Oooh, I've had that biography on my to read list for awhile. Thanks you for the links. Last time I posted, I mentioned one of the books I am slowly reading through (and don't expect to finish this year since I started late) is The Art of the Story, edited by Dana Gioia and R.S. Gwynn. Of course it includes The Lottery and an excerpt from Come Along With Me where she writes about how people responded to the story. I have read it a few times since first being assigned it in high school but I hadn't read about how she wrote it yet. It was funny to read of her puzzlement over it being performed as a ballet.

I can't remember the last time I posted on one of the BaW threads so I won't bother listing everything I have read since then. I've been trying to update my Goodreads, which I also neglected over the summer. I'd like to report I spent my time away being super responsible and organizing my life and I will say that I did. It's not true, but I'll say it just to try it on. Over the summer, I actually did get the house mostly decluttered, read a lot, and finally have committed to a planner/app system that has been working well for a few weeks. (That's a long time, in my world.) I'm nowhere near super-organized, but there's definite improvement. I was all set to be really productive today but no, I'm so sick. Math, laundry, and everyone is fed. That's as much as I can ask out of today. As for books read -- earlier in the year, I read A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler, chosen simply because of the cover. I had no idea what it would be about and almost gave up on it halfway through. Now, I am reading these three, which I just randomly checked out at the library: Browsings by Michael Dirda The Violinist's Thumb by Sam Kean Chasing the Last Laugh by Richard Zacks The last book I finished was a re-read: Balzac and The Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, trans. by Ina Rilke. I was assigned that when it was first published and saw it on display at the library, so I decided to read it again since I couldn't remember the end. I've also been slowly reading, just a couple stories a week from these for a few weeks: The Art of the Short Story, Gioia/Gwynne Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories: A Hercule Poirot Collection

Maybe the Disaster series by Max Allan Collins? https://www.goodreads.com/series/40553-disaster https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22065.The_London_Blitz_Murders (Sorry if this was answered already)

Thank you for the information about JH. No, we wouldn't be able to travel. Without going into a lot of personal details, it's too far for the cost/benefit ratio to make sense, but if we were closer, JH would be on the short list. My allergist did a thorough evaluation of my food history, symptoms, skin, RAST, and component testing for peanut and based on that combined with my raging birch pollen allergy, she has concluded that my peanut allergy is not the one that is likely to trigger a severe reaction. I only tested positive to the Ara h 8 and based on that *AND* my other results/history, she was comfortable telling me that, for now, peanut is not what's going to send me over the edge. This link slightly goes off topic but it discusses the benefit/caveats of component tests: http://www.aaaai.org/ask-the-expert/component-testing-peanut-allergy We do have a family member that went through the same thorough evaluation for peanut and a couple other allergens and the unfortunate conclusion is a have a high risk of anaphylaxis. I'm the only one who has had to Epi, but it was not to peanuts. Anyway, thanks. From what I understand the OIT practices wouldn't begin a protocol without being absolutely sure that a person even needed it -- so I wouldn't even be a peanut candidate for OIT, the other allergic family member might be. But between practical and medical concerns that we have (and certainly not shared by everyone) we are optimistic about OIT for others, and are ok with staying the course with our current allergist.

Paula's Choice cleanser and BHA CeraVe moisturizer Unscented soap and mild scented shampoo, but I have no particular brand loyalty there I have other favorites but none are as important to me as the above. My very favorite lip gloss was dc'd but there are still tons of choices for the days I remember to actually wear it.

I started out very interested in OIT and still keep an ear out for new information on it. This is just what drove our decision against-- just IMO. As of now, with no reasonable way to pay for it (which will vary depending on the office and your insurance),being too far to travel (some people are ok with moving or flying), and having a good chance of not being able to complete a protocol due to other conditions, plus other boring details -- it is not right for us. Our allergist is not in favor and while I don't agree with every single argument ever made against it, I see her points, particularly with regard to long term results and our situation being particularly unfavorable. I do look longingly into it because we have had to Epi ... but my head keeps saying it just is not the right decision for us.

Ugh, I know that feeling, One of mine was sick for over a week with high temps, had an allergic reaction to a medication, and today is our first day with us all fever-free. I feel like I'm never getting back into a routine! Being so thrown off track, I was second guessing myself all day yesterday. Hope things turn around for you. I have read a lot of your posts over the years here and gotten so much from them. Hugs to all those with sick kiddos and other issues. (Hugs and good thoughts to Stacia for your dad, too!) I only started posting on these threads this year and I was nervous about joining but it's been wonderful and I appreciate it so much.

Murder at the Vicarage is an old favorite that my mom gave to me when I was a kid. I have to ask her, because we never discussed the books and I'm not even sure she ever read any of them. But she is the one who would come home from yard sales and used bookstores with all the Agatha she could find. My library doesn't have Spark Joy, but I did read the first book this year. What did you like better about Spark Joy? I don't even have any hope of ever getting truly tidied up but I did start folding my laundry and that made a huge difference since I, um, didn't before. I love A Single Shard, too. My oldest read it recently and at first I didn't think it was going over well but in the end, it was well-love.

How did I forget The Witch Family? My oldest adores that book. A couple others they reminded me about -- books by Kaye Umansky, the Arabel books by Joan Aiken, The Five Sisters by Margaret Mahy, and Witch Wars by Sibéal Pounder.

I don't think these meet all the things you asked for, but my kids loved Catwings & My Father's Dragon. I know a lot of them have probably too much text on each page but some are illustrated. Some were more loved than others: A Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz Necklace of Raindrops by Joan Aiken A Beginning, A Muddle, and an End by Avi (also, The End of the Beginning) The Cat Who Came In off the Roof by Annie M.G. Schmidt Goth Girl books by Chris Riddell Dragonbreath series by Ursula Vernon 26 Fairmount Ave series by Tomie dePaola The Lighthouse books by Cynthia Rylant (Thimbleberry Stories -- also adorable, colorful) The Unicorn Secret series by Kathleen Duey Toon Tellegan books Pippi Longstocking Robin Hood by David Calcutt Lady Lollipop by Dick King-Smith (actually, I think they read most of his early on) Beverly Cleary books Oddfellow's Orphanage by Emily Wingfield Martin Bunnicula series There's an Owl in the Shower by Jean Craighead George Mercy Watson books Tumtum and Nutmeg books They also read tons of read alouds and story books that had a high level of writing and I count those as much as any chapter book for reading. They also enjoyed the Barefoot Books Independent Readers books.

Checking in quickly. I think I read absolutely nothing last week. It was such a week that I don't even remember. I just know I certainly didn't finish any books. And given the way things went today, the rest of this week isn't promising. I thought February was unpleasant, March was stressful. Apparently I hadn't imagined that April could actually be more, and really, it's not even anything terrible or that bad. It's just too much while down with migraines half the week. One of the kids tried to be helpful and go through all the Amulet graphic novels, sitting in my lap and explaining it all in loooong detail, so it wasn't an entirely book-free week at least. Anyway, I'm glad to see The Age of Innocence mentioned and all the links. That book is an old favorite! The Ben & Jerry's book sounds fun. We got to meet Ben Cohen once and he was kind enough to chat and take a photo with one of the kids.

I finally finished something that had been on my "currently reading" list since I started my Goodreads acct. For some reason I had made it halfway through Fire in the Hole:Stories by Elmore Leonard and forgot about it. Finished that up early this week and haven't had much time to read since then. I still have 14 books I'm currently reading but at least half are browsing books. One is a huge Calvin and Hobbes collection we've all been taking turns with, another is a volume of ten plays by Agatha Christie. Two of them are about words, easy to pick up and put down, but I've been getting through them a bit more as I listen to a lecture on words that I got with an Audible credit. I'll be in a waiting room at an activity for the kids for awhile this weekend and am going to bring either the plays (easy to put down since I have read them before) or something I grabbed off the library display: It's Not About the Broccoli by Dina Rose. I didn't have a good week with food so it might not be the best choice. But I had looked at the author's website and seen a nice response to someone who asked about a particular eating disorder so I know I should give it a try.

Ugh, I hadn't even noticed the price on the regular length. No way I would buy them because I have no altering skills. I also find that regular sized things don't fit well even if shortened, but that's just me. I don't know if this happens with other brands or if Jag is just cheap or weird. But the dark colors have a very strong odor at first. I almost returned them because it seemed like it would never fade but it did. They fit me well so I kept them since my out-of-proportion lower half makes pants-shopping difficult. I ordered several sizes because my waist is huge and my hips are not, and had no problem with returns for the ones that were too big.

For short people -- they are on both Amazon and Zappos in petite lengths. Some are 30, some are 29 inches. http://www.zappos.com/jag-jeans-petite-petite-nora-pull-on-skinny-in-fog-wash-fog-wash http://www.zappos.com/jag-jeans-petite-petite-paley-pull-on-boot-in-after-midnight-after-midnight?zlfid=191&ref=pd_detail_2_sims_sdp http://www.amazon.com/Jag-Jeans-Womens-Petite-Midnight/dp/B00CFN2TIQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=apparel&ie=UTF8&qid=1459517943&sr=1-1&nodeID=1040660&keywords=jag+petite+malia

Those coupons can be a (short term) help. But some people (not the OP's situation) with coinsurance still get hit with a high OOP cost even with those coupons. :(

I'd get it checked out. The first time it happened to me was after eating a particular fresh fruit. It *only* affecting my lips/mouth (*no* airway or GI issues -- if so, that is serious) and turned out to be just oral allergy syndrome, related to one of my strong pollen allergies. I still get swollen lips with just one type of wine and certain foods. However, as others mentioned, allergies should get checked out. This doesn't happen to most people, but I eventually developed severe allergies to other foods.

So sorry for your loss. No matter the age, it's hard. Hoping for the best for your baby and some happy reading this week.

:hurray: I remember checking that out at the library I grew up using a long time ago. I don't think I ever finished it! I might someday, though.

I think it is common. I have seen it a lot. Rerunning stories is one thing. My family does that. But it's mostly good, slightly embarrassing but happy stuff. With one of my relatives all I ever hear from one set of parents is how terrible one of their kids was as a baby. Nothing happy or kind. They trot out the same old stories, subconsciously reminding him of who should bear the blame for their family issues. Getting that kind of grief at every family gathering has to get old. It's more than just old people droning on and on. It's reinforcing the family narrative that this kid was the source of their family distress (deflecting blame from a controlling parent) and making sure none of them have to look bad. With one set of cousins, they have a "never let it go" dynamic. But it works for them, somehow. They tease each other mercilessly and the happier they are with each other, the worse the stories/teasing gets. I don't love that but if they are happy, whatever. To an extent they do it to me (I'm still the fat one even though I'm half their size and haven't been overweight since I was two) but none of it is mean spirited so I let it slide. If it was like you describe, then no, I wouldn't feel obligated to let it go one because you were a jerk for a while. I was far worse than how you described yourself in my early teens and have never heard any of my antics repeated. Nor have they made me feel as if I owe them anything for what I put them through. So if you are wondering if it is possible for family to get over it and move on, then yes, mine did. I don't think it was easy and obviously it was to my advantage that they are a forgiving lot, but I don't think it's too much to ask of your family to forgive and move on. I hope that they ease up on you.

Earlier in the week I mentioned I read Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer. Just saw it mentioned in the news again in an article in the Times The Upshot. There is a quiz if anyone wants to give it a whirl. I had also noticed that all three of the books I read earlier in the week had to do with memory. This week, I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. Not much to do with memory but like Foer's book, it gave me the poultry trivia I never asked for, quite memorably and humorously. I am glad I read it even though I started it not quite sure how it would go for me. I did end up feeling a little discouraged, due to personal issues with food, not due to larger issues she discussed. I'll probably see if my mom will read it since we've had such a roller coaster ride with food together. I need to find my bingo square sheet (yes, forgot where I put it) so I didn't choose any of the books this week based on the game as I had planned. Moonwalking with Einstein, The Buried Giant, & Snow Flower and the Secret Fan were on display at the library, so it was just impulse borrowing. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle came up as available after a long wait on our library's e-book list. A Spool of Blue Thread was also an e-loan, and was the result of an "ooh, pretty cover" impulse gone slightly wrong. I'm not sure what I'm going to start next but I really need to finish something on my currently reading list, so no buying or borrowing anymore until at least one of those is done.

:grouphug: and sending love to you both, Rosie

Pictures can help. I had a cake disaster and emailed photos to King Arthur Flour and got helpful feedback. This isn't the same recipe but it shows step-by-step photos so you can see how something should look. It's a KAF blog post and I just picked them because I learned how to bake through their blogs and recipes. I've emailed and chatted with them when I've had issues. I'm not great in the kitchen so I needed a lot more help. My mom, on the other hand can dive into a recipe and make it come out well. Meanwhile, I almost always look for blogs or videos first. I have gotten a bit better as I've learned, though. Here is another example from a different blog, but without as many photos: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/09/best-challah-egg-bread/ Also in the comments of the recipe you posted, there are a couple of links people suggested. Someone suggested using a baking stone. Yes, definitely go by how it is looking and not by time. It's freezing in my kitchen so I have the opposite problem. I don't have a fancy mixer. I use my bread machine for sandwich bread dough mixing, but only because of how much we make every week. It's just for saving time. When I first learned, and when I make my favorite bread (no-knead), no fancy equipment needed. Good luck :)

:grouphug: and best wishes to her. I know nothing of Envys but found this for the Envy laptop with touchpad. Not sure it is what you mean. http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/how-to-use-touchpad-to-highlight-copy-and-paste/td-p/2867071 I was just writing up a review on the book about memory that I read last week. As I did that I remembered that I forgot to mention in my post here that I had all kinds of thoughts as I was reading it because it briefly talked about memory & education and I figured it would be of interest to the homeschoolers who do a lot of memory work. Anyway, I also was thinking a lot about how it addressed memory as we age. Of course, I thought of my grandmother who couldn't remember my name in her final years. She did come up with a new name for me, though, and responded to me more warmly than with her nursing assistants. I'm actually sticking with a novel (A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler) that I started this week and was tempted to abandon. But I just got to a part where memory issues are mentioned (that would be my third book with memory as a theme in a week) so I'm trying to finish it.

When we were paying out of pocket last year, I paid $114, but I only two skin prick tests during the visit. That rate was partly due to being established and most of the consulting before the visit. My allergist knew me well, saw me yearly already, and was willing to do a lot of the consult work via messaging so I didn't have to pay the cost of a consult visit. (She was sympathetic about our lousy insurance and appreciated that we didn't bail on her when our insurance changed.) The office staff told me the charge per skin test; unfortunately I don't remember but per test, it was not much at their office. It would have been a small fortune if it had been first visit, when I got tested for a lot based on my history. This time, I was almost 100% sure of what I was allergic to (I was right about one food, wrong about the second). Had I gone to the network allergist, my cost would have still been $100 because our insurance used to charge that much for specialist copays, so that is another reason we didn't bother switching allergists. I'm glad, too, because we got insurance this year with a regular network and it covers all the board-certified allergists in our area. Blood work was a lot more. RASTs were about $50 at the lab, Immunocap was $800ish. For labs, our insurance didn't care which doctor ordered the lab. If we used a covered lab, we paid just the insurance cost since it was subject to deductible. So our OOP cost was under $100. I mention this because it wasn't explained well to me by the insurance representative and she gave me the impression we would be paying hundreds for the labs. Even though I knew it was subject to deductible, it didn't sound right and the rep gave me other incorrect information, so I called the lab billing office. The lab rep explained that they would submit to the insurance, who would then process the claim, pay nothing, and the lab would bill us. The charges would count towards our deductible but our OOP cost would not be the same amount as the cash customer rate. We would be paying the insurance-negotiated rate, and that is why we were better off at a covered lab.

At night, I use PC's Resist Perfectly Balanced Cleanser and the 2% BHA from the Clear line. In the morning, I wash and if I'm going out, I put on sunblock. If I feel like makeup, I use her Barely There tinted sunscreen. I've noticed I'm starting to feel dry now and then, so I ordered some toner samples to see if that is enough. If I break out, then I add the Clear Benzoyl Peroxide. One of the kids has acne and used the Clear line cleanser, BHA, and blemish treatment. It helps a lot when used consistently. I saw this serum recommended on her Beautypedia site and might give it a whirl. I would do more but I'm lazy and I'm in denial about wrinkles. We are all total space cadets, so yes, we use the stickers to remind us what order we're supposed to do stuff.