ABC....Admit (you are a sinner), Believe (He died and rose again), Confess (your sins)....sounds like it is possible that you already do the "three things" required by the Bible to be a Christian. When I say Christian, I just mean a follower of Christ. There is legalism everywhere. Hypocrites are everywhere. You have to overlook those things and find the true Christ that's buried underneath them all. You and God know whether or not you are a Christian (believer, saved, child of God, however you want to say it). And don't let the negative connotations skew your view of that word.....just a follower of Christ. If you are a follower of Christ, then you are a Christian. Like someone else mentioned, Satan uses all the "bad" things about Christianity to taint it for everyone else. He wants you to see all the hypocrites in church, all the people using God's name for other purposes, etc. That's exactly what he wants.....to turn it sour for you. I do believe that a follower of Christ would want to obey what's written in God's word. And some things need to be prayed about how they are interpereted.

Yes.....but that's not really my main reason for not speaking in a group. That may be partly it, but not totally. When with people I don't know (or don't know extremely well), my mind goes blank when thinking of things to say. I cannot think of a topic to bring up.....and when they bring up a topic, I just say the shortest answers possible and do not elaborate. I'm not really sure why that is. I'm not afraid of what they'll think of me....I just don't know what it is. But yes, I can post on a forum just fine. I can talk, talk, talk on the internet....in fact, that's where my husband and I met.

LOL! That is too cute! I love how kids say the funniest things! DD3 is always saying something funny. Here's a few of hers: She had the hiccups. I said "Boo, where did you get those hiccups?" "Wal-Mart", she replied. During the winter time she refused to wear a jacket. She informed me that she has fur, like a tapir (which actually does not have too much fur LOL), and that she didn't need a jacket. A few weeks later, we were out and about and she was cold....she asked for her jacket. She exclaimed "The puma ate my fur and now I'm cold!!" :D What in the world? LOL! DD6 (when she was 5) walked up to me with her chest puffed out and said "See my boobies?" My sister was standing there with me and said "No, I don't see anything." DDthen5 replied with "Well, that's why I need to exercise them.....so they'll get bigger."

Wow....I had absolutely NO idea that the back of the throat was so sensitive and easily pierceable! You guys have officially freaked me out and given me another (to add to my extra long list) kid-related thing to worry about! DD scratched the back of her throat with something when she was around 3 years old. I can't remember what it was though. It didn't pierce it though.

I never purchase CD's anymore. I love that I can go to iTunes and choose only my favorite songs from the album. I always hated having to skip over those songs that I didn't care for....now I only purchase exactly what I want. And it's always at my fingertips too.

Thanks for all the ideas!! I may have to make a trip to Target tomorrow and check out that craft cart.

DD6 loves to do crafts. She can pull out a thing of crafts and be busy for a while. That being said, I have all the crafts stored in our homeschool cabinet. It's not really easy access for her. I'd love to make it easy access for her to be able to get the crafts and use them.....yet still have them organized. Is there some sort of case, or organizer, or something that you use? I'd like to use it for things like pipe cleaners, magnet strips, buttons, feathers, glue, tape, jewels, googly eyes, noodles, popscicle sticks, etc.

I've been to Disney many, many times. Some of those times were with multiple families. Honestly, Disney is REALLY hard to do with more than one family. There are crowds, it's hard to stay together, one person is looking one way at something neat....another person is looking another way at something neat that they saw.....you are constantly trying to make sure everyone is with you. Everyone has their own idea of things they want to do, shows they want to see, rides they want to ride, characters they want to meet. Some people like going "commando" through the parks and seeing as much as they can see.....others like taking a more leisurely pace. Different age ranges want to see different things. I'd make a time and meet for dinner in the park, maybe try to stay together for an hour.....but after that, I'd part ways.

I'm curious about one thing.....if you own your own pool and DO allow mixed swimming with modest clothing, do you have any dress codes for your own pool? Something such as "one pieces only", or something like that? If so, how do you go about enforcing that? Do you warn people before inviting them over?

Just curious....are these people with 2 or more children throwing their own showers? If not, and someone wants to throw them a shower, how can they say "No, you can't do that." Someone is extending a nice gesture to them.....why would they turn down a nice gesture? I certainly didn't expect a baby shower with my second child. DD#1 was 2 years and 11 months when DD#2 was born. I had all of the big stuff. But my mom's friend and my mom wanted to throw me a baby shower. I wasn't going to say "No, don't do that" or in other words "I don't want your kind gesture." I think showers for multiple children are fine. Each baby is special and new....they deserve to be celebrated. You don't have to purchase something expensive. One small new outfit would be fine. Or one small toy. Or a photo album.

I must be a mean doggie mama LOL.....our two are not allowed on the bed.

That is so funny!! Only cause it is you and not me.....I could totally see myself doing that LOL!

I would not want to move. Is there nothing DH could find close by? I would be willing to sell things, live more simply, cut out all unnecessary expenses, purchase less, sell things....whatever...in order to stay.

We live in the North Florida area too. We NEVER go past our knees/thighs in the water. Not only due to sharks, but also the rip tide as well. The first time we ever really swam in the ocean was a few months ago on a vacation to the Gulf. The water was crystal clear, you could see if anything was swimming near you, and there were no waves. It was great to be able to actually swim in the ocean!

I remember what you are talking about! I think I had one. Actually, I have two similar things now. Disney had these large, floppy stuffed animals with zippers on the bottom. I now own, and sleep with :tongue_smilie:, Stitch and Simba. I cannot remember the name of the things you mentioned. I tried some googling but didn't come up with much of anything.

Yikes!! With all that you've had happen, I would want to be out of there too.

Oh no! That sounds expensive!

You are right....I really don't think this is a control issue. She really is afraid of it running down her leg for some reason. I think I will try what you mentioned. I will tell her that it is time for potty training.....but I will allow her to wear a diaper. I will just take her to the potty every 30 minutes. But hopefully the diaper will give her enough comfort so that she won't be anxious about it. Now if I can just convince her to sit on the potty.

There's a big difference between a tankini or a two piece that meets near the waist......and a little triangle binkini/thong type thing. I don't think that the teeny bikinis are okay. But something that meets near the waist is fine. But I also do not think that a dipping top that exposes nearly everything but the nipple is okay either....even if it is on a tankini. My girls wear a rash guard and board shorts. They won't be allowed to wear a bikini (maybe a tankini that meets near the waist). I prefer the former because, aside from the fact that it is modest, I only have to apply sunscreen to their faces.

Thanks for all the suggestions!! I'm all for the "wait till they are ready" approach. With my 6 year old DD, I just waited until nearly three years old and then I would just try to train her every month or so. If it didn't work out within the first few hours, I'd just give up and try again the next month. At 3 years and 4 months it just suddenly clicked and she never had an accident. I thought for sure that DD#2 would train earlier since she had a big sister to model how to use the potty and wear undies. But nope, she wants to take longer LOL. Potty training is just an issue that I'm not willing to stress over or push.....or clean up accidents all over my floor LOL. But I was just wondering if she's taking *too* long to train. Next week I may try again. I don't think she understands how to use her muscles to make herself pee when sitting on the potty. She just unconsciously pees while standing somewhere and wearing a diaper....but I don't think she knows how to make her body pee. And she's absolutely terrified of it running down her leg. That happened one time and you would think that it was jagged pieces of glass running down her leg....that's how badly she screamed LOL.

DD is 3 years and 5 months. Every time I even mention potty training she goes into a fit. If I pull out the potty she runs away. If I try to put on training undies she kicks her feet and rolls around so that I can't get them on. If I leave her without a diaper, she freaks out crying and grabs her bottom because she's afraid that pee will run down her leg. If I leave her like this, she pitches a terrible fit screaming that she wants her diaper back on. Good grief! :001_huh::001_huh::001_huh: I've tried telling her that big girls use the bathroom in the potty. She could care less. She knows that when she potty trains she gets to go to the toy store and choose something. She likes this idea....but not enough to do anythinng about it. She could care less about sitting in a wet or poopy diaper. I keep waiting.....and waiting....and waiting.....thinking "oh, I'll try next month." Next month she does the same thing. Do I just keep waiting? I really dislike changing a three year old's poopy diaper. I mean, surely she'll be trained by college, right?

Sometimes I feel like our non-school days just go by in a blur. The kids get plenty of playtime together, we eat lunch, I read to them some, I send them outside if it's not too hot (which, in Florida during the summer, it usually doesn't cool off till about 8 PM), etc, etc, etc. I want to do some more fun, interactive things with them. But something more than just making a craft or playing a game. We do pleny of that.....and I'm the one who gets bored LOL. I need something more entertaining to me. For example....today we read the book called "The Big Green Pocketbook." I happened to have two small green bags I picked up at Michael's for really cheap. I hid things around the house (tickets such as the ones the girl got on the bus, boxes of new crayons I had purchased for school, lollipops, a few quarters, a pack of silly bands I had stashed away, a pack of organic gummy bunnies...I tried to keep it similar to what the little girl put in her pocketbook throughout the story, but didn't have everything she did). Then I made clues and each time they found one of the trinkets, they would put it in their purse and read the clue attached (well, I helped read it). So they traveled through the house, collecting things in hiding places to put into their "big" green pocketbook. At the end, the last clue was a box of crayons and they were instructed to draw pictures (like the girl in the story did) and we would mail them to their cousins. Let me tell you, they absolutely LOVED this. Another example is that last week we made "princess twirlers". Really simple....tape a long piece of crepe paper to a pencil. I instructed them to choose their favorite song and I would get it out and get it ready. They were to go into the playroom, dress up in their dress up clothes, choose a toy instrument, make up some sort of march or dance together, and perform it while twirling their new princess twirler. They were to let me know when to start the music and they would parade out and perform. I'm looking for more unique things to do like this. Any ideas? Sometimes my brain hurts from trying to think of creative things to do LOL.

I am currently trying something new though. At 6 and 3 years old, my girls can wreck the playroom in 30 minutes. And it takes an hour to clean it up. When things get to cluttered in there, they have trouble sorting things and cleaning it up. So what I did was take everything that has lots of pieces (Playmobil, dress up bin, cars, animals, doll clothes, etc), put them into bins and put them into the closet. They must "check them out" with me if they want to play with them. They can have two things checked out at one time since sometimes they like to play with certain things together (such as Trio blocks and animals in order to make a zoo). If they want to take something else out, the first bin (or two) must be cleaned up and put away before they can "check out" another. Bigger items that are easier to clean up, such as the dollhouse, Little People House, Little People airplane, Pooh Bears TreeHouse, etc are on the shelf. Those do not have to be checked out because they are simple to clean up.....just set it on the shelf. Stuffed animals are in three (yes, three!) large bins in the corner. My girls LOVE LOVE LOVE stuffed animals, which is the only reason I allow them to keep so many. But these are easily tossed in a bin when finished with. I'm hoping this will help me keep my sanity.

I completely agree. I know exactly where you are coming from. Here lately I go and stand in the playroom and think "Do they really need all of this?" I've been looking for ways to simplify their toys. I told them the other day "Laura Ingalls had ONE doll....just one!" LOL. I have went through the playroom and gotten rid of everything they do not play with. They have TONS of toys. I also got rid of everything they rarely play with. It still needs simplifying though. I mean, we have a bin of ponies, a bin of little people, one of build a bear clothes, one of Trio blocks, one of dishes, one of wooden people, one of dress up clothes, puzzles, Zhu Zhu pets, Playmobil. I mean, I don't know how to get rid of any more. They actually rotate and play with these things. I think that what I'm going to do is just not buy a lot in the future. And as they outgrow these toys, we will get rid of them, and it will simplify. But as they get older, we will just purchase less. Although, that's a problem in itself because there are SOOOO many family members who love to buy them things. So I'm not sure how that's going to work.

I don't like boxing things up just for the sake of boxing them up. If they are just going to sit in a closet or something, it's just moving the clutter to another location in the house instead of getting rid of it. I usually keep books that I know I will want to re-read, or really good ones that I hope my children will read one day. As far as outgrown toys....if they were favorites of my kids, I try to keep a few so that they can pass them on to their children one day. If they were not favorites, I usually sell them on craigslist. I just really hate clutter.