They do have a planned protocol in place and the group is only 4 people total. The 3 that are not my household member live together already. I'm not thrilled about it but the people involved are all going to be much further exposed when FTF classes start at their university just a few weeks later so I am trying to keep it in perspective. This discussion is likely to happen again in my household should someone have any sort of symptoms after the semester starts and we have to decide what to do about attending class. Sigh.

This is what I used for my homemade masks and they have held up fine to many washings and dryings on hot (for both). It's the elastic that hasn't faired so well and also the part that is not comfortable. I could certainly make more with a better system but at this point, I have made so many masks for ourselves and others that now that they are readily available to buy I just want to order some and call it done! I am thinking I could add the paperclips to the Old Navy masks if the nose gaps too much.

This is where I need a reality check. I know it is OK to cancel but of course would prefer not to. Just want to make sure not cancelling if headache is gone tomorrow would generally be considered OK....since I don't feel I can think very objectively about this anymore.

I agree, which is why we cancel for sure if headache persists into another day. Just wondering what to do if it goes away by morning AND person remains completely fine up until event is to begin. It is already much better than it was yesterday so I feel like this is a decision we will need to make.

Yes, the entire group was exposed to this person who tested positive 6 weeks ago. All of the people in the group, all others who had been in contact with the person, and my entire family tested 4 weeks ago. Everyone, about 30 people in all, tested negative as did the original person (two negatives, actually), all around 3-4 weeks ago. I am not so concerned about that exposure but more that she had zero symptoms but somehow was positive....making me much more sensitive to ANY symptoms.

Yeah. If the headache continues, we will cancel for sure.

I agree with you but there are two things that give me pause. The first is the eye ache. They report is feels like their eyes do when they have a fever but very mild. The second is that we know of and actually had to get tested because of a person involved with the group that was 100% asymptomatic but tested positive several weeks ago. It was a routine screening. So now I am super paranoid.

Please don't quote as I will delete later. Thanks everyone for your input! Update - The person in question still has an eye ache this morning so we are in the process of cancelling all of the plans.

For those that have used the Old Navy masks, do you find they conform to the nose well despite not having a wire?

I feel like we must be washing masks too often? I cannot imagine hand washing each time. We only wear them once, then they get washed. I do know about converting ear types to behind the head types but dh has one that is meant to do both and it is pretty slick. But it was $20 so not reasonable seeing as I need to buy 5-10 per person so I am not doing laundry every day. None of us wear glasses so a nose piece is a plus. I can attach nose pieces if necessary but would prefer not to if I can avoid it.

I know there have been posts on this already, but with things moving so fast, I am hoping to get some updated recommendations. We have been using homemade masks up until now. But dd will be taking FTF classes as well as working and I will also be back onsite for my job soon. This means we will both need to be wearing masks for many hours at a time. Our homemade masks are not very comfortable and are not holding up well to frequent washings. We are also in a location with a mask mandate that many people ignore. So in addition to comfort and cost considerations, we would also like something that provides some protection to the wearer. What out there that: 1. Is machine washable/dry-able. 2. Fastening can be switched between behind ear/back of head. 3. Provides some protection to the wearer. 4. Is reasonably priced. 5. Cuteness is a plus as this involves a teenage girl:)

Lifetime worth. Ha ha! We use family cloth and only have TP on hand for guests. I think we have 4 rolls. With no guests and none in the foreseeable future, we are good. It was nice to avoid the whole TP craze.

As non-handy people living in a 130+ yo house, I don't think I'd do it again at this stage of my life. We knew we had some major projects when we bought and were prepared financially. But things changed and a job loss put a halt to those plans. Luckily, most things could be held off for some time and we have been chipping away ever since. I am very hesitant to address some cosmetic issues. Our main bathroom was a cosmetic disaster when we moved in. The toilet was ancient and the top and sink were cheap to begin with and very stained. And the floor tile was cracking. That was at the top of the list. The toilet broke and had to be replaced almost immediately. That is when we discovered that the tile was cracking because everything was rotted underneath the floor. 16 years later, I still have an ugly tub and sink and cracked tile because roofs and plumbing are higher priority than ripping out the entire bathroom to address the rot....which is likely to be even more extensive than we think. I did at least paint the walls and cabinets to make it a little less nasty looking but I still apologize to any house guests as everything looks dirty no matter how much I scrub. And probably always will..... I do love our house. It is perfect for us in size, layout, and location. I am glad we are here. But knowing what i know now, I don't have the energy to start where we did again.

Does anyone know if we can leave a cancelled registration open to register for one of these? I tried calling twice but after being on hold for too long, I gave up. Dd was registered for April, then June. We have no July test sites (even without Covid) within a 2 hour drive. I don't know if I need to request a refund and start all over again for fall or if I can just leave this until he last week of July.

I just went through this with my own mother about one year ago. She has dementia and could no longer live on her own. However, she 100% refuses to move in or near either of her children. We both live very far away. She is also a hoarder and I also have a house that would never work for her needs so even if she had been willing to move in with me, we would have had many issues to resolve. We ended up moving her into assisted living in her own area. It was the least offensive of the choices we presented to her. It was no longer safe for her to stay in her home. This arrangement is VERY difficult for me as I now must manage all of her affairs from a full day's drive away but it was the closest we could get to an agreeable compromise. It is a mess. But the move was an even bigger mess. She was renting so we had to get everything out and cleaned up within a prescribed timeline. We did hire a company like Caring Transitions. It would have taken us months to do what we were able to do in a single week with their help. It was very expensive but worth every penny. But they cannot do everything and you should be aware of this. If the owner is still alive, they will not touch any kind of paperwork, computers, or any medications. I worked with my mom to identify the belongings she could take to assisted living first, then the company took everything else away leaving all of the paperwork. In my mom's case, "paperwork" was a minivan full of paper, much of it filthy! I had to sort through all of it, page by page, because important stuff was mixed in with all of the junk mail, old magazines, receipts, used tissues (I wish I were kidding), etc.... I ended up taking much of it home as I couldn't possibly sort through it all in one week. I had to rent a van to bring it home, it would not all go in our car. I stored it all in my garage and spent nearly 6 months picking away at it, one box at a time. I expected much more pushback from my mom about disposing of most of her hoard. We tried to clean out her house (at her request) about ten years ago and it was a nightmare. We made very little progress. She was taking things out of the dumpsters faster than we could put it in. The company we worked with for this last move has a ton of experience with this and suggested that we spend one day, and no more, having her select what she will keep, rather than what she will toss. The hardest part was keeping her from getting distracted. Rapid-fire yay/nay decisions proved to be most effective in our case. We boxed up and moved those items and her into her new home. She never returned to her old home after that day. I scheduled doctor's appointments and other distractions for the remainder of the week. My dh accompanied her on all of those while I supervised the house clean out. I needed to be there as there were things we missed (actually were too far buried for us to have gotten to safely) that I knew my mom would want/need and I could set them aside as we shoveled the hoard away. I am pessimistic by nature. I always expect the worst and am usually pleasantly surprised by the actual outcome. That week was successful but much worse than even *I* expected, which is saying a lot. It was probably the most physically and emotionally draining thing I have ever done. And very very dirty. Brace yourself.

I feel for you on both counts. My family drove a 1994 Mercury Sable for a few years....a lot more recently than I'd like to admit. It was my grandfather's. He was 90+ and lived with my mom. He had been in so many (minor) accidents, he could no longer get insurance. That ended his driving life. This after YEARS of my mom trying to get him to stop driving and complaining to me how stubborn and dangerous he was being. The car was old and about as ugly as they get but I LOVED that car. It was the most comfortable car I have ever owned and the backseat was larger than the state of Rhode Island. It had sat in my mom's garage for many years before we resurrected it when we had a dire need for a car. We sold it a few years ago and I still see it around town! Fast forward to now. My mom has dementia and lives in assisted living. She still drives and gets HYSTERICAL any time she even thinks we might talk about taking her car away. When that day does come, it will likely be the end of my personal relationship with my mom (I am her sole support). The staff at her facility as well as relatives on the ground report she is still a "safe" driver but I think the time is very soon. Whatever the case, I have to laugh at the irony after all of her efforts to get her father to stop driving that she sees no parallels here. Disabling the car is not going to work. She is VERY good at calling tow trucks.....often for no reason. Once she called a tow because her key fob was out of batteries and it didn't occur to her to use the actual key in the lock.

We had a no screens rule when dd was 9. This was mostly so she would not turn into a glassy-eyed zombie like many of the kids we knew had. But I never pretended this was going to be a rule when she was playing at other houses. So, really the "rule" was that we did not own a TV and dd did not own any kind of smart phone or gaming device. Nothing to discuss. And she was pretty geeked to watch the rare movie or play a video game when at a friend's. Luckily, she did not visit homes that had violent games or TV available and her friends watched screens a lot so they were usually more interested in playing *with* any kid that came to play rather than screens. So, I have no advice. But I am posting because something similar happened in my home recently. Dd had a sleepover (pre-covid) with 13 (yes, 13!) girls ranging in ages 14-18. The mother of one of the 15 yos asked me to take her daughter's phone away at bedtime. I thought she was joking and let out a snicker before I realized she was serious. I politely declined. There was no way I was going to be awake at "bedtime" and I certainly was not going to have a showdown with a 15yo I barely know over a phone rule. I told the mom to either let it go or take the phone home with her. I don't know which she did and don't really care. I knew the other 12 girls would have their phones so even if I took hers, she would have plenty of access.

I have been vegetarian for 25 years with a 5-year time when I was vegan (while pregnant and bfing). While I do currently consume dairy and eggs, I eat very little at home....which is pretty much all of the time now. I am also a BIG eater and have always had a healthy appetite. I did not feel any different, hunger-wise, while vegan. I am not much for soy, in general, but GF whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and avocados were the staples of my diet and I never felt any more hungry than normal. In fact, I would be perfectly happy to have continued indefinitely except I got lazy. It got too hard to inspect every label when out of the house, to question every server, and to tell a 3yo that birthday cake is not vegan. Get a good cookbook or two and have a variety of satiating snacks on hand at all times and I suspect you will be pleasantly surprised. As others have said, you might find that your preferences and cravings change once being vegan for a bit.

We started out with "The Program." We did the complete 4-year cycle in elementary and middle school. Then started in high school with the first two years. Dd was happy with it and so was I. The only reason that we stepped off the bus was that dd ended up taking an opportunity to attend a semester school for the fall of her junior year. This threw off her study progressions for all subjects and also changed her homeschooling preferences to be less mom-centric. The result was a switch to mostly DE and a recovery plan that meant cutting the time we had for history in general. She finished up world history via DE and we had to cram economics and government in. We are going back to our roots for US History this coming year. We won't follow "The Program" exactly as we did before but will include rhetoric and Great Books.

For pot pie, I use a roux with broth and a couple tablespoons of cashew butter. I find the cashew butter mild enough in flavor, thick enough to help thicken, and creamy. Bonus is having leftover cashew butter!

I also really don't get it. I work for the university that is our testing center. I knew WEEKS before ACT called it that our campus was not going to be open. Employees are not even allowed in campus buildings and won't be until August. So, I did know it was coming but the only other site within a four hour drive is also a university that has the same rules as ours so it was pointless to switch. Luckily, dd at least quit prepping once the April date was canned since I knew it wasn't going to happen in June either. Meanwhile our restaurants are open....which FTR, I think is really shortsighted and stupid.

I would say it could be as little as 3 hours per chapter/week if you just did the reading and discussion or as much as 10 hours per chapter/week if you did the entire projects at the end of each chapter. I wanted this to be college level for dd so she did the entire projects. Most projects have 2-3 parts and one can do only one part if time is a consideration.

Anyone know what happens if you don't reschedule for July? Do I need to call for a refund or wait until "late July" to schedule for fall sometime? We do not have a July test center within a four hour drive of our house so dd really can't take it until they do whatever they are going to do in fall. I can't tell from the email or website what exactly I am supposed to do if we are in the "Plan to test on a future test date" bucket. It seems like I can just wait and reschedule without refunding and starting all over again but I want to be sure. We are as financially destroyed as many other people and I really cannot afford to lose the money.

It is the same for AP tests. Local schools (there is only one that offers AP) won't allow homeschoolers and two hours to the next school that will allow homeschoolers....but only for the handful of tests they are already giving. We don't do AP anymore. Too stressful and expensive to travel. I am 100% done with the College Board which is why we NEED the ACT to go at some point soon.

Our local schools are not a test site for Saturday. They only offer mid-week and do not allow homeschoolers. We are geographically isolated so would have to travel 2 hours to get to a site that has Saturday testing.