Cabbage rolls Stuffed peppers Burritos

I could never wear them. I have horribly flat feet and my ankles roll inward significantly. Even walking barefoot around the house is uncomfortable- I need to wear something with support if I'm going to be on my feet for more than just a few minutes. I also have to admit that while I'm certainly not a fashionista, they're still way too ugly for even me to wear, LOL.

Nintendo DS: http://www.cyc-electronic.com.ar/shop/images/nintendo-ds-lite-polar.jpg

Doesn't make the Nintendo DS an inherently bad item, it most likely just means your guests were rude. :tongue_smilie: I'm always a little perplexed when people say things such as, "Oh, my kids read books on road trips and we play games." That's great, but playing a video game in the car and reading aren't mutually exclusive, you know? When we take road trips that involve spending 2-4 days in the car at a time while covering a couple thousand miles my kids look at books, they draw, we listen to music, they nap, they gaze out the windows, they play with small toys, and yes- they also sometimes play games on either the DS or the iPod. It's just one more tool in the kit to keep them entertained for such a long time.

My 6 y/o enjoys his. He doesn't play it all that often (it sometimes goes months without being touched) but it's a nice diversion on road trips and such. FWIW, I probably wouldn't actually spend the money to buy a new one, but ours was an older hand-me-down DS. That being said, he also has an iPod touch (once again we got an older used one, not new) and for the money I think that is a better bet. The Nintendo is pricey and the games are $20-$30 each. Games for the iPod are often free or no more than $1-3 each and the games available for it tend to be more educational, IMO. He can also use it to watch movies while traveling (either downloaded or streamed via Netflix), listen to music, record himself singing songs, and more.

You lock the door from the inside when she's sleeping? Does that mean you have to pick the lock every morning to open the door? It sounds inconvenient! If I was in that situation I might consider putting a baby gate up at the door and having some fun toys/books that the child could use to entertain herself with in the morning.

There were 26 kids in ds' kindergarten class this year (he only went the first semester.) FWIW, my kids have also attended private school. The combined preschool/kindergarten class has 32 kids with three teachers, the 1st-3rd grade combined classroom has 52 students with four teachers.

Ergo. I still use mine for my 3 y/o.

Ours is a 4 according to Great Schools. Ds attended the school for one semester and I'd agree that it's sub-standard school. That is precisely why we're homeschooling.

Walk down Michigan Avenue looking into shops Art Institute and a slew of other museums are just off of Michigan Avenue Head up to the 'burbs for an IKEA trip Walk around some of the Chicago neighborhoods for a non-touristy, authentic feel of the city. Try Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, Ukranian Village, etc.

Ds6: Legos (no surprise there), various Star Wars decor (new sheets, wall art, etc.) for his bedroom, iPod. Dd3: Scooter, thrift store fancy dresses for dress-up, her iPod also.

I'd use it to make homemade play-dough. No point letting it go entirely to waste.

Thank you very much for this thread. It has been educational and interesting on many levels. This is sarcasm, right? If not, I apologize in advance for reading the tone wrong. If I'm correct though, I'm confused. As a new member I was under the impression that this board is predominately Christian. Am I under the wrong impression?

Sticking just to the US, you couldn't pay me to live in the south: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Carolina. I don't think Virginia would be my cup of tea either. I would just be absolutely miserable in any particularly conservative area.

In no real order: -Roast chicken w/acorn squash -Spaghetti w/meat sauce -Salmon patties w/ broccoli or roasted asparagus -Some sort of chicken-broth based soup after finishing off the roast chicken and making stock, not sure what kind of soup yet. -One egg-based dinner (frittata? eggs baked in marinara? something else?) but once again, haven't really thought too specifically that far ahead. -At least one leftover night

Both. Just depends on what's on sale and how pressed I am for time.

If you have someplace like TJ Maxx or Marshall's you might check there. I bought one at TJ Maxx (although it's been a while) for about $5.

We have one local private school that has some special classes in which homeschoolers are allowed to enroll. They're not "regular" classes though, rather they're a special project-based class that just meets a few times (ie: an art class that meets three times total).

Ditto on some of the previous posters: you need a canister vac. Regular vacuums typically don't work well on hard floors. We purchased a Simplicity canister vacuum just for that purpose and it worked well, but then we had to have a different vacuum for carpets. Now we have a Dyson with a hard floor attachment (basically turns it into a canister style vacuum) so we only need one vacuum.