Yup. My mom's side definitely did. We have many records showing it as well as family lore. I did one of those ancestry DNA tests and it shows that I have 1% from Senegal from that same side of my family (and other family on that side show the same thing). We have tons of genealogy done and none show any from Africa, so someone is lying along the way. It also makes it especially emotional for me, knowing it is likely I have both enslavers and slaves as my ancestors.

For real. I'm a millennial with 4 kids, including some teenagers and while I was young when I started, I wasn't THAT young (in my 20s). "Groceries ranked highest for millennials and Gen Zers, outpacing restaurants, bars, travel, beauty and personal care, apparel, and fitness." Fwiw, I splurge on my kids, my garden, and some basic travel. I wouldn't consider most of my groceries splurges, but I also don't feel like I splurge much on the other categories listed either, except maybe travel which i do prioritize but very frugally.

For real? That will make it sooooo much easier. I'm really interested to see how it works out. My oldest qualifies this year so we'll see, but I was already trying to figure out how to get all of her various resources as "vendors" and it was going to be a major pain.

Napoleon Dynamite, "Tina, eat. Food! Eat the food!" Like many others, tons from Princess Bride. Also lots of Homestar Runner quotes. "This will grow you some nice fish-corn bushes!" and "Kids don't play with too many knives!" Many more, but those off the top of my head.

For me we chose induction primarily because it heats our kitchen the least. Our kitchen is in an area of our house that struggles to stay cool in the summer. It was almost painful to use the oven or stove because it just heated the whole room up. When we remodeled, we went induction and it has made a huge difference. We have all sorts of camping supplies, so cooking during outages isn't a consideration for me. Our outages only ever last an hour or so here anyways.

I'm glad! I watched it too and am still pretty confused about what is going to be covered. But I'm guessing that's most likely because they don't really know yet.

I have the nesco, which is another electric canner and LOVE it. I still have my stove top ones for large batches, but for smaller things or if I have time and don't want to babysit, it's amazing. And has worked well.

The new LEARNS Act goes into effect for some homeschoolers this year, but a lot of the information is still unclear. I just found out about this webinar being given by a member of the Dept. of Education that looks like it will answer a lot of questions and thought I might not be the only one. Here's what this says, "Join us at 7 PM Tuesday, March 26, for an online webinar about the Educational Freedom Account (EFA) program with Darrell Smith of the Arkansas Department of Education. We will cover the basics of how students can qualify for the program and how parents can enroll, but we also will have some important news and updates about the regulations that will govern the program in the 2024-25 school year. Whether you’re in the program now, interested in enrolling in it for the fall, or just want more information about how the program can provide resources for K-12 education, please join us virtually at 7 PM on March 26. Attendees will have the opportunity to submit questions using the Q&A feature in Zoom. To attend, you must register via Zoom using the link above. Please share it with anyone who might be interested. Be sure to keep the registration confirmation email you receive from Zoom." https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1117095739940/WN_FD-ueiLNTHKNZ022sJZvVg?fbclid=IwAR0R4xteYqofBAxW1WCW0aP2191Q5RTIW_ZGBZMhJa3IjGJG9OCXILQ2T7o#/registration

Yeah, when I read it, my assumption was that he wants to play pickle ball with you. That its more of a him gift than a you gift.

We have 3. Anna, Thomas, and Mr. Bates. Great minds. 😉

My dd7 has been doing beast academy and while we love it, she would do better with a format that required a set amount of work a day. She struggles with the open nature of beast academy. My question is about the new version of Singapore. Mostly which books we should get. She's very quick at understanding math, so I don't think she needs lots of extra practice and we plan to continue doing BA online as a supplement. Deeper is better. Is one of the workbooks like the old challenging problems books?

We have almost all of that in our current home. It's only 1.5 acre though, but still, pretty close. I could easily downsize our house but I wouldn't want to give up our location/lot. In our area we are super blessed because we are surrounded by HOAs and small lots. We are in an older neighborhood kinda hidden in the middle of a bunch of new, so we lucked out. We can (and do) do mostly whatever we want. On your list, I would give up a dining room first. I just don't like formal dining rooms. If there is a place for a table by the kitchen, I'd prefer that. In fact, I do that. We have a dining room but I refuse to buy a table just to fill the space when I know we'd never use it or barely use it. We've turned it into a sitting area but I'd easily just not have the space. Next I'd give up the living room. I've tried really hard to change my mindset about what my home is for. I've come to the conclusion that my home is for living and not for the very occasional guest. Having a whole space just in case someone shows up seems unimportant and honestly, I'd rather not have it. It's just another place to clean and buy furniture for. Our house has 8 foot ceilings except in one room that is slightly vaulted and my bedroom. I will say when I first was considering the house this bothered me. The first thing I did when we bought it was to go through and paint it bright/light colors. This made a HUGE difference. I've also been really careful with my furniture choices and made sure that it all has a low profile. When we redid our kitchen, I made sure that our pendant lights had clear shades. Basically I did everything I could to make it not seem closed in. The next thing I want to do is change the blinds to roller shades since I feel like that opens up the windows so much. All that to say, it hasn't been that bad at all. We just have to be mindful when decorating. I'd still prefer higher ceilings but its not as big a deal as I thought it would be. The pool would not be a deal breaker either way. Our pool is nice, but it is also a huge pain. I can see both sides of the argument there. I'm happy to have it since we moved in when my youngest was old enough to swim and we'll have it all the way through the teen years. Once the kids are gone, though, I definitely don't want one. It costs a lot of money to run and fix and is a slight stressor for me the whole summer. But it's really nice to have and be able to invite friends and family to use.

Are non-white people actively discouraged to join, or is just that their audience appeals more to a white fundamentalist demographic?

In the purple book, lesson 64, my daughter and I have a question about the diagram. Why is the tree necessary? Why can we just split the two object compliments like we would a compound subject? I'm assuming there's a grammatical reason but I don't know enough figure it out.

Well, every year my husband makes it more and more of a thing. We might have 11 pies. 🙄 I don't even really like pie. Dude is just a nerd about it and enjoys the challenge. Several spreadsheets were involved in coming up with perfect ratios for recipes.