Well, are they really interested in her or are they interested in being on TV?

Organic Valley sells organic nonfat dry milk. There may be other brands, but this is the one that is carried locally in my stores.

I use a white noise CD set on repeat for the whole nap/night--I have Infant Calm, which has ten-minute tracks of hairdryer, washing machine, etc. type sounds. I gradually turned it down, and now he will sleep even if the repeat function somehow gets turned off, but it is still useful for masking noises if we have visitors or when we travel. I also had success with Polly Moore's The 90-minute Baby Sleep Program, which I tried after failing with No-Cry Sleep Solution. The basic idea is that infants have waking cycles in ninety-minute intervals, so you use that as a cue to put them down for sleep in the small window when they're primed to sleep. For me, I used it to get DS to nap well during the day, and then night sleep improved because he wasn't so wound up from napping terribly all day. In the beginning, he would take 4-5 really short naps during the day, but he eventually consolidated them to two naps as he finally stopped being overtired all the time. I did not use CIO with this method.

Like other posters, I roast a lot of my vegetables (with just a drizzle of olive oil and maybe some herbs). If you line your pans with foil, clean-up is pretty minimal, too. I typically roast enough for several meals. For later meals, I either warm them up or just serve them cold as a salad. This is also useful for hot summer days when I'd rather have my oven on early in the morning. Also, if you can get some of your veggies fresh from a farm, they taste a lot better. My DH never liked green beans, for instance, until he had freshly-picked green beans. Now, he can't get enough green beans when they're in season.

I am also a person who has disabled texting on my phone. I just find it really tedious and inefficient (probably because I only "type" on my phone when I'm adding to my contacts list). People do know to email me, though, for text communication, and I check my email pretty frequently.

I'd use Grout for high school, but I have a really little one, so college texts wouldn't really work at that stage. :)

A really good music history curriculum that starts from Gregorian chant, rather than the late Baroque, and is centered on actual music, not the lives of composers.

I use straw cups for my DS's morning smoothie, and I don't find them difficult to clean (I have a dishwasher but don't wash plastic things in it). I rinse the straw parts right away to get smoothie remnants off and then let them soak a bit in soapy water. I did, however, cut off the anti-spill valve to make it easier to suck up the thick smoothie, so I don't know if keeping that intact would make it more of a pain to clean.

Green Sprouts makes a two-handled cup with a sippy top that snaps on (most seem to screw on). My DS has never used the sippy top (or any sippies at all), but the two handles makes it a little easier to hold. He prefers adult cups, too, which I let him use if I'm there to supervise--otherwise, he sometimes tries to throw them onto the floor when he's done. Also, if you use the straw cups, try disabling the anti-spill valve, which will make it easier to suck liquid up the straw. Most can be cut off or punctured.

It's from Beth Hensperger's Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two. She calls for cooking it in a 3 quart cooker, but I imagine that it can be sized up. 1.5 c milk 1 12-oz can evaporated milk 3 large eggs 1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted 1/2 tsp salt 3 c (12 oz) shredded fontina cheese 1/2 lb elbow macaroni, parcooked and drained Freshly ground black pepper to taste 1/2 c grated Parmesan Spray bottom and sides of crockpot with nonstick spray or grease with olive oil. Whisk milk, evaporated milk, eggs, butter, and salt in slow cooker until smooth. Add cheese and macaroni, then grind black pepper over it; gently stir to coat evenly. Sprinkle Parmesan on top. Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes. Reduce to low and cook 2 to 2.5 hrs, until custard is set in the center and the pasta is tender. Can be held on "keep warm" setting for 30 min before serving.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions, ladies! I had no idea that you had to mix it with water to get the equivalent of regular milk, but I guess that it makes sense considering that it is "evaporated." I'm going to try working a can or two into my menu each week to work my way through the stash :)

I was given about 4-5 dozen cans of evaporated milk--a mix of 2% and whole. I have a slow-cooker recipe for mac and cheese that uses evaporated milk, but that's about it. I assume that I can use it in place of regular milk in casseroles and soups--or would it make the food taste off? The expiration dates are pretty far off, so I don't have to use it all right away, but I really have no idea where to start. I think that the person who gave it to me was in the same quandry, but I'm thrifty and would like to make use of this milk :)

For modern philosphy, I have enjoyed Roger Scruton's A Short History of Modern Philosophy: From Descartes to Wittgenstein. Personally, I loathed Sophie's World, but I know that many people love it.

Has anyone had any luck with the Off! Clip-On device? Or does it sound too good to be true?

The limit for liquids in a single container is 3.4 oz or 100 mL, so you're fine. Each person can have a quart bag of liquids. Medications, baby food/formula, and breastmilk can exceed 3.4 oz., but the TSA may inspect those more closely. For maximum capacity, I sometimes save small baby food jars (technically 3.5 oz, I think, but I peel off the label) and use them, rather than the smaller travel toiletry containers. I had to throw out yogurt once, so now I just decant my snack into the baby food jars :)

For classics and out-of-copyright books, I'd use the link from a pp. If you want to browse "specials", I either go through the top 100 free or browse more specific genres. With the latter, you can sort the price from low to high, so all the free books will be listed first. Most of it is junk, but I have sometimes found a few good books that are free as promotions for a limited time.

I used the OvaCue, both to avoid pregnancy (grad school--tracking temps was not compatible with my crazy schedule) and to achieve pregnancy, and it's very user-friendly. Definitely get the optional v-sensor, since it gives a confirmation of ovulation (otherwise the fertile reading lingers a few days longer). The downside is that it is pricey--however, there are no test strips or extras that you have to buy once you have the device. I have had mine since 2006 and have never even had to replace the battery (which is just a regular AA or AAA battery).

I was an SAT tutor a number of years ago, and I would not recommend Kaplan courses because they basically train their tutors to read from a script. I had worked for a more local company before moving for grad school and had a really good experience, so I went through the Kaplan training--but after it was done, I decided not to teach for them. When I worked as a tutor, I felt like a significant part of the results was due to paying someone for the accountability of doing practice problems. Yes, there are some tricks, like going for less obvious answers on higher-numbered questions, plugging in answer choices might be faster than solving the problem, skipping the last x number of questions depending on your score (because you are often more likely to lose points due to guessing wrong), etc., but they are covered in a lot of test prep books. Having worked as a tutor, I probably would not use one. I think that I was helpful, but I don't think that I would spend the kind of money that the company charged--perhaps this was because the place I worked for targeted fairly high-income students, and I ended up going to ritzy neighborhoods that I never even knew existed in my home city. Most of the test-prep books covered what I covered as a tutor, and all you really need is the discipline to do a ton of practice problems and tests.

I went about two years ago in mid-January (made sure to avoid MLK weekend and marathon weekend) and didn't really have to wait long in lines. The hotel pools are heated, so swimming is fine, but I thought that I was going to freeze to death going from the pool back to our room. We had one or two really cold evenings (I think there was a big frost that year that destroyed some of the orange crop), but we thought it was great because there were even fewer people in the parks--I did have to draw the line at not going on Splash Mountain in freezing temps, even though DH was trying to convince me that we should because there was no line at all.

I have a large fenced play area (about 36 sq. ft.) made up of two sets of the metal North States Superyard in my house--a godsend in a house with a very open floor plan. I sometimes put DS in there and then use my laptop to do an exercise DVD; that way, he can see me and he's occupied, but he's not underfoot. Our treadmill is in the basement, and I used a baby swing for a while when he was really little. I'm considering getting a Jumparoo or the like when I have my next baby.

.

.

I also like the Royal Ballet's production with Natalia Makarova and Anthony Dowell from the 1980s. It's not Makarova's best technically (she was 40 or so when this was recorded), but she was an amazing dancer.

I think that if you put the plants in at your own expense, you're entitled to take them--as long as you leave the yard as you found it when you started your lease. In other words, don't leave unsightly holes or dirt scattered where it shouldn't be.

I voted 1 hr, though it is probably somewhere between 30 min to an hour usually. I serve a variety of appetizers--usually a cheese plate, a meat (salami) plate, plus 1-2 special appetizers. We also start on wine then, and it's nice to have some leisurely time to talk and nibble in the living room first.