We'd had that problem for a bit. DH knew he was doing that, and he kind-of liked it even though we both agree that parents shouldn't try to be their kid's friend. It was impacting DD and I's relationship. He is a good guy and didn't like that (once he eventually saw it) Then I decided to stop being the bad cop when he would be the one impacted. That changed things.

I've spent lots of time in Amusement parks. In the last two years, four trips to WDW and USF, a week or two long each. In addition to season passes to Six Flags Over Texas. So, yeah, lots of hot park days. I am also bothered a bit by clothing. As in I'll wear socks inside out if they aren't gold-toe. At home, when I'm cold I'll wear a sweat shirt inside out so no seams and the softer side is next to my skin. My absolute favorite outfit is https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CKLMKPT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 under a peasant skirt, or also called a broomstick skirt. The skirt is made from a gauzy fabric so is cooler than shorts since it keeps the sun off without holding in heat. I know you said you don't like under shorts, but I think you'd like these high quality ones. As you can see, there isn't a seam to bug you. If you go up a size, I swear you'll forget they are there. If you don't have one of these skirts they are easy to make for even non-sewers. Find some gauzy fabric 60" wide with edges that don't look too bad. The length you buy should be 2-3x your waist measurement. Sew the ends together. Fold the tube in half over a thick string, and sew the fabric onto the string, but where you aren't sewing the string. Wash and then squeeze the skirt into a tube. I'll usually hang the top end of the tube on a pants hanger, and use the strings to wrap around to keep it in the tube shape. But, the traditional method is to wrap the skirt around a broomstick. Since the selvage didn't look too bad, you can probably skip hemming.

The things you learn. I had no idea. DD is 11 so not there yet.

Food prices are going to get much worse. Gas was really high even before Ukraine. That means producing crops costs a lot more. I live in a farm area. Many of the fields around me are idle and my farm friends say they'll be idle this summer. They've calculated the cost to produce and the price they'll expect to get and then said no. Of course some will be producing, and they'll be able to still make a little money because the supply will be low. But their highly inflated costs will be in the price of food.

It is not only acceptable, it is essential. They can't swap out stuff that needs to stay with the house for cheaper stuff. If you don't have photos of how it looked, you can't prove that they did. My #1 tip of house buying, always talk with the neighbors. One, you can get an idea of how the neighborhood is. Two, they know more stuff about the house than you'll be told. They'll tell the straight scoop.

I'd talk to your parents. Ask them if they are OK with him being precisely the same in 30 years, i.e. playing video games all day in the proverbial basement. This is how those people are created. Can you blame your brother? He has a life of play and no responsibilities. He even has servants that clean up after him and provide food etc. Real life comes as a big shock when the servant/parents can no longer provide.

I gave up on soda companies about a year ago after being a major-league Diet Coke addict for decades. You might to mention to your neighbor that I like the Soda Stream Diet Root Beer. I even switched to Diet Root Beer as my default soda. It also isn't hard to make your own syrups. The nice thing for me about the Soda Stream Diet Root Beer is that they use Splenda. 99.9% of sodas in my grocery stores right now is corn syrup or nutrasweet. You can make the sodastream cheaper by buying a CO2 tank from Home Depot/Lowe's and a special hose from Amazon.

DH just got back from the grocery store and he made an interesting comment. There is an upside to the expensive meat, and it isn't that we eat less meat. The sale meat has had an awesome selection. Of course, being happy that high-quality ground beef is merely in the low $5/lb is another different thing.

I don't know if this is still true but something to look into. Also it would only work for those near a good 4-year University. When I was in college at the 4-year university, I took some of basic classes at a nearby community college while also at the University. The reason was that I didn't want to invest the time/energy into classes worthless to me. At the community college I was able to take a 'video' class which meant I only had to drive to the community college twice for each class. Once for each exam. But I was pleasantly surprised at the cost savings. Not only was the hourly tuition much lower but they didn't charge any of the stupid student fees or other extras because I was also a student at another university. That is the key part of the cost savings. At my 4-year University the other fees were much more expensive than the tuition. So, a thought might be to do the second year of CC with some classes at the 4-year, the classes being those at the start of a long chain of required classes.

I got all excited when Trader Joe's had Butter Lettuce back in stock.

That had been my philosophy during one summer vacation long drive. I had on hand, books you guys recommended to me and also all David Tennant narrated books I could cheaply get. Big mistake. One of them was titled something like "My sister on the mantle." DD was weeping in the backseat. The sister died at the start of the book and then everyone in the family fell apart. The other books were great.

Jim Dale is awesome. I wouldn't say he is the best though. My personal favorite is the dude that did the Train Your Dragon books and was the best Doctor.

There is a lot of weird stuff on Kindle Unlimited. I like an occasional romance, but I stay far away the few times I've had Kindle Unlimited.

Also, if someone was in a multi-generational household, elder care would be easier and more automatic. There also would usually have been automatic babysitting with multi-generational housing. My mother, for example, was largely raised by her grandfather. My maternal grandmother was the youngest daughter, so she never actually left the house. She married and they both lived with her father. My grandparents owned and ran a pub across the street and it wasn't a problem that they were both working since my mom had her grandfather in the house. He wasn't feeble until the end and my parents tell stories of him of when they were dating.

My Great-Aunt had her life basically destroyed by this. The expectation was that the youngest daughter was the caretaker. She was the youngest daughter and her grandmother needed to be moved every couple of hours otherwise bed sores and there were diapers. Caring for someone 24/7 leaves no time for socializing and courting. But that was OK, because the youngest daughter was supposed to be a spinster and care for everyone else. She ended up marrying the first person who asked her. He was scum. Only thing I can say good about him was that he likely didn't abuse children because a child wouldn't get close to him.

Amazon's suggestions have ZERO to do with what they think you might want. It has to do with what Amazon wants to push on you. Years ago they gave a suggestion that was equivalent to suggesting a book about Hitler being not so bad because I'd bought a book on being an Orthodox Jew. (Wasn't the exact thing, but equivalent)

I would have loved to have no Gen Ed classes to take in college. I took precisely two hours of classes that weren't required for my Physics BS, and I took 140 or 141 hours. There were some hidden required courses because they required some classes that had prereq.'s that weren't required. So, paring down to just math and physics classes would have been lovely and allowed me to intern in the summer rather than take summer classes. Could have totally made my early career much better. But, yes, it still would have taken 4 years. I also found that the Gen. Ed classes took a larger percentage of my time than they were worth to me.

I am a major-league audiobook listener. When I was a kid I listened behind my Dad who was able to get unabridged audio cassette's from the library from back when it was limited to those with sight problems. So, I've listened to a great many. I listen to almost all types of books. My absolute favorite audiobook for production was World War Z. Even if you aren't into the whole zombie thing, you need to listen to this audiobook. The narrators are major league stars and the book was written with those stars in mind, so everything about what they say matches the way the actor naturally speaks. I think only one star said No. My second favorite is Enders Game. They picked amazing narrators for that.

Thank you all! I've bought every recommendation except for the cards which seemed way to young for an 11-year-old. Thinking about this general subject, I've noticed that people with strong social skills have things easier.

The only good thing that came of it was that my parents backed me up when I talked in class. The teachers figured out that my parents no longer cared about those reports. They also noticed that their choice was to let me read or I would talk to my neighbors. They took the easy path and let me read. People are shocked when I tell them I only learned two things in that school. Well, three if you include "Authority figures can be full of ----", which has been extremely valuable.

My late elementary was silent lunches every day. The teachers would complain that we upset their tummies when we were loud. My grandmother came to have lunch with me one day and she was shocked when all the kids shushed her. We couldn't talk even at recess.

I've often pointed that out to teachers who seem to think that parents can't teach. I ask them what percentage of their training was on classroom management, and how hard would be for them to teach if they didn't have to worry about it. Then I'll also tell them about all the hand-holding that some of the curriculum does. I've learned along with DD. I used to know a guy that taught at the school where the serious troublemakers were sent. There was a cop in every classroom and the next step was jail. He said it was an amazing job because the cop handled the classroom management part.

BA has a central philosophy that you need to stretch yourself. If you get all the math problems correct, then the problems are too easy. This isn't true of most math. It might be that your older kids aren't used to that. That is something I love about BA. Kids that think they need to get everything right all the time become the classic underachievers because they don't try stuff if they think they can't get it right and quickly. Struggle is good. It could also be the level. Did the older kids take the level placement tests?

Some friends of our started homeschooling over the walking-in-line thing. They were literally next to the school playground. Their eldest son was always in trouble at school for just looking around while walking in line. They eventually trained him to stare laser-focused at the hair of the kid in front of him. It was very disturbing and when the mom realized it wasn't her son being a Boy, but the school being nuts.

Don't be put off by the comic book format of the guide. It allows them to teach something unique. That there is more than one way to solve a problem, and that sometimes the crazy idea is the quickest. The big purple monster is the one that comes up with crazy ideas that are often wrong but sometimes brilliant. Also that it is OK to be wrong. Also it is complete and very rigorous. The kids that do math competitions use this company. Back when BA2 was still coming out (meaning all the books weren't created yet) I had DD do the BA2 books that had just come out. So, she might have finished BA3C and then did BA2D. Sometimes I would see a really interesting problem and I'd ask my work neighbors to solve it. My work neighbors are computer programmers. They were always able to solve it, but they'd have to really think about it. Then I'd tell them, "This is from my daughter's second grade math" DH and I both have Physics BS which means we took enough math classes to double major in math. We love BA and are a little jealous. of DD because we wish we could have math like that. If your kids are struggling with learning the math, you might try the online version. There are videos they can watch. We love it so much, I recently looked into the Language Arts, but it seems that is In Class only.