I don't have any advice but I'm sorry for your loss.

I'm sorry you are experiencing this with your Mom. I dated a guy who would act like this and say comments like that. Zingers that would hurt and embarrass me. It's like I could never do anything right and I never knew when it was coming. But every time I thought we were having a great time - bam - out of nowhere - the zingers. Took me years of therapy to relax and realize I wasn't doing anything wrong. Listen to your DH and your friends who are present when they tell you that you didn't do anything wrong and she was unreasonable. Let it go, take a walk, go for a run to get it out of your system. I dumped the guy but you can't exactly do that with your Mom plus you love your Mom and she's family. I wish it were different for you. Those zingers out of nowhere ripped me apart.

That's awesome! October 5th is a great day for birthdays! 🙂 We use a 10x10 canopy that has extending sides over the shallow end of our pool over the steps because it is hot, hot, hot, hot and humid here. We take it down over winter but it only makes about 2 summers before needing to be replaced. The legs are either buried or secured with concrete blocks but even so, we've had them go in the pool several times during thunderstorms and microbursts. What I'd love to add is a wood pergola about the same size over the steps and that end of the pool deck that has a removable sunbrella-type fabric shade cover so it could be removed completely in winter and temporarily secured during bad weather. The canopy does its job though and it's a lot cheaper.

I agree with you on the hot tub. I might use it once in spring and once in fall and that's about it. Except when it snows. If it's snowing, we jump into the hot tub while holding umbrellas. However I'm in Georgia so that only happens about once a decade.

We have a salt-water, vinyl liner in-ground pool and we love it. We've replaced the liner once in 15 years, the pump twice and the salt-cell every few years. The only thing I'd change is to add permanent shade. We currently use umbrellas and a canopy and replace those every few years which is cheaper than building something permanent. We don't have a neighborhood pool but there are 2 pools we could join about 25-30 minutes away. The beauty of a backyard pool? We can jump any time we want to jump in.......even multiple times a day. I don't have to worry about hot parking lots, exhausted kids, hauling a boat load of junk or expensive purchased snacks. We can have friends and family over without paying guest fees and we can have a party any time we want without having to rent anything. Another perk to a backyard pool is being able to use it off season. In the spring, we open it as soon as the yellow dust pollen is done. In the fall, we wait as long as we can before closing. We have a heater and we're always hoping to heat it one last time for my husband's October 5th birthday.

Hmmmmm. I'm in the Atlanta area and have been here most of my life but I've never seen it. Sounds like a few people who don't know how to throw away their trash? We grew up under the admonishment to throw away our chicken bones where the dogs can't get them because the bones will splinter and kill the dogs. No idea if that's true but that's what were taught. p.s. it's not a Georgia thing!!

No u-turn. Way too dangerous. I would have called my husband or my sister and vented and possibly cried from being upset. And probably stayed up all night being upset. Then the upset would start to fade away the next day. Then it would eventually become a family story about remember that time someone threw a soda can at my driver window? I'm sorry it happened.

Yes. I love them at their current age but I sure do miss them as littles.

I hope it goes well. Praying for an easy recovery.

I am sorry for loss.

No meat. I'd miss it but the alternative would make me ill. Surely it will start making them feel atrocious soon? I hope so. I hope they feel poorly before it affects their health so they have time to make changes. Maybe you could leave articles for them? Or maybe find a YouTube channel for diet that they might like? Maybe something that isn't meat vs. veggies angle but maybe healthy aging - or strength/flexibility as you age? I'm sorry. That would drive me absolutely nuts too.

Praying!

When I was little we had 2 basset hounds and my Mom tells a story where my 2yo sister got out the back door without anyone knowing. She heard one of the bassets howling and howling like mad so she went to investigate. My sister had walked along the outside of our fence and one of the bassets had reached through the fence, bitten her clothing and was holding on. The other basset was doing the howling until my Mom came out and found them. Those were the best dogs!

Most of my "I wish I had done it sooner" relate to cars. When I think something is wrong because I hear a noise or something acts differently than the norm, 99.9% of the time I am correct that something is wrong. Being more assertive and insisting it be checked out would have saved us a lot of money over the years and saved me from being dumped on the side of the road a few times. It's a delicate balance and I am learning to be more assertive! 🙂

No one rule or mindset has helped me declutter over the years. Sometimes I remind myself that in 30 years, I've only regretted decluttering maybe half a dozen items. Sometimes I ask myself whether I'd rather keep the item or have the space. ("Space" usually wins.) Sometimes I ask myself if it could be replaced easily or cheaply. Sometimes I ask myself if I could just take a photo of the sentimental item then let it go. With craft stuff that I tend to feel guilt about having bought but not used, I ask God to bless the person who finds it. Sometimes I sing the song "Let it GO!!!!" from Frozen. I still have plenty of decluttering to do. Sometimes a 15 minutes a day method works. Sometimes working in one area bit by bit. And during busy times I just tell myself I'll get back to it when I get back to it. Whenever I'm stuck, I watch decluttering videos on YouTube. Not stressful, pushy ones. But creative, peaceful ones that help me get motivated again. Minimal Mom is a great one.

I've used brown noise for years. I've never heard of the BetterSleep or Calm app. Can't wait to try them out!

Praying. I'm sorry.

I’m so sorry for your family’s loss.

I'm so sorry. I'm laughing but I'm still so, so sorry for all the money you spent on the part and the repair guy. I'm also very relieved because I have the Bosch 850 and I was wondering if/when whatever was going on with your dishwasher was going to happen to mine...which I love. I'm still so, so sorry for all the money you lost. I hope this will one day one of your family's super hilarious stories. It won't be now because financially it's an awful story but maybe one day......

Wow!!!!!!!!!!! That's an amazing climb! Decades ago I could have climbed up but there's no way I'd have climbed down. They would have had to use a helicopter to get me off the top.

Congratulations!!!!

For a couple of days I keep everything in my suitcase. For a week, I unpack and use the dresser/closet.

I'm sorry for your loss. That is hard.

Yes. And more so the older I get. Most of the time I'm avoiding something - a phonecall, an email, an issue I don't know what to do with, something overwhelming that I can't break down into doable steps, etc. Sometimes it happens just because. I call it "spinning my wheels" because everything is still spinning but I'm not accomplishing anything. Green tea helps sometimes - I find it centering for some reason. Usually at some point I finally realize what I'm avoiding - and either deal with it or take the 1st step. Once I either face it or take the 1st step, I usually come unstuck and can push to get it done then I'm back to normal.

Taxes and figuring out how to use an embroidery machine. If that's all I do today, I'm thrilled.