Wow, that's a lot of contacts. I guess that is election season, but that's still a lot of contacts to chase down.

Oldest: no ideas. Freshman in college - hates the CoVid college experience, so thinking about coming home for second semester. She doesn't even know yet if she can or if she has to stay there. Either way, I have no ideas. Middle teen: Baby Yoda water bottle (old one leaks). suture kit since she saw it online and wants it (https://www.lousign.com/products/truefeel™-all-inclusive-suture-kit). Wii Just Dance games. Youngest teen: wants to save the world, so maybe a donation to WWF which would get her a stuffed animal or something. If oldest stays in dorms, she has her own room and she wants space stuff for it.

Awww, that's too bad. All 3 of my girls can wear them. My oldest likes Thinx best and then RubyLove. Middle (who is curvier) likes Thinx and Bambody. Youngest can only really wear the Thinx BTWN because she is so tiny (4'8" and about 70 pounds).

I'm not in a high cost of living area, and I was curious, so I peeked at our local Catholic school's website. $7500 for members of the church, $8500 for non-members. Pay full price for first two students, more would only pay fees (which are about $700 on average the page said). Local protestant private school is $8400 with an average of $500 in fees (more traditional sibling discount of %age off per kid. Secular private schools (there are 2 big ones I looked at) are either $11,000 or $7,800 with additional fees. My school district's agreement with the Y and the park district is $30 per day for childcare during virtual school. Which over 180 days would be $5400 which is a couple thousand cheaper than any private school in the area.

Daycare here is provided by the YMCA and the park district, so there is a fee for that (paid to Y or park district not the school). Some is in the school building, some is in community buildings around town, depends on your "pod" or whatever they are calling their 8-10 student group. They are supervising online school (making sure kid gets logged in/logged off) as well as providing outside time, games, crafts etc. School system is not charging if you need to use wifi in the school gym (50 people per gym spread across 9 school gyms in the district First come first serve). Parent of elementary students or a designated adult have to attend with the student to provide supervision, and the school can require it of middle schoolers. High schoolers are allowed to stay by themselves there unless disruptive.

The 1st Dalai Lama Plato Sacajawea Marco Polo Ellen Johnson Sirleaf I am terrified of hosting dinner parties, so thank goodness this would never happen LOL.

Yeah, no spin necessary on a quote like "Get rid of the ballots." 😢 I am very concerned as well about the state of the union. I don't know other than voting what anyone in general, and I in particular, can do about it. I feel like I'm in a speeding car heading into a crash with no way to put on the brakes.

I had one friendship blow up because the person kept going on for months about how only stupid (or completely brainless or lawless or duped) people would ever vote for Candidate X, and I finally asked if they really thought I was stupid because I was going to vote for Candidate X, and they didn't even try to use the, "Well, not you per se" approach. All righty then, good to know, movin' on. I have a lot of people that I am not sure I will ever be able to look at in the same way due to their conspiracy theory following, law breaking, and COVID denying ways, but I haven't really dealt with that in regards to the friendship yet. The friendships are kind of just fading away since we can't see them in person due to being a higher risk family. None of them has curtailed their activities in any way so they could see me or my children which has been very painful for both me and my teens. I'm still working on letting the hurt go, honestly. Kids had to drop out of Tae Kwon Do and co-op due to not following guidelines. It's been a hard six months. Our church, which just started back in-person with a limited number this week, has not really reached out to us either. A neighboring church has called about every 6 weeks to "check in on our needs" because they had our contact info from one activity my teens attended last year. DH is thinking that might be our new church home when we return to church.

My oldest loved coins as a preK'er and that's when she lost her first tooth. So, Zelda, the tooth fairy (oldest only really wanted to know her name) brought 41 cents for every tooth (a quarter, a dime, a nickel and a penny). "Lots of circle money!" according to oldest. Giving only change worked for us since we have a big change jar so we always had change no matter when their teeth fell out. Zelda wrote a note for the first time thanking them for the tooth. Most kids around here got $5 for the first tooth and then $1 after. My niece and nephew got $20 for first, $5 for every one after.

My kids did a huge amount of free play (they're teens now, so free play has been left behind mostly), which is what I think you're thinking of. I did not insert myself in their play usually. I just let them at it. I say most of their "learning through play" occurred this way. I also initiated play in which I used a normal plaything in education. So counting money? Don't do a worksheet, play store. Need to practice writing? Write a menu, and I will order the food off of it. I also did this when they begged "play with me, Mama"; I am not a very good playmate. I also consider this adult-planned style learning through play. The playing with flashcards bit I wouldn't consider play per se. I would call it incorporating movement into education (to translate it into educationalese). My kids used to jump on number lines, run to find the correct answer on post-it notes around the room, and jump on the trampoline while skip counting. While more fun for them than sitting at the kitchen table and filling in a worksheet, I am not sure I would consider that learning through play.

My family moved a lot when I was growing up, and we were technically homeless for several months in the 80s (tent camped in a friend's backyard and then lived in a travel trailer in a couple of campgrounds/low rent trailer parks). Counting everywhere we lived more than 4ish months, I count 12 places from birth - age 18. I had one house before I was married. DH does not like to move; we've had three places. So 16 total, although I am almost sure I am missing at least a couple of places from my childhood. Every place has been within the same county. I did not count school dorms or apartments)

Not ASL, but T for "Time out" like in football and maybe a number for how many minutes request would work for those providers who don't know ASL.

I've had a crockpot since I got married 21 years ago. Our upright freezer was purchased in about 2000 or 2001, so 19-20 years old. Our washing machine was purchased in about 2002 so 18ish years old. Our house's appliances are mainly right about 15 years old, from when we bought the house. Stove is on the blink currently. A/C, furnace, dryer, water heater, and dishwasher have all been replaced. Fridge, over-the-stove microwave, and water softener are still going strong. My brother's apartment had the 60s/70s dark brown appliances up (stove & fridge) up until a couple of months ago.

Eek! She has a Caboodle and a Walkman. My girls have outgrown AG (they get their hair done and clothes changed only about 2x a year now).

Monday we had Crock Monsters (grilled ham and cheese) Tonight Hawaiian Kielbasa & salad Tomorrow Crusted Tilapia & twice baked potatoes Thursday Brinner (eggs & pancakes?) Friday Pizza

Yes, mainly on FB as we are spread throughout the state and country. We try to get together around Christmas time as that's when several out-of-state people come back to our state. I went to a boarding school in high school, so we were roommates/wingmates and lived together.

We live close to a large auto assembly plant. Both of my parents worked there for years. They have a medical office; I know it had at least one nurse at one point as a lady from our church worked there. My father cut his hand very badly on some sharp metal on a car body one year (early 90s I think?). The medical office was not busy that evening, so the nurse stitched his hand up himself. He did such a good job Dad didn't even have much of a scar; he was hoping for a nice big scar since workman's comp paid out more if the cut "looked bad" LOL.

No, we can't. I have a child who has medical appointments more often than every 2 weeks; it's daily therapy at this moment. When this therapy run is finished, DD and I (since I accompany her) will both be tested. It doesn't make sense right now since we are still going out daily as its hard to get tested here. Her appointments will probably be 2-3 times per week then. DH works mainly from home, but he has to go in at least 1x per week. One child has left the house probably less than 10 times over the past 6 months.

I was raised in a Pentacostal Charismatic church that believes in miraculous healing. I do remember one service with a traveling pastor. An older lady in my church was slain in the Spirit. She was out for several (10ish? 20ish? I don't remember) minutes. When she came to, her built up shoe was no longer needed. Her leg had grown. She actually had my mother measure her legs on the next day, and they were the same size. I am possibly no longer a Christian (long story), but I still remember that one. It was actually measurable. She had other health issues that were not healed, but her legs were the same size. Not as instantaneous, but here's my story of "coincidences" or miracle if you will. I went to the doctor for a checkup shortly after my 35th birthday. My doctor went through everything, and he handed me a card saying, "You're 35? You'll need a mammogram. Call this number tomorrow." So I did. I did the mammogram, was called back for an ultrasound, and then a biopsy. Then I was scheduled for a lumpectomy. I have no family history; literally no one among my eight aunts and seven older female cousins and several great aunts have had breast cancer. I do have a great grandfather who may have had breast cancer (it was the 1950s; mom wasn't sure of the diagnosis as she was a young child at the time). The surgeon said I didn't really meet the criteria for genetic testing, but because of my age and possible male relative's breast cancer even though it was too many generations back, they would do a genetic test (this was 10+ years ago, so genetic testing wasn't as widespread as now). The test came back positive for BRCA, so lumpectomy changed to double mastectomy. After that surgery, the pathology came back with the location we knew about and 3 other locations all within the ducts. The next year, at my physical, we were discussing all of the surgeries I had had, and the surgery that was remaining, and the doctor asked me, "Why did I send you for a mammogram? You were only 35." Come to find out, he was at that time only sending women with family histories at 40, his normal age for a baseline mammogram was 42. So, if I hadn't had a doctor who sent me for the mammogram 7 years early, and had a surgeon who decided to do the genetic testing, the cancer wouldn't have been found, and it definitely wouldn't have found all the cancerous spots. And, yes, yay for you writing a novel!

The argument that I have heard most often mainly centers on freedom of religion, the free exercise clause of religion. The state can't mess with their desire to meet, however they want to meet, because of the first amendment. Secondly, a lot of churches believe that God will protect their congregation and/or bless them because they are doing what is "right" in God's eyes against an unjust government. Since they had been forllowing the laws up til now, I would assume the leadership has decided that COVID is a sham, and now that they know this "fact", the state's rules make no sense. Therefore, since the state is trying to keep them from meeting for no sensible reason, it is now a first amendment thing.

When and where were you born? Any stories about where you lived, why your family was there? Do you remember living in that area? I was born in a small town in northern Illinois. I still live there 46 years later, although I have tried several times to move. Never could for a number of different reasons. I have lived in many, many places within the county though as my mother liked to move a lot. DH does not like to move so we've lived in our current house for 12 years. The hospital I was born at no longer exists, and most babies are born in the next county over now. I was the only baby in the maternity ward, so the doctor carried me around the hospital to visit all the sick people while I was there during my first week of life. When I was born, my family (mom, dad, brother and aunt) lived in a tiny single-wide trailer, and there was literally no room for a bed for me. So they put a bassinet on top of a chest freezer in a hallway. We moved within a few months after I was born and I shared a room with my aunt. She says that when I was just learning to pull myself up I used to shake the crib until it "walked" across the floor and then I played with the light switch in the middle of the night, so she'd awaken to a strobe light effect. Both sides of my family come from South Dakota. My father moved out here at 18 years old, and my mother followed him out the next year. Several of their siblings moved through the area - one aunt from each side of the family still live in the area.

We're on the extreme minimal side of clothing. Kids have about 3 shorts and maybe a skirt each. A few dresses (purchased by Grandmas who think they need dressy clothes) and about 5ish tops. I have 2 dresses, about 7 tops, and 4ish bottoms during any given season. DH has a larger wardrobe because he has workclothes and he never changes sizes, about 10-12 tops, 4-6 bottoms, a seemingly endless supply of tees (15ish?), and 2 non-work bottoms. We buy underwear and socks in multi-packs, so however many is in those is about what we have. I usually do laundry daily (everything worn yesterday gets washed today) or every other day. I'd like a little more for everyone, but our budget does not allow for excess clothing, so we make it work. 7-10 options sounds great so I could miss doing laundry every once in a while.

Write about your name. Where did it come from? What does it mean? Feel free to keep your actual name private, but share the story of how you were named. You can also include things like whether or not you like your name, do you like the way it's pronounced and spelled? Was there a name you wished that you had in childhood? Did you take your dh's name when you married (if you're married)? How did you feel about that? What influenced your decision about that? Well, from my user name, you know my first name. I grew up as a Becky, but I've moved toward Rebecca as an adult (I am thankful for that now that Becky is used as a derogatory term for a stereotype of a woman). My father really wanted Rhonda or Charlotte as my name; my mom vetoed both of those, and they agreed on Rebecca. My middle name is my aunt's middle name because she died shortly before I was born. I was always ok with my name, although I really wanted a more whimsical name growing up, probably because I had a very common surname growing up (think Smith). I took care of that desire by giving my children fairly uncommon names although they have become more common recently. My dh wanted me to take his name, so I did. I don't have any great feelings on name changing either way. I would've been fine keeping my name, hyphenating our names, or taking his name.