Yes, rather like when I read Catcher in the Rye and completely identified with Holden... And then realized he was having a nervous breakdown.

Wait... Is there something evil about Lego, other than the part where, when you step on them on carpet, they roll and perforate the bottom of your foot?

So true. :grouphug: to you and your husband. She sucks.

I have a similar feeling about brags here vs FB. It's probably because we also share struggles and mundane stuff and thoughts about random stuff like cupcakes, kilts, and the like. On FB, there seems to be a bid for attention with every post, rather than a sharing or query. Know what I mean?

I fill a bottle half full of water, add some apple cider vinegar, and stick in a paper funnel. It sits on the corner of the sink all summer.

Yep. After 8 years (?!?!?) I still have those days where, as a friend so eloquently put it recently, "I feel like eating my young". Add into that the adjustment in defining your dual role as mom and teacher, and redefining who you are... Yeah, you're in a difficult, untethered, place. When you find your stride, it will be better, though there are always "those days". ;) Welcome to the boards!

Scalloped potatoes and grilled ham steaks... And something green I haven decided on yet.

I feel the same way. When the kids were younger, people would say, "you need to get out and do something for yourself" and I would sit there, wondering what on earth I would do... Grocery shop? I totally get the "aaaah, I have the house to myself" concept, and the happiness to be back to their regular routine - because, let's face it, since it goes August to June, kids in school is the regular routine, and I feel the same when we get back into our routine after vacation - but I don't get the people who say they can't stand being around their kids. That always leaves me :confused:

So true, though I prefer eggshell or satin so the house doesn't start looking industrial. You brought up another Dirt Mystery of the Universe: Occasionally, when I work on the weekend, I will do some deep cleaning (our cleaning people are AWFUL. Like, cleaning the windows with bathroom cleaner bad...) and will go after the walls and doorways with a Mr. Clean eraser... The doorways of our exercise studios get black on the corners of the trim, from the latch plate down. At first, I thought it was the paint worn off, but no, totally dirt. Where does it come from? We don't have any pets at the Y. It's incredibly awkward to brush against the frame down there... It's just strange. :confused:

I think you have just connected the dots! It's the evil, sock stealing gnomes (who also steal other things). We are getting the cords other people are ripping the house apart trying to find. Somewhere, someone has a box of inexplicable socks. Carrie, I think you've hit on something brilliant. (Also a perfect assessment of why I couldn't hang with FlyLady, either) I've been trying to work out a three-section chore schedule that someone else suggested on another thread recently (and I'm embarassed to say I can't remember who that is). Morning chores, evening chores, and a 30 minute segment after lunch, when everybody works. So, if general tidying gets done in the evening, and general prep/maintenance gets done in the morning, then I should be able to come up with specific areas in rotation for the mid-day slot. We have a LOT of clutter, and I do dejunk periodically, but I honestly think some of the clutter problem is stuff not being put away. Not like there's no place for it; rather, there is one of the boys' shirts on the floor in the foyer, and the laundry room is all piled up from them cleaning their rooms and digging all the stuff out that they should have put in the laundry before... Hmmmm. Pondering. I have a feeling I will end up with something that looks like Motivated Moms, but with less obsession about dish towels.

My intuition for positives is bad. I think hope gets in the way.

Yep. That's pretty much it. They have alarm clocks (which they turn off before going back to bed :glare:), then we chase them out of bed, breakfast is had, morning routine commenced (dressing, etc). Then, we are in the school room until lunch. After lunch, we have some quiet time (where I recharge while no one talks to me) and do the other stuff we have planned. They're all in bed by 8:30. We, as the parents, at the ones who keep everyone on task. That's our job.

Yes. Maine. But that's home for me, so... I'll wave in your general direction when we head up next week. :)

Woohoo! Congratulations!

Mine is pretty good, just not specific. (which I guess is what makes it intuition and not psychic powers, eh?) I know when someone/something is off, just not why.

:svengo: YUM! Guess we all know how I'm brewing the coffee tomorrow morning! Thanks, Ibby!

Just to clarify: Woodchuck makes seasonal flavors. Only the autumn brew gets me all excited, though. Angry Orchard - and I love the name and artwork, too - has the apple ginger all year. I like Hornsby's as a nice, apple-y, refreshing drink, too.

I agree. I'm particularly fond of Angry Orchard apple ginger as I await the Woodchuck autumn brew. (Though I admit to being stumped as to where the gluten would come from in wine.)

I don't really see anything wrong with sticking with the family naming convention and using a middle name as what a child is normally called. People give their children family names all the time and call them by a middle. Obviously, it is parental choice what to name/call their children. I just don't see that it's particularly uncommon to do it that way to uphold tradition and call your kid what you want.

I randomly crave things, but it's not an ongoing issue so I'm not concerned about deficiencies. Crunchy-sour-creamy-salty would be one of mine, too. So, pretzels in sharp mustard (or, you know, pickles in ranch,lol). I'm more prone to suggestion, though. I'll get a taste for something and it will gnaw at me until I have it. And it better be "right" or I'm annoyed. That's been going on my whole life, though. Again, not a constant thing.

I've done that. Good coffee, too. ;)

And those leather gloves that buckle behind you the linemen wear. And a leather blacksmith's apron. And a welding mask, just to be safe!

Yeah, they really do. Sadly, the new ones don't seem to. We got a new one that makes coffee in 12 minutes and goes to "keep warm". For the first 8 minutes, it made a scary noise that was like a grzzly bear and a chicken trying to dig/peck through the counter, then it settled in to brewing for almost 4 minutes... The coffee was horrible. Insipid. Acidic (impressive for dark roast). :ack2: It had to go back. I really loved my 1930s one, until my husband blew it up. Sigh.

Yup, that. I don't autopay stuff because my husband gets paid every other week. But I get all of my bills via email and/or directly into online banking, and I just go to online banking and queue them up as they arrive. We've gone from stuff being late a good amount of time to being early all the time. Except the water bill. That comes in the mail and gets paid with a handwritten check because the one time I paid it through the bank the town lost a huge batch of bank checks, so it was late. Then, I stopped payment on the lost check, which they found months later and deposited. Then they wanted to give us carp for "bouncing" a check (which they couldn't even post against something because we had a zero balance)... Huge mess. So they get a hand-delivered check, and we get a receipt. Everyone else gets electronic payments from my bank, and I don't even need to know what day it is to get them paid. I'm sorry you're having a rough time of it. I remember how hard it was with CFS, just to focus. :grouphug:

:iagree: In the old days, I could see them writing for something to be filled in case a culture came back positive, but they've been able to call in prescriptions for years. And, given the rate of antibiotic abuse in this country, and the resulting proliferation of resistant bacteria, that just seems reckless.