CCs vary tremendously. I knew my kids were never going to do DE at our CC for anything other than a strictly-for-fun class, because most of their academic courses are not college level (they do have some great healthcare pathways). They did DE at one of the local universities. Having an agreement with state universities doesn't necessarily mean anything; a lot of kids have a rough adjustment to university after spending one or two years at our CC. Looking at syllabi and texts used can help you judge, along with listening to local chatter. I personally think that having a large number of DE students in class who are 16 (or even younger) makes it much harder to keep the class at a true college level - partially because the discussion isn't likely to be at that higher level, and partially because very few teachers feel like they can truly hand out a lot of D's and F's, even when they are merited, so they adjust expectations.

They both involve cameras looking inside your private parts, so you weren't too far off!

Does it aggravate your dh if you give warnings every now and again? If he's okay-ish with it, I'd just do it, marital partners get to create their own etiquette, lol. I think my dh just knows that life is easier if he lets me warn him about the blue car that's drifting out of its lane. Does the car have any driver assistance features like lane keeping assist, brake alert, road departure warning? If it doesn't, it's something you should seriously consider when buying the next car. It might make you feel better if the car tells him to brake, lol. Or go all out and get a Tesla with autopilot! Our last Uber driver had one and used it on the Florida interstate, it was amazing and I was extremely jealous. Lane changes, braking, everything was very smooth. Yep. On many interstates, an attempt to leave a lot of distance will just result in cars quickly passing you and filling that distance, if you're even able to create a lot of distance to begin with. I think it's really hard to change your driving style, though. For speeding, you can set cruise control, but the best time to change lanes is very subjective.

That's pretty much how I make it - Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage, and just a small amount of flour, enough to dust across the sausage in the pan (no measuring needed this way, because if you cook a bigger amount in a bigger pan, you are automatically adding more flour). We like our sausage crumbles to be really small, so I use one of those plastic meat mixer/chopper things with the pinwheel blades at the bottom. They go by different names but you can look up the Pampered Chef Mix n Chop to see what it looks like. You want a sturdy one, not a thin one. I do add a bit of cajun seasoning as well.

I do not know what kind of crack they put in it, but the lure of plastic cheese is strong. Or roast gravy, my personal favorite when I do an add-in. I'm in the deep south and never had cheese grits until I grew up, but I do like them. There's really no cheese that I've found to be NOT good in grits. If you like the cheese, you will like the cheese in grits. Also, anyone who has only had white grits really needs to try yellow grits. Much more flavorful!

At least a week.

It's supposed to be hard. If it was easy, everyone would do it. A slight mangling of Tom Hanks' lines in A League of Their Own, most often said in reference to someone saying that homeschooling is hard 😂 along with There's no crying in homeschool!

When I know that they have room for it and are happy to build a collection, I will buy nice non-board, non-baby books. Fairy tales, myths, classics. I also like to give books that are specific to the area they live in, referencing local stories, places, traditions.

People used chamber pots before the invention of indoor plumbing, but I'm still over here flushing away. Ayup, I'd be remaking the entire bed from scratch every morning, and I do not have that level of dedication.

Of course. There's a reason the phrase "too much of a good thing" exists.

I had the white unicorn standing on his rear legs against a dark background, lol

🤣🏎️

This vintage sticker book flip through video is oddly relaxing.

Definitely don't just hope for the best. It's less about your son paying rent and more about being owner-occupied. The mortgage and the insurance are two separate issues. Dig up your mortgage agreement, and it will tell you if there is an owner-occupied clause, and if it's for a specific amount of time (sometimes it's really short). Check your mortgage. If there's an owner-occupied clause, it might have expired years ago. If you refinanced and the mortgage is kind of new, they still might approve you to rent it to your son with no changes. The only thing that matters is your specific mortgage agreement.

Certainly I would leave a seventh-grader alone for a couple of hours, but I wouldn't leave them home alone for a couple of hours every day or several times a week, for a few reasons. One, that's a big chunk of the homeschooling day for him to be self-teaching and working independently and just alone in general. If you can go very early morning, that would alleviate that to some extent. Two, I think knowing that they have a reliable amount of ongoing time without supervision, whether it's every single day or three times a week, is a mighty temptation for tweens and teens. Especially one who doesn't want to be doing his schoolwork, and especially one who won't have a sibling there to potentially narc him out. My third, and possibly slightly-crazed reason, is that I never wanted anyone to be able to figure out that my kid was going to alone every Tuesday and Thursday from 11-2, or whatever. Is this a specialty gym for the sport, like a gymnastics gym? If it's only ten minutes away, is there a reason you can't just go home sometimes? If it would be daily, or several times a week, I'd want to mix it up a bit. Sometimes he stays home alone, sometimes you drop dd off and come home, sometimes he comes with and maybe the two of you do some Starbucks schooling.

Your insurance broker isn't positive? He should certainly be able to find out. There are a lot of things at play here. If you charge someone rent, they are renters, even if you would be living in the home. That means their belongings and their liabilities aren't covered by your policy; they need their own. Because you are not related, you will not be covered on your boyfriend's standard policy, you would have to be added to it (which some insurers will do and others will not). Otherwise, you need renters insurance with decent liability coverage. For the insurance, start by reading your policy. Standard language is that you need to inform them, in writing, of any changes to occupancy. If something like a fire occurs, they are almost certain to find out occupancy has changed, and they will deny coverage under concealment. For everyone to be adequately covered, you will likely need landlord insurance (because you can't be covered both under your homeowners and your boyfriend's, or renters at the boyfriend's). But the insurance company will tell you for sure, just give them all of the information. If there's a mortgage, I'm not sure how important owner-occupied language is if you've been paying it for years.

Do it anyway. If he wants to fix it, he takes it down when he's ready to fix it and not before. If he likes bare walls, he needs to say so, and y'all can come to a reasonable agreement - I decorate the walls in the dining room, you decorate the walls in the den, and so on.

She also can't be alone for too long, though.

Probably not, but, interestingly, I used to have allergic reactions to mosquito bites (not anaphylactic) and I'm also allergic to sulfa meds. I have a fair number of allergies and sensitivities, though.

This is worth doing, but my stubborn baby had strong bottle refusal from the first attempt, which was on the second day of her life, lol. She also spit out every pacifier known to man (we got different ones as gifts). Apparently, she thought any kind of rubbery taste was disgusting. I just took her everywhere as well, until she started some solid food.

My husband's dad has helped us over the phone many times (retired IRS).

I would never think of teens discussing their vision of future family life, unless they come from a background that is big on early marriage.

Lumbar cushions for the chairs, comfy throws. A spare pair of shoes so your feet don't hurt from wearing the same ones all the time. A stack of facecloths to freshen up easily. Good books, for you and to read to the patient if they'd like that. Bone-conducting headphones are great, because they are unobtrusive and don't block surrounding sound. Ask someone to bring washed (and cut, as needed) fruit and vegetables to the room. This is a great assignment when someone says to let them know if you need anything: not hard, not expensive, not time-consuming, but very helpful to you. The same goes for actual food: thanks for asking, would you be able to drop off a po-boy or something and give me a break from hospital food? When I'm the person trying to help, I'm always super-happy to do that, because again it's easy but also helpful. If appropriate, ask people to visit for short periods of time. Like ten to twenty minutes, not an hour. Short visits break up the monotony, and don't dwindle into awkwardness and an inability for the visitor to semi-cheerful. The only people who should make long visits are those who are willing to sit with the patient while you go get coffee and walk outside to make sure the sun is still there. Sometimes I think that hospital psychosis doesn't apply just to the patients . . .

Those #sadbeigechildren are everywhere.

Some Christian lifestyle books and social media accounts do talk about it specifically, and it's preached in the pulpit. But I'm sure much of the teaching is informal: girls are told to watch their tone and/or keep sweet when they don't talk that way, and get approval when they do talk that way. What churches or denominations would you describe as fundamentalist but not patriarchal? People are not judging Katie Britt based on her speech; they are judging her for a (very bad) performance in which she did not use her usual voice and speech patterns. Compare clips and it's abundantly clear. Except it is not at all limited to followers of Gothard. No, it's because you're not familiar with her usual voice and speech patterns. Watch her speak in a few other contexts and you will see the difference. People don't have issues with her actual voice, they have issues with her obviously and purposefully changing her voice and speech patterns for this speech. And, related to this, Katie Britt intended to change her voice and speech patterns as a coded dog whistle for certain listeners, but obviously overshot her mark by a mile, lol. While I'm over here yelling "fundie baby voice!!" before the third sentence. Katie Britt was a practicing attorney before she became a senator. She has given many, many speeches. While I'm sure she was coached on this particular speech, I think the breathiness, the near-tearfulness, and the wide eyes were all just as purposeful as giving the speech sitting at a kitchen table. It just didn't work.