u/Mid-AtlanticAccent

Does anyone have an extra of this one? Recipe or bench itself.

Was recently looking at a dog at a shelter and the dog was labeled as “shepherd mixed breed”. Later it was revealed the dog is actually a German shepherd/pitbull mix. According to the shelter the dog did well on a ranch with their animals which is how they decide if a dog is animal friendly. But that’s not necessarily telling? Just that the dog didn’t attack any animals right away? Would you consider it, or..? The shelter says the dog is good with animals and kids, but the dog has lived essentially its whole life in the shelter since it was a puppy and their claim is based on what seems like field trips to see other animals.

Monday our family adopted a dog from a nearby shelter. We already have one dog, cats, homestead animals, and children from babies to teens. The shelter showed us dogs that would hopefully mesh with our list of things. We’re on day two and the dogs have been getting along overall and the new dog doesn’t seem to care when the goats are out and about. However! This morning I fed the dogs breakfast, and the new dog flipped out about our established dog’s interest in her food. It led to a big physical altercation between the dogs.

So after this happened, I decided the new dog will need to receive any food or treats in her crate because I found that highly problematic. She had a treat just a bit ago while closed inside of her crate, but completely lost it when our other dog was just in viewing range. Even more so when she actually came within feet of the crate. She also warning growled at the goats. The goats who don’t even care about her food.

My biggest concern is if one of my younger kids ends up too close to her food or some other resource she decides she feels strongly about. Do I work with the dog on this? Or consider it a deal breaker and not worth the risk? We can return her within the week, no harm no foul. I’ll put up with some obnoxious dog behaviors and work with them, but this feels unsafe?

I am not in love with the lists of baby boy B names I’ve seen. I feel like there are more names, and I’m not seeing them. Some of them are wild, like we’re forgetting this baby is going to grow up to be a man one day. I’d love a comprehensive list of B names, please! But maybe skip the ones like Bean and Boo. 🫠

I miss burritos as big as my forearm. I need to know every Mexican food location serving up ginormous burritos. Please and thank you.

I’m curious for some outside perspective.

I have nine kids (currently cooking number 10) and a decent number of animals. We live in a different state away from our families. When it comes to visiting, we’re fine having people over, but consider it too much of a hardship the other way around at this point. We’ve travelled to visit our families in the past, but now with the mix of teens/kids/babies and animals too, we don’t have a desire to do so. We have to drive several hours, and a return trip the same day is hellish, so we need to stay overnight at least once. With all of us, that’s not simple. I don’t even know who we’d ask to deal with the animals. And the packing. The packing is so much.

This is bothering some of the family more and more. They ask to visit here, but it’s starting to feel transactional and like a punch card. Like if they visit nine times, trip number ten we ought to go to them. If they do something nice for us, we owe them a visit. I feel like a couple of them traveling as adults isn’t comparable to us traveling with nine kids. Plus they can choose to drive or fly. They can choose to stay at our house or a hotel.

The other family is fine making trips out here and even picking up some kids for stays at their house occasionally. It’s much more relaxed.

I’m not sure if we somehow owe it to anyone to schlepp out there. Logistically it’s horrible; packing, driving, finding a place to stay. However, according to some of them we’re supposed to sort it out. Because we chose all of this.

If my husband at any point wanted to travel to visit his family alone or take some of our kids, that’d be fine with me. I make that known. I personally prefer to stay put for the foreseeable future. I have a radius I’ve figured out that I’m comfortable with.

How do y’all handle your family dynamics and visiting them far away (or not)?

I want to crochet this crochet ruffle sleeve cardigan. I actually already made it, but I really don’t like how it turned out. I was thinking about trying it with coboo yarn for a lighter weight and hopefully prettier drape. I don’t know how to guesstimate how much yarn I’d need though. The pattern uses worsted and I’m wanting to switch to light/DK. I want to make it in a size L or XL.

I made butter with heavy whipping cream earlier, and saved the liquid leftovers. I understand it cannot become buttermilk without cultures. If I were to add some amount of whole fat Greek yogurt to it and leave it sitting out for a day, would that do the trick? I have 1 1/2 to 2 cups of the liquid.

For the butter I just poured two cups of room temp heavy whipping cream into my churner. In seven minutes I had butter. Rinsed it off and strained it in cold water, keeping the bulk of the liquid remnants in a mason jar.

What do y’all do when you’re sick and you just can’t? I have nine kids, and they’re always all at home. I had to lean on my older kids today and it really isn’t want I want to do. I have a feeling I have one more down day in me before I pick up again.

Is there a FMF version of a chocolate chip cookie in a mug? Or how would I tweak one of the existing recipes to use with FMF? Please help, it’s a womb service order.