Bumble, you might be my DD's biological mom LOL. Her (self imposed) goal this summer is to cook more "real meals." She already bakes a lot, with some supervision, and makes pancakes independently. Her real obsession these days is duct tape. She has made a variety of wallets, purses, etc. She usually makes at least one a day. She has probably 25 rolls of various colors and patterns at the moment. I honestly don't think I could make one of those wallets myself, and I'm fairly crafty...or used to be! She has her own glue gun. Tish, like you say, she's not a great speller or much of a reader but she can read complicated directions or a recipe and figure it out no problem, so she's all set!

I survived, but not unscathed. Some didn't. The saddest funeral I ever attended was for a little boy I babysat; his mother didn't secure him in a car seat. He was thrown from her car and killed when a drunk driver hit them. When we had children I knew that I could not protect them against every bad thing, but I could take reasonable precautions. My mother didn't want to be inconvenienced by having to use car seats for my children, so I solved that problem by not letting them ride with her. Once I was 10, my parents rarely knew where I was during the summer or on weekends, since they played golf frequently. Sometimes Mom would forget to leave the spare key in its hiding place and I'd be locked out. If I had money I could ride my bike 3 miles to the DairyQueen to buy a Coke, but if not I'd get a drink from a neighbor's garden hose. There were worse consequences of their inattention, but I won't go into that here. None of us worried about sunblock, although we did use baby oil to keep from drying out while we baked. Everyone in my family has (or had) skin cancer, as do many of my friends. The ones who continued baking as adults now have skin that looks like tanned leather, dotted with light spots from the removal of melanomas. There was a lot of underage drinking, as well as a lot of partying by some of the parents, but I was too afraid of mom's beatings if she caught me drinking so that was postponed until college. Back then, the legal age was 18 in many places. There was also a lot of pot, in the schools as well as at the beach. Some people experimented with hard drugs; a few had very bad results. One dear friend, who was in my honors classes in high school, was artistically and musically talented while his siblings were focused on science and math; that didn't go over well at home. He self-medicated the emotional pain, then spent the next several decades in various psych hospitals. My mom nagged me about befriending a certain crowd at the country club, not knowing that the most "popular" kids were also the biggest dealers at the beach. In college (a good Jesuit school), the drug of choice for most students was quaaludes and I'd guess that at least half the students indulged in both pills and pot. Keggers in the Quad were common Friday afternoon events, with various student organizations hosting a party almost every week. Despite the lack of restrictions on drinking, there were other strictly enforced rules, and several girls from my dorm were sent packing for having guys spend the night. The guys' dorm was much looser, and RAs looked the other way when girls were there after visiting hours. I never saw a pregnant student on campus, but I did know/know of several girls who suddenly transferred to the state school back home. This was before folks knew about HIV, so physical barrier precautions were scorned and the Pill was popular. My last roommate graduated a semester early, filled with deep hatred toward all men and a nasty case of genital herpes (which freaked me out, naive as I still was.) It seems like people were less informed about drug interactions or concerns about mixing certain Rx drugs with alcohol. A friend died because she didn't realize that she should not mix alcohol and her Rx. The authorities guessed that the combination made it difficult for her to recall if she'd taken her proper dose and she accidentally over medicated. I know that some warning labels seems like too much CYA litigation prevention, but I wish the health care industry had shared more information with patients sooner. My husband grew up in the midwest, and his experiences or recollections are worse/scarier than mine. His family lived in an affluent bedroom community of a large city, and all of the kids attended various private schools. He had a devoted and loving mother but she was so busy with a very large number of children that she couldn't have supervised all of them adequately even if she thought it necessary. It just wasn't common for parents to be so involved in the '60s - '70s, for better or for worse. The kids did enjoy a lot more freedom and seemed to become independent sooner, but there was a downside as well. Underage drinking was one problem, but drugs were much worse. When I look at my children's generation, I wonder how many of their medical and behavioral issues are related to their parents' drug use. When I got to college, I was stunned to learn about the extent of drug experimentation (cocaine & LSD, among other things.) So I am one of the lucky ones, just because I'm still alive. But I have scars, both emotional and physical, that will never completely fade. I tried to find a balance between being too lax and hovering with my own children, but what I thought was being prudent was seen as overly protective by my parents and in-laws. Yet my kids still climbed trees, rode zip lines, shot pellet guns, went white water rafting & kayaking, flew in ultralights, tried snow skiing & snowboarding, etc., and I have plenty of grey hairs to attest to their exploits. ;-)

Ooops, that was a Canadian link, which is why it wouldn't work. Sorry. Here's a different link. This is really worth watching, for the humour and the reward that he got, aside from his amazing voice. Here is a link that might be useful: David Thibault singing Blue Christmas

When a cousin gave us an upright piano when I was 4-years old, I taught myself how to play using ancient sheet music and old grade school music books left in the piano bench. I could read music before I could read books. Then I had piano lessons once a week in music class in grade school for several years. That was the beginning..... When I was 13 I borrowed a guitar, restrung it, bought a Chet Atkins cord book from the store where I purchased the strings and taught myself how to play cords on the guitar. I already knew cords on the piano so it was a good transition. I could transpose music to a different key from what I knew from playing the piano. I remember those raw finger tips until I learned the G, C, D7 cords so I could play a song - in fact, a lot of songs with those three cords. Now I have a uke my daughter brought back from Hawaii and it's been fun learning the cords for it. And thanks to the magic of the internet, I also found lessons on-line for both guitar and uke I found helpful. I still like the guitar more, especially a 12-string (which gives me the illusion I'm better than I think I am (LOL). I'm with Snidely on this one, I don't particularly care for the sound of a ukulele. I play it for my own amusement. I played the guitar at school functions with friends as a teen, church, and other functions over the years. Senior Citizen groups love me when I bring a group of children to sing - especially Christmas songs. I'm more of a sing-a-long player. I brought a dulcimer home from Nashville on a visit several years ago, and it was easy to learn. The man who was selling them gave me a few pointers and I had it mastered on the 12-hour trip back to Kansas. Ironically, the dulcimer purchased in Tennessee was made here in Kansas, not far from where I live. I tried a friend's 4-string guitar once. He liked it because he has small hands. I found it "odd" to use since I learned on a 6-string, but was able to play it after a few minutes. Not as rich a sound as a 6- or 12-string. A 4-string guitar may be another choice if you are already acquainted with a 6-string. I would go to a music shop with instruments and give different things a try before buying. -Grainlady