I *just* canned pints and quarts together today. They will be fine, as long as there is water over the largest jars.

My inlaws have no children at home and have 2 freezers AND two full refrigerators :lol: And they keep them stocked. The benefits for them are the fact that they can hit the sales at Krogers and stock up on meats and such at low prices. The plus for us is that they always have something yummy to eat when we come over :tongue_smilie: We have an extra freezer and frige and I LOVE it.

I wouldn't :) But I would get her a pixie style cut for the time being if it can work for her. (does she have curly hair or straight?) My dd came to me in tears last year with a giant knot in the back of her head and told me to chop it all off. We did a pixie cut. It was cute, and let her deal with her hair better until she matured a bit. She's letting it grow back out now. It has some not-so cute times right now, but it is better than if we had clippered it. THAT would have been so much worse in the ugly stages of growing out.

I kind of agree with the wolf comment on Osteen. He gives off a greasy used car salesman vibe to me, and I have never heard a solid message come from him. He has a feel-good, Oprah-esqe quality about his messages that do not point toward the cross. Although he may have led a very few to true faith, I think he leads many more to believe in a name it and claim it faith that isn't real. My step-dad watched him a lot during his battle with cancer. He spent a lot of money in donations to these types of preachers. (I found the check copies and letters after his death) These types of preachers had my brother and my step-dad's girlfriend both convinced that if they prayed hard enough and had the right people praying for them, that my step-dad would be cured. You cannot imagine the struggles with guilt, and struggles with God that this caused in them after my step-dad died. I have little respect for those who claim to preach the Word of God, but only expound on the good bits. It does no favors, and gives you hope in the wrong thing. MacArthur does come across as harsh, but I have yet to read or hear anything from him that is not theologically sound.

To me it sounds like you did a great job getting her through a tough spot in her life, and prepared her wonderfully for heading back to public school. :grouphug:

Thank you!!

She is in an essay contest for a scholarship: http://scholarships.collegeplus.org/essays/75-to-be-a-writer Thank you!!

I know a lot of moms that have had kids in their late 30s and 40s. Their age hasn't been an issue really. I have two brothers. One is 6 years younger and one is 20 years younger. I love them both. Our age differences really haven't been an issue either. (except since I was an adult with a child on the way myself, my youngest brother feels more like a nephew). My 6 year younger brother and I have remained fairly close over the years, despite the fact that I moved out when he was young.

I saw a duh kind of thing on Pinterest the other day...just slice the egg, still in shell, in half with a sharp knife. I haven't tried it yet though. I usually bring to a boil, then cover and let sit for 15 minutes. Pour the water off and shock with ice water for one minute. Pour off and cover with hot water. Put on the lid and shake for one minute. The peels come off so much better. We have chickens, so our eggs are very fresh and hard to peel.

:iagree: If they have the munchies, I tell them to eat a carrot, dry cereal, or a spoon of peanut butter. I actually found that they usually aren't really hungry...just munchy/bored. If I buy snacks, we eat them. We don't really need it, so I don't buy them.

I'm pretty sure my dh would be laughed out of town if we called the exterminator. :lol: Yeah. Really sure. (We live in redneck/manly man country) I'm not all that freaked out about it. More worried about getting bitten when I go to clean up the mess down there :tongue_smilie: Gloves will be in order. And much watching overhead.

:lol: Our landlord would probably disagree. We are only here until February-ish. So...how fast do they grow? They hibernate in the winter right? So potentially only a couple of months of baby snake fear..right?

There is apparently a snake in my basement....somewhere. :glare: I went down last night to look for something and found a tiny shed skin on a towel. Sad thing is, the basement is a wreck...full of unpacked and half-unpacked boxes, empty boxes, and just junk in general. AND it is one of those creepy old basements with bad lighting, and weird crevices. If I knew 100% that it was a black snake, I would be perfectly fine. Actually it's a very good chance that it IS just a black snake. But there are poisonous snakes in our area. :blink: :001_unsure: I didn't tell the kids..lol. They wouldn't sleep for weeks. Dh joked that the plus side was...we shouldn't have to worry about having a mouse problem :glare:

:iagree: Especially with the bolded part. If you are a professing Christian, then yes, you should absolutely be married BEFORE kids. It is what God desires for His people. I do not, however, expect people who do not share my belief in God to share my belief in marriage as a holy thing.

I do. For all three of my kids, they have to provide email names and passwords to me for anything they set up. I also randomly pick up all their devices and "snoop". They know I do. They have no "privacy" as long as they are children under my roof. They have heard it preached: if you don't want me to find out about it, then you probably shouldn't be doing it in the first place. That said, I don't abuse it. I am not constantly peeking over their shoulders, or questioning their every move. If I do find anything questionable, I ask them about it. I don't yell, accuse, fuss at them, or go off the deep end. I ask. We talk. It works better that way :tongue_smilie:

Meh...they are ok. I prefer real, but will make instant on occasion. I doctor them up a lot though.

The BILLY thread made me start thinking...has anyone done their kitchen with IKEA cabinets? How do they hold up?

I struggle with recommending books for kids, because every family is different. My kids read stuff that many parents on this forum would faint over..lol. I think *for us* 11 or 12 is a better age to start this series. The Maximum Ride series has a LOT of violence in it. Mild cursing. I think the sex related stuff is pretty minimal, if there is any at all. There is a love interest, but it isn't over the top. It has been a long time since I have read any of them, and I haven't read the last two at all.

I would at least try the zinc first. Accutane can have some horrid, permanent/long term side effects. Not always, but it does happen. One of my girls takes zinc and there is a very noticable difference. Her twin, with the same skin issues, will not take it and has worse acne right now. It does cause some nausea, but that can be reduced a lot if you take it with a full meal.

We did in our family room, and did NOT regret it. In fact, after our new house is built, we will be lining the walls of dh's office with BILLYS (even though it means a trip to another STATE to do it! :tongue_smilie:)

Yeah, we are talking natural oak floors and and maple cabinets with a mocha finish right now. Not something we are both in love with, but nothing we hate either.

My three have been waiting on pins and needles for the last Maximum Ride book to come out. We bought it today at around 1:30PM. It is now 8:36PM and 2 of them have already finished it, and the third is now reading it. I threatened to make them read only 10 pages a day...:lol:

I think picking out the hardwood floors and the cabinets will be the end of us though. Dh and I have completely different opinions on what looks good. He likes warm and cozy (red/orange woods, dark rooms) and I like light and fresh (white/cream cabinets, chocolate floors :lol:) Trying hard to meet somewhere in the middle!

So cute!!

Somewhat :D It will actually be my craft room/office area. The kids do school all over, so as long as we have bookshelves somewhere we are good. Also, we are taking out the bathroom that is beside it so it will be an L shaped room. (We figured that if the rest of us had to share bathrooms so could our oldest :lol:) We will be making the jack and jill bath into one that is accessible from the hall. I think we are doing a red metal roof with white siding.