u/cla1rebe3r

I’m working on starting a not-for-profit organization and am struggling with our vision statement. I can’t give too much away, but our goal is to recycle plastic into building materials for the local community, with the potential to ship materials overseas to foreign missions.

The mission statement is: “to reduce pollution caused by plastic waste while spreading awareness, promoting public outreach, and supporting community projects.”

I know the vision statement is your ultimate goal for the future, but for some reason I cannot write one that doesn’t sound cliche or insincere… Any ideas?

I’m going to try to condense a lot of information into a short post, so please bear with me! I am a preschool teacher and my school only has half days on Friday.

My sister is going into fifth grade and her school has just announced that they are moving to a four day school week, meaning she has Fridays off. I went to the same K-12 school as she does, and I thought very little of the curriculum and academics there. It’s a very small, private school, and neither the school nor the teachers have to follow the same guidelines as public schools. As a result, the school hires under qualified teachers, chooses poorly designed or substandard curriculums (sometimes opting to use materials meant for second or third graders for the older students simply because it’s what they have), and they opt out of standardized testing.

I have several family members that are the same age as my sister, and the school I teach at has a school age program in place for before/after school care and during the summer, so I am around kids her age a lot during work as well. I have noticed that my sister is behind her peers in certain subjects (math, literature, science, language), and because switching schools isn’t an option due to our location, I have spoken with our mom and decided that I would like to try to use Fridays to help balance out the education she’s receiving. Does anyone have advice on materials that would benefit her despite only having one day a week to really focus in on it?

I’d also like to add that I have a degree in elementary and middle grade education, but I minored in early childhood education and felt more called to teach preschool.

I’ve been searching for a penpal for a while now but am struggling to find people who share my faith! I’m 22, Protestant (Evangelical Free, but denomination doesn’t matter much to me!), and live in the central US.

I can share more of my interests over direct message, but I enjoy all things outdoors, literature, music, and learning new things. I’m currently working on doing a whole Bible read through and working on annotating and adding tabs to verses that mean a lot to me! I’m about half way through Psalms right now!

Hi! I’m from the Midwest USA, just graduated from college, and am working as a teacher. A little bit about me: I’m a Christian, I love animals, and I spend most of my time outdoors! My hobbies include reading and writing, hiking, camping, and learning new things (I’m currently learning the banjo and trying to improve my knitting!)

I love old movies and TV shows, poetry, and classic literature. I love old fashioned things and the old fashioned way of life as well. I’m very involved in my church and in my community, stay up to date on current events, and have a deep appreciation for history too.

I also love traveling and going on road trips! I’ve been to 25 of 50 United States, I spent a summer working in Utah with the BLM and NPS, I frequently take weekend trips to state parks across the Midwest, and my family and I are planning a trip to Europe for next year. I like lots of music— country, oldies, classic rock, indie, bluegrass, folk, boogie, punk, grunge, etc., I have three dogs, three cats, and a couple donkeys, and I’ve got plans to start raising sheep within the next few years as well.

Another hobby is finding damaged books and cutting out words to put poems or song lyrics on vintage postcards! I’m looking for a friend that shares my interests and ideals and wants to correspond at least once a month!!!

I’ve always had a hard time finding Christian songs because I don’t like most contemporary Christian music. I’m not a particularly picky person when it comes to my music taste (I like rock, country, indie, pop, etc.,) but for some reason I just really don’t like contemporary Christian music.

I’m not knocking anyone for listening to it at all, but to me, all the songs just seem so similar, most of the time the lyrics are repetitive or basic, and it seems like a lot of what plays on Christian radio is all produced by the same three or four megachurches (some with questionable ethics and adherence to Biblical principles). I like bluegrass gospel and old time hymns, but these can also feel too similar in sound at times. Any unique recommendations?

I’m camping outside of Ferne Clyffe this weekend and I’ve never been to that part of the area. I know there’s no swimming in the park, but what about Lake of Egypt, Devil’s Kitchen, etc?

For reference, we frequently camp at Bell Smith Springs so I’m not wholly unfamiliar with the area— just not sure about swimming holes!

First of all, do you recommend a hard or soft case?

I’m leaning more towards a hard case for the protection that they offer but am having trouble finding cases that aren’t too big. I just got my first banjo and it’s 37” tall (which was standard, I thought), the pot is 11.5” in diameter and 3” deep. I don’t want to spend a fortune but want something that will keep my instrument safe!

I have a 10 gallon tank that I am currently cycling in my preschool classroom. It’s fully planted (Anubias, Hornwort, Amazon Sword, Moneywort, Java Fern, and lots of moss patches) and my levels look good so I plan to add fish soon. I’m also using a 20-40 gallon sponge filter because I heard over filtration has several benefits.

My question is: what fish should I put in it? I really like tetras and we definitely want to have snails and shrimp, but I was hoping to get 2-3 different fish species in it. I want to make sure the fish are compatible and appropriate for the small tank size.

Another teacher has a similar set up with 4 ember tetras, a couple rasboras, and a Pygmy Cory. Should I go for something similar since the Cory is a bottom feeder and the tetras are middle or top dwellers. Would this interfere with the shrimp though? Any advice is welcome!

I got this advice from a friend of a friend who has been raising fish for 20+ years, but want to make sure it will work for me (I’m looking into keeping fish as a hobby whereas he does it as a breeder).

I have a ten gallon tank and am planning on getting around 7-10 nano fish as well as some shrimp. I asked him for advice on setting up and cycling the tank and was given the following instructions:

• Get an under gravel filter
• Use a simple media like black aquarium sand
• To cycle the tank, “feed” it as if there were fish in it for 4-6 weeks by adding dry fish food and human urine (about 1/4 a teaspoon of each) per day.
• Do a 50% water chance once a week for this entire period, adding 5x more water conditioner than the bottle requires each time.
• Start with plastic plants and slowly add in live plants a few months after adding fish to the cycled tank.
• Once cycled, do a 50% water change once a month (again, adding 5x the amount of water conditioner)

To my knowledge, he’s never had any issues with this method. Is this good advice to follow?

I don't understand the debate on the Apocrypha. From what I've researched, I don't believe the books should be included in Biblical canon (there are several reasons for this), but I do believe they include passages and information that could be important. Why is it such a black and white issue for some people? Can't we just accept that it isn't God-breathed but still gives us an idea about what early believers thought?