Good luck, he hasn’t come back here for years that anyone knows of. His parents and brother are still in the area though AFAIK.

It’s hard when you aren’t feeling any spiritual fulfillment from a church, and harder when you don’t have a strong voice in the decision on where to go.

Maybe you can start by asking your parents what they DO like about it and what’s important to them in a church. Lead that into a conversation about why you feel there’s a fakeness to the youth service. Let them know that the issues you’re seeing are turning you away from the church and not towards it. Explain what you like about your grandparents’ church.

Yep, bit of a drive from the south side but worth it. Great youth program too.

Mexican Villa’s origin story is literally that a guy from the Midwest tried Mexican food, liked it, and decided to DIY it over a decade later, then made a whole restaurant based on the “exotic” flavors where everything that can come from a can does, and the microwaves do most of the cooking. It ranks in authenticity about the same as Taco Bell.

Google “meat processing” instead of butcher. I don’t know of any in that specific area but I know there are some.

Sammy’s Window is a “thrift shop” for foster kids.

Isabel’s House might be interested, they are a crisis nursery - basically, if kids need an emergency place to stay (Mom is getting away from an abusive partner and needs a few days to secure housing, for example), they take them in and care for them until arrangements can be made.

Harmony House is a domestic violence shelter and usually women and kids arrive with not much more than the clothes on their backs - they would probably appreciate them too.

I just thought it was Wednesday, lol.

Hong Kong Inn is my favorite (Alton Brown agreed).

I did a Google search, “hispanic market springfield missouri” and it came up with several.

BTW, I grew up in Henderson and moved to Nixa quite a while ago - it’s definitely a cultural shift. I still think it’s weird seeing lakes with trees and grass surrounding them.

Aaron Grier in Ozark is great. I even have a history of dental trauma and don’t have issues going to him.

The libraries all have bulletin boards, vets often do, feed stores usually do.

https://www.5poundapparel.com/collections/springfield-flag

I was just realizing the number of times I’ve driven past this and never noticed it either. But to be fair, I’m usually focused on the road and making sure idiot drivers actually stop for the lights and no one is running out into the middle of traffic, and not looking around above me.

They probably haven’t sent it out to you yet. I got mine five months after I canceled my account.

Switched to Ozark Refuse almost a year ago and I’ve been very pleased with them.

Heads up, Republic Services will try to charge you for picking up their bins. I had trash and recycling, they tried to charge me $30 per bin plus a $30 fuel/handling/whatever charge for picking them up. I wound up going to their office in person with the intent to complain but I couldn’t even make my way to being indignant before the lady there took it off my account.

Wilson’s Creek can be really nice - lots of varied trail lengths.

Now I want tea.

I went right before it closed and it already had a “the apocalypse has already happened” vibe, so it could honestly be a great location…

Are you wanting religious or non-religious?

I know there’s the Homeschoolers In Service one that meets on the north side of Springfield I’ve heard good things about. That’s a Christian group.

Woven Bramble Homeschool Community is secular, I don’t know anything about them but that’s what Google told me.

I can look and find a couple local homeschool FB groups to recommend - I won’t be homeschooling for a couple more years but I’ve joined some just to figure out what I’ll wind up doing to stay legal with it. Missouri does require record keeping and minimum hour requirements. Missouri Homeschoolers is a good one to join, they discuss a lot of the state requirements.

I visited Ireland once and had seafood that had been swimming a few hours before - it’s been 15 years and I still remember how amazing it was.

Sometimes it sucks being in a landlocked state.

Yeah, I would definitely suggest at least going through it - you might find yourself pleasantly surprised by how easy it is when those programs can walk you through it. It’s so convenient now compared to old-school paper forms.

Honestly, if that’s all you’ve got going on it’s not too hard to file. Just make sure you have W2s from both old and new jobs and your son’s SSN. If your wife has a W2 for last year, file as married filing jointly, if she didn’t file as Head of Household. H&R Block is cheaper than TurboTax and very easy to use, although this year I’m giving Free Tax USA a go. Cash App also has free tax filing (both federal and state) - I’ve used that the last couple years. It was okay, but somehow lost my 2020 information (they did change the name in the meantime so that may have been part of it?) so it was rather annoying having to look things up.

I would suggest at least putting in all the numbers and see what happens. If you owe or it’s significantly less than last year, definitely have someone else look it over. But as long as you haven’t made significant investments or inherited a bunch of money, those circumstances alone are pretty straightforward.

Skateland on S. Campbell is the only survivor.

Nope, this was actual getting-needles-stuck-in-my-arm allergy testing. I’ve got it rescheduled for a couple weeks out. Bit annoyed I’ll have another week of being miserable but I’ll happily take that over an accident.

I actually just called to reschedule. I can’t see the future so I’ll take the risk of being miserable for longer than harming a hair on my kids’ heads.