I've done it more than once. And sometimes I've wished I'd gotten a third pair, especially when I've found good "house" shoes to wear around the house.

I have a Nutrimill, too, and love it. I had the attachment for the KA before that, and it never ground the wheat fine enough for a light bread, plus you couldn't grind very much at one time. I have never regretted getting rid of it and getting the Nutrimill.

I try to base it on paying an amount that works out hourly to less than minimum wage. I want my kids to look forward to going and and getting a job for minimum wage since it's more than they can make from me. But they both really don't like weeding, so even with the prospect of getting paid, I have to do almost all of it myself.

Same here, I could hear it, but not very loud. Dd, however, in her room, came out and asked what that sound was. Ds could hear it when he came over to the computer, but not very loud.

I'm on the other side of the country, but the last couple of years, we've had a hard freeze on or near June 1. So last year I bought a small greenhouse and have most of my tomatoes in there. I planted a few outside the greenhouse, in pots, with wall-o-waters this last week. However, so far this year, the weather has been much drier and warmer. We still could have a late freeze, though, you just never know.

I'm so sorry, Joanne :grouphug:

Yep, mowing isn't one of the chores I pay for. I do pay for digging up dandelions and weeds in my flower beds, but no one's too keen on doing that. Mowing is easy for me compared to weeding (riding mower) so ds can do it, but he doesn't get paid.

It doesn't have to be a machine - handwashing will work.

Popovers and cream puffs (pate a choux) use a few eggs (around 4 a recipe). My kids like eating popovers as a snack, and since they haven't been cooking with our eggs, at least that's a way to get them to eat a few. . . I made this frittata the other night: http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/mushroom-wild-rice-frittata-recipe I used about 9 eggs (didn't bother with the whites) and just used some chopped up ham in it, instead of the proscuitto.

We have insurance through dh's employer now, but we pay for it (they just went together to get a group rate, it's a small company with under 20 employees). It's a major medical policy, doesn't cover any prescriptions, but does have some co-pays (which our previous high deductible plan did not - we paid for everything until $5000 or $10,000). The deductible is still around $5,000 and we pay somewhere around $300 a month for our family of 4. ETA: This is only medical, not dental (which is another $150 or so a month) or vision.

I don't think there's much you can do, except have no expectations from him at all. Dh has several very dysfunctional close relatives, and we just have very little or no contact with them. You can't fix them, and in many cases, they don't want to be helped (we've tried that with his sister, and it's like pouring money/time/emotional energy down a black hole - it doesn't make a difference).

Congrats!! I love my vintage machines - the one I use most was my grandma's and dh helped me fix the wiring and get all the old grease cleaned out and put back together so it works really well :) I've got another Singer and an old White so my kids can learn to sew if they want (the White is actually being used in the guest room as a bedside table - the cabinet is very nice - lol).

I always prewash and dry my fabrics before quilting. Although I do like the crinkly look that you can get from not doing that, most everything I made that was quilted was for gifts and I didn't want them to wash it and have a seam rip from shrinkage or anything like that.

Yep, I think that's about average. Both my dc are in braces, and this is dd 2nd round (the first round was only $1800 and the second round is $3900 - <sigh>). We thankfully had money set aside before dd's first round and ds's treatment, but we will have to work on getting this 2nd round paid for. Both kids didn't have enough room for all their teeth, so it was something we felt we needed to do to save them from large costs when they got to adulthood. ETA: And our dental insurance doesn't cover any orthodontic work.

:grouphug::grouphug:

My teen is just barely a teen, but he has limits. Both my dc get a block of computer time at the beginning of the week (providing they've cleaned their rooms) and they can spend it how they like after school work is finished. Some weeks, they blow through it in the first couple of days, other weeks, they don't. I don't always like them spending several hours in one day playing, but I do think it helps teach them how to budget their time if they want to be able to play later in the week.

That's where I get mine, too, but we have a delivery charge tacked on for the truck route. I haven't been able to find it locally - there's not much available here.

We use organic feed, too, and I paid $29.xx a bag last time, plus a little bit more for the delivery charge.

I think this is a wonderful answer.

Here's another site to check - she sends out emails, too, with the new information: http://truthaboutpetfood.com/

I agree. Everything fills up quickly (hotels and camping) so you may have to change your plans based on what's available. We're only a couple hours away, so we will just call up and find what dates they *do* have something available and plan our trip based on that. For the rooms I wanted, when I called last month, there were only 2 dates left between June and early Sept and I took them both.

Our house gets very hot in the summer at times - I usually don't open it in the evenings because the pollen's settling and it makes my allergies worse. So I'll get up in the middle of the night/early morning and open it and set the fan in the back patio door. We did use solar film on the west facing windows (we don't have any trees to help shade) and that did help, along with an awning over the patio doors. The 2 west facing bedrooms have blackout curtains and I put up some of that 1" foam insulation board in them during the hottest days to block even more sun from coming in (and that does help). If it doesn't cool down enough at night, it's just hot. The kids have taken to sleeping with blue ice packs in the summer (the kind you put in coolers). I made covers for them out of old towels.

That's what I do, too. The neighbor kids just aren't allowed in the house, and my kids aren't allowed to go into their houses. It just makes things simpler.

I agree with using one of the enzyme cleaners. If spraying it on top of the carpet doesn't do the trick, get a big cattle syringe/needle from a farm supply store and inject the cleaner down into the carpet pad. I had to do that for our closet, where our male cat was urinating. And then just let it dry. I had to repeat it a few times, in different spots, but it worked quite well.

We have been buying local (well, a couple hours away) grass-fed beef for a couple years now. Dh recently went to a business lunch at a steakhouse here in town and commented to me how much better our beef tastes. He said the meat there was tender, but tasteless.