Me too. And Life of Fred. And IEW. The whole set for HoD's Creation to Christ. I'm ready to start planning for next year. I also really want an old, old copy of Handbook of Nature Study. The green cloth hardbound one. I found it online I just haven't pulled the trigger for it and never mentioned it to DH.

Well, last night my oven decided to go on "broil" instead of preheating, and it blew out the controls and then we couldn't turn it off! We had to throw the breaker. So here I am at 5 days before Christmas not sure if I can plan to have my oven..... If I don't, I guess I'll go cook at my MIL's and that will change the menu. She has a super small kitchen. I'd like to have : Beef tenderloin, roasted asparagus w/gorgonzola, tomato pie, hasselback potatoes, pear/pineapple salad, and croissants. With a Pecan Pie for dessert. If I have to cook at my MIL's I will pre-make a lovely lasagna that I can throw in the oven that day at her house.

Saints vs Cowboys tonight. That is all! :thumbup: :cheers2: :party:

I'm jealous when I'm snuggled in my house and looking out the window. But if I had to get out and drive in it to run errands to the grocery store, library, dry cleaners, not to mention a daily commute, well...not so much. So for today I will enjoy your view and *sigh*.:)

Wow. What a huge problem this is. My DH is a big time snorer too, and I have a couple of strategies. One is making sure we have a fan on for white noise. The other is that I take 3 Benadryl each night to make me more sleepy. I tend to be an insomniac and will lay there tossing and turning if I don't have some help. It helps me be sleepy enough to fall asleep even if he's snoring. Sorry, Joanne, this idea probably won't help you if you are BFing. I know a lot of people are opposed to the idea of meds, but it's the only thing that has helped! I am going to get some earplugs and try that too. I tried them once and couldn't stand the feel of them and didn't try again. Hope you can find a solution Joanne! Between baby and Dh I am yawning for you!!!

It was a tough experience for me too. I did okay with part-time, but when I was full time I felt like my home was a prison. I had no idea the isolation would get to me so much, especially with so many littles around. Part-time is good, especially if you do MWF because then you have a day in between. Most preschools in my area are 4 hours, so if you expect to compete you'd have to be around that price. You'd also have to have firm rules. Would you want them all the same age? If so, what about potty training. You should have your rules in place. I found several preschools/home daycares in my area and copied a lot of their rules. The parents WILL expect you to make an exception but you will have to be firm - especially on payment and hours. Remember that it's stressful. It will take a toll on you and your ability to have much left over to give your own kids. With all the chaos and noise I almost never got any school done with my older dd, so I had to work her schedule around that. All that said, it's a great way for a SAHM to make some money. There will ALWAYS be a need for childcare!

Love Liberty School Cab Sav and J.Lohr has been my fav vineyard since I started to have wine - 20 years!! I adore their Gewurtstraminer (sp?) My favorite splurge right now is La Crema Pinot Noir. Oh! :tongue_smilie: It's like butta. It's also about $17 a bottle, so I don't have it often. For cheap but good I like Red Truck and even Yellow Tail reds. Very good and not more than $6 a bottle.

It's very hard. My in-laws are pretty much my responsibility since my DH works (and he's and only child). We've been through so much with them. What I do for them absolutely pales in comparison for what my MIL does for my FIL. She is so selfless and giving and caring of him. She cleans up his accidents and helps him shower. He's basically a 240lb infant. I see that the end of her being able to do all this is near and I am in a bit of a panic about the future for them. They are retired school teachers on a fixed income with supposedly no access to Medicare. What is so heartbreaking is when they claim "I refuse to go to a nursing home!!!" Ok, so the burden you have now placed on your caregivers is too much to bear. Of course, I don't think they mean it that way. I had no idea what this was going to be like when we moved them here to be near us. I will face this for the next 10 years with them, and then comes my mom and step-dad. It's not like children where you can look forward to their growing independence. It's the opposite and can be very bleak at times. :grouphug: Also to all of you in my boat. I hope you have a very Merry Christmas with your loved ones!

bump:lurk5:

My mom bought my dress for me. She was in NY in the garment district and we had been talking about the styles I liked. She called me in my dorm room to ask if I was okay with her buying it for me. She insisted that if I didn't like it, we'd just sell it and I could still get my own. I loved it! It's still "preserved" in the box and we keep moving it and hanging on to it. Why? It seems so pointless! My wedding was in 1988 and I can't imagine a circumstance where my dd will want to wear it. It's so hopelessly 80's! I want her to NOT have that pressure. But I guess it would make me sad to just throw it away. I actually like the idea of donating it to a drama department. Somewhere in a box I do still have my garter and shoes and handkerchief. And I have the cake servers that my mom and dad used - those were engraved on one side with their names and date, and on the other with ours. So it's not like I don't have any keepsakes for my dd. Besides, my dd is such a fashion diva I can see us making a trip to Kleinfeld's in NY and her having to have a $5000 dress. She had better start saving now!!

I'm reading it was initially thought to be a gall stone, but it was actually preeclampsia. This is not a condition that is caused by having too many children too close together. Unfortunately for her though, the likelyhood of her getting it again with a subsequent pregnancy is far greater now. I will be praying for their family and this precious new baby. My son was born at 29 weeks weighing 2.3 lbs, due to the same condition, so I know how scary it can be.

Lisa, I have not yet read Pillars. It's on my bookshelf right now. It's just so huge that it's intimidating me. I'm just worried I don't have that kind of time! I'm one of those people that can read until 4am if a book is good enough. I have to force myself to stop reading. I also have A Suitable Boy and am intimidated by that one too!:001_huh: Happy reading!!! BTW, most, if not all, of my suggestions are at my library. Can you try that route? I know I'd never be able to afford to read 1/2 as much as I do without the library!

Ok, now I have an idea of what you'd like. I also loved Guernsey Literary. I just finished Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir - it's about the life and reign of Lady Jane Grey. I LOVED it. It's a fiction book, but the author is a well known non-fiction historical writer and so I felt like the book was accurate. I've just begun The Illuminator. Set in feudal 1300's England. I'm an Anglophile through and through. So far it's quite good. I also recently read The Book of Splendor, very, very good. And People of the Book - excellent about an ancient Jewish book through generations. I am still waiting for The Thirteenth Tale from the library, it's supposed to be excellent, about an author who makes up her life story several times. One I just picked up at the library today is Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Vanora Bennett. Had to get it as it came in off hold and I might just drop The Illuminator to start it! Also on my list to read: (I keep a list to look for books when I go to the library) The Hummingbird's Daughter - about 1800s Mexico Beneath a Marble Sky - about the Taj Mahal Lavinia - by Ursula LeGuin, about Troy and Rome Blood of Flowers - about 17th c Iran Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - about WWII Japanese Americans Gift of Rain - abt China When we were Gods - abt Cleopatra HTH!:D

Can you enlighten a little more on genre and type of book you like? Obviously I know about Confederacy of Dunces, but not the others and thought it would save a look-up and be more accurate if you describe what you like. :D

All I can offer are prayers. From Psalm 119: 76-77 and 81 76Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant. 77Let your mercy come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight. 81My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word. :grouphug:

I love it! What a great little man you have there!:001_wub:

My dd doesn't seem to care about eye and skin color. For her it's all about the clothes. Gotta look fabulous baby! ;) I have dark eyes and auburn hair and always wished for flaming red hair and emerald green eyes. Wasn't that the heroine from Lion of Ireland? I read that in my early teens and I'm pretty sure that's where that wish came from! My dd had very "bleh" eyes for a long time and to be honest I was kind of worried about it. Take my dark brown and mix in dh's stormy grey/blue and you get...mud. But by 5yo old or so they have turned into the loveliest hazel and they are just like her grandmother. :D

I'm in too! I have to take off and get my hair cut this morning, so we will postpone school until I get back, and even then we may have to have a "light day". I have a house to clean and decorate, errands to run (dog to groomer, library, WalMart, and so on and so on and so on). DH's office party is tomorrow night, and my MNO is at my house on Saturday night. So my house has to be clean and decorated by then. We leave on Monday for a week and a half in California with my parents so I have to, HAVE TO, get some things done today!!!! You didn't need to hear all that, but since my husband doesn't seem to notice all that I have to do, I thought I needed to tell someone!;) Today I will put away all the folded laundry, and finish decorating, and clean up clutter so that tomorrow I can deep clean the living/dining/kitchen/family rooms. Oh, and while I decorate I will be cooking. I have some things I need to cook and share with a family in need and also freeze for my DH while we're gone. Time to get off line and get a move on!:auto:

I'm not sure what others consider p0rn, but I usually think of anything that explicitly shows men or women involved in s*x acts. But I do have to agree with you, the pictures you mentioned if in a certain context would seem to me to be p0rn. In my mine I think context matters most. I am not bothered by underwear ads, but then again I don't want my husband to stare at them. If I get an ad for pretty nighties or bras, it makes me think - oh, maybe I should get something like that for me to wear for dh. Or it can often make me think - oh, I wish I would look like her in that. So for me those ads are negative in a different sort of way. Our society in general is WAY over-s*xualized. These things never used to bother me that much, but now as the mom of a daughter that likes fashion, I am worried for her self-image. We walked by a full size picture of Miley Cyrus in WalMart the other day with a "come hither" expression, booKs pushed up, cleavage, and a micro-mini skirt that would certainly show her hoo-ha had she sat down. I was appalled. If that was a 25 year old model I might not have even noticed, but SHE'S 16!!!!!!! I'm sporadically on a weight-loss forum where they will use pin-up girls to represent their new selves. Sometimes it's too much. But having a sig line with men in it is way too much. I'm not sure I understand why a woman would have that.:confused:

We're using CLA LA and I love it, and so does dd 9 (4th gr). I add in Just Write and Megawords a couple of times a week for extra practice. We also do DITHOR and really, really love it. Oh, and the oodles of books too. So she does one book and follows a reading plan and assignments for DITHOR, but also free reads many, many more books.

I will say, that's a new one: "Homeschooling Motivation #37: Your children make great slaves! Get all your housework done!!":confused: Sorry you had to endure that. It's just stupid and ignorant to even think such things, let alone allow them to come out of your mouth...er, hands typing. I would venture a guess that these women would NEVER say such a thing to your face, much less had they really met you and had a relationship with you. Steer clear! Love the ones you're with here at the hive!!:D

:iagree:My new mantra! I will add "... and can't afford anyway." :lol:

Is this a "picky eater" friendly thing? If so, where O where can I find the recipe?:D

What an awesome "one stop shop" for all kinds of ideas. I love the idea of "Christmas School" too. I'm going to mull that over tonight. It might just work since we are going on a vacation from the 7th - 15th and will be off anyways... Just today I got all my supplies for the Advent wreath candle holder. I was easily able to find the purple and pink candles, but as that seems Catholic, I'm not sure I will use them. We're not. I guess it's fine though. Maybe all white or something. Anyways, thanks for sharing!

Terri! I kept trying to figure out how to get ahold of you. So glad baby is still safe inside! Happy Thanksgiving!