Lebanon, as long as it's January 2010.

We got a bread box about 6 or 7 years ago. Ours is wood. I put the bread in a bread bag in addition to putting it in the box. I'm not really sure that the box makes that much difference, since I put it in plastic anyways, but it makes it so people always know where the bread is (or the muffins or whatever). I only store one loaf in there at a time and keep the rest in the freezer. We currently live in a very soggy climate and I have also used the bread box in a very dry climate. I ought to try storing the bread without plastic, since it wouldn't dry out here, but I definitely wouldn't ever store bread unwrapped in bread box in a dry climate, unless it was going to be gone by the end of the day.

So, Julie, are you normal?

64 during the day, 56 at night (although it rarely gets that cold). The first time we were in law school, we did 60 degrees during the day in a much colder city than we live in now. I don't think I could do that again.

I've spent a lot of time in B&N looking at the Nook this week. I haven't ever held a Kindle in my hands, but have researched it quite a bit, and I own a Sony Reader. I like the Nook a lot, but I'm not sure I'd get one right now. It runs a little slow (although they're planning to address that problem by spring, and since you wouldn't get the Nook till February if you ordered today, the slowness might not be an issue anymore), and it seems a little buggy. One of the three Nooks that was sent to my B&N wasn't working correctly when it arrived. If I wanted a reader today, I'd go with the Kindle, because it would get to my house much faster and it's just more reliable right now. I'm looking at buying one in May though, and I very much hope that the bugs will have been worked out of the Nook, because I just liked it better than most everything I've read about the Kindle. The only thing I like better about Kindle (and it's a big thing) is that it has a lot more unique content available. B&N has a huge library available for the Nook, but it's mostly free books that are available elsewhere. I'll be watching to see how quickly B&N adds new content to its store. B&N has lowered its prices on its ebooks and they are now generally the same price as Kindle books. MobileRead is a great place to learn more than you ever wanted to know about e-readers. There are plenty of opinions there regarding your question. Right now, you can only lend a book one time, to one person, and not all books have that option- it's up to the publisher, I believe.

I loved my wrap (I had a different brand, but I'd go with a Moby if I was choosing one today). I picked it up used at a consignment store, so it wasn't very expensive. I also have a Maya Wrap that was wonderful too, but when my baby was little, I preferred the wrap to the sling because it held the baby more snugly. The wrap was also easier on my back when I was walking long distances.

Well, this Christmas is going to be different, but not because of our finances or homeschooling (those have been the same for years), but because we just found out that our attic is completely wet and moldy and we need to move before Christmas. Fortunately, we're already a pretty simple family when it comes to Christmas. Everyone is excited about decorating again for Christmas. We've been doing something small every day of the month and can keep doing that, and we'll hopefully be mostly settled in the new place by Christmas Eve. I'd be cancelling a lot of things if we'd planned to do a lot this year, or feeling pretty awful if I had some extreme sense of guilt over providing a perfect Christmas for my children.

I don't think there is a magic program out there for any language. Unless you only want to be able to read the new language, you've got to find someone to talk to, preferrably a native speaker. However, your taking the time now to study Dutch as much as you can would make a huge difference if you ever get to live in Amsterdam. I have seriously studied Arabic, Russian, and Persian as an adult. I learned Arabic the best because I had spent a couple of years studying it before I went to an Arabic-speaking country, and then spent 5 months intensively studying and speaking Arabic. I could speak decent Arabic at the end of that time. I also had to learn Russian while living in a Russian-speaking country. I didn't know much Russian before I left though- just the basics. I didn't progress anywhere near as fast in Russian as I did in Arabic, because I hadn't had the chance to prepare as well. I'm hoping to live in a Persian-speaking country next year, so I'd better get back to studying that one. I'd rather repeat the Arabic experience than the Russian one. As for learning Dutch or French, you're more likely to learn the language you really want to learn. If you really don't care, then French would probably be easier, because of your exposure to it when you were young (unless you really were totally oblivious in all your French classes for all those years). French also has more resources for learning it, along with more people to talk to for practice.

I've started doing a lot more soups from all over Asia. We eat several very simple red lentil/masur dal soups. We've all gotten hooked on a very easy noodle soup, which is just basically homemade or rice noodles boiled in chicken broth, with a little chicken or tofu added if you like. We all like to add different flavorings. I do sesame oil, a bit of sugar, homemade chile paste, and rice vinegar. One of my boys likes soy sauce and black rice vinegar in his. I also make a vegetable fish soup and a rice soup with a bit of pork in it.

I went to B&N today and spent about 45 minutes trying one out. For some background, we have a Sony reader (touch edition), and I've read a lot about the Kindle, but have never held one in my hands. I really liked the Nook. I think the design is much better than the Kindle (although I imagine that someday soon Kindle will get rid of that keyboard and get a touch screen). I thought the Nook was as easy to use as the Sony Reader, although I'd like to spend more time trying things on the Nook before I'd considere buying one. I didn't really notice any bugs while I was trying the Nook, although the store did say that one of their 3 Nooks on display wasn't working correctly. It was pretty slow though, but I was told that upcoming software updates are supposed to fix that. One of my concerns about the Nook was whether new content could be purchased overseas. You can't do that, but if you have someone in the US who has access to your Nook account, they can purchase new content which you can then load onto your Nook wherever you are in the world. That was good news for me, because I had originally not considered the Nook because I thought there was no way to get new content if you weren't in the US. I think the Sony Touch/Kindle 2/Nook size is a good size and don't see a real need to get a DX. Nook reads many more file types natively than Kindle does, although many of those files can be converted so Kindle can read them. For me, the decision between a Nook and a Kindle will come down to available content to purchase. Right now, Nook technically has a bigger library, but most of that is what's already available for free online (and we can get all that on our Sony reader). Kindle has more unique content, and it's often less expensive. I'll be watching to see how quickly B&N moves to get new, unique content available. We will need another reader before summer, and I'm leaning toward the Nook right now, as long as B&N keeps adding new content and there aren't major bugs that crop up in the new few months (and that slowness problem gets fixed).

From Heaven Lake by Vikram Seth is one of my favorite travel books. I also like Ella Maillart's books about traveling in China and Central Asia almost 100 years ago.

You can't give a Kindle book as a gift. All you can do is send your mom a gift card and she can get something herself. http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=help_search_1-1?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200375750&qid=1259646902&sr=1-1

I've had good luck using natural peanut butter in several different recipes that called for regular peanut butter. It's never been a problem for us.

Last year the tree was next to the back door and we couldn't use the door all December. This year we got a much smaller tree and we can use the door.

I've started reading it. I enjoyed History of the Ancient World and have been looking foward to this one.

I could get his $10,000 easily, but then I'd have to argue with him about some of the definitions, especially about the boundary between Asia and Europe, because I don't think there's one there (unless you want to argue that the Rockies or the Andes or the Himalayas are boundaries between continents like we seem to think the Urals are). I teach my kids that there are different ways of dividing up the earth if you're talking about geographic or political or cultural distinctions. I think you miss a lot just by focusing on the typical (whatever typical is in your part of the world) way of dividing it up.

I cut up the cooked turkey into chunks and freeze it in 1-2 cup amounts for pot pies. I usually just make a biscuit dough for the topping on the pie. If I freeze it, then I don't have to worry about getting through all the leftovers quickly.

I like mine raw too. I stick a bag of cranberries, a couple of apples, some OJ, and as little sugar as possible in the food processor and chop it all up the day before Thanksgiving because it tastes better after it sits for a day. I'm thinking that the clementines sound good though.

I agree (as long as you really meant without bashing creationists). Even though I agree with Dawkins in many things, I don't much like reading his books. I read another book about evolution with a fairly conservative bookgroup and it didn't go over well at all. Honestly, if you're trying to change someone's mind, telling them they are stupid isn't likely to work very well. Coyne is a lot less abrasive.

I'm hoping to get an e-reader soon, and I like the look of the Nook much better than Kindle. It's also a real plus to me that soon you can go to B&N and hold a Nook in your hand before you buy it. I'm also very interested in the PDF reading capability. But the deal-breaker for me is that, as of right now, you can't get new content on the Nook when you're overseas, and that's where I'd want to use it. With the Kindle you can download new books to your computer in any country and transfer them to the Kindle, but you can't with the Nook. That's probably not a problem for you, but if I bought a reader today, it would have to be a Kindle.

All children should learn at least one language in addition to their native tongue. What that language is depends entirely on what's useful for that children, but I think almost anyone who is a child right now would benefit from learning English well. After that, French is the most useful international language. Spanish is the most useful Western Hemisphere language. Mandarin and Hindi/Urdu are spoken by many people, but in a somewhat limited geographical area, so would only be useful for children who have some sort of connection to those areas. Arabic and Russian are spoken by fewer people, but over a larger area and by a wide variety of ethnicities. I think learning Bahasa in Malaysia is completely logical and worthwhile. Any language study is worthwhile, even if it turns out to be a language you never hear again after you leave the country. Personally, if we were living in Malaysia, I would think it was weird that Spanish was offered for children. Unless there is some sort of Latino community in Malaysia that I've never heard of.

It completely depends on the situation. If I'm flying, it's all about the destination and just getting through the flight. Same with driving to a familiar US destination that's many miles away. But once I'm overseas, the journey is the best part. I love riding along, looking out the window and seeing a new country. Riding a bus is the best, because I'm up high and can see a lot.

I agree with Sebastian here. There really aren't a lot of children's books about the Soviet era, and this one does a good job of presenting another side of the camps and prisons in Siberia than what we usually imagine as the Gulag. My son is listening to this book this week. One more thing- here's a link showing the location of Rubtsovsk, the town the family was sent to.

Yes. We've done it in the past and will go again in the future. And there probably are only a handful of countries we wouldn't go to. Forgot to add, the site Melinda links to is a great one. It is a little skewed toward Foreign Service people (so some of the info won't apply) but it's still useful and lots of fun to read. After that, I just search for expats in the country we're going to to learn more. Depending on what part of the world the job is, you can learn a lot that way. If it's a part of the world without many expats, I suggest using travel books to learn more, even though they won't tell you much about actually living there. But for some countries, that's the best you can do.

I'm thinking scanning everything in might be my best option, even though it'll take forever. At least I have a long time to work on it. We'll be Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. We've lived in Kyrgyzstan before and I'm really looking foward to going back.