I have no idea if they are trying to scam you, but at that price, I'd get quotes from multiple people. Or maybe you have some handy friends that have put in a laminate floor and you can work on it together? Or maybe you could put in a bigger piece of moulding near the floor to cover it up without needing more flooring?

The warmer it is, the faster they will grow.

Barb, you said you outgrew the cynicism of your 30s? Any idea how that happened? Are you now somewhere in between your previous cynicism and idealism?

We've had a lot of interesting conversations with a college aged friend. He's still young and idealistic. He wanted to know why we weren't more excited about watching the presidential candidate debates. I explained that we've already been through this a few times and have become cynical about the process. It's really interesting to see how much an extra ten years of life experience can remove a person's youthful idealism (not just politically, but in many areas). I feel a lot older than I did even a year ago. Not physically (my health is actually improving a bunch), but mentally. I'm starting to understand how an elderly person can end up so grouchy about everything.

My husband and I have found ourselves becoming increasingly cynical in the last year or two. "I'll believe it when I see it" could be our new motto in many areas. Is this a natural part of moving into the "real world" in your lates 20s or early 30s? Here are some possible explanations for our own lives: -Listening to Clark Howard talk about "customer no-service" and large corporations ripping customers off -Leaving a legalistic church and finding out that one of our friends never viewed us as equals, but as a project. -Finding out that if you question patriarchy and suggest anything remotely egalitarian, people will think the worst of you. -Discovering that very few friends can be counted on when you have a chronic illness. -Trying to find a church in the south that treats women with full equality is tough. -Seeing how many people rely on shallow politcal slogans and are unwilling to question their paradigm. -Learning that there really is a double standard for women. Men who are bossy and controlling are just showing "leadership" while a woman with the same opinion is considered to be a $&@$&, a nag, or domineering. Anyway, I don't go around in a bad mood or anything. It's more like I've seen behind the curtain and find what's back there to be discouraging. Any thoughts? Does this happen to everyone at some point?

The new font is better, but is still hard to read for more than a paragraph or two. Maybe you could use it for post titles and find something that is easier to read for the main text?

Good luck! I found the font a little hard to read.

Did you marry your best friend? I did, but it seems like one of my friends didn't. She and her husband have had a rough time getting along. I don't think they have compatible personalities and habits. She married at 18 and now says that "18 is too young." They'll stay together because of their religious beliefs, but I have little hope of them ever really being happy with their marriage.

What are some specific ways we can help our kids be mature enough to marry around 18-22 if they meet the right person? Some of my concerns are: 1. Daughters (and occasionally sons) who are not allowed to move out on their own may be very naive about how to choose an apartment or house, deal with faceless corporations like banks when something goes wrong, choose a decent landlord, avoid fake car repairs, etc. I know it doesn't have to be this way, but our previous church was rather patriarchal and I think the young women seemed very naive. One man allowed his 21 year old daughter to move away to a Christian college and I think the elders were unhappy about it. I know we all learn how to deal with situations like identity theft, etc through experience, but I'm concerned that kids that have never been allowed to move out until they marry may find it hard to learn to deal with life, marriage, living on your own, and a possible fast pregnency all at once 2. How can we help our kids develop their own "deal-breaker" list of what they absolutely don't want in a spouse? Again, my experience at our last church makes me think many of these kids won't have enough experience being friends with the opposite sex to figure out what traits would drive them crazy. The attitude of many of the parents seems to be that as long as a person is "godly," then not much else matters. I disagree. I know many men that I could never be happily married to. And likewise, I would drive then crazy. My husband and I, however, are a good fit, and traits that would drive other men insane don't bother him. 3. How can we help them choose a career and prepare for it? Earlier marriage can still allow people to finish college, but once kids come, I think it becomes much, much harder for the wife to make sure she has some skills to fall back on in case she ever needs to get a job. Let's face it, if employees are getting passed over after being out of work for six months, what chance do I have (as a degree holder that never had a career

I was very happy with the first level of Headsprout, which my son did at 3 1/2. However, the second level seemed to push sight reading a lot, unlike the first level, which was mostly phonetic. My son wasn't ready to blend yet and I think the second level reinforced his tendency to guess at words. If I had to do it over, I would've either stopped after level one, or waiting until he was 4 1/2 to start level 2.

We like the "Let's Read and Find Out" series. It has a lot of books about animals and abiut physics suitable for ages 4-8. My 5 year also really likes the books from "The Cat in the Hat Learning Library." These books are rhyming and are mostly about different types of animals.

We've had Dreambox for about 9 of the last 12 months. We have been very pleased with it. It is very heavy on abacus games and place value in the K and 1st grade levels. I also like how the frog jumping races introduce negative numbers.

I should also add that in my school, teams weren't picked until the problems were announced. There wasn't really any time for coaches to do team building activities. Having a "pre-season" would allow a lot of opportunities for coaching without worries about breaking the rules.

Well, I was in OM twenty years ago, so I'm sure that coaching has changed since then. If there were books or anything to help coaches "coach" without breaking the rules, then my coaches were unaware of it. Of course, there were no websites or anything back then. Also, it's possible that our coach was overly strict in her interpretation of the rules. She mostly bought supplies and drove. She did ask a few leading questions, which was sort of a gray area. She helped me figure out how to sew a dragon costume, which I couldn't do by myself at age 8-9. Now, all this is my perspective as a kid. Her role seemed very hands off. If the rules have changed, then yes, being a coach now would be a lot more work than it was then.

I looked this up a few months ago. A "rapid cycle" setting is fine for GF breads. I bought a breadmaker at Goodwill for $9 with a rapid cycle and it worked well enough.

Rock and rap are fairly obvious. DH suggests grunge and alternative rock from the early 90s. I'd also consider famous movie soundtracks. That seems to be like the modern equivalent of writing symphonies.

I'd also probably look into the rise of electronic instruments and the like. Techno, for example, wouldn't exist without modern "instruments." Pink Floyd used synths, too.

Defintiely include jazz music. Classical: Aaron Copland (might be a bit earlier than you like), John Cage Maybe include a study of famous musicals.

I went to public school and was in it for grades 3-5 and 7. Coaches weren't allowed to help or make suggestions. Your role is really to help buy supplies and set up meeting times. Unless they've changed the rules, then you are really just there to drive.

I think several posters completely missed the OP's point. She started out as a "homeschooling is the best way for everyone, all the time" type and over the years, has come to realize that sometimes it is better to outsource some, or all, subjects. She never stated that nobody is qualified for teaching high school math or science...just that she realized that her kids did better when she outsourced the subjects she was weaker in. She would still homeschool her kids, if she could, so it is not accurate to portay her as disapproving of homeschooling. In addition, she never stated that you have to send your kids to school for them to learn the life skills mentioned. I think her point was that some kids are kept home too much. If your older kids are out in the community, without you always hovering every single minute, then I don't think she meant you.

Oh, I also heard on a podcast once that for women, the pattern is usually for post-prandial glucose levels to go up long before fasting blood sugar shows up as too high. If this is true, that means that many people are damaging their bodies long before the doctor catches it.

I'm pretty sure that I've read that HBA1C isn't accurate for patients with any level of anemia. If you really want to be sure, I would buy a cheap glucose meter and the Delica One Touch lancet (it doesn't really hurt) and test your glucose 1 hour and 2 hours after several different meals. My dad was diagnosed as diabetic last year, although looking back, he thinks he's been diabetic for at least ten years. My fasting glucose and HbA1C are normal, yet my glucose levels go up too high after eating non low-carb meals. In fact, by testing occasionally, I've found that even a post-prandial (after a meal) glucose level of 130 in me makes me feel tired. My goal is to eat in such a way that it stays below 100 all the time. Most doctors would say this is too extreme, but that's what I need to do to not feel so tired all the time. I second Dr. Berstein's book. He gives good explanations of why the "officially normal" glucose levels are still harmful to people.

I take a really long time to feel "connected" with people. Talking for a half hour once a week doesn't get me anywhere. I want to talk to a few people (at most) for a couple hours at a time - I definitely am not the type to mingle at parties! My husband is the same way. Saying hi to a lot of people at an event, even if they are all friends, doesn't really count in our minds. My question is, how do we make new friends? It seems like most people are too busy to spend enough time with us for us to ever really feel like they are friends, rather than aquaintances. Does anyone else have this problem?

I think what bothers us most is the attitudes of these authors. "My way is best, even though my experience is rather limited." Our oldest is 5 and we still have no idea what we are doing so much of the time. I can't imagine considering myself expert enough to teach a parenting class in a year or two, let alone write a book. We'll probably still be muddling through each day, doing our best, and trusting God to make up for our ineptness. My posts are in no way a reflection of anyone here. I appreciate the collective wisdom of other posters. My irritation is mostly with those who write books or give seminars as a living, using their large family as a selling point. Many neglect to mention that while they have 8 or 10 kids, none of them are adults yet, so we don't really know how many may move out and rebel

Someone once gave me Reb Bradley's book called Child Training Tips. From what I remember, he seemed to be promoting much of the whole "kids must always obey right away, or else" mindset. It sounds as if he may have recanted some, or many or his former beliefs? I am personally tired of people making their living writing parenting/lifestyle books when their oldest isn't even out of high school yet. (I have no idea how old Bradley's oldest was when he wrote the book I mentioned, but I suspect it was before his oldest got the job at the pizza shop.) I've heard Josh Harris is no longer of the "courtship only" mindset (please tell me of I've heard incorrectly). The Torodes, who wrote Open Embrace, an anti-contraception book when they were about twenty, later recanted their beliefs and are now divorced. I also know of another couple that wrote a book about raising kids to be good adults when their oldest was maybe 18 and most of the rest were under 12. One of the elders at our former church taught a parenting class when his oldest was 7 or 8! Are my DH and I the only ones that are bothered by this? I have no problems with people sharing their wisdom with friends or on forums, but earning a living by promoting yourself as a parenting expert, when your kids haven't really faced the world bugs me. Reb Bradley mentioned it took him years to realize that he was too harsh with his son. I'm more inclined to listen to someone who has kids in their 30s; someone that has had enough time to develop hindsight.