http://www.amazon.com/Expo-Erase-Markers-Black-86001/dp/B0006HXJFK

We're between frugal/needs met and comfortable. Our kids do expensive sports, which we could cut out if we needed to. We have piano lessons that again, could go. We take a yearly trip back east to see family, and that trip is always several thousands of dollars. But to afford these, we do the thrift store/budget/frugal meals route. Reading these responses makes me realize we could and probably should be better stewards of our money. Our grocery budget is in control, but could be cut back. (Trader Joe's, you are my enemy!) Cutting back activities would help with our gas bill. You see where I'm going with this Even if we did cut back on our expenses, we'd plough all of that money into savings, so I'm not sure we'd live any more extravagantly than we would now. This is a tough issue for us. I have two first-hand experiences that I'm pulling from - my own, and my husband's. My family was very frugal, always within a budget. The result is that I never could do: music lessons, camps, any athletic team, school trips, and our family didn't take vacations. I frankly still have some resentment about this. There was a period where I wanted so powerfully to play the oboe, but that wasn't going to happen. As you could expect, my husband had the opposite - he could, and did, any enriching activity that he wanted. He claims he isn't that better off for it, although I suspect it's largely his personality. Currently, my father (my mother passed away several years ago) is in a very stable financial situation. In-laws? Not at all. There's a real chance that their children (my DH and his two siblings) will have to bail them out of debts AND pay for retirement costs. I don't want to pass the cost of piano or gymnastics or vacations off on my adult children, you know? But at the same time I value these experiences. Sorry for the stream of consciousness...I struggle with these issues, too.

Thanks for your feedback! I was thinking around $10 - $15, depending on a cushion, which would basically recoup my materials cost. I don't prefer the chalkboard top either, but the desk tops are laminate wood and they were the part that needed the most reconditioning. I supposed I could have sanded and put a few layers of poly on them, but I've been trying to use up some chalkboard paint for a while.

I lucked into a cache of solid quality old school desks. They definitely need love, but it's nothing that a good sanding didn't take care of. Their look was too institutional for my taste, so I redecorated a few for our household use. I painted the legs, painted the desktop with chalkboard paint, and I'll be sewing a tie-on cushion for the chair portion. I still have 15 or so desks left. I'd thought about posting an ad on Craigslist to get rid of them, but the ease of this simple redo made me wonder if I could sell them. So, to the point: would you but a desk like this? How much would you pay? The original desk is here. http://www.giesendesign.com/stock/modern-school-desks-with-old-blue-chair.jpg I'd post pictures of mine but it's dark.

We were at Home Depot today getting a new kitchen faucet, and my son was really fixated on the rain shower heads. I told him almost exactly the same thing: my dream is for a shower so powerful it knocks me over. Aaahhhh. We're in the midst of a bad drought, though, so it's low-flow for us. The rain showers look like a lot of water down the drain.

Have you already booked your hotel? I'm asking because I've found that several hotels seem to offer dinner along with breakfast lately. We've stayed at several that have dinner two or three (or every) week day. It's not exactly enough for my husband, but it's more than enough for my kids and me. That, along with breakfast, has saved us a lot of money. Plus, it makes it so easy - we don't have to leave site for food, there's no figuring out where to eat or what or if we're getting the best local pizza. I've found too that sometimes (although not always) hotels have fridges/microwaves that you can request if they're not standard. And don't forget the microwave in the breakfast area!

Absolutely Ting. We don't use it, but I finally convinced my MIL to switch from her standard carrier (AT&T, but they're probably all about the same). Her bill for two smartphones comes in around $30/month. Before her bill was near $200? Something outrageous. If you're pretty diligent about using WiFi and have moderate phone usage, it's super cheap. Kristen at the Frugal Girl tipped me off: http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2014/02/lower-smartphone-bill-21month/

I really like the idea of going to weekday mass, but what tends to happen is that we don't get back to doing school work if we leave the house in the morning, even if it is for the 50 minutes of mass and travel time. I am hugely introverted and find going out to be exhausting, so a good portion is my own need for recovery. So, when we do make daily mass, it's with the knowledge that we're having a play or errand day. In my dream world, we'd wake, have breakfast, go to daily mass, come home and do a few chores/play, eat lunch, then settle in for two or three hours of school work. In the real world? Ha!

I sometimes am good about drinking the Bragg's "vinegar health drink". It's 1-2 tsp vinegar, oz water, and 1-2 tsp blackstrap molasses, maple syrup, or stevia. I *think* it helps with energy, gall bladder issues, and other general health, but honestly when I'm good about drinking it I'm also good about eating pretty clean, so it's hard to figure out what's helping me feel better.

My first instinct was to tell you to do a whitewash- to lighten the wood without painting over it. http://www.diynetwork.com/home-improvement/whitewashing-and-pickling-techniques/index.html

I use a lot of jars. I live on wild side and use just whatever jars we have - tomato sauce jars, salsa jars, canning jars. There are some breaks along the way, but we do a fair amount of putting up food and bulk cooking, and it would have cost me a small fortune to get the freezer safe jars that I need. I do use bags for some things that jars just won't work for. I especially like bags for baked goods, fruits, vegetables, and other types of frozen foods where I will use it bit by bit through the months. I've reduced our exposure to BPA and other weird plasticizes significantly, so that the bit we do use doesn't concern me. It's always room temperature or cooler. I do reuse the bags for diapers, swim clothes, shell kits, etc, for the kids. I hate throwing them away after one use, but I also don't want to use them several times and encourage their degradation.

I like Coupon Cabin. You can search by product (for example, "Banana Boat"). I like to match coupons to sales, and this way I'm not clipping coupons just because I could save XXX.

similar schedule as PP's breakfast when waking (7) snack (around 10) lunch (around noon) snack (around 3) dinner (around 5:30) But two of my kids are in high-energy sports so I never deny them food, even if it means putting off dinner. I've found that "snack" tends to be a very variable menu that includes cheese, nuts, or leftovers and sandwiches. It looks more like a small meal. Any meal or snack tends to be healthy foods so even if they're putting off dinner because of their late-afternoon snack, that late-afternoon snack was carrots and hummus, not Goldfish crackers and juice. (Though my kids would LOVE if it were Goldfish crackers and juice...)

I'm so sorry. Prayers for healing, for all of you. :grouphug:

congratulations; I can only imagine how healing this has been for you

I used to live in this area and my family still does. I've been trying to think of the places that we like to visit, absent emotional attachment. (You'd probably not get that much enjoyment out of a random sprayground in the suburbs, right?) Some other interesting/unusual picks: Museum of Miniature Houses in Carmel - we always spend hours here http://www.museumofminiatures.org/ NCAA Hall of Champions - we've been once as a "say we've done it" kind of experience. It's not that expensive and in the lovely White River area. http://www.ncaahallofchampions.org/index.php Mounds State Park - archaeological and Native American interest in a lovely park http://www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/2977.htm

The Children's Museum is great, but if you want a really different experience I cannot recommend Conner Prairie highly enough. It is AMAZING. My kids love getting immersed in the life there.

My vote is for Rope or North by Northwest.

We've done lots of 10+ hour trips with our little kid, starting when the oldest were just 3 and 2, including several trips with babies under 1. It's doable. Parts are really terrible. Parts are fun. Most is that low-level "not great" feeling akin to waiting for your appointment at the DMV. It works best when we, as parents, just suck it up and put aside our needs/discomforts/displeasures and go for the trip. You have to enter the trip knowing that for 10+ hours you're going to be DOING THIS and there's no alternative. It's like climbing a mountain, or running a marathon: a worthy goal that requires some effort along the way. We don't have DVDs in the car. For us, it's all about audiobooks and junk-food car snacks. Doritos, for whatever reason, are the favorite. We never eat them except for long drives. My kids won't go back to sleep if we get them up early, so they'll be cranky crankmonsters if we do leave earlier than their normal bedtime. They will, however, fall asleep around their normal bedtime...and then wake when we arrive at our destination and be AWAKE. There's little winning on the sleep front: they're excited and it's difficult to sleep.

We use a projector my husband checks out from the university. I think it's a little nicer than the Epson that was linked to above, but not that much so. Our screen is a white sheet tacked to the side of our house. Our speakers are the standard speakers that came with our desktop computer - nothing fancy at all. We've used our laptop to watch a few DVDs and stream from Amazon. I really can't emphasize enough how slap-dash and low key it is, but the kids have really enjoyed it. Our kiddos are still little, and so much of the fun is the novelty of watching our "own drive-in" with the family.

I do hate that parents who have committed this accident are then sent through the legal system. As if they haven't suffered enough! They have to live with what they've done for the rest of their lives. Our legal system isn't going to somehow impart reparations. Does every accident need to be a crime, too?

Until recently, my kids were always with me. There never were "drop off" type activities. I had all two, then three, then four of them at all times. Now, I've been leaving my older two at gymnastics a few days a week. It's thrown a huge wrench in my mental calculations. Who's here? Who's supposed to be here? Who's hiding out in a quiet place doing Legos? Who's gone missing? Who's asleep? It takes a lot more gray matter to figure out if all of those in my care are safe and accounted for than it did when I had everyone, always. I watched a friend's child today, and for a few hours all four non-baby kids played so well that I honestly forgot he was here. I think I'm a good parent. I'm also highly reliant on routines. These were out of step for me. I wonder the trend to have rear-facing babies until 2 or older will make this more common. It's a lot easier to forget someone if you can't see him in your rearview mirror.

OK! OK! I'll do it. Prune cake is. I guess I'd hoped to accomplish this with the failed muffins, but anything doused in that much caramel sauce has to be pretty good, right? I'm tempted by some of the other recipes, though. I have to wonder if here's something to a natural dislike to a food. Is my body telling me something? Probably.

I meant to grab dates but the baby distracted me and I ended up with a huge bag of "dried plums" (nice try, Prune Council) that I also have opened. Prunes make me gag. I tried adding them to some muffins, but even the kid who eats dirt rejected them. What can I do with them? Pass it off as a loss?

I keep thinking about this Jonathan Franzen piece: https://www.byliner.com/read/jonathan-franzen/lost-in-the-mail The post office has lost our held mail more than once. I'm a lot wiser now.