The one glue that I find useful for lots of projects is call "Quick Grip" and I get it at JoAnn's Sewing and Hobby. Other places may also have it. It only takes a tiny drop, hold your pieces together for just maybe 2 seconds and it holds things together without clamping them or whatever you do to hold things together until they are dry. It is also invisible and works on all sorts of products and is water and weather proof. Good Luck !.

I've been shopping for a couch and possibly a love seat or a chair or two depending on what layout I can make work. I'm 5'1" and I think I've sat in about half the couches in stores the Sacramento area now. Most stores have between none and 2 models that work for me. Sat in one Flexsteel that almost worked for me so they have some that will work for you depending how short you are. Scandanavian Designs had a few that worked well. The Pavia sofas and chairs were relatively reasonably priced and comfortable for me and my 5' 10" husband. The Ekornes Stressless sofas are extremely comfortable for us but cost a lot more. We are currently debating whether to go with the very expensive Ekornes or the much cheaper not quite as comfortable still very comfortable Pavia. There were a few at Lazyboy (of all places) that were about as comfortable as the Pavia and I'm thinking of going back there to look at their reclining sofas now that we're considering the Stressless reclining sofas. Lazyboy has some pretty transitional not-your-father's Lazyboy models. At both the Lazyboy store and Scandanavian Designs, the sales person was good at directing me to sofas that would work for a short person. I still tried a few other ones to check their judgement but the good sales staff saved me time and effort. Ikea couches didn't work for me. They were too deep and a bit too high. I found a model at Crate and Barrel that was okay but not as good a fit as the others I've mentioned and style wise it wasn't as good a fit either.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, who says you "should" be able to do everything? If you started a business, which involves fewer actual areas of work than running a house and raising children, you would hire someone part-time to do your accounting and your office management as soon as you could afford it, and as you grew the business you would expand your staff and put your energy into the core business, wouldn't you? The difference, at first look, would be that a business brings in revenue, and housekeeping doesn't...but in fact, concentrating on the management of a house allows you time to be creative in economizing and making use of your resources, which often translates to a cleaning person at least every other week. For instance...you feel your house is in order, so you don't leave the house to go shopping. You are happier and less anxious about mess, so you find more ways to engage your children in keeping their home nice, and they don't grow up thinking mothers are servants...the boys make better husbands and the girls don't inherit the idea that they are servants. You love to cook, and so because you aren't overwhelmed, you save a ton of money and increase your health by not buying fast- or junk-food. You aren't so tired and distracted by chores all the time, so you and your husband have a better chance at more, shall we say, private time, which gives him confidence and energy to do better at work, and makes him like you so much that he offers to do laundry. Well, maybe not laundry... Burt you get the idea. I was well into my forties before I suddenly looked up and realized that what my family really wanted was a happy, amusing, loving person at home, and to be that, I had to look first to maintenance of my spirit, and second, to the abandonment of ideas of perfection. I shut up now.....

ttodd, I wanted to share my experiences with you. My mom and her husband (only grandfather my kids knew) built each child a dollhouse. And let me tell you these were not your ordinary dollhouses. They started out as a kit, and as in real life, there were lots of upgrades. He absolutely loved woking on them. There is copper flashing, shaker roofs, gutters,etc. My mom decorated the interiors, and they were incredible. Each girl got one (different years), and then they made my son a horse barn. Everything was electrified (I highly recommend that for the lights!) Here is the only downside. They are huge. They are a pain to store when they get older. My kids are 23,21,and 19. They are not in homes of their own yet, so we are storing them, but they will take them eventually. They are on rolling platforms, so the kids could push them up against a wall, and then roll them out when they wanted to play. I have quite a love/hate relationship with the dollhouses. Of course the love far outweighs the hate. My mom passed away about 11 years ago, so it is really special to see what she did. Oh, and both of the girls had a box of Christmas decorations (including lights) to put up on the outside of the house as well as the inside. Also had a Spring collection of things too, to decorate with flowers, etc. btw, while we are getting the house ready to be sold, they have all been removed to a friend's house. I think my house looks bigger now without them in there!!!