Even my 4yo and 6yo think this is totally disgusting! It's probably because dh and I have so thoroughly instilled hand-washing in them that they can't imagine anyone not washing their hands after using the restroom. Dd even insists on spitting out chewing gum if she has to go to the restroom because she is sure it will accrue germs if she keeps it in her mouth while in the restroom. At 6yo, she even uses a paper towel to open the door when exiting a public restroom and then tosses it back into the trash can while holding the door open with her back, because she doesn't want to get germs from the door handle after thoroughly washing her hands.

Grammatical errors, such as this, really do grate on my nerves, especially the fewer vs. less issue. I am continually amazed at how many seeemingly well-educated people seem to think these words are interchangeable. In the tiny little town where my parents live, there is actually a street sign that reads, "Oncoming traffic has right away." Even if the workers who ordered the sign thought that this was correct wording, wouldn't you think that someone at the sign company would have caught the error? Isn't there a proofreader somewhere?

Cheesecake, apple pie, carrot cake, hot cross buns, angel food cake?

You're going to buy a hammer and smash every appliance in your house so that you won't ever have to use them again? Wait, I don't think that would be in a children's book.

I've looked there and I sitll don't see anything about rep. Thanks, though, for sending me a pos. rep.! All I see is settings/options, private messages, subscribed threads, and miscellaneous. Nothing about rep. Does it only show up once you received a certain number?

Happy birthday to her! How old is she?

We hadn't planned to, but it just worked out well for us to take today off. We did finish an ongoing science experiment this morning just for fun. Then we read about the Last Supper, Jesus' arrest, trial and cruxificion in one of our Children's Bibles. We are getting ready to head out to the new interactive children's museum in town for a few hours, followed by errands, and then dinner and Good Friday services at church.

When we do "Reading" we just read. Right now dd is reading The Little House on the Prairie. I don't require her to narrate what we have read. If she happens to read a chapter to her dad, instead of me, I ask her what I missed and she can summarize it well, but we certainly don't have her summarize on a regular basis. Is this something I should be doing? She has excellent reading comprehension skills and can give good summaries of what she has read when we ask her about books she is reading for free reading, so I guess I haven't seen the need to force her to do this for every book we read. But I was thinking that narration is an important skill, and maybe we should start doing it. We have taken a break from SOTW for awhile, so she hasn't been getting narration practice there, but we will be resuming this soon. What do you do?

Oh, I wore a zip-up cardigan sweater and tennis shoes today, and I didn't even know! My sisters and I used to watch Mr. Rogers every night (when we were preschoolers) while our mom was making dinner and our dad was just getting home from work.

When I ran into this, I sent the person a pm letting her know why I would have given her positive rep. if I could have, but that doesn't give her any rep. points, does it now? Also, someone sent a message to me recently letting me know that they, too, had tried to give me positive rep. and couldn't. The strange thing with this is that I haven't ever received any rep, positive or negative, as far as I know. I mean, it does show up somewhere, doesn't it? I would have gotten a little message about it or something, right? So, why would that person get the "You have to spread the rep. around" message for me? :001_huh:

We are so excited that spring is here! It is still rather cool here in Ohio, but we know that hopefully soon the warm weather will come! And it's not raining today, woohoo!

I have been intrigued by the concept since I heard about the them, but haven't purchased any yet. The idea of cooperative games is cooperation instead of competition. Every participant works together toward a common goal. Success is not ensured (so there is the element of realism), but instead of working to thwart each other's progress, the players are working together to overcome obstacles and accomplish something. Try googling cooperative board games if you are interested.

You look lovely, and I love the photo. It's so sweet.

Stacia, I love your dress!

I'm skipping around in The Great Tradition, since I haven't had time to keep up with the Yahoo group. I just picked up a copy of SWB's novel Though the Darkness Hide Thee from the library because I was curious to know what kind of fiction she writes.

Jenniferslost, I love your dress! It is very much like the one my twin sister wore at her wedding. So elegant!

Now that is too funny! I love it! :001_smile:

She enjoyed Frog and Toad and Little Bear books, but her favorite series was about a little pig named Amanda. There are probably 10 to 12 titles in the series and the author is Jean Van Leeuwen. She also loved the Poppleton series by Cynthia Rylant. And there were a couple of delightful books about a bear family entitled One Saturday Morning and One Saturday Afternoon by Barbara Baker. They were really favorites of ours.

The Trumpet of the Swan James and The Giant Peach The Wheel on The School Pippi Longstocking

was $300, if I remember correctly. I found it at a discount bridal superstore, and it was considered a good deal. It seems like a lot of money to spend on a dress I only wore for a few hours. If dh and I could do it over again, I think we might just elope. But I do have to say that my wedding day was one of the most wonderful days of my life and I have terrific memories of it because I was just so unbelievably happy that I could spend the rest of my life with my best friend who was such an incredible person (and quite attractive, I might add!) The photographer and everyone else kept commenting on how very happy we looked and that we couldn't stop smiling. Sigh. . . I'm still in love, two kids and eight years later!

Thanks for the advice. Someone had told my dh that learning to center the clay was critical. Knowing myself, I think I would do better just taking classes and paying to use someone else's studio. Thanks.

I'll definitely have to keep the Detroit Institute in mind. When I was growing up my family used to visit the Detroit area every few years because we had relatives there. Most of them have since moved, but we might make it back someday.

I love Chihuly's glass work! We are fortunate enough to live within driving distance of a conservatory that owns a signature collection with over 3,000 glass pieces. My personal favorites from their collection are some huge floating glass balls that grace some of their ponds. There are also several glass sculptures that hang suspended from the ceiling which are so visually interesting.

Wow, silver jewelry is interesting, too. Dh and I were just discussing it recently and he was explaining the process through which different pieces would be crafted. He had silversmithing classes in high school, but I have never done anything like it. I would love to try that someday, too.

There are several great pottery places within driving distance that offer classes and I really should just make it happen. It's just challenging to find the time. Thanks.