Yup. My kids ran their first 5k when they were 9 and 6. We took them on training runs for weeks prior and their major energy expenditure was complaining. EXCEPT when I took them to run a trail through the woods. Then, I couldn't keep pace with them. Two of them are lacrosse middies, and they run miles back and forth on the field, no complaints. The other thing is that around the first 10 minutes of cardio are hard for me, still. I spend the first 8 minutes mentally going " this sucks... I hate this... I'm only doing enough to warm up before I lift... Ack...." Once I hit the 10 minute mark, I get into the groove and can go on for an hour or more. So, it may be a boredom thing, combined with never hitting that aerobic level groove because of all the starting and stopping.

My husband and SIL LOVE that. I thought weirdly red things were a PA Dutch sort of thing. I grew up with beige cream soda and clear birch beer, but I see a lot of red varieties of both with PA regional labels on them. It's funny how much I recall about soda. I didn't grow up drinking it other than at Very Special Events, and I rarely drink it now. We've had the same case of Maine Root ginger ale for a year - through two stomach bug seasons.

Good idea, Jean! I have a glass of iced black and green tea, and a roobios blend, with some fresh mint thrown it. Mmmmmmm. It is 93* right now, but only "feels like" 91 because of the low humidity. Snort. We've been doing a whole lot of nothing. I finished painting my wicker porch furniture yesterday; now the dingy, worn white has become barn red on the chairs and settee, dark brown on the table. GF pasta salad for supper, with cucumbers, radishes, onion, parsley and mint in a creamy ranch dressing that I thinned with homemade kefir. Chicken is off the barbie and cooling. After supper, we're getting lesson plans together for the week. I think I'd like to have super speed, so I can get all the housekeeping done early in the day, and then slow down to do the rest of the stuff at a leisurely pace. How has your weekend been?

:lol: I remember that one! Or two nurslings coming over and foraging while I was sitting on the floor, standing up and pushing each other. There were days when I felt like, as mammals, we are misconfigured in the mammaries. It would have been so much easier to flop over on the floor and let those two feed if I had rows. :D

I don't think anyone can "have it all". It's Econ 101: opportunity cost. Every choice we make comes with the de facto rejection of the "other" choice. That doesn't make choices wrong, mean they cant be reversed, or cant be balanced out, but I think it's unrealistic to think you can have it all.

I do, indeed. Now for a completely practical question, as we move into tomato sandwich season: what kind of GF bread did you use? Because I prefer mine, traditionally, on squishy white bread, but my GF bread is normally whole grain and not particularly squishy.

I just ran into some (but I don't think they're proper Maine red hot dogs) in Giant here. I practically knocked myself over recoiling from the case, a la Kramer. They were right there with the other random, inexplicable meat products - pork roll, etc - at the end of the case next to the restrooms (which is why I was standing there, pondering odd meat products; I was waiting for the boys.)

Mmmmmmmm. I :001_wub: Moxie. And Italian sandwiches. And salt & vinegar chips. (But I do not love the disgusting red hotdogs that crunch when you bite into them. :ack2: Maybe that's why I dot care for hotdogs much. Flashbacks.) My Pepe used to drink unsweetened Moxie. I can't even imagine how less-sweet Moxie could be. My dad and his brothers used to empty the sugar bowl into their glasses, just to make it drinkable, when they were kids. I also like the Jarritos tamarind soda. I get it at our favorite taqueria in Dover. They also sell export Coke (with sugar) and Squirt. (no, it doesn't taste like Moxie, but it has its own distinct flavor.) Speaking of soda with sugar, does everyone else have Blue Sky, Hansen's and/or Maine Root (best ginger ale ever! Spicy!)? Or are those eastern seaboard specific?

Me, too! And there's a bypass loop off 95 around Philly that is just desolate, with big, industrial electric poles that makes me feel like I'm heading into his territory. No, I don't see the purpose of this. Nor do I see the purpose in publishing. And the comment about it being impractical to use as a bio-terror agent because the terrorists would infect themselves? Really? Suicide bombers, Dr Headinthesand? Because, if I were a terrorist, I'm feeling like an act that continues to propagate itself, and a 50/50 shot of dying in the process (as opposed to, say, the more traditional 100%) sounds like a pretty good deal.

Uh... Yeah, I may need a beer to recover from the article. This seems like one of those situations where "because we can" is just not good enough. My reply seems incoherent. I think I'm under-caffeinated for processing virologists' nightmares.

Huh?

Yup, that's it. I don't play the "I'm mad at you and I'm not going to tell you why" game. My friends are grownups. I expect them to act like it. I can, too. I cannot think of a single reason one would go silent, then tell another adult that they are the cause of some anger/hurt, but refuse to tell them what the offense is. I honestly don't know how I could possibly unwittingly offend someone to that level without having any kind of a clue that I may have mis-stepped.

What a very, very strange mental image I have right now. I wonder if it was even remotely as weird as your actual image. :001_huh:

Ugh! We are enjoying a cool 92*, with only 27% humidity so it "feels like" 89*, according to TWC. (Which is funny because I was a little shocked to see it was 92*... it really doesn't feel that hot.)

Both of these are good points: My time is also valuable. However, I hate shopping. I hate everything about it. Flipside: I enjoy the process of creating. So, if I can make 2 mittens and a hat out of a $6 skein of Bartlett wool, that $6 has not only provided a hat and mittens for one of my children, but several hours of enjoyment for me. Totally. I take up crafts to make reuse of things. I don't buy things to take up crafts. Well, mostly. There is that wool stash. Eta: And this is another value-added argument. Is my time worth more than the life/health of another person? Obviously, that is sort of hyperbolic but, in reality, just "sort of". If we re-purpose items already on hand or used by someone else, doesn't that frugality reach from our own purses and into positive environmental and social realms as well? I mean, from Dawn's post I'm seeing lots of virtuous fallout: Gifts made with love Low cost Cheap entertainment (I assume) Materials kept from landfills Not funding sweatshops Hm. Sounds right up my alley.

I agree, and I can often make something very specific for much less than the going rate, simply because the materials aren't expensive. For instance, I am mentally working on a reversible, tie shoulder dress (for me) like one I saw at a vendor booth at a recent tournament. It's all quilting weight cotton, contrasting empire wasitband and lined bodice, but not reversible, and retails for $115. Even at nearly twice the fabric, at a high-end price, would not come close to half that.

:iagree: Some of my favorite group-ex instructors are the ones who are sporting imperfect bodies and doing it anyway! Plus, Zumba Gold is a separate certification specifically for modification to accommodate age/disability, which may be a great area of specialty for you. Of dozens of Zumba instructors, I've only met one with the Gold cert.

I'm Angela and I did, in fact, read all 357 posts before hitting "reply". :D I am a super-liberal, Catholic girl from Maine, now living on the flat side of Maryland. I was a poster on the old boards, before my boys were born, then sort of fell off the internet from twin sleep deprivation for a while. When I got back on, I mostly hung out on the Mothering boards, then found my way back here when I tired of being called a fascist because I am not a radical unschooler (it's simply not my nature). When I came back, we had the "new" board and I couldn't remember my old username. I still have no idea what it was. My husband and I have three children at home, and I have a 23yo daughter from a previous marriage. She graduated from PS, the younger three have never been to school. We took up homeschooling for academic reasons when our 4yo was reading but not eligible to start school for another year. We are now beginning our 8th year of homeschooling (WHA??) and have come to enjoy all those other social, environmental perks as much as the pursuit of academic excellence. Before the boys were born, I worked as a software engineer, building integrated workflow management systems. I remember being warned about another engineer on a project: he was a "weirdo" homeschooler who took his family to corn mazes. (He was a little odd, even by IT standards) Now I LMAO every year when we hit the corn mazes in PA and locally. :lol: My husband is a firefighter/paramedic/officer in the fire department (that seems redundant), and works a 24 on / 72 off schedule (so, every 4th day). Last year, he took over the bulk of planning and teaching to give me a breather while I went back to work (very) part time. This year, we will be splitting the subjects - him, STEM; me, liberal arts - so we can each focus in an area with the kids instead of one of us losing our minds trying to fit everything in with all of them every day. Welcome to the new and just out of lurking members!

Yup, I'm 5'0, 150, muscular, particularly in the tuchas and thighs (heavy squats, heavy deadlifts, family tuchas). I like natural waist/midrise, straight leg. I mostly get them LL Bean. Otherwise, the choices seem to be a waist that squeezes the life out of me (Levi's) or construction that makes me look like a body in an egg cup (Old Navy) because the front and back are equal (:confused:) which translates to the front hanging out while the back doesn't quite make it to its destination. (Not to mention ON are always too long, so their "knee" is wedged around my calf) And I hate spandex in my denim. That's the worst! Gripping in all sorts of odd places, while sliding down the back constantly. Uck. I have no advice. I hate jeans shopping. I've actually been considering the Jean-ius trouser construction class on Craftsy for the purpose of avoiding the shopping.

We have a Lenovo Thinkpad K1. It has full range of the android market (as opposed to the Kindle-specific market) for apps. It will use a stylus and keyboard, though we have neither. It is wifi only, which works for us. We have a kindle app and a nook app on it, so we can download ebooks from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and pretty much any other source. The only drawback is that the free lending library with Prime doesn't extend to app users. I think I've found one book that I would have borrowed since Amazon started that, though, so it's not much of a loss for us. We use it a lot for lessons, with whiteboard and PDF markup apps, and the kids are watching a movie streamed from Netflix onto the tv with an HDMI cable right now. Truth be told, we rarely use it for reading. I think the backlit screen is hard on the eyes, and the kids have e-ink Nooks for that.

In a word, yes. I think we have strayed far too far from a community mentality, from compassion. I think we have strayed far too far into cultural narcissism - the kind where we celebrate being as horrific as it takes to get the spotlight or whatever reward we're after, where schadenfreude is the norm, and if anything doesn't directly benefit "me", we are vehemently against, even when it affects "me" not at all. Our society normalizes graphic violence and victimization as "game". So, yes. When I can deny your basic needs because i dont share them, when my momentary entertainment trumps your dignity, I think we have gone astray. Big time.

Here's another recipe from the inbox: Quinoa Berry Parfait My kids sometimes shun quinoa. I suspect it's when I haven't rinsed it thoroughly enough (I don't buy pre-rinsed). Last time I made tabbouleh, I rinsed it, put it on to cook and there was so much sudsing that I rinsed it several more times. The kids definitely responded better than they have on other occasions, though they generally like things like quinoa pudding.

Another "keep it and enjoy it" here. I don't think sending the message that hard work has rewards makes anyone a bad mother, but teaching others' hard work gets you rewards and they get you leftovers is sort of sketchy. (not suggesting that's the lesson if you give it to him, but it might be implied.)

Highschool: Avogadro's number = 6.02*10{23rd} (sorry, can't do notation on my phone) College: (in a thick Hindi accent) "If, in the lab, you mix two substances and a white cloud forms.... Run away! Exceedingly quickly!" I'm sure I remember more but, as Ellie said, it's been crammed into the mass of general knowledge. Eta: Actually, my French is coming back, better than it was originally. I used to joke that, after several years of French, the practical difference between a French speaking country and a Spanish speaking country was that I could order a beer in both, but only find the bathroom in a French one. Oh, and I remember that as class poll indicated that Mrs Shear was likely mineral. She also had an unfortunate sweater that was the same color as the wall behind her, so she looked like a disembodied head at the front of the room; rather awkward in a class that should have been billed "Chemistry for Stoners". :lol: I really have no idea why my odd recalls have to do so much with chem. It was not my best subject. Either time.

That was my thought as well, but I don't think it's actually the case. I think they have a very non-pregnant looking model in a dress with an awkward empire waist (which will not be awkward with a baby bump), so it looks like those b00ks are sitting right at her skirt waist. Looking at their location along her arm, it appears they're situated in the standard area. I think the rules for black at weddings have changed. There is nothing about that dress that suggests mourning. I think it would be lovely. :)