I rented a community garden plot this year. Mark questioned whether we could maintain a 15×20 garden plot three miles away when we can’t even keep a houseplant alive. But I went ahead anyway. While working in it, it has occurred to me that tending a garden is much like tending a kid’s bedroom. 1. If you are lucky, you start with a clean slate, but more often than not you start with a jungle. 2. You include the kids in the work to teach them about organization, responsibility, the life cycle, contributing to your family, etc. etc. 3....

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Have you noticed that kids’ DVDs have a million previews on them? And on some they are difficult if not impossible to skip? Here’s the solution: Burn a copy of it (for only your own use of course) but leave off the previews and title menus and everything but the feature film. That way you pop it in and your movie starts immediately. No hitting menu or fast-forward or even play. Bonus: If your kids scratch the living daylights out of the DVD or smear peanut butter on it or otherwise render it unplayable, you still have the original...

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