For those who are going to pass down heirlooms to their daughters--are you planning on having your daughter say to her serious boyfriend "Hey, I an supply my own ring if you want to propose?" Seems like it may make it financially too easy on the young man. Or does dd end up with her own set, from her husband, plus grandma's-- and one still sits in a box unused. I personally love the idea of re-using already mined diamonds because of the violence/corruption/abuse I've heard about in the diamond industry.

Betsy-Tacy, the first story, starts with girls at a 5th bday party, IIRC. It is a sweet and simple novel. It was the first audiobook my then 5 yo? daughter and I shared and we loved it.

Lurker popping to to say thanks for the LONG AGO book recommendations of Code Name Verity (which I could hardly put down!), and Heyer's The Grand Sophy (pretty much had a smile on my face the whole book). I always enjoy reading this thread.

This was mentioned above, but let me second Millenium Park, particularly the Maggie Daley playground, the Bean, and the spitting fountain. If it's warm bring a change of clothes cause kids like to get wet in that fountain. IIRC you have to cross the bridge from the Bean sculpture to get to the playground. The aquarium is great. My family also loves the Field Museum, which has a huge dino collection, if that's a thing with your boys. Also, you can look into taking a water taxi to get to some of your destinations,that is more fun than a bus https://www.chicagowatertaxi.com/Chicago-Boat-Tourists/, and not too much more expensive. I usually love the architecture boat tours, but your kids are too little to enjoy that. You could look into the CityPass (I think that's what it's called) to see if you can get admission discounts to Museums. Also of note, right across the street from Mil. Park is the Chicago Cultural Center, also free that you could take 5-10 mins to walk through. It's a beautiful building that used to be the library. Has mosaics, a pretty dome, and a gallery that sometimes has cool stuff.

Our 12 yo's got Lanterns for Xmas last year. I would say it plays in about 30 mins. Mix of strategy and luck.

Your family was awesome, Lexi!!! :-) How did you get contacted to be on the news? I need to fill two new Epi-pen Rxs next month. We have new insurance and I have NO idea what it will cost. I met a family who carries this alternative to Epi-pens: http://www.epinephrineautoinject.com/ No idea the cost of those, but something I'll check into to see what is less expensive--especially for the set that will not be at school.

Also a slight thread highjack.. My dd12 wants to read the script. Is it appropriate in regard to language, sexual content, etc. for that age? I don't want to pre-read yet another book I'm not interested in... Thanks!

We were just somewhere where there was snorkeling. We went to the big box store an bought our own for about $12. At the beach they were available to rent for $15 for regular snorkel, or $20 for Rx lenses. Rental equipment was probably a little nicer, but since we plan to return, we thought we'd get our own. It was helpful to have flexible tubing near the mouthpiece, which our cheapest kid set did not have. In our case our glasses wearers didn't really miss their glasses, but it was low tide, and the fish (and us) were only in a foot or two of water at times...

My last house had refaced cabinets, done by the former owner. They were some kind of plasticy cover (that looked like wood), over MDF (I think). They looked nice and held up well EXCEPT the two cabinet doors on either side of the the stove. The heat and steam caused the bottoms of the plastic/laminate or whatever it was to loosen and peel.

We did (mostly) native landscaping at our previous home. Some parts were great and beautiful, but It ended up being less to my liking than I had hoped. Maybe that's because I actually wanted certain things growing in certain places. What ended up happening is that some plants self re-seeded better than others, blew all over, and basically took over several beds. The plants tended to also be tall and stalky, and in beds, I like tall in the middle, shorter on the outside. Maybe with the right seed mix this wouldn't be an issue?

My child had surgery at age 6 to correct her VUR. She already had kidney damage from UTIs (and as far as I know she only had 3). She became allergic to the first choice prophylactic abx, and the 2nd choice abx was one that would, as a side effect, likely worsen another existing condition she has. If not for that, we would have stayed the course. Not wanting to worsen the kidney damage was enough for me to get over my fear of long term antibiotic use. Per the nephrologist she would prob have needed to be on it until puberty/growth spurt would "correct" the anatomy. Another friend's child outgrew the VUR after only a year or two on antibiotics. The VCUG will show the docs how severe the reflux is, which should guide decision making.

Our MIDDLE SCHOOL requires each child to have an iPad. (In HS, I'm told they need Chromebooks.) And yes, (some) kids play on them during class, though they are not allowed to. I'm told all the kids play games in their devices on the bus to/from school, and our girls are frequently asking to download new games they've seen/heard about. Homework is done on the iPad too, which drives me crazy at times, because it seems so much easier to just use pencil and paper and not have to constantly be creating text boxes, or whatever. Online textbook access had some kinks the first couple weeks, and fortunately not since then. I've heard other parents complain that their kids take forever to do their homework, because they are really playing games until mom approaches and they quickly change screens to homework. Our school has also sent several special letters out reminding students re proper tech use, esp. social media, and that they may not take or post pictures from school without the subject's permission. I'm not a huge fan, and like you, would have concerns, esp given the history. A mom at school told me they changed their son's browser from Safari to Mobicip, which has better parental controls.

First of all, I'm really sorry for your loss, and that you are dealing with all of this to begin with. Regarding the SS issue, I think it would be great for you to fight this to make the situation right, and (hopefully) improve the system. But I also know we all have limited amounts of time/energy, and for your family, the payoff seems small for the time/energy you'd need to expend. Though it sounds like the issue needs to be dealt with sometime in the future--but maybe I'd just wait til then, and hope the system had improved?? Do you have more time now, or when your youngest is 18??? I'm frustrated for you. Keep up the good work, mom, whatever you end up doing!

Invite them over for meals. Particularly if she is not working, adult conversation can be so welcome. I know someone who had a widow over weekly for several years--even soup/grilled cheese or pizza are better shared with good company. Doesn't have to be fancy. Note on your calendar the 1 mo, 6 mo. 9 mo, 1 yr, 18 mo, 2 yr, etc. anniversary dates and shoot an email or note over. Offer to babysit, or to take her babysitter home if you know she is going out. Nobody wants to pay $10/hr, and still have to wake up kids, load in car so babysitter can be driven back home at 10 or 11 pm. If you knew her husband, talk to her about him when you are reminded of him and remember him. -- eg, at this years block party: "I remember last year what a great steak (late husband) cooked." She is remembering--tell her you are too! Or at Little League--"I'm sure (late husband) would be so proud to see Johnny playing so well." Sounds like you have already thought through some things we depend on husbands to do (lawn care, sprinklers). If there are other things you can think of, offer to help or referrals for handyman/other things beyond your skill set. Re the necklace--I'm not sure I'd do that either. It is kind you are thinking of it, but she might feel awkward if she keeps ring on thumb and sees you. Sounds like you're neighborhood is already doing a great job.

We don't homeschool, and in our district each child needs and uses an iPad for school and homework. The school recently had a cybersafety consultant in to talk to both students (during the day) and parents in the evening, which was hugely informative. Some things that hit me as important, which we will do: On Computers and tablets have Google Safe Search set to ON and YouTube Safety Mode set to ON http://www.cybersafetyconsulting.com/how-to-set-google-safe-search-settings/ On iDevices disable Safari and install Mobicip Browser instead. We haven't done this yet, but it has much better parental controls, apparently. For cell phones this woman does not allow iphones for her minor children, because they are not as easily monitored. For Android she recommends My Mobile Watchdog, which allows monitoring in real time of chat, apps. For iPhones, she recommended TeenSafe. Biggest drawback is that parent can only monitor what's on the phone when it backs up to the cloud, so pictures/texts can be deleted easily and parent would never know.

In our school talent show "Family Participation" included a performance by Mom, Dad and 3 kids who all took TKD doing some sort of routine together, and a family doing a Filipino dance (that was cool). But mostly it was girls singing solos. Ours had no winners, just performances.

I recently read a mommy blog about Pley.com, which is a monthly subscription for Lego sets. I googled "Pley reviews" and there were not many, and were very mixed. Have any of you gotten this for your children? Thoughts? We are most interested in the big sets that would keep a lego maniac busy for a day or two. Is there a long wait time for these? Is it like Paperback Swap, when the object gets shipped when it's available (and it could be month and months??) We don't want to waste our money if we can't get the sets we'd like, in the general time frame that we'd want them in, which is summer. Thanks for your input!

I have an LG G3, and like it fine.Took me a little while to get used to Android. I moved from an iPhone 4 to the LG a couple years ago, I think. I got it because it was free, and moving to the iPhone 5 at that time was $100. So not because of any features or research, but because of cost. I LOVE the bigger screen and Swype keyboard (the latter I found out is available on the apple). Didn't like that my phone didn't fit in my pocket anymore. The camera was way better megapixel-wise than what I had. I've never printed anything, but am happy with what I see on my screen. Also memory was better than the other free phone at the time. I'm NOT techy, and use for same you do.

Before I moved away from them both (sob, sob) I did as Jan OH above--shopped first at Aldi, than to Meijer, which was down the road about 5 mins. Meijer sale items were often less expensive than Aldi reg. prices, so I did always look at the paper, and tried to use Mperks too. Aldi got better over time regarding offering organic items, but Meijer had much nicer produce, and organic was relatively cheap compared to other places that sold organic. Meijer has items that Aldi doesn't carry. Meijer was large and clean, and Aldi less so. I stay out of WM if I can. I just learned yesterday that Target price matches for the same item, and took advantage of that (though not for grocery item).

Sedona Arizona? I went mid April a few years ago and it was a great long weekend. I think we flew to Tuscon and rented a car. We also drove to the Grand Canyon to spend a day there. Lots of nice hiking in Sedona. My favorite-Devil's Bridge: http://www.greatsedonahikes.com/devilsbr/devilsbr.htm

Well, I missed the $9.99 deal, but Babybug was still only 13.50. Thanks for the heads up!

Everyone needs support/grieves differently, but after a very significant loss in my life several years ago, a dear friend skipped the funeral (with good reason, similar to yours) and came to visit a month later, when I still really needed love and support, and all the craziness was over. If I remember correctly, she asked what I'd rather have her do, so she did have my "permission" to skip the service. Could that be an option, unless going to the funeral would be better for YOUR grief experience?

No new advice--except maybe as a friend to babysit and give yourself a few hours of rest??. But hugs to you, OP. Sounds like things are really difficult and piling up. All you can do is your best.

So, the video was 2 minutes--what was the actual build time?? :) That's a pretty crazy structure. Did boy #2 get to stand on it too? The boys did a great job.

Actually, I thought reading over your note that it reinforces that you should NOT take the job! Overload is not good for anybody--you, your family, or your workplace. Count it a compliment that your employer wants you back, but do what's best for you! Hugs