This was my first question, too. And, yes, I would go into the unknown with my family together before I would maintain our lifestyle with my family apart in the long run. In this situation, we would probably try to find a one bedroom apt, if necessary, and we grown-ups would sleep on a futon in the living room and have the kids share a room until the debt was paid off, there was more certainty about income, and a nice financial cushion was established.

Per my 11yo: if she goes to someone's house and a door is closed, it means she is not to go into that room unless invited to do so by her hosts. She thought the magazine thing was pretty funny (shocked funny), the poster ripping, not.cool.at.all. Per my 7yos: "we're not allowed in" if doors are closed. Here, they all knock, but they live here.

:iagree: However, milk should be good at least 7 days past the sell-by date. That's a shelf expiration, not a use expiration.

We've had this one for several years and love it. The only parts I have to store are the top and beater, and they fit into my Bin of Random Implements (with my mandolin, processor blades, etc). I'm not sure I would love a whole appliance like that one. They're very simple machines. Keep the bowl frozen and, as long as the motor works, you're in business. So true. Those would make me laugh, if people didn't take them seriously. We're a big fan of Ben & Jerry's knockoff recipes. I may have to spring for hte official recipe book this summer.

Mmmmmm. I love grilled pizza! I wonder if I could par-bake the gluten free crust, then grill it. (otherwise, it would fall apart in the transfer)

This is because marshmallows used to be made with the binder mallow, which is used as an herbal to soothe. I don't think it works anymore I JUST noticed this last year! We use a variant of this: fill a bottle half full of water, add the acv, make a funnel out of paper and stick it in the neck. Works great. We all saw Hildy do that on Trading Spaces. Is can be done, but I don't think the people who owned the painted liked it. Mine are always white. But they have the date on them. How? :confused: I did that last night, but I used a mason jar and immersion blender... I don't think that's what they meant. (I didn't break my blender, just used a jar so I could store leftover dressing and not add a dish to wash) My blender jar has a neck on the bottom that the base screws on. Were old blenders different, maybe? We refrigerate leftover pizza for lunch the next day. I am un-clever and just put it in the oven, though. They say you can hang up bags of water around your eating area to deter flies. I'm not sure how well it would work, since we use fly traps that are essentially bags of garbagey smelling water and they are not only undeterred, they fight each other to get in. I use alcohol preps to take sharpie off smooth, non-porous surfaces. :D

:iagree: It's not my kids - I enjoy them very much as people! I adore them and my husband. It's about being "on". I need to switch off or I start to frazzle. My husband is at work tonight and I've spent the time since the kids went to bed ironing and watching Midsomer Murders and chatting to the dog periodically. I think she's an introvert, too, because she keeps looking at me like she wishes I'd stop. :lol:

I agree with these. I wouldn't consider us "AP" parents, though many of the practices worked with one or all of the children, in various situations. We're more "matter of fact" parents. I've never nursed anyone through a tantrum. That sounds like a rather dangerous proposition, offering my flesh to an out of control, toothy, gasping person. :eek: On the other hand, none of mine have really been comfort nursers, so that may be why I have trouble imagining it. I generally avoid labels, or a purist view of anything. And, through experience, I generally avoid those who embrace purist viewpoints. I've found them to be very pushy and condescending, and more interested in what I've come to call "name brand parenting" than what actually works for any parent-child combination.

I get up between 5-5:30 just about every morning. I used to be a night-owl, but the boys cured me of that; the early morning hours were the only ones I could have in quiet, with the energy to do anything. We also have quiet time after lunch. I lie down or read or fold laundry in front of the tv for an hour or so. The kids are confined to their rooms and can either nap or read. They go to bed by 8:00, unless there is something that keeps us out "late". (Lacrosse season keeps us on the field until about 7:30, so they don't get to bed until 8:30-9 four nights a week. ) Again, they can go to sleep or read for a while, but it is time to be quiet. After they go to bed, we clean up from supper and go to bed ourselves, and I have time to spend quietly with my husband until we fall asleep, usually by 10:00. It DOES get easier as they get older, but some of the things I do started when they were still little, as a way to keep my sanity. ;)

No, I don't think WE are the ones misreading. Nutso Joan is told that child A has bad reactions to red dye, so she clandestinely gives red dye to child B, and then does her So There dance because she has "proved" the OP is wrong. A) that is psycho. 2) she lied to a child to trick her into eating something she finds objectionable in order to prove her illogical point.

I don't think I would need to pinpoint the pathology of a person who has decided it is their mission in life to undermine every parenting decision I make. I think I would ponder that particular question at my leisure, having fled the crackpot's clutches.

I don't think "swarms", "venemous", and "highly aggressive" belong in any sentence together. Ever. :svengo: And I don't even dislike spiders.

No kidding... If you can't tolerate coffee (acid, caffeine), why would anyone think MD (acid, caffeine, carbonation... All reflux triggers) is a good idea is beyond me. :confused: If your current way of doing things is causing you pain and ill health, you need to be willing to make changes. I'm sorry if that seems harsh. I just can't understand when people want change without changing.

My three co-sleepers took to their own beds around 3 1/2. The boys still sleep together in a full sized bed.

Twin boys, 7 1/2.

Stigma is a mark of disgrace. Yes, often tattooed or branded, but it is not synonymous with the method of application. It's interesting to me that people would be so concerned about employment. I worked for a decade in IT consulting, in some very conservative settings where skirt suits were the norm for women, and I don't think anyone ever commented on mine. My boss commented once, but only because he regretted not bringing me along on a sales call he had at a company with purple haired, facially pierced management who held the meeting at the pool table in the lobby. (obviously not one of the more conservative venues) He thought I would have fit right in with them and set them at ease! :lol: I do think the aesthetic one embraces makes a statement to the world. I think it's the details of what we put out there that should be noted, though. People wear t-shirts with printing on them all the time - emblems, birds, vacation scenes, "property of"... They don't really say anything in particular about the wearer. But the ones that have something hateful or violent? Those get my attention. Because the wearer has chosen to emblazon that message on his chest. Same thing with tats. Some are a message. Some are just decorative. I have to :lol: at the flames coming up from the pants, though. What the owner probably saw as provocative I think would be great material for a Tucks or Preparation-H ad campaign. :D

Amen! Setting aside bikes for the moment, I am regularly floored by people passing 2, 5, 12! cars on a 2-lane highway, with oncoming traffic, just so they can be "first". First to where, I have no idea, but I am appalled that people are so reckless. Suffice it to say, the helicopters bound for the trauma center are a regular occurrence here, especially during the summer when people are rushing to get to the beach (still about an hour away when they crash here). I wish people would just let to of the "me first" mentality.

Over here on the mid-shore, it's just sort of rainy. It's not even raining as hard as our normal rain. The kids just came home from Parents' Night Out at the Y, and one of the girls who was working reported hearing from a friend that there was a tornado, but we're still only under a watch, so I don't know.

That's really interesting. I wonder if I experience termperment/mood issues and just haven't put it together...

Actually, reglazing windows is super easy. Pull out the still-clinging chunks of glass, scrape out the glazing compound (like putty, on the exterior surface, probably painted about 3 million times, if your house is as old as ours), plop the new pane in, push in glazing points, put in new putty. Really, maybe an hour. We've replaced sash cords that the former owners were so sweet as to cut so they could put in those super-excellent (<sarcasm) metal tracks, too. Also easy, and a good opportunity to insulate the weight channels.

I wouldn't say anything. He seems like the kind of a-hole coach that gets his way by belittling people into submission. Now, if I were your daughter, I would demand to know why he is telling people I can't tell time and making fun of me because a) I CAN tell time and b) I would think that sort of behavior had stopped a couple decades ago for him. I would hope that being shamed by the child he is slandering and ridiculing would stop it. But it probably wouldn't. My 11yo sixth grader would totally ask him, with the look of disgust only tween girls can pull out, "why do you keep telling people I can't tell time?"

I don't have celiac and rarely have digestive issues, but my joints are burning and stiff within 12 hours, I move like a super arthritic 100 year old for 3 or 4 days. Not cool. :glare:

I was 7 and, while that wouldn't have stopped my parents from taking me (I saw Jaws and The Godfather... Seriously bad media decisions going on there), they likely would have seen the original version, so wouldn't have had much interest in the remake (plus they're not really sci-fi people). I'm pretty sure I've seen the original 50's version. I recall it being b&w but, as someone else pointed out, that may be because we had b&w tv until well into the 80's.

Jumping the shark is a way different generation than those others! :lol:

I agree and will add that the hand signals we use are the same ones that were used in other road transportation, before the enclosed automobile. Because it is not the best solution in that type of transport. I will also add that impeding the flow of traffic only applies - as far as I know - at highway speeds. Bicycles are prohibited from highways here*, so that's a non-issue. *There are occasions that there are organized, permitted rides on US Rt 50, that go over the Bay Bridge, etc. In those cases, on stretches where there is not a parallel business route to divert to, one lane (or one span of the bridge) is closed for a period of time to accommodate the obviously slower-moving traffic.