I've had the best luck with a natural ingredient shampoo bar and a natural conditioner bar. I only use the shampoo bar when my hair starts looking greasy. I don't use product very often, and I let my hair air dry. I comb it in the shower, then just finger comb later. I can tuck the front behind my ears and it dries to just wavy instead of curly...while the back curls up. Sometimes I use a small amount of coconut oil to help with the frizz. I had hair the texture of straw before doing that. For cuts...I'm not much help. Mine grows out until I can't stand it any longer, then I will chop it off to ear length layers. I gave up on salons because every one of them gave me a mullet.

I'm seconding Walking Pneumonia. My dd walked around with pneumonia, mostly feeling like crap and not being able to breathe very well. She never ran a fever. She had a cold for a week or so. She wasn't feeling absolutely horrid, so we went hiking...she never made it to the end. She started having chest and back pain and shortness of breath...a trip to the doc confirmed pneumonia.

When my oldest was around 5 or 6 she loved to sing "Silent Night". One day I actually listened to what she was saying. "holy imbecile" (instead of Holy infant, so....) She was quickly informed of the mistake. We still laugh over that. Some of my more notorious mistakes: "Dirty Deeds and the Thunder Chief" and "My Baby is a Centipede"

Since all of us except dh wash our own clothes, we don't really have a schedule. The washer runs almost daily from someone washing their clothes.

Our society has come a long, long way in race issues. We still have a long, long way to go. I know in our small town, the change in the past 50 years has been enormous. My MIL's generation saw the first desegregated school in our area. KKK members actually blew up the school. The hate here was wide open and awful. Now? Mixed race couples can walk through town without fearing for their lives. Kids of all colors go to the same schools and play together. It is no longer ok to be openly racist here. Does it still exist? Definitely. But it IS getting better. With each generation it has been getting better. I pray that OUR generation doesn't mess it up and set us back. What do I do to help fight it? I don't let my kids think that it is EVER ok to treat someone differently/poorly because of where they are from or how they look. They have seen me and my husband stand up to our own parents and family against racism. We have friends that are PEOPLE from all sorts of backgrounds. Just the way we live our lives and how our children see that will have a big impact on the future generations of our family.

Today has been mostly eating bits of pie crust and leftover fillings...and snagging marinated olives out of the fridge! We are doing sandwiches after we get tired of nibbling.

We almost always do turkey and ham for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Maybe if I had strong ethnic roots I would feel they were more important. However, my ancestry is about as mixed as it can get. I think I'm part everything out there...lol.

I never knew my mom wasn't that great of a cook until I moved out! But she was definitely the boil in butter type, or it came out of a box. Only one person, that I know of, doesn't like my cooking: my MIL. But she's super picky and thinks everything I make is going to have something "weird" in it. This is because we eat outlandish things like lentils and hummus and swiss chard. Kudos to your brother for gently breaking the news. I do feel a little sorry for your mom though...she really didn't know her cooking was awful?

If you do it, do it while they are young. We moved out to the country when our girls were teens, and they want nothing to do with the great outdoors. I raised a bunch of city-dwellers..lol. That said, I think it is great, especially if you do it while the kids are young, and you are looking forward to the outdoor work. If YOU aren't really up on bugs and nature and dirt, then don't do it.

For me, I guess I word and think of it a bit differently. My girls homeschool, I don't really homeschool THEM any more. My younger two do all of their work independently, I just set up the syllabus. My oldest is taking all but one of her classes at CC this year, and that one class she is working on independently at home. I am so hands off, in fact, that I'm going back to school myself this spring. There is no way that I would think of us, or another family in a similar situation, as not being homeschoolers. We are still in complete control of the education they are receiving. I think it is when you give up that control, whether it is through a virtual school or a brick and mortar school, that it begins to move away from homeschooling.

After their laptops, my 14 year olds are both use their iPod touches the most. In fact, their old ones are starting to go bad and they requested new ones for Christmas. If they do a lot of reading and writing, I'd recommend something bigger like a tablet, or an Ultrabook like this one: http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-X205TA-DH01-11-6-inch-Laptop-Dark/dp/B00OBA5AZU/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1416611785&sr=1-1&keywords=laptop

My dh was a lot like this when the girls were small. He just isn't the type of personality that enjoys the normal behavior of small kids. He LOVED his kids...he just had a hard time dealing with all the energy they exuded. We did end up in a rather single-parent mode when they were small. Partly because of his job and travel, partly because it was just easier for me to do most of the parenting. It has become much better now that they are older. Our roles have shifted a bit and he is much more tolerant of their normal teen behavior, while it drives me up the wall.

We usually do it the day after. We couldn't put one up before Thanksgiving in this house anyway. If we did, everyone would have to eat out on the porch since my tree goes in the dining room and I have to take leaves out of the table to do so.

Wait? Peanut butter isn't suitable for breakfast?! (A big gloppy spoon of PB is my default lazy breakfast) My kids are all guilty of all of those...

Brussels sprouts with peanut sauce for Tennessee?! They are nuts. There was a comment below the Tennessee recipe about chess pie. THAT makes sense. Or cornbread dressing.

I feel you. The wind was horrid this morning. I don't do cold. Snow before Thanksgiving in TN just isn't right. :angry:

I have a similar toddler that I happen to be married to. LOVES my chili, as long as the tomatoes aren't chunky.

My table is a wreck. I keep a stack of clean table cloths in the wings for when we have company, but when it is just us we eat at a naked, wrecked table. It is easier to keep clean, and it doesn't ruin my table cloths.

We live out in the boonies with no street lights. Our outside lights are generally off, but we have motion detecting lights at each corner of the house. Which are mostly activated by the cats. :/

If you live in the Knoxville, Tn area by any chance, bring her over and we would happily teach her! Lol I have an aspiring chef (14) and quite honestly she has learned the most by being turned loose in the kitchen. I taught her basic kitchen safety (how to use a knife, keeping clothes and hair out of the Flames of the gas stove, how to get hot items out of the oven, etc.) and then she had free reign. The rules are 1. She has to ask before using any ingredients I don't keep in bulk (just because I may have plans for them) 2. No wasting food (in other words don't mix lemon juice and half my bottle of mint extract just to see what happens) 3. Share what you make. 4. If you DO want to flambé something, I have to at least supervise the flaming part. She has been cooking by herself in the kitchen since she was 10. The worst things that have happened are a few minor burns and a lot of messes that she had to clean up. She has never been fond of children's cookbooks or kids classes, since she wants to know how to really cook, not just assemble ingredients.

If you live in the Knovxille, Tn area by any chance, bring her over and we would happily teach her! Lol I have an aspiring chef (14) and quite honestly she has learned the most by being turned loose in the kitchen. I taught her basic kitchen safety (how to use a knife, keeping clothes and hair out of the Flames of the gas stove, how to get hot items out of the oven, etc.) and then she had free reign. The rules are 1. She has to ask before using any ingredients I don't keep in bulk (just because I may have plans for them) 2. No wasting food (in other words don't mix lemon juice and half my bottle of mint extract just to see what happens) 3. Share what you make. 4. If you DO want to flambé something, I have to at least supervise the flaming part. She has been cooking by herself in the kitchen since she was 10. The worst things that have happened are a few minor burns and a lot of messes that she had to clean up. She has never been fond of children's cookbooks or kids classes, since she wants to know how to really cook, not just assemble ingredients.

We are weird. I own around 8 scoops. I have a Pampered Chef scoop that is a must have for ice cream. (the handle has a liquid that transfers heat from your hand to the scoop). We also have a big July 4th deal every year and we make tons of different flavored ice creams, so I have multiple scoops just for serving. THEN we have 3 scoops that are really only used for baking. I have a larger one I use for scooping out things like salmon patty mix, etc. I have a medium size one I use for meatballs, cookies and cupcake batter. Then I have a very small one for the tiny meatballs I make for wedding soup and we use it sometimes for cookies or such.

I enjoyed it. It has been quite a while since I read it, but I think it would make a great book club read.

It may depend on the school, but I just reapplied at a community college, and my credits from 19 years ago are still good.