Reporting back on the Lush Shampoo bar. I ordered two, a jasmine smelling one for myself and a lavender for my daughter (who has not yet tried hers out). The bars are smaller than I expected and kind of granular. They have an intense smell and I was worried about smelling like a bordello, but my hair retained only the faintest scent of jasmine after the wash. Despite the small size of the shampoo bar, it took only covering both my hands with the shampoo to wash my long (bra strap length) hair and the shampoo lathered up well. My hair was perfectly clean and shiny (I think the bar I chose was a conditioning one). The one I chose for my tween was for oily hair. I ordered the tins to store them in, but mine was really hard to open in the shower. I don't think they are necessary, but would be important for travel. I will be storing mine on a soap dish with raised bits that will let it air dry. I would not store it in the shower unprotected from water. The prices for the shampoo bar on Amazon are much higher than on the Lush website. It was still very expensive, but my daughter has been choosing a fancy liquid shampoo in a small bottle that does not last long at all so we have been using two a month at $6.99 a bottle. If the lush bar lasts a month, the cost will be equal. The bars did come in small plasticâ€seeming envelopes, but the box says they are 100% biodegradable, I am assuming they are plant based. So this change would eliminate two small plastic shampoo bottles a month/24 per year.

Videos: David Attenborough's Life In the Undergrowth https://www.amazon.com/Life-Undergrowth-David-Attenborough/dp/B000EBD9W6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1489281129&sr=8-3&keywords=in+the+undergrowth Microcosmos (they are rereleasing this in April) https://www.amazon.com/Microcosmos-Kristin-Scott-Thomas/dp/B06X1BY1XM/ref=tmm_dvd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1489281379&sr=8-1 Ants: Nature's Secret Power https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZmt8ocThqs National Geographic: Wild City of Ants Books: Incredible Bugs: The Ultimate Guide to the World of Insects by Rick Imes https://www.amazon.com/Incredible-Ultimate-Guide-World-Insects/dp/0760700710/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1489281790&sr=8-6&keywords=Incredible+bugs The Practical Entomologist by Rick Imes https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Entomologist-Rick-Imes/dp/0671746952/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489281868&sr=1-1 ** Adventures with Insects by Richard Headstrom (highly recommended for hands on outdoor entomology) https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Insects-Richard-Headstrom/dp/0486219550/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489281975&sr=1-1&keywords=Adventures+with+insects+richard+headstrom ** Stokes Nature Guides: A Field Guide to Observing Insect Lives by Donald W. Stokes (another good one for outdoor study) https://www.amazon.com/Observing-Insect-Stokes-Nature-Guides/dp/0316817244/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489282244&sr=1-2&keywords=a+guide+to+observing+insect+lives Grassroot Jungles by Edwin Way Teale https://www.amazon.com/Grassroot-Jungles-Insects-Illustrated-Photographs/dp/B0007DOPE2/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489282104&sr=1-5&keywords=Grassroot+jungles Life Nature Library: The Insects by Peter Farb https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Library-Insects-editors-Time-Life/dp/B000GQOAFE/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489282353&sr=1-2&keywords=The+Insects+Peter+Farb

Autobiographies: Tracks: A Woman's Solo Trek across 1,700 Miles of Australian Outback by Robyn Davidson Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks

Yes, when my dd was two years old, she walked across the floor, dipped down to pick up a conical lego, and immediately stuffed it up her nose. I tried my best, but could not get it out. ER visit was three hours long for twenty seconds of work. Luckily I had insurance, because the bill for that procedure was $1,200.00.

I just googled cheesecloth produce bags, an idea from a previous poster, and found a nice tutorial by a homeschooling mom. http://thegirlbythesea.com/tutorials/cheesecloth-produce-bag-tutorial/ Thanks for starting this thread OP. I ordered some Lush shampoo bars to try and will make these cheesecloth produce bags so you have already inspired change in the world. Keep it up!

I have been doing relocation research for my sister who is unable to drive. The Central Oakland neighborhood has a 91 walkscore and a 68 transit score. The Carnegie Library and Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Carnegie Museum of Art and the Women's Hospital are in this neighborhood. As is The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. There is a small park on the river. There is also a gorgeous botanical garden in Central Oakland. Botanic Gardens are usually very safe places to walk as you have to pay or have a membership to get in. Outside the botanic gardens is a large park. There is a zoo and an aquarium accessible by public transit near Central Oakland and the bird aviary and children's museum and science center across the river. There will be many secular options in PA. There are people of all (or no) religions but it is not pushed the same way as in TX. Pittsburgh appears to be a cloudy place with only 93 sunny days and 112 partly sunny days per year. The population is 305,000. There is a big airport. They have trains and buses. Downtown Pittsburgh has a 94 walk score and a 97 transit score. Duquesne University and a riverfront park are in this neighborhood. Here is a link to the light rail map. It looks like it can take you from Downtown Pittsburgh to the other side of the river where the science center, aviary, and children's museum are located. http://www.portauthority.org/paac/apps/maps/TLines.pdf

I have raised painted ladies, luna moths, Cynthia moths, polyphemus moths, promethea moths, praying mantis, and bess beetles (bess bugs), ladybugs, hissing cockroaches, and (not an insect) giant millipedes. Some of these were at home and others at the zoo and nature center where I worked. Bess beetles will not get out. They come with their own rotting log which they stay under and find food within. They make little noises and take care of their young. http://www.carolina.com/bessbugs/bessbug-habitat/144155.pr?question=Bess+beetle

Speckled Sussex (the most personable and beautiful, and my favorite) Silver Polish (my daughter's favorite, the most susceptible to predators in our flock, probably because all the head feathers keep them from seeing "death coming from above") Partridge Cochin (big heavy ladies, boring) Buff Orpington (very good at surviving, we have all but one of the originals, they seem to like to sit on eggs too so would probably be good mothers, mean to the Speckled Sussex and so not my favorite at all) Plymouth Rock (Super survivors. All originals have survived. Also very mean to the Sussex, Polish, and Cochin. Grrr.) Got them all as chicks from Murray McMurray mail order Hatchery.

I think it is wonderful. The autobiography of a reader. My hubby graduated from Hunter College High School too, '87.

If you are trying to catch the weasel eating the cat food in your corner cabinet, do not set a slant sided squirrel trap. Set a drop side trap. The quarter inch of "play" in the slant side is just enough to experience a live demonstration of the term "he weaseled his way out of it".

It can go either way, depending on the personal circumstances of the book owner in terms of storage space, aesthetics, money, time, etc. We are not at the "too many book stage" even with eleven large bookcases and five smaller bookcases. There are two of piles that don't fit in the bookcases, one in my study and one in my daughter's room that require solutions, but we have an empty wall in the living room. I consider my decorating style to be "library" so it is no big deal to pop a bookcase in an empty space. Otherwise we would just fill it with some kind of small furniture piece that might look nice but never be used. In our particular case, even though we are not actively homeschooling (just a little afterschooling, basically one science, one history, and one literature book per child per week plus working through collections of poetry and big coffee table books of art at about the rate of three poems and three paintings a week), the books are used constantly. Most of my shelves consist of a collection of natural history titles and field guides that are in constant use for my work. My kids devour fiction and have read out both the local library and the middle school library so to get new material for them I typically buy used. That being said, I recently spent a day culling books that are no longer relevant, the books on children's sleep habits, raising chickens, etc. were boxed for donation. All but the best outgrown fiction have also been donated. We do keep our very favorites and two shelves of beautiful hardcover classics/favorites. The question I ask myself and my kids is "Is this book so wonderful that I feel I would love to read it to my grandchildren/kids one day." Surprisingly few pass that test, and we keep the ones that do. Sometimes they stay on the shelves, like the illustrated editions or the few rare books which cost a mint to acquire and probably won't go down in price in the next 20 years (The City Under the Back Steps by Evelyn Sibley Lampman, for instance). Other times they are boxed and labeled to be inherited by future generations. We have the room to store a number of these boxes so why not. The ten or so books, especially the picture books, my mother saved from my and my sister's childhood are treasures to me, and I am so glad she had the foresight to keep them. I can clearly remember looking at the pages when I was between two and four and when I read them now I can hear the words in her voice in my mind. This experience is not something I would give away in order to fulfill some abstract objective of being "minimal" or whatever. Select material objects can become imbued with experience, and opening these books is as similar a gateway to memory as catching the smell of my dad's favorite tobacco or even (silly as it is) the scent of my favorite neighbor's dryer sheets. In this way they are like time machines, and when I am old and my memory is not a good as it is today, I might need such crutches to recall wonderful moments.

I recall a Miami Mice skit, and I remember wondering why? The kids don't get it though.

I grew up in a house with one bathroom, four people. We staggered our showering times in the morning. The only two problems were when everyone had the stomach flu and when the toilet actually broke, which it did generally on a Sunday at 8 pm when no plumbers would be available. So in anticipation of this, you could get a hunter's toilet or make your own sawdust toilet and keep them in the basement or garage for emergencies or plumbing breakdowns. http://www.appropedia.org/How_to_make_and_use_a_sawdust_toilet http://www.sportsmanswarehouse.com/sportsmans/Reliance-Luggable-Loo-Portable-Toilet/productDetail/Toilets/prod9999000952/cat100889?ref=google?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shoppingfeeds&utm_term=100984&utm_campaign=GDF&gdffi=956ae87823e94c98adceb63322121bc0&gdfms=BF05CEC841BA40A497EB26847E30DB9A&gclid=Cj0KEQiA56_FBRDYpqGa2p_e1MgBEiQAVEZ6-63QYEDs236T7Wb0wbrhDRJvarsKGVWlXajBagwg9wsaAoyV8P8HAQ

How many dogs do you have currently? One What breed? Hovawart What brand of food do you feed them? Iams Grain Free and Newman's Organics How much do you think you spend on your dog every year? At least $700 How often do you leave them to travel? Or do you travel with your dog? Travels with us to relatives. Leave him with relatives if we are traveling. What do you love about having a dog? Companionship on walks, play and love for the kids, feeling of safety on walks or at home, he is beautiful to look at. Plus my dog does not jump up on people. lick people, or sniff crotches (bonus points for him!). What do you hate about having a dog? The rolling in poop. Will you always have a dog? No How many dogs have you had in your life? One as a child. One as an adult. Why do you have a dog? I was never a fan of dogs. But I was looking on Petfinder for a dog for my mother in law. I saw his photo and said "That's my dog!" Applied and were allowed to adopt him (helped that I am SAHM and dh works from home, rescuer loved that he wasn't going to be alone during the day). My MIL has not forgiven me for "stealing her dog."

Hershey's Syrup cans come with a yellow plastic lid that fit dog food cans perfectly. You'd want to wash it thoroughly, because chocolate is poisonous to dogs.

One of my friends, after he started dating again post divorce and realized he had an unflattering slouch, gave his kid permission to get on his case every time he saw him slouch. The kid loved it, and it took a few months, but it worked!

Thanks. I checked the two packages in the fridge. Not affected batches, thankfully.

We are about an hour and a half north of you. The snow has been over for a while. Roads are plowed. Only got 13 inches (17 total including Saturday's storm). Seems like the worst of it often sweeps south of us. Glad we kept power though! I like running water.

Solar panels? Take advantage of all that sunlight to pay for your a/c!

Aireloom. Unbelievably expensive but totally worth it. Ours is 25 years old and still unbelievably comfortable. No thoughts of replacing it. http://www.aireloom.com/ http://www1.macys.com/shop/b/aireloom-mattress?id=80929

The activity guides I gave away, but the four books are friends. I suspect when grandchildren come around, my children will remember and ask for them back to read with their own kids, homeschooling or not.

I heard this idea once that appealed to me, though I have not tried it. It was not from a marriage expert, but from either a frugality or a successful habits type author and I think the idea was to prevent problems in the marriage rather than fix them, but it seems like it could help repair smaller problems. The idea was to keep a notebook in which you wrote down good things you noticed about your spouse every day. It didn't have to be anything monumental. It could be stuff like "He looks great in his blue shirt" or "He brought in the groceries without being asked" or "He spoke so kindly to the elderly man next door" or "He saved a moth from drowning in the pool". The point was to refocus your lens on the everyday positives. Anyway, it is free and easy and might help you rediscover some affection for one another.

I was never going to get married or have children. I was going to get as much education as possible (got my master's, didn't have enough money for the PhD), live alone in a cabin in Upper Enchanted Township, Maine, write fantasy novels, and occasionally entertain friends and handsome lovers. I ended up moving to NYC, working in zoos and nature centers, marrying the man I dated in college, deciding that some of the kids I taught in my nature education programs were actually kind of fun and cute so I had two. The first one was such a bad fit for public school (and my realization that the public school's Kindergarden pedagogy had changed so much from when I was a kid that it was unrecognizable) I pulled him out and homeschooled him and his sister for six years. It was perfect for our family until the oldest hit the age of thirteen and started making my life miserable. We moved to Maine so he could go to a private school for free where he continued his adolescent acting out, and got a much worse education than if I had gritted my teeth and kept on with the homeschooling (should have asked for advice from the Hive before making that decision). Because I had worked for nonprofits, my being a SAHM and Homeschooling mom did not significantly affect our finances (meaning, I never made very much money) and I am so glad I stayed home. We had so much fun together when they were little. And I was able to use what downtime I had for reading and learning and writing a book. The last three things would have been significantly reduced or eliminated had I been a working mom as I am a very low energy person. In the next two years, I hope to reenter the workforce, not for money, but to go back to my conservation work at a time when many species are in dire straights and I might make a small difference.

Eliminate any debts. Research frugality (The Simple Dollar website archives, The Complete Tightwad Gazette book, etc.) and practice some of those money saving methods. Get the education you need to be qualified for a job should the unthinkable happen and you are unable to stay at home. Add to your savings through work or frugality. Travel and spend time with your husband. Enrich yourself with the beauty of the world that you will want to share with your children. Buy a huge coffee table book of art, leave it open on your coffee table, and turn the page each day to experience a new masterpiece. Take a walk outdoors every day and be observant of the beauty of nature around you. Listen to one song from a different kind of music each day on YouTube or Pandora: classical, bluegrass, aboriginal didgeridoo, Tibetan bells, medieval chants, dance songs from India, etc. Buy a book with a mix of poems by different poet and read one each day. Visit your library and take out one classic book each visit (you can even start with classic children's books and work your way up to the classics of adult literature) along with several other books that interest you. Read everything you can get your hands on and enjoy the beauty of story. Find out more about a science that interests you and order a magazine subscription on that topic and read it cover to cover when it comes. In terms of parenting, you don't know what you will get, so learn about the stuff that is applicable to most children. Read The Read Aloud Handbook. Listen to "The Read Aloud Revival" podcasts. Keep your math skills sharp or slowly teach yourself the ones you never learned. And read Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods because children (and adults) need the outdoors. The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease https://www.amazon.com/Read-Aloud-Handbook-Seventh-Jim-Trelease/dp/014312160X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485292337&sr=8-1&keywords=the+read+aloud+handbook Archives of the Read Aloud Revival podcasts. Start at Season One https://amongstlovelythings.com/podcast-series/ Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv https://www.amazon.com/Last-Child-Woods-Children-Nature-Deficit/dp/156512605X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485292505&sr=8-1&keywords=richard+louv+last+child+in+the+woods Oh! And as a previous poster said, learning phonics and spelling rule based reading curricula takes time if you didn't learn that way yourself. Glance at Uncovering the Logic of English by Denise Eide. I was a great reader, but it helped my spelling immeasurably. https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_2_15?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=uncovering+the+logic+of+english&sprefix=uncovering+the+%2Caps%2C211&crid=W0Q0PM3MXJZH

There seem to be two levels of Ranger Rick now: Ranger Rick and Ranger Rick Junior. Ranger Rick is for children 7 to 12 and RR junior is for younger kids. You could check out samples to see the reading level. The same organization, the National Wildlife Federation, still publishes National Wildlife Magazine for adults which might be a better pick for his reading level and is likely to be less frenetic in terms of layout and design. Here is the link to National Wildlife you can find Ranger Rick under "Magazines" along the bar at the top. http://www.shopnwf.org/Magazines/Join-NWF/index.cat