I grew up in a foodie household. We never had canned anything. Thanksgiving was a gourmet affair of a few carefully researched and selected dishes. But I think there is something to be said for being able to appreciate non-foodie foods. If you can't enjoy a church potluck, you are missing out! I agree with others who've said that the taste of this casserole is largely dependent upon how it's made, though not necessarily canned versus fresh. That goes for most foods though.

My sons love their Melissa and Doug play food. Their favorite is the birthday cake. They set it up, sing happy birthday to each other, "cut" it up, then start over again.

Yes. Love it. But then, I am the best peson to have over for dinner. I love everything.

This.

:bigear: I've been searching through old threads to find out how to use Webster's, and this is the information I'm lacking. ABC's and All Their Tricks? Is there something tailored to Webster's?

Same.

I don't think the problem is lack of gear, it's lack of judgement. :tongue_smilie: take the ride next time, kiddo.

I love range shooting. My favorite to shoot is my Glock 19 9mm. We also have a 22 conversion kit for it, and that's fun. There are other guns, but that's my favorite. I agree that it's one of those sports most haven't tried but nearly all love once they do.

Could the 40k discount have been for being an especially good customer or for being a customer who draws in lots of business that benefits the other customers?

(1) To different degrees, basically any church that is not fundamentalist fits this description. There are also some churches where you will find both fundamentalists and non-fundamentalists. (ETA: Note the "to different degrees." The description you gave is open to very broad interpretation. Would it include churches who don't believe the Bible is the literal, word-for-word word of God but do believe that it includes many accurate historical claims in addition to parables and life guidance? Would it include churches who look at the Bible as secular philosophy? There's a huge range this description could cover.) (2) The expectation is that you will submit to the authority of the Magisterium. Even if you don't understand it, you will submit to the teaching because you have faith in the Church. That's not to say that the laity all practice that way, but that's the official expectation. (3) You can use Natural Family Planning (NFP.) It's very effective. Lots of non-Catholics use it because it avoids the side effects of artificial birth control. There are some restrictions as to when it's okay to use NFP and be closed off to new life, but that's sort of getting out into the tall grass, so I'll leave that alone. Some Catholics do use birth control, but this is considered by the Church to be a mortal sin.

Ouch! Hope you feel better soon. That's killer.

My experience of the ECUSA was not that it was a "big tent." It was headed in a certain direction, and people were expected to get on board or get out of the way. This based on state conferences, working for an ECUSA church, and conversations with priests on both sides. People in the pews weren't really aware of it though. If the direction it's heading is appealing to a person, it could be a good fit, but I would not characterize it, at least at the higher levels, as being particularly welcoming to differing (read: more theologically conservative) points of view.

LOL I wouldn't put any faith in the Beliefnet test. It's just not exact enough when you come down to denominations because it's trying to address all religions. Also, too many of the questions are poorly worded. I, for example, came out 1. Eastern Orthodox (100%) 2. Roman Catholic (100%) 3. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (93%) Number three encompasses a HUGE spectrum of Christian belief. As for one and two, that's definitely inaccurate. In fact, I recently left the Catholic Church due to doctrinal differences. So it goes. If only figuring out this sort of thing were as easy an an online test!

Authoritarianism is going to come down to the individual church. You will find priests and pastors of all stripes who think that they know The Truth, and that you have no place if you can't see it the same way. You'll find that in conservative, liberal, and unspecified denominations. It's more about an individual leader's lack of humility than doctrine. I would just start visiting place and meeting priests and pastors. Find out which ones are comfortable with questions. And be careful that they're truly comfortable with questions, not just gleeful about a particular question you have because they think you should be of the position that you seem to be headed towards. Also figure out what your personal non-negotiables are. Say, for example, that you want to go to a church where inquiry is welcome but where there is general agreement on, say, the divinity of Christ. Some churches, despite what their statements of faith might say, do not teach Christ's divinity, so you'd want to figure that out in advance. I've known plenty of priests or pastors willing to use weasel words to try to please everybody and avoid confrontation while they personally belief and strongly push a particular viewpoint. Better to find someone who says, "I believe x," unequivocally but is fine discussing the idea with others who disagree or "I don't know," rather than someone who obfuscates. It's tricky. Good luck.

Yikes! I didn't know Pyrex could explode when used normally. I'm eyeing two of my pans suspiciously now. As for why these things are funnier when smart people do them, I think people need to lighten up. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone. These things are just reminders that even the sharpest of us make them. And as long as no one gets hurts, they're pretty funny too. :001_smile:

You described our non-denominational, evangelical church perfectly. (ETA: Except for the liturgical part. Communion is offered at every service though. I suppose there is a sort of loose liturgy or order to the service but nothing like you'd find in Catholic, Orthodox, or Episcopal services.) I think what you've described comes down more to the individual church than to the denomination.

Heh.

I have a brother who is significantly younger than me. After our parents divorced, he lived mainly at one house while I lived at the other. So there was a mix of having a sibling and being an only. We didn't get along as children, but we enjoy each other's company now. With my boys I'm seeing how special a sibling relationship in childhood can be. They adore each other. They play together constantly and seem to iron out each other's quirks. They make each other laugh, and they have a wonderful time building up elaborate, imaginative scenarios together. I can't imagine what each would be like without the other. My oldest son has a lot of friends his own age, but yesterday at Sunday school when they made bracelets for their best friends, he gave the one he made to his brother. A woman I know who came from a family with seven children told me that her sisters had always been her best friends, and that it took a lot of stress off of her in junior high and high school. She thinks that she didn't feel as much pressure to be cool or fit in because she already had those close sibling relationships. Because of that large family foundation, she felt and feels very secure. Of course, there are also advantages to being an only child. Financially it is much easier on the parents, and if the parents aren't of the type to work intentionally on helping siblings grow in friendship together, there can be a lot of dysfunction between siblings, something an only will never have to worry about. I think that when it comes down to it, different family sizes suit different people. The best family size is probably the one in which the parents best function as parents. Some parents feel more relaxed with large families while others feel best with only children, and others are somewhere in between. Different strokes...

A conversation from the past. "But what do you think will better prepare them for the real world?" "Homeschooling, obviously." "WHAT?!" "How is being made to sit in an institution all day with people your exact same age, all doing the exact same thing anything like real life?"

Brawndo. It's got electrolytes.

Same. This is one of our favorite things about our church. A gigantic percentage of the budget is spent on those types of ministries. If our church decided to buy or build a building right now, it would cost millions, and the money spent on these ministries would have to be drastically cut back. Not going to happen.

Our church has been around for over ten years, is big, and still rents space this way. It's a win for the facility and a win for the church which can spend more money on community and international ministries by not paying for a permanent building.

I don't think I'd be willing to give kids that age personal devices that connect to the Internet. However, I would consider a dedicated MP3 player like a Sansa or regular iPod. I would also consider a Kindle Touch. The regular Kindle has a web browser, but it's not one I can see someone using apart from necessity. Pretty clunky, something I consider a feature not a bug. :001_smile:

Main and beginning reason was to provide a superior, individualized education. Now equally important reason is dislike of the popular culture into which public school children are socialized. (Extended adolescence, materialism, "hotness", relativism, etc.)

Years ago, we attended a church where the priest/pastor talked about politics all the time. All. The. Time. It was so annoying. He thought that Jesus was the leader of a political movement, so it was never ending. We left. We once visited my father's church, and the priest/pastor criticized a political commentator during the sermon, and one of the parishioners shouted "Amen!" Later the same parishioner was introduced as the new associate priest/pastor. Ugh. I love that I have never heard politics mentioned in our current church, except to pray for wisdom and discernment for political leaders.