LOL...tell Tabor I will send a pic and her name is Haley!:) It was so weird with the no bickering,I was feeling foreheads to see if they had fevers...lol.. Maggie,my Mom says the same about me and my siblings ,although my sister and I get along so well now,not so much when we were younger,I am the oldest and she drove me NUTS...lol..there is also a 10 year age difference between us and we had to share a room ,so I am sure you can figure the rest from there.My brother still picks at me even now that we are grown,he cant help himself...lol..I dont mind he is my baby brother and I do miss him even though he makes me crazy! I remind my daughter that a day will come that her brother will be grown and may live in another state like mine and she will count the days until she see's him next,she looks at me like I am off my rocker...lol.. My son is more involved than my daughter,she has always liked gardening in small doses,but my son,he couldn't stop...lol..much like me! So cute asking what every type we sowed was and repeating the names with perfect fluency!He is the official container filler,at first he was kind of akward trying to find the right position to fill the container,at one point he looked at me and said.."I just dont have the skills for gardening"...lol..he figured it out in no time though! We sowed 21 today and I am sure I will be sneaking back down there once everyone is in bed and do a few more!:D Thanks for letting me share this,and Karen I know a guy that had no parts of gardening when he was young,but as he grew older,has a yard to die for,it's never too late!

Britta - go to Rachelsreflections.com and find some info. But basically wait until the babies leaves are about a nickel so you can handle them easily, separate and give them their own pots. Plastic Solo cups 3 oz. work OK for babies - and are much cheaper than Oyamas. Momma leaves will do OK in a 4" pot till then. Cheers Irina

Sue, Sorry I am late to this celebration but I happened on this thread as I was searching for an update on your dining room to library transformation. I was so thrilled to hear that your son graduated, got such high praise for his film shorts and is heading off to Hampshire in the fall. I have followed your posts over the years and I was really hoping Hampshire would be a good fit for him. From the start, I had a strong gut feeling about your son and I think he's on a path to an exciting future. Your family is beautiful-- and I can't believe the girls aren't noticing your sons! All I can say is that I sure didnt know what I was looking for when I was in my teens. Those girls will wake up one day! A son who wants to take his mother out to lunch is going to be a great mate! Congratulations!

fly -yes, Uncle Harold was an amazing man. They lived outside DC, but always came up to NH to spend summers at the lake. When he found out that I had started taking German in highschool, he would only speak to me in German. I found it to be so stressful, I nearly stopped speaking to him, but with gently pressure from him, I eventually worked my way through it, and no doubt he helped me a great deal. He was a fascinating man, because as intelligent and scholarly as he was, he was always most interested in what he could still learn from others. I worked in "Corporate America" right out of college, and he was just fascinated with that world, because he had no experience with it. He would frequently ask me quite naive, basic questions, such that I almost felt as if I would be insulting him to give him the straight answer, it just seemed so obvious. But he was one of those wonderful, rare personalities who was not afraid to expose his utter lack of knowledge in an area, and genuinely wanted to know these things. He also had the sometimes typical traits of a genius, which made common sense, everyday tasks a bit of a challenge for him. He bought a single-speed bike at a NH yard sale once, and a few days after that, he took off for a ride around the lake. He was gone for hours and we were all very worried, and about to call the police when he suddenly showed up. He was just beaming as he explained that the chain had come off his bicycle, but he had eventually figured out how to put it back on! For this man who regularly palled around with heads of state, it was one of his proudest moments apparently.