Horrible! Frustrating! Senseless! But I just have to ask. Does your hub have a website or catalog? My guys are all fly fishers and I am always on the lookout for new stuff for Christmas, anniversaries, birthdays, etc.

http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/ bestbookbuys.com They search lots of different sites, including Abe and bookfinder and half.com and you can compare prices.

Our whole house fan did cut usage by 90%. We have never had our AC on at night. The fan pulls every bit of air out of the house and pulls the cool night air in. Because our house gets really cool at night, we can usually leave our windows open all day. I ran the AC two days last year. Our nights are never higher than the 70's though and most nights are still 60's or lower, even in the summers. Humidity is rarely an issue here. And I am comfortable up to 80 degrees in my house. With the fan, there is always a huge breeze through the house. I am in the mountains in VA. When we lived in the Washington DC suburbs, we had a whole house fan and there were many nights when it never got cool enough to turn it on. We were AC dependents.

It's even 84 up here on our mountain in Blacksburg!!! It never gets this hot up here. Last year, we only ran our airconditioner twice the whole summer. And now I have run it four days this week in June!

As a former horse show mom, baseball mom, basketball mom,marathon mom, I just wanted to say I feel your pain! However, my youngest is in college now and my house is quiet. There is nowhere I have to go and nobody who needs a new saddlepad or running shoes in the next twenty minutes. :-) I have time to read, knit, go out to lunch with friends, and contemplate my addiction to a homeschooling forum when I am no longer homeschooling anybody. My house is clean and stays that way. My husband and I have unlimited uninterrupted conversations and leisurely dinners. I have a part time job, keep my grandkids twice a week, and take college classes for pure enjoyment and not credit. And if I could trade places with you right now, I would do it in a heartbeat. Those frantic years of kids in the house were heaven on earth. I just didn't know it until it was over. Enjoy your life. Change is just around the corner.

How do you make them in a dehydrator?

All I know is that I had a bunch of tests because I was extremely fatiqued. Tests showed adrenal exhaustion. Doc let me try the Holy Basil to see if I could calm the overactive adrenals and it took 6 months, but it worked. Insomniacs should take that stuff. I would fall asleep if I sat down in a chair! It is not a prescription and I got it from a health food store. I have thyroid issues and was told that the adrenal stuff often goes along with a cranky thyroid.

When I was diagnosed with adrenal exhaustion, I took Holy Basil for 6 months to calm my adrenal glands. I took a lot of it, but it was very powerful. I was sleepy and foggy the whole time I took it. No way would I take that stuff if I didn't have to.

We bought our daughter a LLBean leather bottom bookpack when she was in 7th grade. That pack saw here through undergrad studies and a master's degree, multiple mission trips, many flights all over the US and to foreign countries and is now a diaper bag for baby twins and a 3 year old. She is 35 years old and that pack has been going strong for the last 22 years! When the time came to send her brothers to college, they also got LLBean packs. They seem to be indestructible.

I have a narrow foot with a very high arch and I love my Dansko clogs. They are designed to fit loosely and the foot is supposed to move up and down in them. When this happens, don't think the shoes don't fit. I walked all over Italy in Danskos and my feet never bothered me.

Thanks a lot, Asta. Because of you, I had to go bleed $250 for the high quality polarizing and UV filters. Until you wrote that, I was perfectly happy with my cheap ones. :-) I am such a groupie! Please tell me....do I need a skylight filter and what does it do?

To make one quart of FakeShout: 1 cup ammonia 1 cup white vinegar 1 cup Wisk 1 cup water Mix together well. To use: Put in a spray bottle and spray stains. Rub in and let sit 10 minutes. Launder as usual. I quadruple this recipe and make a gallon. It lasts about a year in our house. My husband manages to spill coffee on his white dress shirts at least twice a week and hurts himself anytime he uses a screwdriver, hammer, etc. (The guy is a great businessman, but definitely NOT a handyman!) This recipe works great on coffee, blood, baseball boy grass stains and red ballfield dirt. I recently gave a bottle to my daughter who has 10 month old twins and a 3 year old. She said it was better than the expensive babystain product she had been using. This is the recipe in Wendi Meredith's book "The Art of Frugality". Same book that taught me great coupon skills and strategies for the Ultimate Cheap But Lovely Christmas. I think her website is theartoffrugality.blogspot.com/

I make my own Windex and Shout. Much cheaper than buying the real thing and they work just as well. I think the fake Shout works better than real Shout.

I keep a filter on my camera so I can't scratch my lens. Usually I have the UV layered over the polarizing. I would much rather scratch or dirty a filter than an expensive lens. I have a Canon EOS 50D.

We used Rod and Staff for 8th grade, Warriners for 9th and Abeka for 10th. Abeka was the easiest to use and my son liked it the best. Not what you asked about, but I thought I would post since no one else had chimed in. By the end of that Abeka workbook, my son was a grammar whiz.

Our family goes twice a year. We love staying at the Harraseekett Inn in Freeport. Walking distance of wonderful restaurants plus many outlets, including LLBEan and driving distance for lots of Maine attractions. They have townhouses with 2-3 bedrooms plus living room and kitchen. The main hotel looks lovely, but I have never stayed in it. There is an indoor pool and fitness center. Both restaurants at the inn are superb and they serve afternoon tea. We rent a townhouse every winter. The kids go skiing, the hub goes ice fishing, and I shop, shop, shop. For summer visits, we usually stay in Portland for a few nights before heading off to a remote rental cabin. Portland has a wonderful yarn shop, if you are a knitter,and the best minor league baseball stadium ever (Portland Sea Dogs).

If he really wants the job, then he should wear a suit. Always better to be overdressed than underdressed. First impressions and all that....

I love my reverse osmosis unit. It is under the kitchen sink, so you do lose space on one side. It has a separate faucet beside the main faucet. Had it 6 years and never regretted it.

Eat breakfast at the Roanoker Restaurant. It was rated one of the 10best in the country by Southern Living magazine. Get on 81 and take 581 toward downtown Rnoke. Exit for Colonial AVenue (not the Wonju St one, though). Go to red light at end of Colonial AVenue exit and turn left. The Roanoker is just a bit down the road on your left. Any thing in particular you would like to see. Knitting shops, malls, specialty shops, etc. Just ask. I lived in Roanoke for 10 years, spent 17 years in Manassas, and have been in Blacksburg for the last 7 years. I go to Roanoke twice a week to keep my grandbabies. Science Museum and Transportation Museums are good. There are some great parks in Salem and Roanoke. One is walking distance of Roanoke College. Also walking distance is Bob and Mac's Restaurant--wonderful food! And Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea on the same street.

Great true story about a woman who went through this is This Is Not The Story You Think It Is.... A Season Of Unlikely Happiness by Laura Munson It's an amazing book!

I had my babies in 1975, 1982, and 1991. That was 7 years between the first two and then almost 10 years until the last one was born,when I was 40. My daughter was 16 and drove me to the hospital in labor because my husband was 2 hours away. How's that for spacing? You would not believe how many people asked me if they shared the same father! (they did) They are all grown now and I am grateful for my long span of childbearing years. If not for that late-in-life baby, my nest would have been empty for an extra 10 years.

I can knit without looking at my hands, but I can't do it in a car. I take Bonine and chew ginger gum plus wear Seabands on my wrists. If I look straight ahead and ride in the front seat, I don't get carsick. I second the audiobooks suggestion. If I drive, I'm okay. Maybe I'm a hypochondriac and it is all in my head :-)

Have not biked Vermont, although we have had several wonderful fishing vacations in that state. Vermont and Maine would both be superb biking adventures. However, I would like to put in a plug for my home state. Biking Virginia in the fall would be glorious. Our trees are a lovely, colorful landscape and days are quite warm with cool evenings. There are many bike trails across the state and wonderful little inns. There is a book about biking Virginia that lists them all. If this sounds interesting, it might be worth checking out. My family has biked all over and I might be able to answer some of your questions.

I had to read The Fountainhead, which I hated, and many that I loved: To Kill a Mockingbird Great Gatsby Canterbury Tales Merchant of Venice Scarlet Letter Paradise Lost O'Henry short stories Pride and Predjudice Jane Eyre Silas Marner David Copperfield Ivanhoe The Old Man and the Sea Grapes of Wrath Walden Prince and the Pauper

My children are born 8 and then 10 years apart. We played Canasta every Sunday night and by the time time they were 5, all three of them were able to play without help. Before that, they would partner with another player until they grasped how to play. Not a board game, but who doesn't love Canasta?