Yes. Open picture formatting and set it on the 'wrap' tab.

I'm sorry... was this a tweet from 1950? :001_huh::glare: Seriously, I often wonder how great the human capacity for justification is. Things like this reach new depths.

Ok, THAT is denial. Or just plain crazy. (I do have laundry folded in the oddest places at this point... what's that about?) I used to work well under pressure. Now I'm older and need sleep. (I USED to drive to Maine for Labor Day weekend - leave Friday after work, come home Monday - now I add two days to my trip so I can crash at my dad's and not look/act like a Bellevue escapee when I get to the intensive) Now the kids are in bed, thank goodness, and packed, so I'm making a batch of boo-boo salve for my presentation (herbs for kids)... The camping gear is all checked and ready to pack (after we offload the kids and their stuff at the in-laws), my clothes can be packed in almost no time. I think I'm actually pretty good, it just seems like lots of stuff and a ticking clock. Hmmm... maybe this is a side effect of homeschooling. I am no longer accustomed to observing deadlines. It's nice to know I'm not the only one with my head in the sand while the clock ticks along. ;)

Ok, the boys are packed except for a pair each of shorts, undies and socks that were on the line. Tuna sandwiches for supper, with some veggies. (no pizza delivery that I would eat here.) Once I get them eating, I'll finish the boys and get Bailey packed, then everyone off to bed while I work on packing my own bag and my course work. (I can really pack tomorrow or Friday morning...) it is NOT 10 minutes to 8?!?! (and I'm multitasking while toasting the bread, not dawdling at the screen. )

Honestly. It's like I'm in denial. I have post-its all over the kitchen... little pink lines of them, mocking me. And look. Here I am, still here. Ack! Ok, I'm starting supper and laying out the suitcases!

Aw, Scarlett, I'm sorry. That's terrible. I remember feeling that way, too. There's so much stress before the final break and you want to just sit and exhale, but then there is so much "clean up" stress ahead with the divorce details... it's just draining. I have no additional advice for you - just focus on taking care of yourself and your son, and building new routines for your household. :grouphug:

*No other humans are judged in the venting of this vent* The children are going to my inlaws for a week tomorrow. I am leaving for my herbalist intensive (a bit longer than the week) Friday. I have (clean, folded) laundry all.over.my.bed. I have yet to finish the presentation I'm giving next week. I also need to finish my required reading (almost done). Nobody is packed. Husband is at work. It's 6:30 and the kids have not been fed... Have I COMPLETELY lost touch with reality??? Why am I examining the squash mark in my WTM 3rd Edition? Why am I sending out emails for co-op planning? Why am I not cooking supper / pouring salve / ironing / packing?!?! Am I crazy?? :willy_nilly: Please, somebody, come over here with a sharp stick and poke me!

Mine looks like a primitive rendition of a long-necked turtle. I wonder what got squashed on the press? :001_huh:

This is so interesting to me. Is it a generational thing? I spent years thinking I must be the only person in the world who didn't seem to "get" keeping the house. As it turns out, almost everyone I know has made the same observation: we never learned to keep house for one reason or another (me: my mother was a SAHM who did the household stuff while I was at school or outside playing, my husband: two professional parents and mom working crazy hours, so they had full time help). Before the boys were born, I worked full time, so I did what I could in the evenings or, later, hit or miss during the day working from home. Now, I've been a SAHM for almost 5 years and I still haven't gotten into a good groove... it's disconcerting. I think the biggest hurdle (at least for me and others of our generation) seems to be the expectation that it will be "done" at some point. It's never done. Flylady hasn't worked for me. I think WTMCassandra hit it right on the head: her routines aren't MY routines. They don't make sense to me or, at least, seem to create more work to keep them going in my world, which I take as a sign that it's not the right system for me. I find it much better to simply be in the habit of looking to see what needs to be done, then doing it, whether it's digging out our dining room or making the bed (I usually notice that when I'm getting dressed). The big thing that has kept me from feeling completely overwhelmed is to simply remind myself that it IS possible to have the house decluttered - we've done it numerous times before and always the same way: pick a room and just do it. Sometimes, it takes an hour, sometimes a few days. I like Motivated Moms because there are just a few things we can pick off daily and it reminds me of things I may normall overlook. I can delegate a number of them to the kids (they love!!! to clean the toilets and sweep the stairs), too, which helps them kind of get a grasp on what it takes to run a house. I follow a similar approach to paper as Sherry desribed, exept mine is a file box (just an accordion file with a latching lid and handle). We also have a file cabinet in a location that has essentially guanarteed non-use for the past 8 or so years. I set up reminders for things like the water bill (which I write a paper check for because the town always "doesn't receive" it if the bank sends it...:glare:) on my BlackBerry. I'm learning a lot from an Amish friend who has 7 children and a dairy farm, yet always seems under control and has time to visit. She just does what can be done on any given day and the rest will be there tomorrow, no worries. She doesn't have a lot of idle time (on internet forums for instance, lol) but she has a pretty relaxed pace for the day and even gets naps!

:iagree: "Approved for use in the US in 1981"? :ack2: Not food!

You can do this. But I'm right there with you on the buggered up routine. Ack!

Very sweet.

In theory, we keep it in the furnace room. In reality, I believe it is currently living in the dining room (unless my husband put it away after he vacuumed the car yesterday... what are the odds? It's been in the dining room or foyer for months)

That's how it works here. They have breakfast (usually 2-3 muffins, oatmeal, pancakes, something I make) and then have a snack around 10. Lunch around noonish, then a snack around 3. Supper around 5 or 6, and maybe a snack before bed, if they're up late or we eat light and early. We keep almost no processed food in the house - no soda, no juice, few, if any packaged snacks (we have some Annie's cheddar bunnies and bunny grahams that I got with our June 4th food pickup that they still haven't eaten through) - so the kids either snack on yogurt, homemade baked goods, trail mix (granola, dried fruit, chocolate chips), fruit... They have milk with meals and before bed, and free access to water. If my kids had free access to packaged foods, my grocery bill would double. (And, yes, they are on the thin side, healthy, and rarely ill)

Thanks! I intend to be mighty frugal! :D

I second the homeopathy route - I had bad enough seasonal (three seasons in my case) allergies to warrant full time Allegra, then Zyrtec, with occasional steroid sprays, for years. (Eyes puffed shut in the morning, sinuses completely blocked, etc, and bad enough to look into allergy shots, which I would have done except I would have used all of my sick leave in 2 months, just for the shots) Two years ago, I used Bio-Allers Outdoor Formula and have not used an antihistamine or spray since. Yes, I occasionally sneeze and sometimes my eyes feel gritty after I've spent all day outside, but I live in a high pollen area and that's a pretty normal response for non-allergic people. We even have the windows in the house open and drive with the windows down in the ar, now, and have zero issues. I love homeopathy. :001_wub:

Ooooh, I would be so into this. (I have gone so far as to challenge myself while lurking on the Mothering threads along the same lines. I'm leaving for a week long intensive for my class, though, so it is likely we will have little to no food budget, and our fuel will be skewed until I get back. Do we think it would be worthwhile to do a monthly challenge? {please, please, pretty please?} I don't care for the social groups, I always forget to look at them... :001_unsure:

It was scratchy and slightly more painful over the bone, but not bad. When she was going over the tendon it felt... "deep" - not painful, just like the needles were deep in the flesh. Odd. Anyway, the sort of feeling that, if I wasn't paying someone to do it, I'd be telling her to pound sand, but I very nearly fell asleep while she was doing it (the buzzing noise and the fact that I had to keep moving prevented that). My husband doesn't have any tats. He's thinking about getting one for his 40th this year, though. And he was with me when I had mine done. (I was there when he did Lasik eye surgery and was completely skeeved out by it, so I feel your husband's pain about the eyeliner, lol.) I did defer getting my nose pierced until he up and decided that he no longer found it objectionable... not sure what changed there, but I wasn't looking a ift horse in the mouth. :D

I believe his friend used to live across the street from me and lay out in the front yard in her flesh colored bikini. I had this when I worked at a restaurant in highschool. People used to come in off their boats and one guy was sitting directly across from my vantage point at the register, with everything just out and sitting on the chair (how do you not notice that?)... so I pointed out to one of the managers that we should probably address it (but I couldn't think of how) and she walked over, leaned down and said "Let's put the mouse beack in the house, Buddy". It was priceless.

1. No, they're not prone to mold that I know of - the water is encased, after all, so even if there was mold in there, how would you know? But heated vinyl? :ack2: 2. Buy an organic wool mattress (naturally flame retardant, no off-gassing) and be done with it. If you want to put an allergen cover on it, put the regular mattress pad over it, then the sheets. (The boys have a waterproof cover on theirs - it does seem ironic, doesn't it?). For pillows, we just can't grow to love allergen covers, so I periodically toss the pillows into the dryer to kill any mites off and blow out the guano (the actual allergen). White Lotus has wool or wool with a latex core (which I skipped because one of the boys is allergic to latex and the thought of him breathing that was yucky to me). Their standard wool mattresses are, like, 6" thick and just delicious.

Yes. When we first started homeschooling, I found an inclusive, unschooling friendly umbrella. We've been with them ever since, and I became the director of a spin-off for my side of the state last year. :001_smile:

BlackBerry Storm, here, too. And I love it. And I fall into the group of people least likely to want/love one. I don't play games and I'm really not into the apps (though there are some that I can see would be really awesome to have if they would be the sort of thing you'd use on your pc), but I love the Google apps (gmail, calendar synch, maps), the MP3 player, being able to answer emails on the fly... I was even surfing here, earlier. (I may have a little problem :tongue_smilie:) eta: Oh, and you can check Library Thing while you're in the bookstore for your wishlist or to see if you already own what you're about to buy. It's a homeschooling tool!! (I take friends to piano with us for their lesson and email their assignments to mom while I'm sitting there, too.)

Whole Foods carries Spectrum. I prefer Jungle. (I prefer the company, and the shortening) I never thought to look on Lodge's site for what they season with... good to know. I'm stalking some cast iron muffin pans (as my old nonstick ones are flaking and rusting - I use liners). Thanks!

It's grapefruit seed extract. GSE, garlic, oregano oil, are all antimicrobial.

I have a vine around my ankle. Ankles are not subject to gravity and skin sagging to the degree that, say, the chest is. Colors can fade and it is recommended that you use sunblock. Some colors - red and yellow, IIRC - are more prone to fading than others. The pain... well, it felt like someone was trying to take my foot off with a thumb tack. Not terribly painful. My nose piercing hurt more.