:iagree: An assortment of muffins, banana-bread, cookies, etc. are all things that a bachelor isn't likely to be making for himself. If you need it, I love my Applesauce Oatmeal Muffin recipe.

This sounds like me. I test anemic, and I take slow-release iron supplements at night, and I still feel like that. Maybe if I took it in the morning....

Our Pastor is very loving and understanding, but we are pretty much their only hope of ever attracting younger families. I would feel like I was abandoning them (the church), and I can't do that. We will give it a little bit longer. We started going to a non-denominational bible study that had classes for the kids, which was great until my 4yo started throwing fits, wouldn't sit still and listen, and cried when they sang songs. :banghead:

I learned skating on a flooded field at recess during winter in Alaska, but when I got lessons I learned important things, like how to stop properly! I say go for the classes, at least a few basic ones, especially if they want to join a team. As for being prepared: dress warmly and have a snack prepared for afterward. And extra socks for the kids. Mine always ended up soaked.

:lol: He he he!

I organize my diaper bag by putting things in different gallon size Ziplock bags, and then I label them with Sharpies. I even have an empty one labled "Yuck!" for holding surprise problems. I do the same labeled bags with a lot of my homeschooling supplies, too. A bag for crayons, markers, etc. And my toy drawers have colored labels with shapes so the kids know exactly where things belong.

Okay, thank you, everyone.

Oh, and "grow a pair," especially when said to a woman. I used to get upset when someone would say my kid was "growing like a weed." I actually corrected one of my husband's co-worker's wife and said "Weeds are unwanted. We prefer 'growing like bamboo' or 'growing like a sunflower.'" They still tease him about it. :tongue_smilie:

^ :lol: During play time. I'm just worried about him getting into the habit of sticking stuff in his mouth. I still bite my nails, and I don't want my kids to have a similar oral fixation.

How do I stop this? I don't overreact, but he still thinks it's funny. Should I just ignore it? He's putting his finger in his mouth sometimes, too...

:iagree::iagree: It's a penis people! Get over it!

Gabe. Why on EARTH do people truncate the beautiful name we gave our son, Gabriel, to Gabe? I find it completely unpleasant and and rude!

:grouphug: Sounds like you need coffee & girlfriend time.

My dh and I have this same situation. We are the ONLY couple with kids that attend. I'm pretty sure the average age of our church is over 50. With homeschooling, and only one friend who has a kid, we really need other kids for ours to interact with. But we can't leave; my husband is on the church board, and I'm the head of Children's education (there is one 10 year old that visits every other week.)

Dh and I in highschool (hs sweet<3) both thought we wanted 4. We wanted more than 2, and I grew up with 2 other sibblings (out of 12 total kids) and it was always 2 aginst 1 (being them against me.) I didn't want that for my kids. We had ds1 as a Valentines' surprise (rhythm method: don't try it....) and the pregnancey was so difficult that I was like "no more!" But then he started growing up too fast, and I wanted another baby. Ds2 was premature because of preeclampsia ( I had it with ds1, but it was less severe.) We thought it wasn't wise to risk having another, but my heart longs for a daughter, and we're praying about it. I definitely will wait a little bit longer between kids if we do.

Yes to almost all of these questions. I left the church I was raised in my whole life when I was 18. That church believed that they were the ONLY church that was right, and going to any other and not following their strict, legalistic rules was turning my back on God. The majority of my very big family is still in this church, and I always hear about it at Thanksgiving (our reunion time.) I didn't keep in touch with anyone from that church for the exact same reason you mentioned. I grew up with these people, and now after 6 years, I am facebook "friends" with 5 of them. I was recently able for the first time to talk about this to one of the people I grew up with in this church. It was very helpful. While we still disagreed about interpretation of scripture, he was able to acknowledge that the local congregation we grew up in had serious issues. And he did say they felt rejected, but it wasn't as big a scale as I had previously believed (although we weren't very close, so that might have had something to do with it.) After stressing about this for 6 years, it was good to be able to talk to someone about it.

:lol: Thank you for these stories, I needed the laugh. My dh keeps insisting that there is no relation between our 4yo waking up in the middle of the night and not eating enough dinner. :glare:

:iagree::iagree: "A little bit of nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest of [wo]men."

My first memory is eating McDonald's the day before we moved to Hawaii (I was 1 1/2.) I remember being very hungry, but knowing I had to wait for the prayer. So I got a french-fry in each hand and dipped them in ketchup, so I could put them in my mouth as soon as the blessing was said!

Where do you find these? I've never heard of them.

Soooooo jealous! We are renting a small (990 sq feet) townhouse without even a dinning area! The computer is at the bottom of the stairs, the reading area is at the top of the stairs. School happens mostly at the activity table in front of the never-used fireplace, which makes handwriting almost impossible.

My first one was an emergency c-section due to preeclampsia. They started to take him out of the room until I stopped them and said "Don't I get to see him?!" And then I didn't get to see him for over an hour while in recovery. My second was another emergency c-section, only early at 32 weeks. I told them ahead of time what had happened last time, and that I wanted to see him before they took him away. That time I got to see him and touch him, tiny as he was. It was a good thing I insisted, because I had a bad reaction to the anesthesia, and I couldn't stand up or sit in a wheelchair to see him in the NICU for over 36 hours. If you do have another baby by c-section just make sure they know what you want. I don't think you can get out of not seeing him/her during recovery, but you can see him/her when they come out, and know that your dh is with them.

Nope. At least they wern't when I was reading them.... http://www.americangirl.com/fun/agmg/ has a free sample to look at.

They worked for me in hs. But with my backpack full, it got scraped off a lot.

Double ditto, though be prepared for her wanting all the dolls and accessories!