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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Aug 26, 2021 12:42:14 GMT -5
Covid has me rethinking activities. I kind of enjoyed not running all over the place. At the same time though, I really need to work to make sure Carrot has a few things to counteract his dad's side influence. His cousins that would be at his dad's the same weekends he was there are in nothing whatsoever and left to kind of free range it around town. The older ones were smoking weed and drinking by age 13 and nobody seems to care that they're doing this either. Carrot is my rebellious one anyhow and it's going to be super tempting for him to just hang with his cousins and play video games and smoke weed. We went to the school kickoff party last night where the tables were all set up for groups and activities and he was pretty "meh" about everything. He also says he doesn't want to do speech team this year because now it's in person instead of over the computer so he's freaking out about speaking in front of people. That's one I wish he would stick with because the school team is phenomenal. Like, 30% of the students are on the team. He is NOT a public speaker at all. We can't even get him to say his name and piece he's playing at piano recitals. It took weeks for me to get him to even say his speech out loud at all last year...just in a room by himself...but by the end he had a 10 minute speech fully memorized and was placing in meets. HUGE improvement. Maybe I'll bribe him. Wait. I'm not wanting to do more stuff. I already forgot that! ROFL
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Aug 26, 2021 16:15:34 GMT -5
With all the school chaos I almost forgot that Abby's birthday is in two weeks. Mom of the year right here because I remembered the Blue October concert which is on that Friday but not her actual birthday. So I have some scrambling and budgeting to do because I need to get her presents. I forgot to shop as I went like I was with Gwen. I at least got the email sent about the cake today. She wants a Roloblox theme cake and I got lucky the perfect one popped up as the first image.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Aug 26, 2021 16:56:10 GMT -5
A mile if there isn't a major highway to cross in there isn't horrible, I would be totally fine with Carrot walking that far (and I wish we were close enough that he could walk home!) He regularly walks to my aunts house next door just for fun which is exactly one mile round trip and it takes him about 20 minutes if he just turns around and comes back. If she has a smart phone you can put a tracker app like Life360 on there. No major highways. It's a straight walk down the main street in the west area of town to our house. It's actually an extremely easy walk once you get used to it. DH acts like she's walking up hill 5 miles both ways barefoot. Sometimes his privilege makes me want to smack him. If I have to hear ONE MORE TIME how much "better" his rich ass lily white school system was compared to mine. I went to a rich ass Lilly white (for the most part) school, and living a mile away, you walked. I lived a mile away, but my SAH mom usually drove me. Now it's not so Lilly white and it's 1.5 miles, which seems excessive for the Littles. We live about 2/3 mile from our middle school, MM is looking forward to walking. I've been driving him to cross country practice though, just cause he's not in shape yet.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Aug 26, 2021 17:13:36 GMT -5
MM is in soccer, which only has practice 1x week and 1 game per week once those start. They have to choose a music class, so he's continuing orchestra. He joined cross country, which I encouraged because he's not great at sports, but seems to have natural stamina for running. Practices, found out this week, are 4x week! Also, he did Lego robotics precovid shutdowns, plus he's interested in engineering, so we checked into robotics club. Practice 1x a week. Until mid September when they'll start practicing 3x a week. His BFF is also doing it, though, and his autistic cousin likely will want to, so I feel like he should do that too, for his cousin's sake if nothing else. Cousin does nothing else, and might back out without MM there. It'll be better end of October when the sports end, I guess (hope).
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Aug 26, 2021 18:49:42 GMT -5
As activities gear back up I'm so annoyed at myself for not doing more in the house and around the yard the last 18 months. What were we doing?!? I don't see how I will ever feel caught up.
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azucena
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Post by azucena on Aug 26, 2021 20:53:43 GMT -5
Rae - I think many of us are feeling that way and it's only natural. However, we were surviving, managing the unknown, caring for our children, home schooling, working, etc. Not to mention feeling exhausted from politics for the prior 4 years, the election, racism, etc. The coulda, shoulda, woulda thoughts aren't helpful or healthy. All we can do is move fwd incorporating what we now know.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Aug 26, 2021 21:02:53 GMT -5
As activities gear back up I'm so annoyed at myself for not doing more in the house and around the yard the last 18 months. What were we doing?!? I don't see how I will ever feel caught up. Same!
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Aug 27, 2021 11:57:05 GMT -5
I'm annoyed about last weekend specifically. We did a quick getaway to Detroit, and our has has been and is a mess. My DH said there will be time to work on it when it's not summer, but I'm over these weekends away. Plus, it didn't get it out of his system--he still wants to go up north. Ugh. Even Detroit didn't have many in masks. Up north was bad even last year. Nobody's going to be wearing them up there now, not to mention--our house is a disaster!
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Aug 27, 2021 12:40:30 GMT -5
I hate coming home to a trashed house. We were gone last weekend, and we definitely left a mess, and my sister who house sits for us added to it.
We just have too much stuff. I swear I keep getting rid of it, but its so hard to actually get ahead of the stuff coming in.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Aug 27, 2021 12:57:34 GMT -5
Lizard Queen - Maybe your husband takes the kids somewhere for the weekend and you stay home? Those are my kind of vacations!
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Aug 27, 2021 12:58:27 GMT -5
We just have too much stuff. I swear I keep getting rid of it, but its so hard to actually get ahead of the stuff coming in. I'm very close to going nuclear and just throwing stuff away. It's the sorting and deciding what to do with things and the guilt over tossing things that is holding me up.
Eta: Especially with clothes. What else can I do with old clothes except use them for rags and how many rags do I need? I can see taking really nice stuff to GoodWill, but my kids don't grow that fast anymore and who wants to buy tshirts that have been worn a LOT and not in great shape anymore?
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Aug 27, 2021 13:11:02 GMT -5
We just have too much stuff. I swear I keep getting rid of it, but its so hard to actually get ahead of the stuff coming in. I'm very close to going nuclear and just throwing stuff away. It's the sorting and deciding what to do with things and the guilt over tossing things that is holding me up. Same. I was thinking today about our exploding art corner. Half a shelf is nice coloring books that of course we don't want to get rid of. But no one but dd has sat down to color in more than a year. If and when we get that bug again, we'll want to buy new books, and fancy pencils and markers. We almost never miss stuff when it's gone.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Aug 27, 2021 13:24:50 GMT -5
I am in the same boat--too much stuff and too many clothes. And toys, and school supplies. I haven't dropped off clothes like I meant to because we went out of town.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Aug 27, 2021 13:59:06 GMT -5
I finally got Sling canceled. I am going to call that a win and ignore everything else.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2021 14:27:17 GMT -5
We just have too much stuff. I swear I keep getting rid of it, but its so hard to actually get ahead of the stuff coming in. I'm very close to going nuclear and just throwing stuff away. It's the sorting and deciding what to do with things and the guilt over tossing things that is holding me up.
Eta: Especially with clothes. What else can I do with old clothes except use them for rags and how many rags do I need? I can see taking really nice stuff to GoodWill, but my kids don't grow that fast anymore and who wants to buy tshirts that have been worn a LOT and not in great shape anymore?
Rag rugs. We had a rag bag for stuff that was too worn to do anything else with. When clothes were ready for the rag bag, it was my job to remove the buttons and zippers. Then clothes went into the rag bag. In the dead of winter in the UP when the temp was -30 and the wind was whipping up a ground blizzard, we'd sit on the living room floor, listening to the radio (how quaint!) and cut old clothes into strips to braid and make into rag rugs. We had a lot of rag rugs.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Aug 27, 2021 14:28:00 GMT -5
We just have too much stuff. I swear I keep getting rid of it, but its so hard to actually get ahead of the stuff coming in. I'm very close to going nuclear and just throwing stuff away. It's the sorting and deciding what to do with things and the guilt over tossing things that is holding me up.
Eta: Especially with clothes. What else can I do with old clothes except use them for rags and how many rags do I need? I can see taking really nice stuff to GoodWill, but my kids don't grow that fast anymore and who wants to buy tshirts that have been worn a LOT and not in great shape anymore?
Old worn-out clothes? Just throw them away.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Aug 27, 2021 14:34:09 GMT -5
I turned several of the girls shirts into headbands. Now we have headbands everywhere but the shirts are gone!
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Aug 27, 2021 14:39:08 GMT -5
I'm very close to going nuclear and just throwing stuff away. It's the sorting and deciding what to do with things and the guilt over tossing things that is holding me up.
Eta: Especially with clothes. What else can I do with old clothes except use them for rags and how many rags do I need? I can see taking really nice stuff to GoodWill, but my kids don't grow that fast anymore and who wants to buy tshirts that have been worn a LOT and not in great shape anymore?
Rag rugs. We had a rag bag for stuff that was too worn to do anything else with. When clothes were ready for the rag bag, it was my job to remove the buttons and zippers. Then clothes went into the rag bag. In the dead of winter in the UP when the temp was -30 and the wind was whipping up a ground blizzard, we'd sit on the living room floor, listening to the radio (how quaint!) and cut old clothes into strips to braid and make into rag rugs. We had a lot of rag rugs. If only I had a sewing machine...and knew how to sew! I probably should just throw them and not keep them around until I get one and learn how. I looked up how to make them on youtube though and they look pretty cool.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2021 14:50:17 GMT -5
minnesotapaintlady Sewing machine? We braided the cloth strips and they were sewn by hand with a heavy duty needle and heavy weight thread. IIRC, the needle was sort of hook-like. If not for thimbles, I'd have had a lot of blisters! We had oval rugs, square rugs, oblong rugs, hall runners. We had braided rugs in front of the kitchen sink, in front of the front and back doors, alongside the beds, instead of bath mats... One of my aunts was so fond of making braided rugs that my uncle used to declare that if she thought he wouldn't notice, she'd have taken down the drapes and made them into braided rugs, too.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Aug 27, 2021 15:07:18 GMT -5
I looked up various ways to do them. I might try it latch hook style. I can handle that. Still need to watch a video on the braided option.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2021 15:30:33 GMT -5
Lizard Queen Trust me. I remember doing this as early as maybe second or third grade. If a kid that young can make the braids and stitch them together, you can, too.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Aug 27, 2021 15:34:53 GMT -5
Lizard Queen Trust me. I remember doing this as early as maybe second or third grade. If a kid that young can make the braids and stitch them together, you can, too. Maybe I can, but do I really want to? The other methods look more appealing. I hand sewed a bunch of boy scout patches, and those were no fun. Did some masks, too. Not fun, either.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Aug 27, 2021 15:52:41 GMT -5
Lizard Queen Trust me. I remember doing this as early as maybe second or third grade. If a kid that young can make the braids and stitch them together, you can, too. Maybe I can, but do I really want to? The other methods look more appealing. I hand sewed a bunch of boy scout patches, and those were no fun. Did some masks, too. Not fun, either. That's where I'm at. I hate that kind of work. I bought Badge Magic to put on the boy scout patches! I still have a cross stitch bib I started for my 19 year old in the end table drawer by my bed.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Aug 27, 2021 15:59:26 GMT -5
minnesotapaintlady Sewing machine? We braided the cloth strips and they were sewn by hand with a heavy duty needle and heavy weight thread. IIRC, the needle was sort of hook-like. If not for thimbles, I'd have had a lot of blisters! We had oval rugs, square rugs, oblong rugs, hall runners. We had braided rugs in front of the kitchen sink, in front of the front and back doors, alongside the beds, instead of bath mats... One of my aunts was so fond of making braided rugs that my uncle used to declare that if she thought he wouldn't notice, she'd have taken down the drapes and made them into braided rugs, too. All of the granddaughters who sewed gave our scraps to my Grandma. We had to buy the rugs she made from our scraps at her "estate" sale. I gladly paid. We realized that my sister and I (who couldn't see each other) were bidding against each other. Dad came over and told me to stop bidding and she'd give me half when I paid her. I got my rugs the same day. Grandma also had a favorite cousin of ours on my mom's side. They shared the same birthday so they always exchanged small gifts. That cousin has given me everything that she knows came from Grandma. It include a pillow made of rag rugs.
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Aug 27, 2021 19:02:46 GMT -5
We don't use paper towels anymore so I keep some raggy clothes for times we have to clean up stuff that is super gross that I don't want to rinse out and wash. But (thankfully) there aren't too many of those, and outgrown clothes have overflowed my cleaning and rag drawers.
I love the idea of rag rugs, but they last forever, and I don't need more. If I could save enough of similar fabric I'd try to knit a blanket out of strips of fabric. In my hours and hours of free time.
We usually buy 2nd hand, and coats and stuff are usually still nice enough to be rehomed, but they wear through a lot of stuff now too. I successfully threw out a pair of dd leggings that were tearing in the thigh seam this morning. And I'm very proud of myself for that.
I would love to make everyone pack up 4-5 boxes of stuff they love, save the piano and dining room set, and put everything else up for an estate sale. Donate or trash anything that doesn't go and move back into a blank slate house.
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Post by empress of self-improvement on Aug 27, 2021 20:19:26 GMT -5
We have a textile recycling company here in MA that WANTS our rags. Guess where most of DH's clothing went? They have dumpsters at most of the schools in my town and the company pays them for the stuff by weight. I just shove them in a bag and take it over when it's full.
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stillmovingforward
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Post by stillmovingforward on Aug 27, 2021 21:07:52 GMT -5
That's what goodwill does with the clothes that are too worn to be sold. They get some good money for it.
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Aug 28, 2021 8:33:20 GMT -5
As activities gear back up I'm so annoyed at myself for not doing more in the house and around the yard the last 18 months. What were we doing?!? I don't see how I will ever feel caught up. Same. I got some stuff done, but not nearly enough.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Aug 28, 2021 21:28:17 GMT -5
Ran around town today looking for a specific calculator for MM. It was on sale for $10, but gone everywhere though most of the places I checked said it was in stock. Finally found 2 pink ones in stock at the Staples not in my town, but one town over. The guy there suggested best buy, which I hadn't thought of. It wasn't in stock, but was able to order it for $16, which beats the hell out of the price on Amazon right now. Shoulda started BTS shopping earlier. I did find an alternate pair of running shoes for MM. He's practicing for cross country team 4 days/week, so I thought it would be a good idea to get another pair.
"Sleeping" out in the backyard with the kids in our giant tent. It's 80 and humid, and I'm not used to that at all because I'm almost always in the air conditioning. Cicadas and/or tree frogs are loud as hell, too. DH is hiding out inside.
ETA: oh did I mention that I started to get hot flashes? That's fun out in the hot tent, too.
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Aug 30, 2021 12:14:27 GMT -5
We just have too much stuff. I swear I keep getting rid of it, but its so hard to actually get ahead of the stuff coming in. I'm very close to going nuclear and just throwing stuff away. It's the sorting and deciding what to do with things and the guilt over tossing things that is holding me up.
Eta: Especially with clothes. What else can I do with old clothes except use them for rags and how many rags do I need? I can see taking really nice stuff to GoodWill, but my kids don't grow that fast anymore and who wants to buy tshirts that have been worn a LOT and not in great shape anymore?
No-one. Why not recycle the clothes? I have a bin about 1/2 mile from my house and I throw in old clothes, shoes, underwear... the things no-one will buy from Goodwill. Here's an organization in Minnesota: www.weareverrecycling.com/locationsAny close to your house?
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