*update 10/19* The good news is that the boiler has been replaced. We have heat! The bad news is that we likely need several thousand dollars worth of chimney repair. 🤮 Seriously, you can't make this stuff up... Homeownership! It's the gift that keeps giving.... 😭😭😭😭😭 ************************* I called my steam heat boiler guy yesterday to schedule service and to help me diagnose what I thought was a leak in the system. After testing, turns out it isn't a leak but a cracked boiler. We're going to need to replace it. The estimate just came via email... $9k. 😱😭😭😭 So far this year, we've had to replace the washer & dryer and the refrigerator. I don't think the dishwasher is going to last much longer (just under 5 years old). DS11 has an appt for x rays and molds for braces at the end of the week. My car was in the shop three times in August. It's been one thing after another! Ugh! (We are all alive, healthy, and financially stable, so I know that things could be MUCH worse.) </pity party>

My library regularly has a table of 'lonely' or 'forgotten' books that haven't been checked out for a long time. They display them prominently and write up a synopsis for each book. They plainly state that the books that aren't borrowed will eventually be sent to the book sale. I miss the book sale. The library had serious damage due to a burst pipe over a weekend last August (2019), and we haven't had the semi-annual book sale since. 😞

DS24 did not attend college. He may have gone to the local community college if we had pushed (read: done the applying and other work for him), but honestly, getting him through the public high school was hard enough. Plus, we didn't want to push him into something that would continue to be work for us (reminding him to do HW, get to class on time, etc). He works now, mostly part-time, and still lives here. I am sorry that I don't have any wise words to share, but I did want to tell you that his senior year was very hard *on me*. Lots of my friends were posting their kids' college acceptance letters and other, typical end-of-year honors and awards and...it still hurts when I think about all the things that I could not brag about or join in with. I know that it sounds small and petty, but I couldn't help it. Just an FYI.

This is my life. Plus, four extremely LOUD sons under 12 underfoot. So. Much. Noise. I have taken to telling my children that "my ears are tired". They know that means to leave me alone.

I will be teaching two mathematics classes this fall at the University using Pearson MyLab. Is that what's being offered?

I just listened to this audiobook - while walking in the morning and while knitting at night. I really enjoyed it, and am waiting to listen to their other book, on Thomas Jefferson's daughter. I've always been more interested in topics when presented through a female lens.

We let the birthday person pick what's for dinner (I make them their favorite dinner). They also get to request their favorite cake/cupcake flavor and ice cream (which I make if I can or buy if I can't). We have dessert and presents with just us, and sometimes my parents and/or my brother's family join us, if they can make it (they are local). DH always asks if I would prefer to order my own birthday dinner/cake, rather than have to cook on my birthday, but no one makes my favorite carrot cake as well as I do! My MIL (the kids call her Amah) takes the birthday kid out to eat (usually Friendly's or Wendy's, their choice) for lunch during her visit one day during the week (she lives over an hour away now). My mother (the kids call her Grammy) takes the birthday kid out to either Chuck E Cheese or the bowling alley on the weekend. Of course, this only applies to the younger boys - DS24 just wants the dinner, cake, and money thankyouverymuch. My oldest always had big birthday parties, with all the family and friends invited, but then I had four more kids, three of whom have birthdays within 30 days of each other. It just got to be too much.

We start first week of September and go through mid-June. We take off the entire week of Thanksgiving, the two whole weeks around Christmas/New Years, and both the February and April school vacation weeks. If DH had a "regular" job, we would school year round with regular weeks off, but he's a public school teacher and he just expects that we will follow the public school schedule. I've modified it a bit, in that we don't take off Monday holidays because it throws off my kids to have a week that isn't five days. However, I have been known to yell at kids still in bed, "We are only doing math today - get in the car and let's go to the beach!" FWIW, (pre-pandemic) I *always* plan a museum trip on the first Monday back after a school vacation week - there are rarely any school field trips and the museums are pretty empty.

Well, my BFF and I started ordering from a local restaurant supply company in April and I now buy King Arthur Flour by the 50lb bag, rather than the 10 or 12 lb bags that I used to get at BJs. I am saving $0.10/lb, which isn't that much, but I no longer have to store bags of flour wherever they would fit all over the house (there is very little food storage/cabinet space in my kitchen, and we are a family of seven) because I bought a plastic 50lb dog food storage container WITH WHEELS to hold the bag. It is ridiculous, but it makes me happy. The entire bag stands up in the container, so I just roll it over to the counter and scoop out the flour. It's the little things. 😉

Good idea - I'll check out the craft storage boxes at Michael's. Thanks!

Ha! I've been eyeing those storage organizers, but I don't have anywhere to put one. I'm afraid if I got one and then tried to move it that I would dump the whole thing out! My house is already stuffed to the gills with seven people and all their accompanying bookcases/furniture/toys/school/art/piano/whatever that we have no place to dedicate to this stuff. As tedious as it sounds, I *need* to put the monitor, keyboard, parts, books, etc away (basement? closet? garage?) after each time he uses it. So, I guess I am looking for ideas on the micro-level organization of the parts as well as macro-level storage of the entire kit and caboodle.

DS8 is going to start an electronics/robotics curriculum that has lots of tiny parts. This kid needs lots of help with clean-up of projects and organization of materials. (I am forever picking up books, scissors, legos, robots, and origami from every surface in the house.) Can anyone share their storage and organization set-up for lots of small electronics pieces (and books, tools, raspberry pi, keyboard, mouse, and computer monitor)? Bonus if it can all be put into a container and tucked away at the end of use, as I don't have space to dedicate to it staying out. Thank you very much!

Just double-checking & updating as I take out all the new books and sort them to start soon...

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We use ibuprofen and antihistamines for him during flare-ups, to help bring down the inflammation. For me, I use copious amounts of chocolate, ice cream, and alcohol.

Ah, nevermind. It doesn't work on the calculators. Sorry.

I haven't really thought about it yet. DH is a public high school teacher, so we are still waiting to see what his school schedule will look like for the fall. His college course is already slated to be taught on-line this fall, so that's one less thing to worry about. The college courses I will be teaching will start on Sept 9th, but I have yet to be told whether they will be in-person, hybrid, or fully online. I'm prepping for online (which I am dreading - I hate video conferencing!). It would probably be in my own best interest to start our homeschool a week or two before that, so everyone is settling in to a routine already. I also have to line up childcare for at least one afternoon (hybrid or online course) and possibly two days (if I have to hold classes in-person), so I should probably get on that. Eek.

I will be the odd person out and say that we unschool kindergarten. I have phonics, handwriting, math, etc workbooks if they *ask* to do school, which they do sometimes, but I don't expect them to do anything schoolish on any given day. So far, with DS8 & DS6, they have listened in on read-alouds, science & history lessons, watched videos, etc, with the older brothers, but I don't schedule for them or expect it. Once 1st grade starts, we schedule all the usual subjects of a classical education, but kindy is very much free play here.

This was our experience, too, and it is much better now. I will say that Stop & Shop's ordering platform is extremely helpful. If you have a rewards card, you can look back at everything that you have ordered for the past 6 months (everything that is available to order online, that is - not everything is available online) and just click on it to add it to your order. Extremely easy!

I picked up a Lazy Susan this morning, but it doesn't seem big enough. I'm going to keep looking for a bigger one.

Good point! Thanks.

It was actually not a smooth installation, as they broke a bracket on the freezer drawer when taking it out (to get it to fit through the kitchen door). They temporarily fixed it, are ordering a replacement, and will fix it permanently as soon as it comes in. It's been 24 hours and the freezer is working perfectly but the fridge is yet to get below 40°f, so I am a bit concerned...

We got a new French-door refrigerator today. Does anyone have any good organizing hacks? I am trying to make it so that the kids only ever have to open the right-side door, so I'm thinking that milk, water, yogurt, ketchup, and the fruit drawer should all go on that side. I was originally thinking about using the large, bottom, full-width drawer for kids' snacks & yogurt, but then they would have to open both doors (which means slamming both doors closed). I was also thinking about using organizing bins in the freezer, though I would really prefer to use things that we already have so as not to buy any more stuff. Has anyone used a turntable/'lazy susan' in their fridge? Any other awesome organizing ideas?

This is excellent advice, and I plan on implementing a set-up like this in the fall! Truth!

So, I just spent the morning calling all the local stores -big box and small appliance- searching all of my in-stock options and decided to order the one I wanted and hope it showed up early. I'm glad I went with the small, local place where we ordered our washer & dryer (they both had to be replaced last month), because the salesman realized that they had a display model, never been plugged in and no marks on it, and he gave me a deal. I could have had it this week, but they will have to remove the doors to get it into my kitchen, so I had to schedule it for next Wednesday. I'm relieved, but nervous. When it's in the kitchen and running, I'll relax. Now, if the universe will let us go more than a month before something *else* needs to be repaired/replaced, that would be awesome.