There's an audible difference between pen/pin and ten/tin?? :confused: I can't even fathom what the difference is supposed to be! I had a friend who's granny said "warsh" but I think that's more a (farther) Northern Indiana thing. :rofl: So do we! We also live in a tourist area (Indiana Beach), so every single summer we see tourists from the city stealing corn out of the fields, thinking they're getting away with something (feed corn! LOL!!)

That's awful! It's even worse to me that people commented and said they hate their kids, too! Wow!!

I'm in Indiana, I don't know if this is true of other Midwestern states, but we say "catty-corner" to mean "diagonally from here." Leaving off the "g" of words that end in "-ing" is very common (and I'm guilty of it, myself) as is leaving out "to be," as mentioned above. Oh yes, and ending words with prepositions is a HUGE Indiana thing. There's actually a common joke around here about that- A Hoosier gets accepted to Harvard. On his first day, he goes to the information desk and says, "Excuse me, but could you tell me where the library is at?" The woman huffs and says, "Here at Harvard we don't end sentences with prepositions!" The Hoosier replies, "I'm sorry- could you tell me where the library is at, a**hole?" :rofl: And yes, it's POP. If you say "soda" and you're a native Hoosier, people assume you're too big for your britches ;)

:iagree: I ALWAYS inform people if my kids have had any symptoms of illness. Then I let them decided if they want to risk it or not.

I use to be really fascinated by DID, so I read a lot of books on the subject. The two that stand out most in my memory are Katherine, It's Time and When Rabbit Howls. I think it's likely real, but exceedingly rare. I think many cases are sadly faked (sometimes after encouragement from a therapist) or actually symptomatic of other disorders.

Atheist writer.

Why do you think it's true? I can promise you that not everyone who's larger than you wishes they were your size. :001_huh:

I very vividly remember listening to a preacher on the radio screaming about how he could sin as much as he wanted, lie, rape, murder, steal, etc, and he was still going to Heaven because he had accepted Jesus as his "personal Savior." Crap like that is one of the reasons I was an atheist for so long. (To be fair, I don't think he was saying it was GOOD to sin, I think he was trying to illustrate how powerful his idea of salvation was, but still. Yuck.)

:iagree:

I'm exhausted most of the time, too. I had a thyroid check, and it was fine, though as I understand, there are multiple tests? Regular exercise, plenty of sleep, and improving my diet helps a little, but nothing significant.

Darcy, then Knightly. The rest I'm pretty "meh" towards.

If I was forced to only chose one or the other, I'd go with the first, I suppose. You can do things that are right and just in God's eyes, but if you have no belief in Him behind those actions, they mean nothing in regards to your salvation. But as a Catholic, the first option doesn't really cut it for me, either.

:iagree: I used to be reeeeally uppity about how my kids would NEVER have TVs in their rooms. We didn't even have cable/satellite for a long time. But I'm over it, lol. My 10yo has a TV in her room, with satellite and a dvd player, and so do my 3 and 6yo who share a room. Maybe I just have exceptionally obedient children (:lol:), but I've never once had an issue with any of them watching TV without permission. We also have the satellite safety features on, so if they try to watch anything over G rating we have to put in a code. I've never really had an issue with any of them wanting to do nothing but watch TV. Sometimes my 3 year old whines when I tell her that her tv time is over, but I simply remind her that if she gives me an attitude about it, she won't be allowed to watch any at all the next day, and she gets over it and goes off to play. If I felt like it was becoming a problem, that all they wanted to do was watch TV and they were eschewing things like reading and imaginative play, then I'd address it. That said, I certainly respect and understand why many people don't do TV in kids' rooms, or at all. BUT, I think that you, OP, should feel free to accept the gift.

If we honestly don't have the money, we don't tithe, and it's not an issue. We're Catholic, and apparently the RCC has a low tithing rate, BUT, we also have a higher percentage of parishioners who are impoverished. We also have large Hispanic populations, especially in my area, and statistically they are unlikely to tithe. We are asked to give 5% of our gross income to our parish if we can, but it's not obligatory. That said, I personally feel like if you have the money, you should give it. I don't know about other denominations, but our parishes donate a lot of money to charities across the world, as well as providing a lot of services to needy in our local communities, and it requires the generosity of our parishioners to accomplish that. I also think that if you're taking advantage of programs offered by the church, you should help fund it if you're able. We are not wealthy, but we tithe what we can to our parish and diocese, as well as donating privately to charity.

That's...I'm not even sure what it is. Disgusting. Heartbreaking. Horrifying. One of the reasons I don't understand the "shut the door and don't open it until morning, no matter what" mentality. I remember when dd1 was a baby and started wailing, I rushed in and her chubby little thigh was wedged in between the crib slats.