Joanne, you're children are teenagers. I'm assuming they're much more educated about drugs and their effects than a 2.5 and 5 year old. The teenager with the drugs will be alright if he's not around them, but they might not necessarily be alright if they are.

It's not the OPs job to sober him up. It's her job to keep her children away from the kid with a pocket full of ecstasy!

I would let him come visit if I searched his pockets. Even after rehab. I would never let my children go visit there, even if I was with them. What if they found something under a couch cushion, under the sink, or went in his room and found something there. My mom has to take MANY medications (all legitimate ones) but when she visits they are stashed way high up where the kids couldn't reach them if they tried. And one time she spilled some, when I was in labor with Chuck. It took a ridiculous amount of time to clear every piece of furniture and sweep under everything to ensure that we had gotten it all. Not something I would risk at all. Support him over the phone or on your own.

Only when we go up into the mountains. There's a huge feeling of being home.

I didn't really do the onety or twoty thing much, but occasionally would ask if Pigby remembered the "real" name for the number instead of just the nickname. We just started Beta today and Steve said he reviews place value in almost all the videos. So it will be out there later to review as well.

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We have one that DH made. The Walmart and IKEA ones seemed too junky. DH has a habit of overkill on his construction, but for $150 in wood and tools, he built a super sturdy one that even both of us could get on.

Chuck was posterior right up until she was born. Before labor, during labor, we were trying all things to get her to turn. It was a homebirth and eventually water birth. I delayed getting in the water in the hopes that she would turn, then I could get in. Eventually, I got so tired I just needed to get in. Then at some point labor seemed to stop for awhile. I was really wanting an epidural but the thought of getting out, dried off, dressed, out to the car, to the hospital, checked in, hooked up, was just too much. I had enough and said, "I don't care if you're sunny side up, you're coming out now" and pushed her out. The midwife's assistant is the one who checked and said she had turned (felt the back of the skull not a squishy face) but I'm not sure.

http://andwiththemorn.blogspot.com/2013/02/week-in-review-21113-21513.html

If she wants to learn cursive, I say go ahead and teach her. Pigby practically forced me to teach him cursive at age 6. I just got the StartWrite software, printed out all the upper and lower case letters w/ the arrows and laminated those pages. Then I printed out tons of practice sheets for him. I printed the letters in dots w/o the arrows and had him trace. After awhile, I printed out more pages w/ the letters further spaced so he would trace a letter, then write one on his own next to it. Then we moved on to words so he could get a feel of how the letters connected w/ each other, especially the wonky ones. He practiced a ton on his own, writing letters to people and writing comic books, demanding to write WWE and spelling words in cursive instead of print.

Church went ok yesterday. I brought one notebook, one pen, one Friend for each of them. I also had a sippy cup of water in my bag so they wouldn't have to go out for drinks. After Sacrament, I brought out the pen and notebooks and they were all occupied and quiet during the first talk. I listened in peace. It started downhill from there, but nothing too terrible. Except a fight over a different issue of the Friend and a fight over a pen *sigh* and a ridiculously long, loud and ear piercing shriek from baby girl over the pen, it was ok. We're working on the habit of keeping our feet off the bench and not standing on the bench. Chuck took some convincing to go to Nursery. Kept trying to escape and cry. Eventually I got her settled w/ some toys and she was ok. Digby still hates Primary and always wants to go back to Nursery. He was in charge of the AoF for the week, so I stayed to help him with that. They ended up bringing him down to me about halfway through. Apparently he was running all over and not wanting to be there. I had my Kindle and asked if he wanted me to read to him. He said he wanted to read to me. So I helped him "read" me the first part of Beatrix Potter. Then he got down and walked around. Then he said he wanted to go back. Then he refused to go in his class. So we went back downstairs to the foyer and I told him he'd have to stay on the couch. No walking around. So he said he wanted to go back. I told him if he didn't go in, he didn't get anymore chances. So he went in and stayed in. Then we came home, ate, and DH, Chuck and I took naps. Sundays are so long, but I think it's getting better

It's a multiplayer game (although you could do it solo), but everyone gets a pile o'tiles. Each tile has a letter. You essentially start building your own crossword, drawing more tiles as necessary, exchanging unwanted ones for three others. Everytime someone runs out of tiles and has to grab another, everyone else grabs another tile too. Lots of fun. Not sure how to incorporate it w/ spelling words, that's too creative for me.

Vitamin K to help them clot quicker, maybe see an ENT about getting them cauterized. We had Pigby's cauterized. I forget how many in how many days exactly, but it was like 17 in a week. Cauterizing definitely helped.

Your responsibility is to get your daughter in a good habit of good personal hygiene. I'm assuming she's still a minor in which case, she's still your responsibility. Launch World War 3 rather than the peer humiliation. Someday she'll thank you for not letting her run around smelling of dirty clothing, old lady stale urine, dirty belly button, masked by perfume.

Oh and Caitlin'smom, I've been struggling a lot for the past four years, ever since my parents' divorce. Believing Christ has helped immensely.

I don't know that I have any advice about your mother than to just do your best to ignore her. Someday the toddlers will be a bit older and you will be able to enjoy a meeting. When DH came to church w/ us, he'd be the one to take them out in the hall when they were too loud. Now he has to work Sundays and it's all on me and I admit I don't get much out of Sacrament, besides the Sacrament. :) They are so difficult that during SS and RS, I just sit in the foyer reading so I can soak in the quiet. It's so nice having Chuck be in nursery finally. They have a peep hole in the door, so I can go check on her periodically. I like to think that all this practice now will help enable them to get something out of the meeting when they're a bit older.

I was also worried the poor soul standing there waiting on us was thinking all sorts of mean things about having to wait on us.

There was a family in my home ward that didn't allow it. I was just wondering if it mattered either way. My kids always see it as snack time. When Pigby was little, he'd sit on my lap and I'd explain it all to him: "This means this and that means that." I tried doing it for Digby today and he yelled, "Stop talking to me!"

I'm not a convert, my mom was. Today, we got to church early. I'm pretty sure that's a sign of something, an angel getting its wings, Hades freezing over, something like that. The two littles made it through Sacrament behaving fairly decently, then in the middle of the first talk, Chuck started screaming for milk. Jiminy Crispies. So I took her and Digby to the Mother's Lounge. There are about five rocking chairs in there and Digby had the time of his life spinning them around and running all over and looking at himself in the mirror. They were a nightmare the rest of the meeting, which thankfully didn't last too long. Talked to the ward clerk, who is thankfully my home teacher. Got Digby's paperwork all filled out so he's now in the records and they now know he exists. I sat outside in the foyer reading Charlotte Mason (I figure my kids education is spiritual in a way) during SS and RS. I went to pay tithing and Bishop asked to meet w/ me and gave me a calling. Woo hoo. I'll tell y'all next week. Question: Are you for or against children younger than 8 taking the Sacrament? Seems like good practice to me, but it's taking awhile w/ me helping the three of them. Just wondering.

Other, they've all had it, but it's so rare that they ever get any. We don't buy it but a couple of times a year and they just get a small amount in their cups. They also complain of it burning their mouth. When we go out to eat, they get chocolate milk. That's a special treat for them. That's supposed to not happen though, I'm supposed to be going GFDF. I won't allow soda though if we go out to eat. That's way too much.

Of course it should not stay closed permanently. I understand their pain (I'm from Littleton, CO). Even Columbine had to be reopened. Other schools have to be reopened. I understand they might want to think that life is put on hold. It's hard after a tragedy like that to think of the world continuing to spin, life moving on, but it does. That's just reality.

I don't think it's hard at all. Crochet is so easy. I knew chain and single crochet my whole life. Last year, I learned everything else from this lady http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=ELg6fAULn3yUI If you want to ever do knitting, I recommend learning knitting before you learn crochet. For knitting, I like knittinghelp.com and verypink.com for videos. IMO, knittinghelp is better for basics, verypink is better for putting it all together and learning how to actually do projects.

If you can afford it, you can get both. If you can only go w/ one, I would probably go w/ Netflix. I think it has more options. That's not backed by research or anything, just what I've noticed. Difference between Hulu and Hulu+ is Hulu is free, Hulu+ costs $7 or $8/month. Usually TV series will have a few episodes on regular Hulu. After a few weeks, they'll be moved to Hulu plus. Once an entire season comes out, Netflix gets it. So if you want to watch shows as they come out, you can watch them on regular Hulu before they move to +. But you have to make sure you stay up on them. We like Netflix to catch up on entire series that we've never seen before, Scrubs, Dr. Who, White Collar, etc. It's tricky timing it though, because we usually can't catch up on the latest season because when we've seen all the Netflix ones, some of the episodes on the latest season on Hulu are on +. You can avoid that if you get both. We like Netflix for kids shows, Dora, Backyardigans, Garfield, Dinosaur Train. I think Netflix has a good kid selection. I haven't even checked Hulu's to see what it's like. I can't remember if Hulu + has commercials. If they do, that's another thing to consider. Netflix has no ads. Hulu's ads are sometimes things I don't want my kids to see.

While it won't hurt them to go into the freezer raw, the celery and onions will get super watery from being in the freezer. I haven't found that cooking helps it at all. Just beware that the finished product might have a different texture.