pelicolina's Profile

I have a colored leaf garland I bring out when September starts to feel like fall. It has small twinkle lights in purple and orange, but I don't light it up until October. The leaves hide the lights during the day and give it a creepier effect when they are turned on. Lets me start a little halloween decorating before October. I leave the garland up, still works for Thanksgiving if the lights are off, until I'm ready to bring out the Christmas stuff.

Friends that had a similar situation used their bigger than necessary walk-in closet for a nursery-just the crib and a dresser with a changing pad top and hung a floor to ceiling curtain past that where they actually stored their clothes. It's not a permanent solution, but a great one for the short time that you need to be close to your baby. The thing with babies is-every time you get a new phase, as soon as you are comfortable dealing with it, out it goes and an even newer phase takes its place. But it's all good! Congratulations.

Your children may like them when they are older and ready for decor with more of an edge-then I bet they will much more able to interpret the art as art. Save them for another day.

I finally found a box of turkish delight early this summer. My daughter was so excited, she'd read about it in a few books. It had a slightly vanilla flavor and wasn't too sweet, we decided it tasted like the child of a gummy bear and a marshmallow. Thanks for sharing a recipe!

We just had issue with fruit flies-someone gave my husband a bag of potatoes that he 'forgot' about-hmmmmm. Pair that with a weekend spent out of the house and by sunday evening it was a mess. Tried traps for a few days, poured bleach in the drains, cleaned every surface, removed any food out and STILL had the flies. Found the potato bag and decided to declare war. Got our shop vac out and every hour or so vacuumed up as many as possible. After a day of the shop vac assault, things are under control. Still have 1 on the run, but his hours are numbered.

If you are in a house and can plant a small tree, go get a crepe myrtle-the leaves will change a bit(maybe only to yellow) but it's deciduous. If you can't, get some potted plants for your doorstep or porch like a croton-they will hit the stores soon and the leaves all have crazy fall colors all over them. That and a gold or orange pot of mums will help make you feel the season a bit more.

I think what I enjoy the most is not writing that check every month to the cable company. We turned the cable off last January and my 10yo daughter didn't notice until almost March, so that will tell you how hard it is. We have a wii and roku, netflix, amazon and hulu+. Our tvs are not digital and I want to replace at least 1 maybe both so we haven't yet gotten an antennae since we'd need a converter too. We've introduced the kids to a lot of good older movies and cartoons. So far to date, we've saved $450 and we may upgrade the tv when we reach $700.

My two, age 7 & 10, started out together and all was fine as big sister was excellent at tuning out all the baby cries of her brother. Around the time of my daughter beginning grade school was when we saw the first hints that separate rooms might be a good thing. She wanted to have friends over to sleep. So those nights we let him camp out in our room or the living room. When he started first grade, the fighting became so bad(and always about little things), that we converted a laundry room into a very compact bedroom. Fighting stopped and they were friends again. We are finishing up an addition to our house that will let them have their own bedrooms and I asked them which one they would choose-they are now talking about sharing a space and using the other room for a fort! Kids.

Try it, maybe it will work, maybe it won't, maybe it will at a later time.

My husband's family has a much loved story of his dad, taking over for the mom, deciding it would be quicker to scramble 10 eggs on the highest setting on a blender. He then poured them into a frying pan and left them to cook. When he returned, the result is always referred to as having the exact consistency and probable taste of foam rubber.

My daughter sleeps on my old twin bed that I had until I moved out of my parents' home. It was my dad's bed when he was growing up until he moved out. In my family, a twin bed is a great incentive to become an adult and get a life outside of your parents' home, so there's another vote for twin beds for kids.