We've done a month in one place, and will be doing a month of moving from place to place in the future. The former is easy, as you pretty much set up home in a new place. I think a month of the other type will be exhausting but distance and cost make this the best way to do it - it wouldn't be my first choice. But that's also because international travel is stressful and managing everything falls to me. Still, the biggest issue is leaving the house for that long, finding a house sitter etc.

If you book into the same hotel before and after your Europe jaunt you might be able to leave some luggage there. Many (many) years ago I worked at a youth hostel and this was common and more we recently left luggage for a day at a hotel in Malaysia. It's a different world now, and this may not be allowed for security reasons, but it's worth asking.

No, but they are allowed to let their helium balloons fly into the fan in such a way that the string gets tangled, the light fitting attached to the fan flies off, shattered glass goes EVERYWHERE. They are allowed to do this when their dad is away for work and I have to deal with the threat of potential electrocution (and lacerations) by myself. They're only allowed go do it once, though 😄

We've had two meals that included the sticky rice. I finished the 'putu' (South African corn meal). We had quinoa nachos. I liked them, not fantastic, but pretty good. Quinoa goes far, apparently, so I'm going to have to find a lot more uses for it if I'm going to finish what's in the pantry. I used up baby tomatoes that were getting soft in a pasta sauce. I also found several leftover bits of biscuit dough in the freezer and baked them all. We have very limited pantry space - one tall narrow Ikea cupboard filled to max with careful placement of drawers and judicious use of Ikea containers - so I need to review and decide what items are staple and which ones are 'extras' to get used up. Somehow we recently ended up with many more types of food than we have space. I don't really but processed foods so most of these are grains.

I walk on the beach listening to music, or (for a quick break) I head to McDonalds for a favourite cafe coffee and read the free newspaper. I'd prefer Starbucks but don't have that option here!

You are absolutely making sense. Ds9 is, and dd15 was, at a very, very traditional Montessori school, and this a huge issue impacting on the quality of education the school provides (it's low, according to my expectations and compared to that of local state schools). As I've tried to unpack what has gone wrong, I've figured out that the concepts you describe are at the core of the problem: for this school, there is no continuum - you either control children (bad) or give them freedom to grow (good). There is only internal motivation (good) and external coercion (bad). This is a hugely problematic view which does the children a great disservice. A recent example with ds is that he's not getting much done each day. A chat with him revealed that he knows he spends too much time talking and he knows that if he sat by himself, rather than in his group, he'd get more done. A meeting with his teacher revealed exactly the same, and that he has the freedom to move his desk whenever he wants. If his lack of work gets excessive, the 'consequence' will be that his teacher insists he moves his desk. But failing that, she won't strongly encourage him to move it or tell him to try it for one day because that falls under the 'control' heading - he has the freedom to move if he wants, and that's where it ends. But from his perspective, he feels it's being rude if he moves away from his group, and anyway, trying something new is always hard. And so he languishes... I decided the play the 'mother knows best' card and instructed him to move his desk for one week and he is getting a ton of work done and is very pleased with himself. There are many examples like this from the school which have me firmly convinced that good parents and educational / life mentors must provide a balance. That is where the wisdom of experience comes in, and we are failing our children if we fail to provide this sort of guidance. Dd15 has moved to a traditional school and I realise I'm going to have to backtrack with her and identify where her skills are on the continuum of self management and step in with the appropriate level of supervision on the 'control continuum'. She does her homework willingly - she just needs guidance in this area. In the area of preparing for tests and assignments she needs training - what to do, when to do it, and practice until this comes naturally. But I'm going to micromanage the planning side of things - view her planner each day, ensure she's tracking due dates etc as she doesn't seem to have any sort of ability to do this. I think what I'm saying is that yes, this is a continuum, but it resides against the continuum of self-management skills the child has developed. We need to use our tools on the control skills as appropriate the the child's specific level of self-management in different areas while also trying to move them along the self-management continuum over time.

Me neither, but I also don't invite them back again. In a group setting where that happened (with the children in the party) I suggested to the host that she include a "Let's leave the phones at home" type line in the invitation next time, and she did. (It bothered her as well.)

I put 'other' just because 'best friend' isn't how I'd describe my husband. We're partners and family but not 'friends'. It's just not a word I'd use. Aside from that, no, he doesn't have a 'best friend' neither do I. Our friendships are situational. At the moment his work situation doesn't lend itself to that. In his previous job there were a group of guys who would go out for coffee every day and have a drink after work on Friday. He does still see some of those guys occasionally, either for drinks or a dinner with ex work people or some of the guys get together and take their kids fishing or to the zoo or science museum on the weekend.

I bought expensive organic rye flour and followed complicated recipes with no luck. It finally occurred to me that bread has been made long before recipes were around, and if yeast was complicated it never would have happened: I mixed bread flour and water and left them on the counter. I removed and threw away any crust that formed and every day I added a tablespoon of water and a tablespoon of flour. After about a week it started to form bubbles. Sourdough! I fed it a few more times then baked with it. I've made several starters in the past year - the only difficulty I've had was when it was cold in the house. It works much better in summer.

After that conversation is be tempted to skip the lemonade and go make some limoncello! http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-limoncello-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-197694

According to what's discussed in this thread I guess I'm also not a 'typical' Mom. Maybe so, but I always assumed I was 'normal' and that there was something wrong with the rest of 'em!

For this week: - more of the dal (in accompaniments to masala dosa) - more of the sticky rice (although now that I know how to cook that properly it might become a staple) - the pasta flour - ravioli for dinner and to freeze

The couple across the road do church stuff or family stuff or garden. My 72 year old mother does a lot of volunteer work, especially environmental (committee stuff and active stuff like dune rehabilitation), and has taken up kayaking (because being clumsy on land isn't dangerous enough...). Dh's mother mostly smoked, it seemed to me! Dh will work until 70 if he has his way. He loves work and should be able to work as a contract engineer for many years as long as he stays on top of changing technology. If I manage to get a job after graduating I will work as long as possible. The only thing about getting old that really scares me is not being busy. I'm introverted which means that a lot of volunteer opportunities really don't appeal. One thing I imagine us doing is spending a few years living in a low cost country to help make our retirement money go further at home later on. Somewhere that involves long beach walks, hours in cheap cafes and lots of quiet time reading...

My cousin's daughter did. If her brother could, she would, end of story! She could pee standing up, too, with pretty good aim. Although admittedly it was only in the home garden! Ds had a pee tree out the front because there was a stage where the time to get between car seat and toilet just wasn't long enough. I did eventually beg him to stand on the road side of the tree so the old lady across the road only got a back view of him!

Cell phone companies pay to put towers on properties but I don't think that what you're asking. If you have coverage outside your house but want it better inside your house, then yes, you can do that with a booster which sends the signal from the window to another unit inside your house (it converts cell signal to something then back again). If you want signal on your property where there is no signal, yes, that can be done too. Your 'personal tower' would be connected to the normal telephone network and then sets up a cell network out from there. Dh is a telecoms engineer, but not with cell phone companies so that's a general "what's possible" sort of answer. It's early and I haven't had my coffee yet so I could probably get more precise technical terminology for things if you need them. And one I've had my coffee!

Well if the 3 year old is a boy... Something about their, err, equipment, seems to encourage adventures in this department. Ds once filled an ice-cube tray. And pee'd on a little friend's head.

I tend to just use Google when looking for foreign recipes. I usually want to make something I've read about or seen on TV rather than something I've seen in a recipe book. CNN readers vote rendang No 1 of the worlds most delicious food? I head to Wikipedia for an overview, then compare a range of recipes to see what's essential and what's optional, then pick one that sounds authentic but fits any specific requirements I might have about ingredients or equipment. Rendang, by the way, earned its ranking fairly, based on my experiment, and is worth the hours it takes to cook!

We had a lentil and chorizo salad which took care of the green lentils, plus some leftover macadamia oil that I'd forgotten we had. Also 1/2 of the remaining polenta, as polenta chips with chilli. And I figured out how to make wraps with the Vietnamese rice paper. Those will take a while to use up, but I think that might become a staple item now anyway - dd15 was happy to have 3 rice-paper salad wraps and a dipping sauce for lunch, so that's a healthy lunchbox option.

It is absolutely reasonable to ask the parents to get insurance. You're doing them a favour, as I imagine that they would be legally responsible for any medical bills incurred. I'd just send an email reminding them to check that their medical insurance will cover US healthcare costs.

I think your list is good, and very similar to where we are with ds9. I'd add unpacking the dishwasher, cleaning rubbish out of the car and helping carry the groceries in - really carrying anything that shows he's getting bigger and stronger. New things ds is showing an interest in mastering or that we feel he is now capable of include: Running his own bath - this is a new one and tends to end up with a luke warm swimming pool, but it's what we're working on. Bake biscuits or similar - ds can follow a packet mix but usually makes choc chip biscuits from scratch - I roll into a log and freeze for baking as needed. He's really good at this now. He very much wants to be able to make a simple meal from scratch, including using the stove. He loves making a 'menu chart' of pizza toppings that we all have to fill in and he then makes up our individual (pita bread) pizzas to our preferences. Helping out with special house cleaning jobs - he recently sanded and repainted patio poles, scrubbed the tracks for the screen doors with a toothbrush, and washed a car.

Plays guitar or piano Writes songs Messages with friends online Listens to music Reads Watches TV / YouTube funnies At fifteen she doesn't really do "stuff" anymore, not things that produce a product you could see like crafts. She spends a lot of time on school and homework, and tends to just relax in the rest of the time, and do the things listed above to keep herself occupied.

I usually head to McDonalds for breakfast with the kids on my birthday! I usually just have coffee and a hash brown and read the paper and the kids eat and the younger one plays. I'm easy to please, though 😊 If your budget stretches to it, get takeout for dinner or go to a buffet style restaurant (easier with kids).

Are you looking at this as an annoying emotional display, like tantrums in a young child? If so, I guess it would be crappy to drug one child for everyone else's sake. But you seem to view this as an illness (which it is), so it should be treated as such. If you replaced depression with epilepsy you would not think there was any concern about treatment. I'm not sure I agree about following children's wishes when it comes to medical matters in general, but to follow a child's wishes on a matter where their ability to think clearly is impacted by the original condition...it makes no sense. I went on medication for short term depression, and yes, anger was the primary emotion. I didn't drug myself so that my anger didn't effect everyone else: I treated the condition with medication as required, while making lifestyle changes, just as I would have with any major health issue.

Thanks! That's a great idea. I actually forgot to add the 2 year old quinoa to my list but your post reminded me and yes, it is still there, in a container with the lentil (which are still sealed I'm their own bag). This challenge is going to take me at least until the end of April...

I'm having fun too! I had some overly sour frozen mango in the freezer - too sour for my refrigerator breakfast oats - so I found a Thai Mango Pork recipe. I decided to use up some of the sticky rice with it. I finally found a recipe for an easy way to make Thai sticky rice - http://shesimmers.com/2012/08/how-to-cook-sticky-rice-the-easy-way-and-without-a-steamer.html. The whole meal was a huge success and I have demands for a repeat performance on the sticky rice. Cooking is such a pleasure when everyone loves what you've produced 😊