I had no set age but figured I'd wait until they actually "need" them. Until the age of 13, my oldest was always in the presence of an adult, whether at school, camp, sports, activities, etc. Sure, it is a convenience, but I didn't feel like forking out the money if it was really necessary. In 7th grade, I started getting pressured by her because nearly all of her friends had them. By Christmas that year, she was one of about 3 kids in her class of 90 at school that did not have a phone. By spring, she was going through a bit of a rough patch socially (darn girls, what a tough age!) Much of her social circle's communication (well, basically ALL) was occurring via text and she was not only feeling left out, but actually was being left out. Her self esteem really being affected. Dh and I discussed it and after much annoyance at the feeling of "giving in" we got her a cell phone about two months before her 13th birthday. By the time she got her cheap phone, the majority of her friends had already graduated to iPhones. Don't even get me started on that subject! She is now 14, entering high school and all of her friends have them. I have come to realize now at her age, though, it is a nice comfort to me that she now has a phone because she now goes places with her friends (without parents). It's convenient for me in terms of getting in touch with her for logistical reasons. My son, who just finished 6th grade and turns 13 in five months is one of very few kids in his grade that doesn't have a phone. And there are plenty of kids in his grade that already have iPhones. Blows my mind. So, I guess I would say 12/13 is probably the typical age, but really, it should be what you are comfortable with, not what other people are doing. I don't imagine that my son will have the same social issues as my dd simply b/c his friendships don't operate the same way (let's face it, girls can be very *itchy to each other, especially in the early teen years!). Most of his friends do have cellphones but half the time, the parents have taken them away as punishment, or they've forgotten to bring it with them, etc. So for now, it's a non-issue with him and I don't imagine he'll get one anytime soon.

Well, once again, I did it! I have a tendency to shop until I drop ... all the while forgetting what I've already gotten for the kids! When the time comes to pull it all out and wrap it up, I think "oh crap, look at all this stuff I bought them!" ... :-) But you know what? I take great joy in seeing their faces. In watching them enjoy their new things ... especially when they open something they *really, really* wanted! Priceless! This year my kids got many gift certificates, and yesterday we took the kids shopping with their gift certificates. My husband told me after we got home that my stepdaughter spent one of her certificates on a birthday gift for me (my birthday's in a few days). How special is that? I'm humbled and honored!

Oh my, I didn't notice how much and how many ideas many have here since ,y last post yesterday! Rina, you could never hijack mine, in fact I would of love to have seen many of your plants here! I shall have to take a peek at yours..The Solena and Denthor I have one and waiting on the other. I will share with you once I get the other Rina)) If you posted your jades I will for sure go look. You know me and my Jades..What about Maruba? Do you have one of those? Looks to me you are nuts about Jades too!! I love it and your cat fits right in with all the color. Beautiful. What's that very red plant? beautiful.. Rockdale, you have ben to Logees?? I love that place. I am getting your package ready along with Rob's for the beginning of next week). Rockdale I love that plant. Yes, let's talk )) Stupidlazydga, I'll bet you spend most of your days in that little place of warmth and sun!! I would for sure and what a perfect spot for lots of succulents a coffee on a sunny cold day! Is that an Orange tree you have there and Hoya? Many plants of which I love and I am growing. In fact, several different rare Hoya and about 35 citrus trees....Nice Well looking up further, wow!! Looks like you have plenty of room for succulents and many others, more room than my loan Home Depot..Great job and very nice.

In a way, yes, in other ways, about the same. Financially, about the same. I have a happy marriage with a great DH and we've had quite a few fun adventures together. My parents had a very happy marriage, albeit with less adventure, just way too short. They never had a mortgage on their home and always bough cars with cash. Dad was what I would call a "gentleman farmer" in the sense that he ran the farm and other ancillary operations from an office and Mom, with a fine college education, was a stay at home Mom until Dad died far too young, at 52, leaving Mom a widow at 44. While Mom would have preferred graduate school, instead she stepped in and ran the farm and excelled. She was the first woman on a number of agriculturally related boards and not just local small time ones either. While she enjoyed the challenge, especially in a male dominated world, and loved our small farming town, I also think she was trapped by the circumstances. Her plan was for my brother to take over the farm completely after 8-10 years at which time she planned on going back to graduate school, but my brother never got around to taking over the operations (I don't know any other way to put it, he's smart and knows the land well and will work hard on something that interests him, but he never developed the stick-to-it day to day work ethic). While this was going on, I went to law school and then got my LLM. Mom ran the farm until her seventies, but by that time we rented out all our land. Unfortunately about 8 years ago the farm started going down hill financially, most income was going to debt service, and at the same time Mom was developing AMD. Our banker and accountant realized that that something needed to be done to save the farm and came to me and suggested that we move to professional management. Mom saw that this was the right move, but my brother was resistant although eventually went along with it without a family fallout. That was a tense time, but he liked the bank management/manager and was not cut out of some control especially with marketing the crops, which is his forte,and now agrees that it was a good decision, actually I think it was a relief. We also sold off about 30% of the land, which was enough to retire all debt and pay the capital gains (basis was from the 1930s, so ridiculously low), with a bit to spare. The farm, though smaller, is doing very well, throwing off nice income to the three of us, while retaining a contingency fund, so all is well, and it's still a nice legacy even after selling a bit of the land, it is now a bit over 5000 acres total, cropland and timber. DH and I are both professionals and have had fairly successful careers. I am a lawyer, a partner in a great law firm, and DH is a dentist, who sold his practice when we recently moved. We are both scaling back. I am staying with my firm, working remotely, with regular trips back to the office for a couple of weeks every few months as the need arises. DH lucked into a two day a week job as an independent contractor with a good dental practice in our new location. We will probably continue to work along these lines for another 2-4 years. We have a wonderful, responsible daughter and son-in-law and a precious grandson. I think we will be better off than Mom in our later years, not so much financially because she is in great shape (she also had some money of her own and was a good investor), but because we planned ahead. She had planned to stay in her large house in the small town for the rest of her life. However that became impossible for her to manage. She moved to independent living in the city where I worked last year and now she moved to Colorado with us, living at a wonderful independent living center less than 5 minutes from us and I can go see her everyday. She seems content and loves having me so nearby, but it is hard to move to a new state and town at 86. We built our retirement house, actually a duplex, at 62 with (for) our DD and SIL, near all essential services and making it easy to maintain. As we age it will be easy for our DD to check on us as necessary, just pop over for five minutes and then go back to her regularly scheduled life. But, for now, DD also has a built in babysitter much of the time. If at anytime as we age we need more help than I am willing to ask from our DD, we can easily hire a caregiver for far less than Mom's place costs on a monthly basis and still stay at home (at least if our health is as good as Mom's is right now).