We live in Virginia but the museum passport is everywhere (there’s also a separate zoo/aquarium one too). The passport does not work for museums within an hour or so drive of the home museum but it works when we go out of town.

While not free, I find a membership or two to be advantageous. There’s usually member swaps where you can get in another local location for free for a month. When we go on vacations our first stop is always a grocery store, and I usually try to get an extended stay hotel with a kitchen. Saves on eating out because we’ll pack for lunch and make dinner. We have an amusement park pass that works with other locations so parking and admission is included. Our museum membership works for hundreds of other out of state museums so we visit science and children’s museums included. Vacations are still expensive of course but this reduces costs significantly.

Other than that things like parks, beaches, library events. Meet up with friends at someone’s house.

Go to the baby aisle of a store and check out the breastfeeding section. I had creams and ice packs and other items for nipple soreness. I can’t speak to your specific pain but maybe something there will help.

It’s my scholastic book fair this week. It’s a fun week, but also super exhausting. I like seeing the kids faces as they walk by the library and see the scholastic shelves everywhere and their excitement.

The seatbelts are more so that the non-verbal autistic kids don’t start running down the aisles and pushing buttons while the bus is moving. Also, kids aren’t “regular” or “irregular”….

Our school uses them for pretty much all students with special needs not just mobility issues. It gives them a shorter route, less kids, more adult supervision, and the option for seatbelts.

That’s the worst. Have you spoken up about it? I think they try to be the most convenient and to be “with the times” without realizing that one way does not fit for everyone.

I’m thankful that a lot of early childhood places are really beginning to focus on emotional awareness. There are so many resources for social-emotional learning for kids now. My child’s preschool is SEED certified (https://www.nmececd.org/seed/) and she’s been working on a feelings journal. At our elementary school we have social skills groups where we explicitly teach kids about emotions and also teach them life skills (we have small groups of kids playing board games to handle taking turns, losing, etc). At home and school we have these little “spot” of emotion stuffies and an accompanying book that explain what an emotion is, what it feels like, and what we can do about it. Our school also uses the zones of regulation (pic) to not only help kids understand but to also help the staff understand how our students are feeling.

I was concerned when my kid started soccer and they wanted parents to get an app to get updates on cancellations and to see the game and practice schedule. Fortunately there is a browser version and the app is not necessary. They just don’t advertise this.

Sporting equipment. I hate borrowing stuff and refuse to rent it. If I don’t own it, I won’t play. I do tend to get use out of the stuff that I buy but it also means that I have a lot of equipment for things I don’t play anymore or don’t play often. I’m not really sure why

I recently got new shoes (running shoes but they’re basically the only shoes I wear) and the backs by the heel are higher. So I’m looking for socks that have a higher heel so they don’t rub. I bought one set but then couldn’t buy more because the online payment system was broken.

I don’t wear socks to sleep but basically wear them the rest of the time.

Most of mine won’t let you without an appointment and no matter how I answer the questions online it tells me I’m ineligible

I only got my first pair less than a year ago. I probably should’ve had them for awhile. They took a bit to get used to, but I like them. Since I didn’t get them until I was in my thirties I haven’t considered contacts or lasik or anything else.

The model we have (that’s only a few years old) works like this. My favorite is when it’s trying to get back to the dock, it’ll just move aimlessly until it accidentally reaches the vicinity of it and can make it home. A lot of times it runs out of battery. Or gets stuck somewhere (in the same spots because I can’t tell it to avoid problem areas).

Every once in awhile both my husband and I will drive around the block past our house on the way home when another car is behind us. He does it because he likes to back into the driveway and doesn’t want to make the other person wait. I do it because I’m afraid I’ve been followed home.

It was the first day of school where I teach. It’s my fourth year here (11th teaching) and new years are always new adventures

When my now-husband and I first moved in together we ate out more than we do now and when we did make food we “cheated” a lot. We had some frozen meals and premade stuff. Over the years we have refined a lot of our cooking skills. We go out maybe once or twice a month, delivery in rare circumstances (we’re much more likely to do carry out) and eat at home most nights. Our grocery bill is around $400 a month for 2 adults and 1 preschooler. That gets us breakfast, lunches, and dinners. My husband will probably go out to eat for lunch once a week. Going out to eat is at least $30 if not $60+ for us and that’s not sustainable for every meal.

Surprises have an end. Secrets are forever. A surprise is a secret for now, but I can tell you later. Secrets are things I can never tell, which can be dangerous.

I’m very grateful that my district where I teach has very specific library guidelines. Books cannot be challenged based on gender or sexual identity only. Books cannot be removed based on a single passage or paragraph, it must be removed or retained on the content of the entire book. Challenges may only come from parents, employees, or those that reside in the community and they must read the material in its entirety, and then they are excluded from the committee that makes the final decision to retain or remove the book. Once challenged the book cannot be challenged again for 5 years, and only one challenge can happen at a time. Of course, I feel my district would bend very quickly at any state or federal pressure, but at least for now the libraries are left to those who have degrees in library science and hold teaching licenses.

The chronological version is definitely better on later playthroughs. The gameplay and story work best in the original version. The chronological story is just interesting to see what information the characters are working with in later scenes and to see some parallels.