I have a cuisinart that's about 12 years old.....still works great. I bought it at Costco and it came with a second bowl and a whole bunch of blades, which is nice. I love having two bowls to work with. My parents had a Cuisinart for nearly 30 years before it died. They last nearly forever.

Henlopen state park is lovely and, in my experience, much less crowded than the public beaches.

A couple of years ago we bought a small stop-motion camera on amazon....it worked really well and the boys have had a seriously good time with lego movies. Very intuitive to use and they were able to make movies without my help (yay for independent stuff!) I think it was a Hue stop motion kit? Something like that? I'm sure technology has improved and there are newer ways to go about it...I'll have to see about the ipad apps, that sounds promising!

:grouphug: Prayers for you and your family.

Double post

We'd be interested in coming! Just depends on the day.....Mon, Tues, or Wed work best for me. I'd love to meet you all!

I am in the midst of remodeling our guest room in preparation for moving our #2 kid in there to make room for moving the youngest out of my room. (Long sentence!) The room is freshly painted, I did a really amazing accent wall and learned how to wallpaper! (And the wallpaper is amazing, google "surestrip wallpaper"....it is super easy to put up and completely removable. The wonders of technology.) Anyway, the original "poo beige" color of that room is GONE and it looks bright and clean and fresh and I'm very pleased with my efforts. It's the first house project I've tackled since kid #4 came along and I feel like I can accomplish things again. It's very empowering. On another happy note, we just found out that our 6th grader is eligible to go to the middle school for band this next year. We have no other options for him to play his instrument around here (other than private lessons, which he already does) and I'm really excited for him to get to participate. (The homeschool liaison person with our school district originally told us no....but she was wrong.) My two year old's legs are finally long enough for a tricycle, so he gets to be a "big kid" and ride a bike. So, so exciting for him.

My oldest 2 (age 11 and 8) started trumpet lessons this past year. They take private lessons and DS11 will participate in the middle school band this year. DS#1 took piano lessons for about a year but did not continue. It was a nice foundation, though. DH and I both feel that music is very important and encouraged our kids to start lessons. DS11 took some convincing but has become very enthusiastic and is making great progress. We let the kids choose their own instruments. I play the violin, DH plays the french horn. I was really hoping for a string player but so far, no dice. I still have two I could brainwash encourage. So far, the kids have chosen the same instrument but they did choose separately. Both have plans to add another band instrument in the future.

Not gonna lie, I ate fry sauce with my dinner tonight. Sure sign that DH was cooking. I hated ketchup until I was pregnant with #2. Now I can eat it on nearly anything - though I do exercise restraint. It doesn't go on everything...mostly fries and such...but I do love it on a fried egg sandwich. Mmmm. I hate buying textbooks (DH spent $190 on a PAPERBACK textbook last semester. I nearly spit out my teeth.) No signature scent. Once, on a trip to France, my parents visited a perfume maker (factory?) and got to create their own scent. You got a bottle to take home, and they save the recipe so you can reorder it. My mom's was nice but my dad's cologne invention was incredible. Best smell ever, but not exactly something I could wear.

I work weekend nights (RN, 12 hour shifts) and am home during the week. DH has a "normal" 9-5 kind of job. By alternating our schedules, it's worked out okay. I like that we've never had daycare/childcare issues and I am available for weekday activities with the kids. The boys love having "Dad time" on the weekends, and DH has gotten better about planning things to do with them. I hate giving up weekend time at home as we rarely get to spend time all together as a family. Thankfully, I like my job. For a while we had biweekly housekeeping help, but that stopped a couple of years ago when I took a new position with a pay cut. I could honestly use the help but we manage without it. My parents live nearby and are available when I am in a pinch.

My old cell phone number used to receive an astonishing number of phone calls for someone named Gina. Gina gave my phone number to her university, to her job at a nursing home, and to her friends. I was getting 2-3 calls a day for Gina for OVER FIVE YEARS. Completely insane. The kids knew all about Gina. Apparently Gina was often late for work....so they would call me. If she missed class, her friends called me. Nothing I did or said could convince them that I didn't know Gina at all. The cell phone people were not helpful. I eventually sent the nursing home where she worked a polite cease-and-desist letter than an attorney friend typed up for me. It helped some. Thankfully, we moved and we don't hear from Gina's friends anymore. A few weeks ago we were on a big extended family vacation at a lake house in the middle of the woods. My DH and I were doing a load of laundry before bed and found a bat on the floor by the washing machine. I let everyone know as an FYI and this is the conversation my brother and I had: Me: Hey, there a bat in the laundry room. Brother: It was probably a mouse. Me: It had wings. It was a bat. But I shut the door, so don't worry about it. Brother: I won't worry, it was probably a mouse. Me: It was black, with wings that flapped, and no tail. Brother: We should let them know there are mice. Me: Goodnight. The next night, the bat was swooping around his bedroom.

I'm an RN and have worked at least part-time since having kids; I appreciate the flexibility of my work hours and the chance I've had to keep my skills and certifications current. I could provide for our family on a single income if needed, even better if I went back to school for an advanced degree.

DH replaced his van (yes, we had two) with a VW Passat. The back seat is really roomy, big enough for two carseats and an eleven year old kid to fit safely and comfortably.

I'd avoid going in the summer - too hot, too crowded. Our best trip to the Williamsburg area was in October. There were no lines, no crowds, and the weather was gorgeous. We've taken the kids a couple of times and it's a family favorite.

These are beautiful and heartbreaking. Thank you for posting.

What an uncomfortable situation - I'm sorry you have to deal with it. Like a pp mentioned, is a hotel a possibility? If it's not diverticulitis, and she does have C.diff (and I most sincerely hope she does not,) my PSA for the day is to not rely on alcohol-based hand-sanitizers to keep your hands clean, wash with soap and water. Alcohol isn't effective against C.diff spores.

Ditto. Need to go now.

I love my toaster oven for everything except making toast. It takes FOREVER to toast a piece of bread - a regular pop-up toaster is much more efficient for that. Other than that, it's a handy thing to have for heating/baking and it certainly doesn't make the kitchen too hot.

Yes, we do them. I finished mine yesterday (yay!) and had our evaluation, so we are done for the year. (Yay again!) Next year is the first year I'll have more than one portfolio to assemble and I really need to not wait until the last minute to do it. They are a lot of work. I was thinking of putting together a "rough draft" of the portfolio (minus the samples) over the summer, since I've ordered most of the curriculum for next year. Then, I should only have to tweak it and add in samples. Hmm.

So I went to Sam's Club on Monday and couldn't check out because my stupid debit card wasn't working....left the store and called the bank and my card had been frozen because of some fraudulent charges. They caught one of them and it didn't go through, but they missed the other $845 that did. :banghead: I filed the disputes and now have to wait for someone to resolve it. I realize it's not the end of the world but it's really very irritating. This is the third time that my debit card has been "compromised" but the only time that charges actually went through on my account. I'm so over it. I think I'll go to a cash-only, hide-it-in-the-mattress approach.

We bought a Brother laser printer a couple of years ago for under $100 and it's still going strong. It's wireless, it duplexes, and I can print hundreds of pages at a time without a problem. I buy off-brand toner on amazon and it works fine. Love it.

We skipped the infant bucket seat with #4 and I don't regret it at all. I only regret not skipping it with the other 3. (They all hated the darn thing anyway.) I had a good selection of baby carriers and used those when we were out and about. FWIW, I had a larger baby (over 9lb) and it was great not lugging the heavy baby seat around with the heavy baby in it.

Sounds like an abscess. DS#3 had one last month - swollen area on his gum that came out of nowhere. Diagnosed as an idiopathic abscess with no discernible cause (the tooth itself was totally fine. Who knew?) He ended up on antibiotics and had the tooth pulled a week later. He had a space maintainer put in yesterday.

If, by some miracle, we didn't need my income, I would probably continue working. Since having kids I've always worked at least part-time. If I were to leave my field (nursing) for any considerable length of time, I would have a difficult time finding my way back into the profession. I work partly to maintain my skills, partly because I enjoy it, but mostly for a paycheck. I plan on working for a long time yet! For the past 7 or 8 years, I've worked weekends, which allows me to stay home during the week (and homeschool!) I have never needed daycare (though my mom does babysit on occasion during the week. No childcare costs is a big plus. The downside is that I desperately miss having a real weekend and DH and I don't see much of one another. It's not an ideal arrangement, but it works for us right now. I hope that as the kids get older and more independent, I can adopt a more "normal" schedule.

We are in our first year of pony club, so not a lot of experience yet. My DS is one of two boys in the club - this caused some hesitation at the beginning but he went ahead and joined and it's all been fine. Thankfully, we have found a great group with good leadership and a lot of really nice, friendly, easygoing kids. A few of the younger girls are a bit dramatic, but they are the minority. His first rally isn't until this summer, but he did participate in quiz and had a super time.