My Lego/art lover also loves air dry clay, Snap Ciruits(those have been a big hit with other 6 year old boys as birthday gifts), Zoobs, and puzzles.

I usually asked for a bathroom or something if I was out with a baby and I was usually directed to a bedroom or something. Typically though, I got so much attention for preferring not to nurse my distractible baby I public that I stopped going places until I weaned her. I never asked to for a place to put a baby down, I just wore or held them.

It seems silly to feel sorry for moms who ask for space, plenty of women prefer a private or semi private space to nurse for reasons that have nothing to do with embarrassment or feeling like nursing is a "horrible secret". I had a baby who was so easily distracted that even someone turning a a ceiling fan on caused her to stop eating. It was easier to nurse with as few distractions as possible. I wasn't ashamed, just weary.

Ha ha! /Nelson Muntz

We have a cheapie(under $200) from Walmart(or maybe Target). It holds ornaments, does not require water, does not shed needles, is pre lit, and the lights have worked for the past 2 years. It works for me. We had an even cheaper one before that. Ugly, so ugly, but the lights worked for 7 years. We had to change, I think, 5 bulbs ever. It wasso easy to set up. My DD beat it at wrestling though, so we upgraded.

I love getting goodie trays for Christmas! I love to make what others refer to as kiss cookies or peanut blossoms. We call them Shove-A-Kiss cookies. I love what everyone has already suggested, but one of my favorites is plain old shortbread. I also like ginger snaps and mini loaves of quick bread. Really, I just like Christmas treats. ;)

Not flushing tampons or any feminine hygiene product was standard advice in just about every article about periods in Seventeen, YM, and whatever the other girl's magazines were called. At least in the 90s. Also, the ubiquitous "This embarrassing thing happened to me" column usually had a toilet back up story due to the girl flushing said products. I'm 33 and thought this was standard knowledge. I can't recall a commercial or ad that encouraged flushing. It's so interesting how different peoples experiences are.....but please, if you come to my house-Do not flush your tampon!

I don't really like pie, but I made a pumpkin and an apple with caramel sauce and DH and the kids think it is great for breakfast.

My brother lives in a huge seller's market. He has only bought homes in that area and he was surprised by the fact that we could negotiate the price or repairs. They bought a house after multiple failed offers, had to offer a price over asking and make an offer with a no inspection contingency clause. He was also jealous that we had time to decide on making an offer since the standard where he is to see a house, write an offer immediately at the nearest business available(in his case they wrote the offer at a gas station around the corner), and wait to most likely be rejected. Do that 10+ times and eventually find something workable. At least in his price point.

We just bought a house. We had unique needs* and found the nearly perfect house. After the inspection we found a couple ceilings fan that didn't work, a rotted deck step, a minor electrical problem, a window screen that needs to be re screened, and unhooked ventilation fans in the attic. We asked for the electrical and ventilation issues to be fixed, but the other issues are easy enough fixes that we just shrugged them off. OTOH, prior to inspection, we asked for the washer/dryer and some portable sheds to stay. The seller agreed. We really wanted that particular house and she was comfortable not selling unless she found the right deal. The house is nicely finished and amazingly clean. The 12year old boiler looks like it was just installed, sparkling clean. We feel our Realtor(who is a gem) advised us really well. * My parents are moving in with us while my father is in the early but still somewhat difficult stages of early onset Alzheimer's. We wanted a house with space for 2 kitchens, 2 laundry areas, private bathrooms for each family, 2 private entrances, and 2 living areas. This house was well under our budget at a price that we figured meant we'd have to do some work to get it the way we wanted, but was almost exactly what we wanted. The only negative was no extra bedroom or third living area that I could use as a play and school room. I'm a little nervous about that, but my parents will be taken care of so....should be ok.

We're just over 100k. There are no designated times and ToT is on Halloween. On the other hand, it seems like a week long event between 2 of the high schools having ToT earlier in the week, 2 assisted living homes hosting a ToT, the mall, the downtown, 2 shopping centers, and the nature center having Halloween events the week or day of. Some people hit those to avoid being out at dark, avoid their neighborhood at night, or take younger kids. Some people hit many...they must really like candy. ;) It's not my thing to have a designated time and I think having having a designated separate day is silly, but different strokes!

A couple times a month out of the house. But both our parents live close and offer to watch the kids for free. Sometimes we do date night in though. Our kids are young to be put to bed at 7:30 and that gives us about 3 hours for a movie, board games, a fun homemade dinner, or whatever.

Did anyone see the follow up story? http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/10/09/third-grader-blamed-mount-diablo-elementary-lockdown-father/ The father of the child is aware his child has behavior problems, but says he has not been informed of the extent of what is happening at school and that they learned about it from news stories, that the school is not following the IEP program that was in place at the child's previous school, and that the child in question was adopted at age 3 after a lot of early childhood trauma and 11 foster placements.

I am 33 and I took my husband's last name when we married 12 years ago. I have yet to regret that decision. We almost both changed our names to DH's mother's maiden name since her side of the family helped raise him and his father's family had a rotten reputation in the small towns DH grew up in. In the end, we just went with DH's given last name. Neither of us was religious at all when we got married, we were both pretty disbelieving of God at all and we were fairly liberal. Having the same last name just made us seem more like a family in our minds. Almost everyone I know who is married and in their late 20s to mid 30s has taken their husband's last name, even those on second marriages or people who had established lives well into their 30s with their maiden name. I know some people in long term partnerships and they've kept their given names. All of them have given their children the last name of the male partner. I don't care at all whether or not someone keeps or changes their last name, but I would appreciate being told if I am calling them by the wrong name. I would assume a last name change after a wedding, but would apologize and move on if I was informed I was incorrect. Of the 10 women I know who have gotten married this year, they have all changed their name.

Maybe it's personality? Some people are the laugh so you don't cry variety. I know that some people really dislike FB or the sharing of day to day stuff on there though. I have a friend who laughingly posted pics when her DD smeared Desitin all over herself and the couch, but she was dealing with some other really crappy messes (literally and figuratively), so she laughed. We laughed with her, shared stories, and that was that. Later she had her DD help clean up, talked about not doing that, and she found a new place to store the Desitin. I have a pic of my proud and pleased DD playing in the toilet, she climbed into it when I was momentarily occupied. I did share it, I found it hilarious. But first I told her to stay out of the toilet and not to do that again because she could hurt. Later, I bought another door knob guard. I don't know anyone who uses FB shares to "go viral", but I'm aware people do. I think for me and many people I know, the non staged pic or vid of the mess is the equivalent of telling your neighbor that she had to hear why you are out of flour. Or just laughingly telling a story at playgroup.

I would guess they have an ad deal where they get paid per page view or having x number of views or they structure the page in such a way that you accidentally click on ads to read more of the story and they get paid per ad click.

The explanation I have heard for homeschooling being selfish is that it is done by primarily middle and upper middle families, where the parents would volunteer and the kids would get decent scores in testing. By homeschooling we are "depriving" the schools of families who are passionate about education and their kid's success.

Double Post. I really want to spend that money! :)

It's over $100, but maybe something like the 12 DVD set of talks from the Simply Charlotte Mason conference on their website? It has ideas and how to talks for grades K-12. Life of Fred books. Something from Julie Bogart, a lot of moms I know are curious about The Writer's Jungle but balk at the price and would love to preview it and see if it's for them. I'm trying to think of a good general book about homeschooling from a secular perspective, but am drawing a blank right now. My library has Phonics Pathways, How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. It was very helpful to field test those and see what worked for us. They also have all the Bob Book sets, which has been helpful for practice...but most people do tend to buy those. My son has a good memory and after the first read through he has them memorized, so bad for practice. Laura Grace Weldon wrote a recent book on unschooling called Free Range Learners. The Kitchen Table Math books and/or the Family Math books.

It does not sound selfish. (((Hugs))) and Happy Anniversary!!

My kids DH's parents Grandma and Grandpa and mine Nonny and Papa. Nonny and Papa came about because that's how DS referred to them when he started to learn to speak. He saw my mom and dad on a regular basis. I grew up referring to my paternal grandparents as Grandma and Grandpa or my maternal grandmother as Grandma First Name. DH referred to his grandparents as Grandma or Grandpa Last Name. He comes from a family of tall people and they all called their maternal great grandmother Little a grandma as she was barely 5'0 tall and her children and grandchildren tended to be between 5'10 and 6'6.

Do the demographics for a given school include the students and staff or just students? A diverse student population says nothing about the people in charge.

People are crazy. Someone suggested essential oils to me as a way to cure my father's Alzheimer's or stop the progressiveness of the symptoms. We no longer talk. I am glad you got some helpful information. <3

I would be contacting an attorney to make sure it stays that way, particularly if the newspaper maintains an online article or offers a digital edition.

Here is what I am doing now with a 6 year old. We are not in poverty, so I acknowledge that I have some flexibility that someone who is pinching pennies just to keep bellies full does not. We used to be there. My son was younger. Mostly we just read, talked, walked, played games, and he helped me make bread. I use the methods and word lists from Don Potter's Blend Phonics. We do it on a whiteboard. I add in readers like Bob Books that I pick up from the library. I use index cards and write words on them that are more sight words that he needs more practice on etc and use those flash cards, game play, and sentence arranging. I also use the McGuffey Primer, but on my tablet. If I did not have a tablet I would print it out at the library. I get something like 75 free pages to print per week. I use Cuisenaire Rods, Education Unboxed videos, blank paper to make my own worksheets, a clock, play money, a ruler, and books. I get several of the Math Start books from the library and I picked up several titles from Time Life's I Love Math collection. We do what is referred to as living math, because it's what works well for my son. I can google the scope and sequence of homeschool math programs if I need to figure out what's next. I am hoping to get him into MEP for 2nd grade, I liked teaching MEP. It just was not meeting his needs. Handwriting is a letter formation chart I picked up at local homeschool supply store for a $1, half full notebooks of handwriting paper I found at a thrift store, and copying passages out of McGuffey. We just finished a unit study on clouds. I used a basic book about wearher we had at home, picked up books from the library, did a few demos, made an art project at his request, and spent a ton of time observing and talking about clouds. He can now name several types of clouds and what they may mean for weather. I often let him pick his unit study topics and I go from there and decide what information I want to focus on. I anticipate that I'll have to do something more formal at some point, but I try not to plan too far ahead. I'm not worried about it yet. I read a loud a lot and we talk about we're reading. We do have a museum pass and go when we can. I say yes to field trips whenever I can. We go to the park. We hike a lot. He helps me cook. He goes to a one day a week enrichment program through the public school. We watch documentaries, read a ton of books, and play lots of board games. He takes karate at an inconvenient time on Friday nights because he can go for $28 per month.