I always cook my chicken/turkey bones a second time after removing the meat and storing it away. I keep the first broth in the fridge in quart-sized freezer containers, but I only fill each half way because I want to mix the second stock into the first before I pack it for the freezer. People are always surprised to see what nice broth you can get from just the bones, skin and gristle. Sometimes I will add water to the bones again after draining them, and stir this around. If the water starts looking like chicken stock, I'll cook the bones again. When I'm finished with the bones, they are soft and will collapse to a sort of a paste when you pinch them between your fingertips. I smush this stuff and bury it in my garden. I have to do it when the dog isn't watching though, and set something on top of it for a few days. I love my crockpot, too! I've never looked into what it costs to run it. I also have one of those big electric roasters that I always cook my Thanksgiving turkey in (and later use it to simmer the bones for broth) and Dawn, if you want something that cooks up a huge amount, you need that! But it would be hard to carry to a fire, now that I think about it. And I do save bits and tads of things. I don't like mixing my meats together so I will usually put them in wide-mouthed tapered pint canning jars and label them as to whether they are poultry, beef or pork. Sometimes I will make up a "tv dinner" if we have maybe one serving left of something, and put it in the freezer for later. I collect the liquids from canned vegetables and bits and pieces of veggies like tomatoes, celery, asparagus and outer cabbage leaves, in a plastic coffee jug in the freezer. When it's full I thaw it out, add add whatever I think it needs more of. Usually this is chicken or beef, some broth, and maybe a jar of canned tomatoes. A chopped onion. Add a can of mixed veggies from the store or a part of a bag of frozen. Actually I prefer the canned as it has potatoes in it. Heat all this up, add enough cornstarch to give it a nice smooth consistency. DH has a sensitive stomach so I don't spice it up. Just salt and pepper. If I'm feeding kids I add a little sugar, unless there's lots of liquid from canned corn in that batch. Yum.

I find that it's not an issue. I give it a tug and if I'm using it two hands to pick something up, it comes out at a good enough clip that by the time I the casserole is picked up, the drawer is out and ready to go down. What does surprise me sometimes is how far it comes out. I'm standing in front of it and want to just slide in a coffee cup and it scoots me out of the way when it opens a few inches farther than I'd expected. You CAN push it all the way in and it will zip in as fast as you can push. Or you can give it a gentle nudge and it will take a couple of seconds to close. Or if you've got a sloshy liquid, you can push the button and let it smoooothly shut with no spilling. I've had mine for about 6 weeks now and am loving it. Cooks evenly, is easy to clean, I like not having the turntable of my old microwave and is unobtrusive. And a bonus is that I can hang two dishtowels on the handle!

I dont know. I can't completely agree with everyone here. Zoe, I do think that you are exercising a little excessively. 3 hours or more a day is a little much, however, I think that 2 hours is okay, so I am not sure how much leeway there is with that. You should take days off at least twice a week, and when you feel that you are comfortable with your weight, or you have gone a few weeks with your weight/appearance unchanged, then you should consider weaning yourself down. An eating disorder? Well, based on a couple things you said these people can't be diagnosing you with an eating disorder. People realize that things are not always what they may seem to be and you are not as wise as you hope. Zoe, you should begin to think about your personal habits and not listen to every person that talks to you or posts a comment. Really, who ISNT motivated by their appearance to try and look better? At least you are trying to do something about it instead of jumping over to the nearest nip-tuck shop to get chopped and sewed back up. But realize that there needs to be limits and you need to figure out what those are based on YOUR lifestyle and not anyone else's. If your family is concerned about your health, then you really should talk to your doctor. He/she might be able to give you tips on how to exercise just as well in less time. Also, think about your life. None of us on this thing really know what your lifestyle is, if you work 12 hour shifts on top of this or if you are a housewife and spend a lot of time at home. No one can dictate whether this is interfering with your life but you and your family. You should consider their feelings in this as well as your own and perhaps set some boundaries for yourself (and work your way down to them, especially if you aren't ready to work out less yet) Give your body a break. Do take a couple of days off per week because the constant muscle strain can actually physically harm your muscles instead of what it was intended to do. (that might sound crazy but it is true, they need time to heal) Lastly, if you are suspecting an eating disorder, you need to think about this: Is this truly affecting your every day life? Is this something that interferes with other activities that you would normally be doing? What are your eating habits when you are not exercising? Are you taking at least 2000 to 2500 calories per day? You need that AT LEAST for the amount of exercise you do to sustain normal body functioning. If you are eating less than that amount of calories, your body works to break down the muscle you are trying to build to nourish itself. That's true! Also, do you do things like purging or binging on food at least 2-4 times per month? You don't need to answer these questions to the rest of the world on here, you need to ask them to yourself. And it never hurts to get that check up. Always try to keep yourself healthy. I know that you know that exercise is making your more healthy, even if the underlying reason is appearance. That's my motivator too, and I understand where you are coming from. Take care, I hope that I could help.

I really dont feel like his homework load is that much. The longest part of his homework is the read for 30 minutes, and I usually try to let him have a break between the reading and doing the book response. I have been teaching him to write down important things while he is reading so that he remembers them when he is writing his book response. Which, like I said is answering a question like Did you identify with the main character or What did you like about the book or dislike?.... There is sometimes another worksheet or something and sometimes more over the weekend but then you have the whole weekend to work on it. And, while I dont necessarily think homework always helps... in his case I think homework is necessary because he doesnt pay attention in class or do classwork half the time so he really needs the opportunity to think for himself and make sure he knows the information given him. And yes, he is aware that his brother will be in the same grade as him if he fails and it upsets him when we talk about it and he doesnt want that to happen. And like I said, he gets really upset and down on himself when he gets bad grades but right up until he actually gets the bad grade ... it is like is doesnt phase him at all. It doesnt encourage him to work harder or even do all the work for that matter... And, coincidentally enough last night I came home to find out that he didnt do a summary he was supposed to do the night before and apparently the teacher let bm know and that he had spring break to get it done or it would be a zero. Last night we went from him arguing with dad that he didnt have to do it for two weeks... to he did it but he left it at his moms house... to just sitting there doing nothing until I said enough ... put it up go to bed you can start again tomorrow. So, he is at work with me today sitting at the other desk in my office with no distractions trying to get it done. He spent hours and hours reading a six page short story last night. I finally sat down and told him if he didnt make the choice to straighten up and start doing what he was supposed to be doing I would not be signing him up for football and that he was grounded for the rest of the day. I don't know maybe the threat of losing football will work since that is something he really really wants to do. I do like the line of "your teacher can't tell your smart by looking at you...." He has been in summer programs through the school in the past and he was in tutoring throughout this year. But, truthfully I did not want to put him into tutoring... they didnt really do that much that was actually helpful in tutoring and I think there is a line between making sure he succeeds and just overloading him and making him burnout. It is not that he doesnt know or understand the stuff (which is what I feel like tutoring is more for) he just doesnt do it. However bm pitched a fit about getting him into tutoring... and then didnt do anything about it so I called up the county and got the paper work and signed him up just to keep the peace. And the summer program was about the same. I did talk to DH last night and regardless I am going to get the homeschooling supplies for the fourth grade (they have some really great computer programs and he loves techy stuff and the computer) and this summer he is going to work with that. It will be like part of his chores get up get dressed clean your room do what ever other chore is yours for that day do an assignment on computer ... go play and do your thing. That way we know he at least has a back up to make sure that he is getting what he needs to get out of fourth grade. Other than that I am not sure what to do. I am not even sure that I should have thrown the football threat out there but last year he really made an effort knowing his grades had to be up to get into football... So, I am hoping something will click for him.