ChaosCoati

Edit: Here’s the recipe. I couldn’t find a recipe that didn’t use already-made dill pickles, so I combined several recipes instead. I used the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s vinegar solution ratios for sweet pickles to make sure the pH was safe. Then I used a combo of spices from a sweet dill recipe and a sweet horseradish recipe.

My dill plants didn’t do well this year, so I used dried. It’s important to note, I’ve never made this recipe before and since I just canned yesterday I don’t know yet whether it’s good.

Makes 4-5 pint jars

• 4 lbs cucumbers
• 1.5 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 3.25 cups granulated sugar
• 0.25 cup canning salt
• In each clean, sterilized jar add:
• 0.75 tsp mustard seed
• 1 Tbsp dill weed
• 1.5 tsp prepared horseradish Cut off a little of the blossom end. Slice and put in hot vinegar solution. When cucumbers are heated through, pack in jars. Add vinegar solution, leaving a 1/2” headspace. Water bath can for 10 minutes.

Off and on this week I’ve been having trouble with some sites and apps - mainly Amazon, Walmart, Bing, Pinterest and Peacock - where they won’t load.

Other sites and apps are working just fine, and I don’t think it’s our internet as I’ll have videos streaming while those sites just sit and spin. I’ve also tried them on several devices (phone, tablet, computer) but no difference.

Is this maybe some carry over from last week’s CrowdStrike issues?

We’ve noticed we don’t find monarch caterpillars on milkweed plants that have ants on them. We’ve also noticed if ants start coming on a plant with a caterpillar on it, the caterpillar disappears. It doesn’t seem to show up on a neighboring milkweed plant either.

I’m wondering if anyone has a way they keep ants off these plants so the caterpillars can continue their life cycle in peace.

Newly emerged. Landed on some netting while I was gardening, seems to be settled in for the night.

I need all your tips, tricks and ideas - both to help my kid get started on and finish her work, and to help me get through it. Because currently it’s painful for both of us. I feel like I want to crawl out of my skin, sitting with her and trying to make myself stay focused so I can help her stay on task.

What does your evening look like? How often do you take breaks and what do you do during the break? Do you have any fidgets, wiggle chairs, etc., that you keep in the “homework area” for them to use while they’re doing their homework? Anything you’ve learned almost always derails things?

What we’ve tried so far (she’s in 4th grade):

• Do one entire item (ex: worksheet, reading passage, spelling list) then take a break and do something fun - this works for some things but others we’re sitting there for 20-30 minutes struggling to finish it
• Set a timer and do as much as she can in 10-15 minutes then take a break - this works well at the start each evening but each time it’s more of a struggle for both of us to come back and do more homework. I feel like it may be too many transitions for our tired, end-of-day executive functioning abilities (or lack thereof).
• Earn a small piece of candy for each question answered, math problem solved, etc. - This works well for math, but I don’t like to use it before we eat dinner, and usually we do at least some homework before dinner.

I just want to help her find some skills she can use to tackle “have to do” things - because as we all know it’ll be a daily struggle even as adults (at least during the work week).