I have a Samsung with the vibration reduction technology(VBT) and I love it. I have no problem getting a king sized comforter in there. I have it installed on a wood floor and that thing doesn't move AT ALL. If i wash a really heavy load (like towels) you will hear knocking for 10-20 seconds and then the VBT takes over and it is quiet again. My sister and mother-in-law both have front loaders installed on wood floors and complain how much they walk (one has a Maytag and one has an LG) but mine never does.

Sometimes I've taken as little as a few days sometimes a couple of months. It depended on the personality of the baby and the time of year the baby is born and what's going on. With the most recent I took about 2 weeks off. After that the older kids were getting on my nerves so bad we HAD to go back to school to give them some structure to their day. If I don't keep their minds occupied, then they find something on their own to occupy their minds and usually those things are NOT good. I already had all my lessons planned out (I store everything in a database and then just assign dates when I ready to do something and it prints out a spreadsheet with those assignments on it). So for the first couple of months back school was light but I chose those subjects they were most able to do without much help from me. That way they were keeping busy. I didn't feel guilty for neglecting school completely and I could spend the bulk of my "free" time tending to the toddler and the new baby. Now is the perfect time to do a unit study. Find a topic, get a bunch of books from the library (mine lets me order then online so I can do that while taking care of the baby) and then assign them to your kids each day. They will learn something, they are occupied, and you don't have much to do. If you want to you can do activities, or ask them questions but around here I don't even manage to get that done - they just read.

I had someone bring me salsbury steak over noodles, and another person brought venison shepherds pie (her hubby is a huge hunter). I think hamburger stroganoff would be another easy choice. I've made chicken pot pie variations. If it's for a new mom I would skip onions and fresh garlic because those can be tough on a nursing baby. I think anything chicken would be fine (casserole, whole chicken, chicken parts etc) because it's a pretty universal food without being too high in fat (if someone is watching their diet). Pot roast is another one i think would be good.

I have to agree with you, i didn't hink there was anything special about the place. I used to buy alot of processed food and while Aldi's prices were slightly better than the shelf prices of things they were never better than a sale price. So it was much easier to wait for the regular stores to have a sale, I'd get a name brand I knew as well as actually a bag to take it home in for less money and hassle than Aldi's. Now I have started making almost everything from scratch and I still don't find Aldi's a better deal. There basic supplies are better priced than the grocery store if you buy standard sized things, but I have found it's more more economical to buy in bulk. So I buy most of my staples through the food co-op (COuntry Life) or at Sam's. I know there is a big variance in how "good" the Aldi's are. My ALdi's has not much produce and it's moderately priced. My parents live 45 minutes away and their Aldi's has produce specials every week. They have at least 3 or 4 items that are 39 cents, like a 14 oune container of fresh broccoli crowns, a pound of baby carrots, a 3 pack of tomatoes (and they are really nice), 8 ounce container of mushroom etc. If I lived closer I WOULD shop at their Aldi's but when I have 5 different chain stores within 5 minutes of my house it doesn't make sense to drive 45 mintues for groceries.

My grandmother wrote a check to a charity for $15 in the number boxes and the words forty dollars written on the line. The charity cashed it and got the forty dollars. My understanding was in case of discrepancy, the bank goes with the amount written out on the line but I could be wrong there.

Congratulations. It's not very common around here but I think it's because all the doctors tell you such horrible stories of every thing that WILL (not might) go wrong that no one in their right mind will even try it. That said I've had three wonderful easy drug free natural births after two c-sections. They just keep getting easier for me and yet every single time the doctors have told me they think I NEED a c-section and I show up at the hospital and the doctors and nurses all questions me repeatedly, are you sure you are not here for a c-section? Glad it went well for you. Dealing with doctors on this topic is a rant of mine. Sorry.

This was our family gift this year as well although we jumped right in and bought the basic game and the 5-6 player expansion and Cities and Knights (and the 5-6 player expansion) and Seafarers (and the 5-6 player expansion) and we had never even seen the box when I did that. I didn't buy the Barbarians set yet (I only had 3 kids remotely old enough to play so each got a base set and an expansion to open. We haven't tried out Seafarers yet because we are still working on getting the rules down for Cities and knights but so far I too have won every game. My husband and oldest son are very competitive and they still haven't beat me (and I really haven't been trying that hard as I'm usually distracted by the baby and the toddler).

Well mine were always a bit older (around 5 months) but we always skip the bottle and go straight to sippy cups. What worked best for us was using a sippy cup without a no spill feature (like tupperware cups with a lid with a spout) and then put pumped milk in the cup. Then I would have someone else feed them. Basically they had to pour small amount of milk into baby's mouth. baby is looking for mom and the cup (or bottle for that matter) doesn't feel or taste like mom so naturally they won't suck on it. By using a cup and pouring the milk in, my kids learned they could get what they wanted even if it wasn't the manner they liked. They learned pretty quickly to suck on the cup but it is very messy. I hope she gets something figured out.

I only read through the first page and so many responses about side by sides being too small to hold large things. This must really depend on the size of your fridge because I can hold a pizza box on every shelf of my fridge if I wanted. I can easy hold a 20+ pound turkey on the bottom shelf, and I have also stored by half of sheet pan in their as well. Granted my side by side is one of the larger models (I think it's 25 or 26 cubic feet) but it's still a standard model (not commercial sized or anything). My parents have the bottom freezer and I HATE it. You basically have to sit on the floor to find anything. They have it stuffed pretty full so if you pull out the drawers, things fall out. I find it a real pain. But since they don't go in this freezer much (they also have 2 upright freezers and a chest freezer) they don't worry about accessing it. I on the other hand go in the freezer a few times a day. I also find that a fridge with with freezer on top or bottom has much more space in the back for things to get lost.

I have long (waist length) hair and it's thick. It's all straight except for the bottom 5-6 inches that are still curly from last perm 5 years ago. I'm using the baking soda and vinegar and have been pretty happy with it. My problem was that my hair was so dry (especially the permed ends) that I still needed a bit more. I've been using coconut oil as a leave in conditioner. This is the nicest my hair has been in at least 10-15 years. I'm not sure what to use to combat extra oil, although i read it can take up to 2 months for your hair to stabalize and stop producing the extra oil. I'm just not sure what to use in the meantime.

It's definitely NOT just a boy thing around here. Both my daughter and I love the game. I have never played just the basic game. The friends who introduced it to us had most of the expansions at the time. So we used all of the tiles but only some of the rules. They picked out the ones they thought would be easiest to start with and we were hooked. We went out and bought it with most of the expansions. We don't use all of the rules because "I" can't keep track of all the different rules/points/scenarios (and since I'm the scorekeeper i get to decide the rules). With all the expansions I find it to be incredibly complex. The rules/pieces we use are (although I don't remember which expansions they go with). Both rivers, inns, cloisters, farmers, builders, pigs and the big follower (worth two little followers). For us the fun is finding a strategy to bounce an opponent off a city or farm (by joining 1 big guy or two or more little guys thus having more "weight" in owning something than the other person. We just got catapults and my kids LOVE flinging pieces around although so far it hasn't really impacted the play of the game (although I did get bounced from two different farms in one game - URG). Towers is another expansion that allows removing opponents pieces. we haven't tried this because frankly "I" don't like having my pieces removed and prefer to play with rules where my pieces stay where I put them. So this is lots of strategy involved once you start adding in all the expansions. I never played just the base game but I can guess where it would seem pretty slow. Settlers of catan is our family gift this Christmas and we are actually hoping it is as much fun as carcassone because we play it almost weekly.

I'm putting in an order with Country Life Natural foods soon. Which of their 3 types of buckwheat would you recommend? BUCKWHEAT, BROWN ROASTED (KASHA) BUCKWHEAT, HULLED WHITE BUCKWHEAT, UNHULLED Thanks

Well I don't keep a balance on my credit cards so the interest rate doesn't really affect me much. I ocassionally shop around so that I have a reasonable interest rate for emergency situations but thankfully in over 15 years of having a credit card I have never paid interest.

My dad raised them when we were young and sold them after they were butchered. I don't remember it being alot of work. Basically they built a wire cage and built it up on legs (made cleaning and catching them much easier). Much of the dropping went right through the screen so there wasn't alot to clean up but it needs to be small enough so their feet don't get stuck. Fresh water daily, rabbit pellets and veggies were what we fed them. My grandpa always made friends with all the produce managers in town and they would give him the expired/rotten/ damaged produce that couldn't be sold. We fed it to the rabbits/chickens/ducks/turkeys. They also made a small fence we could put on the grass. During the warm months we would take them out to the fence and play with them and they could eat fresh grass. I don't remember for sure how they wintered them over but I'm sure they did. I know they got a good price when they sold them but I have no memories of every eating them. Which is good because they were always my pets.

I'm relatively new to bread making but with my second or third attempt I hit upon this recipe and haven't tried another since. It makes a fairly decent sized sandwich slice and I'm using the larger pans (9x 5x ?). I'm sure they would have fantastic height in a smaller pan but I don't have any and haven't bothered to find them either. We like the sweeter bread so I will often use a 1/3 c honey and little extra flour but it's very good as is. I use a combo of half hard white and half hard red wheat. http://tadmitchell.com/cookbook/wheatbread.html

Honesty I think you are trying to do too much with them. They are still quite little. My 8 year old does one page of penmanship, one small Bible lesson, one page of math (Horizons) and phonics/reading work. If he focuses he can be done in an hour but it usually takes him 2-3. We won't even consider history or science for another year. Foreign language is even farther off. Yes it would be great to do more with him but he moves so slow and I have other kids to also juggle and simply that is as much as we can handle in a day. Also I do very little "teaching" once they learn how to read even a little. My number one criteria when picking out curriculum is if it is relatively easy for the student to figure out on their own. I'm available for questions and I can spend about 2 minutes explaining a new concept but with a toddler and a newborn and a K learning to read, I can't spend large blocks of times "teaching" information to children who are capable of reading the information themselves. SO even though you might really like the curriculum you are using, if you don't have the time or energy to implement it then it really isn't that good for you. Maybe try looking for something where you can be a bit more hands off.

Our favorite is Carcasonne but if we don't have that much time we usually play Sequence. We all enjoy Risk but since DH and I have VERY different stragtegies, he gets frustrated with me so we don't play it anymore. I think I'll be buying Settlers of Catan this year but there are several other games from Rio Grande that also look interesting so I may choose one of them instead. We'll see.

I really hate shopping so I make an itemized list of where I want to go and exactly what I want from each place. I usually leave the house around 4:30 (for the 5 a.m. openings) and am back home by 8. By then the crowds are so bad I can't stand it. But in those 3 hours I can usually finish all my Christmas shopping and just be done with it. I have learned how to get in and out really fast (skip carts if at all possible for one thing). I usually do 5-8 stores in that time.

I can't really help you on the roughness while nursing but I can offer some advice on the bottle. SKIP IT. None of my children have willingly taken bottles. Around 5 months we just start with a sippy cup (without the no-spill feature) so I can basically slowly pour the milk in to the mouths. They are used to the taste/feel of the real thing and the nipple on the bottle just confuses them because they don't know what to do with it. By having the sippy cup, I can actually get the milk in their mouth so they know they are getting the stuff they are looking for. After a few days they get the hand of sucking on it to. The other advantage is then you never have to wean them from a bottle. HTH

I don't have a recipe because of never made this myself but I have had it at many gatherings and really like it. Basically it's crescent roll doll bake flat on a pan and then covered with cream cheese and fresh chopped veggies on top. I'm sure you could add spices to the cream cheese but I think that's the basic recipe. Another thing I like is little smokies or meatballs in BBQ sauce. You can just stab them with a toothpick and pop them in your mouth. That's all I can think of right now.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts on the matter. I see blurbs here and there all the time about this being bad or that being bad and I just don't have the time to do in depth research like I would like to. So it's nice to have a starting point about what most people seem to think are the worst. It seems like the general consensus is that the food additives are of bigger concern than the cookware or cooking method used. I have stopped using plastics for most of our leftovers and switched to glass but I wasn't sure how much farther I should try to go with things (most of my baking pans are aluminum for instance). I know I can't avoid everything that is "bad" but just wanted to see if there was any "really" bad stuff I should be focusing my attention on. It seems likes it's the food stuff. I've been trying to make most things from scratch so that helps avoid lots of it already (well except MSG that in my staple chicken bouillon). But I still have much work to do.

I've becoming increasing aware that not everything on the shelves is good for our bodies. I've been trying to produce healthier meals for my family but it seems some of the things I use to prepare the food are just as damaging as the things added to the food. I haven't had much time to do actual research as the baby keeps me from spending more than about 5 minutes at a time to read anything meaningful (hence boards are much more useful with their short posts). So I'm hoping you can help me gather information to mull over and offer your opinions. So what do you consider to be the most unhealthful things and why (feel free to add others you consider to be a huge concern). Microwaves? Aluminum pans? Crockpot? (since both of mine are Rivals and now presumably contaminated with lead) High fructose cornsyrup? hydrogenated oils? plastics (and what uses are okay and what are really bad)? Any other big ones I'm missing? I'm just not sure where to start and it seems overwhelming to tackle all at once so I guess I'd like to start with the worst and work from there. I know organic foods is a big issue for lots of people too but I'm not quite ready $wise to tackle that (although I did just get our first grass fed beef). Thanks for all the advice insights.

Well I have one boy who sleeps in underwear and one who sleeps in long sleeved shirts and pants all year long - and they sleep in the same room. The one who uses pajamas likes the flannel lounge pants. My sister found them at Kohl's and he pairs them with regular long sleeved cotton or waffle knit t-shirts. When he was younger we had some great pajamas from Land's End. They were made from that polartech material. Guaranteed to keep you warm. I have some ankle length nightgowns of that material and some nights I don't even use the blankets because the jammies are so warm.

I've only been doing this for 6 weeks but once I found this recipe I haven't tried any others. it calls for fresh ground wheat so I didn't have to make any adaptions and it has worked for me everytime. My family really enjoys this so I haven't looked for any others. http://tadmitchell.com/cookbook/wheatbread.html

This is the one I've been using with great success. I haven't had a failure with it yet and I'm very new to this kind of bread making. http://tadmitchell.com/cookbook/wheatbread.html Even though it says to mix it in a mixer, I do it by hand.