We have had some success with the picture flash cards from I See I Spell I Learn. As far as a complete spelling course, Apples and Pears has been the most helpful. It includes quite a bit of dictation, which ds thinks is torture, but he really can't argue with the results.

Gross. But I did this accidentally once. In a postpartum fog, with a baby who was having trouble nursing, I heard a knock at the door. I unlatched the baby and *thought* I had sorted everything out. But it was one of those special nursing shirts with secret openings in strategic places and somehow I didn't notice that I still had a deflated breast peeking out. Oops. I hope that the UPS guy's reaction wasn't trauma, but a funny story about the least sexy flashing he'd ever received.

I've noticed the no bottom sheet phenomenon in certain reality shows--hoarding or clean-up type shows--but not in real life. I have to admit though that my kids don't use a top sheet. They always ended up on the floor/stuffed in a closet/etc. and it wasn't the hill on which I wished to die. I wash the blankets often. I'd have to do that anyway though, because the pets like to sleep on the kids' beds and the blankets start to look like plush if they aren't washed. You'd think that I'd notice the weird stuff in houses--I tend to watch HGTV or house-related reality shows while I'm exercising--but maybe my house is weird enough that nothing seems weird to me? I think it's weird to have an immaculate house when you've got a bunch of kids, but some people manage to do it. lol

I never save seed for squash for this reason—my yard isn’t big enough to provide enough separation between varieties.

I love gardening. It keeps me sane for at least half of the year. 😄 I'm in the PNW, zone 8a, which seems misleading because while we never get really cold, we don't have much hot weather either. Lots of cool drizzle at either end of summer. We haven't started much yet, just some winter sown perennials in milk jugs and a few things under lights. I'm making myself wait to plant warm weather veggies because I have a bad habit of starting them early, then watching them get root bound in April when it's still too cold to plant them outside and I don't have room inside to pot them up. Every year I plan on doing a three sisters garden, and every year two sisters do great--beans and squash--and the other sister fizzles out. I almost got mature popcorn last year. This year I will be babying the corn like mad, and fertilizing more than I usually do. I'm trying Dakota Black popcorn. It's supposed to do well in our climate. Squash will be Candy Stick Delicata and Long Island Cheese pumpkin. Beans will be a mix of rattlesnake and probably some runners. Whatever I have in my seed box. I have a ridiculous amount of seeds. I've told dh at least three times this winter that I have all the seeds that I need. Then I go to the feed store or the hardware store and a packet or two mysteriously ends up in my cart. Dh just smiles. It's a cheaper addiction than shoes. The only strawberries I've ever grown from seed were the little white alpine strawberries. They do well, don't spread by runners, and have delicious tiny soft strawberries. They are definitely an eat as soon as you pick type. They reseed themselves from dropped strawberries, but are easy to pull up if they become a nuisance. I have a pack of mignonette strawberry seeds that I haven't gotten around to planting yet. I'm not sure I want to spend any time on them. I might just sprinkle them around on a patch of bare ground. lol I want to have a cutting garden of annuals this year. I love to bring a jar of flowers to people randomly during the summer and I need to have a ready supply. I'm planning for Ageratum, Bells of Ireland, Cerinthe, Zinnia, Cosmos, Sweet Peas, Sunflower, Bachelor's Buttons, Nigella, Celosia, Amaranth, and others I can't remember atm. Snapdragons. And then the perennials that are already established. Daisies, Penstemon, Echinacea, Delphinium, Hollyhhock, Gaillardia, Centaurea, Torch Lily.

And fur hats.

I wouldn't think twice about eating it. And I tend to be a bit paranoid about food safety.

I don’t know, my old machines have excellent speed control. Want to go faster? Treadle or crank faster. Want to go slower? Treadle or crank more slowly. 😄

The first time I saw CiRCE mentioned my mind immediately went to, well, Circe, and I wondered if it were a radical feminist pagan classical curriculum. Nah, it's an acronym and more of the usual classical Christian stuff, but I still think that of all the character names that one could use for a classical Christian curriculum, Circe is an odd choice.

Next week on Goop... Yeah, I forgot about that. It did a fine job on my tile floor, but I won't be using it for walls or upholstery. Thanks!

You might enjoy the Educate podcast. The episodes by Emily Hanford about reading address the issues with how teacher training doesn't actually prepare teachers to teach reading.

Huh...I have a steam wallpaper remover, and I never even thought to use it for general cleaning. It doesn't have scrubber type attachments, but I bet I can rig up something with vacuum cleaner attachments, rubber bands, and rags. It has an element, not a boiler, but I think it's worth a try.

We have enjoyed the books from Nomad press (Explore Your World series, Build it Yourself series) for topical science in the elementary grades. They are self-contained and have many projects and demonstrations, most of them doable with common household objects.

In my limited experience, Strattera doesn't work immediately and wear off like the stimulant medications. It's more like an antidepressant, in that it builds up slowly and starts to work over time. I don't know about long-term usage.

Jon Kabat Zinn has been leading mindfulness classes and writing about mindfulness for years. I found his first book, Full Catastrophe Living, helpful years ago, and he has written many books since then. Many of the popular mindfulness books are written from a non-religious perspective, using mindfulness to deal with stress, anxiety, etc. rather than as a religious practice.