I just looked it up, and in my NY county the 911 Center answers non-emergency calls too. So if I'm away and needed to send EMS to my house, I could call the non-emergency number, and be talking to the same dispatcher I would have reached calling from my kitchen. Seems like a pretty good way to operate! And I just added the non-emergency numbers to my phone. Not sure why it never occurred to me before this thread, so thank you OP. :)

It's been happening on and off for a few weeks! Sometimes it's fine, others times not. If I go back and try again, I can usually get in. They keep saying it should be resolved, but it's obviously not! :glare:

No kidding. I also saw this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/179536549/womens-tribal-wild-at-heart-gypsy-muscle?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=wild%20hearts&ref=sr_gallery_21 I would be interested to know more about the shop owner because it uses quite a bit of Native culture imagery, among others.

I did an Etsy search for "wild hearts" and noticed another shirt with the quote with an arrow, but several others that included other graphics (none of which sounded any warning bells), or none at all, and they were just as nice- or not, depending on how you feel about graphic tees. ETA: There were several with the line, "wild heart, gypsy soul," that made me cringe. Is that a line from something? After seeing it more than once, I started to think so, but I can't place it. ETA2: My point got lost somewhere, but was that I think the saying stands fine on its own without the use of potentially offensive imagery...or even any at all. :)

Common Core. (ETA: and any kind of "government" school, including homeschool charters.) It was started by the folks behind the HS Roadmap. http://www.hsroadmap.org/ I had to leave/unlike both groups because the rhetoric was just too much.

5 Wits in Syracuse came up when I was googling as well. http://escaperoomdirectory.com/#US

We were on our way to Malone to the Wilder homestead (we live in the Syracuse area), when we heard about the escape on the morning of June 6! When I saw how close the prison is, it definitely occurred to me they could head that way! Now that I "know" the area, I've been following closely the last few days. :ohmy:

They teased me once with a "mystery discount" email (like a scratch-off, but online). It claimed to be 15, 20, or 30%, but of course all I got was 20%... My sister and I joked that the 30% was just a myth. Maybe around Christmas they had a 25%? Sorry, not much help, but typically I don't think it's more than 20%. :( I also wish they would stack coupons. 20% and free shipping once in a while would be wonderful! I just got an email this evening for 20% off. Perfect timing because my kids need colored tape. :)

The book: http://www.amazon.com/Williams-Doll-Charlotte-Zolotow/dp/0064430677 The song from Free to Be You and Me: Gosh, my sister and I used to listen to that album over and over...nearly wore out the record. :)

I bought some of the Dream Cream a few weeks ago from a friend, and I like it. It's been good on my heels especially. I also just received the bug spray, but we've only tried it in the backyard so far. That's my only experience at this point. I am fairly skeptical about their sales pitch, but the lotion is nice.

We had a few pieces from Kate Quinn. :) http://www.katequinnorganics.com/categories/home/

The Arndt family has 13 boys and one girl, but the daughter isn't the youngest. #10 or 11, IIRC. They were on TLC with other large families 4-5 years ago.

I watched it a few weeks ago, but the subtitles make all the difference! :)

I don't know anything about Thomas Jefferson Education, but the rest seems pretty accurate, given what the target questions were for Waldorf (not a fan of anthroposophy!). Score for Classical Education: 23 Score for Charlotte Mason Education: 19 Score for Waldorf Education: 19 Score for Montessori Education: 17 Score for Unit Studies Education: 8 Score for Unschooling: 8 Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 5 Score for Traditional Education: -12

87%, with 52% graduating "college ready." College ready is defined by achieving a 75 or higher on the English Regents and 80 or higher on a math Regents exam. ETA: of the 470 graduates last year, 230 earned a Regents advanced diploma, 213 a standard Regents, and 27 a local diploma.

I agree with redsquirrel, Amy, and jenn. Some roughhousing is okay (although my husband doesn't like even that), but no violence, name calling, etc. Our four are still young (8,6,4,2), and they're still working on figuring out limits. Where is the line from fun to "too much?" Sometimes that line changes, and someone who is having fun can suddenly want to be DONE-- and it's different obviously for a two year old vs. a six year old! That's sometimes our struggle, and I have to stay on top of it, and be ready to guide them along.

We've gotten lucky, because the economy of this area is not growing. Nice house, good job, decent school district (big, though!), lovely and safe neighborhood. Comparing prospects around the country is what keeps us in CNY, although I would NOT say NY is a healthy state. If I drive to the other side of the county (through the city where you have one of the worst schools in the state and cheap housing in bad neighborhoods), my house would cost $100,000 more (with taxes to match :ack2:) for one of the top 10 school districts.

Our second house was $144,000 when we bought it. Rural Northern NY, 1850 farmhouse, 2500 sf, 4 beds, 2 baths, 5.3 acres. It was in beautiful shape for the most part. A bad winter accelerated the need for a new roof, and we ripped out some carpet and updated flooring. The living room had the most wonderful "Little House" wide-planked original floors. So that was our experience with an older house. Our current home in Central NY was also under $150k (ETA: in a suburb). 1975 sf colonial 45 years old, 4 beds, 2.5 baths, hardwoods, fenced yard (1/3 acre). It was cheaper than other houses in our neighborhood because it needed cosmetic updates (wallpaper, dated appliances, etc). My neighbor has an identical house and paid $30,000 more. Taxes for both houses we owned are between $5-6k. Hooray for NY. :glare:

I sometimes still stuff potato chips into PB&J sandwiches. :)

I think I've shared before that my older boys (6&8) have hour long piano lessons. It's just the way our teacher does it. My boys spend the full hour at the piano, but other students get 30 minutes at the piano and 30 minutes (or 45/15 for the older kids) in the rhythm lab playing games, working on recording, etc. They are both focused and talented, especially my oldest. Recently, our teacher has had him stay two hours. During his brother's lesson he works on composing, games, theory, and recording. Then he has his normal lesson. I totally agree with the OP about time adding up, though! We also have four kids, and four hours of lessons a week plus the practice times...all music, all the time! :D

I'm sorry I'm just getting back to this thread. It looks like other people have had similar ideas about using instruments on "off days" for churches, nursing homes, etc., but to address your question about the store: they welcome customers to try out their pianos. (Some are obviously off limits, but they have many display models). Although the average clerk wouldn't recognize us, my husband is a member of a professional music organization with one of the proprietors and they know our piano teacher as well, so when the right people are on duty we have even more leeway and can use the nicest grands. :)

We have a discarded set of the World Book too! It's been totally worth it. Some of my best memories are of hanging out in the library after school browsing the encyclopedias. My husband grew up with an older set at home too, and has the same association. :)

We also have a very talentd young pianist, and a studio Baldwin at home. Both my husband (an organist) and our piano teacher agree that our piano is no longer sufficient for our son's needs. We already have an organ in the living room that takes up one wall (at least it's not a pipe organ anymore, though! :D), so space (and funds) are limited. The way we're dealing with it now as he prepares for our spring sonata/sonatina festival is to have him practice on different pianos whenever he can. So at church every week he works on the grands there, we'll stop by the local piano center for him to run his piece, my MIL is a piano teacher and has a grand, etc. It helps! Maybe something like that's that's an option?

I follow Ann Voskamp on Instagram (not sure why since I'm not much of a Christian anymore and can't stand her writing), but she's in the Holy Land and keeps referring to Jesus as "God-with-skin-on." Every time I see it, I shudder. It's just not the image I want. Very Silence of he Lambs like someone else said. "It rubs the lotion on its skin..."

I managed to escape with just one ordered. ;) Thank you for sharing!