They are calling for wintery mix here tonight and tomorrow. I'll probably bring that strawberry crate into my (already crowded) laundry room later today. I'll believe it when I see it lol. They keep calling for ice and snow and the two times this winter that we got a dusting of snow in the morning, they were only calling for rain lol. We had a retaining wall built 12 feet away from the house in an effort to try and get more usable space in our extremely sloped yard (I think last time we measured it was something like a 15% grade average over the entire front yard). I want to put a shade flower garden bed in front of the wall. It gets a little dappled morning sun because of two huge oak trees and the shade all afternoon because of the retaining wall and the house. I found deep shade hardy astillbes cheap ($3 for like 15 bare roots) and now I'm on the look out for Coral bells and hostas that are shade loving. I love the look of cattle panel trellises and I will get them some day but right now, the only trellis that fits my budget is free, lol. Last year my trellis was an old beat up swingset A-frame that someone was throwing out and a bunch of garden twine that I picked up at a going out of business sale for 25 cents per 300 yard roll. (I have enough garden twine to wrap the world several times I think lol) It held up my cucumbers beautifully and I probably could have used it again this year, it was still up and taunt until last week when dh and I decided to try and make a make shift shed out of the swing set frame and a tarp for some tools that needed to go outside but not be left in the elements. We have so many projects that are much higher priorities than buying trellises that I could make myself for free with all the trees and branches we have around here that need trimming or clearing anyways. That and I am a cheapskate to the extreme both by personality and circumstance and I can't stand to spend money on something I could make myself lol. It may take me longer than I would like since I'm not able to stay standing for more than 20 minutes at a time but it will get done, eventually. ;-)

@leahtalbot96 This is my first time growing strawberries but we chose to go bare root plants rather than seeds. We are growing them in strawberry crate towers rather than in the ground. Dh and I both have physical disabilities so being able to put the plants up on a stand or table where we can easily tend to them is our primary reason for not putting them in the ground. I know, bare root or from seed, you are suppose to pinch off the first blooms to force root growth, rather than fruit production, the first season. If they are everbearing strawberries, you might get a fall harvest as you can let those blooms go to fruit. @Pen I don't know about amazing but maybe ambitious lol. It really helps my mental health issues to have something to keep me busy which an ambitious garden does a great job of for me. I also have early onset arthritis and we are looking at connective tissue problems as a possibility as well now. Oh and thyroid issues and multiple allergies lol. None are likely to "get better" but again keeping busy helps. Does anyone recognize the fern like volunteer in my bunching onions? It almost looks like a carrot maybe? But I've not even opened the carrot seeds yet lol. Every flat that I've planted the bunching onions in has at least a couple of these wayward seedlings and even in this mixed flat, it doesn't look like any of the other seedlings in the flat. I'm thinking the bunching onion seeds I bought must have had some tag-alongs with them. But what is it?

We live in zone 7b. It's been a mild winter for us and the day time temps have been in the 60s for the last couple of days. Two weeks ago, we started under grow lights: 12 each of 4 different kinds of bell peppers (Yolo, Big Red, Cal Wonder, & Autumn Bell) (I'm allergic to tomatoes so red sweet bell peppers are what I use as a substitute for tomatoes in recipes most often) 6 cells of Frosted Flames snapdragons Peppermint, Rosemary, Basil, Oregano, Cilantro and Marjoram to start an herb garden Lavender, I thought it got too much water from an overzealous little helper and didn't make it but I just saw some little sprouts today so maybe it will make it. Tried Garlic chives again this year but they didn't come up, again Bunching onions two varieties of Shasta daisies for the yard And I started a strawberry container outdoors from bare roots, the package said it could be started in February in our zone but not sure if it is going to make it, if it does great if it doesn't, we'll try again when it gets a little warmer. Some mixed microgreens just for fun using a wet paper towel some Anaheim peppers to try our hand at raising our own green chiles Just today, ds and I started under the lights: Dill, because two weeks ago I opened the dill seed pack and it was completely empty. Glad I only paid 50 cents for it lol. I made sure to check the new packs of dill seeds I bought before we left the store lol. Sunshine petunias, Hurrah petunias and Double Cascade petunias (big pink puffy heart love petunias) Didn't get around to starting the yarrow today and now I'm too tired, maybe tomorrow. Waiting until closer to last frost to get started under the lights: Broccoli Cauliflower Marigolds (second favorite after petunias lol) 4 o'clocks Larkspur Nasturtium Peas (shelling and snap) Cucumber (slicing and pickling, trying out Dragon's Egg cucumbers from Baker's Creek too :-D ) Watermelon Honeydew Broccoli Raab Pumpkins garden beans Zinnias Sunflowers Anything else that strikes my fancy when I look through the seed racks at the store, the ones above are just the seeds I already have lol. Oh and carrots but they will be direct seeded outside when it is time. A lot of the cool weather stuff started under the lights will be able to go outside at the same time we put the carrots in in late March. Oh and I have several varieties of astilbes and a packet of columbines taking a cold nap in the fridge before we plant them lol. I spent today cutting some more saplings and branches on our property for making trellises on the cheap. Due to my health problems, I can't spend more than 20 minutes at a time or an hour total a day doing it but I'm slowly making progress! Dh found me an electric chain saw that works amazing, (never used one before) that is until I made the chain jump off the bar today, oops. lol So much easier than my loppers on thicker saplings though. Dh said he'd show me how to fix it later :-P

By spooked, do you mean you hung up? Did you give them the last 4 of your social and your phone number? If you called the bank in question directly (which it sounds like you did), they need a way to search their database to find out if there is a card at their bank under your ssn. It would do no good to search by your name because whoever opened the account could have used your social with a different name. And giving just the last 4 digits is a pretty standard way that banks and other companies search their databases for a particular customer. They could have thousands of customers with the same name or a similar name as yours but only one that has your social. And they probably wanted your phone number so that if something happened with the phones and your call got disconnected, they could call you back. Again, a pretty standard practice. If those kind of things make you uncomfortable, you probably need to go to a local branch if they have one in your area, but you are still probably going to need to give the last 4 of your ssn or your birthdate or driver's license number. They are going to need something to make sure they are looking at the right account, if there is one, in their database.

We have the original Barbara Allan Johnson audios for Vol 1 and 2. I really wish they would get her to do Vol 3 and 4 as well. Even though I only have one more kid to go through SOTW, I would buy them lol. My kids and I just prefer her voice for some reason. Even though I have the Jim Weiss SOTW 3 and 4 audios, we usually switch over to reading aloud or letting the kids read it for themselves at vol 3. That's how much we prefer Johnson's readings lol. We love to listen to the (vol 1 and 2 of course lol) audio books on car rides just as a review of sorts. We just listen to it straight through, pausing as needed when someone wants to stop and discuss something.

Just curious, what is your motivation for them to learn Spanish with this particular tutor? Do you plan to move to a Spanish speaking country? Is Spanish a traditional language in your family? It just sounds like an awful lot of emphasis on Spanish for a 5th and 7th grader if it is just for exposure or to eventually fulfill a foreign language requirement for college. It also sounds like they would like more emphasis on physical activity which, in my experience with raising 4 boys, they absolutely need a lot of physical activity to be happy and to be able to focus on other things. Without daily heavy physical activity, trying to get my boys to do books work was like trying to wrestle alligators. They didn't suddenly turn into docile little scholars once they had lots of physical activity, but they didn't fight it as much and they actually were able to learn and retain more of what they learned when they weren't itching to do something physical the whole time. Sports and sports related stuff isn't the only way to get physical activity. Climbing trees, building things like forts and castles with sticks, branches rocks and cinder blocks, gardening, lifting weights, doing physically strenuous house or yard work, volunteering to help neighbors or family with home and yard maintenance that involves physical labor, offering their services for lawn and yard care around their neighborhood, riding bikes or going for a jog together around their neighborhood are all great ways for them to get the physical activity they seem to crave.

I've been having issues with depression and anxiety lately so dh and ds are often on their own for dinner. I made two pounds of ground beef into taco meat and 2 pounds of dried pinto beans into slow cooker refried beans. Dh and ds have been able to make tacos, burritos and taco salad in the microwave almost everyday for a week now. Luckily, they are completely happy with eating the same thing everyday if they like it. Plus sometimes they will just put some beans and cheese in a bowl and eat it with tortilla chips as a snack. Heck, ds will eat beans and cheese with spoon for breakfast too. lol The beans are stored in the fridge in a bowl but the meat and cheese are in ziploc bags to conserve space. Even 7yo ds can put his (cold) meat, beans and cheese on a tortilla, put it in the microwave for 1 minute and then roll it up burrito style. You can add lettuce, onion, sour cream, tomatoes, hot sauce, salsa or pico de gallo, guacamole or whatever you want after it is warm and before rolling it up. It's cheap, easy and better than frozen burritos in our opinion.

As someone who is married to someone 7 years younger than me, I still think it is a dumb thing to be in an uproar over. Of course, neither of us knew each other when we were high school age/young adult but I also don't categorically oppose relationships with large age gaps. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But my first husband was my high school sweetheart and he was 45 days older than me and that relationship was a train wreck almost from the beginning. Age is no guarantee of anything in my opinion. But in the current state of the world and the likelihood of lawsuits and allegations that would need to be litigated, I can see the school wanting to error on the side of caution. Like someone else said, no one has to go to prom. I went with my now ex-husband to prom my senior year. I know prom was in the spring of my senior year but so is my birthday. I was either 17 or just turned 18 and my now ex-husband was 18. The whole event was underwhelming in my opinion. If you really just want a special night with your boyfriend or girlfriend who is outside of the school's specified age limit, just have a special night, all dressed up, and get some pictures done or get a photographer friend to take some pictures. I do think the lower limit is a bit weird. I know lots of girls who made it their mission in their teenage life to go to prom all 4 years of high school and many of them succeeded. I don't see why they are excluding the freshman class and probably a large percentage of the sophomore class. I'm sure they have their reasons though. I don't see why it would be creepy to have your brother, especially an older brother, chaperone his sister to her prom. I think it sounds really sweet. Maybe I missed the part in the prom handbook that says that you have to dance with whoever brought you (though having a dance with your brother ought not be weird but I know it could be perceived that way) or that you had to be in a romantic relationship with the person. I knew lots of people who went to the prom together just as friends, no romantic relationship involved at all.

I would ask the oldest child going on the college tours which parent they would prefer to have go with them. Make sure they understand there will be no hard feelings no matter what they choose but this is their trip and their tour so it is their choice which parent they want to have accompany them. That way, if he chooses dad to go with him you don't have to feel bad about not being there. If he would rather have you, then dad can hold down the fort while you have one on one time with your oldest before he leaves the nest. I absolutely agree with everyone else. This is your oldest child's special trip, I wouldn't have ever let the younger ones think that it was an option to tag along on a college tour. They will get their chance when they are old enough to tour colleges. In our house, "fair" doesn't always mean that every one gets "the same" or that every one gets "something" every time. In this particular case, I would define "fair" as all the children will get the same opportunity to have a special trip with either mom or dad when they are old enough to tour colleges. The younger children may not like it. They may not completely understand it right now. They may even think that it isn't fair and that's ok. It is still completely fair and some day they will understand it.

I agree that in a marriage and family situation, all money is our money. We decide together how to appropriate it and no one has more weight than anyone else. Luckily, dh and I have pretty much the same values when it comes to money and finances so this approach works well for us. If we came into $400, and for whatever reason the check or whatever was in my name, dh would probably try to convince me to buy an item I've been wanting but putting off due to expense. Or he would just go and buy it for me, lol, but I would do the same for him. Then we might have a nice family dinner, we don't go out much so going to a nice sit down restaurant would be a treat. Anything left would go to any projects around the house that needed some money thrown at them to get them done, or saved for a rainy day. And, @Ktgrok if we still had a lawn that could be mowed with a mower, I would totally consider a mower upgrade an excellent use of the money lol. In fact I still have the push mower I "splurged" on ten years ago and it still works great lol! Our land is just far too sloped and rocky to use it now.

Their signature is always what I started with when teaching cursive. Just seemed like a logical place to start. Plus I've never heard of a rule that signatures had to be neat, well formed cursive. I worked as a cashier in high school and on and off as needed in adult life. I've seen thousands of signatures. I don't think many other people got the memo about the cursive requirement either. Yes there is sometimes a line below for your printed name but that's in case your signature is illegible. If something happened with whatever you signed, if the signature cannot be read, it could be argued in court that it is not your signature at all. So, to cover their behind, whoever is asking for your signature wants you to sign and print your name so it is more difficult to deny that it is your signature in court. I've seen plenty of people who sign things in a handwriting that is print or very close to print. The handwriting used does not make the signature any less legally binding in my experience. Fun fact: In Japan, they do not have signatures per se, instead they have a custom stamp or seal that is dipped in red ink and used to stamp any kind of official paperwork or anything that we might use a signature for really.

Why would you not be able to read cursive if you can't write it? I can read Japanese katakana but my writing of the symbols is atrocious. It doesn't stop me from reading them though. Just curious. The highlighted has certainly not been my experience. I taught most of my kids print then cursive. In 5th grade, I didn't require them to use cursive but however they choose to write it needed to be legible. My boys leaned toward print. My girls leaned toward cursive. All of them can read and write in cursive, but for everyday writing, they have been allowed to choose what is most comfortable for them. My oldest daughter wanted to learn cursive first so that's what I did for her. I did not notice any difference really in her than in my other kids. Her handwriting now as an adult is a mix of print and cursive, as is mine. My children's world has certainly not been devoid of cursive so maybe these students who cannot read it somehow don't see a lot of cursive in addition to print in their day to day lives? I can't imagine that. So many ads and decorative things and what not use cursive like fonts. My kids, despite not having been made to use cursive beyond the 4th grade, are still able to read and write it just fine when they need to. I'm not sure which is more common, the bolded situation above or my experience but the type of handwriting my kids use has not been a hill I was willing to die on. It just needs to be legible, whatever they choose to use for their everyday handwriting, and they need to be able to read either. If they can achieve that, I'm satisfied.

When I saw the thread title, I was going to ask how on earth you keep the family from eating them so quickly. When I make cookies just for us, storage is not an issue, lol. They are long gone before they ever go stale lol. Sometimes they are gone before they are completely cooled lol. I do often make a large batch of cookie dough and freeze cookie dough balls then put them in batches into plastic bags. Then all I have to do to make cookies is pull out a bag, put them on a baking sheet and bake. They don't need to be defrosted but depending on the recipe you use it may need an extra minute or two in the oven. I bake the frozen balls from the freezer for all the types of cookies I make most often (chocolate chip, snickerdoodle and oatmeal). No one complains about them, in fact I'm often asked for the recipes, nor can anyone tell the dough was frozen when I baked them.

The Andrew Lang "Fairy Books" have pretty close the to original tales. Here is a link to the books on Project Gutenburg. The World of Tales website is another great website for folk tales and fairy tales from around the world. Keep in mind that the original tales can be graphic or inappropriate for very young children or sensitive children of any age. Always pre-read and make sure it is a rendition of the tale that is appropriate for your child and your family.

I agree, it has never occurred to me to be anything less than grateful that the person is giving me a gift. It doesn't matter whether I like it or not or if I wanted it or not. You are gracious and grateful to the gift giver to take the time to think about you and give you something regardless of how much they spent or where it was purchased. To me, that is etiquette and good manners. If I can't use it or won't use it, I quietly pass it on to someone who will get some use out of it. I am in no way entitled to the value of the gift if I don't like it or don't want it, which is I think what bothers me about the "bring a receipt" request on the invite. It almost seems like the person who worded the invite, whoever they were, felt the guest of honor is entitled to the value of the gift even if they do not like the gift that the giver chose for them. Also it was mentioned somewhere above about the gift needing to be high quality even if it is higher quality than what I would use everyday. If I cannot afford something of high quality for my own use, chances are I can't afford to buy it for someone else either. The high quality and expensive things I do have I either found used or thrifted, got some kind of once in a lifetime amazing deal, or I scrimped and saved for months to get something I would use that will last long enough to be passed down to my kids. If I found a high quality item for an amount I could afford, I would absolutely get it as a gift if I thought the person I had in mind would appreciate it. But for the most part, when it is something I have to carefully budget for to give a gift to begin with, I cannot afford to give someone a gift of something more expensive than I can even get for myself.

Same here, the one time someone offered to throw a baby shower for one of my kids, I already had or purchased what I needed/wanted. We were cloth diapering so didn't need or want disposables and I had already picked out and purchased the cloth diapers I wanted new for this baby. I told her I was honored that she wanted to throw a shower but we didn't really need anything so make sure to tell everyone that no gifts are necessary, just a cookout or something in celebration of the baby would be lovely. After that she never mentioned it again and we didn't have the celebration. Just as well since big get-togethers overwhelm me.

Dh and I both love thrifting. We aren't able to do it as much as we would like anymore but we still keep our eyes peeled for good deals when we are able to get out to the thrift stores. We made almost all of our furniture ourselves because we like to wood work and we can usually build something custom for much cheaper than trying to find something that is sort of like what we want at the store. I have gotten lots of great deals on decor stuff from sales and coupons from places like Hobby Lobby. All the art on the walls either I made it or dh made it. It really helps that dh and I both agree on the style and feel that we like for our home and we both have eclectic tastes so we are fine with things that go together but aren't exactly matching.

Yup, none of mine were quite as adamant about working independently as your son but they all got to a point where they would rather someone else explain it or figure it out themselves before they wanted my help, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. Video lessons definitely fill a need and can be very good for some things and some people.

I think that has to be regional or socio-economic. Or maybe I'm just weird. I am perfectly happy to receive something used as a gift for any occasion within reason. Dirty, stained, or so used or out of date it is no longer useful, I will pass. But something that is gently used, barely used and practically brand new or something with deep meaning or of personal interest to me, I am more than happy to receive an item like that. I don't care that it isn't new in the box, particularly if it is a big ticket item. I absolutely agree that it is rude to demand a receipt. I never had a baby shower for any of my 6 kids though. I either bought what I needed myself or got an occasional item here and there from friends and family during the pregnancy or when the baby was born. I was lucky enough when my first daughter was born to receive two yard waste size garbage bags full of girl clothes from a friend who had 3 separate baby showers thrown for her daughter. Most of the clothes had never been worn or still had the tags on and ranged in size from preemie to 18 months. Had I not received those garbage bags of clothes, oldest dd would have had to wear a lot of hand-me-downs from her older brothers because it was a very unexpected pregnancy. Speaking of oldest dd, when dd told me she was pregnant last year, I told her I would be happy to help her get what she needed if she was ok with going thrifting and/or yardsale-ing for a lot of the bigger things. I was thrilled when she acted surprised that I even asked her that question. Of course, she would be happy to get used items as long as they were in good condition! Unfortunately, she ended up having a miscarriage but I'm so glad she has not seemed to fall into the culture of entitlement that seems so prevalent these days.

I honestly think it is all in how you use things. I don't find the video lessons to be the problem in your last statement. To me, the problem is sequestering the kid to their room, not the format of the lesson. If the kid wants to go to their room and do their work in relative peace and quiet, that's one thing, but when I think of isolating a kid in their room, I think of someone telling the child, "Now, you better not come out of there until you are done." I don't even make my kids clean their room like that, much less do their school work. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of video lessons either but I don't think they are horrible. But, we also don't do screens in bedrooms, for adults or children. So maybe that colors my view a bit. When we use video lessons, I am right there with them. We are pausing the video to talk and discuss ideas. I am making sure they are engaged and not just enduring the lesson. There is no point, in my opinion, in having them just endure the lesson. If I feel like they are not engaging, we talk about it or we change the topic or we come back later when they are ready to engage or I find out why they are not engaging... most of the time, this makes video lessons in general a pretty poor fit for us as I WANT to be engaged and involved with their learning. But there are times when someone else can explain or demonstrate something much better than I can by myself. That is when I choose to judiciously use video lessons as a family, not as something for the kids to do while I do something else. Even when I had 5 kids still all at home and homeschooling them all, I did use educational videos to occupy some of the kids while I worked with others, but I never trusted them to learn new content that way. It was always review and reinforcement or just for fun educational videos. I think teens and adults who are personally invested in what they are learning can learn just fine from video lessons. Where we live, many of the classes at the local community college are distance education video-based classes. It can be a great way to learn things when there is no one locally can teach you and traveling, for teacher or student, is cost prohibitive. Video education is definitely a valid and useful form of learning things but I think it is all in how you use it and whether or not it is a good fit for your particular situation.

I am fluent in most kid languages too, lol. Just please don't tell my kids that I actually do understand Whine-ese. I've been telling them all their lives that I don't understand Whine-ese and that they will have to tell me in their normal voice before I can answer them, lol. I also seem to be able to smell a soiled diaper or soiled pants if they have an accident within seconds. From across the room. No matter what. Even if it was nothing more than a wet fart. lol

We have heard all the speech therapy comments too. Including that we needed to put him in preschool so he got more practice with spontaneous speech. So we did, not just because the SLP reccomended it but we did do it all the same. It was an unmitigated disaster. When we brought him home, he actually made more progress in spontaneous speech and the SLP noticed it as well. Luckily, she homeschools her daughter as well so she was supportive. I think the comments that irritate me the most are well meaning strangers who tell me about the kids they knew who had, what they perceived to be, the same problem as ds and how it only took a few sessions of speech therapy to "fix the problem". Ds has been in speech therapy for more than 75% of his young life and his current speech and articulation ARE an improvement from where he started. He has a neurological difference that makes speaking at all difficult for him. Invisible disabilities can be so hard sometimes.

You asked a group of working moms who chose to enroll their children in public school. Most of the people who post on these forums are at least part-time if not full time SAHMs and homeschoolers. Comparing the experiences and opinions of these two very different demographics is like comparing apples and oranges. I don't find it surprising at all that women who chose completely different approaches to motherhood and education of their children would have polar opposite opinions on, well, pretty much everything. I've met parents of public schooled children who believe that bullying and peer pressure are what help kids build character, both for the bully and the victim. I vehemently disagree with that idea but I would hope that I could have more compassion and grace than to tell them how my friends and I roll our eyes about them and their problems.

Homeschooling and parenting, for me, are so intertwined that it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. I've found the older I get and the more of my kids that become adults, the less I need the approval of others to be confident and comfortable in my parenting choices for my children. The more confident and comfortable I am in my parenting choices, the less defensive I am about my convictions and the more open I am to understanding the experiences of others who chose differently than me. I always swore I would never be "that parent" who let their child have a pacifier past a year old. My youngest cured me of that conviction, not because he is the youngest and spoiled but because he had an actual need for a pacifier that I did not know was even a thing when my oldest was born and I decided I was anti-pacifier past infancy. I am also most definitely not the same homeschool mom I was 20 years ago when I was just getting started with homeschooling a preschooler for the first time. I have had to eat some humble pie a few times for being young, inexperienced and headstrong in my lifetime. But if my children remember nothing else about how I raised them, I want them to remember that I was never too proud to apologize to them or others when I was wrong or just lacked the parenting or life experience to make a better decision than I did at the time.

I 100% admit that if I had it all to do over again with the knowledge I have now , I would not have homeschooled my oldest dd. She absolutely thrived in public school once she was enrolled in 5th grade. She would never have reached her full potential if I had homeschooled her through graduation. It has nothing to do with my ability to teach or her ability to learn. If dd had butted heads with a teacher the way she and I would butt heads sometimes, I would have absolutely asked for dd to be put in a different class. Sometimes, personalities just clash. Even between teacher and student or parent and child. Dd and got along so much better when she was in school, which is a statement I would have never imagined I would ever say about one of my kids but it is true. I was always worried about her, because she was such a social butterfly and a people pleaser, that she would inevitably fall in with the "wrong crowd". But she actually has a pretty good sense of right and wrong and made great decisions about social things when she was in public school. And she actually came to me for advice when she needed it, something she never would have done when we were constantly butting heads. When you are going though a rough patch in life, it can be really really hard to see things clearly and impartially. I am honestly neither pro-homeschooling nor am I pro-public/private school. I am pro-"do what is best for your child when they need you to do what is best for them". That can mean different things at different times for the same kid and it can mean different things for each individual kid. Since no two kids are alike, even siblings, there are no universal rules. That is what makes raising kids so hard. There are no hard fast rules or instruction manuals. My 6th and youngest child still throws me for a loop some days and teaches me new things about parenting and homeschooling. It is a good thing that I view learning as a lifelong process and never let my education stand in the way of my desire to learn.