We're car camping in a friend's yard, so yes 🙂 Getting home afterwards seems like the biggest hassle so we might fake them out by going north then cutting over to the coast. Gazeteer, take me home!

She's still on her two waitlists. Both of the admins sent her very kind letters in response to her initial inquiry and one of which said she was first on the waitlist. April 15 is the last day for admitteds to commit, so still waiting..... In about a half hour she defends her current Master's thesis - I'm about to start frenziedly stacking wood and wait to hear how it went. Editing to say: she passed with flying colors.

This is pretty great!

A friend and I were just debating whether this could be visible yesterday - how interesting!

Ds and I are doing a workshop in Vermont over the weekend then driving partway home and stopping overnight. We'll then drive 1.5 hours north into the totality path. I'm a little concerned about traffic but more concerned about the snowstorm coming tomorrow leaving heavy wet snow across the northern part of the state and whether all the folks who have booked hotel rooms will be able to arrive safely.

I found a new membrillo recipe last year that was much less work than the one I usually use: https://www.daringgourmet.com/membrillo-quince-paste/ Still a ton(ne) of sugar but less time-consuming. You could do what they recommend at the end and dry it out more and slice it to make a candy - it's delicious without being rolled in more sugar. I've also made quince sauce similar to applesauce. It's yummy as is but can also be added to fruit crisps for flavor and as the only sweetener. https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/quince-stew-em-choroshte-be-em-51109810 looks more flexible - could be used with venison I think. https://theediblewoman.co.uk/lamb-stuffed-quince-recipe-by-ottolenghi/ the lamb recipe from Ottolenghi that looks lovely but also time consuming.

Have they always been this way? If not, could it be a symptom of emerging depression?

You are amazing! Today I stacked about 3 cords of wood which I thought was going to be an arm workout but is really more abs/back/legs - will lift some weights while I watch a show.

Ours was processed last week. I was worried that the changes to business ownership reporting would ding us hard but I can't tell if it made any difference. Now we'll wait for the aid offer to see if anything really changed.

From the retired side - why do I have all these glue sticks? Plus Mod Podge, Elmer's, wood glue, glitter glue, model glue, and other post-homeschooling artifacts to ponder...🙂

Here's a pic from when all of my kids and I went to look for the comet on Easter evening. We did see it but had to wait til it was darker.

Drove another 8 hours today. Arms/dumbbells video.

Same! She had a hard time leaving but the next 7 weeks will go fast.

Love brings love.

I was inspired by the peach cake but still wanted lemon so I made this https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017151-lemon-almond-butter-cake?unlocked_article_code=1.g00.gnum.dwK108642j5h&smid=share-url Happy Easter!

It's going better. After my very blah week I have a lot more energy. I've been doing some fitbymyk videos while it pours rain nonstop. I found a combination of a 30 minute one for lower body plus a 20 minute standing dumbbell one that is leaving me just right. The weather is breaking today so hoping to get outside.

Amen.

Quoting myself to say: that didn't take long! https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-trad-wife?

Returning love after what you received = really beautiful. Inspiring!

The biggest costs for us were during high school. Kindergarten and the early grades were more or less free; I think I would have bought the same books had they been in school. Math books were the difference, I guess. We traveled a bit when the older two were young which would not have happened if they were in school so that was certainly more expensive. Youngest did some outsourced classes starting in middle school, and seeing how many people outsource now that is likely to be a cost to her unless she makes a decision not to. Three of mine did DE which was a large cost. The local LAC has a program for people in the county to pay $1,000 for a class. The closest community college and state university are an hour away, which would have been cheaper but logistically out of the question. One kid cost way more than the others for everything music-related: lessons, travel to lessons, instrument rental. As a teen dd put on fundraisers and received scholarships to attend music festivals which would have otherwise been thousands of dollars. However, I'm unsure whether that would have been a cost if she had been in school as I don't think she would have had time or focus to get to the level required (obviously plenty of school kids do achieve that level but that probably wouldn't have worked for this particular kid.) The investment in this level of music paid off with an all-expenses full ride through college/conservatory, but the costs during homeschool were serious. I think that not putting mine in school insulated us from certain peer-related expenses. None of them asked for things they might have seen and wanted at school, other than youngest wanting "skinny jeans" that she saw the other homeschooled girls wearing. They didn't drive until they were 17 or 18, none had phones before 16.

Up here they are seeking vernal pools, but my girls saw one last night jump into a fast-flowing little stream and zip along, then she crawled out and kept marching. Yellow-spotted salamanders, wood frogs, and fairy shrimp are the obligate species for a true vernal pool definition here, though I know other locations use different ones for theirs. We have all three in the wetland behind our house and I love to think of the frogs and salamanders trekking and hopping their way across the yard at night to the water. Blue-spotted salamanders are also part of the local vernal pool definition but I don't usually see those. Easter is the first sunny day in the forecast so that afternoon we expect to first hear the wood frogs, who sound just exactly like ducks quacking. Peepers will follow within about a week.

Not dumb at all! Last night we just walked onto the road from our driveway and assisted 40 yellow-spotted salamanders over the road. We also helped 6 wood frogs - they are just starting to thaw out and I bet we will see lots of them tonight. We also saw quite a few wood frogs squished by cars, sad. They all move after dark, hiding from predators, towards water. The majority of the salamanders we saw were closest to where a culvert goes under the road, heading for the giant wetland behind our house. We went out at 8 and by ten were seeing fewer of them but they will move all night.

Agree, plus the local real estate agents all have rental departments on their websites.

A dollar says he gets it 😊

It's happening! Amphibians here are thawed out (yes, the wood frogs freeze to overwinter, their blood contains an anti-freeze-like substance) and are making their move to vernal pools and ponds. It's a bit of a party here, with folks out monitoring, watching, and waving to cars to slow down. Tell me about your vernal pools! https://mainebignight.org/