Katishooked and Sapphire, now you know why our lists stopped being To Do ones and became Too Long To Do Lists instead. So many great ideas abound on this place, daily, we better all live forever to make even half what we want. As for where are we going to put it.....LOL, I'm not even going there on that one. Kirk's post is a great one to remember. Lots of folks 'forget' we have a conversation side where we can chat about everything else and really get to know one another. Lots of support and fun there too. And photos not garden junk. Pets, kids, silly stuff, you name it. No one can say we don't have fun on this Forum. LOL And if you need any prayers or support, this group is the BEST ever and can work a few miracles at times. Can you tell, I LOVE our little family here! This is my "other" home. hugs, Karen

Ehtno, If you hold the test strip right up against (or beside) the comparison chart, it shouldn't matter what light you're in as they'll both appear the same under the same light. At least that's how I do it with chlorine kits. Cole, While a 0.1 swing may be a big difference at the molecular level, I'm not sure how much it affects things globally. What I mean is the difference between 5.8 and 5.9 might be 10 times more free hydrogen ions, but from the plants ability to uptake nutrients, a 0.1 difference is not that much. If you're a fastidious person (which I am in some areas of interest: just not hydro) you can continually monitor and adjust your pH to keep it ideal. But for the average Joe hobbyist hydroponic grower, letting the pH fluctuate a bit isn't going to have dramatic effects on the plants growth.

Dumpsters are gone, beautiful new cedar siding is all in place, new window is in place, and the painter is coming out tomorrow. I've learned to schedule my friend when contractor's away, LOL. I'll post pictures when I can pry my kids off the home computer... The best story so far, the pressure wash guy was out the day the garage was supposed to come down, and I told him I'd call him in two weeks once I was ready to have the house painted. He showed up yesterday and drove right by the house. I'm standing out in the front yard watching him and his crew and his trailer go by thinking, what??? He gets to the end of the road, turns around, comes back, and stops in front of our house. He gets out and says "I didn't recognize your house!" I say "is that a good thing or a bad thing?" and he said, "No, it looks so good without the garage thingie!" It looks even better now that it's been gently (low pressure) washed, and all the concrete has been high pressure washed-you can barely see where the garage used to be and now it's a big flat perfect basketball sized playing slab (very hard to find in atlanta). It's exciting to see the diamond (which I KNEW was in here somewhere when I bought it) emerging from the rough...

Hey Ashley, I really like hearing your takes on situations too. You would be one of my top picks to be my stepmom ;) I realize I didnt make that sentence very clear. Many people I have known have either taken breaks from work, quit, took some time off to regroup etc. I've known many people who have used different ways of dealing with stress from divorce and have taken it out on work, mainly because divorce was so popular in my family lol. Also, I've seen just from observation (my field deals with a lot of people and travel, so I think I have a fairly balanced place to observe) where adults take mental "breaks" from work, can't function very well, get fired etc. There is usually something that "gives" when a couple divorces. A messier house, credit card ran up, lose your job. There are natural consequences of divorce on adults, my only point was that there are going to be natural consequences for children. If one or both divorced spouses have a hard time finding their footing after separate, chances are they aren't going to be quite that rock for their children. The chances are high than the child is not going to be able to function as well as before if this is the case. It is only natural that school will be something that could "give" in the childs life. It is one of the only things they can actually control. They can control how little or much effort they put forth and how much room they allow school into their head. If their head is too clouded with what is going on in their personal life, not much room for school. Just like parents and work.