I always wondered what a pinafore was.

Excellent plan.

I used to blog and called them BoyAge: Boy7, Boy11. Now that they're older I don't write about them very much at all. I don't do the blog anymore and I ask them for permission before writing about them on FB. Sometimes they say no and I don't post. When I blogged, I tried my best to put them in a good light. They like to go back and reread my blog posts and they've never been upset with anything I've written about them. My blog was a humorous blog and I was careful not to poke fun, but simply to tell funny stories.

Hey, guess what just happened to me! I'm reading a book by Liane Moriarty, she's Australian, and not two seconds ago I read this line: "As Cecilia watched, Polly leaned forward to take a sip of lemon cordial...." And until this afternoon, I'd have had no idea what the heck Polly was sipping. Since Polly is a 6 year old, I guess I'd have thought they have a starlingly young drinking age in Australia. :).

This morning I sat ds 14 down and gave him a good hard look and said, "Remember, you asked for Money this year from the grandparents for Christmas. This means that you will not have a bunch of boxes to open, like your brother (brother is 11)." He nodded and said he's fine with that. I hope he is! It could go either way this year, with him being 14. I got him things to open, but he normally also has things to open at Grandma's house and this year he won't, but everyone else will.

As far as video vs audio, depends on the person. My dh and oldest ds can easily learn by listening only. They prefer it. They both have adhd and sitting and watching someone talk isn't easy for them. But moving about and listening works for them. For my youngest ds and me, we need to see things. I can remember better just by sitting there and watching the person move their mouth. It gives me something to anchor my focus on to. Just listening is very hard for me. My mind wanders all over the place. I've noticed that when I read something out loud to my youngest, he forgets it in about 2 seconds. But if he sits next to me and reads over my shoulder, he remembers. I can read to my oldest without him looking and he remembers just fine.

That is frustrating!

I'm answering the same way on all these Christmas gift posts, so forgive me if you already read what I'm going to say! But I'm just tickled pink with what I'm getting this year. This year, I bought all my own gifts. It all cost just a smidge over $100. What I decided to do this year was to upgrade a lot of the stuff I already had, and I also found some odds and ends that struck my fancy. I'm so happy with my upgrades. I'm like you where I don't need anything, but iti'll be nice to get my better slippers and robe and scarf. Here's the list: Giraffe Toilet Paper Holder (From bitsandnpieces.com. It came in the mail today--it's soooo cute that I decided to use it as a decoration in the livingroom) Boot sock cuffs (these look like socks coming out of the top of your boots, but they're just cuffs so that they don't get stinky feet smell and you can wear them a few days in a row.) Metal reindeer (From LTD commodities--these are candle holders and are stinkin' adorable. They'll look awesome on my mantle. I'm going to leave out one or two all year long--come in a set of 6) Elephant earrings Salon Selectives shampoo and conditioner (This is the brand my best friend used in high school. My parents only bought the cheapest shampoo out there. When I'd stay overnight at my friend's house, I felt so elegant using her Salon Selectives and I loooove the smell of it. I thought they'd gone out of business because I haven't seen their shampoo in years. I saw some at Odd Lots and bought it for myself just to take a walk down memory lane.) Slippers Super fluffy soft scarf Strawberry soap (instead of boring old Ivory that I use now. This is just for fun.) Chapstick (Enough so that every robe, every coat, and every room in the house will have its own chapstick.) Fluffy jammies Zipper Robe. (I have a bunch of robes, but they're all tie robes and they all flop open. This zipper robe also has a hood. I wear a robe all day long over my clothes so we can keep the heat down in the house.) Water proof gloves (well, they're just leather and not expensive so that when it rains I'm not stuck wearing knitted gloves that get soggy.) If I had more money, I'd get some more music on iTunes. I don't get music very often so it's special when I do. I'm needing an infusion of a few new songs, but I'm out of play money. ;)

I'm a pain wimp. Total wimp. But I had two unmedicated births and did fine. You *must* read the books that people have recommended. And you should take some sort of birthing class. We took Bradley classes. They helped a ton. I read a boatload of books so that I fully understood what would be happening to me. I had a midwife in the hospital and she (two different midwifes in a different hospitals for each birth) made sure I did what I wanted to do. The pain. Yes, it's pain. A lot of pain. At one point I felt like a rat trapped in a cage unable to get away. Labor pain is different than any other pain. Usually when you have that level of pain it's because you have a serious, possibly fatal, condition. But with labor pain that's not the case. So you know mentally that nothing is wrong with you and it's pure sensation and not injury. That goes a long way to being able to endure. It's just muscles contracting and it hurts, but you won't be damanged from it. I never once lost control. I never once yelled at anyone. I felt no need to. Well, wait...there were two contractions that were so outrageously horrible that I blurted out, "What was THAT?!?" And my body shook uncontrollably. The pain took over. And that's when I said, "I have to use the bathroom now; I think I'm having an accident," and the midwife looked alarmed and said, "Hang on...you don't have to use the bathroom. That's the baby coming out of you." And it was. No one realized we were already at that point. Those two humdingers of contractions were because the baby was rightthere coming out. Why did I go with a natural birth? Didn't want the interventions. Didn't want the catheter or a UTI from it, didn't want a sleepy baby that couldn't nurse, didn't want to be stuck on my back without gravity helping and then need monitors or a forceps or a c-section, didn't want to risk one of those spinal headaches that last 3 months. I figured I could live through a day of horrible pain if it kept me from 3 months of headaches. I was one who had a crazy-hormonal high after each birth. Never felt anything like it before or since. For me the key was being able to moan in a low voice and being able to shuffle around the room (gravity really helps with things.). And my dh kept pressing on my back during the contractions and that was wonderful. A doula would probably do that sort of thing for you. And dim lights were lovely. I didn't think they'd matter until someone dimmed the lights and I felt relaxed.

Not this year. My sobs would disturb the people around me and my tears would be freezing to my cheeks, so that wouldn't be enjoyable. I'd go another year, but not unless the kids reeeeeaally wanted to go. One of my children hates being out in the cold and so he'd have to be completely on board to standing out freezing for hours on end. Maybe I'd go if it was just my husband and me and I didn't have to worry about keeping track of my kids. I never feel fully relaxed when I'm out in crowds with the kids because I'm on alert making sure they aren't getting lost the whole time.

Oh dear. I had no idea. :(

Thank you for the update. Sometimes we all post suggestions and never know what happened in the end. I hope you update us again in January or February.

Agree with the others. When you said she said the child was sick with the flu on Monday, but there on Wednesday, I knew it wasn't the flu. The flu lasts for many days. He'd have never recovered by then. Also, the flu is a respiratory issue. Nothing to do with the stomach. So, it wasn't the flu. If she said he was sick on Monday, then that means he was fine on Tuesday and Wednesday, so they thought it was safe to bring him that evening. And she probably figured she wouldn't be close enough to anyone to infect them with her own germs. I'm not sure that Elderberry syrup works for stomach issues, but someone can chime in if it does. I was under the impression it was for mucus issues.

The second one is cheating. Taking the test together means they all use their laptops and sit around and discuss each question and come to an answer. One person sending in the scores and then giving out the correct answers is flat out cheating. It doesn't matter whether the professor wasn't savvy enough to realize they'd do that. It's still cheating. The first one is semi-cheating. If they were talking about calculations and the professor said, "You can use your phones," implying using the calculator (as the OP said was the implication), then pretending to be dense is cheating. Technically the students can get away with it, but it's bad form and not doing something in good faith. I have never liked people like those students. They're selfish and manipulative and are the sorts of people that mess things up for everyone else.

This is what my ds11 is getting this year. It's taking me and his dad and BOTH sets of grandparents to get all this, because the PS4 is expensive to us. But we got a really good deal. Here's the list I cut and pasted from where I keep track of who is getting what and the costs: PS4 $211 Playfoam $7.06 Battlefront Ultimate $38 Nerf gun $30 Pokemon Sun or Moon for DS $32 Mixels $5 Pringles $1.79 Watch $21 I'm ambivalent about the PS4. I don't think we need it, but he is yearning for the thing and has been wanting some sort of new gaming system for a couple of years. We always get used, older versions of gaming systems and he's always behind his friends on what he has. It has taken all of the money I set aside for him, plus I had to dip into my own Christmas money to get it for him. He happens to have a very generous grandma and a moderately generous other grandma who are getting him all the other items. Well, I sprung for the pringles for his stocking.

Mystery of History weaves the bible stories into the history lessons. Meaning that we learned about Daniel in the lesson right after we learned about Aesop, because they were contemporaries historically. I'm not sure that it shows how the events in one country impacted those in another, but it does provide a timeline of when the bible things happened at the same time as non-bible events were going on. Like the Odyssey took place at the same time that the book of Ruth was taking place. So while Odysseus was trying to get back to Penelope, Ruth was gleaning from Boaz's fields. But...honestly I'd probably go with one of the recommendations listed above. Just thought I'd point out the MOH does intertwine the bible with other historical events if you want one more option. I believe you'd only need to get the first MOH book as that one ends with Jesus and there isn't much more to the bible after that.

The adults at youth groups are expected to make sure couples don't go off and have makeout sessions in a corner somewhere. They were probably just letting you know they were doing their job and keeping an eye on the kids. Some kids are not the sort to do that, but some are. I'm not sure if it's gossip to talk about the secret dating. If the kids aren't supposed to be dating, then I'm guessing someone needs to tell the parents? And it would be the job of the leaders of the youth group to keep an eye out and make sure they're not sneaking off together when they're not supposed to. They shouldn't have been talking about it where other kids could hear. I'd tell my kids not to get involved. Were the adults parents of the kids in youth? Any of the kids? Sometimes adults forget that their kids aren't still toddlers and preschoolers. Back when the kids were little you could "gossip" about them all the time. "Billy will NOT use the potty! Urgh!" Billy was 3 and didn't care that you were gossiping about him. Ten years later, and mom is still talking about what's going on in Billy's life, only this time it's about girlfriends and Billy does care when Mom talks about him. I've seen this happen with my own friends who have had kids older than me. I've watched them over-share about their teens, just like they did when the kids were tiny. Sometimes we do it here, but we are annonymous here, so it's a little different. My sons are 14 and 11 and I know I've sometimes over-shared and regret it. I try to be conscious of it now. Even if the people talking weren't parents of the couple, sometimes church people feel a familial tie to the kids in youth and end up talking about the kids the same way parents would. My friends who work with the youth group in my church seem to feel like they are aunties to all the kids there. They've known these kids since they were all in diapers. Most of the adults who work in youth were also the adults in the nursery (changing the diapers of the kids now in youth) and Sunday School while the kids were growing up. They *are* like aunties.

DH pops in earbuds and listens to things, but I need total silence. I pop in earplugs and listen to the sound of my own blood rushing through my body. It's like a white noise machine, but keeps out any unexpected sounds from the cats or the kids (or dh snoring). And then I daydream myself to sleep. There was a thread about daydreams a few days ago. I have an assortment of daydreams and I pick one and then fall asleep to it.

Don't feel bad about feeling bad. I've had Christmases where I've sobbed my eyes out. Actually, probably it's been 50/50 since I've been an adult. I've sobbed through half of my Christmases. This year happens to be a good year for us, so I'm enjoying it while I can and not thinking too hard. I know that it's not always like this each year and I don't want to start getting maudlin remembering years past. Christmas is an overblown, mostly secular holiday at this point. It started off as a single mass in church, and then became a *thing*, mostly in America. Our boardies from other countries posted last year that Christmas just isn't as big a deal there as here. I don't feel a drop of guilt for not feeling particularly spiritual about Christmas. Jesus said to celebrate his death and resurrection, not his birth, so I've always felt slightly uneasy about anything to do with Christmas in a spirital sense. I do see it as a mostly secular holiday and not the simple mass it started out as. It's ok if this is a bad year. There will be bad ones and there will be good ones. You can feel bad--it'll happen from time to time; but don't bother feeling bad about feeling bad.

You watch a little video and you're certified. We took paper tests. The kids filled out the bubbles, I mailed everything back, and a few weeks later they gave me the results. If you want a simple test that gives immediate results and doesn't require any degrees or certification, have them take the CAT online. What exactly are you testing them for? Different tests might be better for different needs. I've had my kids take tests for an assortment of reasons, and different tests can better fit whatever reason I'm having them be tested. ETA: And when you mail everything back, you mail *everything* back. They'd provided a piece of paper with formulas on it (area of a circle, area of a square, etc). They also sent a list of what had to be returned. That paper wasn't listed as something to return, so I didn't return it. The kids used it as scrap paper. They called me and asked me where that paper was. (There's a penalty fee for not returning everything.). I told them it wasn't on their list to be returned so I didn't think they wanted it. The lady put me on hold to check, and then came back and said that I was right and it was ok. But if I were you, I'd send everything back, even if it's not on the list. That call really irritated me.

They say you have to have a bachelor's but there is no real reason why. It's an odd requirement. If the OP wants the kids to take the test just to see where they stand, the OP won't need to have a bachelor's degree. I find that requirement bizarre. I gave my kids the Stanford and (gasp!) I don't have a bachelor's degree and I was able to read the instructions just fine and understand the results, etc.

Garlic Sauce Dried spices Tortellini in my tortellini soup recipe I add spot on the exact amount of cheese called for so that I don't go overboard. Halve the meat. Well, maybe not halve but I cut down on the meat. I'm a veggie person at heart and don't like a lot of meat. Halve the spinach Halve the butter (except in baking--just in cooking.)

Awesome deal! It was probably an old wedding gift that sat in a box for a few years. What a great find. :)

Puzzles This year I got my DH and my parents a punmap (punmap.com) and a frame for the map. But they're whimsical like that. You'd have to be whimsical to want something like that. Gift cards to restaurants. Something cat related for my mom. Some sort of tool for my FIL, if he doesn't run out and buy it for himself. He does that a lot. Mentions in early Dec he needs something, but then forgets Christmas is coming and gets it for himself. He's often yelled at for that! I got my parents some suuuuper soft flannel sheets one year and a fluffy blanket.

There is climate change. It's a normal thing that happens on this planet. I think the question is how much humans have an impact on the climate change. Some people think we have a lot of impact. Others think we don't have as much (maybe even none at all) of an impact. And that's where the problem lies. If one person is positive that human activity is hastening and creating an unnatural amount of climate change, they'll be desperate to halt that human activity. If someone else (probably the factory owner) disagrees that humans have much of an impact on the climate, they will not want to make any changes in their activities. It's all a mess. A great big mess. Why is everything always a mess? :confused1: