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MeaganS

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Everything posted by MeaganS

  1. 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.
  2. 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
  3. 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.
  4. We have 3. Anna, Thomas, and Mr. Bates. Great minds. 😉
  5. 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?
  6. 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.
  7. Are non-white people actively discouraged to join, or is just that their audience appeals more to a white fundamentalist demographic?
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. I have a weird obsession with sailing channels, so for those: Gone with the Wynns Project Atticus Sailing Magic Carpet Sailing Uma Then the homesteaders/gardeners: Simple Living Alaska MIGardener Wild Wonderful Off-Grid The Seasonal Homestead Epic Gardening Living Traditions Homestead Acre Homestead No-Till Growers Miscellaneous: Vino Farm (beekeeping) Townsend (historical living) Mark Rober & Mr Beast (clean fun my kids like) Holderness Family I also love the videos of antiques being completely restored. My whole family will get sucked in if I put one of those on TV.
  11. I have 4 daughters who have been into pokemon for the last few years. They are always fans of more feminine pokemon tshirts, socks, and other wearables (I think we have pjs, hoodies, undies, leggings, etc.). We've had good luck with Target having girly pokemon shirts. We also probably have 20 different pokemon plushies. I know Build-a-Bear has a line of pokemon stuffed animals and accessories. That's a pretty pricey option but might be a fun experience gift. We've also had a lot of time spent on those Pokemon encyclopedias. I think we have 3 versions and they are looked at and studied all the time. I even used one for finding copywork for one of my girls for a few months. You can usually pick them up at Sam's/Cosco or even the big retailers.
  12. I am very interested in this. I have recently begun keeping a larger food storage and pantry moths are the devil. I have some food grade buckets with gamma lids, but I haven't heard about dry ice. How do you do that?
  13. This is the one I have. I got it on recommendation from my mom who has had various ones for years. We've used it for about 2 years now and it has worked great for us. I'm considering getting a second one for our bathroom. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I0ZGOZM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
  14. I installed ours on my own. It took me about an hour and was pretty simple. We already had the hole in the counter top though. Without that it might be more complicated. Nope. It has its own little faucet and will need it's own hole in the counter. We use it almost exclusively for drinking water and in some sensitive recipes. But normal tap for everything else. It makes such a difference for us. Our water comes from a lake that a few times a year just tastes like dirt. It takes all that away.
  15. Alright guys, you've convinced me. I talked with dh last night and we both think staying is the right choice. We've waffled back and forth a lot the last week or so but ultimately I think you guys are right and agree with what my heart was telling me. I would be very sad to lose our awesome location and have been really enjoying being here and looking forward to the next few years with the kids. The house we live in is great. Lots of work, but great and not more than we can handle.
  16. Not communal probably. Maybe a trust or something or possibly just put in our name. We haven't worked it out yet but we'd be careful about it. Dh's parents are young and healthy. Early 60s. In fact, all of his grandparents are also still alive, although they live across the country. So helping them isn't something we need to worry about for some time yet.
  17. You guys are making me feel better about my hesitation. You are saying exactly what my brain has been saying.
  18. Curious why you say that. (I understand it is pretty easy to figure out where we are based on my description, more wondering why it would lead you to think we should stay). Also, absolutely the finances of how the land would work would be a written down thing with lawyers and financial advisors and all the contingencies figured. But yeah, I've been reveling at being in the middle of everything and the idea of having to drive my soon to be teenagers everywhere sounds like a pain and a huge con.
  19. We have a very interesting opportunity and I can't decide what to do! We currently have a large house on 1.5 acres in an older established neighborhood. This neighborhood is in an area of our city that is growing like mad and having tons of money pumped into it. We are literally a mile away from where they are building the new Walmart home office and within walking distance to a huge art museum and childrens museum and park. It is very bike friendly here and our church is a mile away as well. My 11yo has made some great friends who are within biking distance and there are lots of opportunities for extra curriculars. Our house is 50 years old and we have updated some of it, but it still has a ways to go (constant projects, including totally redoing the master/master bath), but it is unique and fits us really well. It has also almost doubled in value since we moved here over 3 years ago and will likely continue to go up as our area continues to grow and become more desirable. We have chickens and a huge garden with room for more. Overall, we love it here with the exception of the project house, and even that isn't that bad. So why would we leave? My in-laws, who are great and we have a great relationship with, are moving here. They have suggested that if we wanted, they could buy a large plot of beautiful land and we could build houses on it, possibly with other of dh's siblings (although probably only 1 other would choose to do it). The land they are looking at would allow for all of my husband's homesteady inclinations to come to pass. We would be free to have animals, including meat chickens, pigs, and possibly a cow or two. We could have as big a garden as we wanted, and we would be a few acres away from family we like. We could sell our current house and build a dream house with cash or close to it with what our house would likely sell for. That means we would essentially be debt-free. The problem with this is that the land is about 20 minutes outside of town. It is in a much smaller town and while it is growing too, it is pretty basic and rural. Even the culture feels different. For a lot of things, we'd still need to drive to where we live now. Also, our church would be 20 minutes away. So what would you do? Stay at the location you love and house/yard that is 90% of what you could possibly want? Build your husband's dream (mine too besides location) house and hobby homestead and be mostly debt free?
  20. I have both near me. I'm looking at different extracurricular activity options for my girls as they get older, and both of these came up. Do you have personal experience with either? My girls aren't particularly physically blessed (normal play but suck at sports) if that makes a difference. Would you recommend it for stem-inclined kids who are looking to put in some work but also want to have some fun? Or just have any general feedback on either? I was looking through the archives and most of what I saw was from 8 years or more ago.
  21. We've been tracking and it's our first year. We're at 525. I do count being in a tent, so camping helps a lot with the numbers. My rules are at least 2 kids have to be outside for me to count it since I don't want to try to track each member of the family and that simplifies it for me. It's been good. There was a learning curve as they learned how to be outside, but they seem to have it figured out now. Gardening and the pool help tons too.
  22. Mine is obsessed with the Keeper of the Lost City series. She and her whole group of friends are devouring it.
  23. Sure. A- 81 Chapters B- 76 Chapters C- 63 Chapters D- 69 Chapters Each chapter is 3-6 pages long. We do a chapter a day easily. My kids read a chapter a day and then outline or summarize them as both a history and writing assignment. My 10 and 11yo use the classic editions and my 13yo uses the concise. Each kid takes about a half hour total, and that's including the writing portion.
  24. I have both sets (I'm a junkie), would you like me to share it?
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