Have a Great Weekend.

I’ve got to thank you for featuring Ben Casnocha’s article about beginning things when you’re “almost ready.” I have been with my fiancee for nine and a half years, and we’ve been engaged for almost three, but I have put off even beginning to plan our wedding because I just never felt 100% ready. Either I hadn’t lost enough weight to go dress shopping, we weren’t financially secure enough, I didn’t feel mature enough to be taking such a big leap, etc, etc…but after reading Ben’s article, it clicked. I will never be 100% ready, or have achieved the self-imposed milestones I gave myself, to get married, but I HAVE felt for so long that I’m *almost* ready. With that being said, the wedding planning has finally commenced! Now I’m stressed but giddy, and wondering why I put it off for so long :)

The Larry David and Bernie Sanders article is blowing my MIND!!

Joanna – if at anytime you want to compile your best parenting advise you’ve learned from the web and your own personal experience, put it in a book and sell it to me… I’ll be all over that! I will save it until I have kids and then I will read it religiously! You post the most insightful things.

Also… I’ve been skydiving.. there was a rubber chicken hanging in the plane – the only chicken allowed…. and I had no choice once I was strapped to the instructor.. he basically threw me out of the plane

I’ve become so crazy about sunscreen the past few years with all of the info out there from levels of carcinogens (our skin soaks up 80% of what we put on it) to how they bleach corals and destroy fragile ocean ecosystems. I wonder how this Trader Joe’s one one rates on the Environmental Working Group list?

Re: Wonderful, wonderful advice for a teenage girl about sex you may be interested in reading or even featuring this blog http://thesexpositiveparent.com/

Last year when my Fiance’s father passed, the family all descended on the family home for 10 days. I’m close with them but, of course, was still new and somewhat an outsider. Being allowed to clean, and help with memorial planning tasks that others felt overwhelmed by was so helpful for me. Cleaning is my stress relief and it was good to feel productive and useful during such a hard time.

People brought tons of food, which was fantastic, but what blew us away was everyone who brought paper plates/cups/napkins, toilet paper, garbage bags and such. It was so nice to minimize dishes, and not think about the essentials, especially when there were so many people in and out of the house everyday.

Love love love the article about teaching teenagers about sex! I come from a pretty liberal background but I still didn’t feel like I was given the honest facts about what starting to have sex would be like. Thanks!

Loved Louisa’s comment/list!

I didn’t see last week’s list but I tell everyone I meet to read The Fear of Flying. I wiuld get my self in such a panic when I flew it was unbearable. I would almost fainted and hyperventilate. I read that book and flew to Hawaii, over the ocean (which was my biggest fear) with NO TROUBLE! It was amazing. There was even really bad tuberulance on the way home and I couldn’t have cared less.

I pick our sunscreen based on the info from the Environmental Working Group (http://www.ewg.org/). Scary stuff in sunscreen that increases our risk of cancer and threatens our reproductive abilities.

I loved the sex advice! Her natural way of approaching the subject is so refreshing and so lacking in so many conversations on the topic. She did that young lady such a service. One thing I would have added, and I would love to see people start telling young women, sex shouldn’t hurt. Not the first time, not any time. If a woman is properly primed for sex, and there are no underlying medical problems, it will not be painful.
I have seen it a thousand times in popular culture and it breaks my heart. We need to empower young women about their bodies and teach them how they prepare for sex so they can feel strong enough to speak up and slow down until they are physically ready.

Have you tried NetCost Market at Coney Island? Basically a Russian market with amazing prepared foods. We love grabbing picnic food there.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/netcost-market-brooklyn-2

When are you posting your house tour?

Awesome link-up :) I loved the Design Mom article about sex, wish i had read that when i was 18 !

Yep! When my mom died and people asked what they could do, if I knew they were serious, I asked them to clean or run errands for me. The best was the people who just did things for us without asking, because asking me what you can do creates work and mental strain. My best friend brought over groceries. She didn’t ask what we wanted, she just got the basics and some fancy treats and it was a godsend. My neighbor who I barely knew also brought over a fresh baked lasagne without asking.

Also something I found incredibly irritating was people who lived long distance asking me if they should come to the funeral. I was like…. if you want? The best was actually the people who didn’t come for the funeral, but came a few weeks after to visit instead. At that point, when everyone else had moved on, I really needed a lift.