5 to ten of each.

Luna wakes up shrieking most mornings. By mornings, I mean not yet daylight. I don't enjoy that. once she's up she's usually fine. If my boys are whiney and crabby, I send them back to bed. IMO you aren't ready to come out of your room until you are no longer grumpy.

I am switching over to all white, mix and match. We are 7. We have 8 place settings, Plus one divided dish for Luna and 8 small plastic bowls.

So far, so good. Kids are finishing up chores, planning is done, Luna is entertaining herself. We are going to the state fair on Friday. We've never been. I think it will be a good time. I;m trying to squeeze in a family game day and a zoo trip this week. I think I can make it happen. Today is story day. We need to fill in our Read to Ride sheets. 10 word book reports on 3 books. I really like this program. I have yet to crack open the state fair curriculum. I'll put it on the schedule somewhere.

I give them the option to start right away or take a week off, or do something else (a week or a month or whatever of Khan for math or an independent study of some other subject before the next chapter of writing, or whatever). If I don't have the next book, they have to take a break until I order it and it comes in. We work in months, not years, so changing subject or levels mid year is not a big deal. Edit: We take breaks of a few weeks throughout the year, with the longest break May-July to allow my kids to attend day camp and take advantage of community events planned around public school. But we just pick up where we left off.

mutual attraction. Flirting. Harmless infatuation. Nothing.

Finishing high school in a year and graduating early is not that uncommon. I'm not sure why so many people are reacting so poorly to that. Colleges, vocational schools, and employers will accept a young graduate.

If they aren't alone together, they aren't dating and the parents aren't wrong. They can be interested in each other, and spend time together in the company of her parents and not be in a dating relationship.

I was in this situation at 13. There was much sneaking around. But it really wasn't serious. My parents reacted the way most people here are. It came to physical violence. That was horrible and scarring. Honestly, I think would have been better to let it run it's course. By the time my parents found out, he was already leaving me. There was nothing to gain by turning it into something huge and terrible and damaging. If this comes about for my Tori, I am sure that we will handle it the way this family is. Especially if she is mature for her age and finished with school. I am not opposed to early marriage. If I had it to do over, I would have married at 19 to a 32yo man who had a a lot to offer and was marriage minded. We were exceptionally well matched. We did not pursue the relationship solely because of my age. In retrospect, that was a stupid reason. I'm sure this is a super unpopular opinion, but having lived it, I think I have the maybe slightly more insight than others who are quick to condemn. Edit: In my situation, I had just turned 13 when we got together. He expressed interest when I was still 12. He was 23/24. We were together almost a year.

I thought I was clever. We all use a fitted sheet -we prefer jersey, and fleece blanket. With extra fleece throws if it gets cold(it usually doesn't here).

My little boys are loading a large bag of games and a large bag of stuffies into the car. There was a post on another group i'm in about moving board games into large envelopes and ditching the boxes. I'm going to see if i can find the envelopes this week. The games will fit into the box that I cleared the stuffies out of. That frees up a whole shelf for the craft bins that I can't reach now. I am overly excited about having this space :w00t: In related news, I sorted the toy bins so that Tori's toys are lower and separate from the big boys' toys. Hopefully this will make it easier for her to access her toys and play with them independently.

I always went to Cartridge World when we had one and also a printer. They worked great.

This thread is giving me all kinds of feelings. I cook mostly vegan, one dish meals. Mostly asian foods. The weird stuff that I have to travel 60 miles to get ingredients for. There is no possible way to discreetly not eat the icky part of my food :crying: We do have rice, and pasta. So at least there's that. Oh, but it's whole grain pasta and brown rice, so maybe even that is weird. I do bring a dish most of the time, just to be sure there is something yummy on the table for myself. And it is usually quite popular. And everyone is always so surprised that it's good. :confused1: Maybe my kids friends will never eat here :sad: Unless they love thai food. :drool5:

I've only seen them in California.

I love Sweet Tomatoes for a quick lunch out. It's a salad bar, so maybe not take out exactly. Thai. Pizza, if I have to feed the kids on the cheap. I like to buy fruit, bread, and cheese for a picnic.

I have 16 more years to go. I'm already not involved in the community-such as it is- and I can't imagine spearheading anything, ever again. I am planning to go back to work in a few years, but in social services of some kind. Not in any form of education.

I think it's a good idea, but I asked Ben, who is also a December birthday. He says no. "It feels wrong to me." So I guess ask him and see what he thinks.

I'm almost done. I dropped off 6 large bags of clothes and books at Goodwill last week, and I have 2 more in my car for a friend along with a couple of small appliances. I might regret getting rid of so many boy pants. I let the older boys sort their own and I didn't check before donating. I may be rebuying pants this winter. The last thing I need to go through is toys. Ugh I've done less than half. We don't have tons, but what we do have doesn't see a lot of use. Luna has outgrown most of her baby toys. It will be good for her to have more suitable playthings.

Not necessarily. I'm sure that the families who are not big into outside activities aren't posting here. You and your children may not need lots of structured outside activities. Or they may not be available to you. That's fine, too.

I keep my budget for my spending because I do most of the day-to-day spending. Grocery shopping, home repairs, kids' activities, outings, clothes. All me. D buys his food for his breakfast and lunch. Rarely he buys clothes for himself. He will sometimes buy treats for us. He pays the monthly bills. But most of the spending decisions are mine. I am tracking my spending just to see how much I spend and where it goes. We spend less than D earns, so I don't really have an upper limit. I can spend what I want. But it helps me to know for sure how much that is when making decisions like do we buy a zoo membership, or should I take the kids out to eat? If I know I have been spending a lot, I will forgo extras, but if I'm under budget, I can do something a little pricier without guilt. I am baaad at keeping track of things, so this is mostly theoretical, but this is my goal in budgeting.

We alternate, so only two kids have sports this season, but we will add more stuff after this is done. B 14-gaming club, coding, teen advisory board J 11-gymnastics, coding, Tween gaming, day camp J 8- soccer, coding, tween gaming, day camp W 6- junior coding, day camp T 2- Speech and developmental therapies, library playgroup and story times, rec center play group Additionally, we have a zoo membership, so we go often, middle kids have classes at Lego land a couple of times a year, we hike, and will be taking classes at Environmental Education Centers, we have field trips both as a family and through parks and rec, and we attend lots of local community events.

Most of my kids have pretty bumpy heads. B didn't outgrow his hematoma for years. I don't think he still has it, though.

I started my Monday at 1am and I'm just finishing up now at 8pm. I'm so tired I could cry. Luna and I are sick, as well as the older two boys. Little boys were sick last week, still coughing, but feeling better. I woke at 1 am with a searing sore throat and Luna was up most of the night with a cough. Big boys spent the entire day in bed, getting up breifly to fuel up on soup and then back to bed. I spent the morning cleaning in slow motion. I'm putting in a backsplash that is turning out fine, but it's giving me so much stress. It's the first permanent change I've made to the house and I'm freaking out a bit over it. I think I made a mistake and now it's too late to fix it. It;s not a big deal in the scheme of things, but I'm taking it hard. We have a lot of projects in the works, and now I've been sick for two weeks, and I'm feeling overwhelmed. Anyway. Luna's teacher came today while I was scrubbing the old, dried detergent off the dryer, and I don't even remember what I was doing to the house. Something. She brought bubbles and we had fun playing outside. She always stays extra long and plays with all of my kids. It's always fun when she's here. I painted a thrifted cork board copper, and painted a chalkboard on the wall. Laundry, dishes, gumbo for dinner. Jay had his second soccer practice. he loves it. It's great. I have mostly decluttered my house. It's nice. Decorated for halloween. Back yard is almost cleared. Finally. One more bush to go. Front garden is torn up to get rid of the grass that grew up through the weed barrier. But I raked the rocks and mulch and it looks tidier again. I'm building benches in the dining room. Then I have to figure out how to build a table. That is going to be super cool. I'm learning how to lay tile. Not as hard as I thought. I put a floor in my bedroom, but it's not good. I'm thinking of replacing it with sheet vinyl. I picked out a few that I like. It sounds easy and the floor that I laid is actually harder than the sheet vinyl, so that should be fine. I wallpapered my shower, which is quite cool. Tried stenciling the living room floor. Didn't like it. Will paint the floor instead. I'm thinking light green. Chugging along. Making things happen.

When I'm an emotional mess, I want to be mostly alone. Being angry at someone for being upset is a special kind of cruelty.

Yes this. I'm not big on habits and commitments and most of the questions didn't seem to apply to me. I am also a questioner, which is accurate, and not a surprise at all.