LOL, that exactly sums up what I was trying to say in a much wordier way.

Other -- Both my mom and MIL were very local to us. Both let us know they were available for anything/everything we needed. But we told them we were pretty sure we'd be fine, but we'd let them know if we needed anything. And we were fine. Even though I had an emergency c-section with oldest and a scheduled one with youngest neither delivery was a hugely big deal. DH and I are extremely well organized, he was able to take a few days off after each birth, and we had no need for extra help. I don't want to vote "no help at all" because that sounds like they weren't willing or able or were ineffective. We just didn't need any help. Now where the grandmas were truly lifesavers was later on, when we were trying to juggle two littles and (for example) one was sick and needed lots of tending or doctor visits, and especially the times when all four of us were down with something. They stepped up like champs then and any other times we needed and asked for specific help.

An increasing sense of calm and overall feeling of "things will work out, one way or another" while having much less of a need to try to control how they work out. More of a sit-back-and-watch feeling. It's not exactly the same "don't give a damn" feeling you're talking about (which yes, is great) but more of a sense of knowing that both good and bad things happen, and they pass, and more good and bad things happen, repeat, repeat. So no need to get too worked up about things.

I totally understand, Scarlett. I live with multiple chronic illnesses. DH has stage IV cancer. The things some people do drive me absolutely batty--wackadoodle ways of eating or "cleanses" to people thinking an animal dewormer is a better choice to cure/treat their cancer than things that actually have solid, proven results and a zillion other things. But OTOH I also understand the feeling of loss of control that a chronic or life threatening/life limiting diagnosis brings. Trying wackadoodle diets or "woo" cures gives back some of that sense of control to some people. I don't really understand it, but I do try to be patient and understanding. It's hard sometimes, but in the end--it's their life. They get to make their own choices, no matter how ridiculous or nonsensical or utterly catastrophic they seem to others. In your shoes I think the best approach is to either be quietly supportive or "pass the bean dip."

Hugs, @mum. I'm glad you're (hopefully) finally getting some answers.

I don't remember much changing in the way we ate during my entire childhood/teenage years, so that was easy to remember. But remembering how much and what type of movement I was doing in a specific year--that's hard, because it did change a lot.

I really can't remember. I think that was in the time range I was morphing from little kid type games (running around in the woods, mostly) into a lot of bike riding. I'm sure I was outside doing a significant amount of something when the weather was decent. And there would have been PE in school. No walking to/from school or to a distant bus stop, it picked up right at our house.

Reading through the responses has made me realize that we probably ate out a lot more than many on here. This was during the 60's and 70's. I have no memory of a time when we didn't go out to eat at least once a week, and I'm pretty sure several more times wasn't unusual. And we weren't at all unusual in our family or among my friends' families. It was normal.

1974. No significant budget constraints. Breakfast—Anything from cold cereal (Cornflakes or Raisin Bean, usually) to eggs, bacon/sausage/ham, grits, canned biscuits or toast. Sometimes sausage gravy and canned biscuits. L’Eggo waffles. My brother loved Pop Tarts but I don’t believe I’ve ever eaten one. Lunch—Whatever the school served. I don’t remember much except it was never very good. I probably didn’t eat much. At home—sandwiches or leftovers. Dinner—Some sort of meat with a starch and usually multiple veggies, either commercially canned or fresh from the garden, depending on the season. My mother loved to bake so there was always cake or pie and store bought ice cream for dessert or snacking any time we wanted, and as much as we wanted. Fruit was always available, but mostly apples and bananas. Sometimes pears and oranges.

We have some inexpensive ones from Target and Walmart. We use them mostly for keeping smaller things organized--socks, underwear, charging cables mostly. We don't find them all that useful for larger items.

This is exactly what I did when DS did study abroad--added him as an authorized user to my Capitol One card, and he had his debit card.

The last big snow I remember was in early December 2018. That's very early for us to get snow, and we got close to a foot, which is a LOT for us. The drifts at our garage doors were 17" deep. I don't think we've had more than a dusting since then.

When I was younger I'd get a similar type of pain several times a year. Mine was really bad, almost a bring-you-to-your-knees kind of thing, but it was over very quickly. An entire incident would be thirty seconds or less, with just some minor lingering pain for a few more minutes. I never found out what triggered it, and it hasn't happened to me in many years now. I hope she feels better already.

I know someone who had the same experience. She made it until 80 with no BP issues at all and then . . . boom. Seemingly out of the blue she needed multiple medications to control it.

It also counts stand minutes, or at least mine does. But you need to be moving your arms a certain amount for it to be able to detect stand time. Which seems kind of weird. I’ve noted when pushing a shopping cart it gets my steps but seems to miss a lot of stand time. Which again is kind of weird. But stand hours is a different metric from stand minutes.

I really don’t do any formal exercise other than stretching and a daily dog walk. I rarely do anything strenuous—with RA and lots of OA I just can’t do that stuff now. But I move a lot. Like I’ve never had any trouble getting way more than 10k steps a day just from my normal activity. ETA: And I average about 180 minutes of stand time a day, which I think is probably a fairly large underestimate.

I'm trying to figure out how you achieve that? I'm short, old, and only had that ten pounds I needed to lose (took me 18 weeks to lose that, FWIW), but my maintenance intake is around 1400-1500 calories a day. I have no idea how anyone would manage to achieve a 1200 calorie a day deficit unless they're not eating at all? Please don't do that! Is it possible you're overestimating your maintenance calorie needs? I think your meds probably are making it very difficult. But also -- how you wear your watch and having the appropriate settings in it (current weight, height, age, etc.) really do matter. But I'm assuming you've got all those set correctly, and update your weight as you lose?

Mine seems fairly accurate. If anything I think it under estimates my energy expenditure just a bit. I’ve lost a little over ten pounds in the last few months, so I’m judging by that.

A dissolvable “sheet” of detergent. It can take the place of liquid or powder detergent or pods. I’ve never used them, mostly because the reviews I’ve read haven’t seemed very good at all. I love the concept, and would absolutely try something that got good reviews.

Some reading stats from WaPo (gifted link)

South Carolina, not North Carolina.

I haven't heard anything about it. When I do a Google search of "cat vaccine shortage usa" all the hits I get are in Australia. The US FDA site doesn't list any shortage of vaccines under "current animal drug shortage" but IDK if vaccines are included in that list. I'd think they would be?

Oh, we traveled (domestically) an absolute ton while I was a kid. But almost all of it was related to my parents' business. But there were very few vacations, and I'm sure the idea of taking us skating or bowling or anything like that simply for entertainment never crossed their minds.

I believe under the ACA 30 hours a week is considered full time and requires employer provided health insurance. But I could be wrong.

Same. I can count on one hand the times I can remember an adult doing anything for the sole purpose of entertaining kids. Mostly those times were my aunt taking her kids, my brother and me to a movie. I can't say that other families didn't do more because I don't have any memory of that. But I know mine didn't. Yep. I remember quite a few kids getting into quite a lot of trouble, and in hindsight I feel sure boredom played a big part in that. Kids will figure out something to do when they're bored, but it won't always be something productive or positive. Of course some of that comes back to supervision or lack thereof. I was raised when kids were pretty much left to their own devices in most every way--no expectation of parental entertaining, but also very little supervision.