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Queen_Zarga

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Posts posted by Queen_Zarga

  1. I've only been at this HS thing a couple of years, but I finally feel like we have a schedule that is working. M-Th is pretty strict. Fridays are looser and often when we get errands done. FWIW, here's what I do.

     

    I have our schedule on a google calendar (because my laptop is always on and nearby during school) and have broken our subjects into blocks (e.g. math 9-9:30, language arts 10-11:30). This way we have a little wiggle room if we are running behind, but it also works as a motivator for some play time between subjects. In between subjects I throw in a load of laundry, pay some bills, check facebook, etc.

     

    Everyday after lunch we do about 90 minutes of physical activity: swimming, ice skating, a walk/hike or a trip to the park. We've also been known to spend the entire 90 minutes raking and bagging leaves.  :lol:

     

    After "PE" everyone has an hour of rest time. Before the kids can come out of their rooms after rest time, their rooms must be picked up. Then we have chores, which take approximately 15 minutes: vacuum the kitchen/family room, dust, clean the bathroom. Since history and science are the favorite subjects around here, my first grader puts up no resistance when we do those in the aftenoon. By 5:00, if all schoolwork has been completed and chores are done (including putting away their laundry, if necessary), the kids get to play Minecraft.

     

    OK, now you know my secret: Minecraft. Best. Motivator. Ever.

     

    I love being able to cook dinner in relative peace. Minecraft is motivating ME to stick to our schedule. School work is done, my house is clean(er), we all get some breaks during the day.

     

    One kid sets the table, one kid clears the table, one kid empties the dishwasher. We swap chores every week.

     

    I don't know what I'll do when they get sick of Minecraft.

     

    -Z

     

    PS   My kids are 6, 4 and 4

  2. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not seeing how this feature is different than the thousands of other websites that use it.

     

    For example, you go to cnn.com and read a nice story about a cute kitten saved by a fireman. The story made you feel all warm and fuzzy and you want to share it with your friends on Facebook, so you click the "like" or "share" link (the sites seem to display it differently) and the kitten story will post to your wall. If you are already signed into Facbook (say, on another open tab in your browser), the link will post immediately. If you are not logged into Facebook, you will be asked to log in before the link posts. The link will be seen by anyone you have allowed to view your wall (friends? friends of friends? public? you decide in your FB privacy settings).

     

    My understanding is the same thing will happen here. If I want to like/share/link this--or any WTM---thread on my FB wall, my friends will see it and they may click the link to get here (just as a random person performing a google search would). Since I logged in with my WTM credentials and not my facebook credentials, any of my friends clicking on the link on my FB wall would be clueless as to who I was in this thread or even if I actually posted to this thread.

     

    And as far as the "Likes" widget, lots of other sites do it, too. Here's an example: http://www.cbs8.com/

     

    So, this really doesn't seem to be something unusual. I'm not saying I'm a fan and it doesn't sound like many other are either, but if you really want to keep your WTM identity separate from your FB identity it seems you should: 1. have a WTM username and picture different from your FB username and picture, and 2. lock down your FB privacy settings.

     

    Thanks to everyone for their hard work. I lurk here all the time and have learned so much.

  3. We had to make the same decision when we bought a new camera. Here were some things we kept in mind:

     

    HDD: if the hard drive failed and we hadn't moved all of the video off, it was lost (or else required the time and expense of finding someone to try to save it).

     

    DVD: cool, but they take some time to finishing "writing" to the dvd. Not usually a problem, but if you're in the middle of shooting, say, a birthday party or a soccer game, you could miss some good video opportunities waiting for the DVD to finish until you can pop a new one in.

     

    Flash: we almost went this route, but I'm so disorganized that I would likely forget to empty the flash drive, then we would go on vacation and realize the memory was full and we wouldn't have enough room on the laptop to move the video off of the camera.

     

    MiniDV: the quality is good and we thought of it as a 'backup' in case our computer storing our video crashes or the DVDs are destroyed--we save the little tapes and can always make another copy on the computer or a DVD.

     

    My $.02, FWIW.

  4. Are they digital? The Microsoft Movie Maker that comes with Windows XP (part of Service Pack 2, maybe?) is the cheapest (FREE!) decent option out there. Pretty much plug and go.

     

    I had a bunch of tapes that weren't digital, but we bought a Digital8 camcorder a few years back that allowed playback of the analog tapes. We were then able to get them on the computer and DVDs with no problem. If you are all analog, then you will have a more difficult time.

  5. Heck, I'm not even sure that we'd qualify for a mortgage with our credit, but why even bother to find out since we can't procede? Even checking causes your credit to have a hit on it, and I'm not about to hit my credit for nothing, thanks.

     

    Checking your own credit report does not show as a "hit." I don't know if you live in Canada or the US, but in the US you can check your credit reports free once per year. There are 3 credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. We check one of them every 3 months (Equifax in April, Experian in August, TU in Dec, for example) just to make sure everything is as it should be. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com.

     

    If you have any questions about your credit, now is the time to be checking. That way, if there is a problem, you are aware of it and have time to work on cleaning things up before you try to buy.

  6. I wouldn't say that IVF should be unlawful! You do NOTNOTNOT have to create more embryos than you are willing to bring to term for IVF.

     

    I think most people would agree, but the problem is we haven't yet figured out how to do this. In a typical cycle, let's say a doctor is able to retrieve 13 eggs. Of those 13 eggs, 10 eggs are mature enough to proceed and 8 are able to be fertilized. Of those 8, 5 make it to the blastocyst stage. Of those 5, 3 are implanted. Of those 3, only one makes to to a full term baby. And that is generally a best-case scenario. (And to add to the best case scenario, only 1 of those 2 remaining frozen blastocysts survive the thaw and become a live baby for the second round.)

     

    The success rates in IVF are something crazy-low, like 30%. At $20K a cycle, it is hard for many people to justify only retrieving 2 or 3 eggs, hoping not to have "extras." You can't generally tell who is going to be successful (i.e. all eggs retrieved fertilize, grow to blast, and become a live birth) vs who isn't; people going through IVF are generally doing it because they haven't been able to get pregnant any other way.

     

    I don't have an answer, but I also don't think there is a simple solution.

     

    Sorry I got OT. Maybe we should start a new thread about this.

  7. Thanks for the great feedback.

     

    Just to clarify, we aren't moving. This was just for my own curiosity (I think I've just been watching too much HGTV lately). Our house is quite roomy and I think it is laid out reasonably well, but I always wonder what people mean when they talk about a well laid-out home. We do need to remodel the kitchen at some point though...

     

    I've never been a big fan of the "great room" and it looks like I'm in good company. :001_smile:

  8. Have a look at this site:

     

    http://www.houseplans.com

     

    You can modify with a pencil and dream, dream, dream.

     

    That's a really fun site. Thanks for the link!

     

    I really prefer more small rooms rather than open space, partly because our storage needs lean heavily toward shelving, which is easier with more walls to put them on!! :) Also, I really like having defined spaces -- a kitchen that is ONLY a kitchen, without a breakfast nook or computer nook or whatever. It's small, but it does exactly what I need it to do. I have a strong preference for a separate dining room, because then you don't have to leave room between the table and the rest of the room to "define the space"... so the dining table can almost fill the room.

     

    Other than that, our house feels bigger than a lot of other houses of about the same size (1600-1700sqft) that we looked at, I think because the flow of traffic goes in a loop through all the public rooms -- the living room, the dining room, the kitchen and the den -- but avoids the bedrooms altogether. It's like there are two completely separate sections to the house and you don't feel like you're always hitting dead ends. A lot of the similar-sized houses we looked at had the same number and size of rooms, but one might be "tacked on" to the side (like a converted porch), where it wasn't convenient to anything. That did tend to make the house feel smaller.

     

    The one thing that I think would make our house feel bigger is more light. It's a 1970s ranch, and the smaller windows probably help the heating bills, but more light would be nice too. It can feel a little too grey when the sun isn't coming in.

     

    Your description is very helpful. Thank you.

  9. I read the small house thread with interest. I saw many people commenting about the layout of the house making all of the difference. I'm curious what you mean by this--do you have some specific examples? Are long hallways bad because they take up otherwise livable space? What kind of flow makes the house good? I'm assuming lots of big closets are good. I tried to find some floorplans online that we could critique, but I don't know if that would help.

     

    some KB Home plans

     

    a DR Horton plan. This one has a great room. Is all of that open space desirable or not?

  10. That is correct.

    Am I eligible for COBRA if my company closed or went bankrupt and there is no health plan?

     

    If there is no longer a health plan, there is no COBRA coverage available. If, however, there is another plan offered by the company, you may be covered under that plan. Union members who are covered by a collective bargaining agreement that provides for a medical plan also may be entitled to continued coverage.

     

     

    DOL COBRA info

  11. My problem with the child tax credit (and honestly, I don't have that much of a problem with it - I'm surprised to find myself posting about it since I've not really given it much thought) is that everyone gets that credit even if they are wealthy and don't actually need it. If we only gave that credit to people who actually need the money to provide basic needs for their children, then everyone would have lower taxes (theoretically, with all things being equal) and that seems more "fair" to me then giving the credits to everyone regardless of need.

     

    Sorry, but I just had to jump in here. Your information is not correct.

     

    child tax credit

  12. Sue,

     

    I'm fairly new here and don't know all of your history, but would it be possible to have someone come in and help for a few hours a day? If someone could play with the littles while you give your full attention to the bigger kids (schooling, discipline issues, special time with Mom), would that help? I know good help is hard to find and I know it costs money, so it may not be a possibility for you. Do you have someone from the church (I apologize if you don't go to church; again, I'm not familiar with your story) who could come a few hours a week? Do you have a college nearby with students in a early childhood ed program who could come over?

     

    From what you've said, I agree that your dh should step up and help more, but if that isn't going to happen, outside help may be the ticket.

     

    :grouphug:

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