It is a fabulous story if you buy into my theory based on zero facts. A whaling manual and Moby Dick were being published at the same time. They were both called "The Whale." The publisher accidentally spliced the books together and he was a friend so nothing was said. Because of this theory you can happily skip the Whaling Manual which is conveniently located in its own chapters. The book then becomes an exciting page-turner.

I agree with you. Cook's instructions might be more ... detailed. But the result is always worth the effort. Well, except for once. I was pregnant with 23-hour sickness. The latest magazine had these thin cookie things just loaded with ginger. I thought, "Maybe I can eat that? Ginger is supposed to be good, right?" My morning sickness was so bad I rated foods based on how they were coming up. DH said they were awesome but I managed to lose those too, so he ate all but a couple of bites.

Mary Poppins wasn't cleaned up just for that. They couldn't have Julie Andrews portray someone that was a turd, like Mary Poppins really was. I did prefer the Disney'fied back story for Hercules.

One time when I was in my early 30's and single, I sprained my ankle really badly right before an international flight home. I worked from home then, and stayed with my parents while it healed. My mother went into Take Care of Child overdrive and started to cook a lot. One meal she made Chicken Pot Pie. I said, "You can do that at home?" It honestly hadn't occurred to me.

It should be a way to use up leftovers. So, you might have a meal consisting of a meat, potatoes and a healthy veggie (or mix of them). Then the next day you put the meat in a pie pan, top with the veggies and then make some sort of sauce and add, then mash the leftover potatoes and add to the top. Tator Tot Casserole is really just a Sheperd's Pie except with tator tots instead of mashed potatoes.

I've never made that myself. But, I've been told that it isn't that bad if you do the rolled version. You do one thin layer of everything, and then roll. I prefer the taste of that version because the layers are thinner and the taste is more evenly balanced.

Bagels, even starting with the breakmaker-made-dough was too many steps. Plus, mine weren't even in the same league as Winco's Cheese Bagels. Pistachio Ice Cream. It is DH's favorite flavor and it wasn't hard to make and they were wonderful. But one batch cost about $12 in nuts.

Already-Planned-History and Read-Alouds can be handled at the same time. Have you looked into Sonlight or one of the similar ones? You can buy a year's worth of History used and save some money. Although there is joy in brand-new books. It comes with a schedule, which I ignore but many people like it. You can get one with an age range that encompasses your two oldest. Then have all the kids listen to the read-alouds. Then just your oldest would do the Readers. I only have one child, but I've heard that younger kids absorb a surprising amount of info. I also really liked Sonlight's pre-K cores. There were some excellent books in there that I wouldn't have read to DD otherwise. Like Piggly-Wiggly. If I'd see that at a garage sale for Free, I wouldn't have picked it up. But DD loved it so much we got the board game. So, you can do a read-aloud for the older kids and a read-aloud for the younger kids. I suspect that they will quickly all listen to both. Note, I do like the WTM History. So far we've used Sonlight for Pre-K and American History. I thought we needed a year of just American History. I cobbled together my own similar Texas History, since that is required in Texas. The people here are so helpful. Do your kids listen to many audiobooks? I found that listening to audiobooks encourages the Going Outside and things like drawing, etc. The audiobook makes them not bored, but their hands are free. Your library likely has a subscription to an eAudioBook and eBook service. Mine has Overdrive which seems to be big. You download and don't have to worry about returning. Another thing that encourages DD to go outside. She has figured out that if she hangs around the house and particularly if she has an attitude, I will assign chores. But, if she's on her hammock listening to an audiobook I don't. Also, isn't your existing homeschool closer to your ideal than Public School? You just need to change things up a bit so that you aren't stressed and move it closer to what you want.

It is rough. Even when you weren't particularly close to the person. I know two people that were murdered. One was robbed/murdered and the news reports on it had the attitude of "Well, he was a gold dealer, so what can you expect?" As if was in a drug cartel. Another was (Suicide by shooting himself but the gun wasn't nearby)

There are training programs to get your sense of smell back. I read about them during early lockdown. I didn't persue it because I don't want it back.

I would take some of that money from the higher paid job and hire things to be done. For example, a cleaning lady twice a week. I'd normally say once but you have several kids. Have you looked into hiring a Mother's helper? Sort of like a Nanny only for short-term and while a parent is also in the house. Like you MIL was going to do, but didn't. Do you have a nap/quiet time for everyone? Not that everyone has to sleep. But from X-Y time, all the kids go to the rooms and be quiet. They can sleep, read, whatever but no electronics. If you are stressed, you need that. Also. are there any College-Model Private Schools in your area? You can sign each of your kids up for one class that meets for a couple of hours twice a week. Another idea would be to hire a tutor to come once a week.

I mentioned the label of Schrodinger's Douchebag to DH while DD was around. He thought it was brilliant. It brought up an interesting family discussion. DD said that in one of her co-op classes one of the girls said to another girl,. "Your hair is ugly." Then when confronted about it she'd said, "I was just joking." An interesting part of this is that DD hasn't been in a co-op class for three years, and this stuck with her. We discussed what to do when in a similar situation where someone claimed something nasty that they said was a joke. We all liked DH's idea of "No, you weren't." Maybe when she's older she can also point out that they were being a Schrodinger's Douchebag. But DD is probably the only kid in the area that knows about Schrodinger's cat.

I was just in both places a couple of months ago. The drive around Lake Tahoe is pretty. But other than that I'd pick based entirely on the hotel.

Just because she later said it was a joke, doesn't mean it was a joke. I love the Schrodinger's Douchebag label. I need to tell DH about that.

I can see how losing your sense of taste would be a problem. But the sense of smell isn't that important. The world is filled with many more bad smells than good smells. It is so nice to be driving through an area with bad smells, and I don't smell it at all while the family is gaging! I don't smell anyones farts. Occasionally I wish I could tell if food smelled off. But we have enough money to assume it is bad if there is a question. I lost my sense of smell sometime in childhood. It is coming back now (I'm 52) and I find that very annoying. Note, I do find myself reacting more strongly to smells when I do smell them. I remember literally running away from the sea lions in Monterrey, CA. I was miserable any time I was outdoors in Taiwan in a city. I've also done a fast walk with my nose in the air towards a good smell. But, I can go a week without smelling anything.

I use the recipe from here. https://www.icanteachmychild.com/make-it-homemade-liquid-laundry-soap-1/ 1 bar Fels-Naptha Soap 1 cup washing soda 1/2 cup Borax I use a food processor. I'll break the soap into a maybe four pieces using a cleaver. And the soap to the processor until chopped up. Add the other stuff, and then run some more to mix. I put that into a ziplock with a teaspoon. That is the powder that I turn into a liquid. Through trial and error I've worked out my preferred consistency for the detergent. If I heap the teaspoon too much, the detergent is a bit too concentrated. No heaping means it is a bit runny. Works just as well either way, I just need to use more of the runny version. Note, if your water is really hard, then this won't work that well. But, then none of the very clean eco ones would either.

You are basically correct. Initially it was reported that wood was bad because the cells from the meat could get down in there in the scratches. Then that was reversed because while the meat cells could get down in there, the wood killed the cells.

How hard is your water? I've been using laundry soap I made in my HE washer for many years. It didn't work great when we had hard water, but now that we have a water softener it works great. I used to struggle with the front-loader stink back when I bought the "... Free" detergents. Havent' had a problem. I just do a vinegar rinse cycle on towels once in a awhile. The recipe I use is one I got from Icanteachmychild.com 10-ish years ago. I turn it into liquid in small batches. DH loves Iced tea, so we have easy access to the glass iced tea powder containers. I add a heaping teaspoon of powder and around 2 cups of water. Microwave for a few minutes and stir to make it a super solution. Then top off with more water and microwave again and stir. The reason you do that in two steps is otherwise it will boil over. Now you have a small container of liquid laundry soap. I leave an iced tea spoon inside to give it a swirl/stir before using.

I remember throughout my life the thought was that people would panic and chaos would ensue if the Gov ever admitted that UFO's were real. Then they did. The reactions was Crickets.

I just looked down (literally). My desk is a recently purchased IKEA countertop. The selection of desks out there right now is really grim and boring. I wanted something with lots of leg room and a lower height so we bought countertops and installed in a corner of the latest addition. It is KARLBY the dark wood butcherblock-ish version and it very much is not real butcher-block and isn't something that you could sand. Although they say that you can sand it. ETA: It does make an awesome desk.

That was maybe 20 years ago. I am pretty sure that back then they were.

Years ago I worked in the kitchen area of Ikea. I noticed repeat business with certain people of the butcherblock countertops. This confused me. You'd think people would maybe buy a bunch at once for a big kitchen, but why happily replace something that didn't last very long? So I asked. They were people that would fix up houses and rent them. The butcher block was perfect for a rental because when the renter moved out they'd sand down the countertops to get to a fresh surface, and re-oil it. The countertop looked new for each renter. I'd been anti-wood countertops before that.

It is weird how different people's experience is. For example, my dentist has always checked my blood pressure. In fact, my dentist saw my MIL for a regular appointment and sent her to the hospital across the street because of a super mild heart attack. She complained of a tooth pain that was weird in some way. I also get my labs done ahead of time. I go into the office a few days in advance, I don't even need an appointment since I don't need to see the doc or the N.P.

Nobody warned me. For example, we were having a great day and then she started crying uncontrollably for no reason. It was heart-breaking and we tried to figure out what was wrong. She was crying so hard we couldn't understand her when she tried to tell us. Eventually I heard "Daddy said." DH and I reviewed everything that he'd said and there was nothing remotely upsetting. We couldn't even figure out what he might have said that could have been misunderstood. She cried for two hours. Never did figure out the problem.

Just eliminating Corn Syrup would be super hard. It is in almost everything. I discovered accidentally while dieting for weight that a clean, non-inflammatory diet cleared my continual sinus congestion. I pretty much have to cook totally from scratch when doing that, and no restaurant meals.