We go swimming a lot in the summer, almost everyday probably. DD's and my swimsuits end up getting shredded and stretched by the end of the summer, so that they only last one year. I've looked at some Speedo suits online that claim to resist chlorine damage and last longer, but I'm afraid of buying one without trying it on. Do you know of any stores that carry these types of suits so that I could go try it on? Thanks.

I need to get some pencil marks off and don't want to damage the piano.

I just finished reading Emma for the second time. I absolutely loved it. It is one of my favorite Austen novels! Enjoy!

I got a slow start, but I did go to the gym one day last week and ran on the treadmill for about 40 minutes. I started doing Yoga and Pilates and using my elliptical trainer on Saturday, and I have been eating more salad and fresh fruit. My goal this week is to decrease the sweets even more and increase my exercise time.

We almost always have our main meal in the evening, but the time varies a bit. Usually, if we're just staying home on a weeknight we eat sometime between 6:30 and 7:30. If dd has gymnastics, then dh and ds might eat around that time and dd and I will eat after we get home (8:00-8:30), or we will all eat together when we get home. On the weekend, who knows really? Sometimes we're at home and eat around the usual time. Sometime we go out. Sometimes we're out of town at a gymnastics meet and don't get to eat until 9:30.

I love to buy cloth napkins from Pier One. I have four sets from there. I also have one set from Kohl's because my mom shopped there for Christmas, but I don't care as much for them. I prefer the softer cotton or cotton blend ones. The ones from Pier One end up looking really nice straight out of the dryer, but the ones from Kohl's look rather wrinkly. Also the Pier One napkins are very soft. I tried buying a set from Walmart one time, but the texture was so disagreeable I stopped using them. We have had one set of Pier One napkins for about 8 years, I think. And they still look and feel very nice. The others I just bought because I was tired of washing the one set so often. They have such pretty and fun designs that it makes me smile to set the table now.

Thanks everyone! I think we'll try the 3-D ones a few people posted. DD will love those!

I'm not that crafty, but we like to make seasonal paper decorations to hang from the kitchen doorway. Right now we still have autumn leaves hanging, so dd really wants to get some winter snowflakes up. How do you make paper snowflakes?

First, let me say you have a lovely home. It actually makes me nostalgic for our old split-level house. You get so much wonderful natural light in your living room! Also, I love the paper snowflakes hanging in the kitchen doorway. How did you make those? We also hang seasonal decorations in our kitchen doorway. Have you thought about adding an area rug? We had one in our big living room in our old house, and have it now in the living room in our current house. I think it helps to break up the uni-dimensional feel of such a big, open floor area. We had wood floors in our old house and now have carpet here. Our area rug has worked well with both. It helps anchor furniture in the room, rather than making it feel as if it is floating on the big sea of carpet. It helps define the space and add visual interest. I think you have a few options as to furniture placement. You could go with the earlier advice to move the sofa to the space opposite the blue wall and place some furniture with height on the blue wall. But if you would like to keep the room more open, you could also keep the sofa where it is, get a love seat or a few chairs that are more substantial than the current ones for the window area, and try to add some shelves with more height to the tv area. If you keep the sofa on the blue wall, I would move the pictures and put something bigger and bolder on that wall, like a sofa-sized print, or a large grouping of big photos. Then I would add a few plants. Some large potted plants on the floor, or a smaller one on the table by the window. I think plants add life to a room.

This sounds like us.

Hi. I'm 31 and have two kids. When we moved 3.5 years ago I was at my ideal weight, but since then I have gained about 25 pounds. I've joined a gym, and it's possible for me to go work out three times a week. I have started the Couch to 5K program, and my goal is to be able to run a 5K in 30 minutes or less by April. I would also like to lose 25 pounds. I want to begin doing Pilates again for 20 minutes five mornings a week, and use my elliptical trainer for 30 minutes on the days I can't make it to the gym. Diet is the absolute hardest part for me. I have the hugest sweet tooth possible. Once I get started eating well and exercising and getting into a groove, I can give up sweets, but it's so hard to get there. I don't have a problem with drinks. I don't like soda. So, I drink a lot of water and a little decaffeinated tea. But, even when I eat a salad and fruit for lunch I cave in and eat a brownie afterwards. I really need to just go cold turkey and give up all sugar to break the addiction.

I pretty much have to order my jeans online because I am short (5'2.5") and most stores don't carry jeans short enough for me. I need an inseam no longer than 30". Does anyone have any experience with Lucky Brand or Gap jeans? For Lucky Brand, does anyone know if their sizes run big or small? According to my waist measurement I need a size that's several sizes larger than the size I usually wear in other jeans, but their website doesn't have hip or thigh measurments, which can make a big diff. Usually they are a little too expensive for my conscience, but there are a few styles on sale for 50% off right now. For Gap, does anyone know their inseam lengths? I couldn't find it on their website. Thanks for any help!

We went sledding in the morning, then ate a healthy lunch (w/ a little hot chocolate for the kids to help warm them up) while I read our history chapter, and then I let them build tents/forts in the family room with sheets and blankets. Dd colored in her tent and ds played while I read them our literature selection for the day and asked them geography questions. Dd asked if she could stay in her tent and keep making me bookmarks while I asked them math fact questions. So I alternated between multiplication facts for dd8 and addition facts/skip counting for ds6. That was math for today. She and I took turns reading a chapter of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe lying on our backs in her tent, while ds listened nearby. Then we took a break. Ds got himself a snack, and dd played with Play-Doh. Next, I did a few pages in ds's phonics book with him, and he did his handwriting page while dd did her writing assignment with me.

I'm wondering if I'm using these words incorrectly, since I've seen more posts than I can count over the past few months in which the posters were using them differently than I thought was correct. So, I'm really not trying to be grammar police here; I'm trying to figure out which is correct. I use "lose" to mean one no longer has something that one previously had. The past tense would be "lost". I use "loose" to mean "not tight". Is this right? Or can you use "loose" as the present tense of "lost"? Could it be the British spelling?

I wrote a post just like this a few years ago. I feel exactly that way when I finish a good book! It's sort of bittersweet for me to finish a book that I loved.

How do I find one in my area and how do I get my child into the club? Also, do clubs still specialize in certain skills/activities? If so, how do I know which club to sign up for? Thanks for any info. I'm interested in it for my 6yo.

And the least expensive place to purchase downloads for an MP3 player. Thanks!

I'm sort of in the middle on this one. I really don't see the need to make sure my kids know pop culture, but I also don't see the need to completely prevent them from knowing some things. They actually got very little exposure to pop culture before we moved three years ago. We lived in a small college town where there were a lot of Waldorf-style parents and unschoolers. The kids did watch some cartoons, but just the innocent Little Bear kind of stuff. The neighbor kids here introduced them to the wider world of Webkinz, video games, SpongeBob, Hannah Montana, etc. But we still don't really participate too deeply. We really aren't into the Disney Channel or Nickelodeon. Dd was never into Hannah Montana, and didn't even know who the Jonas Brothers were when asked by a relative if she liked them. But she does like Taylor Swift and listen to her music. We go to a lot of movies. We do have Wii and Nintendo ds. But my kids balance it out with a lot of other activities and interests. I grew up with almost no knowledge of pop culture. I did watch tv, but it was only select shows, and we rarely ever went to the movies and didn't listen to any music except gospel/church music. In high school and college I had no idea who famous movie stars and musicians were. And I still don't know much 80's or 90's trivia, even though that's when I grew up. I don't necessarily want my kids to be that out of the loop. I don't see any harm in letting them watch a silly cartoon, play a video game, or listen to good popular music. I do draw the line at books, though. Absolutely no Junie B. Jones or that kind of rubbish in our house.

I'm thinking it would probably be too hard to run and read at the same time. I guess I should invest in an MP3 player.

I don't know about that. I was in pretty good shape when I would do the legwork on my elliptical trainer for 45 minutes to an hour every morning while reading a book.

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Today I actually got rid of more than one thing because I was getting together with my family and I had a box of board books/preschool books that my dc had outgrown, some videos/cds that they had outgrown, and a few other items to pass on to my sister's kids. These were things I cleaned out of our armoire in the family room and our bookshelf in the hallway. I think I might look in the old toys in the basement next.

I think I'll just toss it in the trash can. Thanks for the input!

I'm re-reading Emma by Jane Austen. It's been probably a decade since I read it for the first time, so I don't remember all of the intricacies of the plot, which makes it pleasantly fresh as well as familiar. The Complete Works of Jane Austen is my favorite book, and also the most worn from use.

would you eat it? I hate to waste it, as only one piece was eaten. We had some illness after Christmas and did eat as many of the leftovers as we usually would have. I had made two pies, and only once slice of this one got eaten. What do you think? Thanks.