My oldest (22) will graduate in December from an expensive college with no scholarships having paid for it himself. He just enrolled and paid for his last class. No loans, but he has worked since he was 16. It can be done. My daughter will have her associates degree from the jr college at the end of this semester having paid for her books & classes herself by working at the local grocery store. She just got a promotion/raise that will enable her to pay for her degree at the same 4 yr university her brother went to. Doing college this way has done some things for my kids....my oldest (since he is closest to graduation) feels very good about having accomplished this on his own AND he has had very much to say about the quality of his education. He is the buyer, after all, and he feels strongly about the strengths and weaknesses of what he has purchased. He will be doing his capstone project on this very subject. I just say this because even though college is expensive (and because we can't pay for it...though we provide room and board) it can be done without being particularly brilliant and without going into debt. It does, however, take a strong work ethic. The other thought I had is that by no means is what I've taught my children all they know or will learn. Teach them to learn and don't stifle their curiosity. Guard and protect that precious gift innately given to them, and they will always be learning and acquiring the knowledge they need when they need/want it.

I had to comment on this because I was just thinking about this very thing this morning. My kids are 21, 18, 15 and 14....and they are really wonderful people who I enjoy very much. I was just thinking this morning how much I truly like them. They are funny, witty, responsible, hardworking, and a real pleasure to be around. I love the humor we share now that they are older and how much we laugh and how well my kids enjoy each other. (They may not admit this, but they do all get along fairly well. It wasn't always the case when they were going through the initial spurts of puberty.) Teens get a bad rap, but I think the key is to put in the work when they are little, earn their respect and love and it pays when they are bigger. My kids are not perfect, but I really do like them a lot.

Gift card? Target, Starbucks, FroYo?

Walmart had some when I was in there today. I bought a pair for my dd (tomboy aged 14). They were in several shades of khaki for $12. They also had some capris that looked more long really long shonrts.

Anything by Tim Keller is excellent. Podcasts of his sermons are free on itunes and they are excellent. They are the sort of sermons you will want to listen to again and again. Really! I like Steve Brown, but he is an acquired taste. He might be offensive to those who are more works oriented and don't know it. If you twitter, one of my favorite people to follow is Scotty Ward Smith...a pastor who tweets as series of "You know you are growing in grace when..." type posts. Short, but very deep. Paul Tripp is also excellent as is Tullian Tchividjian, Billy Graham's grandson and pastor of Coral Ridge PCA.

I've been knitting mine and I have been making them smaller than usual....maybe 5 x 5....I love this size, the weight is perfect and they really grip what I am cleaning better than a cloth or sponge. I like a medium to dark color. I've had no problem with bleeding and they look better as they get stained. And you don't have to fold them in the drawer. They are a perfect size for stacking. I've got a picture on my blog if you want to have a look. The third one in this picture is my favorite size. http://waysidesacraments.blogspot.com/2011/01/bloggy-birthday-give-away.html

The oldest (21) is in college but lives at home. He gets up every morning and goes to Starbucks to write (he really wants to be a writer). He is majoring in a new degree plan at his college called Emerging Media and Communications. My 18 year old (a senior this year) is doing an online govt. class through the local community college. I am not sure what else she is really doing today, but I did listen to the govt. video she was watching. (Totally biased video, I might add. She is smart though and knows it.) So the part about not really knowing what else she is doing......just keeping it real. She is very self-motivated and with the exception of a finance book and a worldview curriculum she pretty much is taking outside classes (spanish, chemistry, that sort of thing.) I have two I consider 8th grade (14 and 15 years old) and today they are reading... The Red Badge of Courage The Slopes of War Evidence for Jesus Bible Study Sampler The Treasury of Poetry for the Young Physical Science Module 8 and doing vocabulary Runkle Geography lesson 23 Teaching Textbooks Lesson 68 They are memorizing the Gettysburg Address. They also are practicing the guitar for their guitar class and I need to find out what their IEW SWI-C writing assignment is (co-op class) and make sure it gets done in time for me to edit it. I am doing stinky boy scout laundry.

I got an itouch for christmas. I sort of regretted the $ spent on it at first because I have a lap top and listening to music isn't that big of a deal to me, but I have to tell you I love it. I am listening to a lot of podcasts, I can access email and the web which is very cool (if I am someplace where there is wifi) and I can also access old emails when I am out and about. one silly thing...I need bathmats for the kids bathroom but for the life of me I cannot retain "color memory" of all the stripes in their shower curtain. I took a picture of it and now have it on me when I shop! I have used it to access recipes while cooking (I used to drag my laptop into the kitchen), and I love being able to quickly check email while cleaning house. The camera isn't the greatest but it is fun. We are house shopping and I thought I would use it to help me remember things about houses but so far that hasn't panned out like I thought it would....maybe when we are more serious about one specific house. this may sound wacky but I have thought it would be handy if I am in a wreck or something and need to video tape anything. It is less conspicuous than a normal camera so good for snapping pictures for ideas and things like that where you might not be as comfortable pulling out a traditional camera. And I like it because it is NOT a phone. I am not a phone person. Games are okay, but you can also get the news and I like the Kroger ap where you can download coupons directly to your grocery card. Much easier/quicker than doing it online from the lap top. I wish it remembered passwords...that is one downside. It isn't always online so that is another...but you are also not paying additional when it is. And I bought the cutest fabric case for it at etsy.com to protect it in my purse (as well as protective one from Walmart). So cute cases are always good. :001_smile::001_smile:

Refrigerate the brownies first ... if you can wait that long. Then use a plastic knife. Some work better than others for some reason.

Christmas letters (which are bad enough) where you can't figure out which spouse wrote it. First, you think "Oh, Susie wrote this," because she is telling about the goings on of Frank and the kids. But then comes the paragraph that starts talking about Susie and referring to her as ""Susy and I am thinking, "Who wrote this darn letter?" and start flipping it over looking for any clue as to who the original author was usually to no avail. Really, is it still a "letter" at this point?

Fiction: Her Fearful Symmetry (or Still Alice, or Some Wildflower in My Heart) Non-fiction: The Pastor's Wife (or Waiting for Snow, or Seeking the Face of God) Picking just one is too hard! My top 10 list of books I loved: 1. Seeking the Face of God by Gary L. Thomas 2. The Pastor’s Wife by Sabina Wurmland 3. Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire 4. On the Edge of Nowhere by James Huntington & Lawrence Elliot 5. Still Alice by Lisa Genova 6. Some Wildflower in My Heart by Jamie Langston Turner 7. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger 8. Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat 9. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway 10. Birds, Beasts and Relatives by Gerald Durrell 11. All of Andrew McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books that I've read...and I want to read them all.

I despised and loathed both Outlander and a book called Little,Big. They are the two worse books I read this year...and I read them both all the way through. I especially hated Little, Big but I read the whole long, horrible thing because it was my pick for book club and I had to lead a discussion on it. It was torture.

I keep a list on my blog and I always save it at the end of the year in a word doc. Even before I blogged I kept a journal. I like looking over the list and remembering what I've read and what I liked and what I didn't.

This one is VERY yummy and super easy to make. http://waysiderecipes.blogspot.com/2010/11/chocolate-fudge-cake.html

I had another idea..........pinecone fire starters. Google and you will see easy tutorials for making them.