When you and your family are getting sick of zucchini, try this recipe from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Disappearing Zucchini Orzo. It is super easy, and super yummy. And you can barely tell that it has zucchini in it.

Oh yay! I am so excited. :)

I want both... :o I already told my boss that it's my Christmas wish, but I don't think I'll hold off til then...

We have a farmer's market twice a week, and I spend at least that much each time, just for fruits and veggies we will eat that week. I also buy eggs and meat there. I probably spend about $100 at the market each week. We eat a LOT of fruit, and that's the bulk of the cost, other than the meat (we only eat 1-2 meat meals a week). Lots of peaches. (3 year old will eat 3-4 peaches a day.) But I don't shop at the regular grocery store. Fresh produce at the market, then dairy, eggs, grains, nuts through the local coop.

I have a Xyron (the older version of this one) and I LOVE it. It will make stickers and magnets as well, but I haven't used it for that yet. It is super-easy to use. I bought it (very gently) used with a bunch of other scrapbooking stuff, and am so happy I did. I think the cartriges are expensive ($35 or so, I don't really remember), but I stock up when they go on sale, or buy them when I have a 40% off coupon at Michaels.

I am using ETC2 with a new 5 year old, and we still skip the writing. She circles and X's, but I have her skip over writing the words. She does other handwriting exercises, and writes a lot on her own, and I think the extra writing practice would frustrate her. I like the idea of finger-tracing the letters.

Nut-butter and jelly sandwiches, muffins made with protein powder (or just with enough peanut butter to provide protein) I wish I could be more helpful. I need protein in the morning as well, and other than eggs, I don't know what to eat...

If you've really got a lot of tomatoes, you could make this one. I'd saute some onion and garlic, add the tomatoes, and some chopped basil and other seasonings.

Ours is on carpet, and seems to weigh accurately, but we put the extra feet on it as well.

Try these links: http://www.yelp.com/list_details?list_id=Xp4hpucaQEyS39aqMqka0Q http://www.geocities.com/glutenfreenyc/home

We made this a few weeks ago, and then made several more batches. It was FABULOUS! http://www.berrycreekfarm.us/recipes/peach_cobbler.html

A good friend of mine was just at our local one the other day. She loved it, said she wished she had known about it sooner. She got some tile for her bathroom, and I'm sure will go back for more. (She just bought a new house and is re-doing most of it.) Maybe I'll get a chance to check it out with her.

Wow! That sounds delicious. I am definitely picking up some figs at the farmer's market and making the focaccia on Saturday!

OPGTR with BOB books and Nora Gaydos readers. We use ETC as well, skipping the writing-intensive parts.

I purchased Discovery Streaming through them. I haven't found any negatives, and the discounts they offer for some products are amazing. (One potential negative: if you impulse buy due to great deals, then you could end up with things you don't need.)

SOTW = Story of the World, the elementary age history series written by Susan Wise Bauer.

I freak out easily over food freshness, but I would use it as long as there's no mold.

Whole foods. Whole grains, lots of fruit and veggies, occasional meat. (Personally, I do better with meat only once or twice a week, but that's just MY body.) Organic as much as possible, especially animal products. I'm trying to eat locally as much as possible. I'm not entirely convinced that it is healthier (though it has been argued that the fresher the vegetable, the more nutrients in it), but I do know that local fruits and veggies are more flavorful. So then it is easier to eat fruits and veggies. (Or, rather, easier to convince small children to eat said fruits and veggies.) I try to cook from scratch as much as possible, and try to think far enough in advance to make my own convenience foods (frozen muffins, soups, cookies, roasted veggies, pizzas, etc.). While that's my idea of a healthy diet, I definitely don't follow it 100% or the time. I eat white flour and white sugar (usually in moderation), and I love to eat out, and I especially love dessert when I am out. I have good weeks and bad weeks.

Me too. Deathly afraid of vomiting. Ew ew ew. I can deal with other people vomiting, for the most part. (Though then the anxiety sets in and I am terrified that I will catch whatever they had.) But I get very panicky if I think I am going to vomit. (I hate taking medicine, and will avoid it if at all possible, but I do have anti-nausea medicine that I take if I think I am going to be sick. It helps tremendously.) Calling random people on the phone (not family or close friends). Not a phobia, but definitely anxiety. Hate cold calling people and will avoid if it at all possible. (I can definitely relate to the previous poster about not calling the air conditioning people, and just sweating it out.) The funny thing about this is that I do talk on the phone quite a bit, just only to people I know really well.

Yes, yes, yes. I had never canned before, and just started this year, and I have used the Ball Blue Book as my reference. It is super easy to follow, and there are a ton of recipes (a recipe for most everything you would want to preserve - canning, freezing, dehydrating, etc.). I've canned peaches and blackberry sauce and blackberry jam, and my friend canned peach jam, and everything has come out great. (Side note: If you don't want super-sweet jam, we used about half as much sugar in each of the jam recipes, and they came out great.)

This has been my experience as well. I would try making her bedtime an hour earlier. (Or even up to two hours earlier.) It seems counter-intuitive, but it's worked for me. That being said, is she cranky when she wakes up? I would leave her in bed until she demanded to get up, hoping that the time would increase every day.

Ziploc bags in a clear rubbermaid tub in the "curriculum closet." Ones that we are currently using on a regular basis are on the bottom shelf of our bookcase in the "school area."

Yep, definitely when I'm alone. Not so much with the kids in the car, but there is a certain two year old who says every time "More up, weez." He likes to hear the music too.

I don't know where is Missouri you are, but have you searched Local Harvest? There may be some farms or CSAs nearby that you don't know about. Or even a place where you can pick your own fruits or something. So sorry to hear that all you have is sub-par produce. :(

Does the school have any sample tests for you to see, so you know what you're getting into? A friend of mine is in the same boat, and has gone through a sample test, so she knows which subjects she needs to brush up on. Our local educational store has the Key To... Series. They are fairly inexpensive, and you could buy the ones on the subjects that you need the most review on.