I know this seems weird, but I chose the last option on the first question (absolutely NO to wanting to live in a big city) and the first option on the second question (I have lived in a big city and I enjoyed it). I spent the first (almost) 40 years of my life in a big city and I did enjoy it. It was the only life I knew. However, I have now lived in a much more rural area for almost 20 years, and I cannot imagine going back to city life.

Within the first few days, my son and his roommates agreed that whenever possible, they would use "the facilities" in their classroom building or the student center/library building, both of which are just across the courtyard from their place.

I don't have a recipe, but the best one I ever had was served hot and it had parmesan cheese in it.

One of the goals of this gap year program is to help kids develop personal discipline in all areas of their lives. The kids know going in that this is part of the deal. My son is grateful for it. The program definitely isn't for everyone. Another thing they do, which has kept some kids away, is that they have a couple of "no electronics" days each week, when the wi-fi is turned off in their apartments and classroom. And they don't have access to their phones except on Sundays or when they're traveling. Again, my son appreciates the "heads-up" relationship building. He and the other kids in the program have developed some really close friendships as they cannot hid behind their phones. I posted a link to the program above.

He is in the gap year program OneLife at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, PA. It is a fantastic program. He is learning so much and being challenged daily in many areas of his life. He will earn 30 credits this year, while getting a chance to travel, do lots of service projects, and various nontraditional learning experiences. You can find out more about it here: http://www.onelifepath.org/

Less than an hour after getting home, ds texted me from our guest apartment (attached to our house, but separate entrance), which is where he had been living for several years before going to college this Fall. His message? "This apartment is absolutely disgusting. I will be doing some serious cleaning tomorrow." (It is much better than it was when he was living there. They had twice-weekly room checks at college.) I like this change.

I am way past that stage of life, but yes, I would make sure that there were appropriate facilities available at the time I accepted the invitation or made arrangements for the visit. And, no, I wouldn't be ready to let someone into such areas of my house without some prep work.

I just heard on the news that some company -- in Texas, I think -- just told their employees they are all getting $100,000 bonuses this year.

I would choose San Francisco without a second thought.

I will have to remember this!

UPDATE: The gift I brought was "stolen" several times, so I guess it was a good choice. And I ended up with the most desired gift: a box containing six brand-new Oneida snack-sized dishes. There were also two recipe books and a nice candle in there. The gal who brought them was in a decluttering mode. The hostess had found a new version of white elephant gift exchange that was really fun. There was a rhyming thing she found that directed each person (by number) to choose a gift from the pile, and then do something else. Sometimes they had to exchange with a particular number, sometimes it was a double exchange, and sometimes they could choose to keep what they had opened. We ended up going around the circle twice. It was lots of fun. And then we played a couple of group games that had nothing to do with Christmas but were very fun. I haven't laughed that hard in way too long. I am so happy I made the change to this new church!

As someone for whom $9k would be a 1/3 family income cut, and whose husband is unable to work and getting sicker, and who has not had medical coverage for almost 18 years for herself and 12 years for her children, and who has a child who was diagnosed this year with a life-threatening condition, and who may now be facing losing coverage for that child because of some loophole in the ACA, I must say this sounds like a delightful decision to be making. I wouldn't hesitate to choose the benefits package over the money.

Seriously -- $5M? As in $5 million?

I haven't done any either. We will probably just do stockings again this year. The possibility of having two out of three sons together at Christmas for the first time in four years is all that matters for me.

Several years ago, I attended another ladies-only Christmas party, with my old church. The hilarious white elephant hit of the evening was some sort of Christmas underwear. I don't remember the details, but they were pretty racy, although not extremely so. The woman who opened the gift originally was our eldest member, a very proper English woman. She blushed profusely, and laughed. To my surprise, they ended up being "stolen" several times over the evening. The great thing was that they returned the next year, and I think one more year.

Thanks for the referrals to the spiritual abuse boards. I have done some digging around and am getting more confirmation that I made the right decision.

Here's what I ended up with: a Christmas coffee mug that comes packed with a package of hot chocolate mix and some peppermint bark candy. It was on sale at OfficeMax, of all places. Then I went next door to Party City and bought a Christmasy burlap wine bottle gift bag that is just the right size for the tallish mug and contents. I know that this group is not a "no alcohol" church, so someone may choose it expecting wine, but I don't think anyone will be offended by hot chocolate and candy instead.

Tomorrow evening, I am going to a ladies-only Christmas party with friends from my new church. I really don't know them very well. I'd love suggestions for an inexpensive ($10, I think ) gift to take for the White Elephant gift exchange. I don't have anything hanging around my house that I would want to take.

Check out the games section at Barnes and Noble. They have quite a few that look fascinating to me.

When we were first married, my dh told me I wasn't mopping the kitchen floor correctly. After all, he had been in the Navy, so he was trained to mop properly. At that moment, he became responsible for the floors in our house. I have a really cute picture somewhere of him showing a couple of our sons how to mop properly.

I made it pretty clear to the Elder I spoke with that I would be resigning my membership. They "released" me before I could get my resignation letter in. That part doesn't bother me. It's the fact that they don't want to talk about the issues, that they are automatically in the mode of telling the offended to get over it, rather than dealing with the offenses.

Actually, I was much more bothered by the fact that she kept referring to the squares which clearly weren't squares. Yes, I am that nerd.

I don't know what I would do without the Calendar system that came with my iPhone. I use it to keep track of my tutoring appointments, doctor's appointments, etc. I can set alarms to remind me, and I can even tell it to include travel time based on where I am at the time. It wouldn't surprise me if there is something cooler out there, but this works for me.

Oh, and I forgot Shazam. I don't have it, but my son does. When we hear a song on the radio, or in the mall, or whatever, he activates the app,holds it up for a couple of seconds, and it tells us what the song is and who the artist is. It blows my mind.

Just now, I received a weather alert that strong storms were heading our way. At the same time, the sky opened up and rain poured down, startling my Co-op students who are taking their Geometry semester final exam.