[Anyone ever replaced a thermostat?]

My other word of advice would be to take a digital picture of how the wires were attached to the old thermostat. We got a programmable one that ended up being broken. Our Home Depot didn't have another one in stock so we had to wait a couple of days until they got more in. Thankfully we were able to look back at the pictures and rewire the old one to use until we could try again with a new one.

[getting started or if you could do it again]

I'm right there with you starting this summer and giving it a trial run for Kindergarten. My son is turning 5 in May but is working at almost a first grade level. So I decided to relax and take it easy for Kindergarten, even if he didn't learn anything he would still be on level with most of the 1st graders if we put him in school.

 

All we are doing for K is working on the three R's using OPGTR, Explode the code, Handwriting without tears, and Singapore Math along with a lot of fun math in the kitchen. I also plan to spend a lot of time reading aloud, playing outside, building with Legos and going on field trips to the zoo, children's museums and aquariums. My only goals for next year are to get him reading more independently, writing better and having fun!

 

If we have time we will throw in some science experiments or a little geography but I'm not worried if we don't do much of that. There are plenty of years to come to get around to teaching him more than the basics.

 

I have 2 more little ones at home and another on the way this fall so I know that my teaching time will be limited. I also know that he will grow up in the blink of an eye so I might as well enjoy another year of fun before we slowly settle in to more of a routine of school work.

[Where is that thread on morning sickness?!?!]

Congrats - I know that hell all too well. I'm 17 weeks and still sick. I normally stay sick until at least 20 weeks even with all the nausea meds.

 

The natural things that work the best for me are -

 

Eating all the time and concentrating on protein. The more protein I can get down in the evening the better the next morning will be.

 

Drinking whatever it takes to stay hydrated. The more dehydrated I am the worse I feel.

 

Keeping mints in my mouth to combat the metallic taste which makes me even more nauseous.

[Copyrighted photos of kids]

As a photographer who has had just goofy pictures of my kids stolen from my personal blog and put on another photographers website as her photos I'm all for copyrights on any picture posted on the internet! It is a deterrent to keep people from stealing the photos.

 

I do the same for any pictures that I take of friends/their kids. I always send them an email telling them I am happy to give them an unmarked copy for printing/scrapbooking etc. but please only put the marked copy online.