[2021 Christmas Decor Ideas, Tips, Questions, Sharing]

Thank you Tech Wife -- this is a great idea for a thread!

[Want to share: this book saved my life]

I entered college knowing zilcho about studying productively. By some miracle I came across a book in the college bookstore -- we're talking 40 years ago -- called How to Get Your A out of College. And, with that book everything was revealed.

That was then.

 Today I went online to find a similar book for my boys, both 18. To my surprise I found the exact book!

How to Get Your A Out of College: Mastering the Hidden Rules of the Game

I'm giving it to my guys for Christmas. They've heard me talk about it and now they get to read it. (I know I have my copy . . . somewhere. I never read How to Get Your A in Clutter-Cleaning.)

 

[Want to share: huge hit in my house. Perfect for End of November]

Hi Everyone,

When my guys were little -- 10 and under -- I would order Christmas books from the library.

I'd get the books home, wrap them, and put them under the tree.

Then every evening in December I would tell my boys that they could each pick one wrapped book each evening. The boys would get to open the "gift" and get a great read-aloud that very evening.

I don't know who loved this more: me or the boys. 🥰

[Menopausal, but still in the thick of it with young children.]

I had super bad insomnia when I was going through menopause. I know this sounds woo-woo, but I swear it helped. I told a friend who was into herbs about my insomnia and she recommended buying loose leaf lemon balm at a local health store and making a lemon balm tea thirty minutes or so before bed. (It's very safe. They use it on newborns and the elderly in the late afternoons.)

Maybe it was a placebo, but it seriously helped me. I remember thinking that I should never drink the tea and drive. It was that potent.

The other thing that was so difficult for me: vaginal dryness. When we had TeA, it felt like there was broken glass inside me.

I finally was given a vaginal cream from my OB. You might even get it ahead of the game, and get it now.

One more thing: when I was going through menopause I became very, very claustrophobic. I'd never been before. I didn't want to be in elevators or crammed in with a bunch of people on a tram type thing going to the top of a mountain.

Then when I was totally through menopause, it went away entirely.

My blog is for women over 50 losing and maintaining.

[Which coat for dd?]

I just bought this jacket from Amazon and it's keeping me warm at the dog park in 48-degrees with a light wind. I diverged from boring black, and bought my first bright green. Really pretty. I might live dangerously and get a red. 🙂

[Who can tell me about their herniated disc treatment? Asking for DS]

17 hours ago, Eos said:

Oh my goodness, that would be fantastic!  We would both be very grateful.  Thank you!

I likely won't hear anything back until after Thanksgiving, but I've put the call in!

[Who can tell me about their herniated disc treatment? Asking for DS]

8 minutes ago, Eos said:

Thank you, this is helpful.  How would he know who to go to?  That probably sounds sort of silly but I don't know much about how to learn/compare doctors.  He lives near Albany NY but could travel to Boston where I know the healthcare is really good. 

 

That's not a silly question at all. If you'd like me to, I can contact Dr. Heller's nurse and -- through her -- get recommendations from Dr. Heller. He did his undergraduate at Harvard (twelve minutes from Boston). I bet it's a smallish club of top surgeons. He likely can recommend somebody in Boston.

Do you want me to put the call tomorrow morning?

 

 

[Who can tell me about their herniated disc treatment? Asking for DS]

I had the surgery for a bulging disc in 2016 at Emory in Atlanta. I was 52. OMG. Most wonderful thing I ever did. I was in the hospital for three days. And recovery at home was not hard.

My only caveat: I wouldn't have the surgery when we lived in Richmond, VA. Nothing against Richmond. I LOVED living there, but they're not big.

I waited until we moved to Atlanta, and got referred to the Mick Jagger of orthopedic surgeons at Emory. (Dr. Heller.)

Tell your son to go to the best of the best.

Let me know if you have other questions. 🙂

[Tutoring an adult male to read who is illiterate]

I loved the I See Sam curriculum. Sure, it's for kids, but I'm sure this guy understands that many in the U.S. learn as kids.

One of my boys struggled which is why I started the I See Sam books series. One read quickly using another curriculum, but his brother didn't take to reading. The I See Sam curriculum made all the difference.

The "free" series, I'm not sure how this works though.

The basic series. The colors of the books really helped. There's many small books in red and when it's time to move to blue, it's exciting.

I don't keep much stuff, but I did keep the I See Sam curriculum in case I have grand kids one day. 🙃

I love you and your church! Thank you so much for helping this young man!!!

[Need: the master TWTM house cleaners. It's not a big deal, but help!]

4 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Just to clarify, you're blowing a fan or you have an exhaust fan? You need the steam from the shower to go *out*. Is there any possibility of an exhaust fan to pull the air out?

I run the exhaust fan from when I enter to shower (so 5-10 minutes before) and leave it on for 30-40 minutes afterward to make sure all that steam goes out. 

I stayed at a vrbo condo in FL once that was on the coast and it was all rock, like a cave, in the bathroom. It was beautiful but I imagine it would collect moisture something terrible. Have you thought about some wipe down or spray down procedures that you do after each shower? Is the mold particularly in the cracks like the grout, more toward the bottom, more toward the ceiling, or where? That will give you a clue as to your preventative plans. If it's at the bottom, you need to stop water from pooling. If it's on the ceiling, you need an exhaust fan. 

A dehumidifier is a particularly good plan in a basement location. Those rooms will stay moist even with normal exhaust fans, etc. installed. 

 

Thank you! And yes, it's at the bottom. I guess I'm off to get a dehumidifier. Do you think it'll in a large space? The bathroom is pretty, but not all that functional.

[Mascara recommendations]

Just wanted to jump in and add: for years I always wore "brownish black" mascara expecting that that color would look best on me. For some reason I decided to try ultra-black last week, and wow. My eyes looked cool.

These days I only do my top eyelashes. An influencer told me this little trick. 🙃

Also, I have followed this anchor out of Houston for a couple of years now. I highly recommend her, she's in her early 50s and goes into detail about everything hair, skin, lingerie, what she eats. She's really an open book. Dominique Sachse. I love that she talks about different price-points, and she doesn't accept free products.

[Help with Christmas Gifts]

This year I'm giving Dh a robe from Lands End w/ his name embroidered on. He loves them and hasn't had a new one in a while. This is the exact robe. Use Lands End if you want customization, but they're also on Amazon if you don't plan on customizing. I always have it say "dad." 😊

Also, what about an awesome book? If he's at all into WW!! this book on Churchill is a serious page turner. I read it and loved it and I'm not that into WWII.

If he's into baseball: I've only heard amazing reviews about this one: The Baseball 100. I'm getting it for my dad. I trust the people who reviewed the book. It just came out.

I have other books he may really like on my book list here.

 

[Need: the master TWTM house cleaners. It's not a big deal, but help!]

3 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

1. Buy a dehumidifier, a big one.  Mold doesn't grow easily when the humidity is below 40% in a room.

2. I would clean it with diluted (1:1 ratio water to bleach) chlorox bleach.  a) I don't mess with mold; it gets bleach. b) properly diluted bleach is safe for sealed granite.  Spray ten minutes, rinse thoroughly, then clean by normal methods. 

3. Get the humidity under control and you shouldn't have to clean regularly with bleach. Your shower will likely need to be cleaned weekly, but you shouldn't have to bleach it at all if you are cleaning it regularly and you have the humidity under control. It may take a few months to get it back under control though, depending on the extent of your issues.

4. If the mold is actually on the grout (ie it's not truly solid granite), you probably need to scrub the grout and reseal it. You may need to reseal every few months for the first year before you can move onto yearly sealing of the grout. 

Wow. You're awesome! Thank you!! ♥♥♥  (And, yes, there's grout so thank you for that too.) 🥰

[Need: the master TWTM house cleaners. It's not a big deal, but help!]

My shower is made out of the granite-slab stuff. The bathroom has terrible ventilation. I had a fan trained on the shower which helped a little. Someone stole the fan, I need to get it back in place.

Here's the problem: that shower collects so much mold. It's awful. I'm constantly spraying w/ an okay cleaning product, but it's time I put some muscle into it.

Can you tell me what product you'd use and how you would go about cleaning this guy? (I'm no expert in cleaning, I'm constantly learning.)

TIA!!

W.

[Being left out still stinks as an adult]

I had something similar happen when my kids were little. We were in a large, active playgroup. One of the ding-dong moms threw a huge adult party, and everyone was invited but me and dh.

I didn't have a clue -- and I wish it had stay that way -- but I heard one person make the comment, "why didn't they have room for one more?" And I put two and two together.

I'm a writer. Years later (we'd moved out of state) this same woman who threw the party got online to ask for help in landing a certain job.

I'd love to say I was above being annoyed, but I was not above being annoyed.

I thought, as if, and deleted her email.

You're not alone in the least. Adults can be just as awful as kids. Not being able to talk to you like an adult and request changes be made, is on them.

[Very sad death of a young person]

I'm so, so sorry. The poor parents, , ,

[Holiday gift ideas for my dad's caregivers...]

Have to add: the ornament is beautiful!

[Do you see smokers anymore?]

I see a few at the dog park. One man seems to be smoking while running his dog and hiding from his wife.

[Update on my family of origin issues]

39 minutes ago, popmom said:

We actually are considering moving. My parents only live a few miles away. I've been driving out of my way to grocery shop because I'm scared I might run into her.

Moving was the best thing we ever did for so many reasons, but definitely for the crazy-parents reason.

♥♥♥

[Does getting older make you angrier?]

Re: Getting older. Sometimes it can be a med thing. Just a thought.

I had a meltdown in a meeting about four years ago. To this day, I cringe over my behavior.

It was an evening meeting and I woke up the next morning absolutely horrified by my behavior.

Within an hour or so I realized that it was a medication I was on following back surgery. I'd noticed anger-surges a couple of times, but nothing like at the meeting.

I slowly got off of that med -- never again will I go near it. I find myself wanting to send letters to everyone, but I worry that they'll think I'm making up an excuse.

🙁

[Update on my family of origin issues]

My heart goes out to you. I had to go no-contact, I agree it's incredibly difficult.

After seven years, we're back to the occasional phone call but only b/c 1) I live 3,000 miles away from them and 2) my mom has Alzheimer's and is not doing well. My dad is taking care of her.

Still, I love every one of those 3,000 miles. I highly recommend moving.

Your therapist sounds great.

Hang in there.

[Came across Harvard book list]

Hi Everyone,

I came across this cool Harvard book list. It's hard core, but would be a great resource over all high school and college years. I'd never heard of it. Thought you might like to see it.

Book list here.

[Any electric scooter advice?]

22 hours ago, Farrar said:

Well, I'm scared enough about holiday pricing and supply chains that I went ahead and bit the bullet. This can be his big Christmas gift.

The problem is that - no joke - this is the second time in a row that I have something big for him and nothing for his twin. Hopefully the twin will be happy with being gifted a college education. In the meantime, I'll need to figure out something better than the pair of new cool shoes I ordered for him to be under the tree.

As a mother of twins, I can attest this is a real thing.

[Cooking ahead for the holidays]

On 11/4/2021 at 5:28 PM, Storygirl said:

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/creamy-mashed-potatoes-recipe0-2012666

Are these the ones you make? I made these last year for Thanksgiving, and they are delicious. For Easter, I made them again but used Boursin cheese in place of the cream cheese. Yum! I have frozen them, and they are not as creamy when thawed, but they are still good.

You said "Boursin" but I read "bourbon." I was scrolling and went wait, what?! 🙃

[Decor ideas for fireplace that isn’t used]

I put a clump of Christmas lights in. When turned on, so pretty!!