Things I do not like about my house: No mudroom. No pantry. My daughters bedroom. At some point it was a porch of some kind and when it was converted to a bedroom it was done cheaply. Her room is always a few degrees colder then the rest of the house during the winter.

I love that my house is old and has character and solid construction.

I have no idea. All I can tell you is that when I graduated-when dinosaurs still roamed the earth-we had 1 valedictorian and 1 salutatorian.

We just redid our bathroom and the kitchen was redone 18 years ago before we bought the house (we have since replaced the dishwasher). My fridge is white and quite old. It makes funny noises on occasion. I pray that it does not break any time soon. Our master bath is the bathroom in the hall that everyone shares. The downstairs has a 1/2 bath. A bath and a half. That is all we have. And that half bath-airplane bathroom size. Can you hear the moans of horror on house hunters now. How do we live? Taking turns with the shower! Yikes! My washing machine and dryer do not match. They are in the basement and they work. That is all that matters. Curling wallpaper-check. Cracked plaster-check. Unfinished, scarred wood floors-check. Tiny coat closet-check. In all fairness the bedroom closets are pretty roomy-although weirdly angled-they go long behind the wall thus requiring contortions to get to the far end. That is where the once in a year clothes are. I do love watching house hunters and I always marvel at what they say about spacious closets that are not big enough. If you need a bedroom sized closet-you have too much stuff.

As long as I had access to a tub if one was needed I would love a nice shower with a built in bench.

The small local pharmacy gives me excellent customer service and always calls if there is a problem, looks for coupons, tells me if it is cheaper to pay cash vs. inusrance, give me a few pills if they have not heard back from doctors office and I am out, and happy to answer all my questions and help me find a solution. The convenient 24/7 CVS-not so much. Although the CVS is excellent with the prescription is ready text.

Looks like a plantar wart. I use duct tape to get rid of them on my kids feet.

Spiders and insects. And Rollercoasters.

If you can afford it let him play soccer. When mine were little I let them try just about anything they were interested in. It was about exposure to different things. I lucked out that they both took to the water and swim competitively. One of my friends has triplets. They all do dance. 1 swims, 1 plays softball, the other is an artist. She drives a lot and arranges carpools.

We saved a piece in our freezer to eat on our first anniversary. It did not taste so great. If only foodsaver vacuum sealing was a thing when I got married.

For ds's 15th birthday the 2 favorite games were: Pass the orange -orange under chin, pass from teammate to teammate only using chin. Balloon smash. Everyone had a balloon on a length of ribbon tied to their ankle. Then try to pop everyone else's balloon. Last one with unpopped balloon wins. Other games they have done-somehow never too old for these- Balloon pop. Race to other end of yard. Grab balloon out of bin. sit on it to pop it. Run back. First team to pop all balloons wins. Sponge water fight. Car sponges cut up into squares and placed in buckets of water. Throw at one another until everyone is sopping wet. Last much longer than water balloon fight and no hours of filling balloons for 2 minutes of fun. 3 legged race Sack race

It is an exaggerated truth. Some people take their cues from television shows and if both parties allow that kind of behavior without ever having meaningful conversation about expectations it will settle in and be next to impossible to move out. Yes. my dh can be a bit of a buffoon and silly and he is "fun daddy". But part of why that behavior is acceptable in my marriage is because before he was disabled he worked 60+ hours a week. He wanted his time with the kids to be fun. That didn't mean he wouldn't be the heavy if needed and it didn't mean that he got to pawn everything else off on me. It meant I did the majority of that stuff because he wasn't home. He was earning the $$ so I could be a stay at home mom and homeschool our kids.

Take the antibiotics. My dh has chronic Neuro Lyme (undiagnosed for 30 years) and is currently disabled and just had a line put in for iv antibiotics. It is a horrible disease that if left untreated will ruin your life.

Lyme and friends (as we call the coinfections) is awful. My dh just had a hickman catheter put in for IV antibiotics. It is horrible dealing with lyme denier doctors and fighting with the insurance company for coverage. Happy Birthday to your daughter. May she start feeling better soon.

I wish I had the guts to attend the topless book club in Central Park. http://coedtoplesspulpfiction.wordpress.com/

Dog on the bed. 85lbs of cuddles and bed hogging. I can judge how cold it is by where the dog sleeps. Summer-foot of the bed. Winter-I wake up with the dog in my armpit. This dog has a whole routine. He starts in my daughters bed. At some point he goes to ds's room, and then he comes to ours. When we got the dog my dh did not want the dog in the bed. I went along with it. He had a dog bed in our room. 2 weeks into fostering him I walk into our bedroom to see dh cuddling with the dog on the bed. I asked him what was going on and he said to me "it all happened so fast" From that point on-dog on the bed. He is not allowed on the pillows.

Did the fridge remained closed all through the night power outage? If so, it is probably all fine. The fridge holds it cold as long as is it not opened.

As long as there is a scab into the pool they go. It only stings for a minute or two and all that chlorine kills anything that may be trying to cause an infection.

Peace and quiet. Just what I wanted. I puttered in the garden. The kids were unplugged for the day. We played board games. We shared a nice dinner together and then watched Pretty in Pink. My daughter made me some lovely rainbow loom flowers, lots of hugs and cuddles from my 16 year old son, and chocolates from my hubby. This may have been the best mothers day yet.

Yes, I was bullied and yes it still impacts my life today. I will say that once I went to college I found my inner strength and truly thought I left all of that baggage behind. Then I had kids of my own. My son was bullied horribly in elementary school. It was why we started homeschooling. To this day I am suspect of all my kids friends. Are they truly friends? What if they are setting my kid up to be the butt of some cruel joke? Do they really like my kid? It colors my view of every new friend they bring home. I struggle with it, a lot. It is a bit better now that they are in high school and more then capable of speaking for themselves but I am still lugging around some of that baggage.

Hibiscus tea. I order it in bulk from Amazon.

I tell dh what I want to do for mother's day. It took me 15 years of marriage before I got that he is not a mind reader and if I don't want to be disappointed I need to guide him. It took a number of years but my mothers day is exactly what I want. I go to the garden store, I spend the morning planting and puttering. Then we have a nice lunch at home. Then we we sit around and talk and maybe play a game. Then we watch a movie together and relax. Prior to my taking control I was often disappointed on mother's day.

I so wanted to love my diva cup. I tried and tried but I could not make that cup work. I am now trying to convince my daughter to try it out because if it works for you it is so much better then pads or tampons.

I actually have a combo of rocks and mulch. Next to our patio I have rocks. Over the part of the yard where the dog tore up thegrass and it just a big mud pit I have mulch. Do what you like and ignore your MIL.

The stoneware bar pans and the pizza stone. Really, any of the stoneware (Ok, I am a stoneware groupie and have every size and product but the stuff is great) The garlic press- you don't need to peel the garlic first. Batter Bowls Cookie scoops. Cherry pitter Sandoku knife (My daughter knocked mine onto the floor and it broke in half. They sent me a replacement even though it technically was not a defective product under the warranty.) The mini-spatula