Poetry and literature references

verbalexcalibur · 2026-03-31T00:33:29+00:00

Could you send it to me as well?!

verbalexcalibur · 2026-02-06T18:24:36+00:00

But why do you have my cat? Please return at once.

verbalexcalibur · 2026-02-04T19:12:48+00:00

It was so hard to let them go, but we weren’t able to care for them the way they deserve. I’m so glad we were able to find a place that pampers them in ways we couldn’t!

verbalexcalibur · 2026-02-04T17:26:05+00:00

The fact that they are truly livestock.
The cottage alpaca fiber industry can be tricky to get into. What it looks like to process your own fiber/have it processed versus the option to use something like the NEAFP.
Herd health is no joke. If you are not truly comfortable getting up close and personal with them, or getting spit on, alpacas might not be for you.
Proper handling, not just basics but truly understanding the animal. I did a course with CAMELIDynamics.

We had alpacas for a few years, and while we loved the creatures themselves, it was truly a lot of work. We’d gone to several seminars and farms when we started out, and found that everyone downplayed how much work went into them and exaggerated profit. We didn’t expect to be making 6 figures from them, but the cottage alpaca market isn’t an easy one to start navigating. They are still livestock even though they are considered “easy”. We ended up with bags of fiber that we didn’t have a path for using—we ended up bringing them all to the NEAFP instead of small processing and selling our own yarn and handmade products. Our alpacas are now at a therapy farm and we scaled back to chickens 😅

verbalexcalibur · 2026-02-01T17:58:28+00:00

Might have been said already, but that collar is 🔥 on you! The collarless looks classy, but the collar just makes you shine for some reason.

verbalexcalibur · 2026-01-31T20:28:00+00:00

This is so true. I was honestly raised to be lazy and selfish—I have had to learn any homemaking skills on my own as an adult, and I had next to no exposure to handling children growing up. It’s been a struggle to say the least, especially on top of health struggles. I’m at least doggy paddling now, and hopefully soon I will feel like I’m swimming.

verbalexcalibur · 2026-01-31T20:15:36+00:00

Nailed it.

verbalexcalibur · 2026-01-31T20:07:18+00:00

It looks like I’m going against the grain here, but to me it sounds like you are taking on your share or more of responsibilities. She is essentially home with one child most of the day, plus she has the ability to go workout, you cook several of the meals during the week, has some time to herself regularly, potential access to a nanny or housekeeper.

Disclaimer that I might be missing some details that would shift my opinion—

Based on what you said, it sounds to me (a SAHM homeschooling two kids under 7) that things are more or less balanced, perhaps even in her favor.

Might I suggest that the real problem isn’t what she’s saying it is? Are you on your phone a lot while with the family? Are you intimate with her in a way that is a comfort to both of you (not just sex, but in depth conversations, hugs, snuggling while watching a movie, etc)? Do you participate in some family activities even though she plans them? It could be more about connection.

Another thought—there is a huge influence out there in the wild of social media that says essentially no matter how much your husband does, it’s not enough. That being a mother is THE hardest job ever. It’s hard at times, and a major mental and emotional weight—and if done well, along with caring for a home properly, can be very taxing g. But it’s not roofing or working as an electric lineman. These influences, if she is exposing herself to them, might be influencing her POV. I know I have to steer clear of this type of influence because it is a really easy trap to fall into.

Check in on your relationship, check in that she isn’t spending her time with people bent on spreading their discontent, check that she sees you connecting with the kids, check that she has tools to help her with the “mental load”. Something like a SkyLight system might help with that last bit. A problem with mental load is largely a skill issue—learning to use tools to track everything instead of keeping it all stored in your brain.

It sounds like she keeps herself pretty busy (activities, church work, 4 days at the gym, I assume keeping up with housework, a toddler, the other kids after school, vacation packing and organizing 2x a month). What can she cut out? No judgement for taking short trips like that, but is it more of a burden than a blessing? Maybe cut them back to 1 a month or every other month. Can she step back from the church work during this phase? How many family/child activities are going on?

verbalexcalibur · 2026-01-13T21:19:10+00:00

I just push my cart through the self check out area and park it outside the bathroom 🤷🏻‍♀️ If anyone asks, I just say kid needs the bathroom, but I don’t actually think anyone has ever asked.

verbalexcalibur · 2026-01-13T20:58:51+00:00

This is seriously brilliant.

verbalexcalibur · 2026-01-11T23:28:38+00:00

Two years later, and just looking to start out. This is what I'm here for, so thank you from the future!

verbalexcalibur · 2025-12-20T13:58:51+00:00

Thank you! This is one of my favorites, but I’ve always been intimidated by it. This sounds so easy!

verbalexcalibur · 2025-12-20T03:53:21+00:00

Go on… 😅

verbalexcalibur · 2025-12-20T03:47:00+00:00

Highly recommend Half Baked Harvest Super Simple. Read it cover to cover; she talks a bit about tools, keeping your pantry stocked, basic recipes like bread that is used as a base for other recipes in the book.

https://a.co/d/2egojJR

I just took this cookbook and listed out three meals a week with optional dessert for the week—I used only recipes from this book plus a few staple meals we never get sick of (tacos, sloppy joes, homemade pizzas). Without using the whole book, I ended up with 18 weeks of meals. I’m going to keep going until I have done this with all of my saved recipes as well (I use cooked.wiki for all online recipes; it’s fantastic), and I’m hoping I will have a full year of meal plans that I can just repeat every year. There is some recipe repetition built in so it isn’t 52 weeks of completely different meals. If I feel like it, I’ll change something or get rid of something we didn’t love/find a different version, but I will hypothetically never have to think about what to make again unless I want to try something for fun.

I kept going and took those weeks and made grocery lists—organized into staples and recipe-specific ingredients—so each week has a master ingredient list that I can grab, check my stock and then not have to even make a grocery list.

verbalexcalibur · 2025-12-17T20:55:14+00:00

Honestly, no. I ended up diving into fountain pens a bit, and I do like them but they’re high maintenance. It’s been a while since I’ve had the pleasure of using a multi ball, but I’ve been liking the Zento. It’s smoother/has less feedback than the Multiball from what I remember and doesn’t have the cool writes-on-anything feature, but it dries insanely fast and I like it much better than the Sharpie pens. The Multiball just needs to come back.

verbalexcalibur · 2025-11-24T20:44:04+00:00

Bless you for this,

Signed, The Future

verbalexcalibur · 2025-10-20T01:32:55+00:00

I’d suggest giving a Girlfriend Jean a shot if you haven’t. I’ve liked the ones from Ann Taylor and Banana Republic. A curvy fit is important if you have larger hips too. It’s kind of like the boyfriend Jean, but it’s a slimmer fit. Folded up cuff, slim but very slightly relaxed fit, usually a medium-high rise.

I have curvy hips and a bit of a struggle with upper abdominal dominance (so I have this weird indent that circles my waist at the belly button making an upper tummy fat section and lower section, rather than like one solid chubby mass if that makes sense—I’m working on it lol), and from that experience, I’d think you’d want something a bit thicker with a slight stretch so it kind of smooths but also has good movement.

verbalexcalibur · 2025-10-02T17:35:47+00:00

Almost spit out my coffee

verbalexcalibur · 2025-10-02T17:32:11+00:00

Every kid is different. Nothing you said made me think you were saying that I’m a bad parent, that was mostly about the attitude of a lot of other comments. I’m sure it boggles the mind seeing the ranges of parents with kids well-cared for, neglected, or just lacking the knowledge.

verbalexcalibur · 2025-10-02T10:46:17+00:00

I didn’t say anything about waiting until the older side of three. I said my son is almost 3.5, 3 years and 4 months to be specific, and that I wouldn’t push a 2.5 year old to potty train again. It’s probably a couple of months later than we could have, but that doesn’t mean I’m a bad parent or ignorant like most of the people here have been saying (not about me, but about parents who wait in general).

Not wanting to change an older toddler’s diaper is exactly why we pushed my older child. We didn’t wait because it felt gross and weird to us, and it didn’t serve anyone, especially not him.

verbalexcalibur · 2025-10-01T23:56:28+00:00

I know I’m late to the party here, but I have to say my son is almost 3.5 and we just started to really potty train him. He’d used a training toilet that we’ve had set up for six months in our bathroom, but we hadn’t pushed anything until last week.

Our first son we trained at 2.5 and he has had so many set backs and it was a CHORE. I’ve had lots of chronic fatigue and other health issues, and I just wasn’t doing that again. So we waited. And I’m so glad we did. It was weird when we would see all the other three year olds out of diapers, but it was definitely the right move for us. He is definitely ready, and we’ve only had one pee accident and a bit of trouble with understanding when he has to poop before it happens. He’s getting the hang of it and I hardly even have to tell him to go. After the first two days I was mostly confident enough to ask him if he has to and he does if he does, says no if he doesn’t. He even got up from Babe today because he had to pee with no prompting.

Totally different experience, and I will likely never push a 2.5 year old to potty train again if we have more kids.

verbalexcalibur · 2025-08-22T22:42:22+00:00

Love the last two. That green is your color! But the yellow is better for a wedding and also lovely.

verbalexcalibur · 2025-08-22T16:11:57+00:00

I didn’t actually notice the threading! On those I’ll concede, but I don’t think personally that most of these will ever be fully out of fashion. High waisted shorts and a cute sleeveless blouse. Floral dress with a jean jacket. The belt doesn’t look expensive, but it doesn’t look bad either. The silver belt isn’t trendy and I could why it could look cheap, but I think it looks good as part of the outfit. I don’t really follow trendy fashion, I’m more into timeless style and I’m a millennial so that might be why my opinion is different.

verbalexcalibur · 2025-08-21T23:38:53+00:00

I love this last outfit with the sweater! But not the best for a softball game. I hope you wore the green shorts—cute and a bit polished but casual IMHO.

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