I'm behind on this thread... I don't think they made snap and go's when ours were babies. And the umbrella stroller was definitely for when they were a bit older, or with towels to help support them. We lived in a town where we walked most places, and a good stroller was a must have. If you are still thinking of a big, together gift, the rocker/recliner sounds wonderful if she doesn't have one. I spent a lot of time in ours, with feeding, rocking, and later reading books. Or I would read to our 4yo while feeding one baby (the three of us in the recliner), and rock the other baby in a bouncy seat with my other foot. With clothes, I usually bought different colors of the same style (and the same baby usually wore the same color--helped in photos). Or I bought clothes of the same colors but a little different style. So they were very similar, but not exactly the same. Ours slept in the same bed until they got big enough to start kicking each other in the head, lol, which meant they were waking each other up. It seemed to help them feel more secure. As they grew, while they were both comfortable with either parent, one gravitated toward dh, and the other toward me. It only lasted in a strong way for a couple of years, but it seemed to be their way of making sure they each had individual attention. When they were toddlers, I never took them to a park unless both of us parents were there. They would split in different directions, and they were fast! Our yard was walled, and a lifesaver. It was a bit rough sometimes the first couple of years, but then it became so easy, because they always had each other.

At birth, due to a large weight difference, my identicals didn't look too identical to me. As they got older, they still had markers that were clear to me. However, when I look back at photos, oh my! I can still usually tell them apart, but it isn't always as easy as it seemed at the time!

I, too, thought of the Outliers book. I also thought of this one, The Gift of Dyslexia: https://www.amazon.com/Gift-Dyslexia-Smartest-Revised-Expanded/dp/0399535667/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=the+gift+of+dyslexia&qid=1603109657&sr=8-3 I believe work certainly contributes to success, and helps set you up for it much more than not working. As to luck--there are always people who are going to have more advantages than you and others who have less advantages, and it's best to work as hard as you can within your own parameters. If you think it (mostly) depends on luck, then personal motivation to do one's best is removed and excuses/blame take over. You can also focus on the character-building aspect of learning to work hard. Things may seem uneven now, but someone who has learned to work hard (a trait not always easy to find) has a distinct advantage in self-discipline, perseverance, and character, over the person for whom everything comes easily (who may kind of flop the first time they have to work hard to achieve something). Within my own family, I have tried as best I could to point out each individual's strengths. I have twins, so I had to figure out how to help them feel valued as individuals. My two oldest were pretty opposite growing up; one very logical and with an easy gift for memorization; the other extremely creative in the area of ideas. My two youngest are quite different as well; one of them also is an idea person and finds academics very easy. The other has dyslexia, and academics does not come easily. However, he is great at noticing people. For example, in a group of young people, he will notice who is new, who is not participating, who seems sad, and he will go to them and sit with them, making them feel more willing and able to join in. He is an extremely hard worker physically, and has earned a reputation with many of the adults around for his work ethic. After reading the book above, I have been able to make observations to him, such as, "Many people who have dyslexia are really good at ______. I can see that in you." Or "For many people who have dyslexia, things really start to connect and make sense in their late high school and college years. So hang in there!" And "You may not ever be very good at spelling--that's just a dyslexia thing--but there are tools you can use to help (spell check, etc.), and you can focus on developing other things that you may have more giftedness in, like spatial relationships, seeing how to fix things,..."

I second the double umbrella stroller. I can't remember the brand I had, but it was much more practical than those huge double strollers. We used it a long time.

https://www.amazon.com/Cosplaysky-Hooded-Halloween-Costume-Knight/dp/B06WRTLV21/ref=sr_1_16_sspa?crid=3HT7MYMTD4BVU&dchild=1&keywords=jedi+costume&qid=1602724895&sprefix=jedi+co%2Caps%2C305&sr=8-16-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExV0dTSFVEVTVEU0VRJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTgyNzQ1MUo3VDFQOU9LWE5LNCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNDkyNjE2M09BOTA4ODhIWDRLOCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX210ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU= Here's a Jedi robe costume. It'd be pretty comfortable.

I was just going to suggest what @Ottakeedid--just have him try them on over clothes, to avoid the need for a dressing room. But that was before I saw you decided to order online.

At home, I don't often movie snack because it's usually after we've just had dinner. Maybe ice cream or frozen blueberries (I eat blueberries for dessert fairly often). But in the theatre--it's gotta be Milk Duds. I can't believe nobody has mentioned them yet. I do like popcorn a lot, but in the theatre, it always smells a whole lot better than it tastes.

Yes, it's this one. For some reason, I thought it was something new. ETA that I didn't notice the date--I thought it had just come out.

No, it was a recent one in the past day or so about 70% of people who get covid have worn masks or something like that.

Okay, I'm in a rush right now and can't look it up. Was it in this thread that someone posted the CDC's thing on masks? My supervisor's supervisor (who is indirectly my boss too) is very much anti-mask. I am the only person in my workplace who wears one. (I don't wear it in my office, but I do wear it in general areas and in staff meetings.) I know it irritates him, as well as his very-verbal-on-the-subject admin asst, when people wear them. He just gloatingly posted that link on his fb page. Ugh. I don't say anything to anybody about how they should be wearing masks, I don't criticize them, etc. I just quietly wear mine. And a couple of weeks ago, I did stop the admin asst from going on another of her diatribes about why she thinks they don't do any good, etc., etc. I just told her we disagree, and I didn't want to talk about it, and moved to a different subject. This is mostly just a vent. Staff meeting today. He'll probably bring it up. While I'm sitting there, the only one wearing one. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

She's so adorable! Just enough little wrinkles in her forehead. Our shelters never have cute puppies like that, or at least I never have seen any. They are always the breeds we definitely do not want. 😞

I'm afraid I thought the same thing. 😞

Prayerfully yours, In Christ, In Him,

Ugh. I was talking with a man a couple of weeks ago who was pretty sick at home and tested positive (doing really well now). He said he really doesn't think he had it, because there are so many false positives--he'd read up to 40%. I didn't say anything other than I'd heard of false negatives, but not much about false positives, because there isn't much reasoning to be done in that situation. His wife wouldn't get tested, but had "just my usual bronchitis I get every year) for 3-4 weeks.

What a great room! As to music/TV, well, one of my frustrations in our current home is that we have one living area. So if anybody is watching TV (and though I'm not, at least two of them are TV watchers), I can't play the piano. It limits a lot when I can play. If you guys don't watch much TV (my preference, and how it was when our olders were little), that's not a problem. But if somebody wants to play their instrument and somebody else wants to watch TV, it can't really happen. I think that blue squishy carpet could definitely grow on you. I have found through many moves that things that bother me at first, I either don't notice after some time, or begin to like them. For instance, there is a built-in bookcase in our living room that was painted a kind of forest green. I had definite plans to paint it after we moved in. As we were unpacking, I pulled out our wall-hangings for the den, and they had the exact same shade of green in them. So the bookcase is still green!

I just wanted to add that I agree with those who say this is a wonderful room! While I don't really care for the mirror over the fireplace, the room is warm and inviting, and gives off such a cozy, relaxed feeling. I have been in so many homes lately where the colors help create a cold and formal feeling. Maybe part of it is the oh so popular gray. Dh and I were talking last night about a friend's new home, and how while it was pretty, it wasn't us at all. I said yes, I prefer a little bit more "shabby" to our home, lol. Not at all saying this room is shabby, because it isn't--but it doesn't give off that formal stiff feeling like so many of the newer homes do that we've been in lately.

So adorable!

My ds worked it up a couple of years ago. I love it when he plays it!

Trans-Siberian orchestra's version of Carol of the Bells on electric guitar. There are quite a few versions on YouTube. Too difficult for a beginner, but it might be inspiring!

I forgot about creamed tuna: can of tuna, tablespoon of flour, butter, heat in a skillet, add a little lemon juice and worcestershire sauce, stir in milk and let it thicken into a kind of gravy. Serve over toast.

Something my mom made sometimes: take chicken breasts and put in a casserole dish. Mix a can of cream of chicken soup (maybe add half the water?) with a package of dry onion soup mix, and pour over the chicken. Bake about an hour (if it is bone-in chicken breasts) and serve over rice. It was really really good! I rarely ever buy canned soups or use them in recipes any more, but I may have to try this and see if I still like it, lol. As for me, as a kid I loved pudding as an after-swimming snack. I would cook a package of non-instant Jello vanilla pudding, and put frozen strawberries in it after it was done, but while it was still hot. We would make cheese toast a lot. Put a slice of American cheese (now I think yuck!) on bread and put it in the oven on broil. The cheese would puff up and start turning brown around the edges. I'd first pull off the top layer of cheese and eat it, then I'd eat the bread and leftover cheese together.

I'm pretty much a YEC. However, it isn't something I spend much time thinking on. We didn't use only YE curriculum, and my kids also watched shows/documentaries with other viewpoints without my picking it apart. Interestingly, I went to ps in the Bible belt, and was taught evolution. In fact, back in those days (I'm old) where I lived, people didn't talk about it a lot (even in Christian circles), and it was all kind of compartmentalized in my mind. As a child, though, I had questions that evolution didn't answer. Those who disagree, please don't take offense, but as a second-grader, when I first heard of the big bang theory, it sounded crazy to me. I was a little surprised when I realized the teacher was serious. Didn't make sense to me at all--and that wasn't because I was from a Christian family, because I was never taught any other explanation for how it was done. For an explosion to cause what later became a world of great beauty and complexity, even within the smallest organisms alive in it, was not credible to me. Macroevolution never made sense to me either. But I basically just didn't worry about it much, thinking that like in many areas, we don't have full knowledge of things we often assume we do. I did see the hand of a Master Designer behind it all. However, as an adult, in a philosophy of religion class, I was exposed for the first time to a variety of theories and approaches that I'd never heard. We weren't told what to believe, by the way, just given the support that the followers of the various theories used to back their beliefs. I was thrilled to find that there were actually those who were intelligent who could back up YEC with reasonable and sensible sounding scientific support. (I'm tired and not in the mood to go look up all that now, because it's been a long time since I have even thought about it all, in case someone starts asking for sources, lol.) Now as a homeschooling parent, I will have to say that not all YEC materials are created equal, and some that passed through our shelves were not of excellent quality. (A pet peeve of mine; if you are a Christian and going to produce materials, in my opinion, they should be of the highest quality in both scholarship and otherwise.) Whenever this topic comes up, though, I can't help but think of my dad's response: "I believe God created it. He's God, so he could do it however he wanted to." I know this was started a bit lightheartedly, but I can't let my fellow YECers take all the brunt of the opposition without throwing in my support, lol.

I'd make a reading/game/puzzle nook as well. You could put bookcases, but also a smallish table big enough for games or puzzles. We also have a long living room, which only works for the TV to go in one spot. That means that the main furniture can't also face the fireplace. Currently, we have two rockers and a small rug in front of the fireplace (which is on one end of the room facing the long part), and a piano to the side. When we have a large number of guests, we move the chairs and put a folding table there for more dining. I have played a bit with the idea of moving the rockers altogether, and putting a permanent small-sized table there.

I got mine last weekend. I usually wait until sometime in October, but was a little afraid there might be a shortage this year. I have a propensity to respiratory stuff. I was told by a doctor (overseas) that I should get one every year, due to my frequent bouts of bronchitis. He said it had helped him avoid other respiratory illnesses as well (anecdotally). Beginning then, after a horrible winter of frequent infections, I have followed his advice. Interestingly, I have only had bronchitis once or twice since then. Whether it is just coincidence, or whether the antibodies also help fight the other viruses I am prone to, doesn't really matter to me. I'm just glad I haven't been sick near as often, so I get one every year. The other members of my family are beginning to follow suit.

We enjoyed CNN10 a lot, and watched it for several years--from when we discovered it (and I wish we'd discovered it sooner) until one graduated and one went to ps. I, too, found it much more balanced than other news sources, and was pleased at the coverage. It was a great current events addition to our homeschooling years.