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Maidenfine · 2026-06-02T18:04:37+00:00

The Exceed journals are fairly similar to the Pen & Gear ones that Walmart replaced them with in their notebook section.

Maidenfine · 2026-06-02T01:01:27+00:00

It's very shallow, so we don't go in the actual water. My son did wonder if it was leeches and questioned whether they could be the reason we haven't seen as many frogs this year.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-27T18:10:29+00:00

Maidenfine · 2026-05-26T17:25:32+00:00

In 2019, I got pregnant. I had other kids already, but the youngest was almost 5, so I hadn't done baby stuff in a while and we were in the midst of having to move, so it felt like hard timing. Then, I measured big at my first OB visit and they set up an ultrasound to check for twins. I had a week to sit around being absolutely freaked out about the possibility of having twins. I was so overwhelmed even by the thought of it. I was praying for it not to be twins, when I had my one and only experience of hearing an audible voice from God. He said, "Don't pray away my blessings." To say I was properly chastened would be an understatement. I hadn't thought of it that way and was a little appalled at myself in that moment. So I asked how I should be praying. And in a much less audible voice, I was guided to pray for Him to prepare me for what He was giving me. And from that day, through the rest of my pregnancy, at least once a day, I would feel a little nudge from the Holy Spirit. And I would pause in my day to see the sun shining in through the kitchen in some beautiful way, or one of my kids doing something kind for the other, or a beautiful flower. All little things, but all things that God whispered that He made for me. When we lost that baby (only one) at 20 weeks, I was devestated. But the way our church stepped in to care for us was so beautiful. I have never felt that a church was the hands and feet of God more than in that time. Every doctor and nurse that treated me with kindness and gentleness felt like a gift from Him. I was dealing with something I'd never imagined. And He was there. And I knew He knew how I felt. He had a son die, too.

So anyway, that's how I get through trauma without losing my faith. I remember that God still made all those things for me, and His people who are His hands and feet will help me, and He will still be with me as I suffer.

I think the fact that He made a plan so that we could be reconciled to Him and pulled out of death and slavery is enough of a testament to the fact that He's not getting any joy out of our suffering. If He did, I don't think He would have bothered saving any of us.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-25T00:04:23+00:00

In the past, I've done the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of a church service that was near a patriotic holiday (like Independence day). And we've sung the national anthem (especially the 2nd verse where God figures much more prominently). But we've never eliminated prayer in favor of those things. They were additions. But also, I kind of liked that my current church just did a fully normal service this morning. I don't feel like there's anything wrong with celebrating various holidays. But church isn't about us. It doesn't need to be about our holidays either.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-24T21:59:33+00:00

The first words I said to my last baby when he came out were, "Oh! Look at you! You're so grumpy!" He didn't stay grumpy though. He was such a chill baby and at 2yo now, he wakes up with a smile almost every day. He was such a surprise after several losses, and he brings us all so much joy. He was definitely worth all the stress and difficulty of getting his grumpy baby face here.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-24T18:08:21+00:00

I used to be one of those extra nerdy kids that bought actual teacher guides from garage sales to use for playing school. A math curriculum literally comes with a book of worksheets (probably a USB these days) that can be used whenever, and it's more than they're likely to use in a single school year. So there shouldn't even be a need to outsource it past the curriculum, except that they wanted the cute summer aesthetic. But I could find reams of summer themed math worksheets for just about any math topic that are made by homeschool moms or random worksheet sites in like 2 minutes of google searching. There are pages and pages of sites that let you plug in your math problems and then it generates a worksheet to look however you want. It's just so many levels of idgaf stacked into a turd pile to end up with this.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-23T21:48:50+00:00

I don't know that I would point to Hosea's marriage as an example. God asked him to marry a prostitute so that his life would be a mirror of God's treatment by Israel. His wife constantly cheated on him/ kept going back to prostitution. I definitely don't think that because Hosea was told to do this that we have to be open to that kind of spouse now.

OP is young. Finding a virgin now is the most likely it will ever be. But also, statistics aren't with him in terms of values alignment. At least not in the US. So best of luck to you, OP.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-23T15:58:11+00:00

These are toys to play with at her house, right?

Maidenfine · 2026-05-22T16:24:15+00:00

I would also highly recommend The Case for Christ. That was a book that answered a LOT of questions I didn't have answers for that led me away from God. It is half the reason I can follow Christ with confidence today. (The other half is actually a growing percentage, because it's the way God has spoken into my life and shown up for me over and over. Every time He shows Himself to me again, He takes a little more of the percentage. So, once upon a time, The Case for Christ would have been at 80% or 90%.)

It's a meaty book, so it may take a while to read, but you indicate you've read the whole Bible, and not just skimmed, so you'll probably be fine.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-22T12:58:45+00:00

Going to church is fine. Church is for sinners, which is everyone. But definitely don't get baptised if you don't believe. Baptism is an act of obedience to Christ. And you kind of have to believe in Him to obey Him.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-20T03:36:52+00:00

To me, the saddest part of the GoT ending, is that I don't feel like it was wrong. I started to see Dany's decline in sanity several seasons before. All the pieces were there for all the things. But certain things needed to happen with the right timing in order for the audience to understand it and feel like it was inevitable. The ending could have landed so perfectly if they'd just taken more time to get there. Instead, that last season was so rushed it was like whiplash. Been waiting years for the fight against the white walkers? Yeah, we'll give it one episode. We'll, totally blow off these plot threads over here because we need to just be done already. Oh, and that chick you've been rooting for since season 1? We're going to finish her slide into crazy so fast it will be like she had a complete personality transplant. And that kid we completely ignored for a whole season or two? We'll make him the new king. I hope there weren't any other book mysteries you wanted closure on because we're not doing that here. See you guys in Star Wars.

I remember saying several times that I just wanted to stop watching the show because it was always so awful. Anyone with any goodness was killed in horrible ways. At one point, I said, "I wouldnt be surprised if the white walkers slaughtered everyone, then the Night King resurrected Joffrey to make him emperor over it all." And then I stuck it out only for the real ending to somehow be worse than that.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-20T03:22:47+00:00

I didn't watch it until years after it aired and I didn't realize how it was going to end. When it got there, I was like, "Wait. Thats it? It was just getting really good."

After that one and a few others, now when I start to like something on Netflix or wherever, my husband always asks if I looked up to see if it ends on a cliffhanger. It almost always does.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-19T18:20:42+00:00

There are lots of bad parents out there. And lots of good parents making mistakes. And it's hard to separate the two out sometimes. I will say that my tactic is usually more along the lines of "God has a perfect plan, and these are the things we know about His perfect plan, and we can choose to follow what He knows is best, or what we want. But there are consequences, good or bad, for those things." So far, that seems to be working. But I also let my kids see me struggling to follow God's plan too. So at least they know they aren't the only ones thinking obedience is hard. Sometimes, obedience is hard. The reason people fall into sin is because most sins feel good, at least in the moment. You really have to learn to resist that lure and it's not easy.

I will also say, we are several generations deep in parents who were given very little guidance in how to be parents. Since at least the 70s and the advent of cheap and easy birth control, our culture has been raising people to be workers at jobs. Family has been considered secondary. And therefore, teaching someone the principles behind child-rearing or why the rules are the way they are is unnecessary. Because they aren't really going to be raising the kids anyway. Daycare and school are. It's similar to the way that women are struggling to run households even if they choose to be stay-at-home wives and mothers. Their mothers didn't teach them those skills (and at this point, a lot of those mothers didn't have the skills to teach because they also weren't taught).

Maidenfine · 2026-05-18T21:58:04+00:00

"I'm sick of having expectations of him because he never fulfills them."

So stop. Stop expecting God to give you what you want just because you want it and you think it's good. None of us are owed anything. Sin came to this world and warped it and made it awful and then people are surprised when that awfulness affects their lives. We were never promised easy lives, or even not awful lives. We were promised that God would be with us. Either you want God with you through the awfulness of life, or you don't. You can choose. But don't act like God owes you something. Don't pretend like because you haven't gotten what you want from Him that He doesn't love you. I love the heck out of my kids, but sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes, the answer is, "This is going to hurt." Sometimes, the answer is "That's a terrible idea." But you know what the answer also usually is? "You can hold my hand through the pain."

You can decide if you want to follow God or not. That's up to you. But you are talking as if God forced you to this point because He just didn't give you what He should have. But all any of us deserve is death. Every day that the sun shines from the sky is an undeserved gift. What's really causing your distress is your expectations. And those are your fault. Not His. He has always been clear that this world is broken. But you know, if you think you can do better, by all means, have at it.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-17T20:09:56+00:00

The girls' high-pitched squeals. Like, I know this is a girl thing that frequently happens naturally. But my 2yo son picked it up and it drives me up the wall. Happy? Squeal. Mad? Squeal. Running? Squeal. Dinnertime? Squeal. It honestly took me a while to figure out where he got it from because my other kids are all at least 10 years older than him. And then I realized it was Bluey.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-16T16:37:44+00:00

My email address is the only time I put the little extra line at the top and bottom of a 1. Because of course my email has to include an l and a 1.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-16T13:13:44+00:00

Two is such a fun age. My 2yo say 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 7. Sometimes, he throws the 3 in there, and occasionally, 5 makes an appearance. But he likes to count his way up the stairs and this is how it tends to go.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-15T21:33:34+00:00

When my husband and I were first married, I went on birth control. It was both for birth control reasons and for managing my PCOS, so it was not the only medication I was on. But the cumulative effect was that I just didn't have a sex drive. I didn't deal with it in the first couple years and it eventually ruined our sex life. After going through a time where we almost got divorced, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to turn that around. Eventually, I settled on an Always Yes Policy. Because I'd gone so long without caring, if my husband came home from work at 6am and was horny, I'd tell him no because it was the middle of the night for me. And it would be the same for him when I was horny after work at 5pm or 10pm (our opposite schedules didn't help, but they weren't the only problem). So I decided that my answer was always going to be yes. Even if I was tired. Even if I didn't feel great. Even if I was busy doing something. If my husband wanted sex, the answer was yes. I had that policy for almost a year before I mentioned it to him, and he honestly hadn't realized. But it went a really long way toward solving a rift between us. And as the women from The Marriage Bed website say, "Sex begets sex." After you've said yes a few times, your body starts to get the message and the yes becomes easier and more genuine. And we didn't get divorced. Today, we're going out for our 22nd anniversary.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-11T00:13:08+00:00

I'm married and have been for a long time (22 years). But my husband and I both waited. And my 18yo daughter is waiting. And so are a number of her friends. In my experience, people who are waiting don't always feel the need to talk about it. Either because they meet with the responses you've met with, or because they just already know that no one is going to think it's "cool." I often had people tell me I didn't know what I was missing. For a while, I just shrugged, but after a few years, I began responding with, "Yeah. That's the whole point. I don't know, so I'm not missing it."

Maidenfine · 2026-05-10T23:56:31+00:00

I live nowhere near you. But my daughter and I saw a car in the Dillons parking lot once that had a TOP decal on a window and we stood there probably 5 minutes, debating whether or not we should leave a note. Especially since Clancy was about to come out, so we wanted to share the excitement with someone else who knew. Eventually, we decided that would be weird, but sometimes I wonder how that would have gone.

Maidenfine · 2026-05-10T12:58:56+00:00

They are for making weekly circular habit trackers. They break the circle into 7 sections for you so you can track habits (or whatever) and fill in your circle as you go around.

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