To clean up the paint splatters/drips/etc, run right out and buy a can of Goof Off. It works really well, and IME, does not damage surfaces. The sooner you do it, the easier the fix will be. I'm so, so sorry!!

Sort of like the Presidential pollsters this campaign cycle? Potato for President!! I bet Potato would win, lol Ha!

Oh my, definitely not! I think doing something useful like yard work, babysitting, etc, will be more lucrative and more positive.

The music thing slayed me!! This is my classical guitarist son! He's played THOUSANDS of hours of classical music, and listened to plenty! He plays professional level repertoire! He disappointed quite a few world class guitarists when he decided not to pursue conservatory! Good grief!!

What an idiot!!!! If he's a side-job kinda' contractor w/o a license, etc, you are probably out the money already paid and on the hook for fixing it. 1) Take a zillion pictures. 2) Find any "before" pictures, especially showing the metal stuff that's wrecked. 3) Call that realtor. If you DO list with that realtor, she should list it FOR FREE (on her side, so 3% of the sale price) and work her tail off to get it sold at a good price. Meanwhile, the savings in commission can help defray your expenses to fix the mess. It's possible that a good power wash will clean up the siding. Maybe not. But cheap and easy to try. Borrow or rent or buy a pressure washer and DIY to check if it works. The metal will need to be replaced. No fixing that. Depending on how fixed your selling time line is, you might just have to suck it up, pay out of pocket to fix everything . . . Meanwhile, take pics and save receipts. Sue the painter in small claims court if you want. You'd probably win, but it might be more trouble than it is worth. I'd DEFINITELY expect that realtor to take responsibility for making it right, but, again, the realtor (and his/her boss) may not be helpful, in which case, again, you are out of luck. I'm SO sorry this happened!

Thanks, y'all!! He's up to 92 respondents so far, with 4,4% identifying as attack helicopter for gender. THANK YOU for helping him get the responses he needs!! (Who is the attack helicopter?!?) And, yes, I'm sure at least one goal is to understand the inherent biases in polls via wording of questions, lack of potential options, etc. Every student in the AP Gov't class has to do a poll. My newsfeed from local parents has had others, lol.

Thanks all!!

No idea. He is attending public high school this year.

My son is taking gov't at the local high school, and he has to get 100+ poll participants for his (goofy) poll. Can y'all do me a huge favor and take 30 seconds to take the poll? Thanks much!!! http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/3113457/New-Survey

From my (extensive) research, I'd highly recommend investigating home-made (or locally, small batch) fermented foods. Kimchi, kombucha, fermented pickles, home made yogurt, etc, etc. I have long-used bottled probiotics, but I've recently started learning to make fermented foods (started with Kombucha, fun!) due to their vastly greater potential to really add large volumes of probiotics.

98 in the last 6 months. And, my dh, dd19, and ds17 all have their own accounts -- so their purchases aren't included. And we have another one for work. I'm pretty sure 90% of my non-routine-groceries shopping is done on Amazon. And a small portion (maybe 20%) of even my groceries are bought via Amazon. They own me. Or I own them. Or something like that.

Michelle Obama. She's smart as all get out. She's a highly trained attorney. She's a wonderful human being and great role model. I love her, lol

If we can afford it, we'll *always* do it. :) If we can't afford it, we won't. I have a friend, age 80-ish, who was an attorney, very successful, very financially secure on her own, and her two children we *wealthy* due to inheritances from her ex-husband. Anyway, my friend . . . her dad lived across the country. He was *still* paying for her flights home to visit him until he died, probably in his 90s. I thought it was sweet. If my kids insist on paying their own way someday, then that's great. Once we were financially solvent/working, dh and I started paying for some vacations (and including Mom in the trips) while Mom still paid for some other trips in the early years (the ones she planned and invited us to) . . . If money were tight all around, I'd try to plan a trip everyone could afford -- driving distance and rent a VRBO or a cabin for hiking instead of flying to somewhere fancy . . . Right now, we're just so happy to have time with our kids, and I'm so sad to think of them being less and less available to travel/be with us as they are growing into adults. . . that I, personally, consider it a top-priority budget item for us to be able to splurge on family trips for ever. Dh will likely work a couple extra years before retirement to make that easier. :)

My kids and I can happily spread out and relax on clean carpeted (for warmth and softness) floors, especially if the carpet is soft and there are plenty of throw pillows and blankets around. However, I can't keep carpet or rugs clean enough for my preferences, so I've eliminated every carpet/rug/etc in the house (except one silk carpet my mom bought in China . . . but it's in the music room where no shoes, pets, or animalistic small children are allowed, lol) If your floors can stay clean enough to allow a soft throw rug, then a pile of pillows and blankets are all we need to get comfy on the floor. But, I still prefer the couch, lol.

Lots of folks have to wear scrubs to work, but that doesn't mean they are any more germ-y than typical clothes. Our vet hospital requires scrubs as the standard uniform for all support staff, including receptionists, etc. We do this because most of our staff are cross-trained, so a nurse might cover the front desk during lunch, and a receptionist still occasionally handles patients (getting a weight, assisting nursing staff in a pinch, etc.) It's just much easier and gives a more professional impression to clients for everyone to be wearing the same uniform (matching scrubs) than to have various folks wear different outfits. The vets only wear scrubs for surgeries, and change into business clothes + lab coats for appointments (unless they are so slammed that they don't have time to change). All the staff wear covers over the scrubs (and additional protective gear for face/hair/shoes/etc) for "dirty" procedures such as dental cleanings and/or handling infectious patients. Those covers go straight into the hospital laundry after each use. So, if they are out in public in their scrubs, I am pretty confident they are no more germ-y than most ordinarily dressed people. Additionally, folks change scrubs during the day if they get gross. We have lots of spares, and they get used whenever needed. No one wants to be covered in grossness, lol. I'd imagine the same goes for folks who work in dental offices, etc. When we had in-home caregivers for my mom who had dementia, they all wore scrubs. They didn't get any germ-ier helping my elderly mom than anyone would who lives in the normal world. So, anyway, that's my 2c on scrubs in public. As far as work out clothes in public, I concur that many moms might be heading to the gym or the trail after dropping off kids. I know I have done that a million times.

Uh, I think the OP mentioned purchasing bean bags, etc . . . I hadn't picked up on the can't afford a couch vibe. Sorry if I missed that info in the posts. I spent $200 on two large bean bags for my college girl last fall, and within 6 months, the beans were flat, so I spent another $100 this fall on replacement stuffing. Bean bags aren't cheap. My $500 IKEA couches last for approximately eternity, compared to the short lived bean bags . . . I was under the impression that the OP just preferred not to have a couch due to liking the extra floor space, or some other non-financial reason. I believe the OP indicated that she preferred not to go shopping, but I got the impression she could if she wanted to. I was advocating for the "of course you should have a couch" position. Carry on.

No couch?! How about a sofa, then? Or a futon? I think we have six couches. One can never have too many couches! I'm a lounger. I can't imagine not wanting a couch. Go buy a couch!

I don't understand why you'd need a second adult to manage the other kids if the other kids are well enough behaved to leave at home, alone, while you take their brother to school? Why not just let the siblings sleep in until you're about ready to leave, then wake them up with donuts & juice boxes in hand -- and tell them donuts are for in the car while we drop off little brother to school? Crappy breakfast foods won't kill them in the few weeks/months it takes to get your son acclimated to school. Just feed them really healthy lunches, lol. If they are mature and well behaved enough to be trusted at home alone, then it sounds to me like the older kids could be asked to play nicely, sleep in, eat their cereal, whatever . . . while you take 60 min each school morning to focus solely on getting the 6 yo ready for school and then get him delivered. (I'm not keen on the idea of you leaving the house -- in a car --while the others are at home, though. You never know when an accident could happen at home or in the car. Sounds too young to me. I'd pop them in the back seat for the ride.)

I'm so sorry!! Can you re-book the getaway for another weekend?

Seems to me like your dh doesn't get a vote, since he's not willing to take the time to help you in the mornings, etc. So, I'd just sweetly ignore dh's idea about one vs all kids going to school. Sign the kid up. Be positive. Let him pick out a favorite lunch box, book bag, and fill the pack with tasty treats. Get him up, and get him out the damn door. You can do it. You can do it even with other kids around. Give all the kids a pile of candy and a handful of iPods/whatevers . . . to distract them. Then get that kiddo out the door. You might be surprised. School might be perfect for him. Might improve everything. If nothing else, you'll get a break/rest and be better able to parent him after and before school hours. Second choice: enroll all the kids. If you can't handle them well all at home, you've GOT to get them into school.

My main 2 tenants pay by cozy.com It's pretty easy to set up, and you and your tenants don't pay fees. They seem to make their $$ in the holding time of about 3-5 days for each payment, so far as I can guess. And maybe the ancillary services they offer (credit checks, etc). Once you have it set up (pretty easy), it is painless. Money gets direct deposited to my checking. I get notifications via email. I wanted a way to take online payment without fees to me or the tenants, and this has worked out great for that thus far. My other tenant (another property) pays by check each month, but that is a special case, because they rent a home that is on our commercial property, and one works for me, so we see them on a near daily basis. They hand deliver the check each month like clockwork. If I were setting it up "new" (as I did last year), I'd just encourage the tenant to pay online in some reliable way, ideally one that (like cozy) can be set up as an automated payment, which both my main tenants have done. Great to avoid missed or late payments. I officially will accept check/whatever as well, but it's much more convenient to take an online payment. IMHO.

Just made the yummiest potato soup ever. Here's what I did . . . Made about 5 quarts. + Make a batch of veggie soup stock (onion, leek, celery, carrot, potato, herbs, salt, pepper, water to cover) -- takes about an hour, so make it first, while you are preparing everything else it'll be simmering and ready to use when you need it. Strain after an hour or so, discard veggies, keep stock. You'll need about 6 cups. Use canned broth if you prefer, but home made stock is always the best. + Chop up 6-7 slices of bacon. Fry up the bacon in the soup pot. Remove crisp bacon & set aside, leave grease (about 1 T is left from my kind of bacon . .. if you have a lot more than that, discard most of it). + Add 3 T of butter to the grease. Cook 1 large onion, 3 stalks of celery, 1 leek (white parts and light green parts -- use the dark green parts in the stock!) and 3 carrots (all chopped up to about 1/2 inch dice). When tender . . . + In a little bowl, Mix 1/4 c flour, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp dry mustard, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp thyme + Mix flour stuff into the cooked veggies. Cook for 1-2 min, stirring. + Add 2 c milk. Stir constantly until thickened. + Add 4-5 large potatoes (diced) and 6 or so cups of stock. (Stock should cover all the veggies well. Add more stock or broth if needed.) + Simmer until everything is tender. + Remove about 8-12 cups (or about half the soup) to a blender (or a container for an immersion blender), blend until smooth, then return to pot. + Add 3 c shredded cheddar. Stir to melt. + Adjust salt/pepper. + To serve, garnish each serving with a dollop of sour cream and sprinkle of bacon. Yumm. Yumm. Yummm.

FWIW, giving injections is really simple. I gave them to my horse *all the time* when I was a young teen. Sub-cutaneous as well as intramuscular. Both are really easy. *really* easy. FTR, I think Mylan has done a very scuzzy thing, and I hate drug companies.

Oh, bummer!!!!!! Sorry about that!! They do have Geometry Alcumus problems, so having your child do the Alcumus alongside the book is one extra way to get help. (The Alcumus problems give solutions . . . which is handy! Also, the review/algebra/pre-A problems will keep your kid sharp in those fundamentals that will help them solve topics in geometry, etc. . . ) Alcumus is fun, in general, and could be scheduled as a separate time/subject as the book . .. breaking up the math hours during the day. :)

AoPS is so great, I wouldn't want to skip anything at all. We do every problem in every book. :) I'd just let it take a few extra months if needed. :) If you and/or your child need/want more support than the book, don't forget to use the AoPS website's videos and their Alcumus problems, too, if needed. My general rule of thumb for my last kiddo doing AoPS is -- do all the book . . . If you get hung up on anything, watch the video before moving on . . . When she was younger and doing earlier books, I *required* her to watch the videos . . . and do the Alcumus. Now, she's so proficient at self-teaching with the books, that I don't mess with that. (She's doing Geometry this year. But, she's done all the AoPS pre-A, Intro Algebra, and Intro C&P, so she is super well prepared . . . If she were having *any* difficulty, I'd bring back the videos and Alcumus, for sure. )