Poker and other card games. There's a lot of "if X, then Y" or "if X, can't be Y" sort of thinking. My 7 and 10 yo love playing poker and are both very good at it, though they (not surprisingly) have very different strategies.

Usually, I set the laundry up (put it in the wash and add detergent) at night, and I leave a note for DH to start it in the morning. So when I come down in the morning, the first load is washed and ready to be hung/dried. (If I wash it at night, it sits there and smells icky.) I LOVE this system so much; it makes things SO much easier on me, and it's easy enough for DH to start the load. Then, my 3yo collects the laundry from around the house (3 bedrooms, upstairs bathroom, and kitchen; the downstairs bathroom is next to the laundry room, so anything from that bathroom just gets tossed into the laundry room as it's used) and brings it to the laundry room every morning. It's usually about one load, two if sheets are involved. I also wash a load of diapers about twice a week. What DH starts is either the diapers or a load of laundry that the 3yo brought down the day before. If I have time, I wash the second load. I wash sheets when I only have one other load to do, and it's a good day to hang them on the line, and when I figure it's probably needed. I try not to wash on the weekend, but sometimes there is one Saturday load so that Monday's isn't three loads. Washing isn't usually my issue; it's folding it and getting it all put away. So one or two loads is pretty easy to wash, dry, fold, and put away in one day. My absolute goal is that everything is washed and put away Saturday night, so I don't have to do any work on Sunday. (And it keeps the 3yo happy, because his favorite Lightning McQueen shirt gets washed frequently, LOL.)

I bought the biggest fridge we could afford. And after grocery shopping, it's jam-packed. We live a minimum of 10 miles from a store, so we shop once a week, with DH picking up the occasional item or two on other days. And then after a week, it's fairly close to empty. There are condiments and usually small amounts of things left, but in general, it's pretty empty -- cheese, milk, eggs, produce are generally gone. (Now, my freezer, otoh, is a different story. My fridge-freezer and my chest freezer are both full. I stock up on meat when I can, and I stocked up on frozen veggies a few weeks ago in a BIG way.

More votes for calling WIC. Here, WIC gives produce vouchers in addition to the milk, bread, peanut butter, etc. Do you have a farmer's market? Here, several of them will double the amount you buy with a food stamp card. You might also go toward the end of the day and see if any of the farmers are interested in making deals with you. Sometimes they'll knock the price down a lot just so that they don't have to cart it all home. Sometimes I've also gotten seconds of things like peaches or apples; in exchange for a great deal, I'll cut out a few bad spots. Sorry you're not closer; I'd happily bring you a meal or some staples. :grouphug:

Mmmm, I think soup is going to win. The chunks I froze are just about perfect for soup. Paleo or not, I might just have to do the wild rice, yum! Thanks for the other ideas too, everyone -- I'm sure we'll have more turkey around Thanksgiving, so I can use the other ideas then!

So whole turkey breasts were on a huge sale the other day, so I bought one and roasted it. Now I have a big roasted turkey breast and need something to do with it. What paleo/primal friendly ideas do you have? It's probably at least two, maybe three, meals' worth of meat. I'll freeze it in big chunks. We already eat a lot of chicken, so I don't just want to use it in a regular chicken recipe. I'm just not having any good inspirations right now, other than turkey and (not-really-paleo-friendly) gravy.

Having been through flea infestations, I can tell you that you need to bathe the animal (though maybe if you've put the Frontline on, you need to wait a day or so, not sure; read the directions on the labels), and if you see fleas in the house, you need this: http://www.ddchem.com/ultracide.htm You need to vacuum thoroughly, and then spray with this stuff. It is nasty, but it works, and it works well. Other products didn't touch the problem. Once it's dry, you can vacuum again, and try to vacuum as much as you can for the next couple of days. The initial vaccuming and spraying will stir up the little buggers, so you may see more for a few days, and then they will start to decline. If you're still seeing them by about 14 days, spray again, and continue to vacuum. (You can't kill them when they're in the pupal stage, so the second round of spraying is to get the ones that still need to hatch.) By day 21, they should be gone. Yes, they do bite humans, concentrating on the ankles. They are miserable. Also, wash bedding frequently. If you think they may be in the house, take a shallow bowl or pan or pie plate, and fill it with water and a few drops of liquid dish soap. Put it on the floor, under an electrical outlet, and put a small nightlight in the outlet, turned on. The heat from that light will simulate the heat of a cat, and the fleas will flock to it. They'll jump in the water, and because of the soap, they'll drown. This really worked for us and helped us to see which rooms still needed our attention.

LOL, that reminds me of the carnival fish the kids got four years ago. For a quarter or two, they played a little game at a carnival, and they each one a fish. So we had to buy a tank, filter, etc., etc., and the fish died shortly thereafter. The kids were upset, so we had to buy more fish (which weren't too expensive but not a quarter each, either). Four years later, we're still feeding the fish. So much for cheap. :)

I thought of that too! (And I think it was actually Jenna Fischer's husband/boyfriend who played the LC too.) That, plus the fact that the local WIC office here has a male employee working to help support nursing moms, made me think that there really could be a place for men supporting breastfeeding, and if we really want to improve breastfeeding rates, we need as much support for women as we can get. If approximately half of the population is told, "no, you can't offer whatever support you might be able to," that's not really so great. I'm not sure the person in the article is going about it the right way, but surely, he can help someone in some way, can't he? A good many midwives are never going to have personally experienced some of the situations they're going to encounter as caregivers (maybe they've never had twins, or a breech baby, or a sunny-side up baby, or a very long labor, or whatever), but they can still apply the book knowledge and apprenticeships and studies of other births and everything and do a reasonable job. My husband's never given birth or breastfed, but he's watched me do it a bunch of times, and he's done his homework; I've seen him pass on good, quality information to other dads. Surely a man could be a good LC (albeit many women would not be comfortable with that).

I think I'd opt to hand over a few subjects to DH. As long as he's up to speed with whatever's going to be required in your state (ie he needs to have written samples of work or whatever), I'd turn some things over to him and cross them off my list. Dads often like science. Or maybe he is into literature and wants to delve into that with the kids. He can do those subjects when he's the one in charge, and you can do the other subjects when you're home. I think having him (or anyone else) fit into your mold is going to be tough. I choose curricula that work for me working with a particular child; someone else working with that child might find something else to work better.

Yeah, I would not be allowing my child on FB to post those sorts of things. Wait, I wouldn't allow my under-13yo child to be on FB anyway. My DD is 10 and still plays with dolls, but she also likes to paint her nails (a recent privilege) and wishes she was allowed to have pierced ears and makeup (no to both for a few more years). She's interested in growing up and being an adult and thinking about marriage, but she's not pining for it, y'know? I actually think her attitude is pretty healthy (especially considering that I met DH when I was 14, so 10 doesn't seem too young to start observing other women, married couples, etc. to see what qualities you want in your future spouse). She has friends who are boys, mainly because they share similar interests to her, but there's no flirting or boyfriend-girlfriend-ness about it, just "hey, let's go play." I'm not looking forward to the day that all changes, and we have to be cautious about them going around stomping in the woods together. :)

We have a small coffee maker (4 cups), and we could use it for half a cup a day if we wanted to. DH makes a full pot, and I usually make a second pot, but usually with just two cups, sometimes just one. It is pretty quick, just a couple of minutes. Much less expensive and more environmentally-friendly than the K-cups.

I think that's very generous of you, and perfectly reasonable as well. I think it's reasonable to have a few drinks on hand that you know your guests like, even if you don't drink them, but only to a point. You shouldn't feel obligated to have an entire beverage store on hand, and if you don't happen to have any K-cups, so be it. Your guests don't get to feel taunted; they are welcome to bring some K-cups for everyone to use if they want them that badly.

I'd first wonder if the child really was taking 6-8 hours to get the work done, or if there was a lot of dawdling in there. If the latter, eh, some kids do that. If the former, then yes, the child probably needs a lower level of work. My DD can get her work done in 3-4 hours if she doesn't fool around (and that's including the subjects we do together as a family; it takes longer for me to read aloud than it would for her to read to herself, but it's pleasant for all of us for me to read aloud), but if she dawdles, it can take longer.

Unless you were directly saying that McKayla/Michaela was such an awful name, I don't think you need to do anything. Surely she's going to encounter other people with that name. You mentioning her daughter's name isn't bringing up anything she doesn't already know about. She probably thinks of her daughter every day; you're not going to remind her of anything that's not already fresh in her mind.

We burn easily, so we generally just stay inside during peak sun hours. If it's unavoidable that we're out then, or if we'll be swimming in the late afternoon, for instance, we use organic sunblock with no retinyl palmitate. We also use hats and swim shirts as much as possible, but I will put sunblock on the kids' faces, necks, ears, feet, etc.

If you wanted to be polite, you could say, "Oh, they already have a full plate, so they won't have time for any extra assignments right now," but I think maybe you're long past polite with her. If you do think it's dementia-related, could you cut her some slack by having the kids call and chat with her about what they're learning with you? Maybe she just wants to feel involved and informed but doesn't know how to go about it. (That's what I'd think about most grandparents, anyway; they just want to relate but aren't sure of the right way to do it.) Maybe start a private family blog where they could post artwork, writing assignments, booklists, etc. so that she could keep up with what they're doing? Or, is there an area where she's particularly gifted that you could let her direct? That might not really work, but if it could be done well, it could give her some way to relate to her grandchildren and take something off of your plate.

I think the whole "is he/she a man/woman?" thing is just weird, and if LLL says you have to have breastfed exclusively, well, then, unfortunately, that particular parent is excluded from being a leader. So are women who were born with insufficient glandular tissue; it's unfortunate, but sometimes circumstances prevent us from doing everything we'd like to do in life. I personally would not really feel comfortable with a male lactation consultant, and I think most women would probably feel the same way. However, perhaps this person needs to start a different sort of support group. That way, traditional dads, parents like this one, mothers who were unable to BF exclusively, etc. can offer support and assistance to nursing moms and their partners, particularly those who might have significant challenges that maybe LLL can't meet. Sure, personally having BF'ed exclusively does help with knowing how to teach other moms, but a lot of it can be learned through education, anyway. Because of participating in some online BF'ing support groups, I've read a lot of women's challenges, and even though they may have nothing to do with me, it's still information that I've passed on to other moms throughout the years. So why couldn't a dad, or a woman who had her own BF'ing challenges, etc. be able to support other families? I've never actually attended a LLL meeting, despite having breastfed pretty much continually for a decade; I think it's because I always had good BF'ing support (IBCLCs, midwives, friends, mom, MIL), but I think it is a good organization that is very helpful. But they don't allow men at meetings? Yes, I can understand why, but at the same time, what about new dads? I run a local group that teaches moms how to wear their babies safely and comfortably; generally, it's moms at our meetings, but dads are welcome, and we are thrilled when dads want to take part in caring for their babies. So why can't there be a place where new dads can get BF'ing help? (My own husband benefited from the BF'ing part of our childbirth class; the instructor taught him what he could do to support me as a nursing mom, and I wish all dads could have that.) Seems like the person in the article really could start something valuable!

I'd rather wait for an appointment with a highly recommended doctor, personally, so that's what I'd do. In the meantime, I'd have a copy of your most recent test results sent to their office and ask if they want any additional bloodwork done prior to the visit. Good for you, making the call!

DD (and I) LOVED GSWL! I highly recommend it and love it like probably nothing else. Now we are using Latin's Not So Tough and like it a lot too.

LOL, yes, DD and I have talked about that some. And I know she's glad not to have the drama issues that can accompany girls. But I know she's still not-so-secretly hoping for a sister, someday. :) Maybe one of her brothers will marry a woman with no sisters, or maybe DD's husband will have only one sister, and maybe that will help.

Would your DH be able to adjust his hours so he could get home an hour earlier? It's only for a year, until your 11yo is officially in sixth grade. Or, even though you're no longer homeschooling, is there a local homeschool group that has a teen or two who could come over for the hour? Sounds like a ridiculous rule. I hope you can find a reasonable solution! How annoying that the high school doesn't get out before the younger kids!

A TSH over 2 is an indication that you may need some help there. Traditionally, doctors say that anything under 4 is okay, but a good endocrinologist usually likes to see it under a 2. It could be that your thyroid is just sluggish enough that you can't lose weight, and you need a little help. I would start looking for a good endocrinologist; if you have friends who have needed fertility help, you might ask them for recommendations. Often, women who have fertility trouble see a reproductive endocrinologist, who discovers the underlying problem of mild hypothyroidism; RE's generally like to see the TSH under 2, the closer to 0 generally the better.

http://www.openoffice.org/download/ Hope that helps! I've been very pleased with OpenOffice.

I never expected that I would fall into this category, not with having a girl first. But here I am, with my daughter and her three little brothers, and having a houseful of boys is way more fun than I ever anticipated! For those of you who have just one girl (or if you had one girl for a good many years before adding another girl), what are ways you helped to mitigate the "I don't have a sister" issues? In one sense, DD is kind of lucky -- she's guaranteed her own room, she is always the oldest/first to do things, she's Daddy's princess, my helper, Grandmom takes her shopping and there's no jealousy that *she* got to go, etc. But in another sense, I know she feels sad about not having a sister, and the reality is that she may never have one, and she just may not ever get to have that kind of relationship, and I feel a little sad for her (especially since the boys very much get to have that special Brothers relationship). Even if she gets a sister, there will still be at least 11 years between them. I have two younger brothers myself and then a sister; she's almost 9 years younger than I am. I adore her, and we are close, but we've also never really been in the same life stage (like, my brothers were each other's best men at their weddings, but my sister was too young to be my maid of honor at mine), so I understand, a bit, how it is for my DD when she looks at how her brothers relate to each other. But I do have a sister, so I can't fully understand what it's like to be the only girl. Sure, she'll probably acquire sisters-in-law, and being the only girl has its advantages, but there is still something not there, and she's sometimes sad about it.