When you have to tell your kid to quit doing long division and go brush his teeth, right after he asked you to check 896546389/3=298848796R1 and got it right. But really, it's 21:30... kid should be in bed (he gets quite cranky if he stays up too late).

This may have some disadvantages, btw, especially when telling kids they have to do stuff. "Why???" "I dunno"...

Slackest option: become a fundamentalist agnostic, and claim it's impossible to know anything for sure.

Slacker option: just become an atheist. (of course, then she'll just ask a zillion questions about other things, some answerable, some not)

Trigger warning. Edpo. Brag alert: I've still got a headache... but apparently, Broccoli does not, because while he whined about being tired while doing math earlier today, he did just bring me a long division problem to check while I was on the toilet, and got the correct answer. :) 5383/3=1794R1. And then he proceeded to check his own work by adding, and messed up the addition. :( ETA: Reported! (gosh, I keep forgetting all the things I need to write)

#! (I know, that's a shebang... close enough though, right?)

Totally misread that as nuclear. Which apparently is an anagram for unclear. Huh. Boomyah!

It worked on me, and I didn't even read this until just now! Of course, it just might have been the headache that caused me to go to bed at a decent hour (I just realized you mistyped... I did not go to bed at a recent hour - I went to bed about 30 min after you posted that, not before).

We've been over this before. No eating Dutch babies. #parentofdutchbabies Exactly! It's a local or regional chain (not sure). They also sell roast beef sandwiches (and hot dogs, fries, etc). I just signed the kids up for violin/guitar lessons. Or rather, for a trial lesson. They need to get back to me on that, but I talked to the person on the phone, and filled out the registration form and paid the $20/kid registration fee (so, it's not like we'll be getting free trial lessons, but, that's fine. I'm okay with paying $20 for a trial lesson when lessons start at $30/30 min). And, they rent instruments, so I don't have to worry about buying the 6yo a violin (I probably won't want to worry about until he's big enough for a 1/2 size at least, I'd think... he's probably 1/4 size now, given that I started with a 1/4 size when I'd just turned 8 and he's probably almost as big).

Andersons has 1/2 price ice cream when it's snowing.

((Slache)) So far I'm doing better this morning (I've been awake less than 20 min though).

The kids are asleep, so that's a win. The rest has been going on since Thursday, and no clear end in sight. One of the reasons I went to the grocery store was to get a bunch of gatorade or powerade or w/e, so I'm drinking that. I mean, it's not as bad as on Friday or w/e, but yesterday I really seemed to be getting better, and apparently I'm not. So, let's hope that maybe one of the things I ate happened to have gone bad (I made sandwiches on Tuesday iirc, and then again on Sunday evening, so if it's one of the ingredients in those, I tossed all that were left... one of the things only I ate, and while DW isn't feeling great, she's nowhere near as bad as I am, and might be unrelated (she didn't have any of the sandwiches though... just me and the kids)).

((Jean)) May I recommend Diarrhea? It's great for weight loss, though it does have some less desirable side effects. I don't think I've weighed this little in at least a couple of years though, maybe longer (don't recall; don't care). I threw out anything I thought could possibly be the culprit (since yesterday I seemed to be doing better, and today I'm worse again). I did dare to venture out to the grocery store. And then came back to a flat tire. :cursing: I drove it to the car repair place near the grocery store, and they said they wouldn't be able to get to it for at least 2 hours. I said, fine, since I didn't feel I had much of a choice (I'm sick, I'm not up for coming up with better alternatives at that moment), so they had me sign, and asked for my key, and I said, okay, let me get my frozen food out of the car first. So, I rearrange my bags, and hand them my key, and then they offer me a free ride home. Which seemed like a terrible use of time to me (wouldn't it take just as long for a guy to fix/replace my tire?), but I digress. So, I got all my cold food home, and then DW is upset about my plan to have her bicycle to pick up the car. I get that it's her birthday and all that, and that that route is not bicycle friendly, but... I ended up deciding to walk back to pick it up, because I've done stupider things (hey, why not walk almost an hour when you're sick?... it's less dumb than walking 9 miles home from community college in the summer in Dallas, starting at about 11am... (though realistically, I expected to not walk the entire way back... and I didn't, but I did make it about 3/4 of the way before DW woke up and realized she forgot to pick me up)). Anyway, I managed to make it to the car repair place 15 min before they closed (yay), and then we went out for her birthday dinner, and now the kids are hyper and need to go to sleep already.

N/m. I see there's another thread that has got several pages about this.

I didn't vote since mine are boys, but my Aug birthday is age minus 5, and my Nov birthday is age minus 4 (so, by the end of Nov, it'll be age minus 5). Both are at the grade NY would put them in by their Dec 1st cut-off. The Aug birthday kid actually was in school from just barely 3yo to the end of 2nd grade.

((Jean)) Two of my grandparents had Alzheimers. My grandmother was very gradual, and I don't think she ever forgot who anyone was. My grandfather went downhill fast (after his wife died), and he at some point didn't recognize his kids, nor did he even remember that he'd been married for almost 60 years and had 7 kids. I didn't ever experience that though, because for 10 years I was stuck in the US with an expired passport and no money. It's weird, since it's kind of like they could just as easily still be alive and well... the difference to me is minimal, since we didn't communicate much after I moved to the US. Sometimes I really wish I could talk to some of them about certain things... but, that's obviously not possible.

No, I meant that I was confused about the day your post was from. I get that you call in the evening before. DW hasn't been called up very often either. And they've sent her home every time, mostly because they had enough people, but even if they get to her... being a transwoman with some "out there" kind of opinions means the odds of being selected are zilch. IIRC she'd be okay with being on a jury once... she's definitely not all that amused about them wasting her (and their) time when they're obviously not going to select her anyway. I, of course, don't qualify, because not a citizen.

I thought it was 5pm tomorrow. #behind (though I'm ketchupped now) Boeja!

But what about Celery??? Btw, it's settled. Celery's not excited about any instrument, but if he has to do music, he wants to do guitar. Broccoli was not happy that his instrument exploration class was canceled because he was the only kid who signed up (and neither was I), but he has decided he wants to do violin (Lindsey Stirling playing the Pokémon theme song might have been instrumental in that (but not just Lindsey - he liked some other things too)). So, now I just need to find two teachers, preferably not too far from here, and preferably ones who will do daytime classes (because I have enough to do in the evenings, tyvm). Time to get serious about this music stuff (I'm a little annoyed with myself for dropping the ball on Celery's music stuff in the past, though it wasn't just me... the guy who did group guitar at the homeschool co-op was going to get back to me about private lessons, and then get back to me, and then get back to me, and yada yada, and the other guitar instructor quoted one price, but then after the actual trial lesson added "and this much for this, and that much for that", and I wasn't up for that kind of nonsense (nor did we have the money for it, even if I were up for it... the price they originally quoted was pushing it as was)).

Washing machine button inventor.

Chocolate sales rep is probably a decent job too. Really, there're plenty of choices for future careers.

Someone hoping to deter humans from actually entering the nature area, and therefore disrupting nature? I'm going to guess clean boost is extra agitation (if it's a top loader... I think top loaders agitate, right?). Otherwise, no clue. Of course, there's google, if you want something other than speculation...

At least you've got a wish list. Someone in my household hasn't handed in a wishlist one day before her birthday. Somehow, I think the only thing she's going to get is the water/wind wheel she ordered in August and will arrive a few days after her birthday. Especially since I've been too sick to bother doing anything, really. https://www.waterlilyturbine.com ...and why you should let them grow up to be pharmaceutical sales reps for whichever company produces Xanax. (btw, xanax is a terrible choice for this kind of scenario, since it's relatively short-acting)

I know, I know... Jean wasn't talking about elementary school aged kids.

And Broccoli is 6, and apparently not super prodigious in writing.