When my husband was a teenager, his dad stopped attending the denomination of his upbringing (Mennonite - so there was a strong ethnic dimension) and went to another church, while his mother kept attending the Mennonite church. They seem to have a supportive relationship and, though awkward, I think they made it work. They now attend a third denomination together. Your situation does sound frustrating! Supporting each other seems important to me, and I'm sorry you don't feel that from your DH. Since you can't change his behavior, maybe you could concentrate on supporting his decision to stay at the church by occasionally (ie, a couple times a year) attending an event there. Busybodies are good at dividing people and I'd try to avoid letting them do that to you and your DH.

I'm sorry to hear of your loss, but glad that you could be with your father at the end. :grouphug:

What about a Lay'n'Go mat to store all those manipulatives? See my love-fest review on the RR site. :) http://www.rainbowre...&category=10487 ETA: I do not receive kick-backs from this company (but sure wish I did!)

Oh, my, do we ever love Hank! Have you tried any Jim Weiss recordings? He has many types of stories that are great for all ages. www.greathall.com

So . . . we could drop the boys at Bass Pro and hit the antique stores!!! Sigh. If only they were a little older . . . :) Thank you everyone for the suggestions!

The women in our family have warts (which disappear during pregnancy!). I've had many on my hands and feet. As a child, I had one at the base of my nose. That one and several on my hands were removed by our family doctors with liquid nitrogen; the LN freezes the wart, it turns white and falls off in a week or so. It's a little uncomfortable, but it does the trick quickly and I don't think warts have come back in those exact places. Treating the underlying virus sounds like a good idea. My daughter (almost 8) had a large wart on her hand which fell off this week after starting about 6+ months ago. ETA: I've never had any scarring from the LN treatment. The "freeze mark" fades away like a minor cut.

Thanks, Cassie! I passed the link along to the other moms. It would be nice to do something like this before the temperature reaches Unbearably Hot.

Hello everyone! I plan to be in Hammond, LA next Fri/Sat. with two other moms and four 9-12yo boys. We're going for a piano festival but will have some free time. Any suggestions of things to do nearby in Hammond or Baton Rouge? We do know about the turtle and alligator farm, and the Old State Capitol area in BR. Thanks for any ideas!

I didn't use C-rods as a child, but in college a professor used them to demonstrate sentence word order. This was in a class for teachers of English as a 2nd language. I don't remember much of what she showed us, but I think each color stood for a different type of word (nouns, verbs, etc.) There is an hilarious essay about C-rods in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Will-Mrs-Major-hell-collected/dp/B0006EV6S0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369432390&sr=8-1&keywords=will+mrs.+major+go+to+hell The essay is called "Spare me the rods". We do use rods now and I like them.

What exactly would you look for when visiting a farm that you're thinking of buying raw milk from?

We liked "Sticks" for lunch -- don't know if they're still around or not. And yes, Bodo's. *sigh* Not a bagel in sight here in Cajun Country. Have a great time in Charlottesville!

For something completely different, you could visit the small Mennonite/Brethren Heritage Center in Harrisonburg. The anabaptists are pacifists and didn't participate in the Civil War, so both sides were suspicious of them. They have a short film about Mennonites and Brethren, and several old buildings including a neat one-room school (I think).

The binder idea is also great for the new people if you ever rent or sell the house. [We keep house-item manuals separate from "stuff" manuals.]

Thank you all so much! I feel much better about ordering now. And it's nice to know about the fire retardants -- I've tried not to think too much about what's in the mattresses (since we can't afford a $900 organic one!!!). Thanks again!

Hi all! Has anyone used an Ikea twin mattress for a child's bed? We're looking at ordering the Sultan Hurva, http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50219633/?query=sultan+hurva#/60219637 , so it will be sight unseen. Any good or bad experience you can share would be gratefully received!

We get DVDs by mail from Netflix, but I heard they plan to phase this out and only offer streaming sometime soon.

Well, these don't attach to a pencil, but we love the Iwako Japanese erasers that are little animals, foods, etc. For example, http://www.amazon.com/Iwako-Japanese-Erasers-Mini-Bento/dp/B0054EIKOA/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1339806918&sr=8-15&keywords=japanese+erasers The food ones may not help with a chewing problem, though!

Does the site you're looking at have seller reviews? Sometimes they can give you a feel for whether a seller overrates his books. If the seller reviews were good, I'd consider buying the book.

Definitely don't do it if you're not comfortable with it; two is young IMO. That said, we let ds have a pillow shortly after he turned 3 (if I remember right). I chose a very firm decorative/throw pillow and put a pillow case on it. His face can't sink into it at all. He often scoots away from it at night --I don't think it's too comfortable, but he's got his pillow just like the older ones. :001_smile:

Great! I hope she does.

sigh. I'm so sorry about your situation. There was a similar story in the Washington Post this week about a long-time teacher. I hope your dh can find a way to continue doing what he loves.

OP, I haven't read all the replies yet, but thought I'd mention my favorite tree book. It's a beautiful coffee-table book called "Remarkable Trees of Virginia", but you don't have to be a Virginian to enjoy it! The photographs are fantastic and there are many stories about the trees and what makes them remarkable. Perhaps your dd would like it, too?

We built a long, pinhole-camera-type of viewer today (from a cardboard carpet roll tube, foil, and a white paper for a viewing screen; from www.exploratorium.edu, I think). It is about 7 feet long and gave us a sun image an inch or two in diameter. Wish I had planned ahead more and ordered glasses for everyone! Unfortunately, it looks like rain for us tomorrow, so we may be watching online after all.

We also have the 1.5 qt. version and like it a lot! Keep bowl ready in freezer. Some reviewers complain that the ice cream is "soft" (like soft-serve) and/or they complain about having to freeze it in the freezer to firm it up. These are both true. It's not "instant" ice cream. We've really enjoyed trying different flavors. Most memorable was when the children contributed their old Halloween candy and Dh made candy ice cream!

Another thought: if you don't already do this, maybe your dd would appreciate having some control of her schedule and/or the subjects she studies, or curricula you use. Scary thought to me (as a hopefully- recovering controlling person), but my ds9 does respond well to choices about when to complete work (now or later today) and which extra subjects to study. Math, etc. are obviously non-negotible. HTH!