[Favorite Christmas Songs]

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

 

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

 

Silver bells

 

Mary did you know

 

Oh come Emmanuel

 

Silent night

 

Have a holly jolly Christmas

[Ugh. I have NO inspiration for buying Christmas gifts!]

I'm adopting the four gift rule for my five kids this holiday season:

 

Something you want

Something you need

Something to wear

Something to read

 

I've got the something to read already bought (through scholastic flyers from my kids schools - you can't beat these value packs - 8 magic tree house books for $16, 15 I Survived books for $30, etc.)

 

I'm stuck on the something you need. My kids don't really NEED anything. I'm thinking a bag of toiletries, socks and undies?

[Give me your gross baby girl names!]

Elaine

Tabitha

Loraina (my great grandmother's name)

Alice

Ruth

Naomi

Mavis

Betty

[Help me find some NICE looking demin blue jeans!!!]

I love American Eagle. I'm 5'2", 160 pounds and I wear a 12 short. They are very flattering and slimming. My favorite are the Artist Flare, in the dark wash. I have four pair! Two dark, two light.

 

https://www.ae.com/women-artist-flare-jean-purssian-dark/web/s-prod/1435_9969_935?cm=sUS-cUSD

[Help me say this without sounding like a jerk.]

I live in Louisiana, and I get a lot of "what do you use". When I say, lots of stuff!, they get so confused. They want you to say, Abeka, or Connections Academy, or something all in one. Now that I'm just homeschooling my youngest, I say Father's World and leave out all of the add ins.

[Elementary Science & History Texts & Resources]

This a great idea. I am really considering pulling my fourth and first graders from ps. They have NO science or history/social studies texts. They use the Scholastic Junior news magazines for their science and social studies. It is ridiculous.

[Math used in Public Schools k-6]

Go Math-- also in the truly horrible category. They try to push concepts on students that if they would only sequence it better, it would make more sense. Don't even bother. Horrible horrible horrible. My dd is using this in public school now. For concepts, in fourth grade, they "taught" up to multiplication two numbers by two numbers and are "trying" to teach long division. So far, they have students skip counting until they get to large three digit numbers and making multiple large circles containing up to 15-20 smaller circles to teach division two numbers by one number.

This is exactly what my 4th grade daughter is doing in public school. It's ridiculous. I was teaching her the "traditional" way - the NORMAL way, of knowing your facts - and her teacher told her not to do that, to draw the dang circles and skip count the multiples. It takes so long to do one problem. She forgets the steps she's on because she's spent five minutes skip counting to God knows what. I hate it.

[Reverse Advent Calendar...Donate to Food Bank]

Our grocery store is doing something neat right now. You can buy a bag of food for $5 that they donate to the food bank for Thanksgiving. It's a simple way to help, and I don't mind adding an extra $5 to my grocery bill each week.

[Dear Doctor]

Once I got a "You're MRI showed cysts on your ovaries. Also don't freak out, but...we found a small mass on your right lung." Turned out to be a 9 mm granuloma that I had to get checked several times that year, but it hasn't grown or changed, so they say it's harmless.

 

But what kind of doctor says don't freak out? Obviously, I'm going to freak out.

[Holidays for the Holiday Impaired]

A few of my fondest Christmas memories:

 

Christmas music playing throughout the house from the day after Thanksgiving until New year's.

 

Hot chocolate and old Christmas movies.

 

Our candlelight service at church.

[So let's talk Thankgiving]

Family.

[I'm turning into my mom]

I knew I was turning in to my mother when I bought the same shirt in two different colors. To be fair, I only wear these shirts when I'm working at the hospital. Maybe people think it's a uniform! I can hope can't I?

 

Mom did that a lot - she'd find a shirt she liked and buy three or four of them in different colors or prints and then did the same with pants. It made shopping quite easy for her once she found what she wanted. In her later years when I shopped for her I could bring her one shirt and on pair of pants and if she liked the fit and the style, I would go back and get more of the same in different colors for her.

I did this yesterday at Walmart! I found a cute, Rose colored long sleeved top, and then bought one in olive, roo!

[Cat litter......what is best quality for the $]

I use Tidy Cat and it works really well. Our litter box never smells. ðŸˆ

[Halloween-what are you doing this year?]

We don't celebrate Halloween in any way, so I guess I'm "depriving" my kids. It is for religious reasons as well as personal.

[Clean Funny Shows?]

I dream of Jeannie - my kids love it. I have the entire series on DVD.

 

Bewitched.

 

Bonanza. Not too funny, but my boys love it.

[sending a kid to 8th vs 9th for brick and mortar school (personal experiences appreciated)]

I started my 12 year old son in 7th grade this year and it has been fabulous for him. He is playing football and starting wrestling, has tons of friends, has straight A's and is well liked but teachers and coaches. It has worked well for him.

 

My 14 year old daughter also started in 9th grade this year at the same school. She has one really good friend that is a girl, a few good friends that are guys, and that's it. She also has straight A's and is playing basketball, but she told me last night that she feels left out quite a bit. Many of the girls are mean to her and she only has one class with her best friend and not lunch. She likes going to school, but it hasn't been a great experience for her so far.

 

So I think it depends on your kid, the school, and a host of other factors. For my son, starting football practice before school started helped him to meet some guys and feel more like he belonged there. Football has given him a core group of friends that he really likes. They all goof off together and get along really well. Being part of a team has been good for him.

 

My daughter is playing basketball for the first time, but the girls shun her, ignore her, and laugh ay her when she makes a mistake. She is determined to play and not quit, which I admire.

[Is walking to school not a thing anymore?]

We live half a mile from the school, but there is a lot of traffic in the morning. No sidewalks for most of the way. I drop mine off and pick them up. It takes me less than five minutes each time.

[Books you wish you'd waited to give your kids?]

I preread every book I give my kids. If it's not age appropriate, I save it. If it is, they usually want to read it because they saw me enjoying it. It makes them feel like it's something they GET to read, lol.

[Anyone else facebook-free??]

I've never had it. Never wanted it.

[Can’t tell if I’m sick physically or mentally]

Try the Advil and some rest. Put on a movie or read a favorite book and try to relax. I don't have bipolar but I do have anxiety. I usually try to treat the physical, and it helps me with the mental aspects, too. Praying for you!

[Ok, now what about booties and pants/leggings? Links to pics in #20]

yes exactly at least those haven't come back in style

Oh yes they have! We saw them in almost every store when we were at the mall shopping two weeks ago. My kids are like, What in the world... Thank goodness they wouldn't wear that!

[What decade where you born?]

80s for hubby and me

[This is how we should all approach the race question.]

I just want to add a funny little story. Earlier this year, my nephew brought home a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. that he had colored at school. He had colored MLK every color of the rainbow. His mom told him she loved how colorful he had colored him. My nephew looked at her and said, "Well, the teacher told us he was a man of color."

 

:-)

[On "taking a knee"]

America the Beautiful isn't half bad, though I've always liked America - too bad it has the same tune as God Save the Queen, though. Could get awkward at international events :)

 

(Alternatively, we could go with Lift Every Voice, which is beautiful, but to be honest, I'm only suggesting because I think it's funny to imagine freaking out white supremacists with the idea of having the Black National Anthem as everybody's national anthem!)

 

At any rate, either one of those is infinitely more singable than The Star-Spangled Banner. Drinking song melodies should never be made into patriotic songs.

A good example of reverse discrimination.

[Temp crown pain and dull ache]

You didn't mention how close together all the work was done on that tooth but the work itself may have caused root damage.

 

I just got done having a root canal on a tooth that had two crowns put on it within a six month period of time (The first one was attached with a faulty cement that caused extreme sensitivity) . The best explanation for the problem I had is that having the crown work done damaged the root. I ended up having an abscessed tooth but all is well since the root canal.

 

Don't settle for living with the discomfort. Two weeks after the root canal and I am finally not thinking about it when I chew on that side of my mouth! Prior to that it had been a year of discomfort and no chewing at all on that side.

 

If your dentist can't fix it, find one who can! (My dentist originally said that the discomfort was being caused by a sinus infection . . . the guy that did my root canal snorted when I told him that).

My sinuses actually DO put pressure on my right top teeth. I have gone to dentist with tooth pain, had X-rays taken and it showed that my sinuses were seriously pushing on my roots.