Quite deliberately too, at times. Rosie

Finished "Food Not Lawns" and have started a biography of a British war correspondant. Also read "Nightingale" by Morgana Gallaway, which was set in Iraq. Very much enjoyed that. Rosie

Hmm. Hadn't thought of that. My kids haven't got sick so far, but that doesn't mean they won't. The eldest is only 2 after all! Dh suggested a bar fridge, but I've never seen one with a good energy rating. Not that we can afford one at the moment anyway. Well, we still have the fridge. It can be turned back on if needs be :) Surely there are enough options with medicines that we could get one that didn't need refrigerating. Or maybe I'll feed them garlic with every meal and scare the germies away. Rosie

We can only do what energy and economics allow for, regardless of our ethical stance. Rosie

It's not just about the electricity bill. Thinking a bit more globally, it reduces our "footprint." Deb: When you said it's not good for fridges to be sitting unplugged, did you mean it's going to damage the motor or that it's going to leak icky chemical things? Rosie

I don't do American Civil War re-enactment, obviously, but many people get into re-enactment because it is so different from modern every day life. It's a bit more communal and educational than disconnecting by watching soaps on telly, huh? You get jerks everywhere... Rosie

Lol, dh is like that in summer. I wouldn't be surprised if he insists on putting the fridge back on come summer. Last year he insisted he would die of heat exhaustion if he didn't have icy poles in the freezer. I've never heard of anyone dying for lack of icy poles, but I wouldn't like him to be the first, :P. Anyhow, he should be employed by summer, so it'll be him paying the bills, lol. I read on one site that earthenware keeps water cold even when it's hot outside. My brother is a ceramicist, so I might just put in a little request for Christmas... Rosie

You lot just aren't adventurous enough, that's your trouble! ;) Yeah, it gets well over 100F here too. It can get that high in this wretched house even with the air conditioner on. I'm thinking it's a matter of eating seasonally and shopping often. Dh passes the supermarket on the way home from uni, so for this year at least, it's not out of our way to pick up salad ingredients each day if necessary. I'll be able to cook different things in winter when the house is as cold as a fridge anyway. I've no intention of getting rid of the fridge. Just unplugging it. It's a useful place to keep stuff! We looked in the fridge yesterday and found we were paying to run it to keep about half a dozen things that we don't really need anyway. Maybe with the money saved I can buy more books :D Carrie, there are many, many places to hide chocolate. ;) Why do this? Because we can, mostly. Y'know something. I've heard of people who think other people are nuts for homeschooling :tongue_smilie: We're eating the few things that need refrigerating this week, and see how we go! :) Rosie

What can you do to make a view? I've been reading this Guerrilla Gardening site: http://www.guerrillagardening.org so I'm in a revolutionary mood... Rosie

I've just discovered this blog: http://littlebloginthebigwoods.blogspot.com/2007/03/no-refrigerator-for-30-years.html Rosie

We are walking distance to the shops. While shopping with a baby and toddler isn't my idea of fun, Rich passes the supermarket on the way home from uni each day so he can stop in and buy fruit and veg as required. I could probably manage to get dry staples myself, getting in and out before Zia trashes the shop. I prefer to buy veggies organic from the wholefoods shop instead of from the supermarket, but sometimes we can't do everything and the money saved from not running the fridge will be a big help this semester. I'm looking at blogs to glean tips. A lot of it won't help since it is either too cold here to need to worry, or so hot that the tips wouldn't work anyway. I'm thinking summer won't be such an issue if we shop often enough, but summer is a while away, so we'll worry about that as we get to it ;) Rosie

Has anyone done away with their fridge? I'm feeling like a revolutionary at the moment. Becoming vegan seems to have paved the way for me to inflict another bright idea on my long suffering hubby. We've decided we will be able to live without a fridge and are setting about eating the rest of the stuff in there that does need refrigeration while we figure out how to juggle things to do without. Anyone else done this and wish to make inspiring comments? ;) Rosie

My education wasn't so hot, neither was my parents'. The most important thing my mother taught me was to be curious. You have to teach your kids to care. Rosie

What's her diet like? Apart from the nasty caffeine habit, of course. If we find ourselves relying on stimulants like that, it often means dehydration and lack of proper food. Rosie

We didn't. It was guides, not school. We didn't have to do anything in particular. In my experience, the culture of guides/scouts has changed over the years. It used to be about supporting the girls in organising as much as they could. Over time as the wider culture became more concerned with instant gratification, that changed and now leaders are finding themselves spending hours and hours in prep. The more the kids do themselves, the more they learn. If you tell me what these achievements are, how many are supposed to be done and who says it must be that way, I might be able to help :) We often based themes and activites around badge (patch) work, is that what you mean? I also sent challenges home with kids that would count towards badges. As I had to explain (and explain and explain) to some parents, it wasn't school and it was entirely their own business if they chose to do the challenge or not. If they did, they got that criteria ticked off. If they didn't, they didn't get it ticked off. I didn't hand out challenges every meeting, but we met weekly and I would reassign the same challenge at times if it hadn't been completed. The only problems we ever had was parents treating it all like homework as though it was something the kiddie could fail. If we explained enough, we got them to understand it was the girl's responsibility, not theirs so they could chill out and relax. Probably not helpful, but that's how we worked. Rosie

It's pretty easy to tell who cares most when it comes to choosing a brand of toilet paper or whether to have pasta or couscous for dinner. Someone says "I really want/ don't want" and the other says, "if it means that much to ya!" Seriously though, most decisions that need to be made are fairly inconsequential really. No one's life is going to be changed dramatically whichever way it goes. Now when it came to a big decision like homeschooling, dh was apprehensive. Naturally I put lots of effort into researching and convincing him it was a good thing to do. He still couldn't care less if we do or don't, but goes along with it because it's so important to me. I can't see anything wrong with serving reheated potato, but it bothers him, so I eat the potato, lol. You guys must be really mellow if you can't tell who has stronger feelings about something. Are you both Librans or something? :svengo: Librans stress me! ;) Rosie

How about 'post it' notes stuck in the book? Rosie

You can also get huge variation using the meters as well, so I don't put a heck of a lot of faith in them either. Still they're the best we have, so that's what we use. None of that makes gestational diabetes any less serious so it is important to know whether or not you have it so you can treat it appropriately. When you said "testing has not made a difference in perinatal outcome," what sort of outcomes are you talking about. Someone else here seemed to be suggesting that a test wasn't necessary because either you or the docs would notice if you had diabetic symptoms. I can assure anyone that isn't true! You lot are lucky to get the meters for free! I was able to borrow from the hospital for the first pregnancy, but so few were returned they stopped lending and I had to fork out $60 for one for my second pregnancy. Kind of wish I'd kept the first one. Now I have a meter I don't need. :glare: Not that I want to need it!! Rosie

That's lovely, checking in like this. It makes me feel important! So glad it's all going well, and good sushi is such a happy thing. I hope there's a shower and a comfy bed waiting for you. :) Rosie

Gestational diabetes is serious, as I'm sure you know. If you don't want to do the test to find out if you are or not, do you intend to ignore the issue or eat as though you are diabetic? To keep off insulin last time I had to cut all grains from my diet and get my carbs from legumes. I don't recommend that unless you have to! If you have a meter, you can test at home and monitor yourself, but I don't imagine you would want to fork out for a meter just to avoid a three hour test. Rosie

Oh yeah. We're back down below the poverty line ourselves. Hopefully he'll get a job after this semester is over and we can creep back up. Do we have a "fingers crossed" smilie? His wages for his first job out of uni (this time around :glare:) are not much better than unemployment, but it's a step in the right direction. We are eating a lot more simply, virtually no specialty ingredients. Veggies, fruit, grains and legumes, for the most part. No stops over at the bakery for a pastie, much less bread, few trips out of town, no book buying. I'll cancel my chiropractic appointments and only take the kids. We don't generally have more time, since dh is studying, but he's on holidays at the moment and we've been filling up the time by catching up on jobs and reading aloud. He was on baby holding duty for a week while I got a bundle of sewing done, for example. He's reading a lot more than usual. He doesn't really like reading to himself, but is reading some fun novels aloud to me, as well as working through the exercises in a spirituality book. It'd be a good idea for your hubby to do a few things to increase his job options, but time can also be spent reading and playing games with the kids. That bit of time off work is a good opportunity for your kids and their dad to get to know each other a bit more thoroughly. :grouphug: Rosie

We've only clocked 7 years but yeah, this is us too. I guess if we couldn't find a compromise, we'd have to divorce. Glad that hasn't happened yet. He's a funny guy, but I like having him around :) Rosie P.S KingM, the answers to your questions lie in my previous posts, but of course they are only my reasons for doing what we do.

Absolutely. Can't expect kids this age to start acting like adults if the adults around don't welcome them into the ranks. Weird as it might sound, I think my major rite of passage, where I realised I was now considered an adult in my family was when I was expected to contribute to the Christmas cooking. Not helping Mum chop veggies, but cook something myself. Mind you, I'd moved out of home by then so this little anecdote really isn't applicable to the OP and I'm sort of waffling... The other thing, have you asked her what her own plans for her character are? She might already know what sort of person she wants to be, but not exactly how to get there. If you guys are interested in the SCA or something like that, there's a place where she can hang out with the college age students (we have a lovely bunch in our area) and when that becomes a bit overwhelming, play with the little kids. Their parents would definitely appreciate that! A lovely thing about the SCA in this case is the award system. If she becomes known as the lass who helps out with the little kids, she'll be given an offical thank you or even award for it. It's nice for teens when someone outside the family recognises them as useful and pleasant people. You can always ask the college students to take care of her, or ask someone who knows them to ask; when she's not looking, of course. They're not so old they've forgotten what that age is like and would probably make an effort to include her with dancing or chit chat. A junior leader with brownies or daisies could be good too. It did wonders for me when I was that age. Rosie

That's a very good example of how a biblical marriage should be working, as I understand it. The decision maker will vary according to the situation, but when push comes to shove, the editor wins out. As I said in another post. Someone has to have the final say if it comes to stalemate. Naturally, the partners do as much negotiation as they can to avoid stalemate. Rosie

We palmed it off onto the kids whenever possible, lol. Even the littlies. We had 6 year olds and were having a winter theme night, or some such thing. All we bought along was some old sheets, as I recall. One of the kids had been reading a story at home or school about eskimos so they spent 45 mins making igloos and being eskimos. We say back and watched them! Rosie