We got hit with $750 dentist bill this week. Cleanings, checkups and xrays for all three kiddos. This was way higher than I expected, partly because of a charge for the fluoride treatments the hygienist did that I didn’t know was billed extra, and they charged for some special toothpaste that I thought was a sample. Also they found three cavities. One per kid. Of course. My mom thinks dentists are money grabbers. I wonder.... Anyway, we don’t have dental insurance (past experience makes us believe it’s scammy), but we can file this toward our high deductible health plan. Which at this rate, we might actually hit that deductible, we’ll be 10% there! 😂 If I didn’t laugh, I’d cry. Next up, optometrist and fillings. And some labs for me. Might have to cancel my hair appointment this quarter. No non essentials left to cut that we can find... I’m struggling to just go ahead and order my seeds for the garden. That would be a stupid thing to cut, right?

Oh fun! You might perceive me as thinking Aussies are cute, but: I got to spend time with a friend visiting from Australia. I hadn’t met her irl yet, it was just online. She had never seen a squirrel before! The rest of us had not considered that, and were delighted at her appreciation for them. It was a real ice breaker! Most of us don’t give a second thought to squirrels and think that an Aussie would be never be delighted by our boring wildlife.

Mentally, she’s great. Maybe a touch of depression from the health issues, because nobody expects at 67 to have the kinds of stuff she’s dealing with. I could give her some school jobs for sure. She’s not great overseeing it (because she thinks you just give a kid a checklist), but listening to reading and having her check a page of copywork would work. I’m going to bring her over here. You all helped me see the simple solution that was right in front of me. Thanks!

FIL has no real routine other than being accustomed to independence. MIL had an episode of super low blood pressure that had her in the ER last week, so he’s worried and afraid to leave her at all. She didn’t faint. She recognized the problem and let him know. Dh helped her with her EMS alert on her Apple Watch that would ping dh, me and FIL if she called 911. But he’s still not okay with no human there. I just don’t know what’s reasonable here.

Duh! Thanks, I’ll suggest that!

Okay, so this is less than two weeks away, possibly not enough time to find a sitter since they don’t have one set up. And no, there’s no money issue. I think I’ll just bring all three each day and do school there. Not ideal, but I’d feel better about it, and it sets no precedent of using the kids. ILs are not clueless, just maybe a little blind in this area, so likely he’ll feel badly that I felt the need to be there. I feel fairly confident they’ll get the subtext. If not, we’ll have a conversation. I just want to make sure I’m not being a jerk.

Sorry, I’m prone to not give enough detail. FIL would be in the next town over for a few hours for three days. He thinks that if one kid would come each day for several hours (school hours) so that if something were to happen to her, they could call for help. The concern is a sudden drop in blood pressure, confusion, fainting. She is self sustaining, she doesn’t really need care, or even someone to keep her company. Kids are 13, almost 11, and 8. No way I’m leaving the 8 year old on her day, I’ll stay for sure. I believe he thinks of each kid takes a day, it shouldn’t interfere with school. I also believe it will set a precedent.

I’m honestly asking. My FIL thinks my kids can be asked to come over and sit with Their grandmother while he has things to do away from home. He is retired. She has something like Addisons and could have an adrenal insufficiency episode at any moment. Part of me feels like they are overstepping, they can afford a sitter, my kids need to be home for school. The other part feels like this is what families do for each other, and to refuse sets a bad example to my children. What do you think?

Chagrin Valley Soap and Salve Company. Great personal care products, including shampoo bars, minimal packaging.

A lot of the zero waste stuff seems to be directed at things that really are a minisucle portion of household waste. The packaging that groceries come in is one of my biggest problems for reducing. There is a local company that sells it's milk at Kroger in returnable glass bottles, but it's one of the few things in the store that is not wrapped in excessive amounts of plastic! And Aldi produce in trays and plastic is just plain dumb. I really want to do one of those things were a bunch of people go shopping in the same store and remove all the extra packaging from their purchases before they leave. Flash mob type thing where people can see how much packaging they are normally leaving the store with. That might be fun to do with your Dd. I mean, if you are the rabble-rousing type. 😊 ETA: I'm having some trouble coming up with ideas that honor your desire to get your dd some nice things, but what about a gift card to a nice natural grocery store in her area? One that sells bulk beans, seeds, nuts, grains, flours to take home in paper bags? A store like that would have some of the nice things you are talking about too. (ie. straws, containers, household products, tea balls).

I have the beeswax wraps and rarely use them. They don't work especially well and are difficult to care for.

As little as possible. I’ve lived in far too many homes that had layer upon layer of sloppily done paint to wish that on any house.

My in-laws do it, but it’s driven by overwhelm about their health problems and an over abundance of nutritional experts to try to sort through.

The well-off have that choice. Some families require two working parents being gone during the time those things could happen. The modern world does set up some (I think) weirdly unnatural situations. The one many of us have chosen is itself one. We’ve chosen to stay with our children, largely in the confines of our own homes and cars, participating in community on a fairly superficial level, teaching a few kids without the economy of scale that would happen when a handful of adults divide and conquer the teaching of a whole troupe of them. Our (my) actual production (ie food, clothing, shelter, income) is close to nil in order to do this. The work world seems to actually align better with our instincts to join forces in survival (ie making a living, honing skills through cooperation). The unnatural part being how long parents/spouses are away from their families.

Ausmom, I see Adelaide Koala Rescue, are there any other prominent wildlife rescues we should donate to?

Based on new information, I don’t think I have a good argument on our tax assessment. The next door grossly undervalued house was corrected this year -that’s what I based my contest on last year. Two homes on our street sold last year, which gave the assessor some much-needed comps on a hard to value area. I should be happy that they think our property is worth this. It’s just we’re not in a position to handle increases in any of our expenses. On the bright side, dh just sent me a new job listing that looks very promising! He’s applying. I’m looking at a hybrid classical school scheduled to launch Sept 2020, that would allow me to work for more than tuition would cost.

Yes, I did it last year as I had a pretty clear cut case. This looks almost like they are trying to make up for the “cut” last year plus some? It was a hassle. Its still a little too early to gather data.

Two things are setting us behind. One, due to poor planning and events beyond my control, we were out from 8:30 to 7:00 (one child til 9:00) yesterday. I had to buy dinner for three kids. I usually have ~75 minutes at home in there to get some dinner ready and eaten. Two, our RE tax assessment just came in at an 11.9% increase. That works out to an additional $25/mo. Not sure what to cut. Worse, I overdrafted our account today. 😭.

Following. I’ve never seen one I liked. Most are too many bells and whistles and therefore too buggy/high maintenance. A few just have a really kooky approach. I like Excel 😂. But I’m an accountant, we like spreadsheets...

Counted up appointments for January and I have three kids dentist, one kid optometrist, me dentist, and me doctor with labs. That’s easily $700 (probably more). DH says we have about $500 in HSA, so I cancelled my dentist (cosmetic issue anyway) and moved my doctors appointment to Feb. All these things are needed, but we need to spread them over more pay periods. We have credit card balance from Christmas. 😕

I don’t, but two of my sisters do. All five of us siblings learned to shoot from our dad, and are pretty good shots. I don’t think of myself as able to do the calm under pressure that you need for a well placed shot. Did any watch the video of the shooting in TX? That kind of reaction speed, calm (no attempt to jump to cover, loosing time) and well placed shot was phenomenal. I do believe my father could do it. He shoots regularly and in his 17 years in the military, he constantly impressed people at his skill (he was medic, they were astonished because they didn’t expect much). In his civilian years, he’s has on at least one occasion lost an anesthesia patient on the operating table from a self inflicted accidental discharge. I remember him speaking of one where the guy had the gun in his pants, shot himself in the leg and bled out. 😭 So it goes without saying my sisters are careful and competent, but in an emergency, I really don’t think either would be fast and certain enough to be much help. 😉

Your Dh is a miracle.

I get the sense it’s designed so that you can’t overload it, but maybe they went overboard and designed racks that hamper its capacity.

Following. We will likely have to replace the Kenmore that this house came with in the next year or two. My mom and dad have Bosch, but the wash cycle is SO LONG. That would never fly around here. I want clean dishes in 30 minutes or less. Also, theirs seems hard to load on any sort of efficient manner...

1. Friends. I need some that are more than just church folks I see once a week. 2. Improve liver health. This would include improved diet and some form of exercise, that’s the harder part because we dropped gym membership. We just can’t afford anything extra if we want to keep our heads above water. 3. Find a way to help bring in some income and do it.