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Neat stuff!

Don't forget! Learning how to act during schoolwork IS a learned skill of its own. Maybe that was the lesson of the day today, or it will be learned tomorrow.... I hope tomorrow is a better day!

I roast veggies a lot. You just drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper, and roast until done. Fantastic! Sometimes I roast cauliflower pieces, and then make a sauce of butter, barely sautéed garlic, and capers/jarred caper juice. My husband loves it! Also, squash makes a good cream soup. I diced onion and garlic in butter or olive oil, then add meat/bone broth and squash and boil until soft. Then I use the immersion blender. I season last, and sometimes add a little cream for "WOW" factor. :) I can't remember if you needed to go vegetarian; if so, olive oil and veggie broth would be fine substitutes for the dairy and broth.

Wait a minute. It makes a difference what kind of countertop it was on? Does granite have a different room temp? I've never had anything but laminate or ceramic tile.

I had a decently easy time with both of mine, and here are the things I did: 1. I had a ton of Braxton Hicks. That was not under my control, obviously. I didn't even realize I was in labor for a very long time, because I was used to having warm-ups. Pregnancy was painful, but birth was rather easy. 2. I live 10 minutes from the hospital, so I waited until I was really serious to go in. That way I didn't have a ton of monitoring and could spend all my labor time sitting on a big exercise ball or crawling around. When I start crawling around because it is the only thing that feels good, my husband runs for the car. If I were AT ALL high risk, or if my baby weren't head-down, I wouldn't do this. 3. I read somewhere that transition has an emotional indicator: when you think, "Oh, no, I don't know if I can do this!", it means you are about to be done. Expecting that emotion and seeing it as a phase gave me courage. Best wishes for your birth!

Good for you!!

I'm teaching dd that "Indian" means a person who lives in India. We'll be using Native Americans or tribal names when we get to it. I get the feeling that our cultural norm is changing on this as we speak to something better than either. We'll change if something more accurate comes into usage. I hate stepping on someone's foot by calling them something they feel is rude. If it comes up, I just ask a person what they prefer. In regard to it being an issue of political correctness, I think it is more a question of kindness. PC has become a broad slur, in my very humble opinion, which shock-jocks use to make their audience feel put-upon. To me, calling somebody's racial group by the name they feel best represents them is just respectful, and it does not inconvenience me to change my usage. However, I voted the other option, because I couldn't pass that up. :tongue_smilie:

We love that show! Thanks for mentioning it! My dd will be delighted. :)

Oh, that's awful! And on the strollers - gack! I'm so sorry! I think the skunk smell is not unpleasant, and sort of bracing, from a distance. Up close is another thing.

I got rid of most of the varied styles, and kept only the ones that match or nest. It drives my keep-it-all-you-might-need-it husband nuts, but I throw out rogue plastic. Now I have a bunch of Ziploc plastic stuff and some smaller Pyrex. I keep them stacked by type in the upper cabinet, and the lids are in two Sterilite dish tubs which sit on the shelves in the lower cabinet - Ziploc lids in one, Pyrex in the other. That way at least I have a starting place to look for a lid. It isn't a perfect system yet, but it works for this rental's cabinets. My ideal would be not having to lift a stack to get the one I want... one type per stack, grab the one on top... but I need a little more space for that, or to do a little more culling.

I'm glad you are ok/healing. That sounds like it hurt a lot!

That looks good! Here is my new chili recipe, since we quit eating beans. (I am from TX, and I don't know what everybody is confused about; if there are beans in chili, they should be red kidney beans. Anyhoo.) Saute to soften: 2 T. olive oil 1 large onion, chopped 6 cloves garlic, crushed Add and brown: 20 oz. ground turkey Add and simmer until the potatoes are soft, 20-30 minutes: 2 T. chili powder 1 t. ground cumin 1 large orange sweet potato, diced 1 large (29 oz) can crushed tomatoes 1 t. coarse salt, more after tasting it at the end This is the best I've ever made.

Kudos to your daughter! It says something good about mankind that we have such people.

It looks great! I love the forward. I will definitely pre-order it whenever I can! In a side note, I just finished the third history of the world book. Please keep working on the next one of those, when you have time! The plagues, the crusades... it was grim but fascinating.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who binge-reads. Note to self: stay away from that series....

I'm reading through the novels list in TWEM (just once each, I'm don't have that much time at this point), and I'm loving it! Don Quixote was hilarious and a little smutty, Pilgrim's Progress was eye-opening and deep, Oliver Twist was a tear-jerker, Jane Eyre was beautiful, and The Scarlet Letter is so much better than I thought it was! I can't believe I didn't read these before. My TV show is back on for another season! (NCIS) My daughter is taking Taekwondo lessons at a fantastic school in exchange for my giving piano lessons to the owner. I'm having so much fun watching her learn! She has a "game-face" and is getting more coordinated by the week. Good stuff. :)

I'd cook and eat that meat right away, unless it smelled bad. Meat doesn't usually leave you guessing. The rest should be fine, I think!

That show looks interesting. I'm going to listen to it later this afternoon. Thanks!

In the military tradition, the lady walks on the left, so the knight's man's dominant hand is free. Lefties are out of luck. So, dad on the right, daughter in the middle, mom on the left? I seriously doubt that anyone will criticize whatever happens, though. :)

There are bookshelves. :svengo:

I shopped, but didn't push the last button yet. :) Amazon and I are close, very close.

Aaack! So, you get a new pillow today, yes? Also, "cling-ons"! Bwahahahaha!

I LOVE Okinawa. May you be so lucky! There's a place called Capitol Steak House. I can't replicate their salad dressing, and I need to find a way. Also, there's a fast-food chain called Coco's with the best curry ever. One order is about 2 meals. I used to jog on the sea wall near my house, and my route ran past a curry place which cooked onions every morning. I did not lose weight... I wonder why. If you go, resolve to leave the bases and see the island! The only people I've known who didn't enjoy themselves were those who didn't ever get out anywhere. If you can live out in the community, that is fun. There are forts, free to visit, built in the 500-800's, from which you can see ocean on both sides of the island. There are castles built in the 1500's that are touristy but fun and not too expensive. There are tangerine orchards on the sides of mountains; you can pull off at a fruit stand, get 10 lbs. for about $5, and eat WAY too much citrus because they are so delicious. My husband loved scuba diving there, and a lot of folks kayak and fish. The people are very nice, and it is good to learn a few words to greet people. Most of the younger people speak English. The Okinawan people are a separate ethnicity from the Japanese, with different foods and an interesting history. If you are going with the military, there are a lot of activities on the bases, too. There are several styles of karate lessons available for kids and adults. The Kadena club was nice when we were there. There are historical and cultural bus tours through ITT which are fun if your kids are old enough. The AP mail system was pretty fast, and amazon prime ships as if you lived in California - it just takes a tad longer. You either order all your clothes or you buy from the BX, which means you might meet another lady wearing the exact same dress at an event. There are local fabric stores. Everything metal rusts in the salty air; it is a waste to get a new car, but since the US population is so transient, you can get a nice used car for a few grand. It was not too hard to learn to drive on the other side of the road; just remember that the driver goes on the dividing stripe side of the road, the passenger on the curb side. The weather is hot and humid in the summer, and nice in the winter. The monsoons are very manageable because you have a lot of warning and everybody just stocks up on movies and snacks, brings in their lawn furniture, and stays indoors until it is over. I could rave about Okinawa for a while. :) I was not homeschooling when I was there, but feel free to PM me if you have a specific question I could answer!

As long as dd is applying what she learned, we don't actually do much review. :blush: Sometimes I might pull out a handful of old word cards and have her spell them. We do review the rules cards every few weeks or when we add a new rule. We're only on level 2, though.