event that day -- but how early do we have to be in that parking lot?? Event doesn't start until 10am or so, I think, but thinking we will need to be there fairly early. Ugh - this was easier when I knew we didn't have to go anywhere the actual day of the eclipse.

I think you're still struggling with on main concept about this - just because a plan is eligible for an HSA isn't the essential part. You're asking us questions we can't answer because it depends on what you're being offered because yes, what is covered depends on what the plan you're being offered covers (preventative care should be covered according to ACA -- but even the healthcare.gov website says "Most health plans must cover a set of preventive services — like shots and screening tests" - so there must be loop holes). The important part is that you are comparing two different insurance plans. They are both health insurance plans that have different costs, deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance, etc. They may have different things they cover at different rates -- you'll have to look at the detailed data sheet on each. The only difference of the HSA plan is that you (and your employer) can contribute funds to a savings account to save up and pay for some of your annual medical care needs. But in evaluating each plan, the presence of an HSA isn't really that important -- it's looking at what will each plan cost you out of pocket for your family's medical care. The only thing that makes one of these plans special is that it has a high enough deductible to make it eligible to use an HSA with it. It's kinda like saying -- you have two jobs and one of them has a 401K plan as a benefit and one doesn't. You'd still evaluate with both jobs based on the salary, expectations, location, and total benefits -- the 401K would just be part of the benefits for one of the jobs but probably not the deciding factor. Not sure if that helped, or not I cannot express enough that it really does work out well to basically take the exact amounts you paid last year and calculate them out for each offered plan to see what it would have cost. Be sure to also include what you would pay for premiums and you can offset that a little with what your employer would have put in your HSA, if that is an option. I did this calculation for a friend earlier this year when she was first considering switching to an HSA and using the prior year health care cost, it was basically a wash either direction for her. She decided to not go with the HSA because she was not comfortable with what felt like greater risk, where I would have taken the HSA if I was her-- so it's still a judgement call.

It's not about plans, it's just about what you're allowed to spend your HSA funds on. It doesn't matter than I have an HSA because we have a high-deductible health insurance plan, we can still use any of the funds we put in our HSA for our dental care and vision care. I get the concern about timing and age - to me the best case scenario is being able to contribute enough to your HSA, through your employers contributions and your own contributions, to meet your deductible. Now, this could be the individual deductible or the family deductible -- family would be ideal but some plans make that hard these days. Doing it this way, if something happens, you're mostly covered with the savings you have accumulated. I say mostly because some plans now have a co-insurance kick in after you meet your deductible, so you still owe more money after you hit your deductible versus set co-pays -- honestly, there are soooo many variations, it's crazy. 5 years ago, I would have said that an HSA eligible plan was the best thing ever -- I'm no longer wearing those rose-colored glasses due to deductibles going up and coverage going down. Generally, high-deductible plans with HSA have been good for people that either never go to the doctor or need a lot of medical care. If you use an average amount of health care each year, it's generally not the most economical. But again, run the numbers and see how the plans would have compared over the past couple years. You might find that an HSA is a better fit for your family -- if it is, I wouldn't immediately let fear of age discount it. Just make a reasonable guess as to what you can put in this year, does it reach the individual deductible for one person? If so, if a new medical needs arise, how likely is it that everyone will have something come up versus just one person?

Dental care is an included class that you can use your HSA for.

I would need more information to answer this question: what is the difference in deductibles and coverage of the two plans and what has been your average medical usages for the past 2-3 years (like looking at all of your EOBs to see what the allowed amounts were regardless of what your co-pay was). With that information you can calculate out what it would have cost you to use each plan for the past couple years and you can see which one would have been more affordable.

So glad you mentioned that -- I forgot I'm teaching on Tuesday's this fall. Guess I'll update my votes. :)

I could rise to that challenge. :)

also can't vote. Only one day doesn't work for me (at this point) but it wants me to select one for each month.

Thanks for the feedback, it is very helpful. I was leaning towards doing it because it wouldn't hurt and speech therapy is free where I live. At this age they will come to my house. I believe that when they get older, they do it at the local school but it's still free until they reach school age -- and then it is cut off if you homeschool. He EI and speech therapy are two different things, the EI educator kept making it very clean that he doesn't qualify for Early Intervention but yet he does qualify for speech, I imagine they really confuse some parents with their wording. I only have the toddler at home during the day, so it isn't really a burden other than not liking to have people come to my house. My personal instinct tells me something is not right even if he is finally adding words (maybe I should call them sounds for words -- that's a better description). I was curious on other's experiences especially since the SLP was being a little wishy washy, probably because she thought I was being very wishy washy. To be fair, the evaluation was held during a very stressful week where adding one more thing to my proverbial plate felt like the straw that would break the camel's back -- but now that we're reaching back to school season, adding speech therapy is more manageable.