Thanks! There are some great ideas here! The condo we're staying in this time will have a full kitchen. I'm definitely going with some crockpot ideas! I don't feel like it's much of a vacation if I have to think about food/cooking too much.

When you travel and stay in a condo or hotel with a kitchenette- what is your favorite, easy things to eat? We're traveling with family and sometimes it's easier to stay in and eat, when you've spent all day doing touristy things. Suggestions?

Maybe try local Facebook marketplace pages? I'm a member of several and lots of things sell quickly. I'd try that and then maybe get a friend who does eBay frequently and pay her to sell them?

I loved these as a kid too!

I loved the Elizabeth Gail series as a kid. It wasn't old fashioned then; but kids now might think it is! Certainly before computers/etc. It's about a young girl who is adopted into a Christian home. She discovers a love for the piano and wants to become a concert pianist. I don't remember the author, but now I want to go search for them!! ETA: Found some used on Amazon. The author is Hilda Stahl.

My dad is a pastor and has done his share of counseling. He thinks that everyone who is a therapist/works intensely with people who have major problems should have their own therapist. Not because of their own issues, but because of the mental/emotional burdens that come from helping others. There are a lot of people in the helping professions in my family. A lot of them really hurt when their clients hurt. And seeing hurting people all day long can take it's toll.

I have to force my almost 12 yo boy to shower. He does it at night, because he can't be depended on to do it in the morning. She probably *should* be taking more responsibility, but since she's not, you 'll probably have to keep after her. I'd try to make it a habit and have her do it every night. Tell her that as she gets older she'll need to do it daily and you're just helping her get into that habit so she's ready.

Ugh. I've wished fervently that I had "redshirted" my oldest because of maturity issues. I am definitely not calling my youngest "kindergarten" until I have to. My youngest is big for his age. He could end up being the biggest kid on a rec team. But I'm not starting academics with him any earlier than I have to.

I would ask around, not just look into gyms. I know of several churches that host Zumba and martial arts classes. The space is certainly big enough to accommodate your son. I don't know where you live, but there may be some in your area. Word of mouth is how you're going to find them though.

I opened this thread thinking that it was going to be about the things cheerleaders wear under their skirts to hide their actual underwear. I have never heard the term "stunt undies" before. I'm not a fashionable person at all - but I haven't worn "stunt undies" since the first year we were married. I hadn't even really thought about it. They end up in the floor awfully quickly, anyway. DH's eyes would fall out of his head! Haha! I think I'm going to have to invest in some! I saw an article on fb today that was about a woman complaining that her dh complained about her wearing pajama pants to bed. Apparently, he thought she should wear something more stuntlike, in case he wanted to brew tea. I thought that was awfully weird. My dh wants to brew tea if I'm sleeping in his basketball shorts/tshirt. Maybe this hasn't really occurred to me because I can't buy "stunt" tops. In my size, they only come in boring. So there's not really an opportunity to be matchy and fun.

I don't think so. We have fire sticks, they don't have speakers though. The dots are on sale cheap though. We have figured out that they can say "Alexa, call mom" and it does work. You just have to get it set up right and have the exact name in your contacts that you want them to be able to call. With the echo, you can call them through the Alexa app you have to download on your phone. My 8 year old has already signed up for things you have to pay for though- without even really trying apparently. A program that tells Batman stories and a music subscription . No idea how she managed this, but we get an email notification and then we can cancel it.

I'm not surprised. We went to Sea World last year and we were among the last people leaving the park, so we were walking back to our car through a parking lot that was mostly empty. There was trash everywhere. Everywhere. I was shocked and we were talking about it a lot. It was as if every single car, set all of their trash in the parking lot next to the car before they left. There were just piles of trash everywhere. I ranted about it a lot and my kids were left with no question about how awful i thought the whole thing was. But the kicker was, every show we went to all day long had a "take care of our world" message. It couldn't have been more obvious if they got us over the head with it. And after listening to this all day, 1000s of people got in their cars and dumped their trash in the parking lot.

My parents have me some money for Christmas and I'm thinking of buying a new printer. Anyone have one they love?

I know. I have thought about it. And I wouldn't have bought them. But I'm not sure I'm so against it that it's worth fighting with my MIL.

Dot Journaling was a book I read toward the beginning of the year and while it wasn't that great, it did inspire me to start a bullet journal which has been very helpful. 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Petersen is my Number 1 pick for nonfiction/self-help. I even read it twice and then watched quite a few of his lectures on youtube. (If you look for him on youtube- look for his lectures, not the other crap that's just a waste of time IMO) I'm not sure I could pic l just one novel, but I have really enjoyed Diane Chamberlain this year. The Life She Was Given by Ellen Marie Wiseman and The Power by Naomi Alderman were also near the top of my list.

Oh boy! I think we have that locked down.... We've been there/done that!!!

We got one of them set up and figured out how to call someone with it! That will be wonderful. We don't have a home phone and my oldest is getting to the age where we could leave him for short periods, but he doesn't have a phone. I LOVE that he will be able to use it to call me!! I agree that it's not really cool to buy electronics for kids without parent's permission- but that ship sailed. Since it's not something that has a screen.... Are there any things I should be aware of? This was honestly just not on my radar at all. We have kindles with Alexa and sometimes we ask her how to spell something or for the definition of a word, but it's not a feature that we used much.

My 3 kids each for an echo dot and dh as I got an echo plus for Christmas from MIL. I don't have much experience with these- my parents have one and last year at Christmas my kids kept asking Alexa to play annoying music. I'm trying to have a good attitude about the whole thing. Can someone tell me why this will be great and I'll just be so glad we have them?

Something funny like this happened at my in-laws. One of dh's brothers was wearing a shirt that his girlfriend had gotten him for Christmas. His other brother got the exact same shirt from his wife! We all thought that was pretty funny. A couple of years ago, my sister in law and I got the exact same boots for Christmas. Our dhs (my dh and his brother) had picked them out- they hadn't talked about it beforehand or anything! I just showed up at their house one time wearing the same boots. Crazy!

I can't top a lot of these, but we ordered 500 worms one time to start worm composting!

I would dip pretzels in melted chocolate. You can also dip Oreos and put peanut butter between two Ritz crackers and dip those. Super good. Easy to do while talking!

Thanks! that's a great idea! Off to try that now!

No one said I accepted anything as gospel. And I don't doubt that you know someone who has called CPS over a broken furnace. I'm not trying to call you a liar. It just seems like you're saying this is a common response and I find it hard to believe that it is a common response. Most people will have a furnace break at some point. Most people do not have CPS called.

Really? Our furnace broke last winter. We had to buy a new one and it took a few days. I talked about it on facebook. No one called CPS. The furnace guy offered us space heaters, but we already had a couple. Facebook friends offered us space heaters. We all slept in one room for a couple nights and had a sort of slumber party. I would have been confused if COS had shown up and said it was because of that. If they had, we would have taken the kids to a hotel or to stay with in-laws, but it honestly wasn't that big of a deal.

Their Kindle Fires have Alexa. Does that mean a Fitbit would work?