I need routine, but I do not like routine, and am not good at routine. It's kind of like cod liver oil. :lol:

This has got to be my least-favorite genre. lol

I'm back, after slacking off the second half of last year. I only finished 34 books, but I am sure that is more than I finished in 2014. I started Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie over a month ago, and put it down. Maybe I'll finish that for my January tour of India book. :) I think that I have a Goodreads account, but I have never used it. Maybe I should learn. Is there an app? That would make things simpler.

No kidding. Unless the orchestra is playing "Selections from the Titanic Soundtrack" or something. I would have assumed they chose it because you can get two diatonic octaves with no forked fingerings, but what do I know? lol Even a cheapo tin whistle can sound nice, but not after six weeks. It takes a lot of breath control to play tin whistle. And a lot of practice.

I'm sorry. I think you should eat all the cookies you want. :grouphug:

Another '95 grad, Seattle/Tacoma area, and I remember recess in the gym when the rain got too heavy. And watching the same dumb movies over and over after lunch for a week at a time during stormy stretches. If I never see The Red Balloon again it'll be too soon!

I was going to guess Seattle area too, but we've actually had umbrella-worthy rain the past few days, so now I don't know!

My kids have really liked MEP reception. The activities are light and fun, the pages are colorful, and they seem tickle my kids' funny bones. Seriously. My 5 y/o thinks that every lesson is just hilarious.

When I was a kid they were advertised during the Peanuts holiday specials. We call them worm patties because my mom was unfortunate enough to get a wormy one. Nobody in our family eats them now.

I almost wish that I were a Starbucks barista so I could write "Marie Crispin" on a bunch of cups.

I suspect that this is highly individual. I have taken benzodiazepines for short periods of time as needed and have never had any problem stopping them. Maybe it helps that I don't like the way they make me feel, so I have always used them sparingly?

I accidentally cornered a possum once, and it hissed at me. Its mouth full of needle-like teeth really made an impression on me. Lol Our local zoo has a possum that is tame, and my kids have patted it, but I can't bring myself to touch it.

That is our problem too. I actually saw a mouse run into the house when I was taking out the trash once. You'd think I'd learn, but I still leave the door open when I take out the trash. :confused1:

This is my least favorite part of fall--all the critters trying to get in the house. Last week we had a mouse in the cat food--I took the whole bag out, threw it away, and went straight to the store to buy new cat food and a trash can with a lid to keep it in. I had a dream last night that we had possums in our house. I think I would cry if I had a rat in the house. I'm sorry. :crying:

In my area the tendency is for the stores that are employee-owned or union (Winco, Safeway. Fred Meyer) to have friendly, helpful cashiers, and the non-union places (Wal-Mart, K-Mart) to have cashiers who range from disinterested to surly. Trader Joe's is somewhat of an anomaly--I'm pretty sure they aren't union, but they tend to have extremely upbeat, bordering-on-manic cashiers. Maybe it's the cookie butter? :lol:

When my kids are a bit older I plan on teaching them to sew on my old Singer model 99 hand-crank machine. It is a 3/4 size machine, so it's a bit smaller than a full-size. It is extremely sturdy, though--the kids will not be able to careless knock a cast-iron machine off the table!

Of course there are healthcare workers, researchers, and hospitals/medical groups that care deeply about patients and providing the very best healthcare they can. As a whole, however, our healthcare system is for-profit, and that means that making money for the shareholders is the ultimate goal.

The kids wouldn't be impressed with curriculum with a gift, but it would be a terrific gift for me!

Oh yes, I made that mistake once...I received quite an education!

Apples and Pears is working well for my 8 y/o. I'm not sure why or how it works, but he can magically decide whether to use l or ll, c, k, or ck, etc. I made letter tiles for him, one color for single letters, another for digraphs, so it's a bit more multisensory than usual. We are also using sandpaper word cards for difficult-to-remember patterns. Rod and Staff math. He has math issues--either dyscalculia or nvld-related math problems, but he recently scored at grade level in a math computation assessment. :)

I grew up in an immaculate home. As a young adult, I rebelled by being a total slob, but when I had kids I had to be a bit neater just out of self-preservation. I still thought that my house was a disaster area, but my standard was skewed by my mom's standard. After visiting lots of friends with small kids, I think that I have a more realistic view of neat/messy. As for decluttering the kids' toys....we live in a small house. My kids know that we do not have endless storage space, so they are on board for deciding which toys they will donate. I also have a rule that broken toys leave the house. I do throw out happy meal toys at night. They have never been missed, to my knowledge.

These are the things that help me: I am sitting in front of my SAD light right now. I find it very helpful in the gloomy months. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Don't catastrophize. Missing one subject doesn't undo the rest of the subjects that got done. One unsuccessful lesson doesn't mean the day, the curriculum, the month, is ruined. Have a routine. Get outside and get some exercise. Find time for hobbies and relaxation. Find time to just play with and enjoy the kids. Now I'm off to try to remember all of this today!

dominos.com

Goofy things that kids do is my favorite conversation topic. I find it's a good way to talk about our kids without devolving into "my kid's smarter/cuter/more athletic than your kid."

But this gif is hilarious!