I am so happy you will see your daughter soon, kathsgrdn. Not having a nice regular sleep pattern is exhausting. Have you tried guided imagery to help you get to sleep? I have spent the day trying to organize the family's schedule through the end of the year. My boys are in different schools, so Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks need more coordination than usual. I have accomplished nothing at all on that score. My husband's schedule is the controlling factor and he has a few things up in the air making planning a pain. I will wait until later next week to nail things down. Mama pinky, fish on the grill sounds lovely. I will try adding Parmesan to my oven baked potatoes in the future (I often use salt, pepper and cumin.) No worries about email- I know all about that ;-) Marilyn_Sue, what fun to get to shop with daughters! I have only boys. Nobody likes to shop with me :-(

mmmmmmmm.....steak sounds gooooood! the mamo...not so much....lol Just got a call from a medical insurance salesperson, not Obamacare, so it carries a penalty, which she says has not gone into effect yet. I paid it last year! She said Trump has halted all penalities until further notice. lol She was lying & using scare tactics to create a sale.....so frustrating to hear that. "For 2015, the penalty for no health insurance is $325 per person or 2% of your annual household income – whichever is higher. For 2016, the fee is $695 or 2.5% of your income — whichever is higher. For many people, that's more than the yearly cost of health plans they can find on HealthCare.gov.Dec 11, 2015"

I was not feeling well for most of last week- a virus that turned into bronchitis which is very hard on me because I have asthma. All is well enough now, so I am back to gabbing away at the KT. I missed everyone :-) Rob, I had a terrible itching reaction to a sulfa drug many moons ago- it's awful. I hope you feel better soon. Kath, Four hours at the dentist?? My mouth aches for you. Yuk. Mama pinky, Aren't great parent teacher conferences the best things ever? There is nothing better than seeing your child meet his potential. I am going to offer a bit of unsolicited advice, because I learned this lesson a bit late in my parenting journey- I hope you don't mind. Carol Dweck from Stanford suggests we only reward effort and perseverance- never outcomes. A lot of bright children hardly need to study to do well in the young grades and are used to being praised for their results. Once they reach a stage where they need to study, they have not developed very good study skills and their self image is tied up in being a good student, so they are a bit stuck and often give up. Dweck popularized this theory when it was too late for me to learn from it. You should have seen the auditorium full of parents of late elementary/ middle schoolers when she spoke about this. We were all devastated at not having done a very good job. If I were you I might consider a special dinner or dessert with a "toast" to how well the boys stayed on top of their work and turned in their assignments and add anything meaningful you know about- like when Chip or Tim helped some one else learn, or struggled and learned something, etc. Motivation is a tricky thing.

My mil is visiting and my husband took the day off work. Us three and my two daughters went out for lunch at Jason's Deli and then to see Murder on the Orient Express. The movie was just so-so. Came home, made supper, played lots of different card games. Prepped all my veggies, boiled eggs and made my mashed potatoes ahead of time to bake tomorrow. I also made my list of times and temperatures to bake stuff tomorrow. My mil gives my kids personal items when they turn 21. My son got a Harvard rocking chair last year when we were at her house and today she gave my daughter a beautiful diamond necklace. She has some papers she wanted me and dh to look at, so now I know what my youngest dd will be getting from her when she turns 21. She has almost exactly 2 years to go, since she will be turning 19 tomorrow.