I have a friend whose family was living in Japan when all of her children were born, and her kids love natto. She posts pics on facebook of her children gleefully slurping down huge platefuls. Maybe you have to grow up with it?

I would eat the eggs. When I was a kid we would dye Easter eggs, my parents would hide them that night, we'd find them the next morning, and we would arrange them in baskets. They got thrown in the fridge sometime Easter night or even the next morning. The amount of food we waste is shameful. A few days ago I threw away a couple pounds of chicken that went off in the fridge. That hurt.

Ooh, I have to print out this recipe so I don't miss any steps. :lol:

Still doing weight watchers, kind of. Still bouncing around losing and gaining the same 7 pounds. I need to get serious and stick to it. I think that starting up again on our schedule will help me.

Costco is awesome around here--even when it's crowded, the checkout lines run quickly and smoothly. Walmart is awful. Surly employees, never enough registers open, awkward parking lot. I try to avoid it. Costco has high-quality products for the most part, but I've noticed that their produce has gone downhill. That seems to be everywhere, though--I haven't found a store with good produce lately. Maybe I need to try the QFC. You do have to know your prices--they aren't always the lowest. I find the best deals are on eggs, milk, generic drugs, and some frozen foods.

Instead of "real atheist" maybe "polite atheist" or "reasonable atheist" would be more accurate? Being a twit is an equal-opportunity vocation. I've known real atheists who are twits, real Christians who are twits, real Muslims who are twits, etc. It doesn't negate their belief system, it just makes them annoying. :)

Dutch Baby pancake: Melt a stick of butter in 9x13 glass dish in a low oven. When melted, take dish out and increase temp to 425. Whisk together 1 C flour, 2 T granulated sugar, 1 C milk, and 4 eggs. Pour into dish. Bake for 15-17 minutes. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Serve with fruit. I usually nuke a few strips of bacon for my meat-loving husband. Easy.

Thank you for your replies. I should have read the entire guide before I posted--it turns out that at P's level, the math story problems are read aloud anyway. Most of the sections are untimed. The vocab section consists of line drawings with four word choices to best describe the drawing, so I'm comfortable reading him the choices. Our usual schedule is to alternate doing school subjects with outside play, games, art, etc, so we'll continue with that. The guide suggests two short testing sessions per day, so it won't be onerous. I think that parts of it will even be enjoyable to him. I was rolling my eyes at some of the social studies pictures, and can't wait for the sarcastic remarks he comes up with. :laugh:

Bowl of bacon? That's my dh's favorite side dish.

My son will be doing his standardized testing next week, and I am trying to determine which accommodations will help us to obtain the most accurate results. P has been officially diagnosed with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and ADHD. My plan is to see how he does filling in bubbles, and help him with that if necessary. The front of the proctor's guide gives advice about how to repeat directions, so I will follow that. I will read him the vocabulary section, so that his knowledge of vocabulary is tested, rather than his reading ability. When he has to add or subtract 2 or 3-digit numbers that are presented in a horizontal format, I will help him line up the numbers vertically so he doesn't get tripped up by misaligned place values. If he has trouble with reading story problems I will help him with the reading, but not the setup. Do these sound reasonable? Thank you.

Who could have predicted that a religion that requires celibacy would go extinct? :laugh:

Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne, performed by Kiri Te Kanawa. Enigma Variations--Elgar Berio's Folk Songs, performed by Dawn Upshaw De Lassus' Bonjour mon coeur, performed by Capilla Flamenca

No paper now, but Prince Valiant was one that I didn't read even when we got a paper. Half the comics now are duds.

Good: gift bags, greeting cards, pipe cleaners, beads, poster board, pop chips, frozen blueberries, frozen pretzel bites, pregnancy tests, small bags of malt-o-meal cereal. Bad: light bulbs, batteries, pencils.

My sensory kids like boots. Rubber rain boots. They like them a size or two big. But they're younger--I don't know if an 11 y/o could get away with that look. Have you tried a croc-type shoe? Yes, they're ugly, and yes, they have no support, but...if you need shoes for entry to places, they'll work.

Have you looked at Before Five in a Row? We have also used parts of Wee Folk Art and enjoyed it.

I don't even want to think about it yet. Public schools here don't start until after Labor Day, but I like to start a bit earlier for flexibility.

Thanks to this thread, my dreams last night included watching a lady make Caesar dressing with raw eggs. :laugh:

What is GTD?

I just ate too much all week. The problem with blaming it on water weight is....has all the weight lost just been water? I feel like I won't know if what I'm doing is working until 20 or 30 pounds are lost, since water can fluctuate so much.

I would love to spend hours a day reading to my kids. But only if I can choose the book. :lol:

We will be making the low-budget version of a light table using a transparent storage bin and a string of battery-powered Christmas lights. My kids love the light table at the local children's museum, so I'm pretty excited to recreate a version of it at home.

Silly isn't always bad--I've been known to watch an episode or two of Ice Road Truckers. :lol:

This would vary a lot depending on school, but also on major. It's much easier to switch mid-stream to social science or some humanities majors, in which the prerequisite structure is more flexible, than to switch to science, math, or foreign language majors, in which courses must be taken in a particular order. I changed majors several times, in the 90's, at a small LAC, but my friends at state universities who were studying bio or chem had trouble getting into the 101-level courses as freshmen.

We can watch a selection of History/Discover channel programs through our Apple TV, but the available shows are not the nice documentaries, but the silly reality shows. Do those channels even do documentaries anymore? When I turn them on at my parents' house it always seems to be shows about aliens building the pyramids or one of seventeen variations of a pawn shop reality show.