I had no idea other people called it plastic cheese. We usually order off the regular menu for our kids, the food is so much better. We once ordered a kid burger, I have no idea what kind of meat they use but it was gross. I tried it after my 1 year old wouldn't touch it and swore we would never order off the kid menu again.

I have an Ikea junior chair I use for my nearly 2 year old, I don't remember what it is called.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford Hannah Coulter, Wendell Berry Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosay (I swear I don't have an obsession with WW2 fiction, these just happen to be some I recently enjoyed from my library's online catalog). Chasing Fireflies, Charles Martin For something completely different you might like Ready, Player One, I read it for a book club and was surprised to like it. Malcolm Gladwell has a newish book, David and Goliath.

I don't really do it for other people but for me. I like having an immaculate house but I'm at a stage in my life where it's difficult to keep it up. So I clean throughly (minus floors) before people come over. I've quit doing floors because I always need to mop again after people leave, so I save it for later. 10 years ago I would have been embarrassed about a not perfect house, today I realize people like me for reasons other than a spotless (or not) house.

My house is reasonably presentable. It certainly isn't as neat as when I know I'll have visitors, but if you dropped by I wouldn't be embarrassed. I have young kids: toys tend to be out, there might be dirty socks on the floor in the bathroom, and stacks of library books are usually on the couch. I do try to keep the floors swept and dishes done.

My husband used to have issues with thermometers and water pumps. He got to where he could change one on the side of the road in under 30 minutes.

I've only done one year so far and it was kindergarten. Our official school year was Labor Day to Memorial Day for attendance purposes. Our actual year was some work beginning in August to ease into our school year. We just did the next thing in our lessons all year long. As far as planning I have very basic goals for the year. On Sunday I would look ahead to see if I needed any library books or materials from the store. Then the night before I usually read through the math lessons for the next day to plan for games and to make sure I could explain concepts thoroughly. This year,1st grade, will take a little more planning. Our children's librarian said I could give her a list of books/subjects and when I would like them, she will have books ready for me. So I will have to have an idea of where we will be ahead of time.

Absolutely! We have the same rule as Creekland, so we may eat at a regional chain on occasion, but we prefer locally owned. We check yelp when we are getting ready to stop then go to the closest local place with a decent rating. That's led us to many excellent meals and a couple of duds.

I don't think you need to send anything. I've sent announcements after the birth of all of my children, not because I expected gifts, but because I wanted the people we care about to know.

I got mine at Hobby Lobby.

I don't mind my picture showing up, but I prefer that it doesn't. At least when I'm tagged I am alerted to the picture. Just because someone doesn't have a Facebook account doesn't mean people won't post pictures of them. It does bother me when pictures of my children are posted publicly. The father of an acquaintance is a semi- professional photographer. He frequently shows up to Christmas programs or birthday parties, takes a bunch of photos of his grandkids plus all the other kids, then posts them on his business page. I think he thinks he is providing a service, but I don't want my kids used as free advertising. I'm not going to ask him to remove a group shot of the entire party or something, it's the close ups of my kids with their names that I take issue with. It's also how easily images are shared. When we had to print hard copies it was a handful of people seeing pictures not hundreds.

My grandma had a separate faucet for drinking water on her kitchen sink. My dad rigged our softener to the hot water heater somehow so that our cold water wasn't softened. I was always told not to drink softened water.

The excitement of my kids when they discovered I was taking them to a parade today and it was kids workshop Saturday at Home Depot. It was like Christmas in June.

This fascinates me. I have 5 younger siblings but I only remember one brother drawing much. He did the bodies with the big head and the arms/legs coming out of them. When my son did it too, I assumed it was developmental. As far as I know my kids have never seen me draw a stick person. It makes sense that drawings are symbol driven though.

We intended to do year round but as we wrapped up kindergarten we were ready for a nice long break. Right now summer school consists of reading daily, xtra math or math games, and mom taught piano lessons. After a week of day camp we will work through a science book my son has been asking about. This fall we will go back to 6 weeks on one off. I like to do a lighter day on Wednesdays which is the same day we have bible study.

I'm sorry. It's tough losing a pet.

My MIL is pretty easy going. We aren't particularly close, but she isn't really close with anyone. Even when she disagrees with how we handle things she knows we probably won't change (i.e. not spanking) she keeps it to herself much like I would with a friend. On other things she has gently brought up suggestions or waited until we asked advice. I don't feel like I have to tip toe around her and I don't think she feels that way around me. I do wish she would call or text me about upcoming family plans in advance. However, they don't usually get planned much in advance. She usually tells my husband who may or may not remember to pass it on to me.

I have no clue how much we have spent. I don't typically buy story books, preferring to use the library. We do own a lot of books, most were given to us though, but I will buy favorites. Almost all of our games and puzzles were given to us as well. I will occasionally see one on sale and pick it up. As far as our curriculum budget, I keep a running list of things I'd like to buy in the future. When a sale or conference comes up I guesstimate how much my list would cost and we work it into our budget for the month.

This thread has me longing for a mothers helper.

You can limit past posts and add them to your "no photos" list. This is assuming you have a list you use and don't select individual names each time you create a post. When you add them as a friend, use the "view profile as" feature to check what they can see. My personal policy is not to add any friends I don't want to see pictures. I use to add them, but decided later it wasn't worth it if the security settings got changed, which happens frequently.

I have 3 blondes, two are very fair skinned, we've never had a burn through the rash guard. We've had just about every combination of colors too. I would see if Landsend will exchange it for a different color.

I like that it's easy to use, more like writing with a pencil than writing with a dry erase marker. The downside is that one click of the button erases everything. Also, my daughter broke off the clip that holds the stylus right away, I'm sure I could rig something with Velcro but I haven't yet.

I am sorry, this must be difficult to go through. I think bringing the baby home is the right thing. As far as counseling, you may want to check with hospice in your area. My local hospice has excellent grief counseling and has support groups. If yours doesn't they probably maintain a list of grief counselors.

I would call an arborist for an estimate. My guess is that it would be cheaper to take them all down at once, but maybe you could get by with just removing one or two for now. At least you would get some peace about the stability of the trees.

Yes, there is definitely a lot more motion in my son's drawings.