I love mine to the moon and back. With little kids underfoot, it is really nice to turn the mixer on and have my hands free for a few minutes. I use it mainly to make GF bread (it kneads for 3 mins in the KA with a whisk) but I also throw anything in there that I would normally mix with a spoon, just because it's fun and easy. Brownies, cornbread, etc. And I can easily do it with a kid on my hip.

Celiac here...I have some street cred. If my mom or good friend invited me over for dinner, then yes, an attempt should be made (or else they may as well invite me over to watch them eat). BUT, the entire meal wouldn't have to be GF. I'm cool with some meat and veggies or soup & fruit. If it's a big gathering like Thanksgiving, then no. It is nice when people make stuff, but it's not necessary. I don't trust most people's GF cooking anyway. What I do appreciate is that when I ask people about certain ingredients (ie. which brand of broth was used) that they don't get offended. I don't expect them to cook GF but when something looks like it might be, I'd like to be able to eat it if I can.

I feel the need to disagree with an above post. A 4.5 year old boy doesn't need an eval because he struggles to hold a pencil. That's pretty normal. OP, I think you are wise to go with a reading-only method, of which many people have given good recommendations. Susan Wise Bauer recommends the same in TWTM. There is no need to integrate any sort of writing. In fact, she recommends teaching the two completely separately.

[quote name="marbel" post="6697444" timestamp="1448543612 I'd also be worried about cross-contamination as a pp said. I have made food for people with CD and am happy to do so, but I do worry that I've cleaned well enough, kept things separate enough, etc. Making a flourless chocolate cake is a breeze; keeping it safe in a kitchen where other baking is going can be a little harder. (I don't bake other things when I bake gluten-free, but someone who doesn't understand probably won't think to clean the kitchen between regular pies and gluten-free baking.) Yes, this. I sometimes panic when people go out of their way to make me gf stuff. Most kitchens are a cc mess and many cooks overlook ingredients (heck, I stll mess up sometimes too after 5 years). would you really trust your moms cooking anyway?

Your daughter is my twin. I have celiac and I hate thanksgiving. :-) Only in my case, I hate it because of family, not food. If you ever go back, just bring some gf desserts and let her go through the line first (it WILL get contaminated). The hostess can deal.

For little kids, I agree. But when the kids are all adults? No. My parents divorced maybe 5 years ago and I put my foot down to separate holidays. We either all do Christmas together in a neutral location or someone is going to have to wait until next year. B/c seriously...we can't be expected to do Christmas with each of my parents (who are divorced), my extended family, and Dh's family (his parents are divorced too BTW) and still try to have some family time.

Rice flour seems to work fine for that kind of thing. I actually prefer it to using a flour blend.

Field Museum. Hands down.

We had almost the same conversation!

They look so cool I told DH i'd willingly have 3 more kids just to justify them.

As I was driving tonight I though music might be good for him. An instrument. He has this drive to completely master something, which backfires because then he has nothing to do with his time. But with music he could learn the instrument, then spend time mastering actual songs, of which there are many!

Hah! Our kids must be oppositely gifted. :-) My guy doesn't really like books, hates the outdoors, and doesn't have a creative bone in his body.

Bird watching would be a hit. He had an animal obsession a few years back and knows tons about birds. Great idea. I've never heard of Scratch. I'll google that next. I will go there!

I have a gifted 7yo who needs to throw himself into an obsession. He's been without one for a while and is getting moody and aimless. Is there anything I can do? I'd love to see him dive into something physical or even reading, but he tends toward all things factual. If he could have anything in life it would be to raid the Lego City section of Toys R Us and build, build, build. He's not even into building with legos for fun, he needs to have a plan to follow. But I don't have thousands to spend on Legos that he builds once then keeps on display. He blows through school work in no time (singapore, CC memory work, cursive, reading, copy work, math drill). He tends to lean toward mastery-based materials. Can you all think of a reasonable hobby or even more schoolwork to experiment with to see if he loves it? I can't seem to keep him busy.

Send something super small. Like a scented candle, bag of potpourri, fancy nuts, embroidered hand towel, favorite cookies, or bottle of scented lotion. I'm taking $20 max. That way you don't have to make them feel uncomfortable (I can't imagine most parents would want their kids to help them financially) and you've covered your bases in case your parents feel love by receiving gifts.

Pardon my ignorance, but can't anyone wear sneakers in winter? We live in a snowy area but I keep to plowed roads and shoveled sidewalks. I do own snow boots and use those for shoveling and outdoor play.

Will do. Are these cute or dorktastic?

I haven't tried many. My feet are so big I have to order. I tried some low slouch boots on yesterday and those didn't work either.

I'm fine with shoes as long as I can wear socks with them. Ballerina flats with socks look horrible, so those are out. I live in a snowy area, but people plow and shovel fairly well, so I'm not concerned about them being tall. Links, please! What constitutes a "cute sneaker" or ankle boot?

Straight leg is the cut for me. It looks cute and stylish without being too va-va-voom. The problem is footwear. Ballet flats looks awesome with my jeans, but it'll be snowing soon. That's just so impractical. Boots would make the calf area bunch to wear the over, and wouldn't fit under. What are my other options? Bonus points for links that are available in size 12 (yes, my feet are huge).

Drop Spanish, history, science. Have the kids listen to SOTW in the car (1 volume per year), grab some science books from the library, and call it good. We're doing just math (TT or SM, depending on the kid + drill) Language arts Read something. Done. And it's working great! And I'm not losing my mind!

At first we started due to us planning to go overseas. We wanted continuity in the education. We also had some allergies and wanted to avoid having that child be the odd one out constantly. Now that neither of those really apply, I don't really know. Maybe because that is what our friends are doing and I don't want to switch things up in my poor kids' lives yet again? It's really hard to homeschool when you don't know why you're doing it!

Annually. We have a photographer come to our home and try to get shots outside. It works so much better since we have small kids. They can go in and out of the house, etc. She charges $125 and gives me a disk of all the shots.

She doesn't mind, but this is my artsy girl who has hated every other spelling program we tried. She picked it out herself because she loves American history. My son, who is more type-A, would detest it. As for the cursive suggestion, you could always just copy it in cursive in a notebook. The instructor guide says not to use cursive, but I give you permission to.

Do those of you who think gambling is immoral cash in on credit card rewards? Isn't that the same as taking money from people who are struggling? After all, it's those that are paying interest and late fees that fund the "pot" of credit card rewards, right?