Ooh, you might want to put a colander on over that, in case they can hear your thoughts through the foil. :D

Oh, yeah, you're right. I don't tend to think in terms of packaged items. I generally only buy what my kids refer to as "ingredients". (As in, "there's no FOOD, only INGREDIENTS!") Sorry. I was really thinking along the lines of, well, ingredients, I guess. Are there that many organic processed options out there now? I rarely grocery shop in a proper store, so I have no idea what's popping up. (Oh, except my personal favorite, the organic "pop-tart". :ack2:) On the other hand, if you're eating that dreck, at least the organic version doesn't also contain suspicious chemicals. And, yes, I absolutely agree that local vine-ripe (even low-spray) is better than around-the-world organic. (Though my CSA farmer and I go round and round about this.)

Hmmmm... that's odd. Mine is resolving to http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums still. I recently changed my DNS service to OpenDNS.com. I wonder if there's just an address resolution issue out there somewhere.

I use Avalon Organics Vitamin C cream. It works well for me, but I think it really depends on your skin.

I'm sorry, "hamburger roll pan"? They actually make a pan specifically for hamburger rolls? :001_huh:

Well, aside from all the objectionable items on the growing side - GMOs, tons of petrochemicals used, soil depletion, the negative effects of monoculture - and the part where it is added to just about all foods, whether they would normally be sweetened by sugar or not, HFCS has been linked to certain types of obesity and obesity related illness because our bodies do not process fructose in the same way as glucose, including storing it as belly fat, which seems to be the link to weight-related illness. (Then we can go on to object to the byproducts being fed to cattle to make them cheaper, but in the process, on the verge of death at slaughter, and also much, much fattier... it just goes on and on.)

Same here. For me - and I believe it is the same for my husband - all of those things apply and it is more the context than the actual genre of the gesture. Maybe we (my husband and I) have some sort of intuitive understanding of the motivation behind any given gesture, so they are generally received as expressions of love, whether they are in our individual "language" or not. Does that make sense? I do find the whole thing quite fascinating, though.

We used Super Media Store for laser cartridges for our Samsung; it was $32 and free shipping, as opposed to $90. I can't say how many pages the cartridge lasts, but we have been satisfied with it (it's a LOT longer than our inkjet). Frankly, even if they were half full (like the one that apparently comes with the printer), it's cheap.

The TV thing, while annoying, isn't really sinister. They analog channels are being leveraged for emergency communication channels. (police, fire, etc.) They have been broadcasting simultaneously (the tv stations) in analog and digital for over a decade, just now phasing out the analog. I saw the financial collapse coming long before the media started reporting it. I started seeing it when my husband's junior co-workers (fire dept. - average national salary $47K) started buying houses for $500K and driving around with car payments higher than my first mortgage (I'm 38 - it wasn't that long ago). It doesn't take a financial genius to see that there is something very, very wrong in those numbers, and a little asking revealed that there were a good many mortgages that were being written so that were going to inflate suddenly after a few years. So, five years ago, I was asking what was going to happen when everyone suddenly couldn't pay their mortgage. Oops, here it is. When Earl Butz pushed the corn subsidy in 1973, he was looking for cheap food and subsidizing farmers for actually growing crops. And he succeeded. It was clearly not the best plan, but I think it was simply short-sighted, not a plot. Frankly, with all the turnover, infighting and general b*tching, there is no way our government could achieve such a massive plot without it being outed repeatedly.

I said no matter what, but that's not exactly accurate - there are some things that just aren't readily available organic. As Tap pointed out, I will buy local produce that may not be organic over organic that has been flown around the world, and some things don't make the cut for hunting down organic, like chocolate chips. They're just not a high-frequency food. Also, our meat, dairy and eggs are local and not certified, but they are raised organically and humanely. I would disagree with organic not being healthier, though. In addition to the agri-additives you're not being exposed to, plants grown in natural conditions produce more of their active constituents than those grown in artificial conditions. Beef that is entirely pastured is lower in fat than it's feed lot counterpart - I believe the statistics for a T-bone steak, as stated in "King Corn" were 9 gm saturated fat in a feed lot steak, versus 1.3 in a grass finished. I also think that the rising incidence of widespread food-borne illness has a lot to do with monoculture farming. You don't have to be a microbiologist to figure out that if you kill everything in a field, then douse it with fertilizer, you have essentially created a large petri dish, in which any rogue bacteria can slip and thrive, and eventually be integrated into the very structure of the plants. (Think the spinach outbreak of E. Coli a few years ago.) Soil naturally rich in organisms doesn't have this problem, or at least, not nearly as often.

The boys weaned and moved to their own bed (which they share) at 3 1/2. We were pretty sleep deprived at that point. (Much different than having one co-sleeping nursling.) I second the writing out a schedule. That definitely kept me from sitting and zoning and then realizing the day was gone. The other thing is this: This is only a phase. It is a short phase in both of your lives. Embrace it, enjoy it and work around it as you can. You can have a super schedule and great productivity in a little while. Until then, this is a slow, quiet time for your family. Repeat as necessary. ;)

Indeed. If you go to the Motivate Moms group, I have created a second thread, so you can get a feel for how it will look with multiple discussions going on.

Four to the left of "Quick Links" is "Community". It's there.

I suspect the only option other than the DVR is to simply watch shows a season behind and get them from Netflix.

Thanks, Bob! Excellent upgrade!:thumbup:

Definitely. Thanks for noticing and validating my suspicion.

Hmmmm... spraying neurotoxins around the perimeter of my home... no, thank you. (Though I would quite probably take the tenacious poisonous spider exception, too.)

No. Fake fats are bad for us. (Fake FOODS are bad for us) Natural fats should be eaten in moderation, but are not terrible for our health. Coconut oil in particular is full of medium chain fats that are recommended for good health. It is high in lauric acid and it is low in Omega 6 EFAs, which the American diet is far too heavy on. It also has a higher smoke point than butter or olive oil, which means it does not go rancid or break down as easily in the course of cooking.

That's awesome! I just put it out to our co-op to see if we'd like to form a team. Thanks for posting it!

Oh, Catcher in the Rye and Gatsby are two of my all time favorites. I just re-read Catcher while on vacation in the fall - after 25 or so years - and then passed it to my dad, who hasn't read it in as long. (I read neither for school, nor did my husband. More and more, I think our high schools were really lame, even 20-odd years ago.) My (newly)8 y.o. is reading Inkspell for pleasure and Frindle for book club. The boys (4) have been "reading" I-Spy and Where's Waldo books together when they go to bed (they all have 30 minutes to an hour to read before lights-out).

Indeed. And the almighty dollar is far more important than quality or safety.

I'm TRYing to buy peanut butter, but the rest of the food buying club is pretending they don't see it on the split-cases list. ;) That said, one of my 4 year olds is allergic (not life threatening), so we don't buy peanut-containing snack items anyway. We do have a few jars of almond butter but, at twice the cost, I'd rather give that to him and peanut butter (both Maranatha organic) to the other two. And let us not overlook that they did not voluntarily do anything even after repeated tests showed contamination. :glare: Sigh. Just one more reason to avoid industrial food. Single points of failure are a big, big problem for our food security.

No! It looks like they've been changed so there are threaded discussions now, instead of being one long, linear discussion. I like it! (Though I am now confused because the link to social groups has been moved to the Community menu from the Quick Links... was that Community menu always there?)

Oh, man. I forgot about the planner. Yup, I've got that one, too. Not to be a total enabler, but I agree. In fact, I am sitting here wearing a sweater I've had for more than 20 years.

Yes. Also, they will sit and play nicely together, rather than creating more chaos. I've also noticed that the less we have, the less the children get on my nerves. That's not a joke; I think I'm completely strung out by the clutter.