Too in need of repair to photo. But, simple and light blocking. Window is 6 feet across. Rod with wood curtain rings/clips. Two panels of thick, patterned tapestry simply backed with light-blocking curtain liner. Along center (where the panels meet) seams, it is shantung edged with tassel trim. So, simple to make. I love them, but the shantung is shredded from the sun...easy to replace, just need to find the time.

My favorite topic. Jewels! (Long story) But, I want to know about yours -- specifically engagement rings. My ring is a traditional diamond on a pretty gold band. The band is thin, ridged, and comes together under the diamond like a ribbon. It is delicate, just like my husband likes jewelry. We did not look at engagement rings together, as I wanted to be completely surprised upon engagement even after five years of dating. He used an antique pamphlet diamond purchasing guide that had belonged to my late father to investigate before his purchase. I do like that it is a stand alone ring, as I can take it off for cleaning and be left with a nice band. Our bands we did choose together at a small out of the way jeweler in a bohemian part of town. Simple, but nice scrollwork on each. Tell me about yours...

It is hard to know. I am just a very open door policy kinda person, but I know the contractor has a hard time finding workers, and said, right now, he is accepting guys from anywhere....so even with my meet-no-strangers-trust-everyone upbringing (my dad was very open that way), I was a little, ahem, concerned about the looks of the two guys who showed up to work. But, boy, do they know their fencing -- they got into engineering mode and worked out a few electric/septic line problems...you could tell they knew their business. And, loved every minute of it. But, shady characters none the less. One guy was tickled when I mentioned lemonade (I do look more than a bit like 'Harriet') I set out a cooler w/cups and texted the (absent) contractor to tell where it was and tell that the bathrooms were open with a knock. No takers for bathroom or drinks all day. 50 holes dug, though!? I totally get what you are saying, Margaret in CO, but having guys recently work for us is an offering for marital peace from my husband. He is quite capable and willing. Time, though, is little lacking.

Why be stressed about shipping not cooperating? Go to a little boutique store in your town and treat yourself to a little pretty thing...just for you, mama! You would get to have a change of scenery, a pretty shopping bag to carry your scarf home, and you would be done with this tomorrow! Congratulations and have fun this weekend!

In this case, it is a dozen miles!

It is my nature to serve drinks/food to anyone near our property haha, I love hospitality. But...is it a good idea to offer drinks/snacks to those working at one's home - A/C guys, carpet cleaners, etc? Another situation, we are having fencing done. Do I set out a cooler of lemonade or water? Will they then need to use the restroom? Is it expected that they come inside the house or do they wait to be offered that? Is it polite/proper to offer? What have you done?

I just scheduled a carpet-cleaning for next week. I want all of this flea excrement out of this house!

Someone said that DE is bad for vacuums, is that true? I have a bagless, in which I have placed a flea collar.

Our understanding is that the Revolution/Nexgard will render the fleas sterile, although it may take a few months for all cycles to die off. With hoovering/laundering I imagined we would be right on top of it. But this washer thing has me feeling icky. If there are no house-pet hosts, will they find us? We do our own pest control with professional products - on the outside, keeping a wide periphery where nothing can live LOL. That's been enough to keep our home relatively pest-free inside. I 'heard' that bombs do not get into the nooks or crannies that fleas climb into. What about the outdoor animals? I mean the farm animals? If they were bitten by a flea, and we or a pet carried it into the house, could it fall off, laying it's farm-animal-blood-fed eggs in the house, beginning the cycle again? Am I overthinking this?

Our elderly kitty was almost killed by fleas. I had no idea what was wrong with her and, since she was so old, we decided to let her lethargy/weight loss run it's course. Then we noticed black specks on her, and a quick google search led us to learn more than we wanted to know about flea dirt. All animals inside/outside are now on Revolution or Nexgard and will continue monthly - it seems she wasn't the only one. The puppy was already on her Nexgard, but the outdoor kitty was overdue. The vet said the elderly kitty was anaemic -- the fleas were killing her!!! I feel like a pretty bad owner, but she is on the mend. I have her and the other indoor kitty quarantined in the guest suite (don't worry, it will be thoroughly fumigated before you come visit=). This thread was very reassuring and educational: But, I do have a further query regarding whether laundering/hoovering is enough. I realize now that the black/red specks that I have been seeing around the top edge of my washer for the last month or so are flea droppings/larvae (Google 'flea dirt under microscope' for lunch time fun!) Yes, I did verify by comparison with the old Brock Magiscope. I had been cleaning it off the washer with lysol spray occasionally, but did not pay enough attention to notice how often/which type of load! (sense me beginning to itch/freak out!) I am washing everything the cats have touched, and that is when I realized what it was, because, after the washer being thoroughly cleaned yesterday, there is a lot of flea dirt around the top edge of the washer now, after washing their items. So...what do you think? Is our top-load washer just spitting the flea dirt to the top as it cleans? Is the washer infested? Could flea dirt be on all of our clothes? If it is, isn't that a bad, bad sign? I have not noticed 'black specks' all over the house or anything, although our son saw a live flea on the kitchen floor Sunday, before we knew what it was. Thinking of taking all bedding to the launderette. Will washing really do the trick? That flea dirt along the top of washer has me nervous...and itchy! Heading back to hoovering....

I considered years ago as a way to keep my brain in top-check after professional life took a back burner to baby care. Never signed up. Thanks for the near-empty-nest idea!

My elderly mother died in a city where she knew no-one, and had no former friends - no family beyond the realm of her children. I had decided to simply go the free notice route through the publisher of the local news journal. Then, I reconsidered a few days later. I wanted her information online for later genealogical sleuths in the family. I am so tickled that I can google my mother's name and see her lovely graduation (from secondary school) photo! Her cause of death was not mentioned, didn't think to add it.

It is wonderful that you are going to meet and work with other Catholic homeschoolers! Our dc were blessed with many like-faithed friends growing up and, although they had other friends of other faiths as well as some who went to ps, it was the like-faithed friends who provided our family with the complete package, so to speak. Our dearest friends were the parents of our children's friends, so we all had an active social life together - lots of opportunities to be together with friends and still have family time. I also think it is amazing that you all go to the same parish and could have missed each other like that - having to meet on facebook. I wonder how many families are lonely, and how many give up homeschooling all together, because of social isolation - isolation while having potential friends within a stone's throw!

Order Text for DS ( a rare treat...there's just not much to do for him anymore...I can't believe his uber-independant self still lets me!) Wrap birthday presents Order cake for graduation party (we decided not to have one, but friends decided their two families needed to have one on our 'party' property) Laundry Prescription Cat boxes/hoover bird cage area Attend important follow-up Dr appointment Plan meals for next week Check in with friend who adopted two toddlers (already has a 3 year old) Puppy health plan, review from Vet appt (treating undiagnosed giardiasis that likely was present with coccidia when we adopted her) Train/feed/walk/play with puppy x3 Have a great day everyone!

clean out icebox market list/marketing rubbish run throughout house (decluttering not filth=) train puppy to like brush (baby steps...what did that groomer do to her???) master bedding final transcript to college (last time I ever, ever have to do this) read with my daughter while she spins (yes, we still read aloud with adult children) Watched an episode of Larkrise to Candleford instead hoover the house tidy books office arrangement cat boxes dishes - pots/pans do only this list! Gotta work on this one!! What a great idea to have this listing...thank you!!

I have done traditional dog training in the past, and I like the clicker training we are doing now much better. I want support and a group experience for our growing puppy going forward. Locally, the dog scene is not as good as I was formerly around - no good dog parks, AKC events few and far between. I see there is a dog club/training center within an hour that offers Volhard Training Method classes, working towards rally. What is with the collar? Is this a positive or negative program?

I like to set the tone for special birthdays with our kitchen island transformed into celebration central with, for young men: extra special wrapped present (s), balloons, and a special cake (something different like cheesecake or favorite). For the girls: roses (the number of birthday), lace cloth, beautifully wrapped present(s), and a formally decorated cake. I agree with Jean in Newcastle for planning something with the 16 year old. One thing we try to do (to transition into no presents as for adult children) is to have the child choose a family outing, perhaps an arcade, a fancy restaurant. or a movie out with lots of popcorn/candy, even bowling...something we wouldn't normally do together. Happy bday DD!

Freshmen at our son's college just began a textbook exchange cafe as a leadership development project. So, our son has chosen to sell the textbooks he can, donating the proceeds to the scholarship fund itself, then donate the remainder of the books to the book cafe. He took a little bit from many of your collective suggestions and put them together - Thank you! With this, he is pleased to help the flagship book cafe get a footing, helping students in two ways.

Excellent idea.

That is a splendid idea for our high school texts! The college texts need to benefit a charitable organization as a scholarship 'pass it on' policy.

In the USA, please share an organization who would benefit from gently used college and high school texts. Thank you!

Two questions: 1. I really believe that teaching the soft bite will shape the dog's default behavior, but is the dog learning not to bite at all? I thought I was clear on this based on Ian's book, but now I am confused based on others' comments. 2. The problems we are having are basic beginner puppy behaviors. I have forgotten everything about this stage from many, many years ago. First time around we sprayed with water in order to train the dog to release things, stop jumping on things, etc, etc. It was quite effective. The quick spray was coupled with 'Leave it' and leave it she did. No resentment or confusion that I saw. But, the trend is positive reinforcement. The science behind it, training the dogs default behavior instead of tapping into its fear response, makes sense to me. So, now I want to follow Sue Ailsby's Training Levels, which begin with Zen, the dog's self-control check. That will be our 'leave it' training, but we are just beginning, just coming off a sick puppy...but, in the interim, this new pup is having puppy-crazy bursts where she grabs pants, skirts, door knobs, cats, chairs and anything but the toys we offer as replacements. She might grab her toys for a moment, but quickly runs for another forbidden object. It is zany...I just can't begin quickly enough on Zen! I am off track, I apologize, but I am trying to make a connection between 'leave it' and tug games. Right now, we just can't get her off of a forbidden object without physically removing her mouth from it. We try to be non-dramatic and calm, but she is really worked up sometimes. We try to play toss with favorite toy, slight interest, then rushes crazily to forbidden objects (anything in room other than a toy). So, is taking these forbidden objects away, negative reinforcement, rather than what is being said about tug, where the toy is given back?

Your reference to a soft mouth really resonated with us, not only helping future bite-charged situations, but with retrieving of objects - I imagine that is different, but related? Either way, I read your directions to my husband, and he has already begun. Can it just be one member of the family who works on this skill on purpose, rather than incidentally? I understand that dogs are not great generalizers, but I have little interest in being the one offering my hand for intentional bite inhibition training.

I really like your suggestion for mouthing hands; thanks for link. I read about bite inhibition in a book (by an Ian someone). I do not find the author's behavior solutions for other problems appealing for some reason, so I am kinda at a loss. I have a housebreaking/crating plan and a clicker training plan using Sue Ailsby's Training Levels, but there is a hole in my knowledge for these discipline issues. It began with my skirt which is just simply 'there', so tempting without even walking by or anything, now sleeves, the paper towels, kitchen door knobs...we are moving/removing temptation when possible and know this stage will pass. An important bit of info that I did not add is that she is not terribly food or toy motivated. She gets excited and wants to jump around, but mostly to go after the cats, jump at things she can't chew on (as noted), and, when placid (standard temperament is placid), just wants to look at us/the world. I guess this is important too: breeder let her play with soft floppy toys a lot, knotted towels for example, while I find that a potential problem down the road, fearing she will think our blankets/towels/couch are fair game later on, so I prefer to give hard toys. I am being flexible and purchased a few stuffed animal KONG's and an INVINCIBLE snake for (our controlled) tug of war and just when supervised, but maybe she needs more of what she loves...soft things?

She pauses behavior when we say "no" for other things, and then quickly distract her. A "no" has no affect on this, seemingly deaf at the time.