"The fact that I have absolutely no place to put it should be a deterrent, but NOPE!! I need it, I want it, I have to have it! is my philosophy!" I think Candy just described the whole (sick) lot of us! ;o) Rafor, that cross-stitch is wonderful. I love all the ones you did for that matter. I like the ornies hanging in the fireplace (HOW did you hang them? I saw that in a photo on the web once and really liked the idea). The card stock on ribbon ornaments are so neat, and very pretty! Another idea for my Too Long to Do List. (right there with you, Luvs!) Everything looks so pretty. I don't think we ever stop tweaking and adding more! I was thinking, maybe if I got started next JULY, I might actually get done with all the Christmas decor I want to do! (I told Mr O that when the old gal next door has to sell her house, she's 91, I need to buy it. He wasn't impressed, so guess he's not going to buy lottery tickets and try to get it for me someday. LOL) hugs, Karen

I usually fall UP the steps, which is very hard on your pretty little shins.... Now I have a carpeted stair story. There was an elegant elderly couple in my childhood neighborhood; he a judge, she a portrait painter; both of them very tall, with excellent carriage, and adorable personalities. One day, she was upstairs putting on her hat to go to a luncheon with her garden club, and she saw a crib mattress that her daughter was coming to pick up later in the day. So to get it down the stairs most efficiently, she positioned it at the top of the stairs, sat down on it, and rode it down the stairs, in her crepe afternoon dress and her white gloves and her flowered hat. At that moment, the taxi driver arrived at the front door, which was of course open except for the screen door. Just as he raised his hand to knock on the door, his perfectly proper passenger came sailing across the front hall on the baby mattress. Without a word of explanation, she stood up, settled her skirts, said "Good morning!" and went right out the door. I can only imagine the expression on his face.

All of us alive now lived through unsafe practices, but that doesn't mean they are safe. Car seats, in particular, reduce the risk of death by 71% in infants under a year old. You can be the safest driver in the world and it won't matter if somebody else slams into your car and the force of physics throws your child out of your arms and into the windshield. Since the recommendation, based on studies has suggested putting babies to sleep on their back without blankets and bumpers, SIDS rates have dropped dramatically. I'm sure some of those moms in the 50s- 80s whose babies died from SIDS wish they could go back and do it the "modern" way, even if others around them laughed. Drop side cribs were outlawed after years of recalls and over 30 children dying because the side came detached at the base and suffocated or strangled infants. My oldest 2 daughters were in drop side cribs, when the recall and ban happened and the company sent me repair kits to switch the beds to fixed side. With my next two, yes, it was slightly more of a pain but I wouldn't go back to drop side. Even my mom realized the issue and she and I took a saw to her old drop side from the 90s that she had kept for keeping grandbabies and threw it in the trash so no one else would try to use it. She has given me a hard time about modern parenting safety until I reminded her that she was an early adopter of car seats, before they were required and I'm sure she got chastized by her family for it. I sure do wish they still had merry-go-rounds on the playground though!

greenacresmama I absolutely agree with you that some things are better felt when one lives in the house already..thus can be considered better, chosen more wisely But. My experience..was it especially draining or just draining like everybody else's I can't judge(I am getting very exhausted easily lately that's true..disproportionally so) but after two years of re-building, I don't have it within myself to do anything significant. We have to do some hardscaping/landscaping yet..we looked at each other me and DH,,imagined going through something albeit much smaller even for a month or so..we told each other "next year"..we still have to install one closet..our guys didn't do it on time and we told them "we'll find somebody local"..6 month fast forward, still no closet.. no, I think-as hard as it was to imagine everything, plan everything, source everything, put everything together..be my own freaking designer..and lighting designer..:) (I'm the opposite..banned can lights from all spaces but utilitarian-kitchen, bath, corridor..but ceiling lights pendants and chandeliers are everywhere I could put them..that's how I grew up-we always had overhead lighting..and yes I have table lamps, sconces, floor lamps as well..love all lights, don't discriminate..except for poor can things..)..in short as hard as it was..it's past me. Mostly. I wouldn't have the stamina to go through things once again.. I'm happy to be at stage I'm agonizing over art placement..the rest is whatever. There's just a limit to that building/rebuilding/remodeling thing..I easily believe everybody has theirs, depending on age energy circumstances..I for now reached mine. I'm tired as hell-still. It's easier to be tired as hell in a house that is already what you envisioned it to be, more or less. But again. Putting my personal experience aside-there's wisdom in what you saying. One learns to know himself I suppose, and know his MO, and what will work for him. That's why I listed our previous place in the worst time possible..because I know my husband and his MO. We'd still be carrying that other house, caring for it trying to show it to sell or to rent it and handle the landlord thing..no. Just no. That would give us a bit more money. But it would do us in. Had to wrap this thing with handling two houses up. And my husband doesn't like wrapping things up. So I insisted. So we probably got 10-15 K less than if in spring market. But we kept at least some of our remaining sanity. (Of course judging by the sheer volume of this post it's hard to definitely tell lol)))