I agree with merrygardens about the fact that if you paint the kitchen cabinets then that will make all the wood look awful. I voted for refinish. I want your house! All wood, and 2.5 acres! I live in a subdivision on less than half an acre (neighbors are way too close!), with walmart-type fixtures and cheap lowes everything. I would love your house!

You need pie in the summer, and cake in the winter. Key lime pie in the summer, or some kind of blueberry-strawberry raw pie made with graham cracker crust. Or cherry pie, with extra flaky crust. In the winter, chocolate cake with chocolate sauce. The only pies good in the fall or winter are pecan and pumpkin.

Vacuum whole house (yes, still hasn't happened!) Dust shelves in DS's room - DONE!!! Declutter DS shelves - ha - he won't even notice--if I start consulting him, it'll never get done, so I'll just toss what I decide is for tossing. DONE!!! Dust and declutter shelves in schoolroom. Big project, so will only start today: make a master list of all the books in my house. Finish the laundry - 4 loads to do today Declutter at least one box in the basement. Clean the spot under the coffeemaker - it is always full of dried up little coffee splotches. Bag garbage in my room. DONE! Wipe short shelves in my room. Work on homeschool stuff - making a master binder for all the important homeschool stuff. Put together loose music into one binder. Put loose papers into different folders. Bring folded clean laundry upstairs Take shower DONE: Cleaned 90% of the fridge Cleaned mucky shelf in pantry (onions had leaked!) 1 load laundry washed most of the breakfast dishes brought up most of the clean folded laundry wiped downstairs toilet scrubbed guest bathroom sink put clean towel in upstairs bathroom Darn it, why can't I finish 1 complete task? It's like, I'm almost done, and then I go: good enough, and move on!!! I'm always on DS and DH's case about it, and here I am doing the same thing!

Do walk around calling for him, and do keep putting up signs. I used to go out and call for my lost dog, late at night and early in the morning. I lost my dog 13 years ago, and a man who had seen the signs caught him in his back yard. That's how we got him back. When you find him, take down the signs so people don't keep looking.

It sounds like when I used to have heartburn. Absolutely debilitating pain in the middle of my torso, between my chest and belly. Usually baking soda helped within 30 min.

Current weight 189.3 lb I lost a pound-ha! Goal: 140 lb Trying: LCHF, low carb high fat, low carb, no carb, paleo sort of. Still starting out so am learning. Basically no refined sugars or flours, no peanuts, no potatoes, no fruit juice. Goal: seriously cut down on milk intake as I think I am allergic. Goal: give up coffee. It messes with my sleep and then I am exhausted the next day and starving and no energy. I can't tell the difference between my exhaustion from being unhealthy or my exhaustion from lack of sleep--I am sure they are related in all sorts of ways. Goal: move for 1 non-stop hour each day. Cleaning the house counts.

In my hometown, thereare child counselors who are qualified to administer these tests. I emailed them and it was $475. The guy said that teens don't usually take them---they take the ACT instead. Ha. But if you call counselors they probably know where to direct you, for an adult. ETA: We didn't have DS take the test--it was too much $. But this might have been just these counselors.

Whoo hoo! :)

I think anything above a 700 is very good! I know top universities want above 700s. (or, what they say on their websites is something like: typical students accepted into X university score in the 700s for SAT II tests.) Congratulations!

What sort of places cater for a low price? The cheap places.

Ahhh!!Scary landlord doing walthru.Tips? Kill him.

have any flea advice? yes, be very good fleas! don't sass your flea mother always make your flea bed when you get up sit straight (if you can)

Have any flea advice? yes, don't get them.

OK everyone! To bed! I mean it! Carry on tomorrow morning. (Do I have the self control to ignore this thread tomorrow? Argh. It's really interesting, but I've blown hours reading it today.) OK, it was very interesting, but many loads of laundry have gone undone--I will stay out of this thread from now on... good night!

For the record, I am pro-safety net. (I used to volunteer at a teen mom education center, promoting b-feeding and teaching nutrition.) But the mothers of these particular babies that I was referring to that my friends are fostering wouldn't have kept them even with better safety nets. The mothers of these ones didn't want them-- I can't go into why...well maybe I can...it involved drugs. But I'm glad they chose to birth them and that my friends are taking care of them. Also: everyone else: I mean no snarkiness! Please don't get all upset (I don't mean you Mrs.Mungo or Justasque.) (Maybe the Guatemalan and Ukrainian ones could have kept them, but those aren't the discussion.)

OK, so today: I had no refined flour, no potatoes, no sugar. So, low carb I guess. At first it felt AWFUL. Then it started to feel OK. Then awful again midafternoon. The worst was going into the convenience store to get a snack. Nothing. I looked at candied almonds, Ritter's chocolate, Fritos, peanuts, and then I saw the Amish beef jerky. Hey! I thought, I can eat this! But no--second ingredient was sugar. I walked out with a Diet Coke totally upset. It felt good on the hot day though. This evening dinner was very low carb--all vegetables but I did cheat with green peas, but I'm not going to worry about it--at least it wasn't a fat old potato! And I did have some dairy this evening although I'm supposed to give it up--it was a cup of yogurt. But I didn't have my usual warm cow milk before bed, in the hopes of getting rid of some nasty symptoms. I did feel good after dinner and had no cravings except for the yogurt, and after the yogurt the cravings were gone! I haven't craved anything since about 10 PM--so 3 whole hours with no cravings! I know--counting hours seems lame--but normally I'm scrounging in the fridge, having a little bit of this and a little bit of that, or at least apple sauce. But I have no hunger. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow. Wait--are we supposed to post when we feel like it or weekly? I'd like a place where I can post when I need to--like today, instead of scrounging in the fridge for yummies I came here and posted. Am I pathetic? Probably--but at this point, I am so willing to be pathetic! If I can feel healthier and lose some of this weight.

OK -- this is what happened to me. A couple monthsago I was awesome--a little above 170 lb, then cycle came--and I needed comfort!!! Fell off the wagon big time. I am hoping that with this Low Carb business I'm trying the cravings won't hit as bad...

Thank you Mich elle!Loved it! :)

Again, respectfully:This had the "black babies" component to it, which my previous post didn't. You guys, this is a really interesting thread, but quit posting because I have chores to do!!!!

Respectfully: I know two women (in my hometown)who are fostering black babies. These foster moms are white, very right-wing, prolife ladies.

Not to be drawn into the fray, but I have several close personal friends (very prolife) who foster unwanted babies year after year. Other friends who adopt orphans from South America and now Ukraine. So, definitely not trying to be snarky in any way. But I do have several prolife friends who put their money where their mouth is.

Or better yet, people should pay for their own insurance.(ducks).

I was wondering if they spent $400 at Macy's and Target...

Hey, I would love it if my husband loved Cyndi and Cher!!!!! You don't know how good you have it!! DH likes stuff like Nirvana and Metallica and grunge... :)

I love your post.:)