Let it go. Your relationship with your daughter is more important than that dress getting wet. Hang it up to dry, hug your daughter, and ask her to tell you all about her night because it sounds like she had a great time. I never went to my prom and I never had a close relationship with my mom.

Just wanted to say that I'm another of those people that do not write in my Bible. I want to say thanks to everyone who replied - I really enjoyed the comments and so I'm going to start writing in, underlining, and taking notes elsewhere to see what will suit me. I often think "oohhh, I want to remember that" and then it's, Oh, how should I do that? So, I'm off to the land of annotation. :-)

Author's signature I wouldn't mind, but I don't always like a personal greeting in them. If I ever want to give the book away I feel guilty because of the inscription. I think writing on a bookmark to put in the book would be good though.

Yeah, I also don't allow writing in school books (workbooks excepted) for that reason. Unfortunately, my last kiddo was very doodly in books as a toddler - she was doing school I guess. :-)

Sorry you're having a rough time. I'm feeling the same - I was hoping since it was our month off school I'd have more time to get some projects done....nope. We've all been sick with nasty colds the last two weeks so that cut into time drastically. I'm just now feeling like getting around to doing stuff. The first part of the month I was just so darn tired, got sick, and now feeling better and more energetic so getting a few more things done. We have so many things coming up over the next couple of months, but when you have kids the busy-ness never really ends does it? Anyway - hope you enjoyed your drink last night. I have a beer in the fridge so I've got provisions too. :-) Hope you can find more down time in your days and that you get to feeling better.

I'm really enjoying reading everyone's take on this! I want to add that I do make comments in cookbooks - although even that is difficult. My mother, however, wrote much in her cookbooks. I have her original Laurel's Kitchen from 1976 and it is loaded with her notes and bookmarks which make it really special to me. I mostly read non-fiction and I often feel the need to make notes or underline or whatever and then I think - I can't do that. But, I think it's time I get over that because otherwise I'm not going to remember my train of thought on a passage that really stuck out. I would probably not write notes in fiction, maybe underline some of my favorite phrases (like "Pass the damn ham" from To Kill A Mockingbird) then again who knows. I do enjoy it when I find what others wrote in books too - like a conversation being passed around.

Dog earing pages of certain books bother me but catalogs? I can write, circle, you name it in those. I need to translate that to books somehow. I love the bolded part of what you said - hmmm - what a great way to think about it!

Oh yeah - I've read about keeping a commonplace book. That would be another great way to keep everything together.. Yeah, the library frowns on writing in the books, but I've taken plenty out that people have written in. I've always thought it was pretty bold.

I'm not much on highlighters either. I like your journaling idea - I think I may try that out. I read a really good book recently and there were so many good quotes that I really wanted to remember. I wrote a couple down on index cards and they've stuck with me so that was good. But I like that you go further to process what you've read. I may give that a whirl. Thanks for sharing.

I know some people write in books or highlight things that are significant for them, but I don't. I'd kind of like to, but I can't get myself to do it. Must be something from way back when and treating books with care. Still, if they're YOUR books shouldn't you feel like you should be able to mark them up if you want?? So, my question is do you write in the books you own? What about library books - do you write passages down that are significant to you if you want to remember them? Seems silly, yeah, but inquiring minds want to know. And would like to get over that you can't write in a book thing my brain is stuck on. :-)

Sooo sad! Loved many of his songs. And I'll admit this to you all only....I had the Vanity 6 album when I was younger. :-P Pinkmint - I was thinking the same thing about this year. Not liking it. In remembrance - tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999! *tears*

I am really glad it's our month off homeschooling (we school 3 months on and one month off) because I am exhausted! Here's what's on my plate for today: *oldest dd is sick so called school attendance office (she's my only ps student) *calling Dr. for dd - she has a nasty sore throat :-( *pay bills, balance checking account, and file papers *go to the store for laundry detergent and bleach *go to staples for shipping supplies (selling used books this month) *mail a package *and do all the usual daily household duties *hopefully get to Starbucks for refreshment. I do have chocolate. :-)

Another great actress gone. :-( I remember the movie about her battle with bipolar disease and there's a lesser known made for tv movie called Before and After about three friends who struggled with weight issues. In fact I was thrilled to have found that one on Youtube last year. I know I saw her in many other shows, but those are the stand outs for me. RIP Patty.

These 3 are the only scary/horror movies I've watched. 1. The Birds - whenever I see lots of birds on wires it still creeps me out. :-) 2. Creepshow 3. Carrie - I had always wanted to see what it was about and it was on tv one night so I watched it and it scared the livin' daylights out of me. I never watch another horror movie. Something Wicked This Way Comes was kind of pushed as a scary movie when it came out, but I really didn't find it so. I'd like to watch it again and maybe read the story as well since it has been a really long time (think video cassettes). I had forgotten it was written by Ray Bradbury.

Praying ((HUG))

Glad you posted - she was on my mind today too. Continuing to pray for you and your family Catwoman!

Yay - found them! Thanks for letting me know - passing that info on to oldest son. It will be so good to watch them again. :-)

What a great trip down my children's childhood this thread is (blowing nose into kleenex). Anywho, my all time favorite is Charlie and Lola. I thought it gentle but not too syrupy sweet ifywim. Recently, I found almost the entire set of dvd's at a local bookstore and bought them because hopefully I'll have grandchildren someday. If not, I can watch them in my rocker when I'm 80. David the Gnome from ages ago was one of of older boys favorites. They still talk about it even though they are in their 20's. :-)

I've decided to take a different approach and I'm calling it the Take All Year approach. I have all year to work on these things with no specific anything attached to it. Just working on these things all year long: *Getting healthy - which really just involves making better choices for my health *Decluttering and deep cleaning the house *Lose the anger (I'm kind of stuck and need to move on) *Give more

Kitchen cleanup Quick bathroom clean Vacuum and Sweep floors Clean out fridge (not to be confused with a deep fridge cleaning) Last minute shopping and taking my girls as my helper elves Finish cards and mail - hopefully. There are 12 days of Christmas so technically I'm still good Put new insurance card in van. Scream because the day after tomorrow is Christmas - then I can relax and feel I'm actually ready for Christmas :-)

Just wanted to add my perspective. I am an old mom with teens, young adults, and adults now and I have a clean living room as well. But there was a time when the house was forever messy (10 of us living in 1200 square feet) and it was hard to stay up on all of it and it could be downright depressing some days. The one thing that caught my attention in your original post was "they haven't learned the lesson and they dump all their toys out again". I looked at your kids ages and yeah, that's pretty normal. It's going to take awhile for them to catch on to the "if we dump it out we have to clean it up thing". Keep doing that though - keep saying at the end of the day "time to clean". Even if takes a long time you'll eventually build a routine. They will tire of this dump out and put back thing eventually too. Someone mentioned having other bins/boxes for them to play in and I think that's great. When I was young a refrigerator box was an awesome toy so I think that's a good way to go. A personal story: A few years ago I had helped my daughters clean their room for the last time. It drove me crazy to look at it but I wasn't going to do it again and I never said anything - they needed to do it themselves. They were ages 9 to 12 at the time. That day came and they cleaned and organized all their stuff. Since that time on they have maintained a fairly neat room. Together they keep it that way. Although one of my daughters is still messy and disorganized and she may always be that way. On the other hand my teen boys? UGH! No success story there. :-) I'm sure I'm repeating what you already know, and this is a little disconnected (I don't give advice well) but time and teaching will help here. (Christmas will be here soon and the current excitement will wane also). ((HUG))

We have done sandwiches for many years now. I buy shaved ham, roast beef, turkey, and something else from the deli. Add to that an assortment of sliced cheeses - swiss, provalone, cheddar, pepper jack. And two kinds of rolls as well. The last couple of years I've bought those big assortment bags of chips so everyone can choose what they want. And soda - four varieties to suit everyone's taste. And probably beer for the adults in the family. One of my older boys is going to make Italian meatballs in sauce in the crockpot for meatball subs. Dessert is the cookies and candies we've made. I came up with this idea because after all the prep that comes before, I wanted Christmas Day meal to be easy. People can eat what they want when they want. We also use paper plates and cups so cleanup is easy..

Wow - that is a heckuva great guy! These days it is rare to find someone that good in our town. We seem to have hardly any appliance repair people and you have to get one from out of town. Really stinks. Glad your new washer arrived too and hopefully you can get it installed soon. :-)

*playing taps* for your dear departed washing machine. Those good old machines - I miss them. I also miss the days when there were appliance repairmen galore to fix them too. Now you're lucky if the one who comes to look at your oven even comes back to finish the job (he didn't - we had to buy the part and install it ourselves). Wishing you many years of good laundry days with your new washer. :-)

Amazing Grace, Pure Grace and Falling in Love are my favorites. Just wanted to add that Baby Grace has just about disappeared which is a pity because it was one of their original "State of Grace" trio. I read somewhere that QVC may have it after the first of the year so if you like it you may be in luck again. :-)