I know that there is a chocolate mousse yogurt put out by Dannon, but I don't know how to make it. Other ideas: Cold: Cold broth Hummus (Recipe follows) Peanut butter (whipped with a little honey and milk if it's too thick to eat) Warm: Mashed potatoes Cider (great treat in the cold weather, anyway) Grits Cream of wheat (with applesauce mixed in) pureed soups (which you are already doing) Hummus Recipe 2 - 3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced 2 - 3 green onions, sliced into 1" pieces a handful of parsley 16 oz can of chick peas/garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed well 6 TBSP tahini 6 TBSP fresh lemon juice 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp cayenne salt to taste Chop the garlic, green onions and parsley in food processor. (But don't puree yet.) Add the remaining ingredients and set on high until the mixture is smooth. Add water if it needs thinning. Normally I would eat this on carrot sticks, but I feed it to my son straight. Smoothies: 1/4 c. frozen blueberries 1/4 c. frozen strawberries 1/4 c. pineapple yogurt 1/2 c. orange juice OR 1 really ripe banana (frozen) 1/2 tsp. vanilla (or to taste) 1/2 c. milk (or to desired consistency) I hope your DD feels better soon! ~Amanda

I just want to caution you to tread carefully when interfering with teen love. Studies have been done on this topic, and it is NOT true that loves from your 20s are stronger or more important than young/teen loves. In fact, the opposite is true. Young, teen loves often form the strongest bonds of any love relationship in your life. Scientists believe that there is a hormonal "imprint" that these early loves have on one another's brains very similar to the "imprint" that babies and mothers experience. When these loves are disrupted because of parental interference/disapproval, it can have devastating lifelong effects on the couples' ability to form lasting and fulfilling love relationships in their adult years because they are haunted by unfinished business. Don't diss young love. It IS the real thing. I'm attaching a link to the website of Dr. Nancy Kalish, who has done a lot of research on young love, and the effects of reunions between teen lovers in adulthood. Although my children are both very young, I believe very strongly that you must allow your children enough freedom to form these attachments and see them through to their own natural course. Some WILL end up happily married right out of high school. Some will break up because they're not getting along. But the most important thing we can do as parents is talk to our children about the importance of love, what real love looks like, and make sure they are safe. Make sure your children know their values, are prepared and know what they need to and want to do when it comes to s*x, and encourage them to bring their girlfriends and boyfriends home so that you can keep an eye on the situation without making them feel like star-crossed lovers. I'm not looking forward to this period in my children's lives because it makes me nervous, but I do hope they find and know real romantic love. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Dr. Nancy Kalish

well it's a month later and it's all too real now! the new countertops were delivered yesterday in the snowstorm and my carpenter shows up monday for installation and to help me move all this furniture and boxs into either the storage unit, goodwill or to the lady selling the excess on ebay for me. whew it's a massive undertaking but i am taking the elephant dinner approach, one small bite at a time. and we've been able to line up a camp for the summer right on the water so we realise we can spend winters somewhere else or traveling, which sounds wonderful right about now. i may still find a home or home site i can't live without, but it's nice to have the choices we do all of a sudden! staging and photo shoot on the 25th, i'll be back to show it off to you.

We're 100+ miles away. They do take long bicycle trips, but I'm guessing they drove there. It's a beautiful day for it today: Breezy, with a high of 76 in Manhattan.