I like smoothies in the summer time. Mine are more fruit slushes, or iced coffee. I'm going more vegan again, so my smoothies are fruit, greens, coconut milk, flax meal, oats, and almond milk, with vanilla, cinnamon, lemon, ginger, cocoa powder, etc as it suits the blend. A few of my favourites are blueberry muffin, pumpkin pie, and chocolate cherry. Yum. D bought whey powder instead of vegan, so I need to pick up a jar for myself. I don't think I have much for smoothies, but I do have strawberries. I'll check it out and maybe throw one together. Luna is meeting the speech therapist today. She usually has playgroup on Mondays, but I think they overlap today. I have to check. I'm sorting kids clothes. Gemmi had a growth spurt, so all of his pants are too short, Aries has too much clothes, Sagg has too few , and its 90 degrees now, so I need to pack up the cold weather stuff. Taurus dressed himself in a sweatshirt today, and Gemini did the same yesterday. All of that needs to go.

D bought a big shelving unit for the kids room to put their clothes bins on. I need to go to IKEA to get larger and more bins, and sort through their clothes. I am thinking of ordering uniforms. Like 10 of the same shorts, 10 of the same shirts, kind of thing. I will have to get rid of at least half of their clothes because they are worn and outgrown. No idea how where to order from, though. D washed all of the laundry while I had the kids out at Tucson Book Festival, so it's ready for me to sift through tomorrow. Then We'll hit IKEA Tuesday, I think. I tossed out a huge broken coffee table that was cluttering up my living room. The space looks so much better now. A friend gave us a second child's desk. It could fit in the living room, but I moved it the kids' room. It fits great, makes their room looks less stark, and freed up space in my living room. This also gives them a quiet place to work when they need to spread out. I'll pick up a small end table at IKEA, too, and that will give us a bit more usable table space, but will be completely hidden behind the sofa. Hmm, I guess I should replace our bed sheets. I noticed ( now that it's warm and I'm not sleeping in huge fleece pants) that our bed sheet is badly pilled, and the spare is stained terribly. I did something different with meal planning. I am sick to screaming tears of the messes in the kitchen, kids getting into off-limits ingredients and snacks, and general disarray and stress that goes with everyone having access to the kitchen and all of the things. So I took us back to the way it was when they were small. Porridge for breakfast (meal bars or prepared breakfast items for me), soup for lunch, Beans and rice or vegan stew of some kind for dinner. Easy, peasy, no disasters in the kitchen. I'm also trying to switch from buying groceries every week, which takes the better part of a day, to only buying once a month, plus 2 co-op pickups and the occasional quick pick up. We are only a couple of days in, but I'm happy. I bought 5 kinds of porridge, 13 pounds of dried beans, peas, and lentils, 20 pounds of rice, 11 cans of beans, 3 kinds of soup bases, 10 boxes of berries, (3 boxes of meal bars) and very little else. We already have pasta, barley, potatoes, flour, honey and yeast for baking bread, eggs, frozen and canned veg, and other assorted ingredients. I prepped mini quiches, squash-and-potato hash browns, and dehydrated a bunch a squash and some celery. We will be getting another big shelving unit for the kitchen, and I think I will get more, smaller units in the place of cabinets. I think the storage will be great. No more stuff stashed and crammed everywhere. Next up is bookcases. That's going to be HUGE for us. It is so nice sorting things out and not having such a bundle of mess all the time.

We, too use a fleece blanket. It's cozy, but light. We have lived in warm places, so only need a light cover most of the year. I add our down comforter when it's cold.

Gemmi is going to see a GI specialist today. Finally. It's about an hour away, so we'll have lunch there. It looks like either chinese or Smashburger. Luna has been up since yesterday, it feels like. I think she woke up at 1am, right after I went to sleep. I moved to the sofa, where D was sleeping, and he went back to bed with her. I don't remember anything after that until he woke me as he was leaving at 5. Anyway, we all have a little cold and it is wrecking Luna and our sleep. I have veggie sausage thawing for spaghetti for tonight's dinner. We'll be back lateish, and D is working late.I need something quick and easy. A small victory for us. Gemmi and Taurus have pretty much completed their academic goals for this year. Two months early. No more worries about schoolwork for us. A slow and easy year has worked out so well. Gemmi did first and second and Taurus did K.

Alice With Golden Hair -Allison Means Hull

I'm joining in. We are at the point in our house journey where we are ready to start replacing the "just for now" furniture with more permanent items. We are kind of up in the air over what is happening when. D bought a new computer yesterday. He moved his old one to my desk, which is nice. But I want to downgrade this desk. Either move it into D's office or sell it. I'd rather D keep it. It's a nice piece, just not well suited to my space. Before I can move it out, though, we need bookcases/cabinet/ something to store his office junk and my school/office junk in. So bookcases were next on the list. An industrial shelf and storage bins for the boys' clothes. Their room is a disaster due to a lack of clothing storage. But. Last night, the shower handle on the cold water broke. Scalding hot showers are not refreshing. So that's now the priority. And I asked that D install a bathroom sink/vanity while he's in there. So now that is at the top of the list. In the meanwhile, I donated a bag of baby toys, a bag of outgrown/ill-fitting/ unstylish clothes. I'm putting together a second bag today. I will be rearranging the spare clothing storage in my closet. I had the boys clean everything out of my van. I don't even know what was in there, but it is so nice and clean and empty now. I moved the stroller to the rear. My newest project is hanging baskets for the bunk beds. Each kid will have a little hidey spot to keep their small items- a toy, a reading light, a book, etc. Then I might make one for myself as well, as the crib is pressed up against my bed with no room to stash my glasses.

Our rule is single servings only. We had a huge stockpile when we first started allowance, because they would buy big packages and never eat them. I also encourage only one or two food purchases at a time. Only as much as can enjoy. Not much you can possibly afford.

I believe that the harm is done by daytime pacifier use. When child grips the pacifier in their teeth, and can't speak clearly our at all because of the obstruction, that's a problem. Occasional nighttime use its unlikely to cause a problem.

I wouldn't worry about it or make a big deal. I'm not even sure what the concern would be. As long as she's not keeping it in her mouth all day, I'd just look past it.

Yes. In los Angeles they were. As well as real pacifiers on a string, to help with grinding teeth when rolling on x.

For my second, all I had was diapers, pump (for NICU), one blanket, and a few t shirts, and a wrap carrier. Hospital provided everything we needed until it was time to go home.

I'm pretty sure we are going with vinyl planks. Floating floors won't work for us, and its super high traffic (kitchen/dining/school/entry with both doors). It's cheap, responsibly durable, easy to install, not ugly.

I'm with you on this one. The practical options are 1. Hang up your towel to dry. 2. Use a dry towel that is available. 3. Take no towel at all and deal with the consequences(be wet, don't swim, whatever). The case worker is way off the mark here. Even if she doesn't especially care for your aesthetic taste in towels, she made it a personal attack on your parenting. You didn't dress him in a tu tu, for crying out loud. It's a towel.

What does this mean?

Here in Arizona, food is super cheap. Definitely. I don't budget, I'm really not careful at all, and still we start pretty low. I do shop at lower cost stores and so the heck out of sales, buy in bulk when reasonable. Mostly, we just eat very simply. Especially in Louisiana, Cajun food is super simple. Beans, rice, soups and stews. Little/no meat. We were super broke. We had to make do. Lunch was broth, a handful of rice and a few chopped veggies every day. A pot of oatmeal, or pancakes made from bulk flour or masa for breakfast. Discount bread. Peanut butter.

When we were 5, my oldest was only 6. We spent about $50 a week. Now, with 7 of us, and my oldest 14, we spend around$150 a week, which feels like a huge amount to me. These include toiletries and household items, though we use very few paper products.

I was thinking something similar. I see this most with preachy Christians. It seems the more bible quotes and inspirational posts and "lean on Jesus" someone puts out there, the less faithful and serene they are. Same with the self affirmations. The more posts about drama, the more drama, the more posts about loving yourself and not caring about the judgement of others the more insecure, the more she "don't need no man", the lonelier and more desperate. It seems to me preachy people are talking to themselves most of the time. Faithful, strong, secure, peaceful people just don't need to talk about it all the time.

I used MEP Reception and Ray's Primary as a guide, along with a little this and that. Both available for free download.

Yes. I'm doing something even slightly less structured for my two little boys. Mostly we count, gem does some addition and subtraction worksheets, and we have some flash cards. Gem can add and subtract up to four digits (maybe more. I haven't asked more than that), tell time, count money, make change, do some basic fractions, and both boys are learning to multiply. I really don't know where he learned any of it. I taught him to count, he picked up the rest. Everything we've asked him to do, he's been able to do. Taurus can do basic addition and subtraction, is learning money, and the show mentioned multiplication (more by rote than real understanding, but he definitely grasps zeros and ones. Twos are a little fuzzy, I think.) They are 7 and 5 respectively.

Our libraries offer Playaway preloaded tablets, cases with toddler toys inside, science kits like snap circuits, and notebook-bound science curriculum including experiment instructions. One also has a makers space in which science, building, and craft toys can be used but not taken home. We use (or will use) all of it. As far as I know, there are no prices listed anywhere. That feels...wrong to me. I do limit what we take out to Times when I know I will be able to monitor their use and care for them properly.

Are we talking about women like Sparkling Adventures and Hands Free Mama, who are ridiculously over-the-top preachy about how to live authentically, even while their lives might be falling apart? Struggling with their own problems, but super quick to tell you how to overcome yours? Our are we just talking about flakey women who profess authenticity while they are clearly not the nature of their own domain? Count me among the posters who don't really seem to understand what we're talking about. To answer the question as best I can, no. I don't think I know these women. Pretty much everyone I know fits well into this list of traits, but I can't think of anyone I think is trying to dupe me. I don't know. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm the fake one. My life is a mess, but I'm still trying to present myself in a digital acceptable manner.

I use messenger bags meant for school kids. I don't like a huge bag, and these usually have lots of little pockets and are just the right width for cloth diapers. They are sturdy, washable, really available, cute, but not babyish, and cheap. For real diaper bags, I like flamenco. The plastic coating is so thick and nice.

I don't think gluten free vegan is horribly restrictive. Honestly, eliminating gluten is not even a big deal. Gluten is only in a handful of grains. Switching to rice or oats, or millet or corn or whatever is not a huge challenge. I think I take issue with the whole idea of food groups. There are so many sources of iron and protein that are not meat. So many sources of calcium that are not dairy , (which is not a super bioavailable source, really, anyway). Plenty of carbs that are not wheat, or even grains. Of course we can eliminate all of those "food groups" without sacrificing nutrition in any way. These groups aren't based on nutrition. They are based on sourcing. It would be far more broadly accurate to group foods by color. All yellow fruits and veg have beta carotene, green veggies have iron and vitamin c, Brown foods should be limited and white foods avoided completely. If you are cutting out all purple foods, you will probably be fine, but if you cut out all green foods, you might be in trouble.

Of the three moms that I personally am referring to, one was seriously the most insecure homeschooled I have ever interacted with. She just had no faith in herself at all. I'm not even sure how she came to be homeschooling, because she was never really on board. Her kids were doing fine, but she was always convinced that they were going down in flames. I guess she just really lacked conviction in the process. One was a deeply freespirited hippie dealing with a difficult pregnancy and husband was never home. She put her kids in Sudbury school and loved it like crazy. I mean just LOVED it. Never wanted it any other way. Tuition went up, and bam. She's homeschooling again. The last one, I think just didn't want to do it. I think maybe it was harder than she expected. The boys, then two baby girls. I think it was just too chaotic. She sent the oldest boy to Catholic school, then the next, and next, until all of the school age kids were going. I think she pulled one girl from kindy and never sent the other.

Dark, leafy greens are an excellent source of iron. We don't supplement, but we do cook in cat iron.