She is new to babysitting for others and is a Red Cross certified baby sitter. She has experience watching her siblings for me. Tonight was her first official job and I'm curious how much she should get paid? Thanks!

My mail lady hates me, but she still brings me my packages :). Yesterday I ordered a roll of quilt batting that shipped free if I used the USPS Priority option. I'll be surprised if my giant box of batting gets to my porch without a few choice words from her. Oh well.

My dd9 is currently stirring the pasta for mac and cheese while her honey mustard chicken is in the oven. Smells yummy!

Thank you for the discussion. I must admit her announcement had me up last night, thinking about what will happen to her family. Interestingly enough, my grandmother got a divorce back when that meant she was shunned from her church and her community. My mom and her brother ended up with their dad and his new wife. You weren't supposed to do that back then. She has outlived all three of her spouses and, I believe, has no regrets.

That is wonderful!

And they have two small children together. It just makes me sad for this family and I hope everything works out well for them.

Anything chocolate Five things on my desk: 1- my phone 2- headphones 3- scissors 4- a drink coaster that is sadly not holding a glass of wine 5- dust

Some days just never seem to find a peaceful spot..... hoping you find peace on a new day. I stayed up too late last night in an effort to find some peace but at the sacrifice of my rest.

I would suggest two days for Colonial Williamsburg - I believe Groupon has a good deal now on tickets. If you are planning to visit the beach, is it a day trip from the Williamsburg area? If yes, plan a little extra time for the tunnels, you could spend time simply waiting your turn. DH recently spent 2 1/2 hours trying to get from Newport News to VB because of the tunnel. Virginia Beach is freezing right now, especially with the wind from this storm, but you might still enjoy First Landing State Park. If you want to stay closer to Williamsburg I would add the Living Museum in Newport News to your list. If you have a science museum membership they may offer you a discount. My friend gives tours at the lighthouse at Cape Henry and they also currently have a Groupon discount. Hope this helps.

Thank you all so much! I am soooooo excited about this trip and just don't want to under prepare. It's just dh and I for 8 days so I'm trying not to squeeze in everything that I've always wanted to do in this one visit. I'm sure at some point we will return with the kids and try for a whole different type of adventure!

Thanks :)

It's interesting, but I would never leave my oven running while I was away, yet I use my crock pot and my clothes dryer all of the time while we are gone. Is that safer? My MIL once had a fire from her dishwasher but I still run ours at night while we are all sleeping and more vulnerable.

Good morning! Dh and I are planning a week in Paris and London this July, my first trip to Europe ever, and I am hoping for some help in what to pack? My first inclination is of course some comfortable walking shoes but with what? Skirts? Capri? Shorts? Help! We live in a fairly hot location for summers and I spend lots of summer time normally in jean shorts but do not want to wear those. Thanks :)

I have a Le Creuset kettle that I've had for probably 10 years now for my gas stove. It is the perfect size and weight for me. I often brew my first cup of Mighty Leaf Tea Organic Breakfast from a teabag, then decide which loose tea to brew in my teapot for the morning. http://mightyleaftea.com is where I order most of my tea; their Assam loose black tea is amazing. HTH

I wanted to post as it sounds like I'm about 10 years past where you are now in your journey. Everyone's journeys are different but I remember feeling so much better after hearing from others. I have nearly 20 years worth of medical records to document our journey to parenthood and my recent journey to the end of that road. We initially got pregnant right away and all was great until I miscarried at 12 weeks. After that first miscarriage I had two years before we were able to conceive again, and this time with IUI and meds. I underwent test after test to determine the cause and never really had an answer. We did lose our second baby also, around the same time as the first, and at that point we were both done for awhile. We stopped paying for treatments and instead saved up to buy a house and I went back to school. I never relaxed, nor did that advice ever help me. After a point I needed to talk to another doctor and sort of start over again so I found a new doctor who took a completely different approach to our situation. Starting over was scary but within 3 weeks we had our answer and a treatment plan in place. We now have 3 children who were all born near term and all using the same treatment plan. The birth of our 3rd, however, caused major problems with my uterus and I recently had to have it removed. Now we are officially done and we are both very comfortable with that. Instead of insensitive remarks about when are we finally going to have children now I get insensitive remarks about how we only have 3 and when are going to have more? As far as where you are at, you are at a very painful part in your journey. There is not much that took my pain away at that stage. I even had to avoid baby showers for friends at one point because I simply couldn't take it anymore. People who haven't had these issues do not understand and thought I was selfish, including my own MIL. After my first miscarriage she came to "help" and told me to stop crying and get over it. Anyway, this journey is a huge part of my life and always will be but I have peace about the babies lost and about every decision that we had to make. And now It's over and I am blessed to no longer have to think about my cycle ever again. I do hope you find the answers you are looking for and that everything works out for you and your family. If I can provide more specific help please feel free to message me.

I have had this done twice. Once probably 15 years ago while exploring our options thru infertility and again last month as a pre cursor to my hysterectomy. It's not the most pleasant experience but I only experience a little spotting in the 24 hours afterwards. I remember taking a tylenol before this time and had no pain at all. For my first I don't think I took anything first but took something after for the minor cramping. HTH. I think also your prior experiences will color how you perceive this procedure. I've had so many things done to my "girl" parts over the years that this most recent experience shocked me as to just how easy it was to do. However, I wasn't always that easy going as far as procedures and remember crying just from an ultrasound due to the stress associated with that.

My dad is blind in one eye and cannot enjoy 3D movies. He has to miss out on seeing them because he can't actually see anything. I would appreciate not having to see movies in 3D, too.

We plan for this to be our last full week. Next week I hope to school on Monday and Tuesday in order to finish up in a good place with math and history before we take a break. If our break were shorter I wouldn't worry so much about how we finish, but we won't be back to school until Jan. 8th.

Thank you so much! I must admit my biggest thing is to try to plan ahead as much as is possible so that I can relax, especially the first week. I'm not sure just how much help I will get, but my kids are older and can do pretty much everything but drive themselves around.

I am getting ready to schedule this procedure as recommended by my doctor for my Adenomyosis. Any experiences with recovery time? I have had a very large baby, 2 C-sections after for the damage my first did, and 2 D& C's and my doctor feels that the recovery from the hysterectomy will be easier than my sections but longer than the D& C. Decision has already been made so not looking for alternatives at this point, just information on how to plan for my family while I am recovering. Thank you.

Layers for everyone - if everyone has a light jacket they can tie around their waist during the day and put on as the evening cools then everyone should be happy. We will be there next week and I plan capri pants, good walking sneakers and a jacket for the late day. Don't forget the sunscreen - especially on faces.

No ID has ever been requested for our children for domestic travel and they are frequent flyers with us. The laundry soap will probably cause problems at airport security.

Free wifi everywhere and I always have an excellent cell signal with my AT&T phone, if that helps.

Test Track is currently under renovation (or at least it was 2 weeks ago). They are very strict about fast pass times now, especially for toy story mania. If it says 2:30-3:30 and you arrive at 3:32 you will not get on. Make sure to take the time for a glass of wine in France in Epcot. If you have the ability to get off Disney property for a break, do it. One can start to feel very "Disney" if you don't ever see anything else. I love Disney but I also appreciate a break into the more real world on our trips. Definitely have your MIL rent a motor scooter for mobility, plus her front basket can carry items for you so you don't have to carry everything all day. Parades will take a huge chunk of time out of your day but one may be worth it for the experience (just not the one at Hollywood Studios). Have a great time!

The routines depend on each kid. My oldest gets easily distracted by traveling around the house with her work so she stays at the table for her work but gets scheduled breaks after certain subjects are completed. My middle is very self-motivating; all she needs is a list of work for the day and a place do work and she will complete everything without much redirection on my part. My youngest gets frustrated with certain subjects so we do those first and together. We all start individual work after breakfast and around 11am do our group subjects (depending on the day either Science or History and reading out loud). After lunch they have time to finish any individual work they may have or time to play or do art. We try to keep errands to after school times and outside activities to after school times as well. This year we are balancing cello, violin, piano, and choir in addition to our subjects at home. HTH