Months ago I decided to make quilt for my son, and posted about it here. Then I messed around not working on it much, just not feeling motivated. Then I realized his birthday is next week and I needed to get in gear if I wanted to make it a birthday present. Working on as deadline really motivated me, and I May actually get it done in time. It’s quilt as you go, and all of the blocks are finished now. I still need to connect them with sashing, then bind the finished quilt. And make a label.

I’m in Texas, and many people refer to their parents as “Mama” and “Daddy” well into adulthood, including me. But it does seem to be changing. My younger siblings call our parents Mom and Dad more often, even to their faces, which feels unnatural to me. I feel like a slight digestion/clarification is needed here: Mama and Daddy are like their proper noun names to me, so if I’m referring to them to someone else I might say “Mama says” if Mama could be replaced by her name, but if I’m using it like their common noun title, preceded by “my” I’ll use mom and dad - “my mom says”. And which I’d use depends on how well I know the person I’m talking to, because yes, I realize that some people think it’s weird for a 40+ year old woman to call her father “Daddy”. My kids call us Mom and Dad mostly now, even though my husband and I still refer to ourselves/each other as “Mama” and Daddy - like “go ask your Mama”. But I never call my husband Daddy in direct address, because that would be weird. He’s my kids’ daddy, not mine. And so I regularly have to make the same clarification my mom had to make to me: “I was talking to Daddy the other day - my Daddy, not yours “.

In my house, they might be under a teenager’s mattress. That’s where I found 3 spoons once. One of the spoons wasn’t ours, was a cheap thin soup spoon. Said teenager denied all knowledge of (a) why the spoons were there and (b) where the odd spoon came from. 🙄 I suspect the odd spoon came from the school cafeteria, but don’t really know.

I live rurally. I have the 5-7 day delivery, though for awhile I had 2 day, and sometimes near the holidays I get 2 day, which is frustrating because it means they can do it if they want to.

Is she eating on a regular sort of schedule? I know in college my eating habits were irregular, and it made me nauseous to go too long without eating, then I wouldn’t be able to eat much when I did eat. has she been to any developing countries for mission trips or travel? This is probably not the problem, but when I lived in Ecuador I got some parasitic amoebas that would make me throw up after meals. Not every time, but particularly after rich meals or if I got up and was active, even just a little, after a meal. I’m not sure if intestinal parasites would occur to most American doctors right off, especially if she didn’t mention any travel.

If she’s getting reinfected at home, it could be that others in the household also have lice ( but don’t know it or treat it), or relatives/friends they see often. When my kids had lice in early elementary it was nerve wracking. For two weeks I was using the little zapper comb and then the nit comb on all three every day, and daily running pillows through the dryer, washing jackets and hats, etc. Luckily they didn’t get reinfected once we got rid of them, or I might have lost my mind.

https://www.vegan-magazine.com/2013/08/24/vegan-recipe-quick-three-bean-soup/amp/ this is a soup my family has enjoyed (and we are not vegan, so it’s hard for me to slip in more plant based meals). The recipe is a lot of opening cans, mostly, though it calls for diced onion and garlic, too, and mixed vegetables, which could be frozen from a bag. I don’t know what the fat content of the jarred garlic is, but would something like that help? Or I think you can buy pre-diced onions in the frozen section. I would be going with anything pre-prepped that you can, including the chicken you mentioned. You could even dice onions ahead and leave them in the fridge for her.

Canned goods like veggies, I’d be comfortable with a year. Canned tuna or other meats, not so much. Maybe a few months. They might be safe, I just don’t want to chance it. i have found that canned milk products actually degrade in quality quite noticeably, so no more than a month or so on those.

Ok, see, to me, all of those words rhyme. Clock and walk rhyme just fine.

I would definitely encourage/not discourage my teen from quitting. But it might be worth the teen first trying to have a frank conversation with the manager about the lack of responsiveness to scheduling requests, saying basically what HomeAgain suggested above, but also “If you are willing to accommodate my requests I can stay, but if not, I will be handing in my notice.” There’s chance that the boss will say, “well, if you can’t work the hours we’ve already asked for, we don’t need you “. But maybe they will realize the benefits of keeps the teen and be more accommodating, which seems like a win-win. It could be worth a shot, and definitely good practice for the teen in advocating for what they want and need.

I can’t follow football. I don’t know if it’s because I can’t follow the ball, or just don’t care about it enough, so I zone out and lose track of what’s happening. Even when my own child is on the field. When he started playing it felt like a prison sentence. I must sit on these uncomfortable bleachers and be bored out of my mind for years, and hope the other boy doesn’t decide it’s what he wants to play, too. I’ve tried to care. I can’t. I can follow basketball, which was my high school’s big sport. I can actually follow and enjoy baseball. But football, I just don’t get it.

Oh man, me too🙄

Yeah, when I was in high school, PE was basketball, track, and cross country practice. I thought of myself as “un athletic” for years, well into adulthood, because I hated PE. I would walk the track, or mess around lifting in the weight room, with the other non-sports girls, bit a lot of the time, we just sat out. We asked to do aerobics or tae Bo videos, but nothing ever came off it. Outside of school, I loved riding my bike, hiking, and roller skating. Only when I was grown did I realize that there are lots of athletic activities I enjoy, I’m just not into team sports or running. I’m happy that at my kids ‘ school, band does count for PE credit, and the band teacher is much more careful about listening to the kids when they say an activity hurts, and doesn’t make them march if they’re having ankle/knee/etc pain.

We had a child evaluated for learning disabilities and it cost $800. I’ve researched stand-alone ADHD testing in my area and it is at least $500. Most families I know cannot afford that testing. And everyone is assuming that there are diagnosable issues. In our case there weren’t . I mean, yes, issues, but not serious enough or fitting under the category of “learning disability”. Not every kid that has problems that keep them from doing well in school is going to be eligible for help or accommodations, and to a low-income family, if the first eval came out like that, I can’t imagine they’d want to spend more money they don’t have to get a second opinion. A family that can barely afford gas for their car or rent is not going to be in a position to make multiple outlays of several hundred dollars, no matter how much they love their kids and want to see them succeed.

We went in to fostering hoping to adopt eventually, but not trying to foster only children eligible to adopt. We thought we’d probably have several placements before that happened. In fact, when my dc first came to live with us, we were told that it was a short-term placement, and they would go home in a couple of months. That did not happen. basically, you never know with foster care. Things can turn on a dime. Our situation turned out to lead to adoption, but I’ve seen several others that looked like they were heading for adoption suddenly turn to reunification or adoption by a family member. It can be hard on foster families.

When I fostered, I did go buy a few secondhand books before I had a placement, and a few toys just to have something to entertain them right away. We only ever ended up fostering the two we adopted, so my experience is limited, but they did enjoy being read to very much, and I think it’sa good idea.

Yes, I prefer to try and buy in person after a couple of pairs I ordered online ended up being as tight as leggings almost, and I had to return and size up.

I wear joggers. In the winter I have some thick fleece ones, and in the summer I wear a pair made from thinner athletic fabric. I don’t have any that are Capri length, but I know they exist, and of course there are shorts that are basically cut off joggers like These)

I breastfed in public in Texas and neighboring parts of New Mexico, in a generally conservative area, and no one ever said anything, one way or the other. I covered, so while nothing was showing, it was obvious what I was doing. I would say most women breastfeed for at least a little while here. Now, it’s definitely not the level of comfort with breastfeeding that they have in Ecuador, where I saw a woman on a bus flip down the top of her tube top to breastfeed a toddler and no one batted an eye. No one ever covered there while breastfeeding. But it’s not a less oppressive culture in regards to patriarchy and sexual harassment on the street was considered normal and expected in a way I’ve never experienced in the US.

I didn’t feel any sensation of a switch turning off, but I did not enjoy pregnancy, and there were complications when my youngest was born. After I was out of surgery and we were back in the room, holding my new baby, I looked my husband in the eyes and told him very firmly that I did not ever want to birth another child from my body. I’ve never had a change of heart on that. As time went on, I also. . .just felt like three was enough. I couldn’t be as good a mom to more. Maybe I could rise to the occasion if I needed to, but I don’t want to need to. I don’t know, I just never hold a baby and think “Aww, I want another one of these”, even though people assume that I do/should. There was a brief period of time where I did.

I love cumin in Mecican picadillo. It Can be made into burritos or served over rice. This recipe is similar to what I do but I use a chopped tomato, not tomato sauce, and probably twice as much cumin. Also a jalapeño or two. https://houseofyumm.com/mexican-picadillo/ I also use it in green Chile stew (but again, more than this recipe calls for, like a tablespoon). https://www.food.com/amp/recipe/authentic-new-mexico-green-chile-stew-277862

I spent much of my late teens and early twenties doing things to my hair that my parents didn’t care for. It’sa good age for experimenting and hair does grow back (and in the case of lines like that, pretty fast. My DS just got a cut with lines , and it’s pretty high maintenance. But he’s also talked about wanting a mullet so I count my blessings.) so I try not to worry about that sort of thing. If I’m asked beforehand I’ll give an opinion, followed by “but it’s your hair.” If I’m not asked, I’ll try not to comment. And being critical afterwards is non-productive, but I also try never to lie, so I might say, “Well, it’s not to my taste but you know better than I do what’s people your age like,” or something along those lines. i do like that hairstyle, on someone else. My wavy/curly hair would probably not work so well with that. And that is one thing that I had to learn slowly and painfully during that period of experimentation - that some things I really wanted my hair to do, it just wasn’t going to do. And also like someone said, if you have very short hair and don’t wear makeup often, and maybe also don’t dress very feminine, lots of people may get the mistaken idea that you’re a lesbian. Maybe some of them will be boys that you like.

I know of one person who believes that. He’s a little off in other ways. His wife doesn’t agree with him about it and just sort of rolled her eyes when it comes up.

For eggs I use a Gotham Steel pan, one of those copper colored ones. They are ceramic nonstick. At first it was the best nonstick pan I’ve ever used. Then a kid who shall remain nameless burned food onto it, and it was not so great for a bit. But now it’s back to normal, though not as great as it was at first. But it has lasted way longer (three years? Four years?) than any of my other nonstick pans, except one made in the USA by a now-defunct company. When it gets too scratched, I’ll buy another Gotham Steel pan for sure.

Thanks so much! Gives me a much better idea of where to start. I am not worried overmuch about hiding the gap; this non profit is one I already volunteer for and the director who is mostly in charge of hiring already knows. But at least the president of the board will also need to see the resume. how far back is it reasonable to go for work experience?