I dabbled in Paganism after my first was born. I'd finally shed the Christianity label because it had been over a decade since I might have actually believed (don't know if I ever did). A child's imagination is sort of a magical place, and I wanted to give her something that was complementary to that, so observing the wheel of the year was a fun and reverent way to do that. Found a fun group of witches in Austin, but ultimately I'm just too lazy to be pagan. :tongue_smilie: At that point I considered myself an apathetic agnostic (of the don't know, don't care variety) with some pantheistic tendencies (love the beach, dopamine goes all wonky there), but really couldn't be arsed to keep up with anything. My oldest kept an altar when she was younger. It was a natural thing she did, nothing that was taught to her or discussed. She kept rocks and leaves and shells and scarves. Sometimes I'd like to incorporate the wheel back in, but we have birthdays and anniversaries that fall on some of those days, and we always recognize the pagan roots of our more common celebrations. Beltane is always good fun, but the kids are always around because we never remember to get a sitter ahead of time. But I think paganism has always been more fluid for me, and more about revering nature and being awed over the potential of stardust, than defining god. In my teens I remember defining god as a karmic force, and that was only because I didn't realize that I was able to own disbelieving. It sounds silly, but when you're raised with the notion that everything not of God, is of the Devil, you take a bit longer to feel out for other things, let alone admit to them. So currently: Atheist with beach induced dopamine wonkiness, and lazy Beltane celebrations. I do try, though.

Start your day out right. :D

I really don't like Brenham, and that would explain your "used to live" If that's where you lived. :-P We stopped for pie once, then wine in Round Top. I wanted to look at real estate right away, but it was just too far a commute. I generally dislike small towns because of the gossip, but I'd make an exception. Maybe.

Oh, and for all the Tim Minchin fans (and new converts), if you have Showtime: http://www.timminchin.com/2013/02/18/tim-minchin-and-the-heritage-orchestra-on-showtime-tomorrow/

I was born and raised up by Dallas, lived in Austin a good bit, Houston, and now San Antonio. A few small towns in between. Texas is interesting. While known as red, we are definitely inching towards purple and it's all because of these awesome big cities and border towns. I'm not really up on Dallas politics anymore, but Houston I am, and I'm half in love with San Antonio's mayor (and his brother). And when you've lived so long in the city and go back to visit the small town you're from, it's like a foreign country almost. I can't completely complain since I acquired a husband in such a small place (gosh, they are grateful to find women they aren't related to!), but I could never live in a small town again. Except maybe Round Top. They have a Shakespeare festival every year and a cool library (incidentally set in one of those cute small town steepled churches).

Song of Solomon is the best part of the Bible! Good times. I think classicalhomeeducation.com is good. Not as large as RR by a long shot, but a nice option to have. I do make one large RR order a year. I appreciate them because while I know their product descriptions and reviews are to aid Christians, they are helpful to me as well. Mostly it's Amazon. On occasion HSBC and Book Depository. I do a big Royal Fireworks Press once a year, too. Maybe a few other odds and ends places, too.

Urgh. I was okay with moist and smegma, then you had to go and say squidgy. :ack2:

I'm indifferent. I saw the first season and didn't care to watch more, but if I was absolutely out of things to watch, I might be convinced.

His Judas was autotuned for the DVD. http://goo.gl/pPDUs

The more I'm reading about it, the more irritated I am. I really wanted this DVD. I'll just have to watch King Herod on Netflix and Tim Minchin's Judas on youtube. ETA: Tim is pissed.

I think it was Matilda. I'd rather go see JCS, though. I heard the DVD was auto-tuned. Not cool. I think it would take years to save up for NYC. As it is, we're fortunate to get to the beach before the summer.

Moira, We joked about a road trip, I think to New York, a while ago. I think it was Minchin related. Maybe Matilda?

If you ever get the chance to see him live, do it. It was a year and a half since he toured over here, but we still talk about it. If they'd bring Jesus Christ Superstar over here, I'd consider planning a family vacation around that. I just adore him. His Heritage Orchestra DVD is worth a buy. ETA: Dylan Moran is brilliant! Why haven't I checked this thread before?

We watched the Trailer Park Boys the other day. We laughed so hard. We love It's Always Sunny. One of DH's text tones is Charlie screaming.

I find it a bit more than tolerable. I like it when they're in Spanish class and I love watching the music video parts. I discovered Ween from them. :tongue_smilie: I love their Radiohead Creep clip. DH on the other hand. *sigh* He's had a 20 year crush on Mike Judge. Luckily for me, most of the stuff he's put out since then has been brilliant.

Reading, then rereading it, it's kinda the way we do things with ours.

Open a can of tuna down there? Whenever our male cat hides we just shake his bag of dry food. Be careful, though.

We are a family of proud finger-lickers.

One of the most interesting things I've learned as a parent is that my husband and I can have two children so far apart in personality and academic levels. My first: Easy child. Never a tantrum, reading by three, doing Latin in K, always ahead in math. Slept with us/in our room until the baby was born which people never understood, but geez, she's 14 now and has never talked back. What on earth did we do so right? Now my 5yo. Well. If she were my first, I'd just now be able to shower without my husband home. She's lovable and loud and school pretty much is math and hours playing with arts and craft stuff. She refuses to learn to read. She was a late talker too, so I'm nearly convinced she'll just one day wake up knowing how to read. I've had to learn to parent in a totally different way because my 14yo was the one who taught us to be parents. She doesn't really have tantrums anymore, but she does have episodes of rigidity, maybe. Not contrariness, but like she's been overloaded with whatever (she does get overwhelmed by her spaces being cluttered, so teaching her, and I can't express how much of a sanity saver this is, her own organizational skills, has been great at helping keep her calm). We bought her a half dozen 12"x12" bins and she uses those to "organize". I've allowed her to be in charge of where her things go and it's helped bring some peace to her. But at this very minute, under her craft table is shredded paper from an entire spiral notebook (there were some cut strips, but I think the scissors were getting tedious, she has tiny fingers and could pass as a 3yo). Upon asking what she was doing earlier (I never asked why she was making such a mess because I knew that wasn't her purpose, but my goodness it is such a mess), she said that she was making a nest for the cats. And the reason it's not picked up? Because two of our cats are lying in their paper nest and they haven't budged. The cat whisperer, she is. I'm learning that there's a reason for every little thing she does and my job is to watch her and love her and let her teach me what I can do to help her grow up relatively normal (or like my 14yo says, "Provide just enough emotional baggage that I'm creative, but not a prostitute"). Sometimes I do have to put myself in time-out, though. And yeah, sometimes we have days where we both have to go in time-out and the 14yo gets the living room to herself. And by time-out I mean, separating yourself from the situation because I/she am not/isn't able to continue the conversation rationally. And we need to go cool off. The thing is, we parents aren't perfect, and trying to correct behavior in our little people without acknowledging our own limitations and faults can lead to more frustrations. And there are always going to be things to overcome, but some days will be good, great even, and some habits will end, but new even more annoying ones will replace them.

My cousin is a nurse at a small hospital. She had a very large, benign tumor that was giving her debilitating headaches. Because of the location, and the amount she needed shaved, she just buzzed the rest off. A handful of the staff did as well. She really appreciated the gesture. One doctor actually shaved his head. They still all laugh about the first thing she saw when she woke was the blinding shine of his head.

I would shave my head if I thought they would appreciate it. As it is, the last haircut I got was shorter than the picture. DH voted #1.

Our boy looked the same way. I still remember the horrified shriek of my then 11yo.

That's weird. Are both browsers updated? Is this a new problem? I used to use both Opera and Chrome (and the short lived Flock; Oh, how I loved it), but only because Chrome was like the new boyfriend, but I was still in love with Opera. I eventually chose Chrome. Sometimes a website will say that it's incompatible with certain browsers, but they're still able to be navigated.

I voted other. With my first pregnancy, I was 21, newly married, and newly self-sufficient. We ate out all the time. I didn't really cook. The midwife helped me with a plan, but I found it difficult because I didn't cook, and I worked full time. So, I started choosing healthier things when we went out. I only gained 20 lbs. During. I craved anything drenched in Balsamic Vinegar and cherry limeades from Sonic. With my second, I lost 10 lbs. the first 3 months. The only things I could stomach were Jelly Bellys and french fries. After that, I ate very healthy. Except at my baby shower. And Promise Land chocolate milk.

No contract Androids can be expensive. My sister bought an Optimus Slider through Virgin Mobile and she's pretty pleased with it. She got it for around $40. She said it was the cheapest Android she could find with decent reviews.