Yes. She is. Psychology is one of her special interests, and she will study it in college. So she is actually grappling with the things that she has studied and read about. It’s completely different to experience it vs reading about it. She’s actually taking an AP psych class at this co-op this year. I think there’s more to it than that though. She’s very spiritual.

Today she said, “What did I do to deserve to live another day? Why do I get to still be here?” My heart.

Keep making magical. It can take a long time for kids to acquire a taste for something different. I really do think it’s healthy to be adventurous in the kitchen. Keep trying to broaden their horizons. When all of my kids lived at home, I could do two types of taco meat and there still wouldn’t be waste. That way the traditionalists could have their basic taco meat, but they could ((try)) the more adventurous tacos. 🙂 Shrimp tacos with coleslaw are my favorite, but I can’t eat them any more. I’m allergic. 😞 I can still have fish tacos. Pickled red onions have the sweet factor. There are lots of recipes. It’s just vinegar, sugar, splash of water to cut the acidity if necessary. That’s it. I usually sub stevia with good results. Cucumbers are good pickled in the same way. My kids always loved when I made chicken fajitas. I’d marinate boneless chicken breasts and grill them. Yum. I think that needs to go back into my rotation. 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration.

thank you for praying. I decided to call a counselor one of my older dds used to see--years ago. She is accepting new patients again. I really think this will be a good fit, and dd is definitely willing. Dd talked about this classmate earlier. Good memories. Otherwise, she has been playing her guitar all day. We are praying for the family. Praying for the teachers at co-op, too. Tuesday will be hard. They are having classes today, and the admins have said they will be available to talk, cry, or whatever the students need. Dd only has classes on Tuesdays.

@Hannah I saw your edit. We have the same terminology.

I do not unfortunately. I will call her psychiatrist tomorrow, but I seriously doubt I could get her in with someone that quickly. I will specifically ask her dr about this when I call. Our public schools probably have resources but we homeschool. Thank you for the ideas.

Thank you. I really appreciate that perspective. I agree with that. I certainly don't want to force anything. I'm just sad. Time for me to go to bed. Going to spend some time meditating and praying. I do appreciate and covet prayer for her. TY.

deleted. just say a prayer for my youngest dd. thanks. She's hurting due to death of classmate.

Decided to delete details. Pray for my youngest dd who has experienced a lot of loss over the past few years. Pray that we would find a good counselor for her. We have tried a couple and it just hasn't been helpful. Not dd's fault. It's just hard to find good counselors. I'm better qualified than dd's last counselor. Seriously. But she needs someone other than me to process this stuff. If you are feeling extra generous pray for good friends for dd. One good friend. Okay...maybe just one mediocre friend who doesn't do her harm maybe.

Well guess who is getting ads for Halara in her feed now ? 😂 Now I understand. The pants look really cute on those models!

I really agree with this. If we were in a "have to move" situation, this is exactly what I would do. This is what we did when we sold a condo (student housing), and it worked out really well for us. That realtor was excellent, and she had a handyman who did a lot of work for her. She also had contacts for cheap carpet replacement, etc because she also managed some student rentals. We really got lucky with her. The negotiating process, everything...She was really on her game. I hope when the time comes, I can find someone as good here. We haven't been so lucky in the past.

I think a lot of this is really location dependent. It sounds like our house is in similar condition to yours, and we would like to sell. So I'm very interested in hearing what others say about this. We have not brought in a realtor yet to consult. I'm kinda dreading it. I feel like we would definitely replace the damaged pieces of siding. And redo the deck. We have actually just decided to stay put and wait until we can get the ALL the work done before we list. We don't ((have)) to move. We are able to diy a lot of stuff and do it well. My husband is very handy with electrical, plumbing, flooring, etc. It is just finding the time. He technically knows how to fix the siding and deck, but I don't want him to. I am scared in this current market to list a house that is not "move in ready". We have started going to open houses, and I'm noting what puts me off--what makes me think--I don't want this house because... x,y,z. Then I come back to my house and realize...yeah, we need to fix some of these things before we list. I want the overall vibe to be..."this is a well maintained, trouble free house". LOL as if such a thing exists. A couple of years ago with bidding wars and people waiving inspections...it wouldn't have mattered. But some inventory is sitting right now--at least in my area. I don't want that to be my house because it never goes well. The longer it sits...the harder it becomes to sell. And for less $$. I really hope to avoid that. It has happened to us before and it's not just the financial toll--it's emotionally exhausting and stressful.

@SHP that video... It didn't say anything that I didn't already know. But thank you for sharing your perspective. 🙂

I'm not "so set". But if I can for the same price as a Lomi, then I will...because it's another way to reduce waste going to the landfill for one thing. And bones and eggs shells and seafood shells add calcium and other minerals-- the more variety, the better to feed my soil. I have very poor soil, and I've struggled to improve it. Trying to get good soil for raised beds hasn't been easy either. If I add the dehydrated, ground up meat to my worm bin (as I mentioned above), the worms WILL fully compost it. What ever the worms consume will become "castings" which is a fully composted material that will not magically "rehydrate" into a meat product in my garden. I think if I can find one secondhand for cheap, it is a worthwhile experiment for my purposes. Maybe I'll be disappointed. Maybe it will be more trouble than its worth. Maybe it will work better than I expect. I read a lot of the "low star" reviews today to try to get more details. That helped.

Good article. I’m definitely intrigued. Currently looking for a secondhand Vitamix. I get that it’s a glorified coffee grinder/dehydrator, but there’s no other way I could incorporate meat scraps in my compost. That plus it would accelerate the whole process meaning more finished compost by spring. I’m really skeptical of most commercial fertilizers and soil products now. Last year I bought some supposedly organic potting mix, and I found broken up pieces of pencil with blue paint. Not the end of the world, but what else are they putting in there? I don’t trust that Black Kow and other manures don’t have Grazon in them. I’m so glad I checked this thread before going to bed. I was thinking…I bet EM-1 would make the process go even faster (microbial inoculant). And I remembered I had 2 gallons of the stuff on my back porch. I’m lucky it hadn’t frozen. Anyway, the EM-1 would help with any smells when it “reconstitutes” in the worm bin. Or in the compost pile.

that makes sense! I wouldn't want to tear the thing up, so... I can see how it might be more trouble than its worth--to do bones. About the meat... I would definitely add it to my worm bin, and they would break it down into mature compost that wouldn't attract flies. Well, sometimes the flies get in my worm bin even now--without me putting meat into it. I just have to be careful to cover my scraps with shredded paper. That usually keeps the flies from finding a place to lay eggs.

which model foodcycler do you have? The one I was looking at said you can add small cooked bones from poultry. It may only be the newest model--the Eco-5--that will take bones. It was in a CNN review/comparison that I read that. --compared to Lomi.

I looked up the Halara website. I think its kinda like Temu, Shein, and other China based clothing sites. I clicked on some joggers, and there is zero info about fabric content or washing instructions. Maybe I missed it, but I really tried to find it.

Unless you really need the watch feature... I really, really like my Oura Ring. And it seems to be very accurate and consistent. Bonus is that I can wear it while swimming. The last two times I have been sick, my Oura ring knew before I did. I got alerts that my body temp was elevated. It was a few hours before my regular thermometer picked up that I had a fever. It allowed me to isolate myself before I was really showing symptoms.

Never heard of them. I think it's interesting how FB decides which ads to show us. I get a lot of ads for Pact clothing. So if anyone has any feedback on either brand, I'm listening. 🙂 I'm looking for some warm, nicer looking sweats. Or some comfy, but not sloppy looking athleisure. I'm picky though. I don't like poly/fleece.

I see them for sale on Marketplace sometimes, and it's tempting. The newest Vitamix holds 5L. I might start a sinking fund for one of those. We compost leaves and stuff in the backyard. Right now I toss a lot of my veggie scraps into that pile. I also have a small worm bin on my back porch. The worms are kinda frustrating. All of it is a very slow process. I know the Lomi and Vitamix don't produce a completely finished compost. I was thinking I could add it to my worms and let them finish it off. One of the things that is particularly appealing to me is being able to compost meat scraps and even some small bones. Just seems like it would make really good fertilizer. If you have one, do you like it? I am particularly interested in the quality of the compost compared to manure or other commercial products.

That's good to know!

I’m not hyper focused on salt. I’m focusing on all of it. She mentioned the brand of salt I use, so I wanted to know more. As I later commented, I had misunderstood her first comment and thought there was something wrong with Redmond salt. ._______________________________ I’m not as worried about—say—meat vacuumed packed in plastic. I know exactly where 90% of my meat comes from, what the animals have eaten, etc. I’m sure those animals are consuming some nano plastics since it’s in rain, but that’s about the best I can do. I can’t see nano plastics infiltrating a roast in my freezer. I usually rinse the meat before prepping. I don’t drink bottled water/beverages often, but I’m going to start looking for glass and aluminum options as an alternative. The only thing that I do that I worry about is sous vide. If I didn’t have chronic health issues, I probably wouldn’t be as concerned, but that (sous vide) is something I need to reconsider.

I just reread one article, and it said they theorize that some of the nano plastics in bottled water came from the reverse osmosis membrane that filters out contaminants. lol what? I guess RO is still better than no filtration at all. Trading pharmaceuticals and heavy metals for nano plastics…

I am so sorry. That is really a lot. Very stressful. I will pray.