I'm trying to get all my photos on the computer. We've had a digital camera for the last several years, so that's not the issue. What to do with the stacks and stacks of 35mm film I have from before that is the problem. Any input from those of you who've done large quantities of converting would be appreciated!

My kids race through the kits at lightning speed and then display them for months (or years) in their rooms. Sometimes they'll break down an old set and put it in one of our *many* large rubbermaid totes full of legos. These bins used to see daily use by several of our boys, but not so much any more. Youngest ds, age 5, is finally loving legos. He doesn't have any of his own sets, but he has a ball with all the buckets of legos, especially the ones with the special pieces like Star Wars, Harry Potter, and and Indiana Jones. Right now, most of our huge lego bins are in the attic. I'll take down one at a time for youngest ds, dump them on a big blanket and it'll keep him occupied for hours. I'll occasionally rotate buckets. Every once in a while one of the older boys with get down on the floor and start building something from scratch, but that was mostly in the "good ol' days". They don't do this as much any more.

I highly recommend asking your doctor to prescribe domperidone for low milk supply (in addition to taking all the other usuals, like fenugreek). It was only when I took domperidone after my 5th baby that I finally had abundant milk. I struggled with the first four babies, and my mom is a lactation consultant who gave me all the tricks in the book. Domperidone is absolutely amazing. I don't know whether it still has to be obtained at a compounding pharmacy or not, you'll have to check. Here's a link about it by Dr. Jack Newman who's amazing on all things breastfeeding related: http://www.breastfeedinginc.ca/content.php?pagename=doc-DGS

When there were just six of us, we'd always go to Homewood Suites or some other suite hotel, usually with a living room in the middle and a bedroom off either side. Hubby and I would sleep in one room (usually a king bed), two boys in the other bedroom (usually a queen), and two boys on the roll away sofa. Even when our #5 baby was born, we didn't include him in the official hotel headcount (just said we needed a room to sleep 6) because we always had our own portable crib or put the baby/toddler in bed with us. Now we usually get adjoining rooms with enough bedds to sleep everyone. 4 in one room and three in the other.

Just pm'ed you. In for two kiddos. Thanks so much! Lisa

...or is it suitable for independent, pick it up and go study? Just got it in the mail today and wondering if your kids were able to do this on their own or needed frequent input/checking in from you?

Just stumbled across Project Life for the first time last night. I haven't done scrapbooking for probably 8-10 years. I think I just might have the motivation now to do something like this. Are you going to do the actual kit, or are you going to do the digital Project Life?

Exactly! Oldest ds (16) has had youngest beat boxing lately. (Christian Rap, etc...) I told him to cut it out.:glare:

I never would have imagined. What has our family come to?:tongue_smilie:

Ikea Expedit shelving seems to be a common thread in many of your pictures. I have them, too, and love, love, love them. Those and our Billy Bookshelves. Will try to post pics after I get my rooms cleaned up!

My oldest boys, 16 and 14, have loft beds. My 16 year old has a full size. He's 6'6 and has to sleep diagonally to fit in his bed, but still likes it. Ours are the Tromso style from Ikea. Creates much more space in their rooms. They have chairs/desks underneath. They love them.

You can search for slippers by size on shoebuy.com. Free shipping and free return shipping if they don't fit or you don't like them. You can always do a google search for coupon codes for shoebuy. Usually you can find a coupon for 20% off. My ds 16 wears a size 16 shoe, so we have to order everything online. Shoebuy is usually my best bet.

Thanks again to everyone for their input. No, the goals themselves weren't bothersome. The (intentional) public broadcast of how much he can benchpress and how much he hopes to benchpress seems like needless self-promotion to me, but he's also a 16 year old boy. I *would* like to think some of his goals would involve more altruism, as someone menioned earlier, but then again, that may come with age. I do agree after thinking about it that his desire to "come out of his shell" does demonstrate some humility. I wasn't alarmed at anything he posted. But to post the details of the list publicly just hit me as being somewhat attention-getting and inward focused. And I do get that's kinda what FB is all about....which is why I don't have my own account. This is just my own weirdness, but I often try to imagine what I'd post on FB if I *did* have my own account, and I can't think of a thing. I don't think I could broadast personal accomplishments without feeling bragadocious. And anything else just seems like small-talk, i.e., "finally finished the laundry, LOL!" Does anyone really want to read that kind of thing? I understand that I'm an unusual bird in this regard. I'm sure I'll eventually get an account, especially if that's what I have to do to keep in touch with my kids as they grow up. Let me reiterate that I don't have a problem at all with any of these goals. And I'm immensely glad that he's thinking of goals period. I'm just not into the attention it brings to broadcast such things publicly. I think you are all right, though, that for a 16 year old boy, this is pretty typical, and even welcome and positive when it comes to goal-setting. Thanks, all!

Oh dear, I didn't know I'd cause so much speculation! You all are funny about the innuendo part. I wasn't thinking *that* at all! No, I'm not alarmed about anything scary...yes, he is taking anatomy. And he's currently 6'6 (at age 16, and still growing). So here's my situation. I'm not a facebook fan at all. I don't have my own account, but part of the territory with my kids getting FB is that I lurk around on their accounts from time to time. He wasn't posting anything that he didn't know I'd likely read. There was nothing that he posted that had a "hidden" meaning, but when I say it "bothered" me (the way I phrased it originally) I just don't like the way he presented himself, I guess. I'm probably overreacting, I'll admit that right off the bat. I just think that FB is such a stage for self-promotion, and it drives me batty. My son is very much into heavy weightlifting, fitness, nutrition, big muscles, etc... He's a very handsome young man, and he's pretty much totally into himself...I guess that part's not unusual for a teenage boy, right? It's just that when I see things on FB like, "increase my bench press from 225 to 300" it seems the whole point behind that is, "Hey, did you all catch that I can already bench 225 because I'm such a stud?" Reminds me of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast..."and every last inch of me's covered with hair!!!!" If I want to be seen as pious, I could say, "My resolution is to go from spending a mere 4 hours a day on my knees in prayer to a full 8 hours." Or how about "reduce my body fat from 8% to 5%." Or "tithe 30% instead of 15%." Or "get my 5th and final child into an Ivy League college on full scholarship, like the other 4 before him." I know, a bit of an exaggeration, but what he wants everyone to know is what a buff young thing he is. Maybe that's not so obvious from his list, but because I know him so well, I know that's what he's aiming at. I'm just not into self-promotion. At all. I'm ready to admit that his list was not unusual in a bad way, necessarily. I don't know. That's why I didn't want to say up front anything about the part that I didn't like. I wanted honest input from disinterested third parties. You've all given me perspective. Thanks!

If one of your kids posted this, would there be anything in the contents (or between the lines) that bothered you? Honest opinions, please: top 10 goals of 2012 1. get a 95% minimum grade in anatomy 2. increase bench press from 225 lbs to 300 lbs 3. get my eagle scout!! 4. crawl outta my shell and become a little more social ... 5. grow a goatee 6. reach 6 feet 8 inches 7. get a job 8. get my driver's license 9. get a 90% minimum grade in math 10. acheive all these goals and the countless others I left unmentioned

If you don't stop crying, I'll give you something to cry about. You won't be able to sit down for a week (threatening a spanking) If you crack your knuckles, you'll get arthritis. If you cross your eyes, they'll get stuck that way. If you go outside with wet hair you'll catch a cold. If you sit on the cement, you'll get "piles" (hemorrhoids)!

My kids are up (who knows how early) stalking their stockings, but not allowed to touch or open until hubby and I get up, which is often later than normal since I'm usually up late Christmas Eve putting the finishing touches on the next morning. First, all the kids gather around the tree and their stockings (which get removed from the mantle the night before and laid on the ground stuffed full of goodies) for a picture. Then, before stockings, I present each child with his own ornament and t-shirt. Each one has something to do with an experience, accomplishment, or something fun about that child from the previous year. Each boy is getting quite the stash of ornaments as the years go by. Then, they all open their stockings at the same time. After the contents are dumped out and picked through, they each clear all their stocking stuffers and put them in their rooms, then we start passing out presents. But stockings are always before gifts. That's how my parents did it for us when we were growing up, too. And we weren't allowed to open our stockings until the folks were up, either.

Was Christmas time as stressful for my mom as it is for me? I wonder... I'm a total Scrooge this time of year. In addition to my lack of sleep and hormonal issues this week, my kids' behavior and attitudes were especially rotten today. I spent the bulk of my trip to Walmart this a.m. fighting back tears as I shopped for the last few stocking stuffers and a handful of last minute grocery items. I'm ready for this week to be over.

Yes, I purchased ds 5 a batman cave with this packaging. Hope they do more of these in the future. But yes, when they were younger, I often preopened gifts that had difficult packaging. I also wanted to get my hands on directions, extra pieces. etc... before they ended up with wrapping paper in the trash.

My favorite (back in the day) used to be the old style Taste of Home Magazine. I no longer subscribe because of all the changes. Almost every new recipe I find is online. I'm huge into checking user reviews and ratings, which you just can't do with a cookbook. I like allrecipes and food.com the best. I got rid of most of my cookbooks, because I'd had them for years and only used 1 or 2 recipes out of each. I clipped the best ones (yes, I cut up the pages!) and got rid of the books. I only have a few specialty cookbooks now, like my rice cooker cookbook, my homemade ice cream maker cookbook, my food processor cookbook, and my Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day cookbook. The only other one I have is Pioneer Woman, which I love, but the binding is breaking. Most of her recipes are online, though. I was cooking many of her recipes before the cookbook ever came out.

...how far up the onion do I chop? I rarely use green onions. Do I only do the white, oniony part, or do I go all the way up the green stalk?

Thanks everyone...I opted for cocktail peanuts, which I like better, but wanted to make sure there wasn't something that made dry roasted a "must" for this recipe.

I'm making My Amish Friend's Caramel Corn from allrecipes.com, and it calls for dry roasted peanuts. In the past, I've used cashews instead of peanuts, but since I'm making it in large quantities this time, peanuts are more economical. Can I use cocktail peanuts in place of dry roasted?

If you bought it at a local nursery, I'd return it and get a new one. We had a tree that died shortly after buying it a few years ago, and the nursery replaced it no problem.

Well, I just spoke with someone at the school, and they do have the scores in. She said she'd mail them to me tomorrow. She said they were "coded" when sent in to the College Board as homeschool students, but she said the results came back to her with our boys marked as private school students. When I get these in the mail from her, should I call the College Board to correct their student status? My boys are a sophomore and freshman.