Mine is newly 5, and she will start kindergarten next year. She could have done it this year, but she has 3 older brothers, all with summer birthdays, all started at 6 (and they all needed the extra year), so I am keeping her in the pattern.

The ceiling fans are always on here. Until this week, our AC was running at least 14 hours a day. It usually stops around 3-4am when it finally catches up with the afternoon heat. In the winter, we have dehumidifiers and ceiling fans, too. Edited to add: sometimes it does feel stuffy in here if it's too hot, but it will usually get down to at least 78 before we go to bed (our AC isn't great), so that is tolerable. Warmer than that, and I don't like it. I don't like camping in summer because of this.

Always closed, because of fire safety.

This is my inlaws. We live where dh grew up. My inlaws retired to FL the summer we got married. They chose where they did partly based on a low cost of living, but that is because of a striking lack of economy except tourism. There are no jobs there. They refuse to consider moving back to where we live, giving many, many excuses, but at the end of the day, they just don't want to. And we can not afford to go to them. We are only in our 40s, and inlaws need more ongoing help now (minor physical help, definitely emotional support), and in the next 10 years, will need much more. We will only be in our 50s, 20 years from retirement. A time we absolutely can not relocate away from jobs. I figure they will stay where they are until crisis level, and then, we will force them to be closer to us.

I did castor oil. Twice with one baby, once with another. It got me diarrhea, but no baby. Don't recommend. And I feel you. Mine were 7, 13, 3, and 5 days late. I am not known for my timeliness.

My dh and his (salesmen) coworkers will go to a lot of extra lengths if a honey baked ham gift card is on the table. It's pretty funny.

I never had a pressure cooker. My mom isn't an experimental cook, and she was scared of them, so I didn't grow up with one. It's all new to me.

I have 2 that wake up happy and 2 that decidedly don't. One spouse that is a ridiculous #%×$ morning person, and one spouse that is normal.

My inlaws are in their early 80s and live 6 hours from us. My dh has 3 sisters that live another 11 hours from us. My inlaws want to remain in their own home, independent, and they are fiercely refusing any other ideas so as not to burden us. I will tell you...knowing that we are the closest and still 6 hours away is fairly burdensome. But they don't see I like that at all. My parents are 1.5 hours away. Divorced, both have spouses, and they are in their 60s. And yet...I think about it a lot. We are actually planning to move closer in the next 5 years because I Wil be the main person to care for them. I have a brother in the same town that won't.

My dh's company just sent out a letter warning of the coming rate hikes. They are also including different rates across salary bands. My dh is well paid for his company, and I am afraid that will hit us hard. His company is not known for great benefits, and most people choose to be on a spouse's insurance if possible. Without me working, that's not an option. But needing a warning letter 3 weeks out doesn't bode well for affordability

Very little helped me, either, but it meant that I ate continually in hopes of finding the magic thing. And (most of the time), in the moments that it was going down, it wasn't coming up, so eating was minimal relief.

I have 2 acquaintances that were in similar situations. One were church friends. They married right after high school graduation--she was 18, and he was 28. They've been married for 27 years now (how am I that old??). Another one got married at 19 and 29. They did not start dating until she was 18, though. She never intended to go to college, and she didn't. The crazy part of their story is that they lived 5 hours apart when they met. She moved 3 months later to the town where he lived, and they dated for a year while she lived with roommates. So a fairly fast dating relationship, far from her parents' eyes. They've been married for over 20 years, though, and they are very happy.

These are very good, and they are the cheapest option to feed my family. We don't have one near, so I always forget about them

In the 5th grade, we did reports on different states with a project that sat in the hallway for a week at the end. I had Ohio, and I brought in a jelly roll tray with dirt for my "field." I had planted corn, and it sprouted and started to grow by week end. It was awesome. I still remember random facts about Ohio from that, and the project was a good start for learning to research I also went to a teacher's house to see Haley's Comet in 1984, talking about the next time it would come.

I have been thinking about it, too, though it is many years off for me. But I am 42, so maybe it's the age, too. I think I would like some type of book keeping. Sorting with numbers and spreadsheets and budgets and the like. My background is medical, so I have to figure out how to parlay that into more than a $9/hr doctor office job.

Jason's deli,Publix subs, Indian Chinese (I love this and crave it so much), Moe's, a local gyro/hummus type place. Thes are our usual go-tos.

We live in an older suburb, semi walkable to things (1 mile to the library, 2 to shopping). We are 7 miles to city center. We end up driving for most things. The town nearest us within the mwtro prides itself on being a tiny Mayberry, and it is very walkable. However, the average cost for housing is $$$ and out of our reach. We used to live in a farther out suburb (30 miles from city center). We didn't like that at all, and it felt like it was the worst of all worlds. I think I could be happy closer intown where we live or in a smaller town. But I definitely like living in town versus rural.

We had a nephew get married in a barn in the upper midwest Memorial Day weekend a few years back. It was soooo cold to this GA girl. So, so cold that time of year. But inside the (swanky, for events) barn, it was toasty. I say go for the layers. When we visit family in the midwest, they all keep their houses/stores/inside places much warmer than we do, but the outside is much colder. Layers help.

I went to a shower recently where the "game" was just writing stuff on tiny diapers. A fun way for the hostess to give the mom diapers instead of a diaper cake, and the sayings could range from witty to simple (a smiley face) to a scripture or encouraging word. Super simple, but liked by a range of people.

It seems that it makes so many people happy to have just their immediate family together on Christmas morning. And that's the lot I've been dealt. I want to change my attitude about it this year and not dread it. My biggest problem is that it feels exactly the same as any other day. If I cook a big meal (which I like), i am doing it alone, while dh wrangles children. That doesn't feel much like togetherness. If I cook a small meal, then it really, really doesn't feel like the holidays. My children struggle with liking to do the same things. They split--1 likes sports, 3 hate them. 3 like movies, 1 hates them. 2 like board games, 2 hate. The hater always want everyone to know how they feel. We end up splitting up and doing separate things. In real, non holiday life, dh works a lot, so it's mostly me and the kids. Again, nothing feels different on a holiday. Any ideas or special traditions that just the few of you share to make it happier?

We stay home. It's lonely and sad, and I work hard to be happy about it. My sister in laws live 12 hours away in the snow belt, and my inlaws go up to visit them for Christmas. My brother is about 2 hours away, but he insists on having Christmas at his house with his nuclear family and grandparents only. So my parents go over and see him, but it's not extended family. The past few years, my parents have come over and seen us for an hour or two on Christmas morning, which is nice. It is not the large gatherings I had hopes for as a kid, though

Ours are $20/car. We pay a big tax when we buy the car. We bought a new to us 2010 this year, and our taxes were around $600. They started this system about 4 years ago.

Our backyard is flat. We have original tile in the bathrooms--pink and gray in the main one, green in the 1/2. It's so kitschy, and I love it.

nm

Dh and I both had broken engagements before we started dating each other. I only seriously dated the other guy + dh. I thibk dh had one girl in between the other fiance and me.