I would love to hop a plane and hep you out:) But "hopping a plane" is not really an option where I live...... I could hop a dog sled:) I don't think there are any brands to avoid. They are all good. Skis can quickly get very very expensive. I just priced out a new skate ski package last weekend. $1000. I kid not. I just about choked. And that is not even "top of the line." I decided my 15 yo skate skis are just fine! I have a growing child that I have to buy 2+ sets for each time she grows! There is no need for the recreational skier to spend that much. Especially in W. MI where the snow amount can vary so much by year. You could have whole winters when there is not enough snow. Low end new packages will run about $300 once all set up. That would get you a very nice set of skis that would last forever. However, there is so much on the used market that you can get by for much less. Ask the people at the rental place if they know of any gear swaps. Even in our tiny community, we have two a year. I have picked up great skis for a fraction of the cost. Then there is the potential for retired rentals. Even new ski/sport shops might have a "basement" where they have used/discontinued/retired-rental gear for sale. All of ours do, but unless you ask, you would never know of the option. My guess is that whoever is running the rentals at your trails would probably have the inside scoop on where to find good used gear. Or could at the very least put you in touch with someone who does. And remember, even old-as-dirt, thrift store skis can serve you very well. If you are having fun and not suffering while skiing, then you have a good enough pair for the time being. We outfit houseguests with skis on a regular basis. Many times, we don't have the exact right length for a person's weight and I worry they will not have fun. That has never happened. The only time we ever have miserable people on skis is when I get MY (or dd's) wax wrong. I don't even attempt wax skis for friends and newbies. It is too easy to turn people off of the activity that way.

Honestly, 3-pin is fine, really. Many many people used them for decades. SNS and NNN hit the scene over 25 years ago but I still see 3-pin on the trails almost every time I ski. They won't win any races, but you can certainly have a good time with them. Length needs will vary with brand and type. For sure go by weight rather than height! Waxless is a bit more forgiving. I would just target the middle of the ranges you see. If you spot a good deal and would only be out a few dollars, grab anything within range. You can even put them on on a flat floor and have another person look to see if the kick zone touches the ground when you are on one set of toes but then does not make contact when flat footed (if that makes any sense). Or even use an index card and see if it will slid under the kick zone during this positions. Skis get "tired" with age and use and this is the only (free) way I can think of to really determine if the length is right and the ski is not too :tired." But even if you don't bother with any of that, if you have skis on your feet and are having a good time, you are good. It does not have to be perfect to be enjoyable and good exercise. If you catch the bug and want more out of the experience, you will have skied enough by then to get a better feel of what works for you. I really love skiing and think it is one of the few exercises that is truly accessible for anyone......

The thing about wax that makes it difficult is that you need different wax for different snow temperatures (which is different than air temperature). It is tricky. So, a shop certainly can wax them up nice but be sure to find out: 1. What the temperature range is for the wax they are applying. 2. When you will need to re-apply. You will not want to attempt to ski outside of the range. It can be very frustrating. That is why I always carry my waxless....so I have back-up. Our shops charge $15-$20 to wax so you might find it more economical to buy a few waxes and the tools you will need to do it yourself. There is also a product called grip tape. It basically converts wax skis into waxless skis. This has saved me when the temperature gets close to or above freezing. It is not something you want to try to apply yourself. That is a job for a shop to do. But it will work in just about all conditions.

Ha ha! It is the only way to stay sane in this climate. You either embrace it or flee.

Classic (or stride skiing) is when you ski in the parallel tracks. Skating (or freestyle) is when you ski outside of the tracks in an ice-skating-like motion. Many skiers (including my family) do both and choose based on conditions. They require different types of skis.

Also, use your rental people! If you are renting right now and are happy with there performance of the skis, ask them to write down the size of the skis you are using. That will be a good guide when looking to buy used. The actual ski length is not 100% comparable across brands/types/age of the skis, but it certainly is a good starting point. Also ask them what they do with retired rental skis. Some trail systems buy all new every year and sell off the old ones. It does't hurt to ask.

As my user name implies, I am a skier. I ski every day for at least an hour for 4-5 months of the year. My dh and dd are also skiers. Dd is a competitive skier. I am embarrassed to admit how many pairs of skies we own...... I gather from your OP that you are interested in classic skiing (skiing in two parallel tracks) only. 3-pin is perfectly fine for the occasional skier. As long as your feet are happy, you are good. Because you can pick up 3-pin sets for almost free, it is certainly worth a shot. If you find that you (or a family member) cannot get a good feel out of the boots, you may have to try for SNS or NNN. I would not recommend waxable skis for the occasional beginner skier. Wax is tricky and it can be very hard to get it correct, which can be very frustrating. As much as I ski, I have a pair of good waxless race skis that I take with me in the car anytime I intend to classic ski. We have a whole wax station in the basement and I always wax for conditions, but about 25% of the time, I miss the mark and have to dig out the waxless. I have started many a friend on their skiing path, and I always recommend waxless. BUT, one thing that is important with classic skis is the fit of the ski itself. Finding the right size boot and poles is pretty straight-forward. But the skis can be tricky. The ski will only function correctly if the middle area (the kick zone) touches the ground when kicking off but does not touch the ground when gliding. Ski length and flex are both more related to body weight than height. If you weigh too much for the skis, you will not glide much and will be slow. If you don't weigh enough, you will slide backward on each step. Both situations are miserable. For $3, I say take the chance. If they feel right, you are good. If not, you know you will need to go longer or shorter. If investing more, you will need to be properly fitted at a reputable shop.

I own a house much older than the ones you are looking into. I agree with many of the things people say to keep an eye out for. But I want to reiterate what another poster said about any house having similar costs. Even newer houses require a good deal of cost to maintain. We have owned both a very old house (our current) and a very new house and both cost about the same in maintenance/repair. The newer house was of much less robust construction and as a result required more work to maintain than our old house. The old house costs more in replacing aging systems. In the end they were about even. The big difference is that we were nickel and dimed on the new house. Lots of stuff going wrong but none of it very costly. On the older house, what started as a simple project sometimes turned into a domino effect, racking up costs. But it happened less often. We have redone the plumbing and electrical in our house since we bought it. In both cases, the cost was nowhere near what I feared it would be. Those things CAN be expensive. But because our house did not originally have either, it was pretty easy to access both when replaced. Smaller, simply constructed houses can much easier and less expensive to update on the electricity and plumbing front. Because our house is small and was retrofitted with these things, all of the plumbing is limited to a single wall in the house. It cost less that $1000 to replace all of our plumbing with copper.

I am OK with fat. It was the vomiting, dry skin, and urinary problems racking up the vet bills that got my attention. And fat can lead to lots of other health problems that can cause suffering and/or expense. Some cats are just fine on any food and that is cool. But if an animal is not, it can quickly become expensive and painful.

It sounds like you are on the right track. I will just second (third, fourth....) getting away from free-feeding dry food. My cats were a mess from doing this for years even though I provided "premium" cat food. We just did not know any better. Our vet said it was fine. I switched them to grain-free wet and raw foods and the difference was immediate and drastic. Both had multiple health problems that all cleared up within months of the switch. I would not believe it if I did not see it myself. The food is much more expensive, but we have already more than made up for that cost by no longer needing regular vet services.

This is my guess as well. I have seen it go three ways. I socialize with some people that allow/encourage children to speak at any time and the adults are expected to halt conversation until the child has had their moment. I socialize with others that have taught their children to not interrupt during a conversation thread (meaning, not just waiting for a pause but a change of topic). And still others that are in-between. No mid-sentance interruptions allowed but between sentences is fair game. I gather from your posts that you are in the third camp. I, myself, am in the second camp and have taught dd to participate as though she were another adult in the conversation and not interrupt or bring in a new topic until it would be naturally appropriate in the conversation....unless there is something that needs to be said immediately, like blood, fire, or vomit. When she was still learning, I had signals that indicated "wait" until the appropriate time to change the topic. When I am having a conversation with another adult whose child is interrupting in a fashion I am not used to, I look to the parent for clues. If they continue talking, I do as well. I find myself avoiding relationships with people who allow their children to interrupt frequently as I have trouble maintaining any sort of thought when interrupted often. I will not say it is "wrong" but it is annoying and I prefer to avoid it. It sounds like a simple conversation with Auntie is in order. And maybe some tips to the kids on how to navigate those visits specifically.

Does your dd spend time with other girls her age? I ask, because I have a 10yo, fairly sheltered, always-homeschooled girl and we also have no TV or unsupervised internet access. She is what I would call a "late-bloomer" and I will be shocked if she enters puberty anytime soon. She has a small circle of friends, mostly her age, mostly public-schooled, mostly female, mostly from families we know very well. I bought this book for her when she was 8 then the second one in the series when she turned 10, along with the "So Amazing" series in the same basic age progression. I thought she was a little young for each book when we gave them to her. I did not think she had thought about these things or had any questions/concerns. I was very wrong. Dd is pretty willing to come to us with questions of any nature, but we found she did not even have the words for some of her questions. And the kids talk amongst themselves far more than I realized.....often with quite incorrect information. My dd uses these books as a reference guide, usually to help her frame questions or clear up confusion. I initially had some of the concerns you have. I worried it would cause body image issues or anxiety about events that are not likely to occur for quite some time. But this has not been the case. If anything, I think having all of the info available has been very helpful. I am more and more coming to believe that too much info is far better than not enough. And sometimes, as parents, we don't always remember those stages accurately. We are not, however, as a family at all conservative from a body/modesty/sexuality standpoint, so our situation might be different.

We eat this once a week and my family thinks it is gourmet. I cook both the RF beans and the rice in large quantities and freeze in one-meal-sized portions. We have two nights a week when I have zero time to cook and this is my go-to for one of those nights. During the summer when the garden is going full blast, it is even easier. I swear I can chop up ANYTHING and they will eat it if it is on top of beans and rice. During the winter months, I do have to plan ahead and have toppings on hand and preferably prepped.

I have this problem and so does my dd. And we cannot afford really expensive jeans. Find a good alterations place. I find lots of nice jeans and pants at the thrift stores. I try on for length and how the legs look/feel. I usually have a $5 limit. Then I get the waist altered. This usually costs about $15 for $20 total per pair, even less for dd. I prefer boot cut and dd prefers skinny jeans. Both alter well if you find the right alterations person. Ours will even put in adjusters in dc's pants/jeans to get an extra year out of them. Or better yet, if you sew, you could alter them yourself. I sew but am not that skilled.....

My 10 yo has had (undiagnosed) sleep problems from day one. We have chosen not to address it from a medical standpoint and have gradually taught her how to manage it (mostly) other own. I also have had life-long sleep problems and have attempted medical intervention with little success and a lot of stress and expense....something we did not want to repeat with dd. I knew I was in trouble when she only slept for 9 hours of her first 24 hours of life..... She was never fussy, unhappy, or in pain, just awake. As a baby, as long as someone was with her, she was happy as could be. Calm too. Just not asleep. She was always a very content baby. She needs sleep and is often very tired but seems to lack the ability to fall and stay asleep easily. Aside from not being able to go to or have sleepovers or go to overnight camp, it is manageable. The flexibility of homeschooling has made the situation far less stressful than it could be. Dd is now old enough to occupy herself during the night hours when she is awake. As far as I can tell, she has no sensory or other issues that are causing the problem. As she gets older, she can decide if/how she will seek medical help. I don't feel it is disruptive enough at this point to go there. As far as coping, it was very difficult for years. Luckily, I only work part-time and dh has a very flexible job. For years, we took shifts all night long. It was not great, but manageable. Typically we would split the night 7-12 and 12-5. Each of us would get 5 hours of unbroken sleep and another 5 hours of either no sleep or intermittent sleep. However, there were many days when I had to cancel plans because I was too sleep-deprived to drive safely. My own insomnia paired with dd's meant many many nights of no sleep at all. The lack of sleep in our house was a very big reason we chose to not have another child. And I am still waiting to fill out the "baby slept through the night" line of dd's baby book.

Thanks you! My dd is 10 and in 5th grade. The story was just fine and she had no trouble with it. It is the instructions she had trouble with. I will for sure be looking into some of these suggestions if this continues to go as poorly as it has so far.

My own band program growing up required that all students have private lessons. It was an elective but you could only participate if you have lessons as well. This was required 5th-8th grades. After that, lessons were no longer required but strongly encouraged. Lessons and/or instruments were provided for any student whose family could demonstrate financial need. While, I realize that this is not the case for the OP, I do think that any parent with a kid in band should strongly consider it as part of the package. Otherwise, you have one band teacher trying to teach 15 different instruments. Trombone, specifically, is a very difficult beginner instrument. If the band teacher happens to be a woodwind player with only 3 weeks of trombone in that college-instrument-petting-zoo they call "intro to brass," students can flounder. So, while I agree that the OP "should not" have to go to the effort, she might want to if a successful band experience is the goal.

We just started Week 23. WWS1 has been going pretty well so far. The instructor manual says this first story (Rikki-Tikki-Tavi) should be "very straight forward." It has not been straight forward for dd. I now the stories get less "straight forward." How much trouble are we in? And if a lot, is there something I can do to help smooth the way?

The frostbite warnings are not just "exposed skin" but exposed skin of someone not moving, who is not properly dressed, is exposed to moving air, and is most vulnerable to begin with. We spend a great deal of time outdoors in very cold weather. Even in this snap, dh walked to work and I shoveled the driveway with not even a hint of frostbite. You can bet, though, that we are quite serious to be well-prepared and we do take shelter at the first hint of a problem. Just yesterday, I could feel two previously-frostbit toes going past the "numb" stage into the swelling stage while running errands and I knew I had about 5 minutes to get indoors and get the boots off. So I did. My dd is in an outdoor sport and the coaches spend time at each practice discussing how to detect if you are getting too cold, what to do about it, and how to prepare to avoid it. A funny. Dd came home from practice last week and asked me if we had any gasoline. Hmmmm.....why? Well, her teammates had suggested putting it on the exposed skin on her face during practices. What?!?! It took me way too long to figure out she misheard Vasoline. Big difference kiddo. As for getting out the door.....that IS irritating. I am already longing to the day when I can leave the house without putting on my own weight in gear..... The worst is when we forget to bring in our boots from the unheated boot porch before suiting up. Brrrrr! And very difficult to tie frozen laces.

Sadly, this is the new normal. My dd was 8yo when she wanted to try soccer. The program coordinator looked like I had two heads when I tried to sign her up. And this was a low-key community rec program. They seemed to have never dealt with an 8yo beginner. They put her on a "team" with 4yos. Needless to say that she ended up hating it and is unwilling to give the sport a second chance.

This is coming from someone that believes it is important for humans to catch and/or ward-off illnesses regularly to be healthy….. I would not do it. It is likely that most of you have been exposed anyway. Tamiflu can shorten the illness. But *can* would not be worth $500 for me. Unless you have someone in the house that is immune-compromised or have some event in the near future, be it a working adult that MUST go to work or something else, that cannot be missed, I would just face it head on. Chances are you will either all fight it off before it hits or it will hit anyway and the Tamiflu will just give you a tiny bit of relief. If that $500 is a big chunk of needed income, I think I would just skip it.

That is the flip side! We melt at 80 degrees. Melt. 110 would kill me, I swear. I had a business trip in Phoenix in July many years ago. Just walking from the air conditioned car in a parking lot to an air conditioned building, I nearly threw up. It was like walking into an oven. At least when it is cold you can put more clothing on. There is only so much one can do in heat like that! I'll take cold over hot any day.

I live in a very cold weather area. And to boot, my 10 yo is in an OUTDOOR sport during winter so us "spectator" parents have to not only drive the kid to daily practices but also stand around outside watching the competitions with no indoor refuge. Brrrrr!!!!! Remarkably, the kids practice and compete in anything. And I do mean anything. They were just out for practice two days ago in -10 degrees with 25 MPH wind. I do not even know what the wind chill was. Yikes. Base layers are first and we wear them indoors as well. Non-cotton long johns or wool tights. They do not have to be pricey or fancy, just not cotton. Wool socks. No cotton socks, ever. I like the knee-high variety meant for downhill skiing as they help to keep the lower legs warm. A good pair of adult bibs help. I have a pair of North Face that do well. Those are "low end," you can find much warmer/nicer ones easily, and for less cost. We wear them in and out as "pants" when the temp dips. Our furnace cannot keep up much of the winter, so although we set the thermostat at 62 during the day, there are weeks we cannot break 50 or 55 consistently so being well-dressed is very important. If you knit or know someone who does, I like to "accessorize" with cool looking hats, scarves, and wrist warmers indoors as well as out. We wear hats all winter, indoors and out. We use hand warmers liberally. We have about 30 of the rechargeable type that you boil and can be reused. The disposal kind are in all of our pockets, purses, and cars for emergencies. And I drink tea or hot water with lemon all day. I will take a thermos if I know I am going to be outside for a long time. One thing that many people in my area do that I think helps is to "harden off" the family in fall….like plants. You keep the heat off into the fall season and just be cold for a few weeks. After a couple weeks of a 50 degree house, 60 seems like a luxury. I will third (fourth, fifth….) the remote starter. We walk most places but when it is below zero and we have to go somewhere too far to walk, we start the car from inside. The car will not be warm, no matter how long it idles, but at least the defrost has been going and you have a chance of freeing up the windshield wipers. Starting from scratch can take 30+ minutes to get a drivable car….which is why we walk a lot…….

I am not usually a North Face fan but I have a pair of boots that were remarkably warm, light, comfortable, and stylish.

I'm going to repeat what others have said. Cotton is NO GOOD in cold. Not at all. Especially for base layers/socks. Sorels are the go to brand in my cold cold region but really you will be cold in any boot if you are not moving and your core is not warm enough. I actually put away every pair of cotton socks when putting away the summer clothing. We wear wool 100% of the time in winter. We also have poly-pro long johns which we wear every day. I have Raynaud's and find that I must carry hand warmers to stuff in mittens or boots for emergency situations. They make rechargeable ones (you boil them in water) which cuts down on the cost and waste. And you probably already know this, but mittens are far more effective than gloves. I don't even own gloves anymore….they are pretty useless for me.