You can also contact your local Weston A. Price Foundation chapter and ask them to help you find local natural foods. Really, like homeschooling, finding resources can seem insurmountable, until you fall in with the right crowd. ;)

CSAs in / around Ft. Worth - click the listing to see what they have. Co-ops. This farmer's market has product information. Map of the Eat Wild registered farms around Ft. Worth. Yeah, there are a few. ;)

The hands-down best lemon bars I have ever had.

I agree. In a very celebrated free market, we should step back and let bad business choices result in business failure. I doubt that would ever happen, though. And, yet, Exxon-Mobile once again broke their own record for corporate profits. :001_huh:

Indeed. I just pretend the meaning has changed to mean "mindful". (And yes, I have real trouble with the assertion that it is wrong to provide the tools for everyone in our society to pursue their destiny... but that's a rant for another day.:001_smile:)

You can find local farms, farmers markets and CSAs through LocalHarvest.org. Our CSA pickup is at the local farmers market, so we buy extra produce in season and put it up for the winter. You can generally find other famers - meat, eggs, dairy, etc - at the markets, too. And you talk to them, find out where they're located, how they raise their product, etc. and build a relationship with them. If the market is closed in the off season, you will still have a way to contact them. You can find local grass-raised meat, eggs, and dairy at EatWild.com. Word of mouth is always good. We found our organic, raw milk farm through friends, and alternate our milk pick-up with them. I know three generations of the family now, and my kids look forward to helping in the barn or playing with the animals when we go. Check around. You'll be surprised what you find local to you.

As usual, I agree wholeheartedly with what Ria said. I would also point you to your own words. He's 7, wants for nothing, has a huge sense of entitlement and is willing to bully his way into having whatever he has deemed "rightly" his. He bullies his sister and that is not "negotiating", he is trying to bully you and your husband by wearing you down or being condescending. I would address the bullying - give him tools to communicate what he wants and his feelings, but bullying gets immediate, non-negotiable negative consequences. You told him once he had to wait. Why would you think you have to justify your initial decision the next time he asked? And then the talk all the way home that was, I assume, designed to annoy you into letting him have it? Once I have made it clear that the sucker is NOT going to be consumed until after supper, that's it. I do not justify my reasons. If it is brought up again (because, you know, multiple children like to take turns asking the same question, even though they were all present for it, and the answer, the first time) my standard reply is "asked and answered". If they want to pursue it, the sucker would be in the trash before we left the store. And the "offender" would NOT be invited to shop with me the next time. Even my 4-year-olds understand this and would tell you that "H (or Q) is shopping but I was not nice last time so I have to stay home." No fits, no melodrama. (Which is not to say that we don't have meltdowns or melodrama, because we do - they are, after all, 4.) Your daughter is letting him walk all over her because you are modeling that behavior for her by engaging in his game. She probably just realizes what the outcome will be and takes the short route there by giving in.

Let me just add on to my initial comments (and laugh my tuchas off at Colleen's reply) and say that calorically, fats are fats. They're pretty much the same. (except margarine, which seems to be a petroleum product and water. you should never eat that, though I will say that Earth Balance is not heinous, if you're avoiding dairy) If your concern is calories, then use the fat that gives you the most flavor bang for your nutritional buck, depending on the application.

Heh heh... peanut butter mules. :lol: I would assume that the reason it's not affecting jarred peanut butter is simply that the companies who produce peanut butter don't really buy peanut butter from other people. Companies who put peanut butter in other products, however, don't produce the peanut butter, though, just like they don't grind their own wheat. Thanks for sharing about the investigation, Hornblower. I haven't listened to live news in the past couple of days, but I'm glad to hear they're pursuing them since it's been widely reported that they did nothing in response to positive testing.

Hmmmm... we didn't really need a lot of stuff. We use cloth diapers, and I did bolster our supply a bit, but most of the stash was handed down from their older sister. I used the crib purchased for my now 20 y.o., side-carred on my side of the bed to give us all a bit more room... Strollers and carseats! Oh, boy. That is really, really shocking. On the other hand, I was also shocked at the number of places that give multiples discounts. Does sanity count? I think it should. Because this is extreme parenting, especially when they're infants. I'm sure you remember how extreme the sleep deprivation is, compared to having one infant. If you don't it's because you're blocking. My old boss made the following observation when the boys were a couple months old: "I think you've reached a place in your life where the math is no longer linear." It seems apt.

A really easy one in a pinch is to cut up an onion and put it in a pan, then cover it with honey and heat it over a low flame for 30 minutes or so. It doesn't end up tasting particularly oniony, but helps with the cough. (I usually just pour the whole shebang into a jar, but you can strain it)

That's the one I was looking at, too. And then I was searching real estate listings for the area where I grew up (since it seems common) and came up with this that is slightly more recent.

Maybe. I doubt it would push any long-term economic changes, though. Thus far, the stimulus checks that we've received periodically haven't done much, whether they've been saved or spent. I think there are simply too many factors in any given economy for a simple answer to suffice.

Well, there's Off-Grid... I'd probably look more to homesteading type sites - they seem to have practical ideas without going to the crazy place. I prefer to live in "responsible planning town", too, and limit my trips to the far suburbs of "crazyville", just for my own sanity :D

No, I think people choose to be ignorant in order to not have to make good decisions. If your annual income is $47,000 there is simply no possible way you can look at a $550,000 mortgage and think you can afford it. It should be clear that whoever is telling you different is a) lying or b) crazy and you should run like hell. It took me about one minute to google and discover that the monthly payment on that is $4,200, or over $50,000 a year. The problem here - and I believe it was Dave Ramsey who I heard state it so concisely - is that we want to have the same standard of living (or better ) that our parents and grandparents worked their entire lives to achieve, right out of the gate. Lenders have been happy to help us with that sense of entitlement and we have been happy to find and listen to the "yes men" in order to deceive ourselves into thinking we can, in fact, have everything we want. Do I think predatory lending practices have led to this financial fallout? Absolutely. But predatory lending practices only worked because they catered to our sense of entitlement and outright greed. It's very easy to trust someone who is telling you everything you want to hear. We, personally, have a ridiculous amount of credit card debt. We own that stupid and are on the path to owning our finances. Mea culpa. But we are not victims. We are idiots who chose the more fun, instant gratification path and are now paying the piper. Plans that send us big lumps of money are counting on the fact that we are too stupid to handle our own money, and that we will all be out at the nearest Walmart, buying more stuff, most of which we don't need. If we weren't, and everyone used that money to pay off debt (for crap we already bought, but on credit) or put it in savings, it wouldn't stimulate the economy at all.

I would place Dave Ramsey solidly in the Chicago (Friedman) school. :D I seem to recall from Econ 101 that war is good for the economy. It appears that only applies when you have an economy based on production, not on services, though, because it does not seem to be working out that well for us this time. I don't really think any "school" of economic thought is a panacea, but all approaches have their merits and those merits should be weighed on their own, rather than taking an approach of pure dogma in any direction.

I have trouble getting behind the predictions of a large rodent who, it appears, is kidnapped, stuffed into a stump-like box, then dragged back out to gigantic crowds by men in top hats. I'd be hauling tail back into the box, too, quite possibly biting and clawing said top hat wearing men on the way, just for egregious rudeness. It was 40-something here today. The kids went out and wallowed in the mud for a few hours. It's supposed to be in the 50s tomorrow. I'm sure it will cool off again, but spring, at least here, is only about a month away.

Well... here the haz mat team is part of the fire department, so essentially as long as it takes the fire department to get to your house. (And they don't bill, though that could change in the future - certain jurisdictions are beginning to charge for EMS services, also integrated within the fire department)

We all had such entries when I was growing up in Maine. I think they're generally referred to as "enclosed porticos", but we called them mud rooms. There are a number of them in this article on Brunswick houses. Maybe they'll give you some ideas? (Oh, I guess it's really only a couple.) ETA: it appears they are referred to as an "outer foyer", but generally found in old apartment buildings (where you would walk through the first set of doors and buzz up to be let through the second) or theaters in cold areas. Interesting. Do other places not have weather, I guess?

On the lateness: we had the same issue with a gymnastics class - lateness, no show (because of meets, but no notification), "closing" due to heat (no notification). After it did not improve, we did not return. As far as safety equipment, my thought is that the class size should be limited to the amount of equipment available. Period. I know nothing of fencing in particular, but if they are not prepared to limit the class size, then the kids should warm up together, then be broken up in groups to work on different skills (one requiring equipment, one not) and then switch after a period, if that seems appropriate for the sport. It sounds like your rec program is about as competent as ours, which is not saying much. :glare:

It's on instant-watch on Netflix. :D

Oh, no! We don't like to know when things go bad! Good grief! Next you'll suggest they stop putting preservatives in food so it will eventually mold or something. :001_huh: Has anyone else had this surreal experience? I lived with roommates some 20-ish years ago - so before BIUB dates were popular - and we used to clean on Saturday mornings. One week we were cleaning out the refrigerator and found an open jar of apple sauce... looked fine. Except none of us could remember EVER buying apple sauce. Ever. Or eating it. I'm afraid of food <and pharmaceuticals> that doesn't spoil. That is just wrong.

I would guess because people don't usually bookmark the unresolved IP address, but the name associated with it. If they just migrated the server - which happens fairly frequently - it would be transparent to those who have the bookmarks set to "welltrainedmind.com/forums", rather than the IP. :001_smile:

Yeah, I would stay away from the cold formulas - they're ineffective and can have unpleasant or serious side effects. (And I can't believe they're still available) Tylenol will address the discomfort, but I would tend to shy away from that, too. If she's running a slight fever - helpful in dealing with any illness that is causing it - it will interfere with that. How about a spoonful of honey? That will soothe her throat. (My kids used to avoid the teas like the plague, too, until I started this herbalist program... now they drink infusions of just about anything. Weird children)