Not OP, but I went looking and here’s all about stag beetles. https://ptes.org/campaigns/stag-beetles-2/stag-beetle-facts/

Easy to see why they’d be asking their bug friend, since the “lady stag beetle” doesn’t have the antlers.

He’ll never believe the human again about being a goodboi, only seek approval from the cat

Yes, police have been known to use the Waymo camera footage for reconnaissance.

It’s okay Spidey, she’s not Black Widow

I thought of something you could run by your FIL. He’s obviously loving the idea of a green lawn the kiddies will enjoy. But maybe he’ll be open to allowing the addition of some California wood sorrel amongst the pointy grass. If mowed it stays at about the same height as the grass, it’s nice and green, it’s soft to sit on and the kids can hunt among the three-leaf clovers to try to find a lucky one with 4. If it gets the chance it will make pretty yellow flowers and then nifty seed pods shaped like miniature okra, when they are ripe you can twist to make them pop seeds everywhere. It also handles drought well. And it can help crowd out non-native weeds. But it could possibly take over the whole lawn. Which will make him mad if he thinks of it as a weed rather than a chosen inclusion. So if you think he might say yes, ask him. If you know he’ll say no, don’t bring it up. It’s legitimately possible for it to start growing in the lawn all by itself because it’s so prolific, and you don’t want to be blamed. Especially if you did surreptitiously scatter some seed…

At least with the bag, it’s a reminder to tired parents not to let the child put the bag on its head, to tell the child about the danger, and not to leave the child alone with the bag because they’ll test it.

If they leave the child alone with the bag and a cat, the child will learn 2 3 lessons: fur helps prevent plastic bag suffocation, and claws/teeth can penetrate both the bag and human skin. Also cats prefer to choose whether and where to be enclosed.

Fair enough. If your house has the water heater far from the bathroom you can also collect a few gallons of the “waiting for hot water” at the tub spout. I don’t have a yard but I have a big balcony garden using that water. Maybe do native flowers around the edges since FIL will mow short anything on his turf

So many words, so much hate, you’re proving OP’s thesis.

You’re right you weren’t ready to be a parent, you think you are the poor baby.

At least the stepdad chose to walk into parenthood, I hope he gives the kid joy and love.

Learning which people will take advantage and setting boundaries (or going no contact) with them doesn’t mean you have to turn your back on all kindness.

If she was distracted by the groceries and didn’t see you coming, she’d be startled while also vulnerable bc hands full. That’s in addition to your scary self. She may feel bad for having screamed. But it’s hard to take it back without making it worse.

This little old lady says keep on being the kind person you are. 🍪🥛

70s moreso

If you don’t live in an actual desert, there’s probably some local plant you can use as a groundcover which will cushion your kids when they fall. In my area for instance carex pansa (sand dune sedge) is popular. You might be growing some local sedge or ground over now, only you think of it as a weed. The first thing to do is to stop thinking of a uniform surface as the goal. Think meadow rather than lawn. If you painted a picture would you have a swath of flat green without nuance? Even if your kids are playing sports out there, so you need to trim it to a few inches all over, it’s still better for the environment to use native plants. And even tolerate the non-natives like dandelions rather than spread poison. Obviously you don’t want poison ivy or puncturevine, anything that can harm your kids.

If you can’t afford that, a simple tray can work wonders. The point is to define a space and make it clear those items are deliberately placed there.

But that’s a really nice corner étagère OP, love the lighting.

You cooking and washing the floor at the same time? Just grab a raw egg yolk and pass it mouth to mouth as you head to the bedroom.

He got a bad case of COVID-19, was in a coma, and is permanently paralyzed. Looks like he’s got a GoFundMe for medical transport from Florida to Texas, where he’d have better support and hopefully be able to do voice work.

Pretty sure the billionaire scourge is worldwide and the list of worst dragons excludes royalty (looking at you, Thailand, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, etc) which tilts the numbers toward the US.

But as for the OP, people in the US don’t use “holiday.” We have a couple weeks of "vacation " annually if we’re lucky. So the source is from elsewhere.

I believe the image is more about young folks today not having enough money to even start a family. Because of wealth hoarding, but by billionaires, not this guy. The use of “holiday” rather than “medical debt” and “student debt” leads me to think it’s not about America at all.

Imagine, if you will, Bob Ross in a French artist’s beret, holding his pale white palette 🎨. Scraping a thin roll of paint onto his palette knife, about to add a shoreline and a waterfall. He’d look pretty silly with a pallet, eh?

Oh geez, I just looked up the etymology (palete: shovel and paîllete: bunch of straw but both Old French) and discovered a “pallet” can also be a layer of blankets on the floor! I’m going to hazard a guess those blankets would have originally been in the hayloft or in a field on a heap of straw.

This is cheating because 2 of the 3 are invisible

Only buy in bulk what you can and WILL eat before it spoils. Staring into a cupboard that’s empty except for a huge box of something that seemed like a deal but now makes you gag is … a life lesson.

Since it’s just you, buy cooking vegetables frozen in bags, so you can take out one serving and don’t have to hurry to eat up the broccoli wilting in the fridge. Unlike canned, frozen veg keep their nutrients. Which you do need. Being unhealthy isn’t frugal.