We have entered the lottery almost daily for the last 9 months... And this lottery limits you to 2 tickets. Just that you know.

Come to Chicago? You can get decent seats for $150. Great seats for $400. My dd has wanted to go for a year, plays all the music on violin/piano, sings all the music... It is a HUGE expense for us and if she goes, it will be with only 1 parent, no siblings.

For us, it seems the snack food items cost the most. We buy 1 bag of chips a month and use them if we have to eat on the run. The rest is fruits and vegs. I (like a pp) stopped buying cereal for a while. I have given in and buy a box a week. The other days we eat eggs,muffins,oatmeal. A mistake I made in the past was to save by using less meat. I made a lot of casseroles. I felt like we were always hungry. For our carnivorous clan, I have to serve a meat once a day,usually dinner. Also, I started buying easily prepared frozen and canned ingredients such as meatballs for subs. It has helped us not eat out when I'm too busy or tired. We use them about 3-4 times per month.

This American Life The Way I Heard It History Chicks Hardcore History Undisclosed Accused Welcome to Nightvale Court Junkie Finished: Serial Accused Season 1 S Town Finding Richard Simmons Up Next: Thin Air Dirty John

We used Children Around the World a couple years ago. It was our best year. I heavily adjusted it, but I used their exclusives, mostly digital. I have no experience with anything else they make.

I have LA 4, Pre K, K, and 1. I have handwriting 1,2,5. I have insects and Space for science. I will say that I love the Pre K and K LA. The handwriting is good, too. I am about to drop LA 4. It is not working. There is not enough actual practice of anything. So very little writing. And in all my years of hs, I have never dropped a program. The science looks great, but I haven't used it yet.

Our butcher doesn't leave out the brisket unless we ask. Ours will automatically grind that. Also, we ask for leaner ground beef. So, that makes less packages of meat, but also less fat. They throw lots of stuff in that grinder. There are a lot of bones. We take them, but they fill up the freezer fast. We love the tenderized cubed steaks.

I toss mine in the tub, soak in a couple inches of warm soapy water and scrub lightly with a brush. Rinse. Rehang to dry.

HA! I was just going to post NOT to buy a Cabrio. I HATE that washer. I hope the thing dies soon. It's only been 2 years. I can only wash 1/2 capacity if I want clean clothes. I have to prewash stinky pits in the sink. Oh, how I hate that washer.

I was there 4 years ago with a senior with no path. He wanted to "move out" and definitely wanted a university degree. Those were his goals. We have a couple CCs near us. I steered *this* child away from that path. I know him and I knew that CC would be an extension of his current path of indecision and poor self confidence. He is an introvert and has very high anxiety. So, I held his hand and nudged him along his entire senior year. I would tell him when deadlines were, remind him the week before, day before, etc. Until it was all done. He would not declare "undecided"although his school has a very well respected "undecided" program so he chose CIT. He ended up changing his major to Anthropology with a CIT/Management minor. He added a semester to his 4 year degree. And he really loves Anth. He took one random class to fill a requirement. And here he is. He did the research to find out how to make his major marketable. He is taking classes to have a focus on applied anth. He NEEDED to have his life completely changed. He needed to be on his own and do it all by himself. But, he NEEDED me to push just a little bit. He is very grateful I did that. Now, I am not that kind of person. I wanted him to make all the moves and fill out all the paperwork, etc. That did not happen for us. Since he left for school, his successes and his failures are HIS. He knows we will love him just the same whether he graduates or doesn't. He has a home here as long as he needs/wants it.

Exactly. I switched all of us to this brand. I am so happy with them. And actually, they are not that much more expensive.

The way you describe-with independent work and then time together-that's how I have always homeschooled. I make schedules each weekend for the whole week. The schedules are designed so the kids can read them and highlight the work they completed each day and they can see what is ahead. There is always extra "work" in case they finish early. I hate busy work, but a couple of the kids love paper crafts, dioramas, etc. So I always have extra things they can do and all the supplies to do them. There are videos they can watch on Amazon Prime that I have preselected. We combine for bible/history readings and discussion.

The coconut caramel cookies ARE better than GS cookies! My kids prefer Aldi animal crackers over all others.

I shop at Aldi once/week. Costco 2 times per month. Meijer 1 time per month. I can find 90% of what I need at Aldi. And the quality is very good. Actually, I can afford to buy BETTER quality food BECAUSE I shop at Aldi. The organics are similar prices to non organics at other stores. I love their whole milk organic yogurt-large size is $2.99 Their organic milk is full fat(super hard to find around here). It is cheaper than the low fat from Costco and the taste is SO much better. I buy lots of dairy. Love the imported cheeses! I love the organic chicken broth in the carton-$1.69 My family begs me to buy the sliced Brioche. Most of the time the produce is excellent. If you go into the store with a specific list, you may be disappointed. When you figure out what's there, then make a list.

I have used many "preplanned" history programs. I was very strict about SL. Then, I spent a year with WP. It changed my mind and that year I relaxed so much. Wayfarers followed. It was pretty "pick and choose" but I felt like things did not tie together well enough. This year I am using BP(with a laid back approach.) I use mostly SOTW. I spend about 20 minutes a week reading through the Companion(just what I want to read) We do Cool Histories/TL/Discussion together as a family(no actual written work) It takes 20-30 minutes a week. I use the Cool History Classic which is based off the SOTW readings. We do maps together once a week (10 minutes). The readings? I choose a book for each kid and schedule it out for as long as that child needs. A chapter a day for a weak reader, 2 chapters a day for a strong reader. When that book is done, I choose another off the current list for that week. BP schedules are so reading heavy. I also read the read alouds much slower and I don't care.:) I do what works for us. I make my own weekly schedule. We stay "on track" for history but the RA and readers at a slower pace. We have yet to do a craft. We also do interactive notebooks for some things. I am choosing to focus on scientists and presidents this year. We do narrations about them. PM me if you decide to stick with BP.:)

Thank you so much! I was just feeling sad and overwhelmed at planning a few day trip out east. This made me smile! We should do something like this for lots of major cities! Just 1 or 2 day trip plans.

And this is what I meant by being exhausted. I guess we just mean skin color and not really race. I mean I"think" it's ok for my girls to be Pocahantas. My oldest loved that Halloween. My maternal grandmother was native american. But, my mom married a VERY white man, so my skin is very light --can't even tan. :( People commented when I was a child at how "Chinese" my eyes looked. Asked often if I was adopted. I had my grandma's eyes. My girls are very light skinned, too. So, we would be judged on our skin color alone, not our actual heritage. I don't get it. :confused: Or better yet, let's not judge at all.

This is not "racism". It is racial discrimination. A person of color can not be "racist", but they can exercise racial discrimination. In all my research, they are basically the same thing. A person of color being racist would be trying to further a white agenda. The dictionary definition of racism is not accepted.

Having trouble quoting. I’m on my phone. Re: hate. That’s what he got from our hour long talk about being respectful. He just is not old enough to understand what all of it means. Including hate, he knows that hate is the strongest emotion that we talk about. Respect is difficult for him to understand. Thanks for the comments. Now that we have an expert of sorts in our family, we have learned a lot.lol

My 4 year old son desperately wants to be Maui from Moana. I decided it would be ok as long as we didn’t try to darken his skin. Well, then I read online about the tattoos and how that also is cultural appropriation. Ugh. So I told 4 year old no. It’s just not worth it. It’s exhausting. I tried to explain it to him and I even got help from my oldest ds who is a senior anth major. He still doesn’t understand. He said, but I love him, I don’t hate his people... Completely exhausting. He would have made the cutest little giant. Oh, well.

We don’t have an allowance for our ds. Give him $150 or so every time I see him. A few times a year. Sometimes he asks me to buy him something on Amazon. I offer to buy all he needs. So, when he comes home, I buy him clothes, toothpaste, soap, laundry pods... etc... we even give him haircuts lol. He had a job 1st semester and he hated missing out on what friends were doing, so he quit. He said he would rather do without spending money. He’s a senior now, so I guess he was not kidding. Lol

If you don’t have a coffee maker...There are some great instant coffees in individual packets. Starbucks makes one. Instant coffee has come a long way. There are so many options for herbal teas and flavoured ones. I would suggest individually wrapped ( not celestial seasonings) I have these available in a basket along with packets of apple cider (to add to hot apple juice), and hot cocoa packets. I buy something new each month with my regular shopping. It only costs a few dollars and before you know it, you have a great selection. I buy the popcorn seasonings and have a popcorn snack. You can keep all that on hand for company. One of my friends always has fruit and chocolate dip( melted chocolate chips in a mini crockpot. My kids love that. It doesn’t have to be complicated.

All my schedules are in One Note. Most of my life organization is in One Note. LOL I do like to use Word tables if I am creating them for someone else. Very Easy. I hate Excel.

This is a parental issue, I believe. Actually, I would rather not have my child plop her phone in a basket. However, she is not allowed to even glance at it during youth or church. It must be put away in her purse. She would have consequences at home if I found out she was on it. It is disrespectful. She is also not allowed to look at someone else's screen if they are on their phones. We still read real books, so she takes her bible to church. No need to use a device. But, who am I to say no to someone else's child? I might talk to the parents, but if they say "oh, well..." I'm not going to kick them out of Sunday School. LOL Maybe the answer is to have a name sticker for each kid that they put on when they come in. One says"here to listen" and one says"here in body, absent in mind". LOL So, the leader can organize all those kids in the corner to hang on their phones and only put their efforts into the kids who are present in mind. :)

Honestly, it’s not a time to be worried about nutrition. It’s a time to focus on calories. Getting anything to stay down is an achievement. For me... nothing EVER sounded good. I could not cook food( the smell was horrid). It was a blessing when someone just brought food. Sometimes I ate it. My family sometimes cooked food in the crockpot in the garage and ate outside using disposable plates. Pop helped things stay down. The cola syrup and carbonation. Mr Pibb was my favourite. I just sipped often. And burped a lot. Lol Doritos were often easier to keep down. When I was able to stand upright and food cooking didn’t make me throw up, I made a steak for myself every morning. I couldn’t even drink water. People telling me to stay hydrated, eat healthier, exercise more... I hated them. Lol