I'd like to finally bite the bullet and purchase a high end mixer. I'm confused by all the KitchenAid models though. If I'm going to spend hundreds, I'd like to get top quality and not buy another again. Which is the top end KitchenAid? Is it the. 600 Pro series? Is there a better one? What about Bosch? Is the Bosch mixer better? In what way? What model of Bosch is "the one to get"? Is there another brand I should be considering? Which would you get and why? Thanks for any help.

I had to do that for a month. It's a painful shot and stings for quite a while after. :( ouch !! I dreaded it every day and I ended up with a few spots that bruised something awful. :( Hmmm. Not very encouraging , am I? I meant to commiserate with you. :) My biggest hurdle was remembering to take it at the same time each day.

No,

There is an area in our home that is significantly colder than the rest of the house and it is become more apparent as the temperatures begin to drop. However, dh and I aren't entire sure what is causing this room to be so much colder and we need to know for sure before we go investing money in the wrong area. (There are are few possibilities that it could be and we don't have money to fix all of them) I'm not against hiring a professional (but would need someone reasonably priced) to help solve this mystery but I'm not sure who to call or what to look up in the phone directory. How would we go about (or what kind of professional would we call) to figure out what is causing this room to be so cold? We didn't have a formal home inspection done on this home as we had a friend, who is a building inspector, come and go through the home before we finalized the deal (he's moved out of state so we can't ask for his help anymore). It was also summer when we purchased so these issues were not readily apparent.

Congrats!! Enjoy your new little man. New baby smell!! *swoon*

I just got over that. 2.5 days of horrible chills and major body aches and no other symptoms. I was miserable. And then, as quick as it came on, I was 100% again. Nobody else in my family appears to have gotten it. I've never had anything like this before - it was not fun at all. :(

Dh cooked our last Thanksgiving dinner all on his on. Didn't get any easier than that for me. ;) He did a turkey, a ham, mashed potatoes, several kinds of veggies and gravy on his own but skipped rolls. He bought stuffing (gasp, I know, but I couldn't exactly complain when he was doing all the work) and the cranberry sauce. Wasn't as good as homemade, but we survived. ;) He also bought the pies. :) I vote buy as much as you can and see if dh is willing to cook the rest?

Thanks, everyone. You've given me a lot to think about and I'll see what I can implement. This child has some processing issues that make "simple" solutions not that simple to implement with her. She's also exceptionally "spacey" and lives "in her head", I'd venture to say 90% of the time so most of what she does is on auto pilot mode. We are working to correct this, but add in the processing issues and it goes round and round full circle. I'm not blowing off our discounting that she doesn't really know why the clothes end up there- most of what she does she just does without any forethought. Time and time again I've asked her to be aware of her laundry and I had hoped that at her current age she'd be old enough to do purposeful tasks, but perhaps not. I did ask her to be honest- that I wasn't going to be upset if she just told me she was lazy or didn't like the smell or whatever... that I just wanted a reason why this kept happening. She said she really didn't know. :confused1: I get this answer a lot. It amazes me how much she will do in a day and then have no real recollection of having done it afterwards. She'll put pots away in the wrong cupboard but then insist she never touched the pot at all when putting away dishes, etc. That sort of thing. I'm going to discuss with dh what ideas we can start to implement. I'm not happy with the wear on her clothes. Just last week one of her favorite dresses snagged on a pair of jeans (or something in the wash) and ripped. :( It's a knitted dress and can't really be fixed (also due to the location of the hole). Worst part? She hadn't worn the dress in weeks- it's one of those items that ended up in the wash and now it's ruined. :(

I went back and re read my OP and you are right- it does sound odd what I wrote and I wanted to clarify. I almost never tell dd what to wear, but every time I have, that item is dirty/smelly. Stuff like- please wear this leotard for dance today because you are wearing through your other (favorite) one or how about wearing that shirt/pants/dress that you begged me to buy you but now never wear. I don't insist she wear anything specific (I don't for any of my kids- even my 2 yo gets dressed alone most days) but I now and then I do make requests so that clothes I have spent money on actually see the light of day. As for the bedding- she has pretty severe environmental allergies and I do think hot water is best for bedding/dust mites what not. We use hypoallergenic soap and I have noticed for whatever reason that bedding smells better after being washed in hot or sanitary cycle. Really my biggest beef with this is the bed sheet takes up half the load so she ends up doing laundry more frequently. As for the soap- you don't know my but you just need to trust me on that one. I use a regular sized bottle. Dd can't pour anything without spilling or using it in excess. Yes, dh and I work to correct this with her but we are not making much progress. I kid you not and I wouldn't believe it either if I didn't live with this every day. She can't pour or measure anything without spilling. Ever. You should see my kitchen after she bakes. It's like a bomb went off. Flour everywhere, butter dropping off things, milk spilled. Every time. I can offer to pay her $10 to measure a 1/2 cup of milk without spilling and she just. can't. do. it. I have tried more hangers for this kid and that was even worse. Stuff was always falling off and her closer was a disaster. I do like your suggestion to cut down on clothes. I will do that next time she's at a friends house. I can't take clothes away while she's home- she won't part with anything willingly. I bet if I am selective as to what I make disappear she won't even notice they are gone. :)

It makes no sense to me either. I've asked her a ton of times- how can you not know how the clothes are getting there?? Best I can tell, she's getting a specific shirt out of a drawer and some fall out. She doesn't put them back in the drawer but throws them in the wash instead. I've asked her why she does this- it's really just as easy to put them in the drawer and I get a blank stare. A blank stare. That's it. It's not the same clothes that get washed over and over so the clothes falling out makes sense I guess. There is no where else to keep her hamper rather than in her room. No where. Our house isn't tiny but it lacks storage space. Plus, with a family our size, every space is accounted for. I truly can't move the hamper. There is no space in the bathroom, hallway, siblings rooms and our master bedroom is tiny - it's been a huge beef of mine since we bought this house.

North Face

I promise I'm not arguing- just clarifying. She puts the clean clothes away just fine. Does a good job, in fact. It's in the days between the clothes getting put away and the next laundry day that the clean things migrate to the dirty hamper. I don't really know how or when this happens exactly. If it were just on laundry day, I could fix it with your solution but I don't know when or why she is doing this and when asked, neither does she!

I'm going to consider this. Currently she only has a couple drawers- one for tops, one for bottoms, one for PJs so there's not a ton of sorting that needs to get done after a load is done. I'm not sure this is the issue. She puts her laundry away appropriately after it is washed (this part I do supervise). It's in the days after the clean clothes have been put away that it all falls apart. Honestly, I love my dd, but if I gave her two baskets, I can see her getting them constantly mixed up. Funny in some way, but it's certainly something she would do. :001_rolleyes:

The problem is not the "doing" of the laundry it's that she keeps putting the clean clothes in. By the time they've sat for a week with dirty clothes they smell and can't be put back in the clean drawers. I would have to inspect her laundry hamper and dresser nightly. I don't have time for that. I expect to do that for the kids younger than her (and I did the same when she was younger) but I think she's getting a bit old to keep doing this. I"m not talking 1 or 2 items. Sometimes it's 1/3 or more of the load. :glare:

My dd12 is really making me mad and I need some advice as to how to stop this. The problem? She constantly throws clothes that are clean into the dirty laundry. Her hamper is in her bedroom closet, and her dresser is in there as well. My best guess is it is much easier for her to just throw the clothes into the dirty hamper than to actually put them away? :confused1: (I've asked her and asked her and all I get is "I don't know") We have discussed this problem for over a year now. Yes. Over a year. :cursing: Some weeks are better than others but truly this has been a battle for a very long time. Another problem, related to this one: she doesn't throw her dirty/worn clothes into the hamper. You don't know how many times I've asked her to wear a specific shirt, only to find out that it's in her clean bin and smells awful. Not only that, but now, all the shirts around it smell awful too. I'm so very, very, VERY tired of this. I'm also tired of harping on her to put away her clean laundry (it's supposed to get put away after 24 hours of coming out of the dryer). She hates putting away laundry. We have discussed how putting clean clothes in the laundry doesn't solve any problems because she hates putting away clean laundry so the more she washes, the more she has to do this dreaded chore. We've talked about the cost of doing loads of laundry. We've talked and talked. And yes, I've yelled. :o Another thing is that she throws her bedsheets and blankets in her laundry as well. That's great that she takes that initiative (she only does it once every week or two so frequency isn't an issue) but I wash bedsheets and blankets on sanitary cycle. Always have. She knows this because she helps with laundry for her brothers and because I have asked her umpteen times to put her bedsheet and blankets in the special laundry hamper for such items. I wash clothes on cold and don't feel this gets bedding clean enough, especially think blankets. This part doesn't make me angry, but I'm a bit baffled why she can't just put her bedsheet in the bedsheet hamper? :confused1: I simply don't get it and frankly I don't know how to make this stop. She's 12. Is it too hard for a 12 year old to know clean clothes from dirty? To put a bedsheet in a hamper that is meant for bedding and towels? If it is too much to ask then I just need to know. She seems quite mature and capable of it but maybe I am out of line? She does do her own laundry. She's responsible to take the hamper down and put in the machine (I do the soap as she tends to spill everything she touches) and then transfer to dryer and then back out and put away. Hence, I strongly suspect she is washing clean clothes more often than I know because I don't tend to oversee what she does. From time to time, however, (like tonight) I go and help put clothes away so we can sit and visit a bit and then I see all these clothes that she hasn't worn in the clean laundry. I know this is minor in the grand scheme of life but it's not cheap to run the washer and dryer and we are trying to cut costs and it just seems so wasteful to me. How do I make this stop?

..

I do it fairly informally as well. I simply pick and choose what I want to cover based on what I think will interest my child and what I can get them to give some input on. We do some of the comprehension questions orally and I talk about some of the elements that I think are more relevant to my child at the time. It's nice to have quality stories to read and some guided discussions to have that I can carry a conversation while enjoying my coffee and keeping the toddler busy. I'll admit it- some days my mind is on autopilot. Don't worry about what you're missing by not doing it all and simply enjoy what you can get done. :). Sme is better than nine, right?

I've been quite impressed with the CLE Reading program. Below is a link to the scope and sequence for all their programs. It takes a bit of scrolling to get to the reading program but it is worth taking a look through. http://www.clp.org/documents/4314/original/Elementary_Scope_and_Sequence_2012-2013.pdf

I ended up buying a teachers guide when I first started with the program way back when (7 years ago now!). It was spendy but it saved my sanity (I had a new babe that year and my thinking was fuzzy at best). I still refer to it now and then when starting off another child down the WRTR path so in the end it wasn't too outrageous of a purchase. :)

Ok, I don't really have "the flu" but I came back from dr and I have some viral thing. Chills, muscle aches, pains, sore lymph nodes. More than a cold but not as bad a the flu. I don't typically get fevers when I'm ill so lack of fever is not much if an indication as to what ails me. One of my kiddos is supposed to go away to camp for the weekend. Ugh. I know this board is not big on keeping the healthy kids home but I am torn. Obviously at some point, this child will be exposed (I was completely symptom free yesterday) and camp is a 2+ hour drive to pick them up should she become ill. I don't want to infect others and I also don't want her to bring home another nasty bug to a family that will likely be mostly unwell (I have 3 kids who are not school age and you know how they go down). I also don't see the need to keep a healthy kid home. What would you do??

I don't like creepy-scary movies like The Exorcist or movies with similar themes so I have not watched any like that. There seems to be a lot of previews for such movies on TV and the previews are creepy enough for my liking. The scariest I've seen that stick out in my mind are "I am Legend" and the newest version of King Kong. Ack. That movie made Jurassic Park seem like a Disney cartoon and I didn't want to get up and pee in the middle of the night for weeks after watching I am Legend. Lol.

I've got a lot of irons in the fire at the moment and could use some help with what to do with my second grade child this year. I keep overthinking this and it's stressing me out. :( He's currently working through CLE reading 2. It's quite easy for him but the program ramps up in difficulty by 4th grade so I do not want to skip ahead in the program. It is also good phonics review and he seems to enjoy it. I need to add in more for reading but am not sure what and how much. I could really use some advice here. He reads books like Dragon Slayers Academy, Magic School Bus chapter books (not the picture book ones) and is getting into Spiderwick Chronicles to give you an idea where he is with his reading. I do have him read aloud to me every other day from am Elson Reader or something similar. (I like the older language and more difficult vocabulary for reading aloud to me). I'm not sure if we should do a "More First Favorites" (Veritas Press) type book or maybe an easy novel study? Or is what we are doing enough and I should just have him read for min 30 min to himself each day? (Outside of free reading time- this would be part of school work). If reading to himself is enough, what sorts of books should I be looking at assigning? And for how long should he be reading each day? I do want to assign books as he will gravitate to simpler books. - great for free reading but I want to keep him challenged. Any help would be appreciated.

I'm having a tough time doing school with my ds7. One of our biggest struggles is that this child has very minimal retention. We spent all last year (gr 1) and the year before working on him to learn his address and phone number. Finally, by the end of first grade he had it without having to think. Now? Nope. Doesn't even know his house number. In fact, he can't even tell us what state he lives in. :( seriously??? I read about all the great things people do with their second graders on this board and this child can't even name all 7 days of the week. He used to know this. Nor does he understand week days and weekends. He doesn't remember months of the year even though we have done that over and over as well- it's qeven covered in FLL. (Sigh) This isn't from lack of trying on my part. We spent last year drilling and drilling and drilling. Little facts, like what our neighbourhood is called or what state we live in, but it's all gone. All the things one takes for granted that their child knows- he doesn't. In fact , I cringe when people question him because if anyone is going to make us look like "that" homeschooling family, it's him. Teaching him is discouraging. He has no recall of almost anything. Some days I get frustrated and think "what's the point?" Why spend all this time teaching him when he won't care to remember any of it. I would rather spend my energy on the other kids who are learning and moving forward. I don't ignore him, of course, but it's tempting. I know kids don't easily recall things of little interest to them but seriously there is nothing of interest to this child. He doesn't recall anything from science, he has no interest in history, obviously basic common knowledge is lost on him. Oh sure he does his school work. He enjoys science and can write a good simple paragraph. He reads Magic Tree House and Magic School bus books with ease. His writing is solid. He usually makes one or two errors per paragraph- forgets to start a sentence with a capital letter or sometimes there is no period, but his sentences are good and spelling has no mistakes. His math skills are good and he's pretty good with math facts. So what do I do? Do I go back and review grade one all over again and spend yet another year trying to get him to remember his address??? Ugh. I feel like we can't go on when he can't remember a day of the week. Is this a sign of a learning disability? Or is he just a disinterested kid? I have not found any one area that is a passion for him. So interest based learning is difficult with him because he has few interests. I'm trying to be understanding but clearly I am missing something. How do I get him to remember anything? I can't even send him to school. They'll think I've done nothing with him the past two years. I don't even know if they would place him in second grade. :( Ugh. I feel like it's all been a great waste of time.

We use IEW and in the videos he recommends that kids get one once they get to a certain point. We get our kids one once they start third grade, or are able to write two solid paragraphs on their own. I know there are ones online but my kids like having their own little electronic device and I find they get a lot of use. It makes for some colorful (in a good way) writing. :) I don't recall the brands we buy but we buy from Staples when on sale and they've cost us around $50 or so.

I was thinking of getting either a bouncy chair type thing or a nice carrier. Thanks to the suggestions up thread. But baby is 3.5 weeks and no sign of reflux ( older sib had so mom is worried it will happen again). Is it a good sign if he's already 3.5 weeks and nothing? Or is it not an indication of anything?