And......most of us carb-addicts will mistake thirst for carb-craving. Try getting a drink of water when you feel like you want to snack. But for me, I mostly just have to make sure I don't buy the really bad stuff. If it doesn't come home from the grocery store, I do really well not eating it!

No curfew for my 18yo graduate. But if he is noisy when he gets home in the wee hours of the morning and wakes me up, I usually find I need to vacumn the house right after I have breakfast. He has learned to be quiet coming in. BTW - It's not unual here for all my teens to be running in and out until midnight. We have lots of daylight in the summer, so they are usually playing baseball or frisbee with friends until then. In the winter, not so much of course

My DD9 would think it was an interesting story. All the political statements and analogies would totally go over her head. If you could be happy just covering it as a "story about animals", it would work. Personally, I would put up all the materials in a box and save them for a few years. DS14 read it this year and really was able to understand and discuss the material.

Watch Dr. Who on DVD rent sappy movies sleep late Runescape Go for long walks by my self....

This is how we are helping my pack-rat son prepare for college. We started by putting all the clothes he wasn't going to wear in the next 6 weeks into tubs and stacking the tubs in the spare room - available in case he "needed" something. Now he is working his way through the non-clothes items - anything he won't use in the next few weeks goes into boxes and into the spare room. Once there is some mental space between him and the stuff, I can go thru it and donate/dump what's in the boxes.

Can you keep her on a leash next to you in the house for a few days? If she gets up and moves towards the basement, take her to the door and have her sit while you open the door, then let her out. Then back on the leash when she comes in. After a few days, she should start moving towards the door (instead of the basement) and sitting when she wants to go out.

I work 20 hrs a week from home. I work in the mornings at my desk and the kiddos work at the kitchen table behind me. Occasionally, I have conference calls and then they need to either help each other or work on something else until I am finished. If I do it properly, we all finish about the same time and have the afternoons free. It's important to prioritize - especially if you are working outside the home. We clean house thoroughly on the weekend, but just "tidy up" during the week so it doesn't get out of control.

Our kids play the Lord of the Rings version. It plays pretty much the same as the regular version, but with cooler looking pieces.

we would probably be eating fried eggs with hashbrowns (chop up the green onions into the hash browns). You could also do a crustless quiche type thing or a frittata.

Modesty thru layers. DD16 has spaghetti strap tank tops - these can only be worn under another shirt or over a white t shirt (very nice look!) When the rise on the jeans is a little low, she uses a longer tank top or t-shirt to make sure "everything" stays covered. Shorts a little short? wear them over leggings or bike shorts. One of the keys to wearing these things is a properly fitting bra. Most women and young girls aren't wearing the right size or the right fit and then things bulge or there are gaps and it all looks sloppy. So we spend a little more on the undergarments and shop at thrift/discount stores for the rest.

No, but our youngest doesn't have any drop-off activities. If she did, I would probably issue one to her to use to call for a ride when she was done. We kept a really old one around for that purpose when the older kids were this age and we were running 3 kids around to sports.

I, too, have sent my teens to stand in the corner when their behavior was less-than-age-appropriate. My older kids have always responded well to a list of chores. It just seems like if it's written down, they can look at it and get it done quickly. Then they go on to their own activities and everyone is happy.

You will probably have to track down the disk that came with the printer or download the install program from the manufacturer's site. Older operating systems don't know about wireless printers.

YES!!!!:iagree: Oh, ground me! Please!

When we were eating deer meat all the time (early in our marriage), I would slice the steaks very thin and use them in fajitas (regular fajita seasoning from the package). Or cube it and used in stroganoff. And I never found any way to work with gamey deer except to make it into sausage.

Can I add a few? Treasure Island The Black Arrow Sherlock Homes To Kill a Mockingbird (boy did THIS one open up some interesting discussions!) 1984 and Animal Farm

Absolutely! And it would be the same type of gift I gave for the first wedding. Not the same thing, of course, because I know she already has one........unless it was something that would be nice in a matched set.

And..... a supplies box with a good pair of scissors, duct tape, clear tape, stapler and staples, paperclips, pack of needles, light and dark thread, small screwdriver, and any of those small "can't live without" things that you have around the house.

I have a DS14, too. And if it was really, really important to my DS14 that he get to attend the concert, then DH would go to the concert with him. Or, if DH couldn't make it, I would buy a pair of earplugs and tag along. 14 is too young in my mind to be at a concert with just friends.

As an example, my dear mother believed until the day she died that the moon landings were all a fake. I explained (often) to my children that Grandma was entitled to her own opinion on the matter, but I did not agree with her. Out of respect for my mother, I did not argue with her about it - I just let it slide.

We own 2 Ford Explorers and are seriously thinking about replacing my minivan with an explorer since we will be down to a family of 5 in a couple eof months. Plenty of room, decent gas mileage, and you can still park it in the small spaces at the grocery store. No problem loading 2 large dogs in the back, either. My DH's has a split 60-40 back seat, so you can put just one side of the back seat down flat for carrying cargo and still have a child sitting in the back. Very cool.

My sanity would probably be worth a 30 minute drive, even towing 2 other children along. As far as "telling her", I wouldn't. I would just find out when the other group meets and go check it out. If she ever asks, just use the "fits better with our schedule" excuse or the "need support from other homeschoolers" excuse. Or just smile and talk about how brilliant HER children are - that usually distracts them enough that you can escape. :lol:

DS14 has to finish his 5 paragraph essay on To Kill A Mockingbird - he got distracted by the sunshine on Friday (me too!). Then we have 3 Bill Nye the Science Guy videos left to watch. It's a huge work load for the week, but we will just have to persevere and tough it out. :lol:

DD8 and I watched it together. I can't rememebr anything that was bothersome. It's a little scary in the ocean crossing part, but not horrible. DD8 did have trouble following the story sometimes - possibly because of the accents.

When a friend of mine needed cell phones for her boys (8 and 6) due to complicated drop off/pick up arrangements during a divorce, she got them FireFly phones. These are prepaid phones that you can program the numbers into and limit incoming/outgoing calls and texting. They are really durable and worked great for her.