You mentioned most of the ones I like. I also like the museum tour catalog as wel as the discovery channel store catalog, Chinaberry and montessori services.

Do you have a community band? Where we are from there are town bands with members of all ages. Many members are retired and might be interested in volunteering with kids.

My brother made his this way when we were kids. It took forever but looked great when he was done.

What manufacturer will you be buying from? Many offer 0% financing for 36-48 months (or can be negotiated to 0%).

We do snowsuits for playing outside until they are potty trained then switch to snow pants. For out and about each kid has had a coat that we put on when they get out of the car. When we leave the house they wear a sweatshirt or sweater and we just carry them out to a prewarmed car wrapped up with their car blanket (one of those 2 layer fleece tie blankets, and of course their hat/mittens). I have just never been comfortable buckling a kid into a carseat with a coat on. It's too hard to get the straps tight and if you do they tend to be uncomfortable because they are hot and have all the layers of coat squished around their arms/face. This worked for us even in -20 temps.

If they are on his legs/bum my guess would be something he touched. Was he outside playing? That pattern makes me think of some type of grass...something he would have walked through and sat in (or maybe helping with the carpet and he sat down/was walking around on it). My oldest has gotten hives when she was overtired/really upset. There was also once we bought some soap at a craft fair and stashed it on the top shelf of her closet to save for a gift. She had hives for four days (each morning she woke up with them) before we realized the fragrance from that soap in her closet was causing them to develop overnight.

I just can't figure out what to do with our unused kitchen gadgets and I feel guilty throwing away perfectly good stuff (I don't do yard sales). We have a cotton candy machine that has been used once or twice in 5 years. Three waffle makers, one of which gets used, a cookie press, and then lots of small odds and ends.

Judy Moody Ivy & Bean

If I am baking bread I usually start right after breakfast. Actually, at this point my 4 year old usually starts it after breakfast. It didn't take long for her to learn to measure out ingredients so she combines everything and then I knead it. Let it rise until lunch, knead and shape it while in the kitchen to make lunch then let it rise until I start dinner and throw it in the oven. I love to assign baking tasks to my kids. I count it as school since they are reading and doing basic math.

I stopped bathing the oldest at 4 or so. She hops in soaps up and hops out on her own (I do start the bath to check temp as our water heater is not set properly). On the days she needs to wash her hair I check it to make sure the soap is out before she gets out. Once or twice a month she winds up hopping in the shower with me so I do get a chance to make sure she is actually getting clean. Our little one is almost three and is transitioning to showers with her sister most days though I still wash her hair and supervise her use of soap.

I have always had luck with hydrogen eroxide poured directly onto the blood spots. The hot water may have set the stain though, and peroxide can damage some fabrics so test it first.

For pink eye she would just call in the script for eye drops. Pink eye is pretty straightforward and she trusts that I know what it is (same goes for when the kids get it).

You could send him to your room for quiet time. If you offer books, puzzles, paper and markers, etc there is no reason he shouldn't be able to stay in one room for an hour without making tons of noise.

Consistency is the key. Decide on the rules and then don't waver at all. It may take a week or two during which things will get worse before geting better but eventually she will understand. My oldest is about to turn 5 and we just cracked down on bedtime about 6 months ago. At 7pm we head upstairs to brush teeth and hair, wash faces and get the girls dressed for bed. They both pick books and we read until 8. At 8 on the dot we stop reading (so the more fussing about getting ready the less reading). Everybody gets a hug and kiss and the lights go off/night light on. We allow a fan for white noise so they can't hear us and wonder what they are missing but no music or stories since it keeps them up. After 8 I expect kids to be in bed unless there is blood or fire. The exception is if they have a ticket. Each gets two tickets each night to use as they see fit, bathroom trips, extra hugs, whatever. If they get up after the tickets are gone the door gets shut and then they start losing things (and no matter what they say they don't have to go to the bathroom a third time in 20 minutes though they did try to convince me for a while). Any tickets left over on Saturday morning can be traded in for prizes (stay up an extra hour, go on an excursion, etc). The only exception is for sick kids and it has worked incredibly well. It took almost a month to get to the point where they want to save tickets and rarely get up but it was well worth it.

I've bought quite a few of the 1 cent books and have only had a problem once. Amazon refunded my money as soon as I filed with them. Remember, they charge a flat $3.99 for shipping each book and it is really only $1 or so to ship most by media mail so the seller is still making a decent profit.

was it familywatchdog.org?

Do you have a Sears outlet nearby? There are quite a few and they offer incredible deals.

I would say just live your life. Take advantage of everything that is unique to your current area while you can and enjoy it for what it is. If you just sit and wait to hear about where you are going you will miss out on great opportunities (that said I wouldn't recommend the Costco flour). This is basically our life. We have been moving every 18-24 months for the last 10 years. W basically live somewhere for a year then spend a year or so in limbo. Repeated indefinitely.

I definitely see a correlation between obesity and health. I also know very, very few people who are obese and have truly tired to lose the weight as they inevitably insist they have (or who are as healthy as they claim to be when push comes to shove). I am not one of those people who stays thin without any effort but I stay within 10 pounds of my body's ideal weight. It's hard but I do it for my health and for my kids (and I will admit a bit for vanity). It sucks to take the stairs instead of the escalator/elevator. It sucks to park at the far end of the parking lot, every. single. time. It sucks to bike the 7 miles to the beach towing two kids instead of hoping in the car. Adding another chore to the list every summer when I have to take care of our garden isn't my favorite by any means. I could go on and on. There are a lot more options in our society for healthy living than people want to acknowledge because they require significantly more time and effort.

There is always the possibility that the child insisted he was fine and the mother believed him. My 5 year old has tried to convince me she was healthy enough to attend events she was really looking forward to after being told she would be staying home.

My kids call Hibiscus biscuits. It's too cute to correct and I now find myself saying it to other people.

I was on the operating table. My husband was in submarine school at NSB New London and I had opted to have an orthopedic surgery with a nerve block rather than general anesthesia so that I could be released on my own rather than to someone (he couldn't miss his class and the surgery really couldn't wait). About 15 minutes in a nurse came in, whispered something to the doctor and other nurses and stepped out. A few minutes after that she came back (the second plane had hit) and told me what was going on then stood halfway in the door relaying news while the doctor operated. They released me directy from the surgical suite rather than sending me to recovery. I made it back on to base less than an hour before they closed completely and couldn't leave for 6 days.

:iagree:

Go to Ikea and pick up triple bunks (or Flexa which has a full size triple) and you could put all three boys in one room. They sound like the perfect ages to really enjoy the space to roam and not be too bothered by the close quarters inside. Also, once you screen the porches you have livable space for dining and relaxing and a 600sf outbuilding would make a great jewelry studio/schoolroom if you finished it. I would go for it but I am a bit sick of scrubbing three bathrooms every week and living in a city with all the people and traffic.

The first 16 rows of a 3-6 month sweater for my first child (she'll be 5 in 2 months). I had great aspirations when my MIL, who is a wonderful knitter, was here with us after she was born and able to fix all my mistakes. On that note, can someone point me in the direction of some great knitting tutorial sites?