If your skin is not dry, you can always try a mineral (powder) foundation. That's pretty low maintenance and it's comfortable to wear IF your skin is not dry. :)

I was the silly kid in the classroom who always got in trouble for giggling. :D hehe :lol: You're so funny. Nah, I never did spit balls. My sense of humor is weirder than standard fare like that. I guess I'm more of a practical joker/mess with people's minds/outright goofy kind of silly girl. hehehe I'm more inclined to, for example, respond when a person asks me, "Did you see such and such movie?" and I answer them by describing the entire movie and asking, "that one?" and they'll say, "yes!" and I'll say, "No. I didn't see it." :lol: It's so funny because sometimes they'll go on to tell me what the movie was about (after I've just described it to them) and tell me I really should go and see it and it never occurs to them that my describing the whole thing to them is because I've already seen it. yeah, I'm a stinker I know, but it makes me laugh. lol Don't even ask me what I did to my poor, dear mother one Thanksgiving when she tried to put the movie into the VCR that we were going to watch. (evil laugh). hehehehe Suffice it to say she didn't know I had the remote control in my hand and she thought the machine was possessed. :lol: :lol:

:lol: hehehehehehe I don't know. Maybe because my sense of humor is so silly?? I was so proud of my lobster joke in this thread too (post #53 if you're curious). It was such a PERFECT set up, but only Karyn thought it was funny. Oh well, at least Karyn and I had a laugh. :D hehehehe

Gack! I just stumbled across this. What the!?!? What in the world was the professor thinking!?!? :ack2: Where is that brain bleach.

ROFL Yep you know it! I once mouthed off to a neighbor of mine when I was little who put me over their knee and spanked me and then marched me home to my mother. When the neighbor told my mom what I had said my mom asked her, "Did you spank her?" The neighbor said, "yes" and my mom thanked her and then spanked me again. lol

:grouphug: That sucks! :mad: For the record, when I was growing up, other people DID smack you upside the head if you were being a jerk. :tongue_smilie:

I see your side as well. I don't know, I just had a different impression when I read the article. But I have to also say that it was very late at night when I read it too so that could have something to do with it. :) All things being equal when comparing caring and involved (to the extent that they are able) non-custodial dads and non-custodial moms I agree that the mom should not be vilified any more than the dad and that would indeed be a double standard. I think it is harder though because one (generally) thinks of the mom as being the more nurturing of the two parents since she is the one who actually carries and births the baby and is typically the comforter, but I agree that that is a generalization and not always the case. There are some dads that are very nurturing and caring with their children just as there are some moms who are emotionally distant and not naturally nurturing. I'm not familiar with the case you are mentioning above. I guess I must have missed it when it was being discussed. I realize that you weren't directing the question directly to me, but since I was responding to your comments I figured I should just reply to all of them. :) I hope your headache feels better. :grouphug: I get migraines sometimes too and they're no fun. :( As far as "who we tend to vilify", I agree that you raised a very good point/question. I think society does kind of "excuse" the father's absence more often than the mother's because it is more prevalent. I do think though that either parent, mom or dad, who chooses to abandon their children though leave wreckage and the kids will have emotional wreckage that they will deal with always. On a personal level I did not know my own father either. He abandoned our family completely when I was 10 months old. I never saw him again. I guess I was lucky since I was so small, but my older brother was devastated. He loved our dad so much and used to get so excited when he would come home from work. He would hang on to his leg and wouldn't let go so that my dad had to walk like that with my brother clinging to his leg. My brother STILL remembers that. He experiences pain that I don't over it and to this day he cannot get too close to anybody. Society may be more willing to overlook a dad leaving than a mom, but to the children who are left, I'd wager it is equally painful. :(

Oh Rhonda I am so sorry. :grouphug: :grouphug: Praying for you and your family and your sister's dh and children. Oh what a sad day. :crying: :(

:grouphug: :grouphug: Thank you ladies so much for being so willing to help and to be open about sharing your experiences with me. I really really appreciate it. :grouphug: You've given me a good direction to start my research. Thank you so much. :) May I ask why you took your son off the meds?? Thanks. :)

Wow!! That is such tremendous news! To think of how far he's come since the doctor's first prognosis to now. It's miraculous! :) I'm so so happy. :)

:lol: :lol: hehehe Ideally it should match your your neck so that once it's on it looks seamless. You really don't want a visible line of demarcation between where your moisturizer ends and where your neck begins, kwim? A tinted moisturizer is just what it says. It's mainly a moisturizer with a little bit of color. The coverage is typically pretty light (although this varies depending on which tinted moisturizer you choose) which makes them comfortable to wear, but make no mistake it does have a color so you want it to match your natural skin tone. Does that make sense?

Oh Kari. :grouphug: :grouphug: I'm so sorry. :(

I will clarify what I meant. :) First off, I was referring to the first mom not the second in the article and I was quoting a comment from the comments section after the article that I thought made a good point. That was the gist of my post. The part of the article that made me think the commenter after the article was spot on was this one.... "In my part-time motherhood, I get concentrated blocks of time when I can be that 1950s mother we idealize who was waiting in an apron with fresh cookies when we got off the school bus and wasn't too busy for anything we needed until we went to bed." It was that "we idealize" part that made me think that it was a role that she felt she needed to play rather than just be herself, kwim? As if she put a pressure upon herself to be a person she really wasn't in order to be a "proper mom". That is how I interpreted her comments anyway. As far as non-custodial dads and step-moms I wasn't talking about them at all. I was talking specifically about this one part-time mother and what I read as her feeling a pressure to be a 1950's mom. It seemed to me that it was as if she felt she had to be this certain persona in order to be a "good mom" and since she couldn't do it she quit. For the record, I personally know many non-custodial dads and step moms who are doing a stellar job parenting and who love and cherish their children whether step or biological. I wasn't speaking about them at all in my prior remarks. I also very much agree with Ester Maria's comments about it being better for the mom to leave as the lesser of evils if she knows she cannot cope being a mother and knows in her heart that she will do more harm than good. I didn't however get the impression from this article that this was the case with this mom. But that is only my opinion. I don't know the woman and only have this article to base my opinion on so take it for whatever it's worth.

When I was talking about the "glow" I was referring to the effects of the Aveeno Positively Radiant moisturizer. It has skin brightening ingredients in it that really make your face look healthy and lovely. I just use the regular moisturizer though. It will just add a healthy glow anywhere you put it on your face. I haven't tried their tinted ones so I can't comment on those. I usually squeeze one pump of that out onto my fingers and add 1-3 drops of my liquid foundation and then just rub my fingers together to mix them and then just apply it to my face with my fingers. When it all sinks it it just looks like really nice healthy skin. :) The foundation should match your natural skin tone so if your skin is indeed pinkish then yes you should get a foundation to match your skin so that it looks natural when applied and matches your neck, but it should look like your skin only more flawless and even toned. Blush is just to add color to your face and accent your cheek bones. :) You can use cremes or powders whichever you prefer. :)

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: I am so so sorry. That is so hard. :( :crying:

Oh my gosh, Jean! I had no idea. I'm so so sorry! :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: For the record, I would agree that you are indeed a VERY strong woman. :grouphug:

This would be me and dh with our children. I'm not a single parent, but both of my children are on the Autism spectrum. It is SO FREAKING HARD, but we have to do it. There's no alternative. I love them to death and I've learned to laugh A LOT in order to not be crying all the time, but I don't think people who know me, who have typical kids, really have any clue how difficult our situation really is.

You see, that was the thing for me with the article. She wasn't totally present when she was with them, she was role playing. The kids don't really ever get to see their "real" mother.

1. Yes, I'd have a problem with it too. 2. Non-denominational Evangelical Protestant 3. I would try to talk to the youth pastor about it, but I wouldn't let my kids attend that youth group if that was how things were run.

:iagree::iagree: Me too. Why is it that the children always suffer for the sins of the parents? :( :crying:

The response article was hilarious!! :lol::lol: I loved these.... "My kids are fine. You may not think so, but you are wrong. Confused yet? You are still wrong." "Who needs guidance? Stepping in to intervene and teach my kid the joys of sharing will only lead to further parenting later on. " "Polite is for fancy schmancy society and it's more important that a child's ego does not get bruised because you force a "thank you" when handing him a strip of organic soy jerky. My husband and I practice "please" and "thank you", and we hope that in time, perhaps by middle school our children will copy us exactly without being forced to do so. When I want my husband to help out with the dishes, asking, "Would you please mind terribly getting up off your ass and cleaning up this mess, thank you" we are modeling manners." "I have heard through my homing pigeons that there are people out their that force children to conform to society or start on the path to adulthood. What they don't realize is that they are laying a path for future foundational independence. "

:iagree::iagree: I read this in the comments section after the article and thought the poster was spot on. "All you are giving your child is an IDEAL. You don't give them a relationship with the real you, you pretend to be this Mother person with a capitol M and a special attitude. The rest of your life you are the real you, but when you interface with your kids you become Mother. No emotional intimacy No emotional connection No vulnerability How is a child going to grow up and make real connections to other people when they were never allowed to make a connection to their mother? They will think that the appropriate way to treat other people is to play a role. It's unhealthy."

It really is. :) For Easter I'm going to do a lot of Old School type hymns. I know a lot of them will be new to the kids, but the nursing home residents will know them and I love it when they sing along. Their little faces beaming and hearing their elderly voices singing along with ours is just awesome! :)

That's awesome! :grouphug: I sometimes go with my class (I teach a group of girls at church) to nursing homes and we sing and play for them. It's fun. The girls love it too. We're going back for Easter. :)

I play cello, bass, guitar and was teaching myself piano, but haven't done it in awhile. I mostly play guitar these days. I would like to learn drums as well. I tinker a lot and sometimes play around with recording equipment. If I could play drums then I could lay all the parts of the tracks myself and that would be fun. Beat boxes are nice, but they sound like beat boxes, kwim?