In a lot of ways, our winter will be pretty normal. We are in a very snowy and cold area and we do typically hunker down and socialize much less in winter anyway. We have a fire pit, as do all of our friends, so I expect outdoor gatherings will continue. We think nothing of spending hours upon hours outdoors in temps at low as 0 degrees F. We will not be socializing indoors at all. We all ski daily and dd's ski team will continue to practice and compete with Covid rules in place. The only really hard part is that dh is home 24/7, which is not normal. It's hard for him as he is a huge extrovert and hard for the rest of us because we are not. Not to mention the challenge of three people trying to Zoom and work in a 1200 square foot house with no doors. I may ask for game suggestions in another thread. I would like to rely less on watching screens during our down time but our game collections is getting stale.

The canning lid shortage was the biggest thing for me. I did manage to "borrow" enough to get the bare minimum put up but now I owe lids all over town and there is still no supply anywhere. I got a big delayed ordered from Amazon finally, but they are counterfeit lids from China so now I am in a war with the vendor to try to get a refund. They are all bent, scraped, and very thin. There is no way I am going to risk trying to use them. I put library books in the ILL queue pre-pandemic, way back in February, and then forgot all about them. They just came in as restrictions lifted in my state. One of them in "Station Eleven." Yikes! I may have to stop reading that one! Camp firewood is in short supply here. We have been camping on weekends but now all of the campgrounds, gas stations, and side-of-the-road piles are gone. Kind of hard to camp in 40 degree weather with no firewood! Dd in a senior and has not been able to take the ACT or SAT. They keep getting cancelled. So, she had to change her college application plans.

Yes. And somehow, many of these acts (NOT fires on private property or stealing of signs, obviously) are considered "freedom of speech." I think the line between that and hate crime is just too fuzzy in many parts of the country. I'm not sure that monkeys in nooses, hanging from confederate flags in a parade is legal. Maybe it is? I also think that even if it isn't, our tiny police force would have been no match. The parade in question included locals but mostly consisted of people from out of the area. Many of the plates were out of state even. They know what they are doing. The communities that the parade snaked through have very few non-white residents. I can only imagine how chilling it must be for those few to witness this.....especially if they are under the impression that the all of the participants are local.

I am guessing we do not. But in my local case the signs were stolen and then burned in a pile in a public area. Not in people's yards. While certainly no good, not nearly as scary as in Acadie's situation.

That is terrifying. The haters have always been there but are now emboldened. A car/truck parade "rally" in support of Trump happened last weekend. It weaved through severals small communities, including mine. The video footage that people have been posting has shown the flying of confederate flags, monkeys hanging from nooses, and passengers screaming, "Go away N-words" out the windows. Until recently, this would have completely shocked me. That next morning there were numerous reports of stolen and burned Biden and BLM signs. I have friends who are afraid to replace their signs.

I had to use an estate sale company to deal with a family member's hoard. It was still a LOT of work on my part but it was worth every penny. Our company charged by the hour and dumpster runs. I think it came to almost $4000 in the end. But they also sell items so we have been getting random checks as items sell over the last 18 months or so. I'd guess we have recouped about $1000 from sales. We were not dealing with much pet/pest damage but the place was rented and needed a very deep clean, which the company also did. I had originally planned for my dh and I to to the whole job but we don't live nearby and only had about a week of vacation time to use. Even with the bulk of the job being done by the estate sale company, we were hopping 24/7 that entire week. The final vacuuming was still happening as the landlord arrived for final walk-through and key exchange. I have no idea how we thought we were going to do it all ourselves.

I will add that I try to do the risky stuff while the pan is on my gas stove. I figure if the worst happens, at least the contents will just ooze into the burner wells.....

Me! Although my dinner is in pyrex and after reading this thread...... I use it all the time, all different ages and shapes. I have specimens from 1960s to 1997ish. I have done all of the things that are not recommended. Direct freezer to oven. Direct oven to outdoor 30 degree storage. I put it on the stove to cool. I have heated partial pans. One thing I make on a regular basis requires melting butter in an empty pan in the oven then adding the cold batter to the pan. I'm not sure how I have not had any explode! Some of mine is even warped which should probably concern me. I am terrified of my pressure canner so it is not just a general lack of fear.....

I was around for this thread the first time! I frequent two stores for groceries. One does not allow carts out of the store so you have to hand carry everything, making the cart return issue moot. The second has a great feature that I wish all stores had. You can choose to wheel your cart out a special door that opens to an attended covered drive through area. You leave your cart of groceries with the attendant, go get your car, drive into the area, and the attendant places your bags in your trunk and returns the cart for you. I usually just haul my cart out and put the cart in a choral after unloading but I use the drive through during bad weather, when I had a small child, or whenever the snow depth/conditions makes pulling/pushing a cart to the car really difficult. Sometimes they require patrons use the drive through as it is too difficult for staff to drag the carts back to the store through heavy snow.

I think I will continue to mask when sick, on planes, in medical buildings, and during times of peak illness such as flu season. I like that they might become more culturally acceptable for situations like that. As for Covid, I am 100% for masking but rarely have to mask now. We have a state mandate and I live in a currently raging hot spot. But the mandate is largely ignored here. It is considered a political statement here to wear a mask. I don't think there is any circumstance that would change the minds of those who will not wear one. I'd say about half of the people I see in stores are properly masked at any given time. But, like others here, I live in a place where I can go about my business and rarely get within 6 feet of others. And when that does happen, like grocery shopping during a busy time or passing someone on the sidewalk, the time is very brief. I do mask indoors. The only indoor places I go are grocery shopping once a week, to the post office to check my PO box once a month or so, and the very occasional run inside a hardware or other store. I work from home. The community spread that is raging here is not from the sidewalk or grocery store transmission but rather from the hopping bars, college parties, K12 schools, huge indoor weddings and church services, and restaurants. None of which I frequent. While I shake my head at the unmasked in the grocery store, I am not worried about exposure to them. We have bubbled with a handful of other families. We do socialize unmasked, but outdoors and distanced only. I know this is risky but it is a risk we are willing to take.

I am the sole "caretaker" for a family member with dementia that is currently isolated in assisted living. They are bored and lonely. In today's phone conversation they asked if I could pick up and mail any new Cat Who mystery books that might have come out recently. I believe this person actually owns all that were released and the series ended quite some time ago. This person was also a huge fan of Murder She Wrote and Perry Mason back in the day. These are not my preferred genres. At all. So, I am ill equipped to select something that might fit the bill. Any suggestions? The books need to be pretty simple. Extra points for any that have many books in the collection with the same formula. I think my person really takes comfort in the formula-type stories. I'd love to find a good series so I could mail one every week. If I have 3-5 good leads, I could mail one of each and ask for feedback.

Absolutely! While things for sure took a turn, we all know that dd is super lucky to have the options left that she does. We all have our health, we are well fed and sheltered, and dd still has a great educational opportunity....an opportunity that was up for consideration even during the best of times. And honestly, the narrowing of options has been a bit of a relief. This makes things simple. There is a plan, let us now focus on optimizing that plan. And my dd will still be close. I would have never encouraged her to stay close for her parents' sake but I am happy to know that she will be within reach during all of this turmoil. Now, I just have to be brave and tackle the FAFSA!

Thanks so much! Dd is registered for the December ACT. We live in an odd geographically isolated location so we do not have a lot of test location options. The SAT is only offered in schools during the school day here and they do not allow homeschoolers. Her ACT has been cancelled multiple times....which is how she got the December date bump. To get a sooner date or to take the SAT, we would have to travel 4+ hours and two states away. We would absolutely be willing to do this if not for the expense and Covid risk....especially with the chance the test could be cancelled once we were already there or on the way. We went back and forth and back and forth on this but since she can test up until start date in fall 2021 and still get the merit aid, we decided to cross our fingers for December but know we can go to more heroic lengths in spring/summer if we have to. That also gives time to see if she lands one of the internal scholarships that would cancel the merit aid out anyway. Tricky. Her school has made admissions test optional and she has already been accepted. But the merit aid requires test scores. This is not at all how we saw our only child's college decision process going. Like most of the rest of the world.

This is where things get tricky and I may need advice. I have checked with the school about the 75% tuition reduction. That is not a scholarship as it is an employee benefit. They told me this will be applied after scholarships, be it internal or external. So, if dd got a $5000 scholarship and full tuition is $20,000, the 75% would apply to the full tuition minus the scholarship, or $15,000. That I can figure out. The only scholarships dd is applying for are internal to the school, including the automatic merit aid she could get based on test scores. I know based on her PSAT and practice tests that she would very likely qualify for substantial merit aid but so far has not been able to take the ACT or SAT. She has until classes start in fall of 2021 to take a test so I am hopeful that will happen. It sounds like I had better ask if a FAFSA is required in order to actually get that merit aid! I appreciate the link about changes. I guess I will know more when the FAFSA is available and we start to fill it out. It says we should report our income based on the day the application is submitted. That is going to be WAY lower that the tax documentation will show, be it 2018 or 2019. Further complicating the issue is that we are business owners and will not get a true sense of our actual 2020 income until April 2021, at the earliest. I understand that waiting that long to file could result in less aid. So, I guess we figure it out from there. The fact is, if they are basing it on our former income, dd would likely not qualify for any financial aid. This is why I am questioning if it is worth it....assuming she does not have to file in order to get any scholarships.

I would be the same if my stuff didn't sell well. I stopped doing it when I no longer yielded at least $200. When it was all K-6 stuff, it was easy to sell.

Right. 2018 tax filings. I mistyped. Although the result is the same. 2018 and 2019 will show about 3 times the income we currently have. So, when i say "circus," I meant the dealing with whatever additional paperwork and proof we will have to provide to show that our income is now dramatically reduced. I don't know how onerous this is. Maybe it's not a big deal? But whatever the case, if her tuition is fully covered by other means and she cannot receive financial aid for living expenses, there is no point.

I only "lend" things that I am willing to part with....which is frequently because I have a small house and try not to keep anything around I am not using. But I have two semi-related stories. 1. I needed to borrow a meat grinder once. I am a vegetarian and only needed it for a single cat food experiment. If the experiment went well, I planned to purchase my own but did not want to buy one until I knew. A friend offered me theirs. This person is always happy to lend things and I have borrowed from him frequently before that time. I got it home and tried to put it together. It was apparent immediately that it was broken. The shaft was stripped. I was not even able to completely assemble it. This discovery was within hours of taking possession. I called him and explained. He told me that that sounded vaguely familiar and to just go ahead and toss it. I did. I borrowed someone else's, did the experiment, returned it, and went on with my life. FIVE years later, original guy asks for his grinder back. I tried to remind him what happened, that it was damaged when I got it, and he had told me to get rid of it. This is close friend so after several jabs back and forth, I ended up just buying him a new grinder. It was not worth it. But I will never borrow from him again. 2. Not exactly a borrowing story but similar. We have a curriculum consignment sale once a year. When dd was younger, I did a swift trade in all of her old curriculum. I usually sold over half of what I entered. At the end of the sale, you go back and pick up your unsold items to take home. For 2-3 years in a row, there was a woman there at pick-up time following people around and asking them to sell their unsold items to her for a reduced price or even to GIVE her the items. This came with a sob story about tight finances and being taken advantage of and that I was really asking too much for the item anyway and and and. I knew it was a farce and kind of rude to the organizers to cut out the commission but when she asked me, I relented since the alternative was to hang on to it for a whole year until the next sale. I didn't think much of it until this summer, which is YEARS after she bought/took things from me, she posted a big "for sale" post on our local homeschool board. I saw at least 5 of my items in her list and she was asking much more for them than I had originally listed them for consignment. For instance, a Singapore Math soft cover textbook that I listed for $5 and ended up giving her, she was asking $15! These don't cost much more than $15 brand new. It appears she did not have much luck selling her items at these inflated prices but it took a lot of will power to resist messaging her and asking for the items for free to see if she'd see the irony.

Dd's college choices got seriously hampered by the pandemic and a drastic change in our family income. Of her original options, she has settled on one, mostly due to financial constraints, and we are going forward with that plan. Her choice has a minimum of 75% of her tuition being covered by my employment benefits as I work at the university. She additionally may qualify for merit aid, if she can EVER take the ACT or SAT. And she is applying for scholarships that may cover even more on the tuition-side. All this to say, we have tuition covered. We originally (pre-income disaster) had not intended to file the FAFSA if she chose this route. With tuition being mostly covered, we were in a position of being able to cover her living expenses, books, and other costs between her savings and our out-of-pocket contributions. We are no longer able to do this. She will either have to get financial aid to cover living expenses or live at home. She does not want to live at home. We would also prefer she not. Since the FAFSA will be based on 2019 tax filings, it will not accurately reflect our current financial situation. I understand there are additional forms we can submit to show the change in income. Before we even bother..... Can students take out loans for living expenses only? If dd's tuition is fully covered by benefits and/or scholarships, can she still seek financial aid for living expenses only? Does it matter if she lives in campus housing versus off-campus housing? We don't want to bother with the FAFSA circus if it is not going to help her.

If that's the case, I'm afraid there is nothing you will be able to do to solve this issue. Turning around a picky eater who craves junk food is difficult enough in the best of situations. If half of the parenting team is actively and purposely undermining the effort, there is little chance of success. This is not a picky-eater parenting issue. This is a partner issue between you and your dh.

If those are tomatillos, you have almost everything for salsa verde. Ge easy on the hot peppers (which is what I am assuming the red things are), they look very spicy. If those are ground cherries.....I cannot help you. Ha ha!

I have toyed with the bucket idea. Do you find off-gassing to be a problem? I have tried storing grains in big rubbermaid bins, more for animal protection than moisture. We found the grains often tasted/smelled like plastic. It also did not prevent/contain pantry moths. A sealable bucket system would be the ticket if there is no smell. I assume someplace like a Gordon food store would have food grade buckets? I have a bunch of Subway pickle buckets but try as I might, I cannot get the pickle stink out of the bucket!

I actually borrowed the Tattlers. So, I am going to return them. They were new and the person I borrowed them from basically wanted me to test drive them for her and if they worked she planned to use them next year once I was done with them. The only person I know who uses them successfully uses them exclusively so she does not have any normal ones to trade with. I was pretty excited to try them as lid prices have been increasing over the recent years and I'd love to save that cash and waste. But. I am a Tattler failure. I got 1 of 12 to seal after multiple attempts. It really could be my jars. It is just so odd that my seal rate in general is so low. I'm pretty exacting in all things so it is not like I am skipping steps or being sloppy. Thanks for Facebook, I did successfully "harvest" about 100 lids locally from everyone I know who had any to spare but I have for sure tapped out that supply. And I had about 40 leftover from last year. I only need another 60 or so and those are coming. I just need to be patient. I owe lids all over town! It never occurred to me to panic-buy lids. My freezer is packed full with summer produce and bulk grains but I am quite sure something will work out. At the very least, I think I can make my tomato sauce and keep it in the fridge/coolers until my package arrives with more lids.

At least it is not just me!

Yep. And even if you are willing to pay that much, which I was, the delivery dates are waaaay out there. I did order a larger lot for almost-normal prices off of Amazon just to be able to "pay back" the lids I owe all over town and the estimated delivery date is December.

This is an option I am considering, for sure!