Here is what one priest has to say on the matter. As a Christian I totally understand what he is saying. I'm not joyful over the death of anyone, but as an imperfect human I find it hard to be upset about Osama's death regardless of how it came about.

Oh - I forgot to tell you where to look for your sheets! Whenever we can't find something around here we look in the air conditioning vents. Ds2 loves to take the covers off and drop things into the holes. Our vacuum attachment was missing for months before we discovered this hiding place.:tongue_smilie:

This won't help you find your sheets, but here is how we keep sheets organized in our house. Everyone has their own color. Parent's sheets are white, dd's are pink, ds1's are blue. Ds2 is still in a crib (at 3 yo - can you believe that????) but when he moves to a bed his sheets will probably be green. We do the same thing with the kid's dishes. That way I always know which cup belongs to who.

I read this and got a good laugh. Then I picked my son up from prek and he proceeds to tell me how they learned about the life cycle of frogs today. He told me all of the steps, minus fertilization. Needless to say I made an immediate decision to just let it go. :001_smile:

My theory about the sugar high and upset tummies that might come with them, is that once it is all gone the kiddos crash hard. When they do, so do I!

Too funny! That is how I found the two I recommended above.:)

I have the same issue. The only two I have found that work are Blinc and Too Faced Lashlight. You can get them both at Sephora. I would love any other suggestions.

Thank you all for your wise words. Watching my children endure social / friend issues is absolutely the hardest part of being a mom. When it happens I just want to hug them and protect them from all the harshness of the world. I know I can't and I need to teach them how to handle it, but when it happens my heart hurts so much that I have a hard time being the grown up. :)

My daughter is almost 9 and is the third grade. She went to public school K-2nd. Starting this year she has attended a hybrid Christian school where she goes to school 2 days a week and we home school her the other 3 days. Her class has 13 boys and 6 girls. Given that background, here is the issue. My daughter told me that a lot of times when she is trying to talk to the other girls in her class they don't respond to her, even when she says their name many times. The examples she gave were at recess when trying to decide what game to play and at lunch in general. She says it isn't a one time thing. She says she has prayed about it, but doesn't think God has heard her because it hasn't gotten better. My first concern is my daughter thinking God isn't listening to her prayers. We talked about it a lot. I told her that God always hear us. I explained that even when God doesn't seem to answer our prayers, that He always makes sure that everything works out for our good. We talked about how what we pray for isn't always what we need and God knows it. I told her these are the times we have to have faith even though it is hard. We also discussed how it is always easier to remember bad things than good things, so there are probably times her prayers were answered that she doesn't remember. How do I help her with her with this doubt? My second concern is the social aspect. Over the years I have observed my daughter in the sort of situations she was describing. I can see it happening and don't think she is making it up. I'm not sure how to describe it, but her timing just seems off. She doesn't have a problem making or keeping friends. She can usually fit in with a group just fine. While she will most likely never be the leader of the pack, she doesn't seem to not fit in in general. She does get upset at times if other girls she is playing with don't want to do what she wants to do. This isn't a regular thing, but has happened enough over the years that I have noticed. We talk a lot about what it means to be a friend and how friends should treat each other. We talk about how being a friend means taking turns, doing what others want to do, etc. My question is this – how do I help my daughter learn how to interact better with others? How do I help her overcome or eliminate the kind of situations where other girls don't respond to her? How do I help her learn the nuances of communication and timing? I'm not sure if I am making any sense, but hopefully some of you other mothers will understand and have some words of wisdom for me. Thank you!

I really want to get my kids a trampoline because I KNOW they would love it. I am just so worried about them getting hurt. You hear all of these stories about how dangerous they are. Any advice on getting me past that fear?

Does the family of squirrels living in my attic count?

For those of you who recommended Buckle.....I don't know if I should thank you or cuss you, but I got 2 pairs of jeans from there this morning. I about died - $160 for 2 pairs of jeans! But they look great on me and it only took 10 minutes! The girl was incredible and went straight for what I wanted and what fit. I think the money might actually be worth it given the amount of time and frustration that I saved. After getting the jeans I went to the specialty bra store and bought 2 bras (another $160). So in under 3 hours I got 2 pairs of jeans and 2 bras. That normally takes me around 2 weeks to accomplish!

We were told to leave the washer door open when not in use to prevent this. It does work, but seriously - who wants to leave the washer door open all the time. (BTW - leaving it open allows the excess water to evaporate and not allow mold / mildew to grow due a dark, wet environment.)

We call these "Yellow School Bus Days" - as in I want to put them on the yellow school bus and be done with it!

We have this problem with black washable markers.

My daughter attends a school called The King's Academy in Woodstock, GA. It is a local school only. If you were in the area I would highly recommend it.

My 8yo dd attends a hybrid school. She goes 2 days per week from 9:00 - 3:30. They cover math, reading, language arts, spellings, history, science, art, music, and Spanish. Assignments are given by the teachers and are to be done at home the remaining 3 days a week. To me it is the best of both worlds. She is getting a rigorous education that I have a lot of influence over by working with her at home more than she is at school, but I do not have to pick curriculum or make lesson plans. There are quality Christian teachers to help if we hit something I can not get through to my daughter. As unpopular as it may be around here, I don't think I have the patience or stamina to homeschool completely on my own. This provides the perfect solution for us. The school also provides DD with a peer group and friends that come from like minded families. It had eliminated most of the social "junk" we wanted to get away from in public school, but does not shelter dd from others. One thing that has been mentioned as a draw back is that you lose flexibility. That is true to some degree. Like most things in life, it is a trade-off. Schoolwork is due each day. However, the school we attend is very aware that it is a homeschool organization and is actually very flexible. They ask that you not miss more than 4 weeks of school due to vacation per year. If you do miss school for vacation, you are still responsible for turning in the completed work when you return. While this does make it a little harder to schedule, it also provides a structure and keeps you on track. To be honest, if you were planning on missing more than 4 weeks due to vacation, it probably isn't the best fit for you anyway. As I said earlier, it is the best of both worlds for us - it provides flexibility and structure / accountability. Obviously it isn't the perfect solution for everyone, but it is a nice option to have available.

Hands down, Lord of the Flies and Old Man and the Sea. Both of them are just painful. And in the kids picture book category - Goodnight Moon. I'll probably be shot for that one, but it is repetitive and dull.

I have been using this method with very good success. It seems strange, but it has worked. http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/

The dollar store near us (Dollar Tree maybe?) sells a cleaner called LA's Totally Awesome Degreaser. And, go figure, it is only $1. :lol: It is a miracle worker on the grout in my house.

I am not sure if they were closed the entire week or not, but they were definitely closed for several days. Schools were out for the entire week, which has never happened before. The problem with snow in GA is that it warms up enough for the snow to melt. Since the humidity is high the snow does not evaporate so quickly when it melts. Then it gets cold again at night and the melted snow freezes into ice. The ice makes the roads very dangerous.

I do not know anything about the Math Shark, but we have A flash master and it has served us well. We bought it used off of eBay for around $35 including shipping. The thing I like most about it is that it lets parents review the results of the last 9 (or 10?) problem sets. It is a way to make sure your kid actually did the problems if you weren't around. It tells you what the problem set was and how many were right / wrong. It does not actually show you which problems were missed, which would be nice.

We are working on some serious cost cutting in our house. One thing I am examining is bread. We go through 1 to 2 large loaves of white bread a week. Usually Sunbeam. It costs $2.50 - $3.00 a loaf. I have never baked bread before, so I don't know how much flour, sugar, etc. I would need to make an equivalent of 2 large store bought loaves, much less how much it would cost. Can anyone help? THANKS!

11/11 is my birthday and this year I will be 41. This is either a cosmic sign to have a party or for everyone to stay far away from me!

5HTP gave me serious stomach cramps and very vivid, strange dreams. Might have to try SAMe.