Above someone mentioned Eureka. I agree that would be one to look at. There is a weird sexual story line in the first episode that gets dropped immediately, so if you find that off-putting you could skip that episode. The idea is that everyone in the town is super-smart, though the main character feels dumb in comparison. This means that there are some who act nerdy or weird, and that are jerks, and at least one person who is autistic, but there are many who are well-adjusted, successful in many areas, etc. There are a lot of strong female roles but also good male ones.

Just wanted to say I'm sorry. We're new to chickens this year and have already had to deal with sickly chick and some loss due to critters. It's tough.

That is is cute! This one was born at home, as planned, so we'd have to take him out in a stocking instead.

Thank you all. I may briefly put up a picture later. We typically don't share kid pics on social media, but I would like to show of the cuteness.

Update in op to say that our baby is here. Getting lots of love and attention, though at the moment lots of sleep.

None yet. I'm hoping it's today, too, but I'm also trying to get fun stuff set up for next week so that I'm not just waiting all the time of the baby is over due. My first two were on time, but number three was really, really late.

No baby yet, nor any definite signs, though some of these contractions could be the beginnings of the real thing, or just major Braxton-Hicks. We're doing a home birth, largely due to how hard to predict my labors are. My midwife isn't a fan of stopping membranes, but I could beg on Tuesday. Tomorrow I may try the manual pump. That seems more socially appropriate than offering to try to nurse my baby nephew.

I've consumed castor oil with the others and concluded that it isn't a terrible way to relieve constipation, but I don't think it did anything else. I wasn't able to get up the nerve to drink a lot, though, and I don't really want to, at least at this point. Besides, my digestion is moving asking well at this point, which I'm choosing to believe is a good sign.

Yeah, but dh is on military orders nearly five hours away, so that could get tricky.

The weather is a bit cold and rainy, so walking outside is kind of out, but I have some outgrown clothes to take to the basement. Maybe lots of small trips up and down two flights of stairs and then cleaning the kitchen floor would do it... First I have to drink this raspberry leaf tea and take some evening primrose oil.

I'm very glad my kids don't know the elf. They know there are decorations that look like that, but that's the extent of it. We play Santa at our house and stress that out is very rude to ever interrupt someone's game and tell them it's just pretend. My six year old is into the pretend this year. My five year old is more literal, but he knows not to tell other kids. He does ask me whether or not other kids believe or are just pretending. I tell him I don't know but that I assume it's a mix.

Success, Monday at nine pm! My wonderful sil made eggplant parmesan for me for lunch Monday, I enjoyed a nice hilly walk, and soon went into labor. The midwives arrived in plenty of time, my mother in law wasn't obnoxiously early, and my husband was able to get back just a little before midnight. It didn't go exactly as planned due to the two year old waking up and needing cuddles while I was nearing transition.It all worked out, though, and no children were traumatized. They enjoyed being fascinated/grossed out by the placenta and all stayed up way too late. Baby boy is nine pounds even, 21.5 inches long. My due date is tomorrow, I feel ready, and having the baby now would mean dh being home for about two weeks before being shipped to the middle east for nine months. I'm not going to do anything crazy to make it happen, but I want this baby to come soon! Any funny or helpful suggestions are welcome. This is baby four, and probably last. The previous labors were all very different from one another, so I don't really have any way of knowing how close I am, not that anyone ever does. Really I'm fine with any time this weekend, but I don't want to go late!

I felt it! There was one about similar back in 2003 or thereabouts, at about the same time of morning, too. I was in high school then, and it was a lot easier for me to fall back asleep. This time I checked online quickly to make sure there hadn't been an explosion or something nearby, and I think doing that woke me up too much.

Let's see. Part of me says "survive the year!" is our main goal, but of course I want to do more than that. For all of us: Strengthen family bonds, including with dh, while he is deployed, then reintegrate successfully when he comes home. He's been gone so much the last year that it's hard for the kids to turn to him when they need something, and we both have to not get annoyed when we have our own way of doing things that doesn't flow together as smoothly as it did before this ridiculously ramped-up training schedule. DD6: To continue to grow academically while finding more enjoyment in group activities. She doesn't seem to be a fan of kids her own age, though she plays happily with little ones who let her lead them around or bigger kids she can emulate. Currently she has been acting clingy when it is time to go to choir, sit with the other kids at cub scouts, etc, although she separates easily when it is an un-organized activity like playing at the park. It doesn't seem like real fear and once she gets going, observation would indicate she is enjoying things, so...? DS5: Keep working on basics of reading and math while finding him fun challenges in building-type projects. Right now his ideas run ahead of his fine-motor skills. Find enough people for him to talk to about any and everything that my ears don't bleed and fall off. He's a great kid, but tends to wake me up before daybreak with questions like "Are there geysers underwater, or do they have a different name then?" DS2: Keep working on encouraging his speech. He doesn't talk much, although he clearly understands everything and has pretty good diction when he does talk. He finds it better to use his own, very expressive, sign language. New Baby boy: Get lots of cuddles. Balance giving him and the others loads of attention. Me: survive, take lots of pictures so I don't forget things that happened just because I will be sleep deprived all the time. Accept help when offered and ask for help when needed.

When I was reading the first paragraph, I was actually thinking, "this person has to try Zoey and Sassafrass!" So, very good description!

The first word I thought of was "resilience." I'll be home alone with 4 kids, including a newborn, while my husband is deployed until September/October, so I think I'll need resilience, but I actually would like to think of a word that's more focused on finding joy and opportunity where ever I can. I don't want to just "get through" the time, I want to make something of it. Any ideas for me?

Yet people do call the police over a child's failure to do homework or do their chores. My husband has been called in and told "make him respect me!" He generally doesn't tell the adult "nope, at this point, I don't think he should. You just called the cops on him," but he does take the kid aside and explain that keeping mom happy well make their life easier and that doing well in school will help them get a job that lets them move out sooner. Most Leo in this area actively try not to learn about it if people are smoking in their own homes or back yards, and don't do too much about a group of kids in the woods except check for runways and outstanding warrants. They know that getting a police record at a young age can make it harder to get a job later, which makes it more likely the person will turn to crime to make ends meet.

My six year old does cub scouts, choir, and Sunday school, plus "zoo school"once a month and other classes like that from time to time. We'll likely add swimming lessons in the new year and maybe a seasonal sport after that, but she really loves having time free and at these ages it's easy to join other families at the playground. My almost five year old is extremely social, so we'll do more with him, probably, but for now he's just in choir and Sunday school. As the kids get bigger, we're thinking of doing martial arts of some kind as a family, though of course we'd not all be in the same class!

I'm leaning towards going back in hopes of getting the women. I think if we go when there are no cars, there will either be no one there or only the women, since I've only seen the men driving, but I haven't been spying that closely to be sure! I'm really not sure if it's a cultural misunderstanding or a religious one. If cute kids had showed up at my door in Russia and said something about raising money to go camping, I'd probably have given them some even if I wasn't sure whether I was making a donation or buying something or what.

Sorry in advance if any of this is worded badly. My daughter is a Cub Scout, and a new neighbor on our street ordered some popcorn (specifically Chocolaty Caramel Crunch) from the annual fundraiser. I was trying to hang back and let my daughter mostly handle things, but I stepped up closer for this one because I wanted to make sure there was no language barrier issue. The family is Egyptian (I think) and celebrates Islamic holidays. An older woman who didn't speak much English answered the door but got a younger woman who spoke English well to come handle the interaction. They were both very happy and excited to order something and paid in advance. Today, we were delivering the product and this time interacted with a young man and older man who were in the driveway about to leave. Again, the younger generation handled the conversation due to language skills, but he told us he couldn't accept the popcorn and to consider it a donation. I showed him who had ordered it, explained it was paid for, and tried to get him to take it, but he again said to consider it a donation. I certainly don't want to cause offense to anyone, and we haven't had a chance to get to know these neighbors at all before these interactions (though we enjoyed their lights during Ramadan evenings, which is why I assume they are Muslim). Does anyone know if dietary restrictions would keep them from eating this particular item, or just unknown items in general? Or is it likely confusion about fundraisers, holiday stuff, etc? Should we try to go back when we think the women are likely home? My four and six year olds are firmly in the camp, "They just gave us dessert!" so I kind of don't want to wait too long on this. I also don't want those women to wonder why we never brought them the popcorn they ordered!

Frankly, I'd find it a bit icky, too. I knew a similar couple. I think he began expressing interest when she was 14 or 15 and he was around 23. Her parents set strict rules regarding their presence at all times until the girl turned 17 or so and limited physical contact to basically none. Now they are married and I hope the best for them. It was a rough courtship for them. He was clearly physically frustrated by this and spent part of their courtship stalking me to try (unsuccessfully) to get that physical desire met, which certainly colors how I felt about this relationship. Really I was just relieved when they finally got engaged so that he would leave me alone, but I was just a little older than the girl in question at the time, so I justify that selfish reaction to myself. That was all pretty unrelated to the matter at hand, sorry. I really hate those relationships that start with a girl so young. A fifteen year old should be light years less mature than a twenty four year old. If not, odds are that as she does mature, she will quickly grow past him, and if they are already married by that point, that could lead to real problems.

I wish I could make a great speech and convince people of the error of their ways, but I know I can't, so I remind myself of that over and over when biting my tongue at the holiday table/scrolling through Facebook. The best I can hope for, generally, is to plant a seed of thought that will, in time, bear some fruit, which isn't nothing. I try to follow these rules for entering into discourse: -if it's someone I know won't listen to me/respect me/care, I'll only speak up if their words are affecting other people listening, like children or a member of the despised group. Then I'll say something, though I don't expect to have any affect on the speaker. -if it's someone who might listen, figure out that person's perspective, speak their language, and try to just plant a seed of doubt, an opportunity to think things through, rather than get them to change immediately. Frankly, if I could get a person to do an immediate 360, probably some racist could come along and re convince them just as easily. These changes have to come from within to be long-lasting.

I'd say it's more like a somewhat larger Aldi in vibe. I haven't made it to TJs, but I think they are supposed to feel a little nicer. Then again, I haven't been to Lidl in America, so the new ones here could be nicer.

I hope it will be! I may just make a guess and figure it'll be fun even if I don't get the absolute best one.

If you do it in a well thought-out way, I think it would work. In school we did this the head-on painful way as we were in the accelerated math program, but the teacher switched over the summer and the new teacher had a different vision of how things should work than the original plan. I think my first test grade was a thirteen percent. In the end, it was a good lesson about how to care more about learning than grades and perfection and we did end up learning everything, but I think at minimum it would have helped if at minimum we'd had more time for those first few chapters. (The teacher did end up manipulating grades at the end of the year so that we wouldn't be kicked out of the school where we had to maintain a "B" average.)