Lifus interruptus: YESSSSSSSS. First time I've sat at my computer all day. DH joked I looked shakey, had I had my daily dose of radiation? But my interruptitis is cute and cuddly so it is hard to get too mad about it. Speaking of fake Latin, one of the things I was supposed to do today (well, anytime this week, but wanted to do today for a nice big fat checkbox completed) was a pronunciation guide for a pseudo-Latin song. Since they weren't real words, we used English phonetic spelling, but it's supposed to sound like Latin. Which is apparently confusing. So we need to make a pronunciation guide. Which has had my ears open recently. I no longer have any idea how to pronounce half of my daily words, lol. Today's winner is 'mischievous' (miss-CHEE-vee-us, or miss-chuv-us), I finally decided just to say 'sneaky' instead. I know whereof you speak! Fun to get away for the day. My nephew (who does not live in AZ, pure California boy) is going to college in Prescott (LOL, this is hilarious to me) so I will be traveling there to visit. Eventually. After I send him his happy graduation card. From May. Eventually. ........ Glad you got out of Dodge, then eventually got out of the getting back to it. :D

No advice here, but I can give you commiseration. We did a similar swim lesson program, and it went about the same. My 8yo is finally starting to pick up this whole swimming thing, somewhat. The 6yo is now expert in "swallowing fishies", lol.

Oh gosh, new to me subjects. Chemistry I know I took in high school but there is very little past H2O, lol. Thankfully I'm a quick study and it will come back quickly, at least for this level. They want to do extra units on cooking, coding, and a few others that I have some knowledge in, but I am scrambling to pull something together or find a resource for. I had 2 years of Latin in college, loved it but retention is low. I think I had spanish every year kinder-high school junior and can stumble my way through a conversation but am uncomfortable doing so and haven't used it in years. My mom is Mexican and it is her first language, I feel a sense of loss that it's a "lost" part of my heritage. I should try again, but...well, there are a lot of things I want to try. Though after reading all the languages here, I really should.

Whew, finally able to stop in today. In high school my bff sent me a letter with sand and photo negatives and a weird letter, making it like a puzzle that we had to solve or it was the end of the world. It was in the summer, before cell phones and we couldn't drive yet, and were an hour away from each other. He called himself in the letter "Fearless Leader"and made a whole to-do. We never solved it, lol. So, I guess that's the weirdest/biggest thing done FOR me. I don't know if I've ever done something big like that. I tend to drop off radar. It doesn't occur to me to keep in touch. :( I would love to, if I remembered. But, I'll do most anything asked of me, so there's that at least. (whoops, missed the lounge closing. have a good night!)

DH works from home full time now, so every night. Sometimes he goes back into the office after dinner though (1-2 nights a week?) Prior to this schedule, he was still here at least 3 out of 5, and one of those is a full-on family night, where we eat pizza and watch something with dinner, then a game if movie is short. I miss the nights he was gone so I could just throw Cheerios at the kids, lol. j/k kinda not really...

Thanks everyone! Great ideas, some things I'd never would have thought of. I have some pony beads and pipe cleaners on hand so I'll pack those for today. I'm a little leery of multiple-part stuff because they always seem to roll under something and then he's running after it, lol. Well see how the pony beads go before trying other multi-part ideas. Oh, the Water Wow books too. He's a little too accustomed to them, I think, but if I pack them in the to-go bag and only let him use them while we're out, they'll probably become cool again. Ah, and of course the snacks, that always helps. Totally spaced out that important detail. Can't take walks at 2 of the locations because they aren't walk-friendly places, and I don't like leaving my kids with teachers unattended, just a general self-rule I have, at least for these ages. And, it's too hot anyway right now to do a lot of walking in the middle of the afternoon, I'd end up dragging along a little puddle of fussiness, lol. Maybe later in the year I can figure something out for outside-but-still-close.

What do you give your kids to do when waiting at lessons, etc., out of the house? Main concern is the 3yo. We have iPads and headphones, but don't want to make that the only option, I'd rather treat it as the backup. Some of the places are A/C, others are porches. Most days there is only an hour of class he needs to wait through, but Mondays will be 3 hours total (2 piano lessons then choir) where 1 hour is easily spent at a playground. 3yo isn't into coloring really, which has been my go-to with the other kids. He's not reading yet and only can consistently sit through 1 book. His card game acumen is limited to 52 card pickup, but it is a very loud game with him, lol. What are your best time wasters for this age group, that are easy to bring along? Bonus for educational but at this point I'm just happy to keep him busy.

Hey Scrap, how did your event go? So true about there always being one more thing, sigh. We broke a glass bottle this morning, just to start the day off right, lol, and even though I know it only literally took maybe 5 or 10 minutes to clean up, everything has felt haphazard since. What's on your schedule this weekend? We have a camp out in the park tonight. Basically we put a tent up in the soccer field, the park does fun activities with the kids, a few games, read-aloud around the "fire" (a bundle of orange string lights), and then everyone goes to their tents. Then they have breakfast for us in the morning. It's for the families in the tots program, so basically a bunch of 3yos plus families. We have been a part of it for the past 5 years since as one kid phases out the next phases in. I think we are the only family that has done it more than once, since most families only have a 3/4 yo once, at most twice, in the program. I just realized I don't have a sleeping bag for the 3yo. So there's my "one more thing"! Anything special happening in your world this weekend? Other than the above, no. There is a TKD tournament that starts at 8:30 on Saturday an hour away from us. DD wants to go but I can't pack up the tent and get us over there on time. So I'm billing the rest of the weekend as quiet A/C time and movies. Anyone want to escape with me for at least three days?? I'd sign up in a heartbeat, but the only escape for me would include 4 kids, lol, which defeats the purpose. I'll live vicariously through you, so long as you don't pick some place where my imaginary self would have to deal with sand :) edited to fix nonsensical 's and take out a nonsensical sentence, lol. obviously it's a friday.

:grouphug: I'm sorry, that's a lot at once to be dealing with. I hope you and dd slip away as much as you need. :grouphug:

Prayers :grouphug:

I'll take some sleep as well, please. The baby is sleeping through the night now, which is great. The trouble really is my own self discipline; I never want to go to bed ontime and just want to keep doing whatever it is I'm doing. Once I go to bed I fall asleep like a rock, though. I've tried warm milk the past 3 nights before bed. I don't know if it's an old wives tale or not, but I like the taste at least, and the bribery of having it to drink has worked to get me to bed. I've tried herbal teas in the past (tulsi tea was highly recommended to me), but they don't seem to affect my sleepiness levels. Do they really work for people? Does the Princess Bride count as a childhood story? lol I read tons as a kid but never really memorized. The Princess Bride, on the other hand, I had line for line by the time I was in kindergarten. By the way, Scrap, love how you decorated the Lounge today, very festively Christmas in July vibe :)

Thank you for reporting the incident, since that room will need extra cleaning and hopefully will be flagged for special treatment.

Well, I was off to a good start today, out the door with all the kids by 7:40am, got derailed around 10:30 (how did we end up watching sports on TV??), am back on top of it right now, but about to be late if I don't start dinner soon. So, I think I have a good schedule, I just need to actually stick to it, lol. I need to schedule: checkups for 3 out of 4 kids. Everyone was seen in May for the annual physical, but now there are "little issues" I want to address. Also the baby's baptism, eek! The kids' summer day camp thing is offering a campout night this coming Friday. I found out about it last Wednesday. I still haven't committed. We like camping, but it looks like it's going to rain, and the past 2 years we've been the only ones to stay in our tent through the rain. Everyone else went home in the middle of the night, lol, then came back for the breakfast. It's so much work to set up the tent for 16 hours, and idk if I want to go through all of that, with the baby, and be the only family that actually does it. So... still deciding. I'll take that vacation for me, please!!

While I'm sure this is not exactly what you meant, it reminded me of a recent dinner: 3yo: What's for dinner? Me: What does it look like? *food is on his plate in front of him* 3yo: ....food? Me: Yes. 3yo: ....Is it good food? Me: Yes. 3yo: Okay, then you will like it, thank you Mommy! *pushes plate towards me and runs away* ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ I don't like the question because it's usually asked to imply they want to eat now. Even at 10am. Or when I'm changing a diaper. Or cleaning up something they spilled. I do other stuff besides make dinner, and cannot make dinner right now! I also don't like being pigeon-holed into a menu, since if something blows up and I have only half hour to make dinner, and not 2, it can't be the lentil soup I promised to the 10am question, it is now ... cereal, or sandwiches, or something else tear-inducing. Again. We lovingly call these "cold mush" dinners, said like Ms Havisham.

You're right, can't change mine now, either. Happens exactly as you describe. What browser are you using? I'm in Safari.

We cycle: - cereal - egg burritos - oatmeal Adults may have a protein shake, too. Special breakfasts may also have: - omelettes - french toast - pancakes

Okay, your picture may still be too big. I had to try a bit to get the right size, the cap is 50KB. Close the Add New Picture screen, refresh profile page, then click 'Change' again to try; I had to do this between each attempt otherwise it wouldn't recognize the new version.

My kids are big. I remember and use the rule of 4: age 4, at least 40", at least 40 lbs. I am literally counting ti the 3yo turns 4 in Sept to switch him, he's had the other two covered for a good while. So, I think you'll be fine to move him up at that time.

Our veggie eating, usually daily: morning snack of usually celery and peanut butter lunch has carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes and cucumber on side. sometimes salad. dinner has salad and a side veg like green beans Main problem place is breakfast for me. If we have eggs I saute onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms. If we don't have eggs, I usually include a few more celery sticks and carrot sticks later in the day. Also, most of my dinner recipes have veggies in the main dish, so that helps a bit, too. eta: oh, my kids also picked up a bad habit from DH, where they see me cutting veggies for snack or salad and want to take some direct from the cutting board. I pretend grumble but usually get more into them this way. It's like the "rebellion" of not waiting until it's served makes it taste better? idk, lol, whatever works.

After careful consideration, and much deliberation, I unfortunately chose the Mannequin house over my home state, sob, because I need more than 1 bathroom. And maybe a few other factors.

Yay, Arizona, represent! "Every state has to get on the map somehow."

I'm so sorry this happened but thankful she was found relatively quickly. I think being farther away and not in a position to do something during the search makes this type of situation very hard for those not close by, sorry you had to have that additional stress as well.

Ah, just saw this. We own a business. So any free time when kids are away/asleep during the day I'm working on that type of stuff. The time isn't necessary -- I can work at night or during weekends or after lessons or while the kids are doing an activity that just needs me generally there but without my hands in glue. iow, the work getting done isn't dependent on their watching kids, it simply makes it easier. In that 4x number I'm also counting when they watch littles while I take older kids to piano/choir. That is going to be the hardest loss, really, because it stinks having to subject the 3yo to all the waiting around. He can do it though, just not as cheerfully as he would watch movies in AC with nana to supply him as much milk as he wants. :) Im my family culture 4x a week is not unusual or excessive, at least for kids 10 and under.

I'm in a rut with lunch. I make PBJ or ham sandwiches. Sometimes we have leftovers but not usually enough for everyone anymore. What are you doing for lunch? Or what are your go-to foods?

Days we are away from home, because of obligations (birthdays, tournaments, recitals, helping someone move, visiting relatives, etc): 31-40 Days we are away from home, because I want it: 0-10 It feels like I am constantly trying to have a full weekend at home to do fun stuff and relax, but am always being thwarted. I voted the 0-10.