We are starting with Greek. We chose it because: 1) I had a semester of Greek in college, so it isn't brand new to me (where Latin is), and 2) our modern language is German, which I speak fairly fluently and DH speaks a little. German and Greek are in the same language tree. If we were doing Spanish or French, we'd probably do Latin. We have "Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek." We've not gone very far in it yet. I've heard both 'Elementary Greek' (Christine Gatchell) and Song School Greek/Greek for Children (Christopher Perrin) recommended over 'Hey, Andrew,' but it's working so far, and we're already invested in it, so we're sticking with it for now.

Well, she said, for today, "Purple, especially light purple; violet." (Usually, she says, "Pink.")

Ummm, I think I'll turn off the internet and go do something useful now.... (I did run to the store to pick up some anti-histamine for my daughter's mosquito bites...does that count at all?)

Mmmm, foil dinners....now I'm getting hungry. Our favorite combination is a hamburger patty; sliced potatoes, carrots, and onions; and a sprig or two of fresh herbs, like rosemary and sage. Two deserts you can do in foil are pineapple upside down cake and "banana boats." -------- For pineapple upside down cake, you need: -a plain, unfrosted cake donut for each person. (Our grocery store bakery sometimes sells these, and will always set some aside unfrosted if I call/stop by in advance to order some.) -a can of pineapple rings -butter or margarine -brown sugar -cinnamon Slice the donuts like you would a bagel. Lay one half on your foil. Put on one pineapple ring. Put on a little pat of butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Top with the other half of the donut. Wrap the foil around, and lay the bundle in the hot coals or ashes (not directly in the flames). You only need a few minutes per side, since you are just melting the butter and letting the sugars caramelize a bit. ------- For banana boats: -a banana for each person -chocolate chips -mini-marshmallows Hold the banana like a smilie and peel just the top strip, leaving it attached at the bottom. Cut a wedge out of the exposed banana and set that aside. Fill the hole with mini marshmallows and chocoate chips. Put the wedge back on (or not, sometimes we just eat that). Pull the skin back over. Depending on how you feel about the flavor of ashes :D , either lay the banana in hot ashes or wrap in tinfoil first, being careful to keep the filled wedge up. Wait long enough for everything to turn into a gooey mess, then enjoy. ----------- We also like to do the cool things like boiling an egg in a paper cup (the cup quickly burns down to the water line, but no further).

The biblical Peter was originally named 'Simon'; when Jesus called him to follow Him, He renamed him 'Cephas' (in Aramaic), which is the same as 'Peter' (in Greek.) Would 'Simon' or 'Cephas' work?

My step-mother, who is very into emergency preparedness, told me to buy heirloom seeds because they produce a plant that produces seeds that are viable, which you can then replant, grow new plants, eat the fruit, replant the seeds, etc. The "regular" seeds one buys and plants will produce the desired vegetable suitable for eating, but the seeds of that vegetable often aren't viable (because the plant has been engineered for extra large fruit or whatever the desired characteristic may be.) So, those who predict shortages want the heirloom seeds so they can have endless produce without having to rely on buying new seeds each year. (You just save some back each year the way frontier farmers used to do.) -- Oops, simultaneous posting. I just became redundant! :D

Interesting. Was your grandma of German descent? (The German word is "Gummi-band.")

Elastic. As opposed to a rubber band, which is the thing you put around a bundle of papers, and which would pull all your hair out by the roots if you made the mistake of putting one in there.

I think I've had my eyes dilated twice now: once when I developed a corneal abrasion my first year of college or so, and once soon after I turned 40. My doctor does have the scanner thing, which his assistant does every visit. My poor DH, though, who is diabetic, gets his eyes dilated every year, plus the scanner thing. So far, knock on wood, no retinal neuropathy, but there's a family history of it. That took most of his dad's sight because of hid diabetes.

Well, it would be (8 - 2)/2, which they wouldn't know yet. How about: "We have 8 animals total. We can take away the 2 extra crocodiles. Now we have 6 animals. Half of the animals left over here are hippos and half are crocodiles. What would that number be?" A first grader can probably intuitively grasp that half of 6 is 3, even if they don't know division yet.

They have Doctrine & Covenants. They don't have Pearl of Great Price. We used these as bedtime readers until we'd been through all of them once. We were starting back around and had done New Testament again when my son asked for "the real scriptures, please, Mommy." We've now done Book of Mormon and about half of the New Testament with the "real scriptures." DD6 thinks "they're boring," but she does fall asleep quickly! :D, so it's all good! (I should say, this is after prayers and separate from family scripture time - something that still needs work around here. DS8 likes me to read scriptures until he falls asleep and says he sleeps better and doesn't have bad dreams. I've wondered about that, because sometimes he's fallen asleep right in the middle of some "oh, ye hypocrites" or some other really stern parts that would make me lie awake at night, but I guess he's got a clearer conscience. :D) We've done FHE out of Gospel Principles, too, and it works well.

When I heard some similar things about my son, I really thought a lot about what to do. I finally decided it boiled down to this: What will it change if your son gets diagnosed with one of those disorders? Will you medicate? Seek special services? If so, then get the opinion of your pediatrician and act on his or her advice. If not, the diagnosis won't change who he is. And it shouldn't significantly change how you interact with him. (In the end, I did discuss it with our family practitioner. Along the lines of, "I don't think this is true, but some people have suggested my son is...." In our case, she agreed with me.)

oohhhh....it's beautiful....

I know two tricks. For any actually visible mold, sprinkle on dry baking soda and gently brush off with an old, dry toothbrush. For odor, get some two gallon plastic seal-able food bags and some cedar chips (often sold in the pet row to put in the bottom of hamster cages). Put one book and several cups of cedar chips in a bag. I've heard the oil in the cedar chips can stain the books, so I usually loosely wrap the book in a single layer of paper towel. Seal the bag and store for a couple of days. I don't know that either method will complete restore the books, but they can greatly improve them. If you live in a dryer climate, sunshine and outdoor air can help, too. Oh, and don't store them on the same shelf as other books. (Or leave some space.) The smell and the mold can transfer.

Our library also provides online account information and email notices, as does the other library with whom we have reciprocal privileges. We keep all library books either on top of the piano or on a nearby table and the kids can take away one at a time. However, we live in a smallish, one-level ranch, so there aren't a lot of places books can go. Movies are a little harder. We don't check them out as often for that reason. Netflix discs sometimes spend a long time at our house because we've misplaced either the disc, the sleeve, our the return mailer.

My favorite enrichment night ever was on knife skills ("How to use your chef's knife") taught by Prof. Nora Nyland. I've never learned so much. For instance, did you know you should choose the length of your knife based on your height? The second most useful enrichment night ever was one on estate planning taught by our former bishop who is a retired estate lawyer.

I need to get back on my diet. Protein helps with the hunger. I always got hungriest at mid-morning, so for that snack, I made myself fake egg muffins using the liquid egg substitutes (microwaved in a small round flat-bottomed bowl to get the right shape), sandwich thins, and sometimes low-fat cheese. (Or sometimes a strip of turkey bacon.) Non-fat yogurt Almonds ---- I also have a really hard time not having chocolate, so I allow myself a small piece or two per day. Usually something dark and chewy, so I get to have it in my mouth for a long time. (Like Tootsie rolls or Riesens.) The chocolate addict's diet ;)

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I'm the oldest of three. The other two are boys, so I'm an only daughter. DH is second of four - girl, boy, girl, boy - so he the oldest boy. None of DH's sibs homeschool, but my first brother and his wife (who is the oldest in her family) homeschool three of their seven.

I'm married to a diabetic. His three sibs are diabetic, and his dad was a diabetic. My son has reactive hypoglycemia. It looks pretty insane in a child. I've been asked more than once if he was ADHD when he was having an episode. He does fine with carbs as long as they are not eaten alone. He needs protein with each meal or snack. Get (or do) an A1c. It gives a better overall picture than single tests. When you monitor, monitor both fasting and two hours after eating ("postprandial".) Diabetics are "supposed" to have bad numbers in both places, according to the information general practioners have been trained with, but it isn't really so. A small but significant number have problems with one number, but not the other. DH, for instance, has nearly normal (or even too low) numbers fasting, but bad numbers postprandial. (I think you are supposed to be about 75-90 fasting and I know it's 110-140 postprandial.) And, yep, the glucometer manufacturers get you on the strips. Many will even give you the monitors for free through doctors/diabetes counselors, etc. They know they've got a monthly customer who must buy only their brand of strips.

Um, well, DH is dyslexic, so obviously reading isn't his preferred learning style!:D (He can and does read, but mostly to stay up-to-date in his field.) He complains about the number of books we have and buying more, but doesn't really hesitate when we ask for anything hands-on, like electronics or science supplies and often adds in things that catch his eye. (Which sometimes is a problem, too: "Hey, that was my book money!")

Well, my kids are a lot more "free-range" than they would have been if I'd had them when I was younger . . .I was 36, 38, and right on my 44th birthday for our three births . . . and maybe that's why He timed things the way He did. Some things would have been easier: I probably wouldn't have developed preeclampsia with the last and I would have recovered faster, etc. Some things are just right the way we are: we had a house already, we'd already gotten a handle on DH's diabetes, and we are a lot more relaxed in our parenting.

:cheers2::hurray: I wasn't going to give it up anyway. I worked doing proofreading for a number of years and that was one of my two pet peeves. (The other was using "they" as a gender neutral singular pronoun.)

We school where we're at. Reading of any kind often gets done in the bedroom; anything messy gets done in the kitchen; most things requiring writing gets done in the living room, where we have some good sized personal tables and an easel/whiteboard. Sometimes we even go out in the RV, which local ordinance allows us to park in our own driveway. There are less distractions out there, somehow. (We have a second easel/whiteboard out there.) We've also done school at picnic tables in RV campgrounds when we have the chance to travel. Anything on CD tends to get done in the car. (Foreign language, music appreciation, SOTW w/ Jim Weiss, etc.)

Suspenders? My mom used to rely on Slimfit Toughskins for my brothers with no hips, but I don't think they go that big. I have the opposite problem: DD6 has a very round tushie and sturdy thighs, like her mom and dad, so I have a really hard time finding her jeans in this age of low-rise (mid-rise, at best) pants that she can wear without mooning everyone!:rolleyes: When she was a toddler, I solved the problem by buying her boy jeans. (They were meant to accommodate a diaper anyway.) (I know from shopping for myself that you can only get high-rise in the old ladies department.)