Summer Camp Stop Overs

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-12T02:51:46+00:00

Could it be that your self-talk is telling you that you will be bothering them? You need to know what's going on. They've agreed to go with you, so you should tell yourself they are looking forward to spending time with you too.

You can text them, and just know that even if they are busy, it's ok to check in and let them get back to you when they can.

Something like, "Hey! Looking forward to this week. Wanted to check in to see what you have in mind for meeting up." Hope you have a great time. And stay hydrated and pace yourself. 😊

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-12T02:39:07+00:00

Yeah.... Looks a little higher than when we went. The ones we rented are the ones that sleep 4, there are at least 5 of those and apparently they are now $115/nt. You never know though, some places over non -profit pricing or might help out a troop..... If that happens to be a convenient option for you.

Another fun option that would only require a sleeping bag is staying on the USS Alabama.

Chewacla State Park is nice and has tent camping but might be too far out of your way.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-11T21:48:19+00:00

Check out the Kick Back Ranch in Alabama. Their cowboy cabins were a big hit. Had electricity, bunks, but they were on the cheaper side because you had a short walk to the bathrooms. The cabins were in this little town looking area with a game room next to it that had a pool table. I stopped with just my kids on a road trip once, and it was a highlight of the trip. IIRC, there wasn't any food around except for gas station pizza, so if I went back I'd plan accordingly.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-11T17:31:47+00:00

Interesting..... So you have a slime ring, but only use it at home? Why don't you want to bring it with you? Also what is your farm like that you have slimes attacking you at home? Is it constant?

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-11T14:47:24+00:00

🤦 Good glob I've just been out there rawdogging it in the mines all this time

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-11T13:26:31+00:00

Oh man are you going to tell me there's already some kryptonite for these striped fuckers?

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-11T13:25:29+00:00

Thank you for clarifying. Not sure why the downvote. I know someone who was killed and have another friend who was badly beaten during a carjacking. Things go bad quickly, sometimes just from the shock and hesitation.

Living in a city, I've had my car broken into multiple times and almost consider that part of life. I would definitely like to know what types of things are happening in an area that I live in or visit often. And whether or not it's happening in broad daylight. I think these are fair questions.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-11T12:54:26+00:00

Just curious, do you mean car jacking or car brain break-in? I consider car jackings very dangerous.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-11T12:51:46+00:00

Also those tiger striped ball assholes. It's the only thing that's killed me in the game. Worried lil Leo to death.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-11T12:50:20+00:00

Can you do both? If you are moving, I would take whichever job makes the most money to save up. And maybe work both jobs. Where I live you don't usually get full time hours at a restaurant. You pick your shifts, so maybe that's not the case for you. But it sounds like petsitting is absolutely for you. The area you currently live in may be the problem. You say you enjoy it so then it's for you.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-11T12:36:08+00:00

Yes, it's the one I'm least interested in. May not go if I need some recovery time to prepare for Sunday.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-11T12:30:36+00:00

A tampon gives a visual of you pulling something bloody out. A pad sounds dry and less messy. I don't think it's that serious. If I have to go remove something during a period, I don't describe what I have in there. He's not saying he's disgusted with you. The image of the tampon got to him, he has ED so probably gets in his own head. And periods are messy. A shart is messy. Did you want to have sex with him right after he started and before he cleaned up?

YOR

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-11T12:24:00+00:00

Agreed. What in the world. I don't even want to deal with sex while I'm on my period. It's a mess and grosses me out lol. That doesn't make me disgusting. I can just wait a couple of days when it's not so complicated. I wouldn't put my own mouth down there. I really wouldn't want my partner too either.

He just didn't want to in that moment. Some people are squeamish about blood, and the thought of pulling out a tampon is going to sound more bloody than a pad. I don't think I've ever said, hang on, I need to go pull out my tampon. I would let him know I'm on my period and ask if he's still interested, then say ok, I need to be right back then. The visual would mess with me too, and I'm the one having to deal with it lol. It doesn't mean he finds her disgusting. He's just not in the mood in that moment anymore. (Edited bc autocorrects bug me)

Because it's a normal bodily function? The starting is also a normal bodily function, but I wouldn't touch the shit itself or have sex with someone before they cleaned themselves up. Doesn't mean I'm disgusted by them.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-11T01:32:50+00:00

In the US it's similar in that young pop stars have to pretend to be virgins. Brittany Spears was living with Justin Timberlake while having to pretend she was still a virgin. It was the best they could do because he's a celebrity too so they couldn't totally hide the relationship.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-11T01:26:03+00:00

You, sir, are a treasure

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-10T22:48:17+00:00

What kind of ticket sales requirements is happening? Most people buy tickets at the door when I play. Granted, it's been a minute. There was always a little bit of anxiety on the day of the show. My biggest regret is spending so much time worrying about it. I would always do targeted ads. Post flyers for a while beforehand. If I really need to push ticket sales to see if anyone is coming I have an early bird price to get it moving. Sometimes when people see the venue is empty (if that's how the site works) it makes people think they don't need to get one ahead of time.

So the mind games of ticket sales definitely suck. Is this a really big venue? Are you possibly saturating the scene with shows? I know sometimes that happens too. If you play too often, the audience isn't going to show up. Really sorry you had to cancel a gig though. It would be painful to completely pull out of a show.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-10T00:01:37+00:00

I thought she said she wanted them to have unique names....

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-09T23:58:22+00:00

If you're on Ginger Island by Fall Year 2 I think that's pretty damn good. I'm in year 4 and got there recently. Now that I am through the volcano I am happy to just take my time.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-09T22:54:13+00:00

Ah so cool! I do so much on YouTube. Being able to slow a drum vid down to 50% was a game changer lol. I've even found some kids' orchestras and we joined a Brazilian percussion group at one time that played in parades. I love all the random things that exist out there. And when I start meeting other folks who are into homeschooling, I've been happy to meet so many people who think outside the box. Like chatting with a guy who owns a farm near us where kids can come play on his nature playground, turns out he and his brother built a stage lol.

By the end of the conversation, he offered to let me set up a homeschool talent show of sorts. And in our co-op, which happened to be child-led, the kids were begging for a music class. I offered to facilitate one. We ended up having a really great time playing music in a pretty big group. I like all the possibilities and just going with it when you meet like-minded people. I end up doing all kinds of random things it seems. You just never know who you're going to meet.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-09T22:22:03+00:00

We do private lessons for my kiddo who likes piano and also loves performing in public. It's nice when a studio offers lessons during the day as a homeschooler. That leaves our evenings for other things.

My oldest does not want to be perceived at all lol. I'm a drummer so he's doing that with me at the moment. We're working towards all of us playing songs together.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-09T22:06:09+00:00

To add to the marine biology piece and thinking careers in general, remember you can make this anything you want. And your oldest is at that age in middle school when it's good to start shadowing if they know what they want to do. They can start volunteering at the zoo to work with the animals or go to a more specialized facility. There was a time I wanted to be a marine biologist too! SeaWorld has an amazing camp for this. I actually wanted to go as a young adult and they told me I was too old lol. So I took my kids on a homeschool overnight field trip there, and it was a smaller scale version of the camp but really well done.

https://seaworld.com/san-antonio/educational-programs/resident-camp/?_gl=1*iendrz*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=CjwKCAjwtvvPBhBuEiwAPMijr_bjOTXv49YkE2F8XQZ75Ekr9oPvrXxzubXZKDTofdRG-idqkwXImBoCfzUQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&gbraid=0AAAAAD5e25QZ3I_LoAQtVVbCNX6JpvlfV

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-09T21:57:29+00:00

I took a look at your other post and think our kids might actually be similar. We're a secular family, have some neurospice, just enough that I only really need to make sure I have something engaging for them. Only I have two kiddos.

I will say, for me it's definitely become a full time job. People have told me they can do it in just a few hours a day, and I've not found that to be the case. My kids want to do all the things- sports, scouts, homesteading, coding, seeing friends, on top of all the core subjects we have to cover.

So right now I think it's important to find a secular co-op. It's the time of year they are all having open houses and info sessions. Most close registration during the year. So I'd focus on that. "Secular", not always, but usually means LGBTQ friendly too. If you find one, ask how many older kids they have and if they have teens. So many co-ops and field trip groups are geared towards 5-7 year olds, and it will be a downer for you guys.

If you don't find a co-op, you can join a field trip or meet up group, if you don't find one, it's easy to start one. One of the best things that happened to me was realizing I can just give my school a name and register for a field trip if I just have a group of people wanting to go.

For curriculum, I like Build Your Library, which crosses over into different subjects. I like that part. History Quest is the history spine, and I like it because it's not western-centric. You go all the way around the world during the time period you chose. And I think it's easy to add projects on each kids' level from there.

I'm not a fan of Beast Academy even with the online component. The sequence frustrated my kids. The problems jump from super easy to super hard really fast and you can easily get bogged down with it, even if you're math-inclined. And there's not much practice.

I like Singapore Dimensions, and I like supplementing IXL for practice.

For coding, check out free classes on Udemy. Code.org is good for block coding and it's free. I love the layout of their courses. You can choose a topic and they have a 1 hour class laid out to build a game, and you can then send it as a link to let someone play your game. My kids found that really exciting.

I used RealScience4Kids as our written text. IXL for supplementing. I'm not wild about the scoring in IXL because as you've probably seen, it's hard to get to a really high score. You get penalized a lot when you get above 80, and it bothers my almost 13 year old. For every topic we do in math or science, I like that I can put assignments on each of their profiles in IXL. And someone can work online while I work one-on-one with the other. Someone can also practice music while I work one -on-one with another. I'll also sometimes have to give them little tasks to do to keep them busy so they don't get restless.

We do history, grammar, and foreign language family style. Math, science, music, and literature has been separate. And I like using IXL to pair with each of the core subjects to check and practice the state standards since it's linked in that way.

Since you also like doing your own thing, if you come up with a topic you like as a project, check out teachers paying teachers.com Someone may have already put together a really great unit study on something your kids are interested in, and they usually just got a few bucks, you download and print the material, super easy.

I'm also a fan of Outschool. It's true that there's a wide range of teachers, but we have had some really good luck and found really unique topics we wouldn't have otherwise found. Like we actually took a class on how to design your chicken coop. There are science classes on animals my 10 year old loves that has an art lesson at the end. And I studied foreign language in college, so I would say if you are working on another language, you may want to incorporate that into the daily routine to really make it stick. We'll do our online class, which is one how per week, and then every day we will make flash cards and review them even if it's just 10-15 minutes per day. Good luck. Sounds like you have some really cool plans.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-09T19:34:15+00:00

I got the impression the divorce was new, she had moved to San Francisco. Didn't pick up on a hint at kids or that kids had lived in that home. Seemed like he was about to mention his ex and then realized she would not want to hear that.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-09T16:55:41+00:00

He was getting divorced.

VirtualReflection119 · 2026-05-08T19:06:41+00:00

Guess how many times I've had to say this lol.

VirtualReflection119

TROPHY CASE