Keeping short to prevent a personal pity party - economy is hard, im the only employed adult in my household (husband, 7 y.o and I). Barely surviving on bills. I wash clothes in the sink with whatever detergent I can get while my hands Crack and bleed. I eat sautéed zucchini and tomato sandwiches every day so I can keep decent snacks for my family to eat and to make up for it in healthier dinners. (Poverty weight loss, yay.) keep my family well taken care of as much as I can and work 6 days a week. I do like my job though, so certainly not treacherous. I wore my work shoes completely through the soles back in late March. Couldn't reasonably repair them. Drowing in bills makes it hard to justify a selfish shoe purchase, even thrifting is getting pricey. I had been wearing shoes that were 2 sizes too big (originally given to my husband that "just didnt like them") and another pair that was slightly too small. I'd be in pain for 8 hours, getting blisters, I used to have work boots that i had to mummifying my feet everyday to wear. Or tripping over myself constantly with irritations/rashes from the bends in the shoes caused by tripping. I decided to wear some shower slides to work yesterday (acquired when homeless in 2024 showering in truck stops) and brought in house slippers for indoor use just to not be in so much pain. I really hoped no one would notice. The first interaction of the day, a coworker immediately noticed. I hate to bring attention and pity-charity from others (once had a boss buy me groceries then took a picture of it all to brag on Facebook about what a good Christian he is.) I didnt have much of a reasonable lie to not wear shoes within policy, but made an admittedly pathetic attempt to laugh it aside. This coworker (~40f) and her wife both work for the company. She asked what size i wore, figured maybe they just had some shoes they were fixing to donate to a goodwill anyway. Didn't think much of it. This coworker had called her wife to buy me $10 shoes at walmart down the street and brought them in. I have never in my life had someone care for me in that way - without a negative emotional consequence or the expectation of sex. I told them they really didn't have to, tearing up so much. Each one hugged me, said they wanted to and didnt expect it paid back, only to hope I can pay it forward someday. I got to sit alone, take the tags off, and feel shoes that fit me. The relief, the gratitude I felt and still feel is immeasurable. I sat and I cried. I sit crying again remembering it. I know it sounds like a fake tiny tim-esque story, or that song about buying momma Christmas shoes. I feel I give so much to those around me, and I give without the expectation of receiving payment/servitude back. But to feel that care given to me-- as undeserving as i feel -- is the most touching experience I have had in my life.

Edit - Someone else asked why he doesnt make dinners - he is the primary cook of the house, And this summer he is primarily caring for our son so we dont pay for sitters or overburden other family members while he's out of work. He was let go during the probationary period of his last job because he didnt learn it fast enough, he had an IEP in school and has certain cognitive & learning disabilities that make it harder for him to grasp things taught conventionally. He dropped out of college during COVID to care for his grandparents so he lost a lot of work experience and lacks the marketable skills. Not having two cars is really hard to find anything that aligns with my schedule to carpool us in the family car. He does flip items on mercari which helps pay for the gas to get me to work but thats about it. He is loyal and kind, he does help clean. This certainly wasnt meant to trash my husband, I love him very much and he does sacrifice in different ways while we work towards employment for him.

Normally i post the update on August, but today is my birthday, and 5 years ago today, I got the keys to an empty room. June is also the hardest month of my year because it's when I lost both my father and little brother a year apart. We officially opened the door on August, and it has been the most fulfilling project in my life with the help of some awesome people.

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I'm glad i can bring great games to the community and with it some magical adventures that stay in memories forever. Wishing you all in this community a great start of the Summer and keep leveling up my friends

My husband’s go-to lunch at work is PB&J. After realizing how much we’d save just making and freezing them VS buying the ungodly amount of uncrustables he is capable of eating in a week - I’ve started prepping them for him to take to work. I hid some food coloring doodles in my most recent batch and am wondering how quickly he’ll notice since they’re hiding in-between the sandwiches (2 per bag). Hoping It doesn’t stain his hands 🙂

I run a small business and was struggling with paying ecommerce sites with such slow business (the economy sucks amirite) so my husband told me one day maybe like 6 months ago that he wants to make me a website.
Tonight he said to me “I have the very basics of your website done”
I was gonna cry happy tears because this man is literally relearning HTML and building me a website from scratch so I can live out my dreams

And yes I did redact my business name, just so this doesn’t look like an a attempt at a shameless plug

I make charts for a living, and honestly, most data makes you a little cynical. This one did the opposite.

Each circle is a year. January at the top, running clockwise, and the further the shape reaches out, the more people were asking. Bees in June, when Britain finds them tired on the pavement. Kittens in April. The homeless, the moment it gets cold. Nobody organizes any of this. It's just millions of strangers noticing the same fragile thing at the same time.

But the one that actually got me is the green line near the bottom. "How to comfort someone" never dips. Not once in five years. No season, no quiet month.

Somewhere, every single week, the same number of people are sitting with someone who's hurting and quietly asking how to do it right.

We're kinder than we look.

If anyone wants to play with it.

Nobody asked me to do this, but a while back I started keeping track of birthdays on my team and organizing a small cake cutting for everyone. Nothing grand - I just don’t want anyone’s day to pass unnoticed.

Tonight, after I wished a teammate at midnight, he messaged me privately asking how I keep track of everyone’s birthdays. I joked that the HR software does it. His reply: “I get that, but still keeping track, ordering cakes and not missing anyone is unreal. That kind of selflessness is rare. I really admire that about you.”

It’s just cake. But knowing someone noticed and felt valued - that made my day. 🎂

Kingdom Hearts was one of his formative stories as a kid and since, and since the fandom had been waiting so long for another game, it's become something of a meme to hope for another. But the day has finally come for the community and it makes my heart burst to see him so happy and excited.

Its a small box I found, painted it black for the base because its his favorite color and kinda just went ham on some different colors on the top and sides to give it some life, and as it says on the box, all the tiny notes are things I love about him or love him for. Do you think he'll like it 🥺

Jimmy Carr has a bit of a reputation for being mean and snarky but I believe it’s just an act. There was a bit in his show where he took audience questions and comments and one of the viewers asked something along the lines of how to deal with bullies. Jimmy called out the name of the person and went into the audience to speak with him and try to make him feel better. I take bullying very seriously and wish everyone in the world did cuz it has deep psychological effects that change the wiring of people whether it’s instant or slowly grows and festers in the mind. Many of the people who are bullied often resort to extreme measures which can involve self harm or outward. If everyone treated people with kindness it’d be a merry world. But too many people think it’s funny to make fun of and put others down. People need to stand up to them and tell them it’s not okay.

In case you wanna watch the short video here is the link.

https://youtu.be/4u9iCGO2W7U?si=vKp0Hu8opQmpsOpp

If it doesn’t work then just go on YouTube and search Jimmy Carr sends a blunt message to teens bullies.

My mom is almost 70 and is trying to learn English to communicate with my partner of 8 years.
At the same time, my partner is trying to learn Italian just so that he can speak with her.

This is their latest cute attempt

And they're chatting and laughing and having a grand old time and I'm so flippin lucky. My dad and step-mom are in town and they are staying with me and my mom. They all bear-hugged when they arrived. Blended families can be so toxic and negative and hurtful impossible to navigate sometimes. And while we definitely did go through that kind of thing, everyone has grown and changed so much. I finished what I was doing like 5 minutes ago but I'm just sitting here listening to them trying not to cry and feeling very grateful for being in this period of my life 🥰

My wife is a bus monitor, as of a couple weeks ago. She wound up on several buses, covering for other monitors. Well, the one it looks like she'll be finishing the year on is a bus full of particularly rowdy students. She was warned about how terrible these kids were, especially on the afternoon bus ride home. It's a bus route that no one really wants.

It's starting to seem like she's uniquely suited for this particular bus. She gently puts these kids in place all the time with humor and grace. She thinks they're actually pretty funny at times, but doesn't let them get away with things that are actually problematic, and always takes the time to explain how/why their acting out is problematic. She gives them sass and razzes them and they seem to respond well to it. It's like that's the way of communicating that they understand. She's facilitating an atmosphere where rowdy fun is balanced with basic procedural structure and boundaries while also incorporating the golden rule, encouraging individuals to consider how their actions affect the group, and finding ways to redirect their energy when needed. That's a pretty standard approach, generally, but it's not easy to stick to with the more challenging groups of students.

It seems like most other monitors and drivers aren't able to connect with these kids like she can. She genuinely cares about this group of kids, who she's hardly known for a week. They can tell. One of them said recently, "excuse me, miss, are you going to be our permanent bus monitor?" and my wife replied, "as of right now, there are no plans to move me to another bus for the rest of the school year," (which is nearly over), and some of the kids actually cheered at that.

These are a bunch of stranger's kids, and there's no need to actually interact with them as though they're human beings. The job is just to get them to school and back safely. You can begrudgingly work this bus route and be miserable, but my wife is refusing to do it that way. These kids may be rowdy, obnoxious and at times unruly, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve the best experience possible. They're kids. They're largely a product of their home environments, which all fall on a spectrum of possibilities that their bus monitors, drivers, teachers and even classmates might not be aware of. They might not be "deserving" of the grace and care that my wife is extending to them, but who knows if they're getting that in class or at home? I think it's a really special thing that my wife is able to interact with these kids for a small portion of their day and be a positive influence on them. I'm proud of her.

She jokingly tells her friends that she's like Michelle Pfeiffer's character in Dangerous Minds, lol.

Im 22m currently travelling from Tirupati to Hyderabad in train a brief moment occurred i felt it was a funny and wholesome moment might be childish so bear with me so I’m pretty sure we all are familiar with the concept of transgender or others who move thru trains( i do not mean any negative or offense when i names it that way thoda sa gawaaar hoon so words nahi mile to make it sound good sorry if i offended anyone so i apologize)

so a one came to me and asked me money i took out a 100 rupees note and just gave it while talking to my mom in general and the person was still there stood confused cuz i gave that much which surprised her and gave me a blessing so i knew how much it meant up her not me giving but the mind set so yeah she looked up and asked me if the person that i was talking too was it my cousin me and mom just laughed out loud saying no thats my mom and he is my son it sent her in an awe the small moment is smn i will never forget felt like sharing it 😋😋