out_of_the_ordinary

all are safe

Happy Birthday, Trudy!

Happy Birthday, Midnightmom!!

Momo, I'm sorry for your loss.

The Homeschooling Primer: What Home Education Looks Like & How to Start from Old Schoolhouse magazine Ebook is free; physical copy is $5 https://files.tosmag.com/mediakit/LandingPages/HomeschoolPrimer/HomeschoolPrimer.html Haven't time to read it, but I hope this is helpful to someone!

Pennsylvania's Amish Community May Have Already Reached Herd Immunity https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/pennsylvanias-amish-community-may-have-already-reached-herd-immunity

I also lurked longer than I wanted to because I couldn't come up with a name! Finally, in desperation, I decided to go with something like Special Diet Lady or something like that...It was late at night when I finally decided. I was signing up and wondered if I was spelling special correctly. How embarrassing it would have been to be new here and mess up the spelling of my user name. Anyway, I got the dictionary to look up the spelling of special and one of the definitions was "out of the ordinary". LittleSister, is your user name from the Gene Stratton Porter book Laddie ?

Happy Birthday, TheCG!!

Happy Birthday, Virginia!

Happy Birthday, Pauline!

Miki, I'm sorry for your loss.

Happy Birthday, Momo!

So it is not just me! Miki, I hope your toe is feeling better!

Jeepers, that's neat you have those things bought ahead for your grandson! Looking back, most of my toys were more educational than entertainment. If there's any lurkers out there interested in Made in USA stuff: For the puzzles, White Mountain is made in the USA. Cobble Hill (a Canadian company) is made in the USA, but their tray puzzles are made in China. For tray puzzles, Maple Landmark's tray puzzles are made in the USA (I think they source some of the wood from Europe for the tray puzzles, but I can't remember). https://www.maplelandmark.com/products-by-type/framed-puzzles Older Maple Landmark's puzzles were thicker pieces and a smaller overall size. They then changed them to a bigger tray, bigger pieces, but thinner pieces. Both types have held up here. I once bought some USA-made cardboard tray puzzles at WM--I don't know what the brand was, but the quality was HORRIBLE and we didn't keep them. We have some cardboard tray puzzles from when I was a kid, and they were good quality and still holding up after 3 decades.

No problem, Jeepers! I didn't even know floor puzzles were a thing until a couple years ago. DD just does them on our carpeted living room floor and the puzzles fit and stay together just fine. Our USA Map one is White Mountain. I might have bought it at Ollie's. But, now, I bet they don't get or keep puzzles in very long anymore. The Butterfly Life Cycle one we have is Cobble Hill brand. It's completed size is 24" by 36", so it's not HUGE. Both brands have held up well for DD. She has taken them apart and put them back together many, many, many times. I don't think you're an aging out of touch granny! With my allergies/sensitivities, making sure everything is made in USA has been quite the challenge since having DD. So I usually feel out of touch with other people on the kid toy stuff. God provides, though!

I've never been to Goods Stores, but have ordered from them. There are floor puzzles for kids, too, Jeepers. I don't know if you know about them. They are giant over-sized pieces. The puzzles completed are a a couple feet wide and high. We have a map of the USA and the Life Cycle of a Butterfly. I think both Cobble Hill and White Mountain were making them.

I've never been to Lehmans. I want to go someday. I used to tell DH that I didn't want to go to Lehmans until we had moved, so I'd have room for all the things I'd want to buy. Why, hello, cookstove! We stick with the 500 and under puzzle counts because of DD (pre-2020, I bought 1000 pieces if I found them on clearance and put them back for someday). Cobble Hill has ones that are "family puzzles" where there are 3 different sized pieces, one end is very large, part is medium sized pieces and part is very small. It's supposed to be so that the whole family can work on it. We do those, but mostly the 275 pieces (I try to find a "busy" scene for DD) for Cobble Hill. She outgrew 100 piece puzzles awhile back. Tried a couple other brands, but the quality wasn't very good. White Mountain, we do the 300 or 500 ones, but they seem to be focused more on producing 1000 and up piece puzzles. Rainbow Resource (homeschool supplies) has excellent prices on puzzles. Search by brand or size. https://www.rainbowresource.com/category/6364/Jigsaw-Puzzles.html Good's Store has good prices,too. https://goodsstores.com/ Both places have had trouble keeping up with the demand. Other places are charging prices I won't pay. (I don't blame them, but it is a tight budget here.) Some libraries also have puzzles to check out, just like books.

Doing puzzles is a favorite activity at my house (way before 2020). We stick with White Mountain and Cobble Hill brands, as we think those 2 are the best made ones. Cobble Hill puzzles are really neat in that they have unique puzzle piece shapes. Worse than the run on TP was the run on puzzles....and the prices some places still reflect that! I'm glad I had "bought ahead" (gifts for DD).

Little Sister, I am so very sorry for your loss. I'm praying for you.

for everyone to get their power back on. Stay safe!

Oh, my!

Live Black Bear Cam in PA https://hdontap.com/index.php/video/stream/pennsylvania-bear-den-live-cam?utm_source=pgc.pa.gov&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=cam+pgc+bearden This is neat. There's Mama and 3 cubs. DD and I were excited to be able to see the 3 cubs move around this afternoon. It is very kind of the homeowners to allow the PA Game Commission to put a camera there. The "den" is under their porch! I wouldn't be excited to have a mama bear and cubs under my porch!

I avoid fluff "twaddle" mostly. Isn't that a great term for children's fluff books? I came across it reading about Charlotte Mason homeschool methods. For children's books, bookstores are mostly full of twaddle. But the other term is "real books" and "living books"....written by an author about something they are knowledgeable and passionate about. What I'm reading right now...with the brain fog, I'm just not following deep or how-to. I'm trying to read before sleeping to help me unwind. So not too exciting, but interesting so I don't think about my health stuff and stress stuff, and chapters that don't leave me hanging. I NEED sleep and I know sometimes putting a book down is a challenge. I don't typically read dark stuff, except for history. So here's my current list: Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart. Each chapter is a letter the author wrote to her former employer after she moved to Wyoming in 1909 to homestead. She also wrote Letters of an Elk Hunt by a Woman Homesteader, but I don't have that one. Journey into Christmas and Other Stories by Bess Streeter Aldrich. So far, everything of hers I've read, I've liked very much! Get Your Hopes Up! by Joyce Meyer. I'm not sure what else is up there in the pile. Buying for a library would be so much fun! I like the shopping for/researching books. I can't use the library or do used books or books printed overseas due to my allergies and sensitivities, so that limits things. I like having our home library, so I can "shop the shelves" here for reading for me and for homeschooling. Last year's book buying budget faced cuts. I'm going over my lists right now trying to decide what I need to make sure we have and what simply has to stay on the wishlists for now. Decisons, decisions. We always have a family read aloud going. From what I've read in books, families used to do that before TV. Now I don't think many families even watch TV together...everyone doing there own things on their own screens.

Welcome!