I've cooked a frozen pizza with the cardboard still under it a few times. I manage to cook a roast with that juice-absorbing paper/plastic pad underneath it about once a year. I really need to be better about checking under things.

Have other family members had a bug lately? Sometimes I get that strong weakness/fatigue when a cold or flu spreads through the household. I remain asymptomatic for the common symptoms, but I can definitely tell that my body is fighting something. It can last for days.

I want to thank everyone who replied. Ds and I talked about our respective feelings, we're attempting to connect more outside of the school hours, and the last few days have been much better.

Oh yeah, dh has learned to do many car repairs this way. Buy yourself a repair manual for your particular make/model/year, learn from videos, save a TON of money.

Aldi... No cable tv. Become a homebody. Cook meals at home. Shop the loss-leaders in the grocery ads and try to buy regular priced items only when absolutely necessary. When a staple goes down to its lowest price, stock up for as long as you can. For instance, the better brands of butter always go to $1.50-$2/lb somewhere at Thanksgiving time and again at Easter. I try to buy enough butter in November to last until March/April, and enough in March/April to last until November again. Keep the alcohol to a minimum or cut it out entirely. Slickdeals, but only if you have good self-control. I like using Slickdeals alerts. camelcamelcamel price watches. Buy seasonal closeouts/clearance for the kids ahead of when they'll need them (sometimes this doesn't work though, for instance I bought size 14's long ago for my son who needs 14 husky's instead. Not a big deal, though, because they will be available for the next boy in a few years). Store hand-me-downs. Plan to catch other useful, predictable seasonal discounts/clearance (i.e. hams after Christmas, fresh lamb after Easter, Target toy clearance) For larger items, like furniture, bicycles, that kind of thing, I watch local garage sale ads and I've been known to haggle. I don't mind buying used if it is good quality and taken care of. If you go in the last hours of a garage sale, most people are looking at all their remaining stuff with dread and they will deal deeply to get rid of it (of course, the useful stuff may be gone by then). The most amazing deal I ever got was at a garage sale that only had an hour left. Similarly, you may be able to score great bargains at local farmer's markets on the last hours of the last day of the season. It isn't advertised but it never hurts to ask. I have gotten flats full of tomatoes and peppers for a steal and canned quite a few jars from them. Always keep the credit card bill paid off on time every month. I wholeheartedly agree about home repair. I'm so lucky to have a very handy dh!

Would you please expand on this post? What led you to reject just about everything that WAPF recommends?

I tried eating the WAP way over ten years ago, after reading Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. It was too much work, too expensive, and other stuff (like getting mildly ill from raw milk once). I fell off the wagon... However, I still have/use my copy of Nourishing Traditions, and I have to credit the WAP people for introducing me to some amazing foods and recipes I might never have discovered otherwise. They also lead me to other health-related rabbit holes that had a lasting influence on me.

Getting a taste of my own medicine, for all the times that I made my own mother's life a living H and could not have cared less. She'd be in tears and say, "Someday, when you have your own kids..." It's hard when anyone (let alone my child) says point blank that they don't like or care about me, and when they act like it's a normal day after they've said these snide words that could pierce the hardest heart. I wonder if these are his true feelings that he's kept bottled up for a long time. Did I think I knew him, when I didn't know him? Is our relationship that bad? It feels like a blast of cold wind. I'm trying to tell myself that I was very selfish and callous once and my sense of empathy slowly grew over time. I'm telling myself that I'm not his friend, I'm his parent, and it's time to pick myself back up and press on because that's love, and love doesn't demand to be reciprocated. I know I'm not an easy person to love, anyway. He mentions that maybe he should go back to public school, but I know that won't fix whatever underlying issue is between us. It would be giving up and not loving to do so, because I am certain that the school here isn't serving his needs. I can't help feeling kind of depressed, today. It would help to hear from other parents who have been here.

If they're cut now, you should be able to tell if the cut edge will fray. I would cut about an inch below your hem line, finish the bottom edge with an overlock or zigzag and hand sew a single fold hem. In general, I would be hesitant to wear a garment with a raw cut hem to a formal event (but that's just me).

The little boy sprinkled sodium chloride on the slug. The slug cried out, "That's a salt!!"

Yeah, I wasn't talking about anything organized, or having much, if any, advance warning that someone was coming. Just having a home that is open, whether that means a neighbor kid who wants to come in and pet the dog and could he use your bathroom and eat a cookie out of the jar while he's at it (and the next time he's gonna show up with two friends and his little brother!). Issuing an invitation to the adjoining neighbors to stop in for morning coffee sometime. Cousin Joe who you haven't seen in several years is passing through on his way to Florida and it sure would help him out if his family could crash at your place tonight, would you mind? Am I coming across as judgmental? I mean, I'm pretty anti-hospitable myself. I am amazed at the freedom I had as a child and I am keenly aware of how it could have gone terribly wrong on so many occasions, had there been a predator among my neighbors. That alone makes me hover over my kids more than I probably should.

Spinning off of Homeschool Things You Don't Get [...]. I think that this post by Homeschool Mom in AZ is worth its own thread (emphasis by me). A little personal background... My parents each had a lot of siblings and I had oodles of cousins, just a huge extended family growing up. A very traditional Polish family on both sides, living in the American Midwest (my parents were both 3rd generation). We lived a few hours away from the main conglomeration, semi-isolated, but were constantly hosting family or going up there to visit or attend a wedding or a funeral and being hosted by a relative (or several). Hospitality was all I knew-- though only a handful of my relatives were better off than lower middle class: houses were small, furnishings were run-down, linens were old and stained, but clean, mattresses were hard... Dining tables in cramped kitchens could seat four but eight of us pulled up extra chairs to play a game of rummy, right? A meal would involve breaking out the tv trays and setting them next to any possible seat, including the beds in the bedrooms, while the kids sat on the floor with their plates around the low coffee table. In my immediate neighborhood (also lower middle class), many houses were open and welcoming to drop-in visitors. We kids would go over for a snack at X's house, followed by playing with the new litter of kittens at Y's house, and then Mom wants me to take this sack of cucumbers from the garden over to Z who lives a block away and can't get around very well anymore, and I know she's going to want to invite me in and talk for a few minutes, because she is lonely... My mom put a very high priority on keeping our house neat and tidy at all times (visitors still stressed her out though she hid it well), but most of these other houses I mention were not up to her standard and quite a few were downright dirty. Some people were indoor chain smokers and there seemed to be a constant haze in the air and many years' worth of built-up residue on all the furnishings and floors. That didn't phase us kids much and the hosts certainly didn't seem to mind. Any yards without an unscalable fence were a free-for-all. So far, the neighborhood we live in now is closest to what I had growing up. Lots of kids playing everywhere, in the street, in yards; boundaries are loose. The day we moved in here there were children at the door wanting to meet my sons and play. The neighbors are all very nice and we often greet each other in the street. Even here, I feel reluctant to invite people into my own home, or to enter another person's home informally (note: I am a huge introvert and am sure that's a part of it). I do feel that there is a general societal shift. Is there more pressure now to have a clean, uncluttered HGTV-worthy house? Perhaps we as a nation are more self-isolating than we used to be, for various reasons. After all, in every neighborhood we have lived in since getting married (we've mostly rented and moved a lot), this is the very first one where a good amount of our neighbors actually made an effort to meet us and keep up a more-than-cursory-relationship over the years. Is there an ingrained fear borne from all the horror stories and missing children safety campaigns that became a public obsession after the free-range childhood that my peers and I enjoyed (my kids may not be safe in another's house, other parents may fear their children coming into my house)? How about you? Is your neighborhood open and hospitable? Do you tend to keep your house open or closed to drop-in visitors? Perhaps the house has to first meet a certain standard for visitors? Is it uncomfortable to accept hospitality in a cluttered, dusty, small, etc, house? How well do you need to know someone before you feel comfortable letting your child into their home alone? Do you feel a shift in America's character in both offering and accepting hospitality? For those who live elsewhere, what does hospitality in your area look like today, and has it changed over the years?

Who's doing school today? The older boys promised to go out and get some significant "phys ed" in exchange for taking the day off. Of course that meant they putzed around in pajamas all morning until noon, when I basically forced them to eat something and head out the door (with much rolling of the eyes and gnashing of the teeth). All of a sudden I find myself strongly craving the company of adults :seeya: It's ok, though, because Packers. And Steelers. :thumbup: Who still needs to figure out menus for the week? I'm good for this week. Lots of leftovers in the fridge from cooking over the weekend and a huge turkey is thawing for Thursday. Anyone doing anything special today? Dh is working, so it's not a family day. Ds12 doesn't have scouts tonight (no school, no scouts). I suppose the kids and I could fit in a board game if we are still getting along by then...

Hachi Black Beauty (1994) ETA: Toy Story 3, Up

Smells that remind me of the house I grew up in: Lilac blossoms Lily of the Valley blossoms The chemical smell of a perm (my mom did hers at home; it was so strong to be forever imprinted in my brain) Old Spice Lava soap Mom's chicken soup recipe. One of the best scents in the world!

I assume that anything resembling norovirus is likely to be norovirus... and act accordingly! It's the most common cause of stomach flu, after all.

With something like norovirus, we keep the affected person separated from others as much as possible for 24 hours after symptoms resolve. Then they are allowed out in the common areas but must be extra diligent with hand washing, not share food, not pick up the baby, etc. for a day or two longer. Every time we get it we feel like we are going to die, so dh and I are highly motivated to stop the spread (same goes for influenza).

For many years, my hair has been at chin length or a pixie cut. Now I've almost grown it out long enough to braid it again. When I was a teen/young adult, I had waist-long hair that I would braid often (french braids, princess braids, ponytail braids, dutch braids, milkmaid braids, rope braids...). I can't remember the last time I saw a (caucasian) woman over 30 with braided hair (I mean locally, not a celebrity), who wasn't my own sister. :p Is there a cut-off age for braids? Are some braid styles outdated but not others? There is an elderly lady at church who always has her silver hair pulled up into a neat french twist. To me it looks very elegant, but perhaps it looks dated to others? I haven't seen anyone else in my community, young or old, wear a french twist for many years besides that one woman (not counting weddings). Honestly it just seems that updos of any sort are rarely found on everyday middle-age+ women here, with the exception of ponytails.

Not being listened to, in a "Who's on First" kind of way. Or like the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail with the guards and the prince. Happens. Every. Day. It drives me bonkers. Today's example: ds12: "I can have three pieces of chocolate for dessert, right?" (from the box of various sized assorted chocolates) me: "Maybe. It depends on how large they are." ds: "This one looks good." me: "That's the biggest one in the box. You can only choose one more to go with it." ds looks at the box for a minute. "Ok, I want that one and these two." me: "I JUST TOLD you that you can only have one more piece with that big one." ds: "What? You said I could have three!" and round and round we go. ETA: I'm with the previous posters on kids' runny noses, but it bothers me so much more when adults wipe their noses with their fingers or cough into their hands and then proceed to touch everything. Or worse, they'll do it and then reach out for a handshake (thinking of a church setting, giving peace).

It sounds like you and I have somewhat similar body types. Do you have a long neck? The combo of wide shoulders/long neck/small bust is perfect for high collars like turtlenecks, stand up collars, mandarin collars. Collared sleeveless tanks work well for me in summer. This is another reason why you might try to learn to like scarves wrapped high around the neck/collarbone. You might like poking around the Already Pretty blog. Sally has a shape that is close to mine, albeit with a bigger bust. I linked to page 42 of her outfits, because I don't love her style now as much as I used to (she sticks to dark colors now when she used to play with bright colors, and she used to wear dresses/skirts more often. I am a skirt girl). You'll see a lot of variety in things you can do if you go backwards in time from the page I linked.

Anyone else been looking at this? Addendum guidelines for the prevention of peanut allergy in the United States: Report of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases–sponsored expert panelThe very rough summary is that peanut-containing foods should be introduced to babies as young as 4 months, with earlier introduction to babies who show signs of other allergies. My family does not have a history of peanut/tree nut allergies, but dh has allergies to other foods as well as animals with fur and feathers, I have reactions to some detergents, and three of our children have had mild eczema since they were babies. This panel considers eczema in infancy as a risk factor for peanut allergy. Given the new recommendations to introduce peanut-containing foods early as a prevention strategy, I wonder if my daily peanut butter (and other nuts) consumption has helped to prevent peanut allergy in my children (mainly exposure through breast milk). I loooove nuts and they make up a significant part of my diet. I don't give nut-containing foods directly to my infants or toddlers, but I know that there must be constant exposure to traces being spread around by those of us who are often eating or cooking with nuts. I once had a peanut-allergic acquaintance who collapsed and ended up in a coma for two weeks just from smelling peanut proteins in her son's hair as he was sitting in her lap (he had been playing in a gymnasium where peanut butter was being served from a large tub). All of her lactating connections (including me) were asked to pump milk for her young baby during that time. Thankfully she had a complete recovery and she managed to fully relactate. I'll never forget that...

No, I don't wear makeup every day. Once a week for church if you are lucky (usually only for the Masses that I am cantoring. Being in somewhat of a performance role in front of a crowd makes me feel more pressure to wear it). I have a sister who I feel is unhealthily dependent on makeup. For many years, she would be incapable of leaving her house without a full face on (that took 45 min to apply... A lot of makeup). Over time It has gotten better in terms of the amount of makeup she needs to put on to feel comfortable, but wearing it is still absolutely non-negotiable. If you ask her to go without just to run some small errand or answer the door for the UPS guy or something, she will come down on you like a ton of bricks. I have only seen her a handful of times with a completely bare face, and she apologizes for it every time. I think her relationship with makeup has influenced my distaste for it.

I am more conservative in religion than the rest of my immediate family, with the possible exception of my dad. Faith has always been a big part of his life but he mostly keeps it to himself and doesn't rock any boats. Politically I am more conservative with some issues and more liberal with others. (ETA: this is how I am now, but when I was young and rebellious I was definitely not straight-laced compared to them.) Dh is more conservative than his family in all respects, I think. They just don't communicate much beyond small-talk, so it is hard to know for sure.