I like catching up with old friends. For me, though, one of the big positives is that you can post pictures in a way you can't do if you simply email.

You know, reading previous threads, I think most of us here get annoyed with, but pretty much ignore the "urban legend" emails that we get. Normally, I delete those before I even open them. However, I've received several emails lately, from well-meaning friends, that are of a political nature. They highlight aspects of various candidates' lives or past history, or mannerisms or whatever, and use that as a basis of why we should/shouldn't vote for them. My friends are often angry, hostile, or upset about the information. I can let it slide when it's something along the lines of "fund this terminally ill child's trip to Disneyland". It usually takes less than a minute to look up the information on Snopes.com and see if it is true or not. (I'm trusting Snopes, and maybe I shouldn't be?) I wonder why more people don't do this. The political ones really grieve me because as citizens of the U.S.A. we are tasked with electing our leaders, and it would seem that many people make these choices based on false information, without checking out the facts. If I have the information that something is not true, then I feel it's my responsibility to give that information to the person who sent me the inaccurate information, but I always feel like the bad guy when I do this.

The Total Money Makeover gives you all the information you need without having to purchase anything else.

Well, I suppose that means I spend more time car shopping with my dh than...:glare: b/c I knew right away what she meant, lol. Congrats! They are such cute little cars. :001_smile: I love my Prius, but if we ever get to ditch our minivan, I would seriously consider a Vibe. I like body style of yours better than the brand new ones.

Our family is dealing with this right now. Sil's dh passed away last week. I actually felt a bit angry b/c even though she knew he wanted to be cremated, she was conflicted because her father (my fil) had always taught them the Bible taught against cremation. I saw her really struggling, but she didn't even know where the Bible supposedly said that. (Our family is not LDS. Dh and his siblings were raised Foursquare .) I felt like it was an unfair burden for her to have to deal with during an already difficult time. Honestly? Since it seems to be a generational thing, I think it was something purported by funeral home directors in the early and mid 20th Century to drum up more business for expensive caskets, as more people were opting for cremation. I went with sil to the funeral home. I saw the over-the-top caskets you can buy. I about flipped at the panel you can buy that goes inside the top lid with a cheesy nature picture on it. $155! Sil did choose cremation for her dh, has said she doesn't want it hersefl.

I'm constantly working on losing weight, but finally making some headway. The older I get, the more I care about how I look, but the less I care what others (except dh) think, if that makes sense. I do notice, however, that when I try to look decent--put on a little makeup, clean jeans and anything except a t-shirt or sweatshirt, I feel horribly overdressed on the soccer field. Around here, standard non-work dress seems to be tank tops, short and flip-flops. In the winter, you still see a lot of flip flops, only with sweats instead of shorts.

I have been trying to dress nicer since I got elected to City Council. I don't think the sweats and/or hs mom jumpers do it anymore when I'm out in public, lol. I have recently discovered Ann Taylor Loft and it is my new favorite clothing store. Most of the time, on a normal day, I will wear nice (not faded) Lee jeans, and a button-down shirt, or a knit shirt and a jacket of some sort. I have a couple of nice denim jackets that can go dressy or casual. Sometimes, I wear a casual skirt and a similar top that I wear with jeans. Ross Dress For Less is across the street from my ds' school, so I do a quick perusal there a couple times a month. When I'm at the mall (not very often) I will walk through Nordstroms and get ideas for outfits, but I don't shop there very much.

I'm a lot like you, too. Now that I meet a lot of people through my political dealings I sometimes think it's worse! I am learning to relax and make converstaion. At the moment, it always seems to go well, but like you, later on I over-analyze the whole thing. I don't know how old you are, but each year since I turned 40-I'm almost 42-it gets easier, and I stress a lot less about those social situations.

In addition to many of the other things mentioned (prayer is #1 on my list), my suggestion is to find some twaddle and read it while taking a long, hot bath. It should be nothing that makes you think too hard, even a magazine from the grocery store that catches your eye in line (although I get all my magazines from the free exchange at the library). I like Reader's Digest. I can read the "Laughter" sections and for a brief few minutes, be removed from the chaos around me.

Your post brought back great memories for me! I used to make "edible play dough" for my boys when they were young. I just asked my 15yo if he remembered it, and of course he replied that he remembered eating it, but not playing with it, lol. :001_smile:

I'm on Weight Watchers. I started in June. I'm hoping that I'll reach my 10# loss at weigh in this week (yes, that's 4 MONTHS to lose 10#). To be fair, though, in the past 2 months I've had 2 minor surgeries that have kept me from being able to exercise at all for several weeks. Since I started exercising again, I am seeing a difference. I try to go on the elliptical trainer 30 min at least 3 times a week, with walks and/or bike rides on the alternate days. I do Wii Fit a couple of times a week, and use hand weights 2-3 times a week for about 15 minutes. I like Weight Watchers. I find it's very easy to work into a regular life, and it doesn't feel like a diet per se. I did try it online, but find it's easier for me when I attend the meetings.

I cook mostly from scratch. My must-have appliance is my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I also use my Pampered Chef food chopper a lot. Not a must-have, but I recently got a Magic Bullet and really like it. If I didn't have it, I would suggest a blender. Other helpful items are: rotary egg beater good set of knives good set of stainless steeel pans good quality vegetable peeler large glass mixing bowls counter-top electric griddle I have a food processor and I never use it! With my little manual food chopper and Henkle knife set, I find the hassle of dragging out my fp and the clean up afterward to be more work than it's worth.

I'll give you some suggestions, but I'm watching this thread as well. Since my life is a bit busier these days, and I'm not at home as much, the cook-ahead thing is starting to look very appetizing-pun intended. I do a lot of beans and rice. One of my 30 day cookbooks has a recipe for "Taco Rice". I won't post the recipe per se, b/c the general idea works. Basically, it's ground beef (you can omit it), cooked brown rice, beans (either canned or some that you've cooked from dried), cheese (again, you can leave out), tomatoes, and taco seasoning(s). You could also add corn, chiles, onions, etc. I make up a huge batch of this and freeze it in meal size portions. It can be used to make tacos, burritos, enchaladas, taco salad, casseroles, ad naseum! There really is a lot you can do with legumes. I like Middle Eastern and Indian food, and it is so easy. Oftentimes, I will cook up a pot of garbanzo beans and onions, add some curry seasoning, maybe some dried fruit like apricots or cranberries, and we eat that on a flatbread. It is very easy, and very healthy. Split pea soup is a very easy crockpot meal. As for produce, for awhile I got home delivery of organic produce from Spud. On their website, each item's origin is listed, so I could use that information when choosing my weekly items. It's helped me over the years to change my idea of convenience food. Instead of Hamburger Helper or frozen pizza, it is things like canned beans (as oppsed to dried) and pre-ground flour.

Hmmm...... I have been to many political functions in the past year or so. Just from observation, the Democrats seem to be the wine snobs. A large majority of the Republicans I know don't drink at all. Go figure.

We used Character Sketches for family devotionals for awhile when our dc were younger. I don't remember all the details, but we got to one where a litter of, I think, woodchuck babies were put in an oven and the heat was turned up. It was really creepy and weird and dh and I agreed at that point to not use any of that material ever again.

I believe that all children should, by right, be entitled to a good education, be it public or otherwise. I believe that first and foremost, parents have the responsibility to see that their children receive an adequate education, be it public or otherwise. I believe the government has some responsibility in this. In our post-modern society, education is more critical to our society than it was in the past. And citizens, pooling their resources to provide public education is one way for the government to acheive that. I don't think it's unreasonable to fund the system from all citizens, not just those with school-age children. (I would agree, however, that there are some programs that are a waste of taxpayers money. Don't get me started on NCLB.) Unfortunately, I think there are many parents (NOT HOMESCHOOLERS!) who would not ensure their children received much of an education at all if it weren't for compulsory attendance laws. What I would really like to see, though, is a shift in public thinking. I would like to see parents, in general, accept responsibility for their child's education and therefore whatever path they choose is just that-their choice. For example, this year for the first time, both my dc are in public school. That's what dh and I chose for our dc. It was a conscious choice made by us after evaluating all the options. And I think that if parents treated schooling as a commodity, instead of 'that's just what you do'; and expect quality, then it sheds a whole different light on the matter. On the flip side, if ps had the attitude of "We're so glad you chose us :) " then they might see the services they offer in a different light as well. Sorry if this got a little OT. You did ask a very complicated, if not extremely LOADED question.;)

I sold mine on Ebay.:lol::D:lol:

Forgot about that one! I find it rather distrubing that one man has so much control over the s*x lives of so many married couples.

I went through the basic class as an adult. This is my experience, and I mean no disrespect to others who have a positive view of the teachings. I have a lot of issues with some of the teachings, but know a lot of people who follow his teachings to the letter. It goes against my grain to cite stuff that I don't have a direct reference for, and I can't do that b/c I got rid of all the materials. I remember some specific teachings from the seminar that were cause for concern for me. He specifically said that homeschooling is God's plan for educating our dc. (It wasn't "God's plan" when mil and fil attended 25 years prior :glare: .) I moved from home when I was 18 and was pretty much independent from then on. While I loved my parents, I don't regret that decision one bit, and would do the same thing all over again. He teaches that women should live at home until they are married. Frankly, I gave myself a better moral environment than I would have if I would have stayed living at home. Here's the one thate REALLY got me and I saw red flags all over the place. When I my dc were preschool age, and I knew I wanted to homeschool, I knew a lot of people at that time who were using Gothard's homeschool curriculum. I hadn't yet gone to the Basic Seminar, but was doing tons of research on curriculum (like we all do :001_smile: ). I asked several people if I could look at the curriculum and no one would show it to me. Then one person told me that you are not allowed to purchase the curriculum until you've completed not only the Basic, but the Advanced Seminars. I couldn't even look at it! The list goes on. Imo, it goes way beyond basic biblical teaching, especially in terms of children/parents and the husband/wife relationships.

Oh, thank you! I was having a hard time finding this information.

Does anyone know if they are still honoring the lifetime warranty?

Didn't know about the wooden arrow company, however some of our Oregon County Timber payments have been temporarily restored, which imo, is a good thing.

I can't believe the week this has been. It's like a bad soap opera. My sil's dh passed away last night. He was 58. We spent most of the week sitting with her at the hospital. We are very sad, but we are confident her dh is in a better place and at peace. Bil and Bridezilla got married yesterday afternoon. We didn't go to the wedding, opting to stay with sil instead. Dh's friends cancelled the ceremony for their brother who died from the heroin od. They will do it later on. We got the news about sil's dh on Friday that he would not make it. Bil and Bridezilla showed up at the hospital with a "prophet" who wanted to pray to raise him from the dead. (Our nephew diplomatically did not let that happen.) We found out they also tried to do that with our friend's brother 3 days after he died. They said they wanted to pray for him to be raised from the dead like Lazarus. This is frightening to me to say the least. Meanwhile, we have a dear friend who is a funeral director who is helping us with the arrangements. When we spoke with him yesterday, we learned that he was also the director that responded when they found our friend's brother. In the end, we bought bil and Bridezilla a Costco membership as a wedding present. If you think a bit, you'll figure out why we chose that. Thanks for letting me share. This has been an extremely difficult week.

I do get tired of the cheesy, overpriced cr*p that schools and the like use children to peddle. I can get the same stuff at the dollar store and have more leftover to donate to the school if I want. Imo, teachers should be smart enough to see right through the scam! I don't mind the fundraiser my ds' football team does. Each player must addresses a pre-written fundraising letter to 10 people he knows. The school sends the letter and that's it. Whatever cash donations they get all go to the team. Also, once a year, the local high school marching bands go door to door and ask for donations. That doesn't bother me either. I'll give them a dollar or two if I happen to have it, but again, all the money goes straight to the bands.

"One thing that has not changed from my journey from theory parent to actual is that I was NOT GOING TO sweat changeable cosmetic expression. I have one child with a hawk and another son with longish hair. So what?" Joanne, I totally agree with you here. At the moment, both my boys are conservative in their style, and that is their choice. Heck, my younger son looks great with longish hair and I've tried to get him to grow it out several times and he just won't do it. I decided long ago that I wasn't going to sweat stuff like this. Unless someone can show me where it is prohibited in the Bible. I'm certainly not going to let it be a wall between me and my dc. You didn't say it was an explicit rule. If they're going to say, "Conservative dress" they should define it.