I made some with the batter in the cone and some with the batter in a muffin paper with the cone upside done on them. The ones baked upside down look better because the cone is much fuller. However, they are a bit top heavy since there is nothing but air in the bottom of the cake. based on the recommendation of some sites I looked at, I poked a small hole in the bottom of the cone to let the heat escape. The ones baked in the cone weren't as full but definitely easier to handle. In my trial run a few weeks ago, I stored them in a pan on the counter. The ones baked in the cone got soft much faster. For the real thing, I stored them all in the refrigerator and after 2 days there really wasn't any difference in crispness between the ones baked in the muffin cup and the ones baked directly in the cone.

Around here, this is how things go. I throw a load in the washer and start it. Later, I call a kid to switch it to the dryer (this would be the 5, 8 or 11 year old). The oldest two ask what setting and start it, the 5 year old I start it. When it's done, the 11 year old sorts it. Folding duties 11 year old folds my shirts (the rest he puts on his bed for me to fold) he folds and puts away all of his clothes, all of the baby's clothes, and folds shirts and dresses for 5 year old and 2 year old. He folds my socks and dad's socks and underwear and puts them on the bed for me to put away 8 year old folds and puts away all of his clothes, all skirts, tights, socks and underwear for sisters (the girls don't wear pants). He folds towels and put them on the dryer for me to put away (he can't reach the cupboard) and folds and puts away rags/handtowels (he is teaching 5 year old how to do these) dad's clothes are spread on the bed for him to deal with when he gets home because he is very picky and no one would do it right so he gets to do it himself. So all I fold is my underclothes and skirts, bed sheets and blankets. And I put away a few other things. Since we started this, it's been MUCH easier for me to keep up with the laundry.

Well I guess I'm in the minority here but with 5 kids and we go to 3 church services a week, I would say we make it 90+% of the time. Tired or just not feeling like it, isn't a valid reason to stay home here. We've watched many people backslide out of church because they just didn't feel like going one too many times. I'm not saying that will happen to everyone but early on in our marriage we made that decision and are accountable to each other that we only stay home because we (or one of the children) is truly sick enough to stay out of the public. And every time we have gone when we really wanted to stay home, it seems God has given us a special blessing just for making the extra effort to come to His house and worship. Also because we have 3 services a week (2 on Sunday and one on Wednesday), my husband and I trade off who stays home with the sick kid(s) so we each can attend some of the services during the week. The only time I stay home exclusively is when the sick child is a nursing baby. We do live very close to church and have two vehicles. So hubby goes early and stays late to do his business, and I get there just before service and leave immediately after. The extra long commute would definitely complicate things since small children can only sit quietly for just so long.

I make two or three free shipping orders from them every year. Most of that is curriculum but some of the fun stuff we like: hidden pictures (from the highlights magazines), mazes, the huge dot-to-dot puzzles, perplexors (logic puzzles), there is always lots of books that I think would be a great suppliment to something we are studying (history or science usually). That's all I can think of right now but I haven't looked at the catalog recently.

We've done this twice now. Hubby has a knack for getting some unreasonable bosses. Sorry your hubby is going through this. It really takes a toll. My husband had a boss (who was also the owner so no head to go over when things got bad) who frequently would drop a major task (4-8 hours) in his lap between 4 and 5 in the afternoon and expect it the next morning. I can't even tell you how many times he didn't get home until 2,3,4 in the morning. But he didn't quit because if he is fired/laid off, he can collect unemployment, if he quits he can't. (at least this is the rules in our state and we learned the hard way on that one). He was job hunting but nothing was happening so he had to hold on because we needed at least unemployment to make it. Eventually he was fired and we were happy. The job was so bad that we went out to eat to celebrate his getting fired. But God was still with us. All our NEEDS were met, we were sure we would lose our house but God provided in many different ways that we never even missed a payment. So now that you've had a good cry, I hope you are feeling better(it helps me to just get it out). Job or no job, things will go on, you will survive, and God will be in control of it all.

Honestly number 4 has been the easiest of all my children. Adding the 4th was a piece of cake. As far as washing dishes, I hate hand washing dishes. Everything including my great big huge soup pot goes in the dishwasher. I don't care if I have to run 3 loads a day to get them done because only 6 things fit at a time I don't want to wash them by hand. But still I wouldn't think it would make that much difference. Someone I knew told me to NEVER have 3 kids, just stop at 2, 3 is too hard (she has 3). I didn't find 3 hard at all. I didn't find 4 hard either. I'm finding 5 to be a bit of a challenge some days but I think it's more because my last two are so close together (20 months) and both still need lots of mommy time rather than the number of kids. It will all be fine in the end.

I used quizzle to get our credit scores. less than a month later we got "official" ones when we refinanced our house. The "official" ones came in about 30 points lower than quizzle (both my husband's score and mine). Nothing had changed in that month. Our scores were still really good and didn't affect us getting refinanced at all but I thought I'd mention it in case anyone was basing any major decisions on their quizzle scores.

My third was like this and only gained 10 ounces between her 2 and 4 month checkup. Her doctor couldn't find anything wrong and let it go. Once she started solids, I added powdered formula into all her foods just for the extra calories. Just when I was weaning her (at 13 months), I read something about zinc. At was at the doctor myself then and my doctor tested me and I was low. I have been on a maintenance dose ever since. However, with both of my babies since then, I have had to double my dose because my body seems to have a huge need for it when nursing and even my maintenance dose isn't enough. I haven't had a growth issue with either of the two since I started the zinc. I really think that made the difference for me. If you can, get a blood test and see where you stand. However, I wouldn't start supplimenting without the blood test because too much zinc can interfere with your copper absorbtion.

I would go for the $79 one. But then we don't drink alcohol, my husband doesn't like chocolate covered strawberries and he would NEVER use the jacuzzi. But we do like fireplaces. Honestly, you could provide your own strawberries and wine for a lot less than $110.

I'm one of those who never really show. For tops I wear the same things from start to finish. For bottoms: Around 15-18 weeks, I start learning toward my looser regular clothes. Around 26-28 weeks, I usually wear my one size up clothes and somewhere around 36 weeks I can start wearing my "maternity" clothes without them falling off. They never really stay up correctly but they are looser around the waist hence more comfortable. Things 2 sizes up from my normal would probably fit better than maternity stuff does but I don't have any of those around, and I hate to buy new things when I can make do with what I already have.

I would look into your state's insurance program. We were on my hubby's Cobra once when I found out I was pregnant (very unplanned by me but certainly in God's plan for me). We couldn't afford the Cobra anymore and were trying to see if we could afford to keep just me. Someone suggested the state's program and not only did they pick me up immediately, they covered all my deductibles/copays back to the beginning of the pregnancy. So getting that money back was huge when he already wasn't working. Medicaid then also covered me for two months after birth (even though we had insurance back by then) as well as everything for baby for a year. I know not everyone is comfortable with government aid but for us it was the difference between getting care or not because we truly had no more resources to pay for it ourselves.

Years ago I had a bread machine with the hopes of making our bread. While I did make bread occasionally, it was only okay bread and the maker was such a pain to clean (okay it had to be hand washed and I refuse to do that, everything MUST go in the dishwasher) so it was a DIS-incentive for me to make bread. Yeast has always scared me, I really didn't know what to do with it or how to figure out when it was done. Kneading was so far beyond me. And I was a really good cook otherwise - just not bread. Last spring I got Artisian Bread in 5 minutes a day. It really was just about that easy. throw some stuff in a bucket, stir it up, pinch off a piece, form a ball, cover it with flour, set in on the counter, then bake it. Since then I have graduated to kneaded bread, wheat berries and my newest addition - the Bosch mixer. Really try the Artisian Bread. The only thing that confused me was they talk about cloaking and stretching the bread. I never really got that. I just rubbed flour on the outside of my bread so it wasn't sticky - and it worked. You will need a pizza stone for this but I have also heard of people buyin a cheap ceramic tiles from home depot. They also talk about a pizza peel. I don't have one and don't know what it is but I just set the dough on parchment paper and set that on top of the pizza stone. Once I got over my fear of yeast and started playing with it I realized it wasn't that hard. ANd my family was willing to eat my less than stellar attempts because really who doesn't like fresh bread.

In this particular situation, no I wouldn't go. Since your daughter still remembers your last trip, and clearly expresses how unhappy it made her, to me it seems to leave her again is being disrepectful of her feelings. I know we can't always do things that make our kids happy but this trip isn't necessary at this time. For me, it's just not worth it to have some fun with my friends when it would clearly make my child so unhappy.

So does the tortilla press work with whole wheat flour dough? We love fresh tortillas, but rolling them all by hand is a bit time consuming to make enough for my crew. I was reading reviews on the presses and there seems to be very mixed reactions on them. I'm just trying to decide if it would speed up my prep time, or just frustrate me more.

No you won't. Beans freeze wonderfully. About once a week, I throw some beans in the crock pot, usually around 2 pounds as that's all my crockpot will hold. Once they are cooked, keep out whatever I plan to use in the next few days and freeze the rest in 2 cup bags (approximately the amount in a can). Just label the bags and then the next time you make beans make a different kind. Pretty soon you will have a collection of as many types of beans that you want.

I'm nowhere near perimenopause but I was so tired and finding it increasingly difficult to even want to be in the same room as my kids because everything was just bothering me. I doubled my vitamin D and in 2 days I felt like a new person. I'm not getting anymore sleep than I was since baby still gets up several times a night but I don't feel tired. The kids aren't suddenly better behaved but their noise and busyness isn't bothering me anymore. Since it's almost impossible to overdose on Vitamin D, you could easily take 2,000-5,000IU a day and see if it helps. It would be a cheap way to try to get a handle on things until the money is available for a doctor's visit.

I have never heard that the dry was less absorbed before but then I have a medical condition that prevents me from absorbing fats well so for me personally I get almost nothing from the oil version which is why I switched. Most people would do fine with the oil based (but if it's D2 than I'm not sure just how useful that would be). I just wanted you to be aware that there IS a D3 version available in the high doses. So I wonder which is more useful, an oil based D2 or a dry D3? Could make some interesting research if anyone bothered to do it.

My dad did when I was growing up. He had a coop with warmer lights and an automatic water trough. Then there was the fenced area which I'm guessing was about 1/2 acre. (he actually had 3 areas as he raised alot of them) During the day, the birds were let out to roam. They were fed corn in the coop but I don't remember if that was once or twice a day. He also got expired produce from the grocery stores managers in town and fed them that plus any scraps or spoiled stuff we had at home (my parents sold produce for a living so there was always lots of extras). At night or whenever there was an approaching storm, we would chase the birds back in their coop. They got pretty good about follow the leader so getting them inside in a hurry wasn't difficult. He got them in the spring and butchered in October/November sometimes even till December. Unlike Kate Mary I found them to be MUCH tastier than the stuff from the grocery store. I would love to buy free range chickens but it's just not in the budget right now. Butchering itself wasn't that bad, I just couldn't bring myself to actually kill them. My dad and grandpa did that. They just slit the throat and threw them into field and let them flop till they were dead. They had a steel barrel of water over a big fire. The kids would run and get the birds after they were dead and then my dad would dip them in the boiling water and lay them on a saw horse to cool. Then strip the feathers. Then they hung them by their necks (which is why they didn't actually cut the whole head off) and singed the remaining feathers and hairs off the bird. Next was cleaning up the bird and washing with lots of water. Then they brought them inside (in the basement) and we would all sit around and pick pinfeathers. Then they went and wrapped them and sold them. The did upwards of 200 birds a fall (chickens, ducks, geese, turkey) so I had lots of practice with the parts the kids got to help with. The biggest drawbacks was the birds got quite big and did have a pretty good layer of fat on them. It makes the best soup that way but for roasting it works better to pull some off before cooking.

Well I know this isn't true. I have D3 sitting on my shelf in 50,000IU that I have been taking for several years. Mine is a dry formulation so I don't know if that makes a difference. Around here the only versions that the pharmacies carry is oil based in a green gel. It has been a very long time since I took that and I don't remember if it was D2 or D3. If the gel is D2 than it would make sense that they said this since the dry version is only made by one manufacturer so probably not widely known that there is a D3 at that dosage.

Definitely keep him rear facing. More and more they are finding that even at one, most kids really aren't ready to forward face (I'm sorry I don't have any research reference material to cite at the moment but I know it's out there). My two year old is still rear facing and will be until she hits the limits of her seat (33 pounds). I know it's a pain to be rear facing (I've got two in this situation) but it really is so much safer.

We spend about $60 a month for phone and internet and my cell phone is about $30 a month so for the year we are looking at $1080 for the year. We don't have a TV and don't watch movies so no expense there. I will probably be going to a prepaid cell phone when my contract is up next month since I almost never use the thing.

I had pumpkin soup, the kids had leftover mexican casserole.

Well all of them except baby have official bedtimes of 8, however the 2 and 5 year old are almost always in bed by 8 whereas the 8 and 11 year olds are frequently still thinking about getting ready for bed. The oldest are in bed by 9 though. Frequently we send the 11 year old to bed first since he needs more sleep than the 8 year old who also likes to talk and prevent his older brother from getting to sleep. The boys don't get up till between 7:30 and 8 in the morning. So the 11 year old averages about 10-11 hours of sleep a night. We have NEVER let our kids stay up late to watch a show, but then we don't have a TV so there is nothing to stay up late to watch :001_smile:

Are you sure your not sitting on my couch? Because with the exception of the fact that i have 4 other children I could have written your post. I have no helpful advice because everything including the dust in the air is more interesting than the work he is suppose to do. I sure hope he outgrows this stage soon. It is very maddening.

For my son it's reading math books, Yes it's a little easier to call that school but yet he still needs to learn other things besides math. Usually, if he is engrossed and being well behaved and still "available" (willing to do something when asked without throwing a fit because he was interrupted) then I will just let him continue reading. If he becomes difficult or ornery because a younger sibling is bothering him or mean to them because they want to sit with him, then he loses the book and is forced to return to the routine of the day. His attitude towards the rest of us is what I use to determine how far or long I will let him go with something. If your kids are generally compliant, than this probably won't help you but mine definitely has mood issues at times.