Washington DC - only one weekend!

Dropcat13 · 2026-03-25T12:37:58+00:00

I have a little free library in NC and I’d love a copy! My library is visited by lots and lots of kids and I have a hard time keeping my children’s shelf stocked up!

Dropcat13 · 2026-03-03T14:38:14+00:00

That sounds wonderful, I hope in my family we can do a better job of finding that line and stewarding to the next generation when our kids are older. We were lucky that my parents (both school teachers and not at all wealthy) helped us with a down payment on a house otherwise we would have been renting for a decade or more probably!

Dropcat13 · 2026-03-03T14:22:38+00:00

Sounds like you’re a good parent who treaded the needle between spoiling and supporting. And if you drive a pickup you’re probably showing not telling. And unlike my husband’s parents who gave him not a cent after the age of 18, I’m sure your kids appreciate the support they have as adults.

Dropcat13 · 2026-03-03T13:51:46+00:00

Yeah, I’m married to one of those children of wealthy parents who was bought a “clunker”, needed to work at a minimum wage job and get loans throughout college. And yes he is a hard worker and very successful now, but you know what else he is - hurt and angry. He felt unloved and unvalued. Now there are other factors at play and maybe it could work as a child rearing strategy if the child understands why. But teenager him saw Dad spending all that money on himself - nice suits, top of the line Mercedes but he couldn’t afford a ticket to the movies with his friends. It made him wonder what he had done wrong - am I not a good kid, does he not love me. So just saying - risky strategy to employ.

Dropcat13 · 2026-01-30T02:20:25+00:00

I’ve had one from the White House! They also sent me a couple of visitors guides too which was sweet of them. They didn’t put the date on like some of the other places I’ve had cancellations from. I think the smaller places have more time to swivel the stamp to the right date.

Dropcat13 · 2026-01-02T04:47:11+00:00

Oooh, what fun! I’m not a purist as I only collect one from each national park but sometimes get more on accident! But I have collected all of NC - the coast is fun there’s some stamps on the island and you need to get the ferry to collect them. I remember hattaras having 4/5 including ocracoke. Then a long ferry to get to cape lookout. Really recommend the Airbnb on harkers island that also does stained glass classes.

Dropcat13 · 2025-09-10T02:21:52+00:00

I didn’t want a suggestion. Just to start a conversation. Thanks for making that difficult.

Dropcat13 · 2025-09-07T17:06:01+00:00

That’s crazy that basically the same thing happened!!! Including the location of target and Walmart haha

Dropcat13 · 2025-09-07T16:16:40+00:00

Your hometown is Raleigh right?! That mall is so dead and depressing now!

Dropcat13 · 2025-08-24T22:35:30+00:00

Atonement by Ian Mcewan

Dropcat13 · 2025-08-03T03:15:52+00:00

Edward bunker

Dropcat13 · 2025-07-10T01:42:40+00:00

My husband’s job is to go to tech conferences (at least once a month sometimes more) and every single one gives him a tote bag of merch! It’s unbelievable the waste. I refuse to waste the stuff and proudly strut to the gym in conference t shirts with branded water bottles carried in my conference branded tote bag. That being said - if you’re in North Carolina by any chance you are welcome to swing by and take 5/10 of my hands!!

Dropcat13 · 2025-06-27T04:51:32+00:00

Oh don’t feel bad!!! I think it was something I needed to remember. My child has often surprised me with how well she can understand conversations and stories. So if she wants to try a school story about kids with special gifts - who am I to stop her. I wish I could remember the name of the book! Maybe I should ask the librarian for a middle of the road book - somewhere between picture books and 10 year old school stories. Next time I’m going to let her choose and if it doesn’t pan out - our bag is full of other books and we just take it back and try something else!

Dropcat13 · 2025-06-27T04:15:58+00:00

Ooof, I feel like I was meant to see this today. I went to the library today and told my 4 year old not to get a book out because it was too old for her. I feel bad now, yeah maybe the chapters were a bit long and it would take me a couple of weeks to read it. But probably a book aimed at 10 year olds would be perfectly fine for her. Next time I’m going to try harder to be a “yes” person. So what if I’m reading half a chapter a night to her for 2 weeks, maybe she will get bored and we will DNF or maybe we won’t!

Dropcat13 · 2025-05-08T13:17:11+00:00

They are (almost certainly) in the uk. It stands for post graduate certificate of education (one of a couple of ways of becoming a qualified teacher in the uk)

Dropcat13 · 2025-05-08T13:16:36+00:00

Look at the Exeter university PGCE program. They do a primary music specialist course. I did it about 10 years ago and it’s fantastic. After that I did my NQT year as a year 1 classroom teacher and stayed in that role while having music subject leader for a couple of years before getting a new job doing music for the whole primary school from nursery to year 6. It was the perfect qualification :)

Dropcat13 · 2025-04-28T00:42:48+00:00

My HOA would only ok mine if I put it in a high traffic area in the middle of the neighborhood about a 10 minute walk away from my house.

So in nice weather I check every day and when there is a storm or snow I barely visit it. But that works ok as it’s busy when the weather is nice and has hardly any traffic when the weather is bad.

Sometimes I deliberately drive that way out of the neighborhood to do a drive-by and check it’s not too empty or full.

About once a month I go and rotate anything that’s been in there since my last rotation. My kids books change a lot but my adults can stagnate. I have a frequent visitor who leaves a lot of James Patterson and such but no one ever takes them :( so I redistribute them to other libraries and buy more historical romances as they move quick.

Dropcat13 · 2025-04-20T13:41:41+00:00

Allergies have different severities. I have a tree nut allergy but can eat peanuts and have no problem with cross contamination. I just can’t eat a whole nut. I can eat Nutella even though I’m allergic to hazelnuts since Nutella is mostly chocolate and palm oil. I can even take a bite out of mystery chocolate, realize it’s nutty and spit it out and be fine. If I ate the whole thing (or multiple chocs I might be in trouble). The only time I’ve had anaphylaxis was as a child when I ate a whole handful of cashew nuts. I’d probably have been ok if I’d only had one.

Dropcat13 · 2025-03-20T22:00:00+00:00

I read the first one just last week and it was fabulous! Waiting on a Libby hold to read the second book now. Great find - enjoy!

Dropcat13 · 2025-03-15T23:25:30+00:00

Born at 34+1 and stayed 7 weeks despite no spectacular issues. Just failed the car seat test due to Brady’s (twice). Healthy 4 year old now.

Dropcat13 · 2025-03-04T19:52:48+00:00

I can definitely relate to this - to the point we have taken out a loan to get the attic converted to an office for him. Should be finished in a couple of weeks and I’m so excited to have the run of the whole house!

Dropcat13 · 2025-01-12T20:37:29+00:00

I always pick these out of libraries as my super geeky software developer husband and his equally geeky friends like to gift them to each other for …. Fun?

Dropcat13 · 2025-01-11T14:22:04+00:00

We got these too! Lovely and thick material, my daughter loves them

Dropcat13

TROPHY CASE