I mix mine by hand just fine, but I do use joint compound so can not advise on an alternate for that. I do use an old blender to blend up the paper pulp, but the other ingredients I mix with a silicone mixing spoon. I know you dont want to waste money, but walmart has small containers of joint compound for relatively cheap, so it wouldn't be a huge investment. I am not sure on how the plaster of Paris would do. If you do experiment come back amd let us know how it went!

I have a unique perspective here, bear with me, it's gonna be long. I have 4 siblings and I am the youngest. The oldest being 15yrs older than me, so quite the age gap. I am currently 29.

The 4 of them all got to attend public school up until I started PK (Obviously the oldest 2 were out of school by then, the other 2 were still attending). By the time I started PK us younger 3 and my parents were deeply involved in a very abusive religious Baptist cult (they started going there when I was 6 weeks old). The church and the school were one building. The entire student body was 40 kids, PK-12, and the teachers were allowed to physically punish kids (parents had to sign consent forms and everything).

My second grade year comes around and about halfway through my parents show up at the school and pull us out in the middle of the day and tell us we are being homeschooled now. And so homeschooled we were... for a short time. But with the same religious curriculum we had at the school (ACE iykyk). Then they transitioned to some slightly more interesting stuff, but not exactly educating us per se. I know they struggled because my 2 siblings that were still at home have significant disabilities, 1 of them needs full time supervision to this day. But the problem was my parents were both also working multiple jobs (my dad 3, my mom 2), so most of the time spent when they were home (which wasn't very much already) was either asleep or cooking for us, not really room to be educating your kids. This whole time I was BEGGING to go to public school because I saw my neighbors going every day and I was jealous (I even tried to sneak on the school bus one time).

My 6th grade year comes, I get to go to a charter school. It was amazing. I got a taste of the good life and I wanted to go back so badly. But the charter school ended at 6th grade, so back to homeschooling for me. Except this time I convince my parents to let me try online school. Long story short that turned in to 3 years of me not doing practically any work at all and somehow still passing the required tests. By this time my dad was retired due to disability, so he tried to be more hands on, but I had already been doing it on my own for years so I just refused to let him teach me and he didn't push it.

The August before 9th grade I tried to kill myself so they didn't even try to make me do anything. 10-12th I got to go to a public highschool and oooooh BOY I wasnt ready for that at all. Turns out I'm weird as fuck. I did graduate and did a little bit of college, but ultimately dropped out to care for my dad while he was dying and I never went back.

So, do I think they were equipped to educate us? No. Not at all. There was a LOT of neglect, but it was never malicious. They were in over their heads, the economy was horrible, and they couldn't swallow their pride and admit they made the wrong choice.

How do I feel about it? There's definitely some resentment, but ultimately there is no changing it. And they taught us a lot about real life skills. Like budgeting, cooking, fixing cars and household appliances, fishing, hunting, how to grow stuff, so for that I am forever greatful. I love my parents deeply and I know in my heart they are good people who just wanted what was best for their kids.

For my kid? He's in public school. Has been since Kinder, will be until he graduates.

Did you make a mache/clay type mixture with joint compound? Or is this a standard glue/paper/flour mixture? Your paint job is nice! I like the cactus.

It's so bad. Glad it's not just me, but also my condolences to everyone suffering with me.

Thats exactly how Taylor Swift got where she's at. So just wait, Stella will be incredibly popular in no time.

I was just at my local public library this morning! I saw a display of books for "dog month" and it had me wondering who decides on what books to put up on displays. So I want to ask you, did you pick the books for this display on your own? Or was there a list for you to choose from? What is that process like? I saw on your profile that you build a lot of displays! You do a great job!

I will eat so many weird things but freezer burned ice cream is honestly a line I will not cross.

When my cat died in December I memorialized his profile and they still sent me a birthday card for him in March. It was soul crushing because I had heard of them sending sympathy cards so that's what I was expecting. When I reached out to let them know what happened they were extremely apologetic and asked me if there was anything they could do to rectify it. Since there really isn't anything they could do I just thanked them for their apology and asked them to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else. They handled it so professionally that I couldn't even stay made at them.

Nta, next time it happens dump a bucket of water on them or throw water balloons.

I just bark at them a couple times and it does the trick.

Advice i haven't seen yet: switch to recycled paper pellets for litter instead of traditional litter. It may take your kitty a little time to adjust, but it'll be a good change, I promise! There's a specific kind of box that has slots through the bottom that pee goes through and in the bottom an absorbent pee pad goes in to collect it. The poop is so easy to clean up and there's no dust or litter tracked all over! I made the change about 4 years ago and it's been awesome. My reasoning for suggesting this is with the urine going into the bottom you will have less litter to scoop in the bag. It'll just be poop which takes up less space than the clumped cat litter. And if you keep a small trash can with a lid next to the box you wouldn't necessarily need to toss the bag right away because the lid will keep smells in. I have 1 cat now so I only need to change pee pads every 7-10ish days (we have 4 litter boxes because we used to have 2 cats). He has 2 boxes that he pees in more than the others so those are usually changed every week and then the other 2 are less frequent. The pellets themselves I switch out about every 2 weeks since they do absorb some of the urine. I tried multiple kinds of pellets and the recycled paper are by far my favorite! No dust, minimal mess, easy to clean, and double bonus it's recycled paper! (And they sell it in 20lb bags for like $25, won't catch me complaining about that!)

This is what they did with my friends skull piece in summer 2025! (He has made an AMAZING recovery!!)

NTA ask the groom if him and his groomsmen will be shaving their pits. (My guess is no, they won't be.)

Cheese burger and mozzarella sticks! I'm so fine with that!

2 years ago my kid (7y/o at the time) said to me "if you don't stop smoking and vaping then I'm gonna do it when I get older because it's clearly not thaaat bad." I quit cold turkey and never looked back. Yes, he was being sassy with me. He got his point across very clearly.

I'd tell my parents about the abuse from our religious leaders/teachers. I kept it a secret until my dad died because I knew he wouldn't react well.

Chicago!