This.

Ugh. So you were visited, but told you weren't parked illegally? Do you have any interest in a relationship with this neighbor? We had a mean neighbor till yesterday (yes! She moved out yesterday and we are dancing with joy!) ... In 15 years, I tried various coping techniques, and at one point I'd have said, "go over with a plate of cookies, an apology for making her worried about getting her mail, and ask to work together on the solution." I don't know if I'd say that about your neighbor, but it would've worked on our mean neighbor. It didn't make things perfect, but kept them bearable, and she knew she could call us with concerns instead of jumping to the police. Your call though, your neighbor might not be as harmlessly mean as ours was. (Was!!! Woo hoo!)

I'm sorry, Jean. Hang in there and keep doing the best you can. You have good docs on your side, run with that. The other people... Tune them out. They don't know. Thinking of you, and sending virtual florastor! And hugs.

BlueAir. Get one for each floor of the house, not individual bedrooms - they'll still work. Huge difference in asthma and allergies here.

Our neighbors gave us one - it was very sweet, as we were waiting for our new screen. It didn't hold up for us. We cleaned the area before putting it up, but it kept falling down in places. We do get a lot of wind in that area though.

That is amazing!!!!!!

Yep. You need to see an allergist. While you wait for that appt, see your GP right away and get an epipen. Or an auvi-Q. Next time could be worse.

Thinking of your girls. We have family and friends there, too, but not our kids. You must be so worried!

Another Loft vote. They usually have good petites. :)

Whoa. Repelled.

I did ours about a year ago - almost exactly a year. :) No chipping. I haven't reapplied the wax at all. They've been easy to keep clean - I was worried about that, with the light color we chose, but it's been fine. Annie Sloan says the wax needs to cure for a few weeks - so we were gentle for the first few weeks. After that, normal use (and I'm pretty sure the kids were only gentle for the first day or so!). Oh, actually, I have one area that I didn't wax - the inside of a cabinet door, over our kitchen craft area. Where it hits the cabinet box, when closed, has chipped a tiny bit. But I don't often notice it, due to the location. I just missed that inner door when waxing, and don't care enough to pull out the wax and do it! To be fair, that's the cabinet that sees the roughest kid-use (it's where we keep craft supplies). The waxed inner doors never had this issue, so I'm chalking it up to the lack of wax. (Bad pun!)

With the soft wax on top, they are very slightly shiny. I'm not sure shiny is the right word, it's more of a sheen. The paint goes on, and looks a bit chalky. The wax bonds with it, creates a harder finish. It darkens very slightly. I adore the look. We found chalk paint because DS is sensitive to VOCs, and we needed a paint that wouldn't set off his asthma. What a happy find! It can go over KILZ, in fact, that's a good primer. I finished our kitchen with one quart when we did duck egg blue. Two coats. A little goes a long way. If you're doing a white or cream, then over the KILZ you'd probably just need one coat. Then wax. You can get samples of the colors. :) We settled on a slightly off white and love it. Very warm and inviting. I distressed them slightly, but that's not necessary. BTW, our ceiling and trim is Ben Moore Cloud White. And we like their Aura paint - low VOCs, great quality!

Oh! Paint the inside of the doors, but I wouldn't mess with the shelving, inside the boxes. :)

I've painted kitchen cabinets with Annie Sloan chalk paint. Twice. :) Easy to do, almost no prep. But choose your color carefully. My second experience was fixing a poor color choice. You need to consider your wall and floor colors, and anything else visible. I couldn't possibly vote.

This thread is making me want Girl Scout cookies, and a giant bowl of cereal.

Rub some bacon on them? Bacon fixes everything.

Another vote for check. It's most appropriate in this context, for reasons stated above.

1 yr olds serving themselves breakfast? This discussion has devolved into the nonsensical. 1 yr olds don't serve themselves breakfast. Some 1 yr olds aren't even walking, or just barely. Some don't talk yet. Montessori-inspired kitchens notwithstanding, 1 yr olds are not left home alone to forage and get on the bus alone. I'm not sure how cereal and milk at home became the alternate solution on this thread, either. Any look at the food budget threads here will show that boxed cereal is not the most economical option for breakfast. Some parents cannot afford Cheerios. Really. It's that simple. So breakfast must be cooked or otherwise prepped. Not poured. Boxed cereal is a luxury some can't afford.

That book saved my sanity when our oldest was a tween/teen. He's 23 now. We survived. I had forgotten all about it, thanks for the reminder!

Thanks for posting that. :)

How horrible. :( I hope everyone recovered, in that case. We deal with food allergies, so potlucks aren't an option for us. I do think, for the most part, they are safe. How very tragic when they are not, though.

Yay! So glad you tossed it! And now you have a great excuse to make ice cream. :)

Yes, I emailed the doc at the same time I posted.

Thanks, kewb! How's your DH doing? I hope he's still making progress in the Lyme fight. Wonderful to hear! Do you remember how long it was before you saw changes? ...I am anxious for some positive results, can you tell? :) Oh, and by sublingual - you dissolve under the tongue, like a homeopathic tablet? Just making sure I get this right. My brain is fuzzy, and I seem to need very specific, detailed directions lately. Fingers crossed that this will change soon.