Just throwing this out there: Nutella whipped cream... One of my husband's buddies made it in his dispenser and it was AMAZING on waffles and in homemade donuts.

I've joked before that Garanimals needs a line of clothes for the at-home mom. Cheap, wash well, mix-and-match, cute designs ;). What I wear most days is athletic/loose yoga pants and an "activewear" t-shirt. The colors are all complementary jewel tones and gray/black so I can grab and go. A typical day includes the park, preschooler messes, hands-on projects with a first-grader, grocery-shopping, and soccer coaching. Activewear fits my active lifestyle :).

We've had red Home Reserve couches for 4 years now and have been happy with them. The washable covers have definitely been handy with kids. The foam has held up well. They definitely are basic, not luxury couches, but for us the price was right and we've been happy with them for what they are. I don't know how we'll ever find room for all the DVDs stored inside when we replace them eventually ;).

We've really been happy with the Baby Bjorn one, but my kids aren't on the small side. DS started using it at 15 months. It was very stable for him to get on himself and he never splashed. DD3 uses it now if the regular toilet is already occupied. https://www.amazon.com/BabyBj%C3%B6rn-055115US-BABYBJORN-Potty-Chair/dp/B000056J7L There is a smaller version we haven't used, but friends said it was great for their smaller kids and the walk/crouch over style was easier for their kids to navigate. https://www.walmart.com/ip/39604123?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222228030125085&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=50602153472&wl4=pla-102932865392&wl5=9029582&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=39604123&wl13=&veh=sem I've seen both in stock at Target stores if you want to check out in person. The Amazon reviews for the first one shows side-by-side pics.

Our second-to-last day of school each year was an all-school workday. We deep-cleaned the classrooms, hauled books to basement storage, waxed the floors, painted, and helped with other facility improvements as a thank you to the church that let us use their building. We worked alongside our teachers and had a pizza party. I have fond memories of those workdays :).

My mom founded a small school when I was in 7th grade, and we had daily after-school cleaning jobs that took about 10-15 minutes. We were using a church building, and had no janitor. We rotated jobs each week, and one student was assigned the task of supervisor to sign-off that the work was done. On Fridays we had a few extra tasks (like mopping instead of sweeping, emptying the larger trash cans into the dumpster, etc.) and we were released from class a bit earlier to accommodate this. It worked quite well. This was a small school with about 25 students in 7th-12th so it was manageable. At a previous school the teachers were offered extra money if they chose to clean their own classrooms, which most happily accepted and used to pay their school-age children to clean. My sister and I loved having this daily job and steady income at age 6-10.

From my 7-year-old boy: Daytime activities with friends in different grades/school zones More playtime with little sister Math that isn't too easy Lego play during "school hours" No homework Frequent field trips Coffee shop geography/vocabulary lessons with his best friend

My 7-year-old is getting hours and hours of fun out of Thinking Putty. We have Super Scarab (gorgeous colors) and Hypercolor Twilight (changes color with body heat). It's very similar to traditional Silly Putty in consistency.

My best friend married her college professor. It didn't seem icky at all, maybe because he was young. She was 19 and he 24 when they met. Both are gifted musicians with the same quirky sense of humor. They hung out in groups as friends until she was no longer officially his student. Their first official date was a wedding expo and they won a drawing for a free honeymoon :).

My hand/wrist is throbbing from an airbag/car accident injury; I'm uncomfortable and restless and eager for my MRI results in the morning.

Cheese sticks/cubes with apple or grapes Peanut butter celery

I was mistaken—I have the Gusto bowls, not chowder (but no white) and they are perfect for soup/chowder/chili with mix-ins. We use smaller bowls for other things like cereal, as they're so big, but they really are perfect for that. Like others I use them for serving things too.

This low-carb egg bake is a big hit here. I bake it on Sunday, and then we reheat for quick breakfast during the week. We don't like the kind that include bread anyway. This is what I make when my diabetic family members visit too. Basic Ingredients 1 lb. ground sausage, browned 12 eggs 1/4 cup milk 2 c shredded cheddar cheese 1/4 t pepper 1 tsp. powdered mustard (Add other items if you would like. We usually add green onions, sometimes bacon and tomato instead of sausage. DH likes olives too.) Directions Preheat oven to 375*F. Mix all ingredients together. Pour into a greased casserole dish. OR Spray a 12 cup muffin pan and fill each muffin cup evenly. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Ugh, I hate those type. This, however, is what I bought myself for back-to-school: https://teespring.com/teacheverywhere#pid=87&cid=2332&sid=front

Some things we've done: *use a highlighter to mark each word as it's read *use Lego minifigs and have them "read" the word in their voices (Batman is particularly fun) *put a sunflower seed, chocolate chip, or Cheerio on each word or the end of a sentence

We were barely 17 (him) and almost 19 (me) when we met as college students. 16 months later we picked out an engagement ring, but waited a few more months to officially declare our engagement. We married the summer I was 21 and he was almost 20. At that point he had a bachelor's degree and I had one semester left. People tell us these ages were young, but it didn't feel like it to us. Because he was so young when he started college, he still needed some extra time to figure out the right career path for him. We ended up deciding his original major wasn't a good long-term fit, so we delayed having kids long enough for him to get a Master's degree in another field. He felt badly about "making me wait" but I was mature enough to recognize that we'd be happier in the long run if we waited for him to switch. We had our first child after our 6th anniversary (sadly I miscarried on our 5th anniversary). I have no regrets about it. When we married, we already knew his schooling wasn't done after all, and we were both committed to him finishing his schooling before kids so I could stay at home and eventually homeschool. We've been married 13 years now.

My kids both got great cuts at Great Clips today and I wrote down the stylist's name for next time. She actually got my 3-year-old birthday girl to sit still for her stacked bob :). I'm thinking about going to her tomorrow to get a pixie cut myself.

My sister (2 years younger) and I are not particularly close, but every month or two we talk on the phone and catch up a bit. I see her maybe once a year. We were very close as children, but as young teens our interests diverged quite a bit. Now we live 3,000 miles apart. I have young kids, and she has stepkids 5-10 years older than my oldest, though she asks me for advice on occasion. Her moving into family life from her single 20-something life brought us closer because she could relate to me more and stop wondering what I did all day ;).

Yes, we bought quite a lot. These were things we've been planning to get for a while. Amazon Echo (with extra $30 off card credit) 3 different Snap Circuits sets (birthday and Christmas for DS) Toilet paper (LOL) $50 card for $10 promo credit The Collected Works of Hayao Miyazaki on Blu-ray (DHs birthday)

Well I'm glad our local homeschool co-op allowed preschoolers without an older child requirement. I decided to homeschool and started researching 9 years before DS was born. By the time he was 3, he was the oldest kid in our MOMS Club group because everyone's kids went to preschool at three. People were so surprised I wasn't sending DS, so I started explaining, "We're going to homeschool; we do our own preschool learning at home." For me that was a lonely period, as I didn't have a "tribe" even though I knew who I wanted them to be. When DS was almost 3 I started my own preschool co-op with 3 other families (1 considering homeschooling, 2 not) for one year. We all thought classroom-based preschool was unnecessary, but thought our boys would benefit from some hands on learning play together. Then when DS was almost 4 we joined the homeschool co-op. I asked the co-op director about it, as I'd heard some co-ops were set up that way. She said there were definitely drop-outs, but she saw it as a great chance to let people explore homeschooling and build relationships with homeschoolers. She wanted those considering homeschooling to have a chance to see it work and ask questions of veterans. I thought that was a lovely approach. Plus, she figured those just looking for cheap preschool would likely balk at our volunteer requirements and the fact that the 3-5 year olds only had art and music classes. There was a limited number of preschool slots, and IMO the co-op was definitely planned with the olders in mind.

Our family tradition is rootbeer floats. Not very glamorous, but tasty :).

27 (nearly 28). Would have been just -turned-27 but I had a miscarriage first. I was just 2 months older than my mom was when she had me. That's been kind of fun to consider when I think of my childhood memories.

Babysat tons from 11-18, including long weekends, 6 weeks all day one summer, aftercare/tutoring for a third grader one school year. The summer after my senior year of high school I worked 20 hrs per week as a Loan File Clerk for a credit union. I worked with a classmate and we had great fun in our office listening to Veggie Tales CDs while we worked. When she went to France for a week on a school trip I was happy they let me work an extra 20 hours since they weren't paying her :). Then I spent an 8-hour day shredding the bi-annual report. Whoa was that a crazy waste of paper.

I would say yes. I started it for offical K when my son was nearly 6 but ended up jumping to B because I discovered we had covered it all through our informal math play. He is a math/game lover and would have liked A at 4.5, but I didn't know about it then. BTW, Sum Swamp is a great beginning math board game. It focuses on recognizing odd/even numbers, counting, and adding and subtracting up to 6+6/6-6. We definitely got our money's worth out of it when my son was 4.

"Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!" was my childhood favorite and has been a hit with the dozens of children I've read it to over the years. Amazon always warns me that I've purchased it before when I buy it for birthday gifts :). https://www.amazon.com/Stand-Back-Elephant-Going-Sneeze/dp/0688093388