trsinc, I too really recommend going with the "upright" freezer (with door in front). It's changed our lives, literally --- it's easy to find what I want. (If I had to dive into a chest freezer, I KNOW I wouldn't use the frozen stuff regularly the way I do --- I would find it a hassle to dig out what I was looking for, and the whole point was to be able to grab some veggies ready to go, or a frozen portion of a stew I'd made in a big batch, on a night when I was tired or busy.) Small ones do exist --- there's a second-hand appliance place nearby where I've occasionally seen one. It's definitely true that it costs much more than half the price of a big one for half the size, but if all you have room for is small, look around --- it can be found. (What we ended up with was a small full-sized one.) As for containers, I do use freezer bags, for things that don't "flow" to fill a container (fruit, veggies, meat) --- like you and others, I re-use them, though anything that's had raw meat in it I either toss or rinse with a bleach solution. For soups and stews and things, I did experiment with using canning jars, and I found that it took care --- in my fridge's freezer it works fine, and on the shelf in my upright freezer that is just a wire shelf it works fine, BUT jars that I put on the shelves that have cooling tubes in them (three of the four shelves) sometimes had the bottoms break off. Rather than worry about what shelf to use, I mostly go with plastic containers of various kinds. I reuse yogurt and cottage cheese tubs (though I have a strict rule of ONLY keeping one kind of container --- the 2- and 3-cup ones that take all the same size of lid, because it makes me crazy not to be able to grab a tub and lid that fit easily --- again, for me a lot of the joy in freezing stuff is in making my life easier). inexpensive ones are a good compromise between pricey Rubbermaid containers and use-just-a-few-times bags. I have some of the new(ish) Ziploc containers (Glad also has a line of them, and there are no-name ones too), meant to be tough enough to reuse and put in dishwasher, but inexpensive enough that it's not too bad if they get ruined or given away. (I loved the hilarious commercial they had where they "tested" them in freezer, microwave, dishwasher --- and wood-chipper. ;-) ) And I have two sets (given to me) of as-seen-on-TV freezer containers that came with a supposed "easy store" spinny thing, which was a piece of @#*!, but the conatiners are fine, and again, I like that they come in different sizes but *all use the same size of lid*. When I put up something, I try to put it all in one kind of container --- again, this helps me sort & grab at a glance (I know the blue-lidded ones are all chicken stock, the yogurt tubs are currently all chili, the Ziploc ones are either broccoli soup or Mexican Pork Stew, etc.). And I have pricey Rubbermaid containers, which I try to keep out of the freezer so they are available day to day for leftovers in the fridge. One general tip: given the choice, go for containers with a SQUARE cross section rather than a ROUND one. I do use some yogurt tubs, as mentioned, since they are free and a useful size, but generally I find it amazing how much more room one can make use of when things are SQUARE so they fill the space more fully. Happy freezing, and good luck! Z

gosh, Kathy, there's nothing unique about the labels I like. I got the tip to that site from someone here a few years ago, and ordered a few sheets each of several kinds to try, including some that I got 'cos they happened to be on sale that day. One thing I like is to have them small enough to fit in the label space on a jelly jar; I can a lot in small jars and it bugs me for the label to be spilling onto the bumpy part of the jar. Anyway, that year I used a different colour of label for each product. I thought I'd like that, as it would make it easy to tell what was what at a glance. But when it was all on the pantry shelf I found the brown kraft ones looked the best to me. They look kind of homey and simple, don't draw attention to themselves, and don't clash with any colour of food. (The bright yellow labels on red tomato sauce were a bit much, for e.g. ;-) ) It also seemed to me that the brown Kraft ones were somewhat easier to remove, but that also depends on how long they've been on, etc. --- I didn't do a randomized trial. ;-p I do sometimes still need to get out the Goo Gone even for them. And I now use a different colour of felt PEN for each kind of product to help differentiate at a glance. Anyhow, I ran out of brown labels. I still have several other colours but, as mentioned, I decidd I like how the pantry looks when everything has a brown on on it so almost nothing from this year is labelled. Luckily, there is a lot less this year than most years, especially of the tomato products, which are the ones that most need labelling ot keep them straight. So far I am pretty sure I know what's what except for that mystery syrup. But I am sure I'll forget soon..................... Z

There were so many books from my childhood, that I can't remember all the titles. Rosefolly mentioned the Children's Hour series, which I devoured. I was so pleased the day I came across a whole set (in excellent condition) in a yard sale; I bought it immediately. I remember reading the Honey Bunch series. Our local library was very small, but they had most of the HB books as well as the Maida books. I think I went through their children's section very quickly. Fortunately, our parents loved to read too, so we had a houseful of books to read once we'd exhausted the library selection. I read the Nancy Drew and Dana sisters books too. Like Rosefolly and friedag I preferred the Judy Bolton books, primarily because she seemed more real (as they mentioned, she grew up). Rosefolly, do you remember Dad reading The Swiss Family Robinson to us before he took us to see the movie. We lived in Foxburg then. All I really remember from that is the part where the poor donkey goes into the swamp where the enormous serpent is lurking...with terrible consequences. I must have been about 5 at the time and as you can tell, it made enough of an impact on me that I remember it still! I remember when I first realized I could read, I tried to read some of my older siblings' books. I think the first one I tried was At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It really was too difficult for me, but I was excited and wanted to show everyone that I really did know how to read.

I love fragrance, but I do understand there can be too much of a good thing. I use the wax melters. I've tried tarts/melts you buy at the store, ones sold online from large companies, and ones sold by independent vendors. I've been given Scentsy, but refuse to buy it. Sorry, I'm not supporting any businesses set up that way. With all brands or vendors, I've found ones that worked and ones that didn't. At work, we take turns in our suite burning. We all have our own offices, and never use one in reception, so the fragrance stays concentrated in one location mostly, with just a hint in the hallway. We get lots of compliments. At home, I have a few burners, but only have one always in use. It's on a timer. It comes on about an hour before I get up and stays on around 2 hours. In the afternoon, it comes on about an hour before we get home and runs around 2 hours as well. This way I wake up to a nice fragrance and come home to one. At the same time, the pets get a break, I don't go nose blind, and I can get several uses out of one melt.