I bet this is the weirdest answer you're going to get! I have one cat, who has become extremely demanding of human food as he's gotten older. I don't let him bother ds and he knows better than to bother dh, so he pesters me RELENTLESSLY while I'm eating. When I make sandwiches for lunch for myself and for ds, I do sort of tuck in the meat on ds's sandwich. I don't get all crazy about it, and I don't care if a little hangs over, but I do make it look nice. When I make a sandwich for myself, I *do* leave meat hanging over the sides. That way I can tear a piece or two off while I'm eating and share with the frantic, pesky cat.

I don't know, but I'm sticking with it (I don't use it all that much anyway--just add some to plain yogurt with a drop or two of vanilla extract before I put my granola in). It's the one sugar substitute I like the flavor of.

The woman in the skit was SNL castmember Jan Hooks.

My dh is doing science with ds this semester. Ds (11) wanted to get his amateur radio license--he passed the general class exam last month--which required some nice basic radio science knowledge. Now that he's passed that exam, dh is working with him in our garage, the ham shack, teaching him how to set up antennas, how to tune. I know they're planning on taking a field trip at some point this semester which will involve taking and setting up their radio and antenna "out in the field" somewhere high and seeing how far they can reach, in terms of making contact. Ds will also be building his own antenna from scratch. Next semester I'll do something more traditional for science, and dh will work with him on computer programming. He hasn't decided which language--Visual Basic, Python, C++. He's looking for the right materials right now. Dh is also in charge of all Boy Scouts-related things. He takes ds to all the meetings, goes on camping trips, helps him with merit badges, did all the neighborhood walking when they were doing their popcorn fundraiser.

I would have no problem with it. Since I overplan and worry about the person *not* showing up as he/she says, I would set up an extra litterbox (which I would do anyway if I was concerned about the person not wanting to deal with it--I think one kitty can make two litterboxes work for 5 days) and put out enough food and water for the time you're gone.

There are only three of us, so this works: We have a wicker basket on the floor by the front door for gloves, hats and scarves. Above that is a hanging system the dh made for our jackets. We don't use our front bedroom as a bedroom; it's a gaming room, so we use that closet for jackets (living in the PNW we have *all kinds* of jackets). On the shelf in that closet we store our snow/ski pants or overalls. Shoes that are worn frequently are dropped at the front door by the basket.

I went down to CA to visit my best friend last weekend and we stayed in a hotel while spending a couple of days at a scrapbook convention. Now, I *could* have obsessed over bed bugs. I *could* have checked the bed. But I felt like it would have been disrespectful to my best friend, who had made all the arrangements. So what I did was just treat my luggage as if it were infested once I got home. I got home, immediately put all of my clothes in the washer (including the ones I was wearing), got a shower and then made sure my laundry dried on high heat for an hour. The dh and ds spent that weekend on a Boy Scouts camping trip where they stayed in an Army barracks and I made sure they did the same thing when they got home. They stripped down in the garage and went straight to the shower and then did the same thing with their laundry. The sleeping bags went into the dryer at high heat for an hour.

Just throwing my two cents in here... Maybe the other mom was afraid her dd couldn't be gracious and forgiving about the whole thing. Maybe she wanted to oversee her daughter's behavior. Last year my ds and his best friend had a terrible fight, over something that the best friend did that *really* was unacceptably disrespectful while he was at our house. The fight carried over into school with the boys involving their other friends, saying cruel words to one another, saying they forgave each other and then 2 hours later saying never mind, I don't forgive you. It was so overwrought and dramatic. I tried to arrange for the boys to settle their differences in front of both sets of parents, figuring that if it was done in front of adults they would make better choices in the words they chose, and that once they had grownup witnesses they wouldn't renege on their agreement to forgive each other (as I said, the friend *did* do something horrible and disrespectful, but ds *was* guilty of trying to humiliate him in front of their peers after the fact). It's a fine line...wanting your kids to learn how to solve their own peer problems, but feeling like they need supervision to do so productively.

For me, it *started* with being diagnosed as prediabetic. I was sufficiently freaked out that I immediately went on a low-carb diet, controlled my portions and lost 20 pounds within a couple of months. That did a lot to help my physical symptoms (extreme fatigue after eating, getting up once or twice in the middle of the night to pee, constant thirst). So I started lightening up on myself--if I'd made something particularly delicious for dinner, I'd eat as much as I wanted. If there were sweets around, I'd indulge myself--not too much, but still. What I noticed at that point was that if I did those things, I didn't feel good. I wouldn't have the fatigue, but I might have to get up at night to pee. But mostly, I'd have the generalized pain flare-ups that I had always taken to be a part of getting older. When I had changed my diet, I hadn't appreciated that I'd been in less pain. And that was the clincher for me. So I would say that's the key--*notice* how you feel after you overeat. Notice how you feel when you don't. Eventually you realize it's not worth it.

Even though ds wouldn't be interested in them, I've asked the dh to get me the complete set of Lang's fairy tales for Christmas. I've been reading The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt and have a hankering for fairy tales.

I buy *more* than enough chocolate for the trick-or-treaters...that way I don't have to raid ds's stash!

What time of day do you read aloud to your kids? Ds is 11 and I do still love to read to him. But for years I've found that he really enjoys it in bed--first thing in the morning and at bedtime. It's a lovely ritual, one he enjoys. But he doesn't care for it at other times of the day.

We went last year to see it. Ds was 10, almost 11, and I was taking Anatomy that quarter. I admit it, I went selfishly. I had read about the controversies regarding how the bodies were obtained. But I discussed it with ds beforehand and we talked about how these bodies are to be viewed with respect and reverence and gratitude. I was also very concerned about how ds would fare. He can watch much scarier movies than I can, and though I've always been very matter-of-fact about the human body and the ways in which it can fail us, he cannot watch medical dramas like House or ER or Grey's Anatomy. They freak him out. He did just fine though. I think he found it interesting, though not as interesting as I did. The most beautiful and amazing part of the exhibit is the circulatory system. But for the most part, I was disappointed by the full bodies. They seemed rather...dusty and worn...as if they weren't treated or handled with the same respect with which I viewed them. The other people who viewed the exhibit were very respectful. I didn't hear a single crass joke or comment.

I'm a college graduate, but I don't think you need to be one to homeschool. The things a person needs are: 1. The ability to impart the inherent joyfulness of learning new things; 2. The willingness to learn along with your child and 3. The ability to recognize when your child would benefit from a little outside help and know where to find that.

I believe ghosts are rare...that there are some people who have unfinished business that appeals to them more than whatever there is after death. I don't believe I'm someone who is sensitive to them, so I don't expect to ever see or experience one.

We *are* the people our loved ones turn to when they need help. I think, if we were ever in need of help, our loved ones would do their very best to help us out. I don't think they could give us money, but I think they would open their homes to us.

Butter lettuce, a little chopped hard-boiled egg, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, dried cranberries and blue cheese with a soy-ginger type dressing.

I have a decent-sized dahlia on my right shoulder blade with my dad's initials on it. When he stayed with us for a while when we lived in FL he told me that after he divorced his first wife and was living with his mom and trying to get sober he bred dahlias. I had never seen one before. Then we moved to the Pacific Northwest and they're beautiful and they're everywhere and I LOVE THEM. So I got this tattoo for my 40th birthday to remember him by. I would also like to get a golden poppy somewhere--I was born in CA and lived there until my late 20s and still get homesick for the Central Valley sometimes--but I haven't figured out where I'd put it.

The things that attracted to dh were his sense of humor and his intelligence, kindness, patience and respectfulness. We met in college and he was an electrical engineering student, so I knew he had prospects. I won't be disingenuous about it; looking back, the fact that he had prospects probably was a factor. I don't know that I could have had a serious relationship or married someone with dh's qualities that was studying something like Russian Literature as I was. Dh's family, at the time, was wealthy. I don't know that I consciously gave it much thought, but it was incredibly nice that when we went out on dates he was able to take me out to nice restaurants. Or that we could get away for a weekend. Money wasn't really an object, though I did try to reign him in. I was a poor student. I paid my own way through college and wasn't entirely comfortable with him footing the bill for everything when we were together so I tried to make sure some of our dates were of the variety that I could pay for or that we could split the bill. And I wasn't entirely comfortable with his parents footing the bill for *me* as well as him (he worked while at school but I *knew* he couldn't be making enough to be as lavish with the spending as he was or wanted to be). I didn't meet dh's parents for a long time after we started dating. I thought it was because he was ashamed of me. As it turned out, he was ashamed of them. For one thing, his dad did *not* come to his wealth honorably. I won't go into the gory details, but suffice it to say he was a physician who "retired" after having his license revoked for a second time. His dad was abusive as well. Dh was the first guy I'd ever dated who I believed, despite the wealth of his family, to have had a worse childhood than me. I think, when dh did finally take me to meet his parents, that he was afraid I'd look at their beautiful home and all their stuff and decide they were great people. But in that first weekend of interacting with them I...understood. And I hated both of them...dh's dad for his crazy and his cruelty, dh's mom for being an intelligent and educated woman and *not* getting her boys out of there (she is a physician too). I think dh's and my relationship is based on that shared history of crazy, abusive same-sex parents. We both crave peace and harmony. I grew up being a mom to my younger brothers, being someone stable who took care of them, protected them and loved them unconditionally. Dh never got that. He loves his mom, don't get me wrong, but she had a busy practice and wasn't home much and when she was, she didn't protect her boys from their mean and crazy dad. So I mother the dh. It fills a need for me and it fills a need for him. Dh has been very successful in his career, which fills my need for security. The only missing piece is extended family. It wasn't until recently that I've started to really regret that between the two of us, ds doesn't have once decent set of grandparents. I'm jealous that both my brothers have that for their kids.

Thank you for sharing this!

My ds is 11 and we have those days--the ones where he just wants to race through his math and he makes a lot of mistakes on his daily work. I do insist he correct them after I've looked them over and he's slowly realizing that hurrying isn't working out real well for him. For chapter tests I've told him if he gets less than 85% we do the chapter over again. I've also told him that chapter tests are something that I put into his portfolio, so it's possible that other people will see those tests. I've never gotten less than a 95% on a chapter test.

I don't know if these count as big changes, but ds will finish TT7 sometime in January, so I'm getting the LoF pre-algebra books to see him through in math for the rest of the year. I also want ds to do more writing, so I'm adding WriteShop. Science is something I am always reconsidering. This fall, ds's goal was to get his general class amateur radio license, which involved a lot of good science--physics--type of studying. He passed the exam at the end of October! His dad has some hands-on type projects relating to antennas and tuning to keep ds busy through the end of the semester, so I don't know what we'll do for science come January. We have Ellen McHenry's The Elements, so we may work our way through that. I have my college GenChem textbook, so we may work our way through some of the easier problems to supplement. I'm looking at the GEMS stuff and ACS' Inquiry in Action too. Science is so hard! If it is an option, I'd like ds to start Latin at our Homeschool Resource Center in January. If not, he'll start next fall. The Latin teacher there is our advisor and whenever I walk by her classroom the kids look like they're really tuned in and having fun. Ds doesn't want to do Latin; he wants to take a more modern language so I think I'd meet up with unnecessary resistance at home. But I think he'd have fun in that setting.

No, no...let *me* be the one to fall on the sword!

This is really boring, but I always get dh clothing for Christmas--usually sweaters that are dressy enough for work. He hates shopping and I can't really help him with pants, but I figure I can shorten his shopping trips by taking care of his upper half. And then, as I come across things I think he'd like, I buy those as well. He doesn't read a whole lot, but I buy him books I think he'd find interesting so that when he *is* in the mood to read there's a stack of books to choose from. Or I buy him movies that I'm pretty sure he'd like having in his permanent collection.

I seem to be in good company in this thread. I admit, there are a whole lot of names that I don't consistently recognize on this board yet, but some of you who posted here are people that *I* think have really interesting things to say when you post.