My daughter who is 10 is doing this kit. It's needlepoint. But it is stamped. It's fairly detailed though and she enjoys it. She would be able to do counted cross stitch if it was small. She likes needle felting (there are some cute kits to make wool animals) and latch hook rugs (they have stamped patterns for those). ETA: I forgot the link! https://www.michaels.com/dimensions-needlepoint-kit-ladybug/10217185.html

The new OBGYN in town is Dr. Born One of my college professors was named Rocky Robins.

My 4 year old loves Nate the Great and Ivy and Bean

These are great ideas! I thought about Amazon as well. I was just hoping I could come up with something she would like. But I'm suddenly feeling old as I try to remember things I liked when I was youn and single. Wow. I'm so super fun now apparently. Ugh!

I may need to tell my hubby to talk to some other co-workers who actually live in that town to find out where people like to eat and find out what nice shops are there. We don't do anything in that town at all so I feel clueless. My hubby eats and works on a campus. Then he commutes to our town which is 45 min away. So that's why I know nothing about that area. And I know she lives in that town near the campus.

My husband's assistant has a birthday this week. He has no idea what to get her. Sigh. I don't know her super well so I'm feeling stumped. Things I know: she is in mid 20's and likes outdoor activities like jogging and biking. And that's about it. Other than, she's dating a local teacher. Gift ideas? If I knew her better I might have some ideas. But I just don't. What can he get her that would be a nice gift without being overly personal? She's a really wonderful assistant and very sweet so I feel awful I can't come up with anything. Edit: I should have specified...where she lives and works is a super small town. No mall. Very very few restaurants (other than McDonald's and Taco Bell). Very limited shops. We don't live in that town. My hubby just works there so I'm not familiar with shops in the area. And again. The options are so limited. That makes gift cards really hard. I could maybe find a bike shop there - if there is one. But she might go to another town to shop. And I'm not sure which one.

My 8 year old son has a lot of audible favorites. Not all of them are quality literature. He likes the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates Fablehaven Harry Potter Percy Jackson Swallows and Amazons My Side of the Mountain Crunch by Leslie Conner Lemoncellos Library (and others) Book Scavenger Peter Pan 101 Dalmatians

No. we do not drink milk and my kids don't either. 3 of my daughters are allergic to milk. My hubby and I do sometimes eat cheese or dairy products (when we're not around the girls). But we never drink milk. I think milk is gross. My kids drink hemp milk. They get calcium from veggies or other sources.

We have our first meet on Saturday - ALL day! Give me your best tips please! This is our first meet. I have no idea what to expect and I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed. I have 4 kids on the team - girl 10, boy 8, girl 7, and girl 5. Older kids are in 5 events each and the youngest is only in 2 events. My oldest is doing an IM and the 100 fly. Umm. I'm so nervous!!! I'll also have 3 year old daughter and 6 month old baby. Fun times! And my kids have food allergies so I'm stressing about food (and yes I'll pack them tons of snacks). Anything you wish someone had told you about swim meets?

My child has multiple food allergies. I would never assume that a friend would remember them all and prepare a safe meal. I never let my child eat food prepared by someone else. I always send along food for her and extra snacks just in case. (The only exception is grandma's house. My mom has a good understanding of allergies and she runs all food options by me first). Usually we never go to anyone's house during meal times anyway. We have people over to our house for meals.

No. to be clear, I've said nothing to my child and I've said nothing to anyone actually. I got the email and was very surprised so I've decided to try to think of sulotions today before I talk with troop leaders. I also wanted to give myself time to pull myself together and be less upset before I spoke to them. My dd is actually with grandparents today as they came from out of state to visit us. So I'm using my time to clean the house, catch up on laundry, and figure out what I should do. Also, I know that they are volunteers and that somewhere someone got confused and made a mistake. So I'm not blaming people and I don't want to be rude to them. I do want to have some solutions in mind before I speak to them though. (And I'm also one of the volunteers, as I help lead one of the age groups. So I'm very aware that we're all just volunteers trying to do the best we can). I posted here to give me some perspective before I spoke to anyone. I didn't want to be rash. Because I did cry and I knew I wasn't thinking too clearly at that particular moment. So I stepped back to think and calm down. And yes. It's very disheartening when people care more about food than people being able to participate. It is very hurtful. So I deal with that with my daughter on a regular basis. It's sad. Sometimes people are very rude about it and act like she's an inconvenience. Not fun. It's hard to watch your child hurting. I would give anything to find a cure or help her.

So far I've said nothing to my child as I'm trying to come up with a solution. I think I will have the coordinator explain to my child the change instead of me. Then she can ask questions and get answers. I don't think I should have to be the one to tell her the news but rather be there with her when she hears the news. I think if anything we are going to plan a family vacation and do something on our own. Or at least a day trip. I don't want to stress of planning something with these people right now. And I don't want to be responsible for making reservations and coordinating. I'm not going to dwell on it for days. But I am sad and wanted to figure out any alternative. When I got the email last night it was very unexpected and threw me for a loop. It was very out of the blue when the previous guidelines have been followed for more than ten years by this troop. So I did lose sleep last night because at 10 pm I read the email and it came as a shock to me. I started the thread to ask for solutions because I knew you ladies would have good ideas. I'm not letting a camping trip ruin my life. It's sad and it sucks but I'm trying to figure out what to do. So I'm going to write down all the suggestions everyone has given and talk them over with my husband and see what would be best for our family. I just wanted to see if anyone had other solutions than the ones I proposed in the original thread. And one thing that you may not realize or understand is that this kiddo has food allergies. She is often excluded intentionally or unintentionally from many activities. She deals with disappointment on a daily basis. We've had to leave churches over their refusal to stop serving chocolate donuts or peanut butter snacks in her Sunday school classroom. Wow! She's had more than her fair share of discrimination. And this was one event where the leader had already worked out safe foods with me. So that's why this comes as a huge blow to our family. So please don't assume I'm not modeling resiliency for my kid. This trip was about being included in something despite her disability. And now she's excluded for something else. It is very hard for her. But I'm proud of the strong and compssionate person that she's becoming.

And for the record I never said the rules were changed to spite me. Or that it was somehow an attack on me. This rule affects all the girls who are 3rd grade and below. I'm sad for all of them. It affects my daughter and any other girl 3rd grade or below that wants to go. It is terribly upsetting for all of them. And it's really not fair to them since they've been waiting until 2nd grade to go camping. And suddenly they are told they have to be in 4th grade to camp (while in all previous years 2nd grade and older could camp). It's really not fun for them to hear that. But I never alsaid I was being personally attacked or I felt like someone was retaliating against me. I'm mad that the rules changed mid year and in the middle of planning for a campout. I'm mad that it was last minute after I've bought gear and my daughter had planned to go. My child is having to suffer for someone else's mistake. And honestly, that really sucks. And when you're 7 it's hard to understand that the adults changed the rules on you. When you're 7 you do take that a little personally. But I never said I thought they were trying to spite me. It's just a horrible last minute change that is very disappointing. And expensive.

This is my issue. Thanks for articulating. I'm still working on a solution. And now I'm getting a massive migraine from being up half the night stressing over it.

Oh no! I'm so sorry you had to go through this too. It's so frustrating and it's so sad for the girls. Plus, wasting money on camping gear is maddening!

That's a great idea. I'll look into that as well. I knew you ladies would have some new perspective for me! I'm so mad that I'm having a hard time thinking of solutions.

Ok, this is part JAWM and part WWYD........ My daughters are part of a scouting organization. One is 5th grade one is 2nd grade. In the past years our troop had a rule that the girls had to be 2nd grade or above to go on a campout without a parent present. Older daughter has gone campaign with troop. Younger daughter obviously has not gone yet. The first troop wide campout of this new troop year is in a few weeks. I signed them both up 3 weeks ago and bought camping gear for younger daughter. I talked with our troop leader about younger dd going and about her food allergies and we had a food plan worked out. I contacted the camping coordinator about allergies so we could all be on the same page as far as what to serve during the campout. I get an email last night from the new camping coordinator (it is one of the dads and it's his first year in charge of organizing campouts) saying that my younger dd could not go. After re-reading the guidelines in the literature provided by the organization, he found a progression chart that showed the younger girls should do hikes, day camps, or cabin camping for one night. In his email he said he found that the girls are not supposed to do a two-night campout unless a parent is present. So, now the rules are changed and I'm told that one of us has to go. I have a new baby and am absolutely not camping with her. My hubby had other plans for the weekend and would rather not go either. Also, we would have to buy our own tent and all of our own camping gear because as an adult we can't share a tent with all the kids. I own ZERO camping gear except for the sleeping bags and things I purchased for my daughters (our troop provides large tents for the girls to share). So for one of us to go camping, I would be purchasing a lot of gear. I contacted our troop director and reminded her of our conversation about my daughter attending and asked why I got an email from the camping coordinator saying that she cannot go. She said that the organization had a chart showing the ideal progression for outdoor activities and that girls under 3rd grade should not go tent camping and should not camp out for more than two nights. She also told me that the camping coordinator had changed his mind about allowing the younger girls after coordinating and attending a campout for the older girls. She said she tried to talk him in to allowing the younger girls to go as long as a parent was present. It sounds like a two-fold issue : they are saying that the organization does not allow 3rd graders or below to camp without a parent (and that they were accidentally and unknowingly breaking the rules in past years) and that the camping coordinator has changed his mind and doesn't want younger girls to attend anyway, I've already told my daughter she's going, signed her up, and bought her the gear. I cannot go camping with the baby. My hubby cannot go without a change of our plans and a significant expense to purchase a lot of camping gear for himself. I am so, so, so upset! My daughter has been looking forward to being old enough (2nd grade) to be able to go camping with her sister! So, I have a few thoughts..... 1 - I'm going to call the organization and get clarification on this camping progression. Is it just a set of guidelines? Or is it a hard and fast rule? 2 - I'm going to talk to troop coordinator about allowing the younger girls to go on this campout (just like they have allowed them in the past years) since they had already set the signup parameters months ago. Then after this campout they can change the rules going forward. Depending on how those conversations go, I'll have to make decisions. I guess my options are to send my hubby and purchase a crapload of camping gear, Drive my younger daughter up for the day only and not allow her to spend the night (it's a two-hour round trip for me and a waste of all the money I spent on her camping gear), or not allow my daughter to go (or maybe neither daughter to go). Thoughts? I wouldn't have been so upset if it wasn't something my troop had been doing for years and if they hadn't changed the rules just a few weeks before a campout (when everyone had committed to going and purchased gear, etc). And I've already told my daughter she was going and she is counting on going! And she's been waiting to be old enough to do this. Now they're saying she can't camp this year or even next year!

I'm using AAR. It does introduce the phonograms slowly and then work with them one at a time. My son needs that. If I try to introduce a bunch to him before teaching through them slowly he gets overwhelmed. This leads to him panicking when he sees a word and guessing rather than sounding it out. For my daughter the program does feel a little slow. If she's reading a book then I do casually introduce phonograms that she comes across. Some of them do stick with her. So I just move her through the program more quickly. I have no real suggestions. Just agreeing with you that it can feel slow. But my son would probably not learn any other way. So we plod forward. And I feel like I'm dying a slow and painful death. Yay for reading! It's my least favorite thing to teach! Blech!

My kids at 3 started listening to some of the Jim Weiss stories. They are somewhat short. My 3 year old currently enjoys Nate the Great and Ivy and Bean. She listens while she plays legos or with her my little pony. She also listens during rest time in her room. She doesn't listen very well but that's ok. My older kids listen to SO many audiobooks. It's crazy!!! They have quiet time in their room at 8 (because mom is very done by 8). They listen until bedtime. It's really wonderful!

Ok. My dd is in 5th this year and I have lots of littles. We school for forever it feels like right now! Ugh! 6 AM - 7 AM - direct teaching time for grammar, math, Latin, writing 7-8 - work independently 9-9:30 - read to siblings 9:30 - 11:30 - piano, independent work, reading time, treadmill time 1-2:30 - group bible time, science, history, and "circle time" Done by 2:30 or sometimes 2

Wow. That's a long time! Ok. Thanks for the update.

Have we heard from Landry as to when they will be in our accounts?

Super creative topic title I know..... Some family members have asked us what we want for Christmas. I know I want "kitchen stuff" because we have a large family and cook all the time. They are asking for specifics and I need some help from the Hive. I need recommendations for brands and products. I want some good knives and a nice cutting board. It doesn't have to be a knife set but it can be. The knives we have now are old and were not good brands to begin with. So they don't stay sharp and I find them frustrating to use. What are your favorite knives and cutting boards?? And what about pots? I need more large pots. Favorite brands? I think I have enough glassware and dishes. Any other kitchen things that I should consider? What are your must have kitchen supplies? I don't know what else to ask for. Honestly I just want a nap. We've had a super stressful past few months and having them ask me every week for Christmas ideas is stressing me out. I think I'm going to ask for a museum membership and help purchasing some new patio furniture. But I know I need more kitchen stuff. But I need help with my list.

These! My favorite!

I have wanted to do this but haven't found a doctor in my area who does it. I wish my daughter was not allergic to dairy or eggs. It's so scary and so hard. I've wondered if it works in the long term and the thought of trying it terrifies me. But if it would work...sigh.