:smilielol5:

I just started doing this again. I love it! I feel so.... prepared! :lol: I would love the fried rice recipe too! Our freezer is quite small right now. I have found that I can still get a lot of stuff frozen that REALLY helps. For example freezing the sauce for "pasta bake" so that the night I bake that I thaw the sauce, make the pasta and assemble to bake. So it isn't TOTALLY all done in the freezer but it cuts dinner prep from an hour (and a trip to the store) to 15 min. Small freezable things would include sauces, marinates, pre-cut peppers for fajitas, pesto, little baggies of cooked ground beef and onions to put into other dishes, herbs, pre-measured bags of flours for breads, etc...

My only SIL so far is by marriage - so married to my DH's brother. She is crazy. Like I keep waiting for the full blown mental breakdown to arrive. :001_huh:

Oooooh! Can you do my house next???:D

I think I just fell in love. :001_wub:

My parents bought me a dishwasher (that I asked for) for a birthday. I love that dishwasher. We remodeled the entire downstairs of our house and that is the only thing we kept. I asked my grandmother to buy me an iron off my wedding registry, something she didn't want to do because it wasn't "romantic". I still have the iron almost ten years later, and every time I use it I think of her. She died fairly recently. I will cry when it eventually breaks.

For me personally it is sugar. Fake sugar, real sugar, white foods. In order to see the improvement I have to give up "sugar" but also things like rice and diet soda.

I always feel like a hypocrite when I deal with the letter "A" because *I* write it exactly like you suggest w/ an upside down V. And it irritates me that they say that the teaching is based on what brings speed as a proficient writer - which this clearly doesn't do. :glare:

Am I the only one that wishes that they would make it in pink? :blushing:

Brio!!!

I think that it depends on where you live and what you consider healthy. ;) Around here there are certainly ways to save money on healthy foods, but not by using coupons.

I would also ask to see the thyroid numbers. I have spent the past ten? twenty? years trying to figure out what is wrong with me. I had the symptoms of diabetes, without being diabetic. I had PCOS, but it didn't explain it all. I had food allergies. blah, blah, blah. It wasn't until my thyroid (which had been lurking at the "edge of normal" for years) finally went past the magical test number, that I began researching thyroid issues. I got aggressive and found a doctor who would listen and treat me. So yes, I am a celiac, and yes I have PCOS. But it has been the medication for my thyroid that has changed my life.

Recipe for the creole please!

I am planning to buy a utility cart for the library. :lol: I don't have to worry about the weight of my purchases because I am an Amazon girl. I do worry about the UPS guy throwing out his back... :lol:

You may want to borrow and try out the types of books that you want to use. I have my mom's Kindle because I wanted to download some free out of print readers for my son. They are full of bad formatting, typos, goofy symbols, etc. It drives me insane. :glare:

I would not go with the budget issue as your leading point. If I am understanding, for you, it needs to change independent of money. With my MIL, we had a similar issue, although it was more about inappropriate gifts - of the "if your mother says no plastic I will buy the largest, most plastic, most noise making thing ever." So we told her that we were adopting a Christmas challenge and would like them to join us. The only gifts that can be given are: books, music, or made it yourself. It has been one of my best ideas ever. We all have Amazon wish lists, which we make sure to update before December. We can give used books, books we have already read, books where favorite passages are marked. You could buy new books. There is still the capacity to spend a LOT of money, but not the need. And it isn't obvious who spent a lot of money, because they are books, music, and handmade gifts. For your family I might add "experiences". So you could give any "experience" in which both the giver and the receiver participated. This could be very extravagent, or frugal. Lots of money? Trip in an airplane. Day shopping in the city. Visit to Disneyland. Less money? Hand delivery of cookies once a month for a year. Tea party in backyard decorated with white lights, kids serving finger sandwiches. Trip to the city to ride the train and have lunch. You could either suggest that everyone goes with these rules, or say that this is how your family is handling Christmas. Anyone who doesn't want to receive these types of gifts is free to stop exchanging. And then - stick to your guns. Do what you say you are doing. And at the last minute, when years of Christmases past haunt you, DO NOT GIVE IN. Know that a few gifts, well thought out mean so much more. And face the problem NOW. Before anyone has the chance to tell you that they have already bought everything!

We have a pair of gun muffs - but they can't drown out my daughter. :lol: So, if you go the sporting goods route, try before you buy.

I am looking for your favorite books, resources, lap books, unit studies, whatever, to go along with SOTW 2. I have tried searching, but have not come up with much. Feel free to link me to another thread. ;)

I've been told a number of time that acne on the chin is usually hormonal.

:iagree: Really? FURIOUS?!?! In all caps? I can understand (perhaps) irritated - but FURIOUS? Because adults want to watch their children, and celebrate your son's birthday??? :confused: Could you not just view this as a friendly thing that they are doing? Instead of being so.... angry. Serve pizza bagels. Or tell a close friend that you are feeling overwhelmed and need help with some extra food or help.

I could have written all of this, except the chronic health issues of DH. I totally lost it yesterday and told my husband (at 10pm when he arrived home) that I was signing the kids up for school so that I could be the "happy mom". The after school mom. I fear that as adults, after I have given my entire life to my kids, that they will say "Well, my dad was cool, when he was around. My mom was around but she was a total b*tch." Today I have decided that really NOTHING is that important. Seems to have helped a little. I have started to get the kids dressed first thing. (I actually try to make my husband do this, because I am SO tired of arguing over clothes and chasing down kids.) That way if emergency strikes, at least we aren't in our underwear. :lol: I am also trying to implement a schedule. I am tired of fixing food ALL DAY LONG. This would not be possible if they went to school - they would have to eat and then be done, and maybe even hungry! Ah, the horror. I have stopped short of making them have lunch boxes. I have also started freezing food, for all meals, or all month. One giant mess, then no more. If cereal works for you, I would go with it for right now. Three choices, milk and fruit. If that isn't what you want, than you can't be that hungry. ;) I am also trying to return to a rotating schedule of chores. For example some are everyday things - like dishes. But the bathroom is once a week. If I did it, and it is a mess again, well, I'll be back next Tuesday. It is fairly freeing.

:iagree:

:smilielol5:

What if they are trying to convince you that it is Saturday instead of Friday? Or trying to vote everyone back to Thursday? What if Friday is my favorite day????? Aren't they trying to cheat me???? :lol:

OOOOh vintage! I have a vintage Singer and it is fabulous. It doesn't have a bunch of features, but it sews a nice stitch and is great to work with. And very easy to fix. I'll try to find a link.