I was just reading that because Thomas Jefferson died so heavily in debt, his heirs were forced to sell all his ~135 slaves at auction. The auction shattered families, nuclear and extended, who had been living together at Monticello for sometimes as long as 75+ years. Financial choices control not just your destiny, but very possibly the destinies of your dependents, be they children, pets or your chattel slaves.

I was raised on "big German pancake" in Pyrex pie plate and only converted to cast iron skillet when I acquired one as an adult.

Fitbit been great for me, mostly because "that which gets measured gets managed." If I see I'm running behind on my steps for the day, I'll try to walk for an errand instead of driving and that usually does the trick. I use it in conjunction with an app called Activity Club which allows me to participate in a group (even if they use different activity tracker platforms like Apple Watch or Jawbone) and we can encourage each other with competitions and high fives. It's great for families or mommy groups to support each other in their health goals.

Back in my day (TWENTY YEARS AGO) we were quite snobby about the superiority of the REA books over other study guide brands.

http://geofflawton.com/free-videos/ Geoff Lawton's videos are terrific and very inspiring. Lots and lots of great permaculture videos on YouTube as well.

Technically these are for tea (they have an optional infuser) but they are delightful for coffee. If you leave your coffee in the counter in the morning, it's still be warm when you return at night. Heck, it'll still be tepid the next morning. I've been using this coffee mug since 2000, however it has not been the exact same model. The plastic will crack if you drop it enough and/or the plastic will melt if it falls down onto the heating element in the dishwasher. That said, it is very sturdy and attractive and I usually keep one going for three or four years at a stretch. When you seal the lid on it looks like a handsome little leak-proof prop from the set of Star Trek. http://www.amazon.com/Thermos-Insulated-Stainless-Tumbler-Infuser/dp/B00JTUUOW6/ Thermos 12 Ounce Vacuum Insulated Stainless Steel Tea Tumbler

Yup. Same hair color and same eye color as well. People frequently ask if they are twins even though they are three years apart (little guy is big, and big guy is small for his age). Both went through the same "color evolution" as well: blue-eyed at birth and then light brown eyes by two, and blond hair as babies and then dark brown hair by two.

If you or your teenage children are remotely interested in American history, you guys might like a new show called Underground. Based on the pilot it appears to be a pretty smart show about how seven enslaved African Americans attempt an escape north to freedom on the Underground Railroad circa 1857. If you are a cord cutter, the pilot is available for free online at the WGN website, on iTunes, Crackle, et al. http://www.wgnamerica.com/series/underground Here is the series trailer/preview: Cheers.

My kid won't read anything but Magic Tree House books. Not the worst fate in the world, but I think I'm going to try to bribe him to tackle this list to some extent. He's very stubborn and I think it will give him a feeling of agency: https://juliestroebelbarichello.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/reading-challenge.pdf

Just wanted to hijack this thread to say thanks generally for SOTW. My older boy loves it and demands it on every car trip. I can't imagine he's following it all, but he's made a huge number of connections to names and places he encounters elsewhere. My little guy even asks for it sometimes, which I just know is because he loves the sound of Jim Weiss' voice. It's good stuff. Thanks to SWB, Weiss and all at the Press.

Yes! It's quite easy, it just takes time and a little bit of luck. I am not an expert, but my best advice is wait a week at least before you bake with it. It has to go through some cycles to mature. It'll have a couple of days where it smells like a baby's diaper, but it gets past that and starts smelling delicious. VERY BEST ADVICE ON THIS, IMHO: http://zerowastechef.com/2015/02/10/happy-birthday-eleanor-how-to-make-a-sourdough-starter/ I really like having this skill. It means I won't have to rely on store-bought yeast to leaven bread if hard times ever come. That said, I am actually quite allergic to wheat, and it ended up being a lot of effort for baking bread that I can't even eat and my husband would frankly prefer to buy from the store. :) P.S. Sourdough English muffins ARE THE BEST THING EVAR. Except maybe DELICIOUS SOURDOUGH PANCAKES. Have fun!!

The Little House on the Prairie Cookbook from the 1970s is really illuminating. The author did a great job reconstructing recipes and then converting them to modern cooking methods and measurements, but what was striking was that several recipes were introduced with something like, "This recipe will pretty much ONLY taste edible if you are starving to death on the prairie in the middle of a blizzard." My take on Charles is that he lacked stick-to-itive-ness. A man with a different character could have probably settled his family long before they got to DeSmet but he seems like faced with struggle he ran for it to the next available setting. He was satisfied to live in the most marginal of conditions (under a wagon next to a malarial swamp, sod house, etc.) but it just seems selfish to expose your very small children to that. He may have been a hard worker, but he seems to have lacked the capacity for the settling part of settling down. He didn't want to compromise his dreams, so everybody had to come with him. I've read a handful of other prairie memoirs (some novelized) and rarely do they depict such itinerant migrants. Sure they left the known and traveled out to the some unknown quarter of the frontier, but then they filed for their homestead, built the house and worked the land for next 50+ years with an eye to long-term prosperity. Honestly, the tree-stump-dotted wilds of Wisconsin seemed plenty wild. Related Q: What was Caroline Ingalls' deal? Why was she so harsh to Laura?

I've seen them at $9/doz at farmer's markets here in Southern California.

It's an economic thing. Or a perceived economic thing. People don't feel safe raising a family on only one income. Observation: Here in California, I have observed that the women most likely to be SAHMs are the wives of technology guys. I see two causes for this: (1) Tech guys have virtually guaranteed jobs and high incomes for as long as they choose to work in that field, so it's possible for the family to survive long-term on one salary. (2) Tech is so all-consuming that the family decision re work-life balance is simply that one partner will work and the other will take care of the home, rather than both of them trying to do some work and some childraising/housework.

Semi-surprise third pregnancy and after two bouncing baby boys, it's gonna be a little girl!

You need to input it into a genealogy program. It's not a quick project. Once you have it in a computer program, you can export it in GEDCOM format and upload to the LDS database or Rootsweb/Ancestry. If you use Macintosh computers, I recommend the Reunion program from LeisterPro. It's very well-designed and can support you through the process. Good luck!

I live in SoCal so we just drive down to Disneyland sometimes, which I now realize is a tiny adorable provincial fairground compared to Walt Disney World. Wow!!!

Yes, he is very much still around. He still has the radio show and his own books, but he is now working to develop a stable of "Ramsey personalities" and a live event circuit that doesn't depend exclusively on his personal cult of personality. I listen to his daily podcast while doing chores and I find it a great antidote to self-pity and self-indulgence generally.

If I was going there with a 12yo and 18yo, I would 100 percent do Phantom Ranch, the campground at the bottom of the canyon that "can only be reached by mule, on foot or by rafting the Colorado River." http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/lodging/phantom-ranch/ We visited Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff and enjoyed it very much. Take sunscreen and hats as it is at very high elevation. And bug spray.

http://www.duggarfamily.com/2016/1/a-statement-from-anna-duggar Anna statement from January: “Many have asked how I am doing. So many have asked that its actually humbling and touching. 2015 was the most difficult year of my life. Yet, amazingly I’ve found that in my own life crisis God has drawn near to me ("He’s near to the brokenhearted†Psalms 34:18) and my faith has been more precious to me than ever before. Just recently I visited Josh. It was an important step on a long difficult road. I want to thank all of you for your prayers and your messages of hope. I can never express how your kindness and prayers have brought encouragement when I needed it most—outpacing the grief and discouragement at every turn. I trust that God will continue to show His love and tenderness toward us and bring beauty from ashes—somehow—as only He can do. Please continue to pray for me, Josh and our children.â€

* Batteries Not Included * Ghostbusters

I used to work at E! (Don't judge.) so I felt obligated to compile this research. EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF KRIS JENNER'S KIDS * Kim K. went to Buckley School, which is one of the fancier private schools in L.A., and then to Marymount, a fancy girls Catholic school in West L.A., but no college that I can find * Kourtney K. went to Marymount, graduated from U of Arizona. * Khloe K. went to Marymount, but no college that I can find. * Rob K. went to Buckley School and graduated with a business degree from USC. * Kendall J. attended Sierra Canyon School in the Valley and then homeschooled, no college yet/so far. * Kylie J. attended Sierra Canyon School in the Valley and then homeschooled via Laurel Springs, no college yet/so far.

I would argue for giving your kids as broad an education as you dare. We went to United Methodist Church preschool until I was in about mid-elementary school. Everything I know about Christianity came from the leaflets they handed out there, and a copy of the Macmillan Bible Stories for Children book that we had in the house. I did get a Bible from the church and I kept it for years, but I was never able to get much past Genesis. After we stopped going to church, my religious education screeched to a halt until I took a public school Comparative Religions class in 11th grade. As such, because my religious education was so abbreviated, I was bewildered by many of the crucial religious references in later reading. "Who the heck are Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? What exactly happened with Job and his trials and what is the message of that story? The Sermon on the Mount is what now?" I was genuinely and totally clueless about a lot of the finer points of Judeo-Christian belief systems, and it had an impact on my ability to do literary analysis and think critically about certain books. It's just a vast cultural gap that left me having to do a lot of catch-up research in order to understand modern literature and even politics. I realize this is the opposite of what you concerns you, OP, but just be aware the choice to exclude things will have future consequences, some intended, some perhaps not.

Bumping this thread to report that I cracked and we started SOTW4. So far zero problems. I would argue that the only issue is that it's Real History which can be...stiff. But kiddo keeps asking for it and today he interrupted to say, "I was rooting for Ethiopia to win! I wanted them to win and then did!" I hadn't even been paying attention so I hope I am quoting that right and I just did the Mom grunt of agreement. Thanks for all your feedback, guys. This forum is so valuable.

The Fluent Reader by Rasinski recommends reading poetry aloud, particularly by the method (a) you read it to them, (b) you read it aloud SIMULTANEOUSLY, © she reads it aloud alone.