Have you ever socialized with your neighbors? Ie. actually gone to their house or had them over or gone somewhere with them? Generally, no. We are on speaking terms, but we each have our own social groups. That said, we are all friendly toward one another and will help each other in times of emergency. What do you take when your tummy is upset? Mint tea How is next week looking for you? Proofs for book due, test/homework for class not yet done, Board meeting, two birthday parties, one dinner party, tea and chat with sick friend, volunteer at library, volunteer at sports booster club, 6 hours of class time, husband going overseas this week and child going overseas for sport competition this coming weekend. I'd like to get three 5k runs done this week and an evening out to a concert scheduled. Oh and I need a dentist appointment for a tooth that's bugging me and I have a several sewing projects that need finished. Is that enough?

Yes, My astigmatism ebbs and wanes with the amount of reading and computer work that I do. The more I have eye strain the stronger it is. Stick with your prescription as written.

You say nothing, your daughter is eight. It shouldn't be on her radar at this time. It is my personal opinion that the woman's due date and wedding date are really none of my business. I only can affect my actions and not those around me. I would tell them congratulations, once on their wedding day an once when the baby arrives. I would heartily mean it both times and then leave it be. It's not about me and my views at all.

General rules for "stuff". 1. Consider the area and it's function. Look beyond the stuff for the moment and consider the physical space you want to organize and in your mind decide what function that place in you home should have. For example: Front hall closet: This is the place for getting dressed/undressed for leaving the house. 2. Remove all items from said place and sort the items. One pile for garbage, one pile for donation, one pile for this doesn't belong here, and one pile for this belongs here. For example: Garbage - it's worn out, junk, doesn't work and broken and I'll fix it someday----all this goes into the garbage. Donation: - too small, the children have grown, don't need it for this particular house and I simply don't like it any longer. Doesn't belong here: Christmas decorations, off-season clothing, cleaning supplies, library books, AND your donation pile. What does belong: I want coats, hats, mittens, boots, a boot tray, raingear, and perhaps one or two spare book bags. 3. Look carefully and the space and the pile that should now go back into the spot. Will everything fit? Consider repeating step two if the answer is no. Now, go shopping IN YOU OWN HOME FIRST! What have you already got that will help you put everything back in its place. It doesn't have to look like "Martha Stewart" lives here, just functional. A VERY important step...the donation pile goes into a bag and into the car/van right now. There is no stopping in the garage with this stuff and certainly not in the attic or basement. It goes now! 4. Now live with it for a while and put a little note nearby for the real shopping list of boxes, clips and whatcamacallits that will finish off that space. You'll be surprised by what you DON'T need. After a little while you will have a very clear idea about what is absolutely necessary, and have a coupon from Bed, Bath and Beyond for the sale. ;) So bending this for homeschool, identify your homeschool "space" withing your home. Sort your stuff so that only what is need for the year is out and what you are saving for another child or for next year is in boxes and labeled for storage. What is finished toss, give away, or if possible sell. (I put the emphasis on toss or give away. The most expensive bit about anything is your time. Consider this in the cost of selling items. Don't you have something else to do other than boxing, labeling, and driving to the post office, setting up garage sales, and organizing used curriculum sales, dealing with paypal, bad payers and "lost" deliveries. Every single one of you has better things to do than that. Bless someone with nicely offered give away and be done with it.) Put away only what's needed and avoid like the plague homeschool conference halls, Rainbow Resources, and for sale boards. ;) Shopping for the latest organizing system should be the very, very last step. You need to know what space you have and what you need to store. You can't answer those questions fairly if you have sorted and junked first. Stay away from pineterest and the like, it's marketing where the work is done by unsuspecting unpaid worker bees...sorry users.

I'd consider yourself lucky. In the rental houses in the US, the repairs were done so badly it was less hassle to do it yourself. With our luck, the landlord would come to paint the deck on a day that I'd want to use it for a luncheon party. He's spill the remainder of the stain on the grass and plants and my kid would get into it ruining his clothes, the bedroom carpet and three bath towels in that order. I insist we do all the repairs necessary, I notify the landlord that the problem is taken care of and I don't mention the cost. Even without reimbursement, it is often cheaper than dealing with the landlord if I factor in our time and the other costs of shoddily done work.

A porridge with a small bit of cream. A boiled egg with one slice of wwheat toast. Fruit in season. If lucky, mackerel, herring, or trout with the egg.

I agree that you should have been informed so that you could make the right decision for your family. You are not being old fashioned. That said, given that there were four of them and in one room, I'd say odds are that nothing serious happened. We are in a much different situation and our son has traveled with his companions, both boys and girls, all through out Europe for competitions. I don't worry. These kids have been together since being 12 and 13. They have shared alot of personnal stuff due to training conditions, not one of them is interested in each other after coming in from racing. Food yes! Each other no.

Awwww. He wants your complete and undivided attention. Play with him, then offer him some catnip. He'll sleep the rest of the afternoon.

You're fine. If the lids are sealed, you're good to go. As the sauce sits on your shelf over the year, it will settle out even more. Turn the jar a couple of times before you open it.

Having very recently traveled... I can tell you this. Everyone should have a carry-on. Check and MAKE sure you are undersized on this. The airlines are getting really nasty about this. One leg of my recent trip had the airline people trolling the waiting passengers looking for oversized bags. Oversized carryons were taggged for checked luggage and get this ....as we were the last flight out that day...all gate checked luggage would be forwarded on the first flight out the following day. You didn't have a choice. Either the luggage got checked ($50 bag fee also) or you gave up your seat. I was glad to have a small duffle for me and my son's back pack for him. Now the good news. Select you inflight luggage to be just large enough to hold 1 pair PJ's, 2 changes of underwear, and 1 set of "street clothes". You should pack you necessary electronics, necessary meds, necessary travel papers, toothbrush, small tube of toothpaste, small tube of shampoo, comb, razor. Amusements for the plane: book, crosswords, or my favorite...valium. All the remaining stuff gets divided among the checked luggage. Check with your airline, usually you get one bag per passenger. USE IT. Doesn't mean that you need all gargantuan bags, but if you have five in your family...Check five bags. Now, distribute the clothing and shoes evenly through those five bags. That is to say if everyone is going for two weeks, then each person should have one pair of shoes, and 2-3 complete outfits in each bag. Break up the remaining checkable toiletries also. That way if one bag goes missing no one person is out all of their clothes. The likelyhood that all your luggage goes missing is small, but you've got that covered with your hand luggage. If one bag goes missing, you've still got the majority of your stuff for EVERYONE in the remaining bags giving you the cushion of time to let the airline do it's job of finding your missing items. HTH.

Such wonderful news! Congratulations! To hubby: Keep up the good work! We are all proud of you for battling back.

We rent holiday homes all the time, due to diet issues which makes eating out all the time difficult. The general rule of thumb is that that the supplies are there for you to use, however if you use it all up it is generally a good thing to replace it with the same product. I do this within reason....laundry soap yes, ...the small "hotel" bar of soap in the shower after a week no.....salt or olive oil in the kitchen yes, community issued garbage bags for refuse collection no. Normally, it adds no more than 5-10 dollars for a week to the holiday cost. We figure we'd drop far more than that on tips at restaurants for the week, so it's a savings in the end and it builds good will with your landlord. This will help if you want to rebook the home the following year.

Yes all the time. And it will depend on who I'm thinking about. This happended during a conversation this summer with my parents...quand le sujet est mes amis, je parle francais....mit meinem Ehemann spreche ich Deutsches...and with my son, English. It happened all seamlessly in my head. I never noticed it until my mother said something. I had to make a real effort after that to use my English. Also, my spelling in all three languages is a mess.

Good Lord I hope so, because I it isn't here. ;) For clarity, here as in here on earth in general, and not here and is here on the forums.

For our house, it's not a question of when to bed, but a question of getting up. We must be up at 6am. If you're not making that time with a happy face, you need to go to bed earlier. Soooo, during the school year this means quiet time begins at 9pm. That is, at 9pm everyone in their rooms for quiet study, reading or listening to music on headphones. I don't enforce bedtime but highly encourage a 10 to 10:30pm bedtime. I do enforce the morning routine with a cheery vengence that is highly annoying to sleepyheads.