Good Monday morning. Am coffeeing in an attempt to mitigate the legislatively induced jet lag. This week is going to be super busy, of course. (DS starts tennis today; I'm teaching a new crop of volunteers starting Friday.) Let's do the things!

Our local homeschooling store seems to be doing all right, so there must be enough people around here buying books. I'm doing a mix of things myself. I hope people using computer-only curricula are having good conversations with their kids to assess what they're actually getting out of the lessons.

I volunteered. In the rain.

We do not Philmont. In local news, a certain town that has in theory been sponsoring a volunteer group for a couple of years but has in practice done almost nothing suddenly, as the group is on the verge of collapse for lack of support, wants lots of interaction with the remaining volunteers in order to publicize it (and also is putting more rules in place, one of which has provoked a couple of the few remaining volunteers to withdraw). This year is going to make or break this program. *sigh* Wish us luck. In other news, I can't figure out where ants are getting into the dining room. There are none by the windows. At least it's not raining today. Blue sky, huzzah!

I don't like surprises of any kind.

I'm going to vote between grocery pick-up and making dinner. I had to look up a whole bunch of people this weekend and write names down on a piece of paper. There will be 10 questions on my ballot. We started reading Fahrenheit 451 today. The technology is on point, making it a different experience from the first time I'd read it.

We don't buy their products (or their competitors') anyway. But I ate breakfast cereal every morning as a kid, and even with milk, it doesn't have enough calories per serving to be a full meal even for a child. If I wanted it as an affordable dinner (supposing it didn't contain ingredients we can't have), I would not pay full price for any name brand. DS alone would need 4+ servings a night. Breakfast here is any combination of leftovers from dinner; fruit, such as bananas and clementines; and Bob's Red Mill buckwheat groats with cinnamon, raisins, and pecans.

Making my own soap is probably at least twice as expensive as buying cheap soap; I'd use up the ingredients I have and then switch to anything unscented from the store. I buy unscented liquid Castile soap for body wash, dish soap, and general cleaning--detergents would be cheaper. We already don't drink alcohol (ETA: or soda) and rarely use meat. I totally buy $7 loaves of bread, because that's how much good gluten-free bread costs, but we're not eating sandwiches regularly. The good tortillas are over $1 each. I could definitely buy cheaper rice, but a lot of our food costs more because we need it explicitly marked gf unless it's whole, uncut produce or eggs in their shells. I'd sooner have DH stop buying eggs than buy cheaper ones. We don't go to restaurants much, maybe once a month, and we drink water with the meal. I take breaks from coffee sometimes because of the cost and also because it's the majority of my sugar intake. (I buy fair trade coffee plus organic sugar plus the plant milk.) I'd stop entirely if needed, but it wouldn't be enough to pay any of our actual bills. I know DH has a streaming subscription or two he could dump. I was too cheap to continue SiriusXM in my car, and he didn't even bother using it during the free trial in his. My main hobby is reading library books and loafing about on the internet. 🤷‍♀️ I could make sure not to spend any money on volunteer stuff. I'd probably lose money by not renewing Plan to Eat, since it's the only meal planning/grocery shopping system I've been able to make work. That's the only app I pay for. I could stop paying for composting service and throw more in the trash. That would net me probably $35 a month after buying plastic trash bags. It would feel weird for a while, I'm sure. I'd do as much as I could of the above before abandoning the family we sponsor or eliminating my already-small church contribution. Then we'd be down to DS's extracurriculars, which I'd invite him to pay for out of his savings sooner than cutting. Moving would be a net loss unless we found cheap housing in a remote area.

Win: The local homeschool store had a clearance sale today. I got a great deal on a WWS 1. May your weekend also be winful!

Good leapin' morning to you all. school make beans finish laundry exercise emails clean cook dinner appt./pick up groceries

I keep a budget line each for "curriculum and supplies" (which also includes standardized testing), "outside classes," and my child's two main extracurriculars (one of which is a fixed amount every four weeks). I try to add each month knowing I will want to nail things down in late winter. As I pick a resource, I make a note of how much it will cost and when. I'm generally paying out of it in chunks from March through June.

Good morning, ITT!

I abandoned sponges, which don't seem to stay clean and usable very long (humid environment), in favor of crocheted cotton dishcloths. These do fine in the washer and dryer and hold up for years. They're just a rectangle of single crochet. I use a nylon-bristled brush for cast iron, and sometimes a stainless steel scrubber (not the kind with soap embedded).

It's needed if you ever want to take a Lyft/Uber or a ride from anyone; and helpful if you want to travel, such as flying somewhere and/or renting a car. Most states' car seat requirements go up to 8 years/80 pounds, whichever comes first. If you have a quick walk or subway ride to the pediatrician/urgent care and no plans to leave town for several years, it could work. Less than 10% of the US population lives in the 10 largest cities, though. In my city, as with most that boomed after 1970, you would have to select your neighborhood with extreme care and pay accordingly.

iChurched. I don't bake bread nowadays. I'm cold. I think I'll put some shoes on and Do Things.

Plastic. I bought it from a restaurant supply store. My #1 requirement was size--I wanted it to fit in the dishwasher.

Good morning. I hope you have a great Friday.

Right. Did AT&T exercise due care? Did they break any FCC rules? Should there be further consequences for them? This is what the FCC will be looking at.

AT&T's own official Twitter account was the source of this information.

AT&T admits they broke it themselves during planned maintenance. https://www.local3news.com/local-news/update-at-t-says-cellular-outage-caused-by-planned-maintenance/article_91299ef6-d170-11ee-9bf0-5b3714db25e4.html It's pretty consequential for customers when their maintenance doesn't go according to plan.

We're not affected. T-Mobile in the Southeast.

I make complicated information accessible and offer different mental lenses for looking at common issues.

Good morning. ✅ school (review week) ✅ Make lunch. ✅ laundry ✅ call re: appt. ✅ mopping/cleaning ✅ exercise ✅ Canva: next challenge event cover Make dinner early.

Waitlisted for the STEM program 😕 so *some* work at the CC is probably more important.

He's theoretically in 10th now, so I would be placing him in 10th again next year to maintain DE eligibility.