Are there certain types of aerobic movement that you've found most helpful?

About 12 years ago I got whiplash from diving off a high diving board. I had chronic neck/shoulder/low back tension for about 10 years before that but it got a lot worse after that. In spite of chiropractic visits at different times, years of spending about an hour a day stretching and doing self-massage techniques, and tons of bodywork from deep tissue massage to Rolfing to myofascial release therapy, my neck and shoulder are always super tight. Things are so tight that it feels like there are bones in places that are supposed to be muscle. Bodywork no longer helps at all, or helps for a few days and that's it. I'm at a loss for what else to try. I'm so tired of having to spend so much time stretching just to take the edge off the tension.

DD14 is doing the 2nd book of Fix It Grammar which is heavily covering marking different clauses (main, dependent, and adverbial is how they label them). It gets rather confusing when a single sentence can have three "main clauses" plus a few more other types of clauses. I'm kind of wondering what the point of labeling them all is. I understand the need to be able to identify whether something is an independent or dependent clause, but the way IEW goes about it makes it seem much less clear and less meaningful than just identifying dependent and independent clauses.

So that curtain that was pictured in the OP that everybody liked? I thought I had the other five panels I needed sitting in an unopened box, but when I finally opened the box today, the others are the wrong color. And these curtains are discontinued and I can't find more of the color I want anywhere:( So I'm going to have to choose different curtains. Would any of these work?

I tweaked the stone placement slightly to hopefully make the line a bit less noticeable. I'll post a pic once it's grouted. There will be a good sized rug in the entryway and I can probably size up if necessary to hide the line.

Some of the existing grout has been cleaned and some hasn't yet, so that's why there's color variation there. He'll just match the cleaner grout and hopefully DH will clean the rest of it soon.

We had a closet in our entryway opened up and are having a built in with a bench, cubbies, and coat hooks added where the closet was. The entryway floor is slate flagstone and the closet had carpet, so the former closet area needed new flooring. I found a local place that carries slate flagstone and hand-picked the pieces to get the best color match I could. Most of what they had was gray or reddish whereas ours is dark browns and reds, so I had to pick pieces that were leaned more toward red. The pieces are laid out but not cemented in yet. DH took one look at it and said it will look awful. He says there will be way too much grout showing and there's too many little pieces. To my mind it looks ok and doesn't differ significantly from the existing flagstone, which has very wide grout lines and quite a few small pieces as filler. What does the hive think...will the new flooring look ok, or not? The area that's having flagstone added is 27" deep and the built in bench is 20" deep, so really only the front half of the new floor will show.

I'm just going to get new covers for the pillows. They're nice down and feather ones (non-poky) so I want to keep them. We don't have lamps. They wouldn't make it through a day here with my wild boys. Not a big fan of rugs on carpet but I will consider one...might make me happier with the room overall. We have this Noah's Ark art. Not sure whether a canvas would look better. We have a piano against the wall behind the couch that need a picture over it also. I've been debating about buying a pretty autumn-themed print with a similar type of frame from Fb marketplace to hang over the piano.

Are the tiles a light tan? They look gray in the shadowed areas but light tan in the lighter areas so I'm not sure. If they're tan a creamy countertop should look good. But definitely get some samples and lay them on your floor and make sure they look good together before you buy the countertops. A darker blue would look nice for the cabinets but paint a sample board with the color you want in the paint you want to use and see how it looks if you're using a cabinet paint or a different brand of paint because it may not look the same as your wall/what you have in mind even if you have the color matched (I found this out the hard way in my own house). Apparently paint color matching is not an exact science, no matter what they may say at the paint store.

Can you post a picture? What color is the tile? I've read way too many decorating blogs lately, but based off them, I would base the color of your countertop on the tile color (not that they have to match, but you don't want it to look off as it would if, say, the tile is gray or white and the countertop is cream. Choose the color of your backsplash last, after everything else is done, because it needs to coordinate with everything else. If you end up with a creamy counter, you'd want more of a creamy white backsplash and not a white white backsplash. Does that make sense?

I can see why people hire decorators...would certainly make the decorating process a whole lot easier and faster even if it costs (a lot) more! I am just stuck on curtains for my blue-carpeted living room and a general direction to go with it. There seems to be two schools of thought among people I've asked for input on it. One school of thought is: Too much dark heavy stuff! You need light colored, flowy curtains and should paint your coffee/end tables white (this is the school of thought I was following when I bought cream color throw pillows which are super impractical with kids around). The other school of thought is: You have so much dark heavy stuff! White/light stuff will look out of place--you need curtains and throw pillows with bright color. (This is the one I was following when we bought the coffee/end table set second-hand, instead of getting the farmhouse coffee table I really wanted which had a stained top and white legs.) I have bought and returned at least 13 different print curtains (mostly online as we have a pretty limited selection locally). Either they looked cheap, or the colors were not what I thought they were or not good with the carpet, or I just didn't like them once they arrived. I'm pretty much over buying print curtains. I either want to keep these light-filtering floral curtains which the second school of thought thinks are too lightweight (2nd & 3rd pics), or just get plain off-white/natural curtains (and if I go this route, lightweight linen curtains or heavier room darkening or blackout curtains?). We have built in cellular blinds so the curtains will just be for looks and won't be closed. But I just don't know which way to go! Also wondering how badly the coffee/end table look with the couches. I didn't realize til we moved them in the room that they have a really orange stain which doesn't look good next to those burgundy couches. Ugh.

We finally figured out what happened. The store credited my MIL's cc (she was the original purchaser) even though they told my mom that it was returned to a merchandise card and gave her a merchandise card with the total on it. I guess either the cashier had no idea what they were doing, or they hit the wrong button and didn't want to admit it and so gave my mom the merchandise card knowing it had actually been returned to the credit card. Apparently Kohl's reputation for incompetence is well-earned! Anyway, my MIL said she'd send DD a check for the amount so it worked out in the end.

Can anyone recommend a good side sleeper pillow for a smaller woman? It seems like a lot of them are too tall, maybe intended for men or bigger women. I'm tired of waking up with a stiff/sore neck. I currently have a lumbar memory foam pillow which is a little awkward, and another memory foam pillow-shaped pillow, which would be great except that the sides are slightly sloped and I don't seem to sleep directly in the center which means my head ends up tilting downward which makes my neck sore. I've tried down pillows and firm pillows and not found anything quite right.

I would put more baskets on top of it. Or use the top as a plant holder for a biggish plant, or one of those long planter trays that have three smaller potted plants in them. It's so low to the ground that I think it will look odd with anything decorarive on top, so just add more functional items. The picture collage above it can be the decorative element.

She should be able to file for a temporary restraining order/order of protection. Those are typically granted initially without notifying the respondent (the husband in this case) as long as the judge feels there is cause. Then there would be another hearing where he has a chance to appeal it basically. If a RO is granted, after he is served he can be arrested/have a warrant put out for him for violations of it (ie contacting her, being within such and such a distance, whatever the provisions are)...though enforcement can sometimes be variable. The shelter should be able to advise her on this.

This thread has been really helpful for me as far as processing the loss of this friendship. It helped me realize that I was a good friend to her, and when it seemed there was a problem, I did try to open up a way to discuss it and deal with it. I didn't do anything particularly "wrong" even if I did say something that bothered her (which seems likely). I was reading something about attachment styles today (secure, anxious, avoidant) and when I read about the avoidant type, it struck me that my friend had displayed some signs of being avoidant, so in light of that it makes sense that the first time there was a problem, she choose to bail instead of trying to work through it. I ended up sending her this text today: "I'm reaching out in case there was a miscommunication last fall when I sent a text asking if I'd said something that bothered you. If you sent a response, I never got it, and I hope that you will resend it. If you didn't respond, I accept that, and there's no need to respond to this. I hope all is well with you and your family." I don't expect a response, but it was worth sending so that next time I see her I won't have any little lingering thoughts that she might have sent a response that I didn't get.

It was a merchandise return card, not a gift card, so it would have been behind he counter and not available to the general public. Which doesn't preclude an employee messing with it I suppose.

The guy at Kohls support said they had no way to track when a card was used, only that it had been used. And the pin code was visible/had been scratched off, so it seems very likely that someone with physical access to the card used it.

www.onemomsbattle.com has resources for women in custody battles with narcissist exs (and if he's abusive, he's likely a narcissist). They also have packets that they can send to the judge in the case to educate them.

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He is a terror in stores. He can climb out of the cart in about half a second, and he grabs everything. He's fascinated by buttons on the payment kiosks, and scanners, and has taken to dashing around the back of the check stand to try to grab any handheld scanners he sees. If I strap him in the front the 19 mo (also a climber) has to ride in the back which doesn't work very well. Yesterday I finally figured out that (gently) pinning him between me and the checkout counter works well to contain him, but of course that will only work once we're up at the checkout counter. I think I will have to put his kiddie leash on him any time I have to take him in a store.

I just ordered a connected backpack-harness-thing https://www.amazon.com/ProTec-BPSTRAP-Protec-Padded-Backpack/dp/B0002KX5E6/ref=pd_cp_86_3/146-3520205-2460646?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0002KX5E6&pd_rd_r=e5b4b4f1-7abd-4d6f-a78d-79802e6636b0&pd_rd_w=vZ6aK&pd_rd_wg=7sddp&pf_rd_p=e44de6bb-cc27-4696-9c22-3a1bddefabbd&pf_rd_r=ANVS5NS35M8HGSYMKFMN&psc=1&refRID=ANVS5NS35M8HGSYMKFMN Hopefully between that and a few random straps I have I can rig up something he can't escape from.

No, this is the younger clone of that child.

My 3 yo is a cross between a tornado and Houdini. He's also a runner. He can now undo the buckle on his booster seat at the dining room table which means he spends the entire meal grabbing things all over the table and randomly running off. I really need him to have a booster seat that he can't unbuckle. Any recommendations for a booster seat with a buckle that's hard for a 3 yo to undo? Or other ideas?

Things kind of went downhill and we ended up letting her go about a month after this thread was started. She wasn't doing a good job of managing the 3 yo, the toddler never really warmed up to her, and the 3 yo was getting more and more unhappy with her also. She really didn't play with him, just expected him to play by himself while she watched him. So I had no help for a month and then we hired a friend of mine to come for 3 hrs 2 mornings a week. That is working much better--the toddler is happy with her, the 3 yo is happy with her, and she has no problem telling my older kids to knock off bad behavior. We also have our homeschooled teenage babysitter coming one morning a week for a trial period. If it works out for for her she'll add another morning. The toddler hasn't entirely warmed up to her but the 3 yo (who's the main problem) loves her. On days we don't have a sitter the 3 yo watches movies for the morning as soon as he starts getting antsy. I just can't make school work with him running loose.