What about using a prepaid Visa with the small merchants?

Yes it’s plenty, in fact it’s one of my favorite meals. My husband and boys would add ham to their grilled cheese sandwiches. My oldest would likely have two. My daughter would pout about the soup, because she hates tomatoes, but luckily I know that and usually have her favorite soup in the fridge.

As far as I know I’ve never had any opiate related drugs and the only other thing I know I’m allergic to is poison ivy.

I’m glad she was able to get in quickly!

I have a poppy seed allergy too! I’ve never “met” another person with it. I was in high school when I developed it.

I agree with this so much. Even with NT kids there is a range of need for friendships and what those friendships look like.

It took me awhile to wrap my head around allowing screen time as a way of connecting, but it’s been a really good thing on our house.

My kids have a lot of cousins but we don’t live near any of them. FaceTime or phone calls go a long way toward helping nurture those relationships. Now that they are older they will play Minecraft together.

Two of my kids met their best friends at a homeschool group at the library. Although my daughter didn’t care for her at the time. They were about 6 and 4 when they met, the boys and moms hit it off from the beginning. My youngest son’s best friend is a neighbor. He doesn’t have a ton of friends his age, but he is the only one of my kids that has consistently had neighbor kids his age. So he has people to play with regularly, but he’s only close to one. He also adores his older siblings’ friends and considers them his friends too. Church has been where they all deepen their friendships. Many of their acquaintances are also from church. My 14 year old has friends from working at a church camp, attending 4h camp, and basketball. Texting and online games has helped him continue those friendships. By default a couple of my daughter’s good friends are daughters of my friends. She also has friends from attending church camp and basketball. My kids get along really well with each other too, I know that isn’t the case for everyone, but it is a blessing when siblings are friends.

I have no experience, but that sounds incredibly painful. I hope someone here can help you.

I can’t speak to the number of calls, but I can understand why some people don’t evacuate. My grandparents live in SE Texas. My great-grandmother was in her 90’s when Rita was about to hit, they chose not to evacuate. They did get nana from her assisted living facility. It normally takes 4 hours to drive to my aunt’s house where they could evacuate to, during the evacuation process when everyone was leaving, it was more like 12-15 hours. With bumper to bumper traffic they knew the heat plus humidity of sitting in the car would be worse than sheltering at home. Plus nana would have been very uncomfortable in the car and they wouldn’t have been able to refuel easily when they eventually ran out of gas. Where their house was, they were unlikely to experience flooding. However they did lose power for several days and did have some roof damage and big trees down. At home they had a generator and plenty of food to manage. It was less than ideal but they had to make the best of a bad situation.

This is what we did with my child that had them. It did not take 18 months to resolve, more like 6 weeks I believe.

I had a post with links that disappeared. I like shirt dresses with leggings, my favorite is a chambray. I have a couple dresses that are probably tunics on someone taller. I generally save the leggings for more casual dresses that are knee length. @prairiewindmommathanks for the recommendation on Wool &, I’ve been eyeing a dress for 6+ months and haven’t pulled the trigger because the only recommendations I’ve seen are random Instagram posts from people doing the 100 day challenge.

My oldest is only 14 and a boy, but I wouldn’t necessarily allow all those responsibilities at the same time. I have three kids with three very different personalities. They are also responsible in different ways about different things. I agree about not having hard and fast rules tied to age for these things. My 12 year old daughter has permission to wear makeup, which she very rarely chooses to do. I’ve allowed her to babysit in very specific situations but would not be comfortable with her babysitting in most situations. We didn’t give my son a phone until he was 14 and a freshman. When my kids ask how old they have to be to have certain privileges I tend to approach it as, “your dad and I think 14 is an appropriate age for xyz, but are willing to discuss allowing earlier in the right situation.”

I’m look for leggings with high waist in both black and navy to wear under dresses this fall and winter. They don’t necessarily have to be yoga top, but I do like yoga top since they don’t seem to roll down as much on me. I like the finish of cotton, but know I need some stretch to help keep their shape. I’ve gotten leggings off Amazon before and they look great the first wearing or two, but the cheap ones just don’t survive multiple washings. I’m warm natured so I do NOT want fleece lined, I just need to keep the chill off my legs. In athletic leggings I really like Nike’s luxe line. Hit me with your suggestions.

Yes, the neutrality was very refreshing. I felt like my kids were getting a fair representation of the news. It’s always hard to be the new person after a beloved person, so I hope that Coy isn’t discouraged. I’ll get used to him and now that he’s dropped the puns, which obviously isn’t his thing, his episodes are more bearable.

Day one the puns were just awful, I’m glad Coy has since dropped those. I hate change and I really liked that Carl Azuz kept controversial subjects fairly neutral. I will say that Carl was still often casually dressed in his family room all last school year so I sort of wonder if he refused to go back to the studio. I wish CNN would address the change instead of ignoring it.

It was a gloomy day here too. We were all tired from our weekend. My 12 year old was bummed to discover we aren’t doing anything new and exciting and that she still has to do spelling, because she still can’t spell. One bright spot is that my dyslexic 10 year old is reading so much better compared to the end of the school year. We had only done review over the summer and put his actual reading curriculum away. When I pulled it out today I was amazed by the improvement. I knew he was improving but kept wondering if putting the curriculum away was the right choice. It seems like it was.

Also I’m cracking up about your mom being upset. I guess we never outgrow looking out for our kids.

That’s awesome! I’m glad you enjoyed yourself. Congratulations on the bear hang! I’m terrible at it or managing to pick camping spots with no branches low enough for me to toss my rock bag over. I have a bear can from a trip a couple years ago so now I take that with me. Of course bears aren’t very common where I am, I’m more worried about little rodents.

I do love homeschooling, but when I meet people who don’t, I always remind them it isn’t for everyone. I love learning alongside my children, I love the relationship we have built, I love the flexibility of being able to go hiking when the trails aren’t busy, or being able to take off if my husband has been traveling a lot. My oldest child is an eager learner very easy to teach, I think starting that way has made me enjoy it more. My youngest is dyslexic and challenging. If he had been my oldest, I may not love homeschooling. But I gained confidence with my oldest and can really see the benefits for my youngest. A traditional school setting would be terrible for him academically and socially, but homeschooling works really well.

Since English isn’t your first language, you may enjoy audiobooks. Don’t listen to them for hours on end, just a chapter or two while in the car, or after lunch, or while making dinner. I don’t think everything considered classic is the be all end all, but there is still benefit. Americans, especially my age, are familiar with the Little House on the Prairie books, so comparisons come up in other books, movies, or conversations. I’ve never read Harry Potter, but it’s hard to get through a week without hearing references to it, so a passing understanding is helpful. For kids who don’t love read alouds, it is helpful to have read alouds that are interesting to them. If your kids only like picture books, read them picture books. Sarah Mackenzie at Read Aloud Revival has book lists geared by age. I have found her lists very helpful because they are more culled and include modern books. It’s ok to quit a book after a couple chapters if no one can get into it, it took me years to realize that. One benefit I see to reading classics and to read alouds is that kids (especially younger) can understand things at a level higher than they can actually read. So classics and read alouds expose them to ideas and language they may not come across in their own reading. In my family a lot of our read alouds are classics because my kids don’t want/won’t read them independently. On a different note, my brother in law has German heritage and bought my then 2 year old son Strewwelper (in German) when he was traveling for work. I can’t read German but was horrified by the pictures. I couldn’t believe he would buy my son such a horrifying book and was lamenting to a friend about it. She cracked up and told me it was a German classic. My son, now 14, would probably find it hilarious now.

Ok, I think I found the answer. There is a tool that helps you determine if a permit is required. According to that he is a business visitor.

No he won’t and it’s not an ongoing project. I think that’s why he’s having trouble figuring out if he needs the letter(s).

My husband is planning to attend a conference in Canada in a couple months. He will also be meeting with a couple Canadian employees who report to him that he’s never met in person due to Covid. This his is first time going to Canada for work. He is trying to figure out if he needs an “invitation letter” and/or “letter of support” for this trip. Everything I’m finding online is related to Americans immigrating to Canada, which is not the case here. He’s not finding anyone in his office that actually knows the answer. Can anyone point me to a reliable source of info on this?