THIS drives me up a wall. I had SO much more knowledge about general construction stuff and specifically about our project, but I had to go above and beyond to more or less prove that to our contractors before they'd even get close to talking to me about the project the same way they talked to DH about it. OP - contractor stuff is so frustrating. I've half-jokingly played with the idea of getting trained and licensed to be a GC, and then just do good business (like regular communication). What is it about construction or people who are drawn to construction that it so often involves such terrible communication? Is there any other industry that seems to have such an endemic communication problem?

In the CCs, you should carry one and DH the other, that way if something happens to either of y'all's wallet/bag/whatever, y'all will still have an uncompromised cc with you.

Not sure what you've tried, but I've had good luck with OxiClean on other items. I do a combination of scrubbing them with paste (powder with just enough water to mix it and apply with an old toothbrush) and letting them soak in solution (hot water with just enough powder to dissolve).

He's going now. The rough day was the last day he had last week, and I've already started prepping him for today. And I'll look into that resource. I forgot to answer your other question - his language is fine. In fact his sense of debate may be overly developed?

This version of the nonsense is part of a larger pattern of nonsense. It may very well be that he is bored, but it's also combined with must-not-agree-with-mom-about-anything-ever. I've asked him if he wants to do school with me (yes) and what he wants to learn (how to write). So we tried some, but all he wanted to do was argue with me over how to write each letter. I've tried all sorts of things with this kid, but he doesn't want my help and so things go one of two ways: he can't do it on his own and gets super frustrated, screaming and throwing things; or he can do it on his own and he gets bored with it and squirrels it away in his room (like the Hotel California, lots of stuff in, NOTHING out). The above, plus other nonsense, for months on end, is how I ended up enrolling him in preschool last month, which has mostly been fine, until the day he decided he didn't want to go and I got to carry him in screaming and thrashing.

Nonsense is exactly what it is, and I am so over it. If the blank plate thing doesn't work out, this is what I'm doing. Big ugly squares of wood screwed straight into the wall, over all 5 outlets in his room.

Yeah, I think we're going to end up going with that. We've got a friend who can help us safely cap the wires inside, and then I think we're going to use screws with a hexagon head. Obviously I don't give my kids screwdrivers (especially not this one), but he's resourceful, which will surely be a good thing one day. But today is not that day.

Are you talking about something like this? https://www.amazon.com/Safety-1st-OutSmart-Outlet-Shield/dp/B01BTUNG0K/ref=sr_1_17?keywords=childproof+outlet+cover&qid=1551631305&s=gateway&sr=8-17 And yeah, I'd be fine having no outlets in there. But I'm not sure we'll be able to find an electrician to do work that's specifically not up to code (requires an outlet every n feet). I'm sad that we're approaching prison cell territory with this kid. 😢

My 4 year old has taken to stuffing tiny things in the grounding hole of outlets. I think we managed to extract everything he's put in, and tried to find any other tiny things he has. And they are newer outlets that don't activate unless both of the holes have equal pressure applied (so in theory, only electrical plugs). I'm concerned that this incident has just further fueled his curiosity. Also, he's in a phase of wanting the opposite of whatever DH and I want, and the more we want it, the more he is opposed to it. So though we've tried to tell him how serious this is, I'm worried that when he's alone in his room, he's just going to want to play with it more. I've considered just leaving the electricity to his room turned off (it's on a separate breaker than the HVAC, and there's a light in the hall right outside his room that would still work), but it leaves my dd's room off as well, and I don't think that's fair to them. For reference, this kid can open childproof medicine bottles, so I need something nearly impossible to get to. Any ideas?

Preach Where’s the giant tiny violin emjoi when you need it? (Can you tell I’m bummed about no more giant emojis? They never even worked for me, but sometimes big emotions need big emojis, amiright)

I'm at about 50/50 in the last couple of years on books being in the condition described, which is annoying. I'm picky about which used listing I click. I look for ones in Very Good or Like New condition, that specifically say there are no markings. Even with that, 50/50.

Just this past weekend I heard about the Slave Bible, used in the 1800s, so a little more recent than your examples. https://www.npr.org/2018/12/09/674995075/slave-bible-from-the-1800s-omitted-key-passages-that-could-incite-rebellion

And if not, hibernation is a good option, no? Obviously, this is just hypothetical.

Does that mean that bad attitudes and I-don't-want-tos and it's-not-fairs will dissolve at midnight? Because I'll toast to that! Where's the giant champagne emoji when you need it?

... shake our fists at February together? School has been like pulling teeth this week, and it's only Thursday morning. Last Friday I called a surprise holiday, and we went to the movies. Today I let my kids have a pajama day (we don't do this too often, as we usually have errands, and it just makes it harder to get them to get dressed on other days), and they automatically assumed that meant no school. Now I've got whining about how *not fair* it is that they have to do school. And it's so difficult, because I get it. I don't want to do school either. But I know how much we need to get done each school year, and if we keep dragging our feet and taking breaks when the weather's gross, then we're going to be stuck doing school when the weather's nice. *shakes fist*

Sorry - quoted too soon - I spend too much money on craft supplies. I can juggle. I like cold brew coffee.

see next post

And I thought photosynthesis. Too highbrow for this thread? 😂 Throw me a bone ... 🍖 🍗 (of course I had to test it)

It is very similar. We switched from Evernote to OneNote because Evernote changed their free account to limit how many devices it could be installed on, and we were over the limit.

Another vote for OneNote. It's free and syncs across all of our (Apple) devices. I also like that I can group like things together; Pages (a single "note" of any size) group into Sections, and Sections group into Notebooks.

This morning DD8 put two smaller dryer balls on top of a larger one and said, "Hey Mom, look!" Me: "Nice! It's Mickey Mouse." DD8: *eye roll* "Mooooom. It's a CO2 molecule." Well, alright then.

Also when you create your account, click through every security/sharing page and check every setting. There are so many of them (both pages and settings), and Facebook seems to change this up pretty frequently, so I can't really speak to the current iteration. But it's worth the time and hassle to check every setting, and then to go back and check them again every few months (I'm probably due up), thanks to the aforementioned frequent switching by Facebook.

I had a similar problem sometime last year. I found this video about self-massage drainage https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QA-wi0d7-Ro It seemed a little too woo-woo for me, but I got pretty freaked out by the hearing loss, and so I gave it a try. It worked. Obviously this is only anecdotal, but it doesn't cost anything, doesn't take very long, and is very low risk, so maybe worth a try?

You don't happen to be trying to work with a toddler do you? https://www.facebook.com/honesttoddler/photos/a.442230055906385/609179572544765/?type=1&theater So sorry you're dealing with a difficult situation (person).

When you're putting things back together, you can frame that ledge with just enough slope for all of the water to drain off it; then tile it.