This is always a hit, and incredibly simple. I use stock in place of the water and bullion granules, because that's what I have on hand, and I usually serve it with roasted asparagus (toss with olive oil, salt & pepper, spread it out on a baking sheet and put it in a hot - 400 - oven until it's browned... maybe 10 - 15 minutes) French Chicken in Vinegar Sauce is also always a huge hit, usually with the Pepper-Spiked Polenta and steamed green beans, which I sometimes toss with toasted almonds. ETA: Both can be started and "parked" (the herb-cream one before adding the cream stuff), and then finished before serving, so you don't have to feel like you either need to feed people as they walk through the door or be trapped in the kitchen the whole time.

I store leftovers in mason jars and vintage refrigerator containers (I-HEART-VINTAGE-PYREX). On the glass lids, I usually use a post-it flag and a piece of tape. On the jar lids, I just write on them directly. Even Sharpie can be scrubbed off. I reuse the lids, except for actual canning. When I can, either the lids are on jars in a new case, or I use a new pack, so I know they're good. Actually, I also use quart and half-gallon jars to store my working pantry stuff - dried beans, fruit, grains, chocolate chips, medicinal herbs, baking soda - but I don't label them because it's pretty obvious what they are. ("Stash" stuff is kept in jar-ready amounts in vacuum bags)

You're looking for a physiatrist - a rehabilitation specialist. They're often in with orthopaedic / sports medicine practices. From there, they will probably prescribe PT. I, personally, would make every attempt to stick with my chiropractor, though, even seeing if I could negotiate a cash discount and stretch out the interval between adjustments... I don't like to mess around with what works.

Here, too. When he was in grad school, I saw him read. It was stunning. So stunning, in fact, that it would distract me from my own reading. I think he found it annoying that I kept staring. :D I come from a family of readers, though. If you get my extended family together - either side - there is always lively book discussion. My husband's family, not so much. My mother-in-law reads mysteries, and one of her sisters evidently reads grocery store romance novels, or at least keeps buying them... but nobody else reads at all, from what I gather. :confused: I honestly cannot even begin to understand it.

Yep, that's the one we used, too. And if that doesn't work, I think you'll have to go to the drywall place. :eek:

I can't imagine their pain. It's probably even worse that they will end up mourning in a spotlight. So sad.

You can with the PC version. :001_smile:

Ah. Nice!

I like the saturated colors, art and I Spy. Our pediatrician has one exam room decorated with hand prints - the doctors, staff, patients, parents... all in primary colors. I don't know how they pulled it off, though. And don't forget mobiles - they can be interesting to look at when you have to lie down or look up.

I have been knitting for... 30 years? And have never found a decent way to knit and read at the same time. I do, however, listen to books on tape. (ok, not so much on tape anymore, but...) Personally, I'm waiting for my near vision to go to the point that I have to hold the book with my feet to be able to see the letters. Then, I'll have no problem doing both. Until then, though, both the knitting and the book are competing for the same space, about 14 inches from my face, and I have nothing to turn the pages. :D

We did for a while. We used FitDay.com and liked it. It definitely helped keep mindless snacking in check, as well as illustrating whether we were on track nutritionally. We were pretty much just doing portion control and trimming extraneous calories using Cooking Light recipes. My husband and I both lost around 40 lbs doing that. I didn't maintain it, but mostly because I then had twins. :D

I think it's all in the attitude. I see people all the time who are well into the 80s and very active and happy. It hasn't occurred to them to give up or change because the calendar has. And I see people in their 50s who are just plain old; they're the ones that trap you in a corner and show you the site of every ache, pain and medical prod, and regale you for hours about their medication schedule... the ones who are heard regularly saying "I can't do that, I have <fill in the blanks>".

What weight yarn is it? You can probably just substitute Patton's Classic. Or Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, which is, frankly, dirt cheap and knits and felts great. (and comes in every conceivable color)

I've checked off most things that apply to us on the specific days. There were a couple that we simply said "not so much", like cleaning the outside trash cans when it's 27 degrees and we have 60 mph winds. I did rescue them from blowing away, but I'm feeling just fine about that being the extent of my outside trash can involvement for the day. The daily tasks have been a little less productive - I haven't swept the entryway at all, though I sweep the kitchen pretty obsessively because that's the door we use primarily. On the other hand, there are things that we don't actually forget to do that I haven't checked off - have to develop that habit - like feeding the pets, or making the bed. I also added "set up coffee" as a daily task and that seems to be happening, which is nice because I always want to have the coffee on autopilot, but... I should put "fill humidifiers" on there, too. A couple of nights ago, I decided I was too tired to schlep the 20 feet down the hall and fill it and paid for my sloth with a raging headache all day. All in all, I feel like I'm getting back to a good routine, like the one I had a couple of years ago. It feels good. For next week, I plan to add a few decluttering tasks throughout the week.

You know, if you can knit and purl and handle dpns (not that they're so difficult, just that people find them mysterious), I would think you can knit anything that's intermediate to advanced. So, you have to identify a right-leaning or left-leaning decrease or knit through the back loop... these aren't rocket science, they're just new variations. The only thing I can think of that's an "advanced" challenge in the spirit of not being for the faint of heart is knitting a sock inside a sock. Or, maybe, some serious color work, but those are more advanced attention span than mad skill. You'll do fine, and if there are any errors, who would know? It'll be felted. :D

You say that like it's a bad thing. :001_huh:

It depends on how important your stuff is, frankly. CDs will degrade over time and should not be considered permanent storage. Ditto flash drives. External hard drives are a better solution, but can be subject to failure, too. An online backup service should have daily backups that are collected and moved off-site for safe storage. Even if the place burns down, the data can be recovered. So, if you've got irreplaceable digital photos, you may want to back them up to an external hard drive or online. If you're backing up your entire hard drive in case of a crash and doing it periodically, you're fine with cds or an external hard drive. Things that would be annoying to lose, but not devastating, like your email contacts list or your lesson plans or your huge volume of knitting patterns (ok that might be devastating), would probably be fine on a flash drive or cd.

Mine do that from time to time. Worse, they feed off each other, so it just perpetuates the whole thing. It drives me mad. I don't think it's pathological. I just find it annoying.

:iagree: Uh-huh. Let the Mid-Winter Curriculum Obsession commence! 'Tis the season to sit back, put our feet up, sip our tea and go completely mad with planning. But at least I don't have to leave the house!

Wow. That really IS a bad gift. I guess you could use them to strain stuff. Or make cheese.... :001_huh: My MIL gave me a rather large bag of... hair. It's ok, though, because I'm a knitter and it's alpaca (my favorite fiber) and I've been wanting to learn to spin. :D Still, in any other context, a bag of hair would be a horrible gift. You know, like non-fitting pantyhose.

If I may be so bold, I would suggest giving him - and the rest of your family - a memory journal. My mother gave my grandmother The Story of a Lifetime a few years ago, and it was so wonderful for all of us to be able to read while sitting with her before she passed away this spring. It is a directed journal, that asks specific questions and provides space for the person to reflect on their memories of that topic. Family history, particularly from the individual family members, is an invaluable gift.

In my experience - and I know others' differ - once the kids are already reading the beginner level books, a stand-alone phonics program is superfluous. In my house, pushing it only serves to make the kids mad. Reading together, and independently, seems to be a much better plan, at least for us, particularly adding more challenging books to read together, with me giving help with unfamiliar pronunciations. If you have trouble catching phonetic errors, can your husband read with him a bit, too, just to make sure? Story time and homeschool book clubs at the library have been great for us in challenging the kids, but I suspect that has a lot to do with the individual librarian leading the pack. Welcome back to homeschooling!

Chicken and dumplings? Just pile everything into the pot and bring it up to a simmer. While it's simemering, make a biscuit dough. I pat mine out to about 1/2 inch thickness, then cut it with a knife into about 1 inch chunks. Drop the biscuit dough on top, then put the lid on for about 10 minutes. Stir in some cream before serving. You could make a chicken curry, with Thai curry paste, the stock & veggies, and a can of coconut milk, and serve it over rice. Cream soups are easy, just make a roux - say, 2 TBS butter, melted, and 2-3 TBS flour - add the stock, add the chicken and veggies, bring it up to a boil, then lower the heat and add some cream or milk and heat it mack to a simmer. If it turns out too thin for your liking, you can mix soft butter and flour into a paste (the butter will hold a lot more flour than you think) and add it at the end, to thicken it. You could make a nifty chicken and barley stew with the chicken, stock, veggies and barley (the ratio of pearled barley to liquid is 1:4)

Congratulations! Pie crust is scary. My childhood was punctuated by primal shrieks, followed by a thud as the pie crust hit the wall... suffice to say, I have been very happy for Pillsbury for much of my adult life. Last year, I conquered the elusive edible baking powder biscuit. This year, the pie crust. (Hopefully, without furthering the shriek-thud family tradition) I don't think I'll be getting a DS for the occasion, but it's good to know that others are overcoming the same challenge. :D