This is exactly what those long open cardigans were made for. It's no coincidence they have become so popular the last few years.

Salad is extremely popular at the community dinners in my town all year round, and I live in a cold climate. It's served every night and guests often ask if they can some in a carry-out box (they can if there is leftover). For people who have few resources, fresh fruits and vegetables can be hard to come by. So I'd say salad. Chili, cornbread, and salad sounds like a delicious meal.

Here in west central NH we got a foot of snow on Friday and a dusting on Saturday night. Nothing since then.

How do you watch PBS on the computer? When I go to the PBS website, I don't see any live streaming options. I know last year the Sherlock episodes were available by live streaming at the same time as the broadcast. I'd love to be able to do that again, but if they're doing it again, they don't seem to be promoting it at all. Would love to know where to find this if it's available.

I have a sort of "fake" smart phone. Dh bought me a used iphone on ebay for about $50, then added a tracphone plan with texting and minimal minutes. I have NO cell data at all. It costs about $50 a year for the phone/text plan and is plenty for my usage. I can use whatever apps I want but of course if they require data or network connectivity it only works when I'm on a wifi network. For me, this works perfectly. I don't really need the full smart phone functionality, but it's a working phone and is so much easier to text on than my old flip phone. Plus there are plenty of apps I can use (calendar, mail, pandora, etc.). I'm sure this wouldn't work for everyone, but for $50 a year it's perfect for me.

Search for "jelly sieve" and see if that's what you're looking for. Here's one but there are metal ones too -- http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1280155&KPID=962534&cid=CAPLA:G:Shopping_-_Canning_Supplies_-_New&pla=pla_962534&k_clickid=8e65d728-60f6-43be-b9f4-a76f651505ab

We don't do a big dinner for Christmas. Actually we don't do any dinner on Christmas Day. We have a big brunch and then just graze on snacks the rest of the day. We do our holiday dinner on Boxing Day. I grew up doing roast beef and Yorkshire pudding for Christmas dinner, so that's what we have continued (except for a few years when we were vegetarian). So we had roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, and brussels sprouts. Last night I used the leftover potatoes and some of the beef to make shepard's pie. There's still enough meat for one more meal -- usually we make hash, but dh wants beef stroganoff instead. Then it will all be gone except for cookies.

regentrude is right. I have this mental block that "salad takes sooooo long" but in reality, it takes less than ten minutes. It SEEMS longer than that, I grant you, but I have timed it and it really is fast. In reality it takes far less time than many other things I think of as quick and easy. I'm working on getting over my mental block because we all love salad and it's a great habit to eat salad every night. P.S. I find that a salad spinner is a great help. Tear the lettuce/greens into the salad spinner, rinse with water, then spin out the excess water.

I think turning the heat off just keeps them from knocking into each other in the boiling water and breaking the shells. They'll cook about the same whether the heat is on or off during that time (unless your kitchen is exceptionally cold). And starting the timer at 23 minutes when the water is cold is probably about equivalent to starting the timer at 15 when it comes to a boil. (I set the timer for 12 minutes for hard-cooked and they come out great but most people do seem to do 15.) In other words, I think everyone is mostly in agreement here. LOL

It must be family culture. I can't imagine my mother doing it either, and she would behave the same way you describe with test scores. I once was in the OP's situation -- I found my MIL snooping through my mail and papers. I didn't confront her but did "redirect" her by offering tea or something in the kitchen. I stewed about it for a long time, though. If it ever happens again, I am prepared with a firm boundary-setting remark, but at the time I just was so shocked I didn't know what to say. I'm impressed with those who are able to summon an appropriate reaction in a situation you never thought to prepare for, but I was not. I am now, though!

College Board finally released ds's scores (and presumably the other two affected students as well). I still don't understand exactly what happened, but it seems to be all straightened out now. Whew!

I finally got some progress in the PSAT score situation. This morning I got another DM on twitter from College Board saying that ds' scores have been delayed due to an SSD review and to contact SSD directly. Again, he does not have disabilities and does not receive accommodations. I tried to contact SSD but their line gives a busy signal. So I contacted the school . . . AND it turns out they are already aware of the issue. My ds and two other students have all three had their scores held up for this SSD review. Apparently CB thinks they were in a room with accommodations, even though they were not. The guidance counselor is working on it. So now we finally understand the issue! I am hoping for a resolution soon. Sorry to keep spewing all this on you guys. I'm sure you're all bored to death with our silly PSAT problem. :lol:

Still no scores here. They had told me on Thursday they should appear by Friday. I called on Friday morning, and they told me they should appear by 6pm. I called at 6pm, and they seemed perplexed. They have now "escalated" our issue to a higher department. I don't think we ever got paper scores last year. Do they send them to homeschoolers or only to the schools?

Thanks, theelfqueen. I appreciate the help! Here's what we ended up doing: a potted amarylis bulb shipped directly to each house a donation in their names to Doctors Without Borders a donation in their names to a charity local to each couple and related to their interest This weekend we will write them each a nice letter explaining what the charities do, print a few pictures, and mail it off with a card. Dh and I have been wanting for years to scale back on the Christmas gifts, so now we are. I know some will consider these terrible gifts, but honestly this year I just feel so relieved to have it done (except for the pictures and card, which should be pretty easy).

These are probably my most common changes as well. Also I often halve the meat in a recipe like a casserole or lasagna, etc, or alternatively add extra vegetables/rice/whatever. When we eat meat, we prefer it more as a condiment than as a main component.

I don't know if anyone else is still waiting for scores, but this morning I was finally able to talk to someone on the help line. He looked up my ds' account and said the scores are there! They got the scores linked to his College Board account and (according to him) they are right there in their system. However, we still can't see them from ds' account. He said that they are still in the process of putting scores online and should be done by tomorrow. We'll see. So far I am not impressed by the information they are disseminating. On twitter, they keep telling people to DM them for help. I have done that and received no help at all. I have sent emails and received only auto-replies telling me to read the FAQ. I don't understand why they can't simply post publicly that not all the scores are online yet instead of continuing to tell people "you should have received an access code already", etc. Now that I know the scores are there and correctly linked to his account I can relax.

Thank you for this thread. I am desperate. We have had some extreme stress in our family in the last few weeks and have done NO Christmas shopping. We have three sets of parents to get gifts for (my mom and stepdad, my dad and stepmom, dh's parents). All three live far away, so we will need to ship gifts. All three have much more money than we do, do not want clutter, and are "picky" in one way or another (for example, clothes are not a possibility.) None of them want food gifts. I don't have time to do anything like a photo album. It's always hard to find gifts but this year I just have no time or energy to figure it out. I would really like to just buy three of the same thing, ideally something I can just have shipped directly to them.

Nope. Just me. :lol: He is totally chill. He keeps telling me to relax and just wait until they show up.

More on the saga of trying to get scores . . . On twitter, College Board is advising people to DM them with student info "so we can help you". Well, I tried it. They replied this morning advising me to call Services for Students with Disabilities and gave me that number. My ds does not have accommodations or disabilities, but I gave it a try anyway. The woman who answered seemed perplexed and transferred me to the main number, which is not accepting calls due to high volume. We will get them by paper eventually, right? If I knew that, I would be able to wait patiently. But I keep thinking what if something went wrong and his scores are lost?

It's weird. My ds is getting that message when he checks on one computer, but I don't when I check from my laptop. We each tried several times just now -- he got the "high volume" message every time, I got into the Dashboard each time with no problem. (But still no PSAT score!) ETA: Also he has not received any email with an access code. I suggested he could call but he acted like that was crazy talk. "I'll just wait." Oooooookay.

Still none here either.

Ours still aren't there. Anyone else in the same boat?

Did you do anything to get them to appear? My ds' account doesn't show this year's PSAT and when I try to "add scores" it asks for the access code. I have tried logging out and back in again. No change. I'm crossing my fingers they will magically appear at some point too.

packs of cocoa packs of popcorn encouraging notes (one for each study day maybe?) bags of snacks (goldfish, trail mix, etc.) schools supplies (could mix and match, i.e. 2 pencils + 2 erasers + 2 packs of postit tabs + 2 highlighters = 8 school supplies) lollipops silly putty (for stress relief)

Lucky you! Sad that it finally disappeared. :(