Wow, where to start...First, this "meeting all my needs" thing: I didn't know that having all of one's needs met was ever an option outside of my relationship with Christ. Seriously, most people can't tell the difference between their needs and their wants. I can honestly say that I must not of ever thought about my needs in relation to people. I don't care how many people you try to put in your life, you would still find new needs to be filled as you grew and changed. Maybe, I'm too simple a person, but this is a really strange concept to me. As far as other people and what they do, I won't "look down" on any body and I will show as much Christlike love to anyone as I can. That being said, I believe that the concept of polyamory as presented in the article is outside of God's will for people. I know, people will debate rather He even exists etc. I am just stating the facts as I know them to be. I don't mean to flare anyone up, but I can't in good conscience take credit for this as my opinion, seeing as how it's God's opinion. If you know differently, so be it. I just happen to think that God's plan is better and you don't have to inform me that not all people believe this and so on. I am well aware of that already. Yes, this does make me closeminded in certain areas. We would all be happier people if we stopped trying to get our self generated needs list filled and focused on being less needy in general. This I will claim as my opinion.:001_smile: Although, I do need someone to buy me a house, and then keep it clean for me. And perhaps a pony would be nice too.

I try to make myself clean one room at a time or else I'm like a chicken with my head cut off, darting in and out of rooms never finishing one task but starting 20. However, if a room, like the living room is full of stuff that belongs other places, I will take a basket in to the living room and pick up all the stuff that belongs in the kitchen for example. I will then unload that stuff into the kitchen quickly and return to the living room where I then gather all the stuff that belongs in the bedroom etc. I deliver it to the proper room but resist the temptation to put all of it away or I'll never get back to the original room. Once everything is removed that doesn't belong, I can quickly zip through the cleaning and repeat the process in the next room. If I go to the next room and it has living room stuff, then I will put that stuff away when I take it to the Living room because that room is already done etc. If I do this, then seeing the clean living room every time I pass by it gives me inspiration to keep cleaning.

We don't drink as a general rule so take that into account on my opinion:001_smile:...but we are not legalistic either. I have been a youth leader/minister for many years and I can tell you that I have noticed a difference in rather or how easily a youth experiments with alcohol based on how frequently it is in their house. Youth that came from homes where there was an abundance (not suggesting that you would have an abundance), admitted to trying or all out drinking glasses full of what was there on numerous occasions. I'm sure you would notice if you don't have that much around, but these youth were confronted with that choice every time they opened the fridge/cabinet. So, I guess it depends on your kids, your expectations, how prevalent and in what amounts it is kept in the house. No matter how well you raise your children sometimes they get curious, rebellious, whatever. I am inclined to think of it like dieting. It is much harder to not eat chocolate if I find it in sight all over my kitchen, if you know what I mean. If you think alcohol is fine if in moderation and if treated responsibly by an adult, then you can choose to model that by being open about your responsible choices to serve in moderation, not drive, etc. However, you do run the risk of a do as I say not as I do argument with your children. Our friends, some of which drink, know that we do not allow it in our home and they respect that. DH and I just find it less confusing and more tangible (does that make sense?) to take a hard line on it in our home. We do not refuse to go places where drinking occurs however, such as restaurants that serve it etc.

Just a note...this is all typed in a rather lighthearted tone, so please read it as such:tongue_smilie: It is amusing that some of the same people concerned over the decline of manners and such are some of the same people who are convinced that shopping carts should be returned always (short of impending death) or else you are rude, lazy, inconsiderate, etc. Should we add scum of the earth to the list? Just kidding. Personally, I think a bigger issue in our society might just be the concept of judgements, lack of compassion, and a superiority complex. Of course, I will admit that the shopping cart plague must not of struck this far down in VA. yet. It has never struck me as a huge problem where I shop. And, I do have family who work at a grocery store. I have seen that even the unreturned carts are left in such a way as to not block other places. I can say that I have never left a store parking lot in a rage over shopping cart placement. I do however, stand by my way previous post that there are a lot of factors that lead someone to leave or return a cart. You just shouldn't make huge sweeping judgements, at least, I don't think you should. Wait, was that a judgement?:001_smile:

wow, I didn't know shopping cart return was such a hot issue! I return whenever possible and safe. I say it depends on where you live/shop, rather you have dc in tow, and the weather. If you live in an extreme climate hot or cold, and you have dc with you and you have to turn on the car then I totally see why you wouldn't return a cart if not right next to or across a corral. I had this exact conversation with my younger brother. You cannot assume that every person who does not return a cart is an irresponsible jerk. If you live in a small/friendly town and are comfortable to go a greater distance to return a cart, more power to you, that's awesome. I live in an area where people have been carjacked from the wal-mart parking lot. Anyone else here from the hampton roads area want to back me up on that? Usually once a year or so someone is mugged, attacked or carjacked in a wal-mart around here. All it takes is 5 seconds and a child messing with the car buttons to unlock their door at the wrong time. Maybe I am a bad mommy, but I don't trust that my daughter won't pick an inopertune time to disobey. Anyone else have nonperfect kids or is it just me:001_smile:? And personally, I spent way too much time trying to get pregnant just to lose my dd over a shopping cart. When she was a baby, I had this bizzare fear that the moment I stepped 10 steps away from the car, that I would be nabbed, run over or attacked. And while I was laying there dying, the people trying to help me would not know that just 10 feet away was my car with my baby locked in it. I know I'm paranoid but I can't help it. I have been known to stand behind my car, if the corrall is across the street/ally way, and shove my cart directly into the corral, instead of walking it over. It has a back stop so it is never in danger of hitting a car and at least I can say I returned it. The bottom line is: do it when you can and let God sort out the rest. Just my opinion of course.:001_smile:

Chick-Fil-A, without a doubt! I have become a fast food snob. Our running joke has now become that we only go to McDonald's in an emergency.

I grind my own grain and use a Panasonic bread machine ($109.99). Even with the grinding, I can prep my bread in less then 10 min. This bread machine has a 1hr 55min cycle that makes a delicious loaf of bread. The texture is great. I pre-combine dry milk, gluten, lechitin, sea salt, and a pinch of citric acid, in little baggies and keep them in the fridge. When I go to make bread, I grind the wheat and measure out (digital scale) 14.8 oz of wheat into the bread pan, add 1 baggie from thr fridge, water, oil, honey and ground flax seed, put in the machine and add the yeast into the dispenser. Done. I have whole wheat bread in 2 hrs!

I just finished praying and will continue to keep this young man in our prayers. It is awesome that his friends are stepping up to help with the expenses!

wow. That's weird. I hope you can figure it out. I know, I was absolutely no help here! Sorry.

I would genuinely like to see if a well conducted poll/study has ever been done to determine the percentage of Americans that are 1. uninsured by choice 2. Want insurance, but not enough to rearrange their finances to pay for it 3. Really can't afford it and do not qualify for any other program and 4. Can't obtain insurance because they are un-insurable. Again, I am not being cheeky here. I just have not come across a poll/study that truly differentiates between the 2 classes of "I can't afford insurance." I say this because the people that I know who make very little money are covered by either fed. govt or state govt plans. I know a few who make too much to be poor but not enough to be comfortable and they too find health care, not insurance, but are cared for through local pay as you go clinics and are happy with their care. I also know a family who says that they can't afford to pay for health insurance for their children through the husband's work and they make too much for the currently available help plans. However, they do make enough to buy a bigger house, pay for a truck, new minivan, boat and a timeshare. They have also gone to Disney and such. I know that there are people who truly can't afford insurance or straight out of pocket care. But there are also quite a few people who choose not to afford insurance and there is a difference. I do not mind helping out a struggling family who is doing their best and still falling short. But it is not right that my family makes sacrifices to afford our insurance while a family who makes considerably more money than us "can't afford it" and yet says insure my poor children we need universal healthcare. Please don't misunderstand me. I am sure no one here wants to see children go without. I also agree that our health system is flawed. My husband could make more money working somewhere else but stays with our city government because their benefit plan is better than we could find elsewhere. It's a tough decision. We would love to buy a house and afford a second car. But I won't say we can't afford those things, we choose not to. I am physically capable of going to work, but I choose not to for many reasons (homeschool and others) these are our priorities and choices and I hold no one else responsible for my choices. Am I making sense here? Yes, we need to overhaul some things, I agree. But let's take the needed time as a country to get it right. I have my beef with the status quo. My dd is a victim of the overinfatuation our doctors have with antibiotics. Our whole country needs education in nutrition, excercise, stress reduction and less reliance on drugs and antibiotics (when not actually needed.)**Just a side rant here, please don't ever ask your dr. for antibiotics and if you start them, finish them. It amazes me the number of people who don't finish the course and "save" them for future illness. Don't do that!, My dd had a bad MRSA infection (which was resistant to all drugs that they would normally give to a young child). She is currently facing her 6th surgery as a result of this problem that was created by over medicating the masses. Sorry, going on now.** We need smarter health care! That will not be accomplished by rushing through a bill on a political timetable. Please, regardless of which side you are on, don't you want the most thought out, round table type, open door information, complete healthcare plan we can make? If you are a person of faith, I urge you to make this a matter of prayer (you probably already are) and if you are not, why don't we urge our reps and senators to slow down. Lets meet in the middle somewhere and start with pushing preventative care and education. These are just my thoughts on the matter. I don't pretend to have all the answers.

Try hi cuts, they are as tall as grannies but cut a little higher on the leg, so your legs look a little longer. If you buy these type in the brands that do not have the printed elastic, but have the fabric covered band instead and choose black or red, they will look a little more alluring.

Just try to keep in mind that everybody gets it somewhere. If you are thinner than the people around you they will make those comments and probably inwardly desire that someone could "make fun" of them for being too thin because they are simply jealous. It's insecurity, at least most of the time. I have not had that problem seeing as how I am am short and "plump." Trust me, the ladies like me get it on our side of the weight chart too. Just like the fact that not all thin people are simply blessed (you work at it) not all plump people are lazy and just eat twinkies. I don't know why some people feel free to comment on other people. When trying to conceive for years, I heard it ALL. All the cliches, over and over till you want to scream. I have come to realize that most people are not trying to hurt you. They just don't know what to say. We all slip up sometimes and say stupid things. The rest comes out of insecurity. And a very small minority are just plain bullies. We are teaching our dd that when this sort of things happen, you take it as a chance to excercise grace and forgiveness. I'm sorry to hear that you have been hurt by mean comments. Chances are that each of us have accidently let an offensive comment slip past our lips. If it is coming from people who love you, find a gentle way to let them know, they may not relize that they are being hurtful. It's annoying yes, but try to look past the rest and surround yourself with friends that love you for who you are. We all need uplifting from time to time.:001_smile:

We eat a lot of spinach. I buy it in the bag prewashed. My dd likes it plain. For me and dh I put 2 big handfull in a bowl and add about 2tbs of a balsamic vin. dressing, I mince a small clove of garlic into the bowl and add a wee bit sea salt and pepper and then put the lid on the bowl and shake. You can eat it like that or add chopped tomatoes or cucumbers. We eat this a lot. I am more inclined to use spinach leaves in place of lettuce, so many health benefits to spinach. I don't know if this counts as a veggie, but I let dd chop up tomatoes and we took those and chopped spinach and chopped peppers, put into a pan, cooked with fresh garlic, added a few cubes velveeta (i know, not healthy) and made it into a dip. It was gobbled up quick. I will also juice veggies and a little fruit together to serve at breakfast. And even though I often use a jarred spaghetti sauce, I will blend/puree peppers, spinach, zuccini whatever I have, and add it into the sauce with fresh garlic. When making mashed potatoes, I will add steamed cauliflower that has been processed in a blender, add chicken stock and a little seasoning. My dh hates cauliflower but will eat it this way.You can't taste it. Just don't try to store it in the fridge and reheat because the cauiliflower taste will come out!

I hope I am not speaking out of turn here... I have not taught it for my child but, my best friend irl used it for 3 yrs before switching to TT and I oversaw a few sessions. They liked the hands on part fairly well and she liked being more hands off with the teaching video, however, his standerdised test scores (required in VA, I don't know about other places) were lower in math because of the schedule that mus teaches. For instance instead of the basics in add, sub, mult... it teaches everything addition and then everything sub. If I am making sense, I hope you know what I mean. So, if you have to test in your state, the tests might not match up to the same schedule.

I had my dd take the evaluation on the Barton website and she did not pass task c. (and by that I mean that she scored 5 correct out of 15!). According to their website, dd lacks auditory memory and auditory discrimination and is not ready for the Barton system or any other Ortan Gillingham based method . It says that we should remedy this with a speech/language therapist that uses the Lindamood-Bell system (LiPs). Can any one else comment on this? Any one else have a similair situation?

I am loving all the suggestions. Thank you sooo much. To answer some questions: 1. She wears glasses. 2. She does have hearing loss in her right ear due to a hole 1/3 the size of her tympanic membrane. Surgery is scheduled September to repair it. She has had 5 various surgeries already due to a MRSA infection she suffered in both middle ears when she was very young. (following tube placement, which is how I think she developed the infection) She has been evaluated multiple times and miraculously, her speech is unaffected. 3. Her rhyming is ok. It takes a lot of thought for her though. It does not come easy. 4. She can identify syllables quite well. 5. Identifying sounds is so-so. She is comfortable with consonants for the most part. Vowels are a problem, but, she can manipulate words. We use banana gram tiles (awesome game) to make and change words. She can read simple words, but it will take her an inordinate amount of time if it is a word that we have not practiced often. For instance, if she reads a simple word in one sentence and then encounters it again in the next sentence, and agaian in a 3rd & 4th ... it will stump her each time. Even if she just read it. STOP (you know, from encountering the stop signs) was the first word that she taught herself. She could read, write, spell it. BUT when I included it in a flash card, she tried to sound it out slowly. I said "honey, you know this word" She stopped, waited and then went "oh, STOP". I was baffled. She still stops and tries to sound out words that she should know by now. It is so confusing. But, the girl has a good memory and is so quick with everything else. I just don't get it.

Thank you. She has watched between the lions a few times but not a lot. We will try that. I have heard of starfall and will check that out as well , and the link too. Thank you for the help

Hi, I 'm new to the forum. I desperately need help for my 7 yr old dd. She still has a hard time reading. We have tried learning to read in 100 easy lessons, sonlight lang arts, bob books and memorizing words through flash cards. She does well in math and is generally bright but reading is a problem. She moved through the first explode the code book well but I have still not seen much progress in her reading. I want a comprehensive phonics/language arts program but don't know where to start. We are switching from sonlight to Tapestry of Grace for this yr. We use singapore & miquon for math. What do you suggest for LA? Thank you in advance for your help.:bigear: