I'm baking wheat bread today and also beginning a sour dough starter. Maybe both a rye starter and another one w/ milk/yogurt/white flour. I'm also making two different recipes of English muffins. And maybe some sandwich (white - gasp!) bread for the kiddos. I might even make some muffins and freeze them. Last week I made bran muffins with dried cranberries...they were divine with cream cheese slathered on them! Anyone else bake something fun lately? Ria

Have fun! Ria

Wonderful! Thank you. Count me in! Ria

Shoot, for years I was *sure* ds was dying because he ws so small. He was in the 5th percentile on the growth chart all his life, until he hit age 12 and he wasn't even on the chart. I figured he was dying from some disease. I am not kidding. You don't even want to know what I imagined. Let me just add that it didn't help one bit that he had a twin sister who was on par for the charts. I can laugh now. Ds is 19 and weighs about 135. He's 5 foot 9 inches. Still skinny, but not emaciated. My other kids range from "normal" (like dd, now 19 and "average") to "underweight" Ria

Goodness, no. I see lots of interesting names working in the pharmacy! I can't imagine why it would bother me the way someone spells his/her name. The only names I feel anything about are the twin names - and probably because I'm a mom of twins. The rhyming names bother me. On their own the names are fine, so once the kids are grown it won't matter. Cutesy names bother me, too... honestly, when my twins were younger, I knew a mom who named her boy/girl twins Jack and Jill. :confused: Ria

LOL. I'm too clueless to have even known you existed. How's that? But I'll certainly look for your posts now. Shoot...if people might be ignoring you, you might be fun to read! Ria

A lot of Synge's work is available free online. http://www.mainlesson.com/main/displayarticle.php?article=christmas Hope this helps! I've read it and had my kids read some. Ria

This amount of taxation would destroy our family. We simply could not afford to live. Ria

I have a friend who got one. It was dirty, aggressive, not cuddly, and generally they ended up hating it. Oh, and the poop was constant and everywhere. Hers ended up on Craigslist. Ria

Very cool! Ria

Yeah...socialist action to be sure. What the heck should the government do, though? To do notihing could mean a depression, not just a recession. Shoot...I have no clue what they should have done, or what should still be done, if anything. Ria (who has some stock and is not too happy)

Praying. Ria

If the COPD is going to kill her, and if stopping smoking is not going to extend her life to any great degree, I'd buy them and just let her be happy....and I don't say this lightly. My grandmother died of emphysema, and it was horrific. Ria

I'm sorry if this bothers you, but a lot of innocent people died here a while back. Given that it is the desire of certain terrorist organizations to destroy the United States, I have no problem at all with the government stepping up security. Yes, it's inconvenient. Had 9-11 not happened, it would still be easy to get into the US. Events happened, and things have changed. That's the way it is. And if those regulations stop a terrorist, or help catch one, great! Ria

LOL!!! Running off to get dh to show him the post. He'll faint!! Snicker! :lol: Ria

I don't understand it, and I'm horrified when I see it. I'm a McCain supporter, but this slander of Obama really gets to me. Please know that there really are Republicans who respect Obama. Ria

The problem with tampons is that they can block the pipes leading to the field. I personally know two people to whom this happened, and it was wickedly expensive to dig up the pipes. It's your house. Either she agrees to stop flushing the things, or you simply stop buying them and hand her a box of pads. I think you'll win, lol. Ria

My dh is not a pastor...he's a chemical (BS) and mechanical (MS) engineer. He attends Westminster Theological Seminary part-time for fun, lol. He agrees that a strong background in English or history would be wonderful preparation for seminary. Ria

I used an aquarium with a lid. I put a shallow container of dirt from the garden on one side of the aquarium (it was about 6" x 6", and 2" high...I got it at the pet store...it was supposed to be a small wading dish for a lizard, I think). On the bottom of the rest of the aquarium I put dead leaves (you know, the ones that are falling now...brown and crisp), and I put these on the dirt as well. Here's the key: I got one of those terra cotta heat rocks from the pet store and put that on the dirt dish (it covered about half of it, and I'd have it propped up just a bit on the edge of the dish to make room for the crickets to go underneath. I'd put about 1 tablespoon of dried dog or cat food under the heat rock. I'd water the dirt dish every other day (it dries out very quickly with the heat rock on it), and mist twice daily. Once I had this set up I'd buy 2 dozen crickets. Since my anole actually lived in this cage along with the breeding crickets, I'd get 1 doz small crickets (so she could eat) and 1 doz large (so they could start breeding). We had more crickets than you could count! We bred them for years. Just make sure to replenish the food under the rock every week or so. Every now and then I'd change the dirt, too. Ria

Good riddance. Be prepared for an angry phone call from his mom, but stick to your guns. You don't need this, and he has shown no desire to want to learn. Ria

Ah, Joanne, you understand so well! Yes, as a biology major, this is exactly what I meant. Biology is biology. Procreation happens, and kids want to know about it. Facts are facts. The sexual language stuff comes later. Ria

Three of our six have been tested because they are in the public school system and were considered for the gifted program. In our district a child must ahve an IQ of 130 or more to qualify for the program. As we expected, one of our kids far surpassed that score. His brothers scored very high but not quite the magic 130, lol. Does it matter? No. The psychologist who did our testing was very blunt. He said that based on the boys' scores, any one of them could be anything they wanted to be in life...doctor, veterinarian, professor, engineer, anything. The difference, he said, is that learning might come a bit easier to the "brightest" one...however, the one who wants to succeed will. Effort means everything. I've seen this played out. My twins are sophomores in college. One of them is incredibly gifted, yet doesn't work hard (doesn't have to work hard to get by). The other, very bright but not at the level of the twin, works extremely hard and cares about grades and performance. The one who puts forth more effort has better grades. Ria

Just tell it like it is. Use animals as examples, and be explicit. The male has a pen*s puts sperm in the female...you get the idea. Give the facts...sperm and egg. It is what it is. My kids all knew about this stuff by age 4, and it was just life. Then again, we had rabbits. LOL! Ria

Never did it. I took stuff away for poor attitude or effort, but never gave bribes for work that was expected. School is school. It's non-negotiable. It gets done without bribes. That still goes for homework now that the kids are in ps. Ria

Hmmm...here I was thinking that you were afraid of predators. Any parent who thinks that their kids are 100% safe in any public place is, IMO, crazy, but this doesn't mean you should lock them in the car, either. I don't think I know a soul who thinks that any public place, or a semi-public place (ie, one's own church) is totally safe. I'm not in favor of banning books. Period. That said, my public library system doesn't offer "sexual instruction manuals" to children. Does yours? Does it really? Can you give proof? Or are you just fearing for your kids because of something you read online? And what caring parent would not look at the books their kids checked out? Ria