I think this is so situational. We have lost 2 dogs and got another one 1-2 years later. My mom waited almost a decade.

This is my car camping tent: Lynx 4 person. It’s held up through a pretty tremendous storm at Mt. Mitchell in NC along with many, many fair weather camping trips. I have a couple expensive backpacking tents, but this one is great for our family when we car camp.

In my town, fast food, ice cream shop, local retail shops, rec center, grocery store. My son is 14 but works for our neighbor who owns an inflatables business and as soon as he turns 15 will also be working for a basketball league doing the game clock and book. Neighbor will hire 14 and 15 year olds but there is no set schedule, it’s all about who hires him for their events. They are pretty busy in the fall.

I vaguely remember learning to read. I was really young, around 3.5. My dad had been taught to read with a “shape method” and recognized that was a terrible technique. He had a masters in education and was told it was impossible for a 3yo to learn to read, so he used me to prove that theory wrong. He taught me phonics, I suspect I must have shown signs of being ready. Once I was reading basic words he took me to a tutor who had her PhD in education and was developing education software. She didn’t believe him when he told her I could read, and while they were meeting I starting reading her filing cabinets. She agreed to work with me and cemented those phonics lessons. What I remember was all the games we played together.

Thanks! Another mom from the team helped, it wasn’t intuitive. I did have to subscribe to each calendar.

Oh that sounds so hard and heartbreaking! I’m glad you are helping and doing what you can.

Are you allowed to bring in curriculum and do you work with the same kids every week?

Solved, thanks! —- Do any of you use the Stack Team app? Is there a way to sync the calendar with my iPhone calendar? Two of my kids’ basketball coaches are using it this year but I can’t figure out a way to combine the calendars either in the app or on my phone. My son’s schedule is pretty set. But my daughter's will likely be changing throughout the season. Together they have a ton of games over the next 4 months so I don’t want to type them into my phone calendar by hand.

14 year old dressed in a blazer, wore a stuffed shark head and had a full house hand of cards, he was “shark dressed man” 12 year old didn’t dress up. 10 year old hasn’t decided for tomorrow, he kind of wanted to be Maverick but figured there would be lots of those this year. Tonight for our church potluck he wore my hoody, drew a smiley face on a balloon, and stuffed it in the hood. He looked like a balloon head. It wasn’t really anything but it made people chuckle and that was his goal. I suggested a way we could use a helium balloon and could be “The Invisible Man” but he didn’t go for that.

I actually have several Dick King-Smith books from when our library discarded them😢. They are in a different bookcase than the rest of the kid books in my house and I hadn’t thought of them.

I feel like I’m seeing these all the time, but I don’t currently know of any. The worst culprit seems to be the local TV station. The stuff they publish online as articles are atrocious.

I’ve had good luck with Salomon and Scarpa but this is so personal. Like other mentioned, REI or your local outdoor store if they will do returns. I returned 4 pairs to my local store after trying them out, then ordered 7 pairs from REI, returning all but one. However, I’m assuming Crete is hot so I’m going to throw out a different idea. Hiking boots are usually waterproof and make my feet hot. When my feet get hot I am more prone to blisters. Many hikers these days are switching to trail runners. I prefer trail runners unless it’s really cold, really muddy, or really wet. Instead of boots, hiking poles may be a better investment. It will help you be more stable and less likely to twist your ankle. Plus it makes hiking easier on your knees. You can’t carry them on airplanes though, so if you aren’t checking a bag, ignore me. In my group of 5 hiking friends, 2 prefer boots, 2 prefer trail runners, and I’m the only one who wears both. We have hiked several hundred miles together since 2017 and only one person has ever had an ankle injury, one of the boot girls. She’s also the only one who doesn’t use poles. Anyway, just throwing out the idea.

I’ve been doing the index card underneath too, but I can see how putting it above the line might be better. It’s worth a shot anyway!

Thank you! We do a lot of buddy reading and I do the index card thing. We do lots of audiobooks and read alouds. He definitely prefers nonfiction or realistic fiction but right now he will settle for something that isn’t too simplistic. I haven’t tried Magic Treehouse, I had kind of forgotten about them, but I think that may be a good start since I know our library has them. I’m pretty sure they have the 39 Story Treehouse as well. Our library is pretty good about ordering or ILL for things that they don’t have so I’ll request some of the other books mentioned as well.

My 10 year old has finally turned a corner on reading! He’s my third child and the only one who has struggled. As you can imagine a 10 year old is not interested in most beginner books. He can read “Mr. Putter and Tabby” books easily. I keep grabbing books off the easy reading shelf at the library, but much of it is too young for him. He reads them to practice, but he wants more interesting content. We’ve read a little of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, I don’t like the main character’s attitude, but he’s doing ok reading it. My son has a pile of books he wants to read, but he still gets overwhelmed with too much text on the page, so he’s not quite ready to attack them yet. I would love some suggestions of in between books.

I’ve enjoyed the first three episodes, thanks for the recommendation!

I can’t really speak to Bombas or Kirkland since I’ve never tried them. I have several styles of Smartwool, I like my hiking styles. I dislike my trouser and no show styles, they slip around my foot. Since you specifically have difficulty with holes, I would suggest Darn Tough, they have a lifetime guarantee and will be replaced if you get holes. I have one pair that is 5 years old and just now showing wear.

You will definitely want to look inside and feel how the handle and wheels are attached. I bought a Samsonite (Omni, I think) carry-on recently, the way the wheels are attached takes up a ton of space inside my suitcase. My husband’s carry-on is the same size on the outside but I can use his for 3-4 days and mine is more of an overnight bag. It works for what I wanted, but may not be the best choice for a big trip.

I would go down to TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, or whatever discount store you have and check out options. Even if you don’t buy there you can get a feel for what is available on Amazon. There are a lot of very similar suitcases that have different length handles or wheels that roll differently. In Europe the hotels don’t always have elevators so she may be carrying her luggage up and down 2-3 flights of stairs everyday. She will likely want a handle on the top and on the side to make hauling it up steps easier.

This is not something I’ve witnessed with my aging grandparents. If anything my grandfather handles more for my grandmother but they work together. I don’t handle appointments for my husband, I don’t know his schedule and he usually goes during the work day. My mom doesn’t handle stuff for my dad. She would probably laugh if he asked her to schedule something.

I’m tired of the whole self-help thing everywhere. I realize it cuts labor costs, but when stuff is priced wrong, doesn’t scan right, etc. it’s a pain.

I didn’t really answer your question, just giving an alternative to Kohls or Whole Foods.

I’ve never heard of Amazon hub. I don’t have many returns, but I usually have my husband drop any we have at the UPS store by his office. I did one early this week. Walked in, they scanned my QR code on my phone, took my item and I was done, it took maybe a minute.

I’ve only used them when they have been gifted to me so I don’t have a recommendation.

I’ve only used Duolingo. My son used a different app for trying to learn Croatian, I can’t remember the name but it has a 5 minute per day limit. Croatian is an extremely difficult language so he was going to need much more instruction to get proficient.