I don't know what you should do but I hope you get to a good stopping place, not stop with say, a pile of stuff you pulled out of the closet staring at you. Because that's something I'd do and have to shove it all back lol During spring break (ours was weeks ago) I stayed home while the kids and dh went to see family. My plan was to clean and organize the house. I had a week and I still didn't get as much done as I would have liked. We still haven't dealt with this pile of children's toys. It's easier for me to stop toys (or other items I guess) from coming in than to get rid of stuff we have. We must own too many clothes because I feel like the laundry is never under control. We are holding onto all these old dvds but almost exclusively watch digital. I can't even organize the dvds because they are too overwhelming. I did shove most in sleeves. Maybe find out what is holding you back. Is it because you might use it? Because you have a sentimental attachment? Think it's worth money and if you chuck it that you are throwing money away? Or you just need a break from this process?

:ohmy:

Some people may butt heads with their HOA with definitions like "single family use" or such. I never lived anywhere with an HOA personally.

I went to a class at the Apple store and they talked about airdrop. We practiced doing a drop between laptops... maybe to our phones? Heck I don't even remember exactly how it worked and I was pretty much discouraged to return to any classes (reading between the lines since we were told to practice all you've learned before taking more classes) since I don't actually own a Mac lol. I just have an iphone and wanted to learn a bit about their computers. I think airdrop was supposed to basically send the pictures quickly to each other's device without need of an email or text message but I'll probably have to google it later to see how far off base I am.

That's nice of you to say. He sounded kinda jerky at the time.

I think Sadie and Crimson Wife both make good points. The home I grew up in in California was not large or fancy. After moving away for some time we wouldn't have been able to afford to move back into the same home (I'm not sure how much time passed before that was the case but the area is always developing). That's just how crazy the housing is there. Are we comparing people with the same number of children? If so, then this may be so. If one couple has two boys that share a room and the other couple has a boy and a girl and they want separate rooms for their kids, they might feel they "need" the home with the extra bedroom. There may be misc. factors like this to consider. But if everything is more or less the same across the board, then yeah I can see what you mean.

Would that mess up your weekends? I mean would it significantly annoy you if you say, needed to play catch up on the weekend but also had to report to work and wanted to fit in family stuff or whatever other obligations? Dh works Sunday nights. It significantly puts a bit of a damper on the weekend but we need the money. Like if we travel he always has to come back to town in time for work (he's a librarian and they have some late hours where he works). Mostly I would be interested in that opportunity. I have been taking little part-time jobs here and there when they arise (they have all been temporary). Something stable like that would be good for your resumé. Maybe you don't need the money now, but might be good as a "just in case." We just found out our income is going to take a hit soon.

:lol: I read some of my old entries not long ago. I think I just have one hardcopy journal. I have a livejournal online I haven't touched in ... years? I'm pretty sure my facebook is just another boring account of my life lol.

I'm liking these posts for the information, but those prices for tuition are making me go :svengo: I think we'd fall closer to the bare bones homeschoolers, though I know people that use absolutely free materials. I didn't use all free stuff but some was. As for income being better than average, that's definitely not always true. Sometimes it's the road of least resistance to homeschool because it makes sense for some reason for one parent to stay home (based on local job opportunities, ages of children, etc.) and the local schools aren't very desirable. At least this has been our case.

I think that can totally be true. Perfectionism is a trait and I have it. I have a parent with it. But we can learn when to not always share our thoughts, at least the times when it's going to do more harm than good. I'm overly critical of ds I think. I sometimes look back at things I've said and felt badly about it. I am tough on myself and my parents were tough on me in certain areas so I think I pass that down. Like, dh and I were talking about ds' grades and I said that he should pull up the 90 (because it's barely an A and could easily slip back down). Dh was upset with me, but I didn't mean it in a mean way. I just meant it's good to have a cushion. I did congratulate him on the grades, but I might have ruined the moment. Sometimes I act like the mom on Fresh off the Boat lol

Uh, that might be considered mean. Considering it's done all the time and from the sounds of it, not appreciated feedback??

I think my jaw visibly dropped when I read how much it costs for private school in Crimson Wife's area (in a similar topic thread). I thought, "I can't even afford the great private school here that is less than 1/3 of that." Obviously the cost of living in our states is different, but I just didn't know some schools cost that much I guess. Definitely a lot of differences in living costs and pay for jobs.

Why don't you just tell your overseas brother and night owl daughter not to text you at certain hours? I get not expecting people to be mind readers, but it wouldn't be hard to spell out. Both my siblings are in different time zones but one has a significant different in time zones. We just simply wouldn't try to call each other without good reason at those hours, but we might message each other on FB or send an email (I don't think either of us get alerts on our phones for those). I'm not saying don't worry about your phone settings. Just saying in addition to that, I wouldn't have a problem telling my dd to knock it off with the funny pics at 2am (or whatever).

On our iphones it's a feature called "read receipts" and you can modify it in settings. I modified it on dh's phone so I could tell if he'd read my texts but I have come to find that is not reliable since he often just skims his texts or maybe someone has the window open but isn't actively looking at the phone? Our phones are acting up lately and I did not receive a number of texts from him when we were hours apart one day recently. I was so frustrated because he said he would call but rather than call he just sent texts which I didn't receive. Last I had heard from him was via a friend's phone and they said he was charging his phone. When we finally talked he said he sent me several texts and I didn't reply and I said then why didn't you just CALL? It was not funny at the time, but I can see the humor in it. I guess some people really think trying one form of communication is sufficient. Um no. It's not always. /tangent.

You might want to confirm the tally so you can tell the restaurant. If your dh and ds aren't going that may open a spot for other people waiting.

dd (2) is getting a small board book and chalk. Both kids will get candy. Months ago I bought ds (8) a $5 tv series dvd as a back up gift if I needed it (Christmas) that I might toss in his basket so he gets a non food item. Other years I've done clothing or swim shoes or cheap toys. I am trying to limit toys right now.

Yeah, what they said. On paper I think we should be better off than we are. In reality we have high insurance costs, student loan debt, etc. I definitely use the term affluent more loosely than 450k a year.

I think this is the real problem. Did you indicate during their last visit that this place was fine? And now suddenly it's not because of their restricted menu on Easter? Are they aware of the vegetarian thing? They might think you can eat waffles and didn't know about the egg thing. I wouldn't want to pay $50 for breakfast (even one where I could eat it all LOL). I suppose there might be a cereal station but again, I couldn't see paying $50 for that. Or did you only recently agree to go to this place? I might tell them in advance if this is a situation where finding out you aren't going is going to defeat half their reason for going. They might prefer to eat somewhere else with you and eat at that place another time (is there another day during your visit where the menu would work better and it would be less crowded??)

I'm going to have to google some things because I can barely handle volume features lol. When I want to adjust ringer volume sometimes I adjust the volume of other things and vice versa. I just hit that button on the side of the phone and depending on what is going on the phone decides which volume I'm controlling. I hate that. Feel free to text me right now. Up in the middle of the night after baby peed the bed

Agree, uncomfortable already then switch. I remember one time I had to go to the dr to ensure my blood pressure was okay for sports after my physical with my team didn't go over well (I think it was due to white coat syndrome). Anyway, my mom got me an appointment with the only doctor I'd seen and I was a teenager. I felt so awkward. Part of my family goes to a place for adults and kids and there is still a children's waiting room lol. Most if not all the doctors there see adults in addition to children. I have not committed to a doctor of my own as I kind of wanted a separate female doctor for myself.

I do not consider us affluent. We definitely don't live in an affluent area. In fact, we live in one of the poorest areas of the country (so there are times when I feel like I'm better off than many, but still not what I'd call affluent). We are accidental homeschoolers. Now, where I would like to send ds to school is what I would call an affluent area but we cannot afford to move there. Our rent is affordable here and we'd have to downsize and pay more to live there. Of course by staying put we save on rent but we are out of reach of most of the things we like to access (shopping centers, restaurants, entertainment). I don't know too much about the personal lives of all the homeschoolers I've met. Definitely not all were affluent, but some yes. Like one of the meetups I attended was in a beautiful home and their dd played the harp. That just screamed "affluent" to me but I didn't grill them about their lives lol.

What is this a spin off of?

Give me the grape candies. I usually don't touch the "weird" flavored jelly beans and seldom eat jelly beans at all anymore. As a kid they were always around at Easter. As an adult, I don't go out of my way to get them. I don't like black licorice. Or Jägermeister. Basically the same thing in liquid form. :ack2:

Sorry if I caused confusion. I'm not the OP. Just looked at my local college withdrawal deadlines to see when they fall :laugh: For some reason I thought they were long gone but since they were this month I was saying maybe the OP's local CC hasn't had their deadline yet.

I might ask my son not to tell me specifics about the grades anymore given the situation, too.