My sister Alice was 5 years older and I remember most hanging around her from the age of four-five. Mom made a lot of our clothes on a portable Singer and Alice learned to hem and sew on buttons, then used fabric scraps for making doll clothes. She loved designing for one particular "lady" doll..I think it had been dressed in bridal gown originally. My sister was quite talented and drew paper dolls and costumes for them...usually elaborately dressed princesses or Victorian gowned ladies with huge feathery hats from book illustrations. I was then allowed to finish them with color pencils or water colors. Of course they all had names and marvelous adventures. My Mom would often join in...teaching us papermache for doll-size dishes and furniture, etc. It's the reason I still love a stash of fabric, ribbon and paper for projects of all kinds. A favorite pastime was reading...often aloud while some project was being worked on by the others. Mom read the longer books like Tom Sawyer or Treasure Island while Alice and I preferred short stories. My favorites were all the Red, Blue, Green. etc. Fairy books and Alice in Wonderland. We learned all of RLStevensons' A Child's Garden of Verses which I can still mostly recite today. Our main reason I think for working/playing so much together was our constant travel and frequent moves to follow my Dad from post to post during WWII. It was hard for Mom to feel comfortable letting us roam an unknown neighborhood...so she kept us busy around our own house. We often had to leave bikes, wagons and other toys behind when moving...art supplies were easily accomodated. We usually lived in tiny towns with no movie theatre or interesting shops...with gas rationed there were no trips to nearby larger towns, so all entertainment was homebased. My Mom told me Army families during WWII were often resented when moving into an area because of overcrowding schools, etc. and causing raised rents/prices. I'd imagine it was just easier to draw together as a family since we'd be moving on soon anyway...it was a tough time I'm sure for my Mom feeling isolated in a new place. It was not until my Dad went overseas and we lived in a very small farming community in VA that we were warmly "adopted" and were able to have good friends and feel at home running around the neighborhood. We finally replaced our bikes which we'd been unable to cart around with us...and I remember a small Army tent in the back garden my Dad erected before leaving...it was magical to have your own little "house" although all the neighborhood kids wanted to share it...lol I was never as daring or as active as many of you... I do remember jumping rope and hopscotch but that's about it. I still prefer card or word games...another childhood pastime. Even charades...my Dad could fake us all out at charades. josh

I feel everyones pain so I thought I would share mine. A short time ago I had 3 cats, 2 Siberian Husky and 9,yes 9 puppies at home. Well the cats are not to bad with the plants but I keep and eye on things and the 2 big dogs dont bother much with the plants(I dont have any big trees, thank god) and the dogs and pups are not allowed to go into the livingroom (well trained, thanks to hubby) but then there is the puppies......I only lost about 8 plants to them. As my husband says "There is a surprise for you at home" and then follows up with..."You will never learn" Then I know that we have soil and plants on the kitchen floor. I respond with "What the h..ll were you doing that the dogs got into my plants when this is your job being a breeder of dogs?"...LOL Well at least the kids will help with the clean up. Now the kitchen table holds a large plant stand with a plant on it and several plants. Now I only have 4 puppies left and I have moved them to my work along with my huband. We have a large apt here with a huge room for the puppies. Next week when I close for seasonal shut down it time for plants first and then cleaning the house time. Have fun everyone. Stacey

My daughter's birthday is December 16....and I gave her a cookie decorating party when she was about 7 or 8. I made the dough and rolled out and cut a tray of assorted shapes for each kid before the party. Then rolled and cut some more while they were decorating the first tray. The kids loved it!! The mess was huge!!! LOL!! This is the recipe I used. Sugar cookies: 1 cup of butter 2 cups of sugar Cream together and add 2 eggs beaten with 2 T milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla ( I like a bit more) Mix with the butter mix Add 3 cups flour mixed with 1/2 tsp salt....and as much as 1/2 cup more flour until it's stiff enough to roll out Make flat patties, wrap and refrigerate for an hour or longer.... Dust board with flour and roll and cut... Bake 375 for 8 to 10 minutes....I use parchment on the cookie sheets....if you don't have parchment....lightly grease the sheets. The absence of baking powder keeps them from rising and keeps the cookies true to the shape of the cutter.....and makes them crisp

If you know this song, you're probably familiar with all the older singers of it: Gene Autry, Marty Robbins, Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, Glenn Campbell, etc. So here are two versions from artists I didn't expect to see: Simon & Garfunkel, and Billie Joe Armstrong & Norah Jones. Both very true to the original, maybe because it's so sentimental no one wants to give it a wildly modern treatment? But Garrison Keillor once used it as a parody in "That English Professor of Mine". Couldn't find a video but I remember "I wish I'd done bet-tres, in the field of Belles Lettres, and put a few passing grades there..." ['better' and 'letter' rhyme in english, so he sang "bet-truh" to make it rhyme with the french "let-truh" ... wildly funny to me at the time.]