Prague is beautiful. The castle is amazing! The Old Town, Jewish Quarter, Charles Bridge are all very interesting to see. The food is really good and inexpensive. Cesky Krumlov is very beautiful too. We also did a day trip to Franz Ferdinand castle, Konopiste and that really brought his part of history to life. His family's belongings are well preserved including what they were wearing when they were assassinated . In Prague you can see the major sights of Operation Antropoid. The church where they were killed is worth a visit. Maybe you could watch the movie before you go. My husband loves history so we saw all that kind of stuff. Another interesting day trip is to the village of Lidice where the massacre of the entire village took place. There is a museum and you can take guided tours. We thought it was important for our kids to see these kinds of things. ETA: On a lighter note, my dh enjoyed the Pilsner Urquell Brewery Tour with a friend. I had a shopping day with the girls.

So sorry for your loss. I can't imagine. Prayers for you and your family.

Sebastian did a great job of explaining everything. I would just like to add that when you are in ROTC at a civilian school you go to your classes like everyone else, but once a week for Freshmen and Sophomores and three times a week for Juniors and Seniors, you will wear your uniform to class. So as you walk around campus all day you will be saluting higher ranking cadets, wearing a cap that you have to remove and put on at appropriate times, etc. Civilian students will be lounging around on the quad or sitting in a relaxed posture in class, but on the days you wear the uniform, you will be behaving like an officer in training. On top of your regular classes you will have to attend ROTC class where you will learn all about the service branch you're entering, career fields, history, etc. And for us, one night a week was drill where we all got together to march around the armory building or sometimes do PT. You very quickly learned who was in your classes and could make study groups. We also socialized after drill night. There was drinking but not too much since no one wanted to lose their scholarship. There were clubs to join too like drill team, sports teams, or honor societies which led to opportunities to travel. I attended a large university (30.,000+) so ROTC was my instant connection to friends and support.

I did 99% of the cooking until my disc herniation. Now I do 0%. My dh and two dds have been cooking the last 7 weeks. There has been a giant shift in workload in our home. I think the doctor is going to tell me this week it is okay to resume housework, but my dh has said he does not want me to go back to doing it all. He is actually an amazing cook when we have guests or on the holidays, but after work he is not inspired to the same level. But he will make a Hello Fresh meal or pasta. Yay! This back surgery thing has a "silver lining".

I want to do this! I have been getting rid of things every season and have finally let go of my work suits that I spent so much on since I haven't needed a suit for work in 18 years now. I've been doing good trying to get things that go with everything else like blues and greys. But the problem still is things that don't fit well but I still use because I have trouble finding things I like in my size. I'm losing weight after my back surgery with all this walking they want me to do and more free time due to not being able to do housework. This might be the time I can finally manage to do this. Thanks Regentrude! I'll look for the book on kindle.

Terrible story!. I'm glad the child is okay. We have a front loader too. The thing is I always keep my door open because the last one we had started to smell and get mold from no air circulation. I'm glad they could figure out how to stop it and get the door open. I know how to stop mine but at the moment I don't remember how to get the door to unlock when there is water in it. That is another "safety" feature so you can't open the door and have the room flooded. I wonder how the washer started once she was inside.

This happens to us a lot to because we have to wait for shows to be on iTunes. My dh is always reminding us to watch out for spoilers. At least with a TV show there is a plot and not just a score that might pop up anywhere.

I bought two sets. I figure this way she can change her sheets one day and wash on another day. She might bring washing home on some weekends.

My dad died in Texas and we had a procession to the cemetery. I was very moved when traffic stopped for us even on the side of the road. It was a nice gesture and much appreciated. I am sure we would not have run anyone over. We were from out of town and quite distraught so just following along was a benefit.

I admire your son's desire to serve. My dh entered the USAF as an officer after ROTC and did a full career. During that time he got his bachelors (ROTC scholarship) and two masters degrees paid for. I would encourage him to try for an ROTC scholarship that includes full tuition, books, and a monthly living stipend. He would have to take an ROTC class with weekly drills and a summer camp between his second and third years. I did it too and it was really fun and an instant group of friends. He would graduate and be commissioned as an officer with an active duty commitment of 4-8 years depending on his scholarship. Compare pay scales for an E-1 and an O-1 and retirement pay for an E-7 and O-5 for example.

I see it as a constantly moving target. For the dd that did traditional homeschool I do have all her writing assignments and even some drafts. For the one that did online, I think she probably has all her work still on her laptop but not graded essays. Fortunately there are schools that have easy admissions processes like University of Arizona. I think we spent an hour on that app. One more year and I won't be following the latest news in college admissions or College Board exams.

The UK and France seem to have more stressful systems. Our UK friends had conditional offers pending A-level scores. It's true that kids get tracked here in Belgium much earlier, but if they graduate from an academic secondary school they are guaranteed a place at the university. If they go to a professional-track secondary school they go onto higher education, but not university. I think there is a fairly high drop out rate the first year of university though. As an American, applying to schools in the Netherlands they needed a high school diploma, 4 AP exams with passing scores, a letter of motivation and a CV. Pretty straight forward.

I agree that it is really hard to adjust back to real life after vacation, especially if there is any jet lag involved. It's nice to be back home, but home seems dustier and messier than the streamlined vacation accommodations. And the laundry, the full calendar, it goes on and on. I was always trying to get more exercise and never really succeeding until I had emergency back surgery six weeks ago. I was restricted from bending, lifting, twisting, driving, housework, and sitting more than a few minutes at a time. But I was allowed to walk, starting slowly and gradually increasing time and distance. So with basically nothing to do but lay in bed and read or go for a walk, I've increased my weekly distance to over 50 km. I've learned that my family can survive without me and can do more on their own than they were before. Things have been streamlined, the house is less clean, meals are simpler, and it's okay. So now I have to consider how I will handle my time when the doctor okays me to go back to normal life next week at my surgery follow-up. I want to maintain the walking and I think it will be best for my back going forward as well as losing weight. I feel like all the chores will suddenly end up back on my plate unless I am intentional about restructuring the way I do things. I feel like this was a major life event for me and a turning point in how I will take care of myself.

I'm starting to appreciate the European system more and more. It is so much more straightforward. Finish school, take your exams, send graduation certificate to university, and go! At least in Belgium, that is how it is for my dd's friends. They can decide and apply right up until the week before school starts. The kids are not stressed at all assuming they have passed their exams. I've probably oversimplified the situation, but that is how it's been for the people we know.

That is great news! I felt much the same after having survived engineering classes at a 30,000+ state flagship. It really was a matter of surviving the first two years of massive lecture halls, labs with 100 students, and TAs who barely spoke English. I didn't want that for my girls. I wish honors classes were an option for me, but I think everyone was a top student in their high school class, and there wasn't such a thing in the engineering college anyway. My dd is going to an honors college type thing at a European university.

My dd received grades for her essays through her online school, but there is no evidence of the grade anymore, nor was there a written grade on the paper ever. Comments were generally things like "great job" or "good insights". Again these were within the online platform and no evidence exists anymore. I don't see how this can work due to practical concerns.

I had that for about a year, but now it is gone. I think it is normal for some women. I definitely noticed it when I had an anxious thought.

My dh's military career took us far away for two decades and now he has retired to another job overseas in his career field. My kids have only one surviving grand parent who is now in a retirement community. We only see her about every 18 months depending on if we go home for Christmas or summer, never both, and sometimes alternating. It costs a fortune and really doesn't feel like vacation. When my dad died it cost another small fortune to see him three times during the course of his terminal illness, but worth every penny. I think living only a few hours away would be much better since you could see people much more often, but not too much. It's tough sometimes, but overall it was the best for our family. Even if we lived where my parents lived at the start of our marriage, they had moved since, so we still would be several states away at least.

I agree it is ridiculous how much they use the graphing calculator. I'm a EE and never needed one. But helping my dd with her Pre-calculus course I learned that it was needed for specific problems. The book would actually have graphing calculator problems that they had taught the key strokes for in the chapter. If you don't have the same one you will have to figure it out on your own.

Definitely Christian. The fifth lesson each week is a Bible lesson. There is a lot of scripture memorization which we skipped. There are separate tests for the Bible part. I really liked the American Voices book with the primary source documents. My dd thought the lessons were dull overall. I was disappointed because the books are beautiful and I hoped it would be more interesting for her. Part of the history exams was memorizing the presidents in order. I didn't really think that was necessary on a high school level exam. There is a strong emphasis on slavery and civil rights. I liked the way the course was broken up into 30 weeks of five lessons each. This gave us time to do other things.

Definitely not typical in Belgium. People wait patiently and quietly in line and would probably not appreciate a lot of chit chat. The process is generally I put my stuff on the belt while clerk waits patiently, the clerk rings up everything while I frantically try to load my bags (that I brought from home obviously), clerk waits patiently until I am done and says the amount owed and the word for please, I put my card in the machine, she says thank you and good bye. That's it. If I don't have bags they will wait while I put my things back into the cart without bags. Many people do it this way and then bag up inside their car or into boxes. I don't find it rude, but not having any help bagging is stressful and tiring even though no one acts impatient. Occasionally someone might say a few words to the clerk if they know them personally, but it's quick.

We've been doing Hello Fresh for a while now, so on the day we are getting a new delivery, whatever leftovers are in the refrigerator gets given to the chickens. Same with any vegetables that have gone bad. I try to minimize waste, but there is always something. We have a small European refrigerator in the kitchen that basically holds things for salad, berries, various milks, sandwich fixings, and condiments. All the rest goes into the garage refrigerator and sometimes gets forgotten. The chickens are very happy and give us a lot of eggs so I guess it's not completely wasted. Once a year when we are having a house sitter, I will really clean out everything including old condiments and expired pantry items so they have a nice place for their own things.

Still waiting for the international score release. I'm more concerned with my junior's scores than my seniors's. I'm glad to hear how well everyone did!

We used it for ninth grade and really liked it. We didn't do all the assignments like the drawing and journaling but a more creative student might enjoy those a lot. The books were really good and I liked the way the hero theme was used to unite them all. There was a final essay on the hero theme that took a lot of thought and tied the whole course together. I would say that it was one of the pre-made courses that we both liked. I thought the instructor's manual was useful since I'm more of a math/science person.

Having just been through this with my dd16, I would suggest you go slowly. Trust your dh's instincts. See how things go doing things as a family first, then with friends, before being on outings alone. I've found you have to be very specific regarding expectations with teen dating. There is no rush. It's easier to go slowly then try to add restrictions later once you see behavior that you don't like or our suspicious about.