janandmar

For a few weeks now I've smelled this burning leaves smell coming from my Ford Explorer. At first I thought maybe it really was leaves stuck somewhere under the hood but now that the trees are pretty well bare and I've given it a few weeks I'm certain it's not.

The smell used to come and go but now it's pretty constant. It doesn't seem to be coming from the vents (AC or heat) and it comes on pretty quickly after starting the car. It's an automatic, '93 Explorer. The smell is not an oil or rubber smell... definitely something like leaves or paper (like what you smell outside during fall). The car is running fine right now (for a '93). The check engine light did come on randomly during a trip a few weeks ago but hasn't come on again since.

My husband has not had time to look at it, though he did recently check oil and refill transmission fluid for me. I just don't want it to be something we could fix now that turns into something major if we put it off too long.

Any ideas where to start?

I weaned off Zoloft completely about a week ago and now I'm experiencing some terrible withdrawal symptoms. For about a week I was trembling terribly and could barely load the dishwasher. Now that is gone but I have an incredible pulsing feeling in my head and face that gets worse with stress or noise. I'm struggling to take care of my kids during the day and this new pulsing feeling isn't letting up. I don't know whether to go back on to wean off more slowly or if I should just wait it out and hope it goes away in another week. I am doing this under the guidance of my doctor and followed her weaning schedule. I haven't added any other meds either. Any advice you might have would be very helpful!

We had a three wheeled pedal toy in the shape of a turtle when we were kids. The handles were yellow and you sat on the back of the turtle which dipped down and was a grass green color. It was plastic and it was likely made by Fischer Price. It was bought back in the early to mid 80s. Does anyone know what this toy is officially called, who it was made by or have a link to it? I'd love to get a picture of it.

Our computer is seriously malfunctioning and we need to reinstall Windows XP. We are working on backing up all our data and locating the cds for the various programs we will want to reinstall. The only problem is we can't find a cd for Photoshop and we don't want to lose it with the reinstall. Can anyone tell me if there is an easy way to "copy" it or somehow get it so we can reinstall it without the cd?

We seem to have accumulated a lot of extra boxes of Cheerios and we are not going through them fast enough! No one really eats them as breakfast cereal anymore but I do make a snack mix for my 1 and 3 year old (I mix it with other dry cereal to keep in the diaper bag as a snack to-go) and I also make a Chex mix type snack mostly for me and my husband. I'm also thinking about helping my kids make some sort of Cheerio wreath for outside that the birds could eat but not sure what I would string it on to make it look wreath like.

Does anyone have any other clever ideas or recipes to use up these Cheerios? Preferably something healthy and appropriate for the little ones. :) Thanks!

I am at a loss as to how to handle my almost 4 year old daughter. Please read this and tell me what you think.

She does the typical preschooler stuff but to an extreme degree. She is very intense about everything. She has a lot of good - great - qualities but unfortunately they rarely come out at home these days. Instead she is constantly provoking me by pulling hair, poking her finger in my face, etc. and totally ignores me when I tell her to stop. I thought it was an attention thing so I'm trying to give her more focused attention but instead she's only increased this behavior. She does not do this to her dad (at least not nearly as much).

She has also been very mean to her 1 1/2 year old sister. Especially if she is frustrated she will just walk up to her and slap her right across the face. She screams at the top of her lungs if her sister comes near "her" things and today she even peed in her pants because she didn't want to risk her sister getting her toys while she went on the potty.

I am getting overwhelmed with her behavior and don't know what to do. She is well behaved at preschool, grandma's, etc. but at home she can be a real terror. We have to hold the door shut to her room for time out because she is so wild and out of control. We are very loving parents and really want to do what is right for our kids - I just don't know where this behavior came from or what to do about it. Please help!

I'm looking for an online calculator that will help me modify a recipe by ingredient. I can only find ones that double or half the recipe or reduce/increase it by serving size. What I would like is one where you can enter the original recipe and then change the specific measurement of one ingredient and it will convert the rest for you. For example, if it calls for 4 1/2 cups of flour but I only have 2 3/4 cups... something that does the rest of the math for me. Anyone know if this kind of calculator exists???

I have a recipe but I only have a certain amount of one ingredient. I'm having trouble figuring out the conversion. Here's the original recipe:

1.25 lb (2.5c) butter

1.25 c sugar

4.25 c flour

I only have 1/2 lb/1c of butter. Can anyone tell me the right way to convert this???

I'm looking for ideas to solve a little problem we've been having at our church.

After the first morning service which many families with young children go to there is a half hour break before the kids run off to Sunday school. This leaves most of the families waiting around in the church hall killing some time. The kids obviously have some pent up energy because their favorite game is to run screaming up and down the long hallway outside the chapel. It would be nice to "let kids be kids" in this instance but it clearly annoys some of the older and childless parishoners and there is another service going on in the chapel after that first service and the noise can be heard inside.

The problem is growing both in number of kids and volume! My kids are a part of the crowd and I feel like I am constantly having to slow them down and "shhh" them quiet. Plus, my little one under 2 doesn't really know when she's being to loud - she just follows the older ones.

There isn't really anywhere else for the kids to get the energy out - not outside or another part of the church. I'm trying to think of some activities or toys us parents could provide to keep them somewhat contained and quiet while still letting them play. Coloring seems like a good idea but they get enough of that at Sunday school that it probably wouldn't keep their attention.

Any ideas to solve this problem? It needs to be somewhat quiet, can fit in a relatively small space and is easy to clean up or doesn't make a huge mess! Thanks for any ideas! The more the merrier! :)

I am helping out a family in need this Christmas and don't know them personally. I am having trouble knowing what to get with the 8-10 year old boy as a gift. All I know is that they had a robotics set and hotwheels cars on his list. He is likely autistic but they are in the process of getting a diagnosis. Can anyone give me some other ideas of gifts he might like? Books maybe? A personalized box to put treasures in?

I don't have a huge movie collection but still have a lot of vhs. I'd love to replace these with dvds but don't want to spend a lot either. Is there a place I can buy dvds online for cheap? Like $1? Some of my titles are Saving Private Ryan, Star Wars Trilogy, Run Lola Run, etc. I DO have the means to copy these on to dvd but I DON'T want to. I'd like to replace them with the actual thing. Thanks!

We picked up a play kitchen from the curb and when I went to clean it the black residue on it would not come off. If you get close enough it smells like cigarette smoke but looks black like dirt or mold. I tried dish soap, a natural all surface cleaner, baking soda and vinegar so far. The vinegar worked the best and what came off was that yellowish brown like smoke residue. It still took a lot of elbow grease and the thing is still all speckly black. Anyone have any other ideas of what I could use? I hate to use harsh chemicals like bleach but I don't want this thing gradually stinking up our house and making my girls sick either. Thanks!

I really want to cover a chain link fence that seperates our neighborhood from the interstate with a fast growing vine. The fence belongs to the city but the area receives little maintenance. I was looking for a plant that I could spread from seed and that would not require a lot of care. Virginia Creeper seemed to be a good option as it can grow in lots of different conditions, grows fast and is hard to kill.

Just wondering, if I just walk along the fence dropping these seeds (this is not for a garden so I don't want the actual plants) will that be enough to start these plants out? Also, if I plant them now will they have the right amount of time to grow this year still or do I need to wait until fall?

Anyone with answers? Thanks! Can't wait to get rid of the sites and sounds of cars going 55!

My Simplicity Chelsea 4in1 crib (m. 8324H) was just recalled and Baby Depot says since I don't have the receipt (from 3 years ago) they can only give me a $50 store credit to replace it which is less than half the price of their cheapest crib! Does anyone know a better solution to replacing this recalled crib? Has anyone had better luck dealing with Toys R Us or Walmart on the Simplicity brand recalls?

Thanks for your help!

I know questions like this should be directed to an actual doctor but I'm just looking for opinions or personal experience here.

My 8 month old daughter does not really show much interest in rolling or crawling. I have yet to see her roll from back to front on her own. She is more likely to try rolling when she's on something soft like the bed or, of course, at 4 am when we are trying to change her diaper! If I put her on the floor during the day and try to entice her with toys she just lays there totally content and just reaches out with her little finger to try and touch it... no effort to roll or scoot to it.

Also, we started solids at 6 1/2 months and it went well for the first couple weeks. She was up to several different kinds of foods and then I tried peas and it was a nightmare. She was terribly crabby for 3 or 4 days and at the end of it she had a massive, painful poop that was pretty much pure peas from 4 days prior! After that incident we went back to some of the other foods she had tried and now it seems any time we give her anything but rice cereal she gets irritable for the next day or so. Right now she gets breastmilk and maybe 1 tbsp at the most of rice cereal mixed with breastmilk and that is all. I also tried cheerios but accidently on the day she started bananas too so I don't know which irritated her. It seems like she should be eating a lot more than this... I see "menu" suggestions for babies this age and it is about 10x the food she is getting!

I have a 3 year old girl too who was active even as a newborn and was always moving. She was also so fascinated by food that she just gobbled it up so I have no idea how to gauge what is normal. It seems everyone else's baby, even the younger ones, are way more ahead. Our baby seems happy and is a good weight but I still don't feel quite settled about all of this.

Any thoughts??? Thanks!

We have too many containers of baby food that will never actually be eaten by our baby and it is just me, my husband, our 3 year old and the baby in our house. I would really like to use up this baby food and am wondering if anyone has any good ideas as to how I could use it up. We have baby meats in gravy, veggie and fruit purees.

My current ideas are...

Add apples to our regular applesauce

Make "popsicles" with the fruit and yogurt or milk (can it even be frozen?)

Add fruit to plain or vanilla yogurt

Use the baby meat as gravy for our meat (what do you think about that one?)

I'm at quite a loss as to what to do with the veggies... squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, carrots, etc.

Any other ideas? Get creative! I will give whatever is leftover to the food pantry but I'd really like to try to use it up for my own family first. THANKS!

Our almost 3 year old is becoming totally out of control. She used to behave so well and then after her baby sister was born we kind of let things slide (I had PPD so we had bigger issues to work out) and now we are paying for it! She DOES NOT listen to us and we feel like we've tried everything!

She's had 2 baskets of toys taken away since Thursday and she hasn't even missed them... won't pick up the rest of her toys so she can get the others back. She thinks the time out chair is a fun game and used to move her chair around. We got a heavier chair but she still doesn't sit on it - she just rolls around on the floor and has this gleam in her eyes like she knows she's being bad. We've tried the Supernanny put her back on the chair a thousand times technique but it doesn't seem to be working. The only thing that has ever worked for her is to put her in the crib in her room and close the door. That gives her time to calm down on her own (and me too) and she is usually pleasant after that for awhile. She is now in a toddler bed though and we will need the crib for her baby sister soon so that will not work forever.

Help! We need solutions! I'm running out of ideas and patience and so sick of everything being a fight with her... eating lunch, taking naps, going out, etc! Any ideas?

I just asked how SAHMs manage it all and I suppose I should have seen the "do only what NEEDS to be done" response. Don't get me wrong, that is a very helpful response and I often get caught up in doing uneccessary work, but I'm wondering this... do any of you ever get to the point where you have put things off that didn't "need" to get done so long that you finally got to a point where you didn't have any clean dishes to eat off of, your sink smelled like something died in it, your kids had nothing clean to wear, you just used your very last diaper that you stole from the diaper bag... again... and you had overdue bills to pay? I really try not to be a perfectionist about housework but even when I'm doing the bare minimum I'm still not managing... it all just piles up eventually!

My husband is very loving and helpful but he works 2 jobs and still does as many of the chores as he can... I still feel resentful sometimes but that's my own problem and I know he does his best. Also, I know that it does make a difference to be a SAH parent because when you are at work you aren't making a bunch of dirty dishes, having toys spread all over the floor throughout the day, and having the utter exhaustion of caring for a toddler and baby ALL DAY LONG! Plus, I don't have the convenience of a lunch break to get my quick errands done (no errands are "quick" when hauling 2 kids along).

Ok, I think I'm mostly just venting now. I love you all and respect your opinions so please don't take offense. I'm just at a loss with how to manage my days. Thanks!

I'm a SAHM of an almost 3 year old and 8 month old and I am at my wits end dealing with toddler tantrums, breastfeeding, baby teething, lack of sleep, cleaning, organizing, shopping, bills, etc. When my husband comes home we have dinner and baths (which I used to do during the day but no longer have the energy) and bedtime which is all complicated by the extreme willfullness of our toddler. By the time the kids are both sleeping we are completely exhausted and usually wind up falling asleep on the couch so nothing really gets done at night either.

So, I'm wondering, how do you other SAHMs manage it all? I've tried making a chore schedule, plowing throught the fatigue to keep up and now I'm considering hiring someone a couple days a week to come give me a break so I can get things done or get some rest. It just seems no matter what I do I'm tired, crabby and resentful that my husband doesn't take charge of more "to-do's" even though he works a lot... and yes, we've already had many many discussions about it.

Please help me! I feel like I want to just fly off to a tropical island and lay on the beach for a week with nothing to do... unfortunately, there is laundry, dishes, bills to be payed, dinner to be made, a trip to the store for wipes and phone calls to be made all today! And if I don't do it today, it gets added to the list tomorrow! Ahhh!

I will be interviewing a local college student in person next week to work for me as a mother's helper (watching children while I am at home tending to other things). I've already spoken to her on the phone and barring any warning signs when I meet her in person I do plan to hire her.

I want her to fill out a profile I can keep with her basic info (name, address, etc.) plus a checklist of things she would be comfortable doing and her availability. I don't want to leave any info out that I might need later. Also, I'm thinking of making up a quick sheet about caring for my 2 daughters (toddler and baby) so she has something to refer to at first. Maybe even have a contract for us to sign?

Anyone have any suggestions as to what info I need from her or what info she needs from me? Anyone ever hire a mother's helper and can give me some advice? THANKS!