My kids have more energy than anyone I've ever seen. And they work and play very hard. My oldest works outside about an hour every day, practices taekwondo daily and goes to taekwondo class four days a week. And he bounces off the walls all day long. I laugh when people talk about "wearing out their children". In my experience the more you try to wear them out, the more energy they get! :lol: Now if only I worked and played as hard as they did....I would have tons of energy!

I finally saw the doctor about the persistent, nagging pain on my upper right side. He said it was either a stress ulcer or gall bladder. He's leaning towards gall bladder because fatty foods really trigger some nasty pain. He put me on Zantac but said if I'm not 100% in a week, then I need an ultrasound on my gall bladder. Now I have to start a low-fat, no caffeine, no soda, no late-night snack diet. Is it really possible to homeschool without chocolate or caffeine?!? Any tips for making this diet work would be appreciated! Mayo and butter are staples of my diet! ETA: I've read that I should also be on a low-fiber diet because bile is needed to digest fiber. That would rule out beans instead of meat as an option. ???

The two children that weren't induced were born on a Friday. My dh was born on a Friday. I'm just curious! (I can't figure out how to make it so I can vote for Friday twice!)

I trust the government to kill people and break things and create general mayhem far more than I trust them to fix things. ;)

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll look into them. What can I except these to teach? I mean, does it help them form arguments? Develop common sense? Can common sense be taught? Sometimes I really worry about our 10 yo.... :)

I'm thinking it might be time for my 10 yo to start something. But I don't know where to begin. My copy of TWTM is back in Oregon in storage. I knew I should have brought it with me!

I love fall. Unfortunately we now live in southern Arizona where the seasons are warm, hot and *#%& hot. :001_smile: I'm jealous that other people are starting fall and we are still over 100 here.

Oooo, your post makes me want to snuggle a baby! :lol:

I don't know what this whole story is about either but I completely agree with you. Librarians don't buy every book out there so obviously there is some kind of criteria they use to judge whether or not to buy a book. Why can't one of those criteria be whether or not a certain book is a good fit for that city or county? At our high school library some other students and I filled out paperwork to request that a certain book be removed from the library. The librarian was in complete agreement with us and had already decided to withdraw the book but wanted us to do all the paperwork anyway. There is a legitimate process to go through in requesting a book be removed from a library. It's not like anyone is making the book illegal in the entire state for goodness sake. There is nothing wrong with exercising good judgment in choosing which books to put in a library. But I'm still curious as to what this story is all about. Most of that article seems to be trying to get people all worried that Palin wants to institute a theocracy. And another big gripe is that she is a savvy politician. :blink: Uh, aren't they all? Quite frankly, that's why I have a hard time getting excited about any of them! They are all politicians!

My FIL is great in the kitchen. When they visit they usually take us out to eat every night but if I cook for them, he cleans up. He does a great job! My mom is wonderful in the kitchen too. We work together very well if we are cooking together. I guess I'm blessed! But other than those two, I'd prefer if everyone else stayed out.

Can all of the children get together with FIL to discuss it? I wish I could help. We are managers of an RV park and we are dealing with that same thing with one of our tenants. She stopped us as we left Sunday morning for church telling us that the police were in the park last night with two K-9 dogs. A man had run into the park and hid under her trailer. Then he ran under our station wagon where the police finally got him. My husband and I couldn't believe we had slept through all that. After we left I told my dh that I was going to call the police station and find out if they had a record of anything happening that night. She has told us before that someone was throwing poison on her flowers and the former manager was messing around with her trailer at night. I realized that everything she was telling us was always happening at 1 or 2 in the morning. The operator at the police station said that there were no police in our park that night. I'm not sure how to handle it either. Her dead husband was a police officer for many years so I think that is why all her stories have to do with policemen and criminals. I was thinking of mentioning it to her daughter when she comes in the pay the rent next time. Her kids have power of attorney over all her assets. They probably know already. Like your MIL she seems very capable of taking care of herself, just has some strange ideas! I was also thinking of asking my psychiatrist uncle for some advice. I think he deals mostly with geriatric patients. I don't think it would do any good to tell her that I called the police station and what she says happened never did.

:lol: I spent some time reorganizing my blog and listing my kids' curriculum. It looks so neat and organized. Now if our days only looked like that... Sometimes I read other people's blogs and think, "Wow! I want to live at their house!" Or at least send my kids to school at their house. But I'm sure their days aren't always as perfect as they seem either. :)

That's how we do it too. You can make the leash a short piece of rope as well. Then it doesn't get tangled on anything but the puppy still gets used to the feeling around his neck.

I had to laugh at Geraldo earlier today. I was on the phone with my parents and they said they were watching the coverage on Fox. (My dad grew up in New Orleans so he's been watching a lot of coverage.) I turned it on in time to see Geraldo going on and on about a rescue in progress. A man was in the water wearing a life jacket and clinging to a propane tank for his very life! My dad said, I think he jumped into the water from that boat and is tying a rope onto that tank. Of course, that is exactly what it turned out to be. :lol: The over-reactions can be a little nauseating at times.

When my parents lived in Tennessee for awhile they found a Southern Baptist church affiliated with the Founder's Movement. Those churches are Calvinist. Maybe you could find a church like that near you?

My dad was a pastor and I grew up under Calvinist/Doctrines of Grace teaching. I guess I didn't realize it was such a big deal! :lol: I've always been on the dark side apparently. Here is one of my brother's blogs: The Contemporary Calvinist

How Can You Mend A Broken Heart by the Bee Gees and I really like that song! Maybe because I heard it in utero many times. :001_smile:

Yeah, I thought that after I posted. :lol: Really, I am curious for ideas. I haven't heard many ideas on how it can be fixed. I haven't paid too much attention to the political race this year (rare for me!) so I haven't heard the candidates' ideas on it either. I'm at a loss as to how it can be fixed.

It is surprising to me how many people on here don't have health insurance or are on the verge of losing it because they can no longer afford it. What are your thoughts? I have no idea how this problem can be fixed but I'm interested in how other people think it can be. I'm conservative so I don't like the idea of government paying for our health care. On the other hand, I have a friend who used to live in France and married a French native. She says that the French health care system was wonderful. I just wish health care was affordable. I wish a doctor's visit was only $25. My dh needs to see his cardiologist and was told the visit would be about $400. I guess rates that are low enough to pay ourselves will never be here again! I do think that part of the problem is that we as Americans have this idea that actions don't have consequences. We think we can eat fast food 6 days a week, gain 40 extra pounds, not exercise and it won't have any negative effects on our health. Maybe getting over that mentality would help some.

:iagree: We have been without insurance for almost 7 years. We all were covered through Medicaid last year but that has expired and we no longer qualify. Last year when our 4 yo dd started getting kidney infections the doctor pulled us aside and said we had to apply for Medicaid because all the procedures they needed to do were going to get very expensive very quickly. She ended up in the hospital for two days with a kidney stone and then needing surgery later on. I thought the care my dd received through Medicaid was great. But now we are without insurance again. Dh is going to be 50 next year. We will be lucky if he will even be accepted by anyone. Another thing is to call an insurance broker. They know about more companies and insurance policies that you can find by yourself online or wherever. We came across a policy for about $550 for our family. It would have been $100 less if dh would quit chewing tobacco. That is a great price for what looked like very good coverage. But dh still think we can't afford it. If it was only up to me, I would pay it. I watched how his father had a small stroke and heart attack two months before he qualified for Medicare and it cost them over $100,000. Good thing they are wealthy and own lots of property because all they had to do was sell a piece of land to pay the bill. We aren't that fortunate! But God has taken very good care of us! We couldn't understand why dh had been doing so poorly at work (he works on strict commission). If he hadn't done so poorly, we never would have qualified for coverage for dd.

Thanks, actually dc are in a WTF school. I've checked the WTF website but I didn't find anything. A mom at class last night asked dh if our ds was going to the tournament on Sept 29 in Long Beach. The only thing I can find is that there was a tkd tournament in Long Beach last year on Sept 29. :confused: Maybe she is the one that is mixed up!

There doesn't seem to be any place online to look for martial arts tournaments. I assume these are more local events and are maybe only known to schools in that area? Is there anyone in Long Beach CA that happens to know something about a taekwondo tournament there at the end of September?

No allergies and I haven't seen a runny nose. She hasn't had a cold or anything.

I won't ask anyone to help clean. :001_smile: There doesn't seem to be any reason for her throwing up. It is so random. She is 2 and has thrown up once a day since Saturday. I'm taking her to the doctor tomorrow. Her stools have been runny the last few days. She doesn't have any other symptoms. She runs around and acts fine and then suddenly throws up. After a few minutes she's running around again, acting normal and telling me, "Me all better!" I've poked and prodded her entire abdomen but she says nothing hurts and she doesn't wince or anything. It's all so weird. She hasn't had much of an appetite but neither has dh or my 4 yo dd. It's been so dang hot here! Another mom suggested last night that maybe she has been getting overheated. Today we kept her inside most of the day so I don't think that is it. She played fine all day and then about 15 minutes after putting her to bed, my 4 yo came running in saying L threw up in her bed. I've got her drinking Pedialyte. Could this be rotovirus or are kids usually sicker with that? No one else in the family has been sick.

Ooo, I like Chuck too. Did I miss the ending of Battlestar Galactica? I saw a few episodes earlier this year and then it wasn't on again.