We bought our first home earlier this year. For the inspections, we hired not only a local inspector reputed to be obsessively thorough, but also (at my FILs suggestion) a structural engineer AND (DH's idea) a tree guy to look at the trees. They were worth every last penny. The inspector and engineer concluded that there were major structural problems at the back of the the house, and the tree guy diagnosed the trees in various stages of health/decline. The seller agreed to knock a big chunk off the price, we bought the house, and then we fixed everything. The structural problems turned out to be even more extensive than initially diagnosed, but because what turned up during the inspection we were not surprised and had money in the budget to fix them. Our realtor (who was awesome, and so, so helpful) said that she had never before heard of anyone having a tree inspection done before, but that she was now going to recommend it for people looking at places with a lot of trees. As for what we should have done differently, part of me wishes that we had waited on buying a house entirely until we could have found a place closer to the park, but realistically, that probably wouldn't have been a good idea overall.

You might be interested in this: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/will-i-kill-my-family-if-i-cook-the-stuffing-inside-the-turkey/?ref=dining

I'm pretty sure that my problem is that I don't get enough sleep. But if I go to sleep earlier then I don't get any time away from the kids, and that makes me crazy, too.

I've been reading this thread, wondering why something about it seemed so familiar, and then I remembered ... Sixteen Candles! Maybe younger sis also recalls that movie? :D A party seems unworkable; celebrating the child's birthday with cake and song does not.

I heartily recommend The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin.

I love having my three, but we had more than one child for our benefit, not for theirs. It seems quite obvious to me that there are real tradeoffs, both for the parents and the child(ren), with different family sizes. Fortunately, there's more than one road to the good life, at least IMNSHO :001_smile: I do think that some of the traditional 'negatives' associated with being an only have diminished in recent years. My father is an only child and remembers being terribly lonely, but that was in the 1940s, when families tended to be larger (at least in the community that he and my mom both grew up in), and he was an anomaly. I will say that my oldest and dearest friend, who is the only child of divorced parents, always blames her 'self-centeredness' and 'need to be the center of attention' on being an only. Inconveniently for her theory, she happens to be an unusually unselfish. giving, and loving person who has dedicated her life to public service. She does always want to hold the remote, though. It kind of makes her twitchy if someone else holds it. :tongue_smilie:

I voted doctorate, but perhaps should have been 'other'? I have a J.D. and a Ph.D.

I have another Jaffrey book -- Vegetarian Cooking Around the World -- and have been wondering which Indian book of hers I might like best. Glad to have the recommendation. Not a Bittman fan, here. I never quite like the way his recipes come out. I have a lot of cookbooks. I absolutely love Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison and have cooked dozens of things out of it over the years, all of them delicious. I also have a number of cookbooks from the Cooks' Illustrated folks; IMO, the best of the bunch are:America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook, and The Best Recipe Soups, Stews, and Chilis. Oh, and The Slow Cooker Revolution is the best slow cooker cookbook out there, period. For baking, King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking. The New York Times Cookbook, by Amanda Hesser, is not really an everyday cookbook but is a wonderful read and has a few killer recipes. For special occasions the Gourmet Cook Book (I have the 2004, but covet the newer one), Ruth Reichl ed, never lets me down. And my mom gave my Jamie's Dinners, by Jamie Oliver, which I have used much more than I ever thought I would (some great soup recipes in there). I will be reading along this thread with interest. I would love to get some better international cookbooks (especially Asian). I have a bunch of Chinese and Japanese cookbooks but am not really crazy about any of them. The Sunset Magazine Oriental Cook Book is probably the best of the lot. ETA: I also agree with Ms Mungo's recommendation for Everyday Food. I think they've compiled the recipes into books, too.

Ah, guilt. Such a powerful force, and so spectacularly unpleasant for everyone else sometimes. This is about him, not you, and definitely not your kids. So sorry that you're having to deal with this nonsense. :grouphug::grouphug:

Always in the fridge. I have thought about getting a butter bell, but then I would most certainly eat more butter, and that would be bad.

I was wondering about that, too. What is the iPad edition supposed to be, exactly?

I saw that one in 1000 Children's Books You Should Read Before You Grow up and thought it looked great. I'm putting that on our list. We are reading The Twenty-One Balloons. It was one of my favorites as a child and it's just as good as I remembered it being. DS6 is enthralled, and even DS3 is quite interested.

:lol: Good chocolate is on the top shelf of the pantry, where little eyes and fingers cannot go. I also may or may not have a few Reese's Peanut Butter Cups that the children collected at Halloween stored in a ziploc bag at the bottom of the freezer, underneath all of the frozen vegetables. :tongue_smilie:

Thanks so much, all. I knew I could count on the Hive :001_smile:

I sometimes teach university courses in which the entire grade is based on a final exam. Furthermore, the exams are anonymous, so I don't even know how the individual students did until after I have submitted the grades to the registrar and they send me back a list of names to match up to the numbers. There is also a prescribed curve that all faculty members are "strongly encouraged" to follow. In general, I am not totally sold on the system as a pedagogical approach. It is very efficient for the instructor, obviously, and I do think that the anonymity improves fairness, but (1) as the pp mentioned, only certain kinds of questions work for this format, which is very limiting; and (2) I think that there just isn't enough feedback, both for the students and for me. It's hard for the students to know how they're doing, and when the class is big, it can be very difficult to figure out that I haven't explained something clearly or thoroughly enough until we get to the exam and they all demonstrate the exact same misunderstanding, at which point it's too late for me to fix it. I will say that I have never had the experience of having a student who never comes to class then acing the exam. I have had plenty of 'sleeper' stars, who never say a word the whole semester and then do fabulously well on the exam, but the students who check out entirely generally do very badly. Which is good, I suppose -- at least I'm adding SOME value to their education :D When I teach a discussion class, I always include a small participation grade. I'm not going to grade attendance, but I want them to have an incentive to speak up, because that makes for a much better, more productive class.

Ah, I see. Yes, I think that the cocoa-and-a-book answer might serve you well.

I am still having trouble imagining the context here. I don't think anyone has ever asked me anything remotely like this. Is it perhaps that you seem unusually peaceful or happy and they want to know your secret? As in, "Kalanamak, you seem so content. What do you do to nourish your soul that makes you so serene?" In which case you could presumably answer something vague and meaningless like, "Oh, I just take things as they come." Or does this come up in a totally different way? Really, my imagination is failing me! :001_smile:

I voted other. "School time" here means "stuff you do with Mom in the morning at the little table," so by definition DH doesn't so any of the official homeschooling. However, "school time" is certainly not the sum total of the kids' academic education, and DH does plenty of educating on his own -- he searches amazon and the library catalog for books he wants to read with them, helps our oldest with computer programming, gives impromptu lessons on various math things that he deems important, etc. The only thing that we actively coordinate together is cello --we have taken turns being the main "Suzuki parent" and now tend to pass practice supervision back and forth. As the children get older I can imagine that we might be a bit more organized about who is teaching what, but at the moment the more casual approach suits us well.

I beg your pardon? Condensed milk like the sweetened stuff that comes in a can?

Thanks so much -- these are all great suggestions!

After months of obsessive listening to the Stephen Fry et al recordings of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner (and let's not forget the dramatic reenactments, complete with English accents), I think that my boys might finally consent to move on to something new. Any suggestions? I'd like something suitable content-wise for a 3yo and 6yo, but with relatively sophisticated language, on the theory that if they're going to memorize it anyway, it might as well be worth memorizing. My 3yo in particular is crazy for audiobooks and will listen for long stretches, so attention span is not an issue. I was thinking of perhaps A Bear Called Paddington -- Stephen Fry has an audiobook for that, too, and DS6 loves the series-- but I could kind of use a break from bears. Is there maybe a particularly good recording of The Wind in the Willows that someone might recommend (I see that there are several)? Other ideas?

I usually use a crystal deodorant, which helps a bit with the smell but alas, does nothing at all in the antipersiprant department. On days that I WOH I wear a 'real' deodorant/antiperspirant.

Love them. But I also really want flowered clogs.

I used to live near a very good independent bookstore and would buy books pretty regularly, especially children's books. At at B&N, I am much more likely to buy a magazine, if anything -- their prices are so much higher than amazon, and the one in my old 'hood used to give me a hard time about the educator's discount, which was extremely annoying. I live in Nashville now and hit the used bookstores here with some regularity, mostly for kids' books. Like many others I know, I have been eagerly awaiting the opening of Parnassus Books, not least of all because I'm sure they will have a storytime :001_smile: And once I'm in a bookstore, well .... Somebody was telling me that she is planning to offer book delivery in the city, but I'm not sure if that's true. The store is also located right across the street from where another large independent bookstore used to operate; apparently that individual store was profitable, although the (local) chain was not. I really hope she succeeds.

Swattie here -- I almost responded to your comment on the other thread, to the effect that while Swarthmore isn't for everyone, for other folks it is just about heaven. :001_smile: It was certainly intense, but most of the people I knew seemed very happy to be there (as I was) and the school actively works to prevent the atmosphere from becoming excessively competitive or cutthroat, which is something that I appreciate even more in retrospect. I have a colleague whose child is there now (math major) and is having a similarly fabulous/intense experience. I'm glad your son liked it, and I hope his application goes well. I went on to graduate school and law school, ultimately landing in academia (an enterprise that is positively littered with Swatties), and I continue to feel as though my Swarthmore education has stood me in very good stead over the years. I have attended and/or taught at some wonderful universities, and I think that you can get a great education at a lot of places, but there is something to be said for a school that is really focused on undergraduate education in the way that Swarthmore is.