Good morning and happy Monday! coffee schooolwork work out throw the hockey gear outside? There's no sun, but there is a stiff breeze turn in notes wash sheets plan dinner get ds through his homework violin set up the week calendar when available paint the WE first aid bags

My kids have nicknames they use in their daily life. One got his as a baby and it just stuck. One was given his as a teen due to the range of voices he can make. He's my sensible, quiet, one, and imagine him being called something like Porky or Taz, which makes no sense whatsoever until he opens his mouth. His given name cannot be shortened well (it's short enough already, like John), but this fits him pretty well.

But the OP's son expressed interest in being a truck driver before it was sent. I don't see this as pushing a child into the trades when they're desiring to go to college. My kid expressed interest in being a storm chaser when he was about 13 or 14. His scoutleader sent an email to both of us about a weather/storm class about a month or two later.

I would use Writing Tales for the 9yo, beginning with level 1, moving to level 2, and then IEW. Writing Tales is very gentle and begins with retelling stories, but gives plenty of assistance in the task, including sentence strips, numbering work, and filling in gaps. It's only two levels, but I would not move on to their suggestion (Classical Writing) and would do something clearer and more structured instead, overlapping some of the previous work. I'd start the 11yo on IEW level A, and add in a spelling program. IEW begins with retelling skills and quickly moves on to developing vocabulary and structure. Get the student resource notebook with it to reinforce the skills. It'll let her write as much as she wants but with guidelines helping her to rein it in a bit.

@Dmmetler Terrible for the fridge to go out today! I hope it's a quick fix when you get a repairman in and not a total loss. We had ours go out last summer. It was a small part that helped regulate that went on the fritz. $200 for a repair bill was nicer than a lot more than that for a whole new fridge.

Everyone decided to skip the hike today. It's a perfect day for it but the lack of will is real. DS14 is out burning sticks, ds25 is doing laundry. I am enjoying some quiet.

I honestly don't know how previous generations managed it all. I am exhausted with a very scaled back version. Dh doesn't celebrate most holidays with us so all the trappings fall to me while he goes to work. Ds hunted for eggs. It took him a while to find them all. We made paper airplanes, had some family time. Each of us went and did homework. Let me just have this one and say I hate professors who assign junk. In week 1's packet was the requirement to take a selfie and caption it with 4 things about ourselves. Week 2 has a requirement to upload audio about ourselves to go with the selfie. This is for a science class. DS is playing basketball with friends who were also sent outside after too much sugar. I'm not looking forward to the hike, making dinner, and orchestrating everyone into an activity.

Not in this case. The kid is obnoxious, but not dangerous. He's been on his "last warning" for a long while, and behavior has become worse and more colorful. It doesn't endanger anyone, he's just been a git with an active vocabulary and his parent/leadership don't do anything until it's ticking off the wrong people. If it had been my kid, there would have been immediate tomato staking so that there was very little leeway to be in a position to antagonize others or run his mouth. He would have been allowed to be in to do the activity with parent right there, leave immediately after without social time, 2-deep leadership in any part of the activity that required him to work with others. Any outburst or running his mouth would have led to a suspension for a week to help develop self control. There wouldn't have been the ability for several other parents to express their frustrations repeatedly about my child's unchecked behavior during the social time while I sat talking with friends and the leaders left them alone. On the flip side of concerns, this is a young teen who feels ostracized in many areas of his life, has an active imagination and fuel for his ideas, has parents with appreciation for weaponry, and is now losing the one activity that tolerated him and had mild aptitude with. The kid is not dangerous....right now. His life overall is not healthy.

Thanks. I mulled over what you wrote and decided that's the most I could do, but I also don't want to encourage the fight. I just sent the papers to the family with "this is what you should expect in your interactions with them." If they get read, the parent/child will know. If not, everything was given to her (which is one of the things the organization was required to do to inform them of their rights).

Yes, it is. I think 12 is usually right in the age range of when children seek out mentors and outside influence as well. How do you define ideal relationships between aunts/uncles and their nieces/nephews?

I do prefer cooking over gas rather than induction. I feel like I have more control over the temperature fluctuation than I do with induction. It's also nice to have that extra source of energy during a storm. However, my lungs are terrible, with a bit of scar tissue and very sensitive to disruptions in the air, so a gas stove isn't the healthiest thing in the world for me. It's why we use a lot of cast iron and things that hold heat well when cooking longer, so I can turn down the heat or turn it off completely after a while. The one nice thing about our previous induction stove wasn't anything to do with cooking, it was a glass cover that came down over it. Not possible with a gas stove, but it made a nice level area that was used as extra counter space in our small kitchen.

Thanks. The parent is feeling like they are being railroaded, but doesn't know it's not the correct procedure. They just think this is the way these things go when someone is kicked out. And also, this is the sort of thing that doesn't happen so it's rare enough that procedure is only on paper, not through anyone else's experience.

I know a kid who did some awful things, bad enough to get kicked out of the program he's in. There's no question he did them, or that they were wrong, or that safeguards against it were the equivalent of Willy Wonka saying "no....don't" from all adults involved except the parents of the other kids. He should be kicked out. It never should have gotten to that point if they had effective leadership or effective parenting. A combination would have been ideal. BUT The organization is a hot mess of donkey poo and isn't going about it the right way. They are not providing the child/parent the rights that are set forth by the governing body and the steps seem to be very muddled, giving a clear green light to the organization to let them sweep their part under the rug. I know this, because I have read every by-law and document that has been made available and what is happening is a blazing red flag. I can share the documents and information, and if it comes to light that the organization did not provide proper notification/list of rights to the child/parent, the child could be let back in and the same thing could happen again. I could not share the documents, the child/parent could find out anyway, and fight, and be let back in. If I tell the leadership (the very same two adults who enabled a toxic environment for ds, who we warned the organization about, and who are straight up ineffective again this year and leading this inquiry), they could change course now and get back on track according to the by-laws. I don't want the kid in and I don't want to open a dialogue with those two. Which is the lesser of two evils here?

We are all worn out here, and dh is working today. Today will be very low key, I think. coffee hide the eggs watch ds hunt for them after he wakes up Godspell lunch make giant paper airplanes go on a 3-5 mile hike dinner: chicken and noodles. We scaled way back and changed direction after I got some great deals at the grocery store. Disney Jeopardy family time

Is anyone doing so today or is it a day of rest?

I will be living vicariously through so many of y'all's travels! We have very little planned this year: Florida for spring break, New York for ds's summer camp, and maybe a trip to New Hampshire for a weekend. Nothing too exciting, and mostly a lot of driving.

I wonder if it's a cultural difference? I've texted my niece/nephew privately before. I have a relationship with them as an aunt, and touch base with them every so often to keep up that relationship. I want them to feel like they could tell me anything and have an adult to talk to that's not their parent. This sounds like it's running deeper than a text about a career field your son might be interested in later. Is there more undercurrent between you and your SIL?

Hey! I didn't know there were little hockey emojis! 😀 They played fast and fierce today, given it was a rematch of a particularly awful game a few weeks ago. Home turf, and they made them play their style. I was very proud of them, but it was also so tense that I am exhausted from the hour of sitting on the edge of my seat. A still undefeated, magical season for them that will never be repeated in their lives. Oh, and the kid mine beat the stuffing out of during practice? Coach had a bit of candidness last night and remarked that the kid had it coming, and he's not sad it was ds that finally broke character to do it. But - it does seem to have changed something. The kid is being VERY nice to ds and trying to be friends, so maybe it's just a language I don't fully understand. Boys.

The day is completed. DS's team moves to the championship game next weekend.

Last night's potluck went surprisingly well. There was plenty of food left over, since the kids all made do with gatorade, chips, and brownies, wiping the table clean of them. Today: laundry wash dishes wrap coaches' gifts (picture books of all the kids this year) pack the car up w/Prime, coaches' gifts, hockey bag/sticks/etc, extra Box O' Crap, and first aid kit. make a late lunch of chili (option of chips or tater tots) ds's game Forced Family Fun Time? Maybe. It depends what time we get home.

I am of the opinion that you should never get more expensive suitcases than you are willing to let the airline destroy. I go to Marshall's and get the $130 range set of large, small, carry on. We actually did splurge for a nicer set for oldest ds when he started traveling. United ripped off one of the wheels on his last trip (they managed to bend/break the entire underside). He went and bought a $100 suitcase from Marshall's to replace it. Our "just in case" is a large L.L.Bean duffel in bright, bright yellow. It's heavy duty and takes abuse, but folds up inside the suitcase just in case we need a spare on the way back. Otherwise known as the dirty clothes duffel in our house. 😂 It leaves room in the suitcase for anything more fragile.

There are pictures out there of the bra and undies found that originated from the 1400s. The design is so incredibly similar to today's uncomfortables that it's unnerving. My faves right now come from Sketchers (yes, the shoe company). Boy shorts, full coverage, seamless, and cheap. I grew up with seamstresses that didn't understand sensory issues and seemed to have patterns modeled after the 1400s. The first thing I did as an adult was look for ones that fit properly and were flat. Every time I find something I like, though, they get discontinued and I have to go on a new hunt all over again.

Italian beds are often very hard. If you can pack a thin mat or air mattress, I absolutely would. Or some muscle cream. It can be a significant change from an American pillow top or memory foam mattress.

I got to sleep late, too! grocery shopping violin laundry email parent bake brownies for this evening take ds to potluck dinner/get together

700 miles? Let the moving company do it. They should pack a box or two in their car, though. We carried air mattresses, bedding, toilet paper, towels, pots, pans, dinner ware, and seasonings. Things we needed more immediately and didn't want to have to dig through boxes for.