If you like chicken, you can cook up a lot of breasts, freeze individually, and use them in salads, casseroles, soups, etc. I cook up a pot of beans. They can be used in so many ways also, depending on type you cook....could be used in chili or taco salads, etc. When you make spaghetti sauce, double/triple your recipe and freeze the extras for another time. Make two lasagnas and freeze one without baking it. Do the same when making meatloaf. Hardboiled eggs keep for several days when refrigerated. Add to salads, make egg/chicken/tuna salad for sandwiches, or just use as a quick snack. If you like rice, you can also cook extras and keep in fridge for a few days or even freeze. (I let mine thaw in fridge overnight before using.) I live alone and have many meals in my freezer. I keep them sectioned off from other items in there so they don't get lost in the shuffle. All are labeled and dated. Good luck.

Sorry my friend - just got back on today after the weekend. Yes, Hubbard Clause is used here in CT (not sure if elsewhere) - where the buyers have a house to sell of their own. So here's what went down this weekend. We had to go to first couple and they exercised thier Hubbard Clause rights to try to secure a mortage in 48 hours. They were unable to. We then were able to accept the second offer at full asking price - they have a pre-qual letter and put 10% down. In our town over the past few years most sold but it was after bidding wars and sold for over asking price. Right now there is not a lot in inventory even though most surrounding towns do have quite a bit. Some research has shown that the houses that have sold are selling for less than aksing, are on the market quite a few days and have had some price drops. So for us with regard to selling has been good. Not sure what the market will bear with regard to us buying. We have a plan to put our things in storage and move in with in-laws until something comes up. Again, our town is small and we are trying to stay in it.

There are a number of issues at work here... And it sounds like you thought your 'belle' might be the solution to all your problems, and jumped in too quickly -- but now, you're seeing the flaws, and there are lots of them. First off, the immigration solution you contemplate is illegal. Not to mention the harm it would do to your daughter. There are many kind and loving women who would accept you, your children and your HIV status. Of course, you have to be available and unattached to look for them. Secondly, your daughter's attention-seeking is also very, very normal. What child would not want to see her father before heading off to school? And what normal child would not want frequent reassurance from the parent who clearly loves her when forced to live with an adult who clearly doesn't and constantly nit-picks. Thirdly, your "belle's" manner of correcting the children is harsh, demeaning, degrading, and perhaps worst of all, contagious. Witness how her own children now scream back at her. Is this the type of conflict resolution or parental correction you want your children to learn? Frankly, 'belle' is not the b-word I would choose to describe this woman. You sound like a gentle man with a lovely way with words. Don't you want your children to learn how to use kind words and deeds to solve their problems? To me, this point is so, so important. And finally, to your HIV status. You should not be forced to keep a secret like that in your own home. Living a lie, as if you were, in fact, a pariah, the way certain unenlightened elements of society may portray you... Every day you 'sneak', you validate that treatment. But at the same time, I am sensitive to the legal and practical realities of things -- Is there an HIV-support center where you could find how courts generally rule in cases like these? You don't want to cost this woman her children... On the one hand, given what we now know of HIV and 'casual transmission' chances, I don't think it's any of the kids' father's business what your medical status is. But on the other, as a parent, if my child were living with someone with HIV, I would want to be sure he was taking all appropriate steps to keep himself safe. Bottom line -- Lose this 'belle' and the last point becomes moot.

Ppbenn, the wallpaper is "peonies" from tempaper. It is not standard wallpaper. Its a self-adhesive wallpaper, aka a giant sticker. I don't know how it would take water color bc of the finish. But, Tempaper sells a product that is plain that you can decorate. So maybe? Tempaper has a website with faqs, and they would likely answer questions too. It's a sm company/neat story. Good luck! I am sure my kids will paint ours soon. I've already wiped up pen and pencil. Marker and paint are likely not far behind. Fwiw: hanging this is just slightly different than regular paper. The back is very sticky. That is great if your flat walls meet crisp edges of the even/level ceiling. With my old wavy plaster walls and old wavy plaster ceiling, covered in tons of paint, a standard wallpaper likely would have been easier to hang because it would have been more forgiving to stretch, move and slide. But, this paper was worth the effort. And removal will be so much easier, though I have no plans to do it anytime soon. Fori! I remember you asked questions about the smeg. I hoped you would pull the trigger before me! I will try to remember to post a more thorough review after we use the speed oven more. I want to try to bake, heat a frozen pizza, and grill fish or meat. Then I'll post again. In the meantime, as I mentioned above, we have abused the oven feature on the smeg everyday for more than a month: reheat french toast, warm left overs, cook chicken fingers, spring rolls, eggplant parm, roast veggies and chicken, make nacho chips and cheese. It just gets hot so much faster than my 30" Berta gas range, which isn't particularly slow to get hot. And I think/hope it has to be more efficient to use the small electric oven than the larger gas oven. (?) And the mw is in use everyday, reheating my coffee, cooking frozen broccoli etc. The mw performs well, as I would expect. We have not baked, used the grill function, or done any speed/combo cooking. But to be honest, the combo features were secondary. I am not very good at following directions and I usually never use the pre-set options on anything! If and when I bake, it's usually in batches; I imagine I would usually use the range to bake and the smeg to cook dinner. I will use the grill function; hope it works well. We decided to take the leap, or be the guinea pigs, bc we only had so many spots to put a mw. The best spot was prime real estate, below the counter. To give up cabinet drawers, I wanted an appliance that would do more than mw. I cook, a lot, everyday and on holidays. A second oven was really attractive. Obviously I didn't have space for a wall oven. I don't even have space for a countertop convection or toaster oven. So we looked at combos. Since I only have 24" my choices were limited. The reviews on the Miele were really good. But it didn't sound like $$$$ better for how I would use the appliance. And I didn't have that extra $$$$ to just get the Miele bc it's the Miele. Really, my biggest concern: yes, my kids play with the knobs. But i can't blame them. It is cute.