Sing it, sister. I get very tired of parents who jump in for every tiny problem their children have. If my child told me that a volunteer in her class had snapped at her (for not doing what she was supposed to do!), I'd point out that she could have avoided that little problem by doing what she was supposed to be doing. Where is the parent's sense of embarrassment that her child wasn't following directions? Frankly, I'm pretty shocked that on a homeschooling board with lots of people who believe in much more draconian discipline than I that there would be so much criticism of how the OP handled the situation. Speaking sternly to a child who's ignoring you is not abusive.

Yes, Amazon will automatically have assigned the two new Kindles names before you get them, and your original one will show up as whatever-your-amazon-user-name-is's Kindle. Then when you buy a book or download a library book, you'll select which one to send it to. There are parental controls on the newer Kindles, including the cheap one, I believe. I haven't bothered using them; my son has had a Kindle since he was 6 or 7, and he's always known to never go into the Kindle store on it or to buy anything. We've never had a problem. The only issue we have had is that any collections I have on my device show up on his automatically, and he can click on any of the titles to download them. I'm not thrilled about trashy romance novels or things like Game of Thrones being there, but I can't figure out how to get collections to not show up on all devices. What I ended up doing was taking all of my books out of collections. Other kindles on the account still have access, I think, but they have to go to archived items to see them.

Well, if you're really a car snob, then you could get a Tesla. :laugh: I hear they're coming out with an SUV this year!

We also don't have much light in the winter, and we also went with white cabinets and a gray and white counter. It makes the space feel very inviting and comfortable, even on gloomy days.

Don't you mean typing on their phone's to ask about grammar program's?

Moss free? :svengo: Without the moss, there would be almost nothing left in my lawn! Moss really is the perfect lawn. It doesn't need to be mowed; it's a lovely shade of green; and it's really soft under foot. I don't see the problem!

What's up with the rampant apostrophe abuse I've been seeing for the past few years? I've known that its/it's has been a perennial problem for many English writers, but I don't recall seeing apostrophes inserted into plurals until relatively recently. Now it seems to be everywhere. I've seen a good friend of mine start to regularly do it, and I know that she used to be able to form plurals correctly! I've even (gasp) seen it here at the WTM. I really don't understand the issue. We form a plural in English by putting an "s" on the end of most words. There is no need to stick random punctuation in there! Why has this become relatively common?

It's not just memory foam that does it. Pillow tops in general are notorious for developing "wallows" where you sleep. I think any kind of heavily padded mattress can develop these, but it's worse with pillow tops because they're generally can't be flipped (only rotated). We bought a latex mattress 10 years ago that hasn't developed valleys and hills, and we bought a separate (removable/replaceable) pillow top for it. That pillow top is also latex and has also not developed a wallow, which may be because it's mostly latex, with only a small compressible layer of wool on top of the latex.

Thanks for sharing these. I've been looking for a new project to knit, and I think I may have found it with these. I'll just have to see if I can find linen yarn!

I've never had that reaction from 5-htp, but I've always taken it in the morning. I'd try that, and see if that helps. Good luck!

I've knit four hats since Christmas, and I need to move on to something else. I bought yarn for a sweater, but I'm having a hard time working up the motivation to start it.

I don't disagree with an incremental approach. I doubt that any person posting here that they'd leave kids alone in a hotel room doesn't believe in an incremental approach. What I don't understand is why someone would (as some people commented either here or in the hotel room thread) refuse to let even a teenager stay in a hotel room alone or to do various other things unsupervised but then think that it's easy for their kids to learn those skills at 18. To me, that is the exact opposite of an incremental approach. For me, an incremental approach is allowing kids gradually increasing independence and responsibility, including things like staying home alone (or in a hotel room) as they are ready. My approach is incremental because I didn't suddenly abandon my child at home for hours on end; instead, we started small with 5-minute trips to the neighbor's house, then 15-minute trips to the store, then 30-minute trips away, and so on. That's not what it means at all! Some incidents make the news simply because they are freak accidents or unusual situations. Several years ago, a woman was killed in a nearby community when a man running from the police broke into her house and shot her. Should I, an adult, not stay home alone? That would seem crazy, right? But isn't that what you're doing, though, by taking the case of one woman who was attacked in her hotel room in that manner and using that case to decide that it's unsafe to send your teen back to the room? For that matter, if someone is lying in wait in your room, why would it help for you to be there or for there to be two kids or teens?

Now I'm really confused. A lot of people seem to be saying these skills aren't hard at all, so their kids will learn them easily when they're 18. If the skills are that easy, then why do the kids need to be protected from practicing them before 18?

Agitation can cause felting of wool. You can buy wool washes (Eucalan is the brand I use) that allow you to soak (without agitation) your woolen items. The instructions say rinsing is not necessary, but for something from a thrift store, I'd probably rinse! Then spread on a towel and press the water out, and lay flat to dry.

I do mean this very gently, but if you really want a clean and decluttered house, it does require work. It requires initial work to get it that way, then it requires continuing work to maintain it in that state, and then it requires more work to get it back to that state when it's gotten away from you again (after illness, depression, big trip, crises, and so on). For me, this work is worth it because I find it very stressful to spend time in a cluttered or dirty environment. It overwhelms me--probably because it just seems like so much work to put it all back to rights again. However, in the end, at this point in your life, it may be that the work required is not worth it to you--and that's a fine decision if you and your family are comfortable with that. At some point, I think you may have to decide which you value more--a clean reasonably decluttered home or more leisure time. I know you have four children, and I think they're young. Leisure time is a scarce and very valuable commodity in that situation, but I also know that your current situation bothers you or you wouldn't post about it! I also want to point out that once you've learned "good" habits (I just mean those that help you maintain a comfortably ordered household), it's much easier to maintain. I doubt I spend a whole lot more time on home upkeep than my friends and neighbors who live in more chaotic homes. I just choose to spend it bit by bit every day, and they choose to spend it in large, exhausting (to me) chunks when they're in crisis mode because someone is coming over! Whatever you decide, :grouphug: to you.

My biggest tips (mostly repeating what others have said): Pare down and declutter. Once you think a room is decluttered as much as it can be, go back through. The above goes triple for kids' toys and rooms. Have "reset" moments. These are when you and the kids go around and try to make the house look pristine. We try to do it before we leave the house (this means getting ready 10 minutes earlier for us) and before bed. Start small if necessary, and just do this with one room, adding others as you can. If you have small kids who need to be attended in the bath, clean the bathroom while you watch them bathe every time. Semi-clean bathrooms daily. Squirt some cleaner (I use a shampoo I didn't like!) in the toilet, and give a swish; quickly give the sink a scrub (I use the same icky shampoo), and wipe the counters off. This takes about 2 minutes, at most, if you do it daily, and it doesn't require harsh cleansers on a daily basis, even if you live with super hard water. Clean the shower while you're in it. Again, if you do it every couple of days, it only takes a couple of extra minutes. It will take forever if you wait and do it after a month, though... Have a "tickler" file. This was my lifesaver for paper clutter. It's a way of dealing with all those papers that you can't part with right now but that don't need a permanent home. When you fall off the wagon, climb back on. Start with one room or even one surface of one room and build back up from there.

Just to add another wrinkle, we hook my laptop up to the television to watch Prime, Netflix, or Hulu on the TV.

This was a good friend of mine, not me, but it still cracks me up, so I'll share. The scene: the top of the steps outside the church. There are large bushes on either side of the steps. After church, my friend was standing there chatting with the minister while many parishioners milled about. Her son (about 3 yo) announced he had to go potty. Before she could react, he pulled his pants and underwear all the way down, stood back, and aimed at one of the large bushes. She yelped his name, and he turned toward her... Luckily everyone managed to get out of his path! I think that was the end of her husband's "just let him pee in the backyard" method.

Mine died a few weeks ago. I was very sad to see it go. Then I got the new Paperwhite, and I don't feel even the teensiest bit of guilt that I'm now glad the old one died!

You've gotten lots of good advice, but I thought I'd specifically address the neighborhoods you can bid for: Downtown - Pike Place Yes, good place for a tourist Seattle Tacoma Intl Airport SEA No, unless you have an early morning flight the next day. It's down in suburbia, and it's not a very prosperous part of suburbia. It's not where I'd want to be for any part of my vacation. Downtown Seattle Center - Space Needle Also a good area to hang out as a tourist, but as someone above said, the hotels are a little iffier here. I'd take the Downtown/Pike Place ones and take the monorail over to the Seattle Center Southcenter - Tukwila No. This is deep suburbia. It would be like going to New York City and staying in a not-so-nice-suburb of Newark. Renton - Kent Deep suburbia again. No. Auburn - Federal Way No. Way out in the 'burbs. Downtown Bellevue Maybe. It's easier to drive there than in downtown Seattle, and Bellevue does have lots of shopping. It's not nearly as close to the cruise terminals (which are by downtown Seattle), but it's only 20-30 minutes away if you're not going at rush hour. It's suburbia, but it's more urban suburbia, and it's easier to get from one shopping spot to another via car. As a tourist, I'd still rather be in Seattle because other than the Microsoft campus, that's where most of the sights you're going to want to see are, but if shopping is the highest priority, this might not be a bad choice.

You and me both--and I thought, "Why, yes, it does make most everything better!"

I'd seriously consider it, especially for anyone (DH?) who has to work. The flu can linger for a couple of weeks making work impossible. I'm not sure about doing it for everyone, but at least for him, and maybe for you so you can care for the others? Is anyone asthmatic?

The Knitter's Pride interchangeables are nice and come with many pretty colors. Their starter set is $34.50 on Amazon, and the deluxe set is $63.

Yes, yes, yes! If you're planning a kitchen remodel or designing a kitchen for a new build, you're doing yourself a huge disservice if you don't spend a lot of time hanging out over at Gardenweb's kitchen forum. The folks over there will review and critique your layouts and give you excellent advice that will make your kitchen a much better place.

I sleep on my side, belly, and back, depending on how my back and shoulders feel. My latex pillow works for me for all of them, but that's probably because it's the low one. A thicker pillow probably wouldn't be so great for stomach sleeping.