Uh, yeah, I was thinking the same thing. :D

We did a whole kitchen remodel about 2 years ago, ripping down to studs. We used Ikea cabinets, countertops, sink, faucet (which I affectionately refer to as the "morgue sprayer")... They're great. In our application, we installed upper and lower cabinets on 1 1/2 walls (we have a LOT of doors and windows) and built an 8' island with the sink and dishwasher built into it. As Cat said, the cabinets were very easy to put together and install. The quality rivals the brands I investigated at Lowe's and Home Depot, and the drawer and hinge mechanisms exceeded the ones we saw in those showrooms. (I highly recommend the soft-close drawer dampers.) They also have features that I did not see in other places. For instance, we have a corner cabinet with swing out shelves, and a 1/2 depth cabinet (12" from wall to front) with drawers inside. I second IkeaFans.com for some really neat "hacks" that we've considered implementing (like under-cabinet drawers for additional storage). We went with a more traditional, white bead board, look for ours, because our house is a Victorian and a more modern look would have been out of place, but the majority of their offerings were either modern or transitional, and even the bead board has a more sleek look to it than the other, similar styles by Kraftmaid and others.

Nope. They sound pretty much the same, and certainly not "hw". I'm originally from ME, now in MD.

Coincidence: Thinking of someone you haven't seen in a long time, and suddenly running into them in a store. Irony: Telling your child someone you haven't seen in a long time now lives in France, and suddenly running into them in a store. (Unless you are currently in France, then substitute a different location.) :D

For a mocha, I used to make Alton Brown's cocoa syrup (raw agave nectar instead of the corn syrup, if you're concerned about GMOs) and put a squeeze of it in my husband's coffee. He thought it was pretty delicious (I don't care for "stuff" in my coffee).

:iagree:Yes, what Ria said, including the "harsh" bit. For the WW bread, I would just use any other sugar you have lying around - except agave nectar. In my experience, the yeast do not love it like they do other sugars - the proofing seems a bit retarded and there's an off smell to the dough. (Smells perfectly normal after baking, but the loaves don't rise as well) Other syrups (maple, brown rice, agave) are fine. The botulinum concern is a product of the hive, not because honey is liquid. Also, the reason we can eat it without concern is that our guts are acidic enough to kill the spores, but an infant's isn't.

Yep. Eat 'em. In a salad, cooked like spinach... yummy.

I prefer fabric. We have leather. Apparently, heated seats and cruise control are inexplicably linked to leather. (Although our Volvo has heated fabric seats, so...) We also have a '97 Suburban with leather seats. No cracking or obnoxious signs of wear - in fact, the seats may be the only thing that is not wrong with a '97 Suburban. :glare: Not a good year for them.

Washington Homeopathics. Though they seem to be out of many potencies. (Or maybe not - I ordered in the fall and have 30C in my medicine cabinet, so that may be what they're stocking.) I hardly see the difficulty in drinking water with what amounts to about a drop of my own personal bodily fluids... there is saliva in my mouth all the time and I swallow fairly often... the first thing I do if I cut my finger is jam it in my mouth...

:iagree: YES! Second to the Stand, the Talisman is my absolute favorite. "It" gave me nightmares. As an adult. Seriously. :001_huh: And, yes, there is fab to schlock, little is literature, but what Stephen King is is a storyteller. (I started about the same age, with Salem's Lot, and never had any difficulties with differentiating my life from a Stephen King novel... I'm pretty sure I turned out ok, productive member of society and all that)

We're not doing anything that we don't normally do during "cold and flu" season. We're giving the kids Honey Gardens elderberry syrup, and Red Alert ('cause I'm not sure they eat enough to get enough fruits and veggies in 'em) which has some good probiotics.

My first thought was, you have GOT to be freaking kidding me. But it's a musical comedy about controversial public figures from the past 6-9 months... I am rather embarrassed to say, I'd probably go see it. {where's that bag-on-the-head smilie?}

Make that a third vote. My dog is extremely gentle and friendly with children, dogs, and cats (even our 18 yo.o. cat that jumps on her face when she walks by). Hell, she lies in the grass with birds landing a foot or so away from her and doesn't move. But if she's leashed, she can be very aggressive if approached by an unleashed dog; she feels handicapped and vulnerable. I would not hesitate to pepper spray an animal that was running at me, my dog and/or my children, clearly outside the control of its owner. As far as I'm concerned, that animal is on the attack. Frankly, if you start spraying unleashed, out of control dogs, maybe the owners will be more cognizant of keeping them under control in public.

Yes, I'm pondering all of those scenarios... A friend is quoted as saying there was "tension" between the two? How "tense" would you have to be to shoot someone? In the head. While they were sleeping. :confused: There would have to be a pretty darn extreme situation going on, in my mind, either on his part or hers. Joanne - I just have no words. You and yours and your community will be in my thoughts as well.

I like Nourishing Traditions, though I tend to use it more as a reference than a cookbook (is it even designed to be "a plan"? :001_huh:). And I wholeheartedly agree with you - there is simply no way that I would recommend it to anyone just starting out. The level of effort is simply too high to be sustained when you're beginning to ponder how to make positive changes in eating. (Plus - and remember I like this book - if it was your sole source of food ideas, there is a very real risk of becoming the weird homeschooling family with the strange smelling house. ;)) Like everyone else said, start with being mindful. Eating well is not that complex, it's just that processed stuff is ubiquitous, and there are so many food choices, it's difficult to know where to start. Ask yourself "how can I improve this". Use whole ingredients and cook from scratch. That gives you control over what is in your food. Somebody mentioned the Cooking Light cookbooks. Their recipes are all online, too, so you can browse them without having to go find a book. The recipes really meshed with the way I cook - the "canned" ingredients are things like stock, tomatoes, and condiments (Thai curry paste, etc) - and you can easily substitute a whole grain (brown rice, whole wheat pasta) for any white starch.

Jo - I would also like to thank you (and everybody with the horror stories) for posting this and reminding me to send out a note to our co-op families about our sick policy and being more vigilant about staying home if they've been ill or exposed. :D

That's good to know, Tap. It's good to hear about good customer service - I like to buy from those companies.

Hyland's worked well for my 8 y.o., but not for the boys. Herbs for Kids Gum-O-Mile oil (with oil of clove) worked really well. Chamomile and peppermint tea works really well for gas, but she's so young, yet, I would be wary of giving anything. Green Sprouts has cornstarch teethers, among other things.

When mine goes, I'll be springing for a VitaMix. As far as KitchenAid, well, I recently called to buy new burrs for my coffee grinder (which they have made since 1937) only to be told they no longer make or have parts (which need to be periodically replaced) since they discontinued it two years ago. The standards have really dropped since Whirlpool bought KitchenAid. I will not be buying another appliance from them, as they are no longer interested in longevity of their products. Just my $.02, of course.

Also, isn't it curious that swine flu seems to like to follow economic, and particularly fuel, issues? '76. Now. Huh.

You mean to have a prototype of how an organism will spread through a given country/region? That would be interesting, wouldn't it? :001_huh:

Yes. Something along the lines of "please keep your plague to yourself". Seriously, she can't know the health status of the kids and parents at story-time. What she has is more than the sniffles, and could be a serious hazard to one of them. (And, yes, I have been the crazy, over-concerned person who has called people from co-op and told them they may NOT come if they or their children are ill)

:blink: That is so not cool.

We just carried a plastic food container (or ziplock bag) with cheap washcloths that were wet with warm water and a few drops of tea tree oil and a few drops of soap. If you mix the solution before adding the washcloths, the soap emulsifies the tea tree oil, so it's dispersed throughout. Angela - who, now that her children are older and sometimes lick things, often finds herself pondering why carrying a spray bottle of grain alcohol for tongue disinfection is a bad thing.

I have, in fact, had this dialogue. "Right wing extremism" is simply antithetical to my world view so, as a classical homeschooler, I really cannot make the leap that one equals the other. That said, however, I can see where one with such an agenda would use classical education - or any other genre of education - to that end. It seems from their language, that they are using "classical education" as code for "white". Much in the way that people use "like minded" as code while assuming the person they are speaking with has a similar worldview. I don't think either is a term that all people assign similar meaning, though. I can't answer this in real time, as my kids are young yet, but I feel that they are getting a fairly decent background of world cultures in our grammar stage history, and we plan to delve more deeply into non-European cultures when we begin logic stage history. It is an interesting consideration. The charge of being an elitist, with goals of training my children to further a right-wing, conservative agenda has certainly made me more mindful of how/what I teach them, and what my ultimate goals are for their education.