I have not always gotten flu shots in the past but usually. We did when youngest was a baby as she fought chronic infections due to a physical deformity and had RSV at a couple months old. Then, we got lazy after a few years. Then, I made everyone get flu shots as we got busier and busier, and I didn't want to stop our lives for flu. I and the kids at home got our flu shots last month. DH has not gotten his - his work is supposed to be providing them here in the next couple of weeks. I should nag college kid, as I don't think she has gotten one. Thanks for the reminder. Edit: as others have said, I don't want to have to play Flu or Covid game. I've already had to play a lot of Pollen or Covid this fall (and one migraine or Covid episode as well). Keeping us out of the hospital would also be awesome as I had a child in the hospital for quite a while last month and it was awful visitor wise/stress wise.

We have Aetna, which DH's employer switched to about 3 years ago. It's not my favorite. Bad points: I had problems this year since DD's therapists had been covered as in network despite being out of network (special case agreements with Aetna) and our co-pay changed on Jan 2020. They paid everyone wrong, and it took months and many calls from me as well as DH's employer to figure it out. They never paid the case agreements as in network until I called/emailed 1-5 times every single time. I was feeling like an unpaid clerk for a while there. Good points: fairly large network. We've never had a problem finding someone in network. (We've chosen some out of network, but there were options for in network). Willing to do some legwork on mental health issues (IE: find available therapists and programs). Willing to do the case agreements in order to keep doctors consistent. All tele-health is free this year due to the pandemic. This year, DH's employer went to a "concierge" level, which just means as far as I can tell that you talk to a representive in America rather than India when you call. Mental health is not covered under the concierge level, so I have to go through the outsourced call center anyway. Have they ever said something would be covered "for medical necessity" and then not covered it, despite the doctor's Rx for a standard treatment? Have they ever refused to cover a visit with an in-network provider because they didn't like the diagnosis codes the doctor used? They did not cover my updated genetic testing. According to Aetna, I should owe several thousand. However, the genetic counselor said since I did not receive a call from the lab prior to running my sample, I do not owe. That is a law that they had to have informed me insurance didn't/wouldn't cover before running the test, so I never saw the bill. We've never had any other problems with them as far as covering procedures; we've had a couple doctors who had to resend things a few times to get them approved. If you do go to an out-of-network provider, do they apply all of the charges toward your deductible, or do they apply just the amount they'd normally pay an in-network provider? Yes, the whole charge is applied to the deductible.

Bleah! Our garage door opener broke yesterday. I had $200 with this week's check to finish off our tire fund. It cost $175 to fix, so we had the cash, but ugh. DD's candy winnings came today. She asked me to add a 3 Musketeers bar and a Reese's to it for Halloween. So, I bought those and only those. Same old, same old other than those things. Just keep swimmin', right?

I used to always sing in the car. Now when my children are in the car, they play some Spotify playlist that's not my favorite (teens' music these days *shakes my cane at the whippersnappers*), so I don't usually sing along. Sometimes I do just to annoy said teens. I can rock Hamilton! these days because I've heard it often enough, but KPop is just not gonna happen. I still sing in the car when I am alone.

I've been doing the "Covid budget" idea discussed here. None of these fall within my budget. I have a DD who needs to see doctors, therapists, and an orthodontist, at least two weekly. I have a DH who has to go into the office at least 2x per week. We all splurge on an in-person trip to the library weekly. I need to occasionally enter a store for a needed item. I have little covid risk interactons to spend on frivolous things. Plane rides were very, very few and far between for us in the Before Times. I can't see why I would need to get on a plane now unless my mother truly needed me in her area right this very moment. It's a toss up on whether flying for a few hours or driving 2-3 days would be better to get down there. But, we will not be going to visit for a while, so no need to get on a plane. There is no need for me to go into a movie theater. I only did that about every 3 years prior to Covid, so it does not affect me at all. I miss restaurants as I am not a great cook, but my financial and Covid budgets are both better for my not using them. None of us are super high risk, although there is one who is medium high risk, and two with pre-existing conditions who may have trouble.

DH and DD have. Her college is a little more than a day's drive away. He could drive it in a day, but it's really a bit too long. So, they stayed in one on the drive down to college and stayed in one for a night or two while she was moving in. He'll do it all again next month to bring her home. He said it was ok. It's probably not the safest thing you could do, but if all covid precautions are being done, it's probably not the worst either. We chose to only have DH go with her instead of our original family trek to see her off.

Hospitals are filling up rapidly: In general - https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/16/pandemic-states-virus-rebound-429753 Wisconsin - https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/2020/10/01/wisconsin-coronavirus-fox-valley-hospitals-serious-danger-being-overwhelmed-coronavirus-patients-off/5879574002/ South Dakota - https://news.yahoo.com/rural-midwest-hospitals-struggling-handle-130829745.html These were just the first articles I found regarding the issue. In my area, we have had positivity increases for the last 14 days. 10 days of that has been over 8% (which is my state's limit before they roll back openings). The county is now at a solid 11% positivity. I expect our deaths to start inching up since it's been 2 weeks of increasing case positivity.

Oldest is away at college this year. She is ok with college, but not overly happy. Her anxiety (a problem in the best of times) is at Defcon-5. She is not loving covid-precaution life at a school far from home. She is contemplating coming home for spring semester. Middle had a covid-precaution-fueled meltdown over the summer. She is in a better place now, but it's been rough. I am dreading winter. Youngest is kinda liking this time. She would like to attend an activity or two, but she is an introvert who is digging staying home all day every day. We are very close to a flaming hotspot (90% positivity in a county just north of us one day last week); we're in a medium blaze of Covid activity here (running a regular 10-11% positivity). I went from knowing only extended family and friends in far off locations and a few scattered people locally to hearing about someone's positive test daily now. So I don't foresee any loosening of the Covid precautions in this family.

Youngest got an email today that she won a Trick or Treat bag. It says the prize is worth $20. I may not have to spend anything for Halloween this year.

Last month my DD was in the hospital for several weeks. They required the parents to make a self-care plan since her condition is ongoing. So, I made a list of 6 things. My goal is to hit at least 3 a day. 1) Exercise 15 minutes. This one needs to bump up to a non-negotiable I think. It's been consistently ignored for other things on the list. 2) Take all supplements and medicine. I'm good with DD's, but I often forgot mine. I've been doing this one almost every day since I started the self-care plan, so it's about to get bumped for a new habit. So, I'm looking at this thread to see what has been mentioned. 3) Read 1 chapter in a book for me. Getting pretty good at this one. I read during lunchtime. 4) Go outside for 15 minutes. 5) Clean or declutter one thing in the house. Yesterday, I tackled a huge pile of stuff in the master bedroom; it's so much more peaceful in there now. It only took 20 minutes total so I don't know why I let it go this long. 6) Something just for me for 15 minutes, things on this list include a bubble bath, sudoku/kokuro, crafts, guided meditation via the Calm app, a TV show, or a board game or computer game. Back at the beginning of lockdown, I built a little wooden house from Walmart. I am currently making sculpy candies in order to make a permanent gingerbread house. I should be getting white puffy paint in my Walmart pickup today to simulate icing. So, I'll get it done hopefully sometime this week. I made a Halloween front door hanging a couple of weeks ago to display during October. I've cut FB and Twitter down to a short period in the morning; after that, I shut it off and I'll figure out what I missed tomorrow. I do hang out here a lot more though.

I've been needing winter boots for a couple of years. Oldest didn't like any boots, so she stole mine (that I had bought at Nordstrom Rack like almost 30 years ago LOL). I found this sale today, and I picked them up. https://www.steepandcheap.com/the-north-face-ballard-lace-ii-boot-womens?irgwc=1&ircid=5418&irpid=36345&clickid=xjdyWnXvWxyOWKiwUx0Mo3bzUkE0fwTFRSBIy80

Looking at Zillow, 1-2 acres go from 70,000 - 200,000 in this area with one outlier at 20,000. The lower ones are farmland type spaces, and the higher ones tended to be in subdivisions. Although that correlation isn't exact as there is one non-subdivision lot for 177,000 and the 20,000 lot is in a subdivision. Edit: there are no lots available in town. They are all in outlying subdivisions or in farmland throughout the county.

Kids aren't trick or treating this year, and we won't be handing out candy (I don't even know if TorT is happening here). They just want me to purchase some candy. Yay! No cash outlay for costumes. DD's rollerblades broke. They were completely trashed as she spends approximately 1-2 hours per day on them as her mental health break. My mother replaced them immediately as an early Christmas present. Yay! She's back on wheels. I went through the Amazon cart and found that a pair of gloves DH put in there last year were on Amazon Prime day sale. So I purchased them for his Christmas. We don't usually exchange presents, but I figure these can be from the kids if they want. Youngest and I went through the freezers and made an inventory. We all sat down as a family and made a menu plan for the week. We haven't eaten restaurant food at least since middle got out of the hospital. I took my brother to two food pantries this week because he is completely out of money. Food pantry food is weird and one size does not fit all. A single man does not need 7 pounds (!) of breakfast sausage links, so we have a lot of sausage links to work through. DH has been going in on Saturdays to work on the computer system when fewer people are in the building, which means overtime. So that is nice. Still working on getting $ for tires.

I went through our cart and noticed that some gloves DH put in there last year were on sale. So I picked them up for his Christmas present.

I've been a member of four different co-ops over my years of homeschooling. First 2 co-ops we joined were open. Anyone who wanted to attend, teach, or be on the board was eligible. One of those co-ops allowed non-homeschoolers to attend pre-K classes or activities that were outside of normal school hours. Third one (we used solely for robotics), Catholics (but not Jewish, Latter Day Saints, and something else - JW?) were allowed to attend, but not teach. Fourth one (only high school option locally) was a hard no on anything other than members or regular attenders of specific styles of churches in the area. They asked at an interview prior to membership. No, the Catholic churches did not make the list. And, yes, I know from my FB feed that many of the ladies from the fourth co-op support ACB's confirmation. In those cases, they also support a Presidential candidate who I feel is not living Christian ideals, but it is due to him being seen as the warrior to fight the war that they feel is being waged against Christian America. I assume their support of ACB is a vote for a (any) pro-life justice.

Neither of my parents can sing a note. My mother was told in elementary school to mouth the words. My father had zero rhythm and even worse singing. My brother does not sing nor does he play an instrument (he played saxophone in school for the minimum of a fine arts credit). I sang for years in school choirs, played piano, and have excellent rhythm. DH's father sang in choirs for years. His mother isn't musical. DH cannot sing, although he claimed he couldn't dance for years. That turned out to not be true when I signed us up for a free ballroom lesson. Dude has style and rhythm. None of my children wanted to have anything to do with music although one seems to have some untapped musicality. Musical ability is so weird.

I always break up the school year with a Jan/Feb unit study because no one can handle the slogging through the gray days of Feb. However, due to my DD being hospitalized through most of Sept, we are just now getting rolling with school. So I don't know if we will still do that. Any ideas for good unit studies for 8th-9th grade? No idea how we will keep our sanity, our house is not big (no unused spaces), so we'll be all up on top of each other. It will be nice not to have to run around town during snowy days.

((G5052)) My college freshman called me in tears following her Calc test. Why? Because her ankle itched in the middle of it and she reached down to scratch it. She was terrified she'd be accused of having a cheat sheet. Nothing came of it though, but man, her anxiety was high about it.

We eat at 5. Like a previous poster, I often get asked if dinner is ready around 3:30-4 pm (I also get asked about lunch about 10 am). I have one child who has never slept past 5 am, so bedtime (even though she's 15 now) is still 8 pm. An early dinner gets the kitchen cleaned, some time outside, a game played or a show watched, and a shower done before sleep. Growing up, my parents usually worked nights, so I ate at different times depending on the babysitter's schedule. Therefore, I had no preconception of a "set dinnertime" when I grew up. Dh wanted food when he got home, so 5 it became.

My aunt used this pattern to make diapers. https://littleabbeepatterns.blogspot.com/2014/03/tutorial-doll-diaper-plus-pattern.html My youngest's bitties are stashed somewhere in her closet (she's 13) so Lord knows I won't be able to find them right now. I'll dig around if no one else replies though.

My first grown up job was in Motorola's Credit Union. I had a credit union account that we used less and less over the years (not a Motorola, a local credit union). As the years have gone by, that credit union has piled on fees and lowered savings rates. Their latest scheme was charging my kids' savings accounts $6 every quarter they don't use them. Um, no, don't steal $6 out of their $35 they're trying to save. We switched everything from them after that fiasco. I use an online bank - higher savings rates, better online access. Can access from anywhere with an app or through the website. I looked at the credit unions' savings rates: if you have a $100,000 balance, you will earn .5%. Up to $25,000 earns you .05%. Nowhere near 3%; I might be tempted back to them for 3%. I currently earn .5% on my less (far, far less) than $100,000 balance at my online bank.

Can you chuck the dishes in the trash and use Flylady's sink cleaning? Cupful of bleach in super, super hot water and walk away for an hour. Come back and drain the sink. Will it drain? I'd probably do the bleach sitting a few times before I dealt with scrubbing it because **shudder**. Baking soda on countertops and hot towels spread over it and let it sit for a while? I'm trying to think of things that may help you not have to scrub as hard/will loosen up the crud. I am so sorry you are dealing with this.

Awesome!

That is very weird. One year, youngest got two pricks, but it was obvious. The pharmacist did all of our shots. When she got to my youngest DD (she was 8ish), the pharmacist gave her the shot, looked at the syringe, said, "Huh. There's still more in here. Weird." and before I processed what she said, stuck it back into DD's arm. Poor baby's arm swelled up, and she got a fever for a couple of days. Needless to say, DD is not a fan of flu shots now.

Oh, yeah, never look in the fridge. ((((PrairieSong)))))