Me too! I am eating Frosted Mini Wheats, Maple Brown Sugar

What is the problem with neighbor kids? Here is my take: When I say no, the kids can't play. They argue and want to know why. When my kids say no, they can't play. They argue. They tell my kids go ask your mom again. My kids say no, my mom said no and come inside. One day, the kids said they were going to stay in our backyard until they came out. My kids came in. (He left. It wasn't a warm day.) One day, he told my kids well, who am I going to be able to play with? They shrugged their shoulders and came in. I have said no, they can't play kickball in the front yard backyard only. They know this is one of my rules. They know why I don't like it, the ball goes in the street. (The cars go down the road at maddeningly fast speeds. In fact, a car has swerved off the road twice and gone through our front yard both times). They don't care. They still ask. I still say no. every.time. and they still argue. They know the house rules. I have told them. They have repeated them back even. You don't follow than you are asked to leave. They know that just because they are told to leave one day, doesn't mean they aren't invited to back ever. I am careful that if they were univited because of behavior that the next time they come over, I tell them it is o.k. to play. They come over my house and ruin my kids backyard things. They ruin my stonewalk way (literally picking up big stone slabs and moving them.)Yes, I have confronted and told them not to do that. They look and me and smile and say o.k. The next time it is off to destroy something else. They have littered in our yard. I have seen it and told them to pick it up. They look at me and say they didn't do it. I tell them I saw them. They smile and pick it up. They argue with my husband. My husband told the kids they needed to go home because of behavior and the child had the audacity to tell him, he could be at our house because his mom told him he could be there. After much, can I just reiterate much, arguing, he left. Here's the bottom line for me, I don't have the emotional energy to deal with children who are going to come over my house and argue with me about what I am saying. That is why I tell them no and only have them over about once a week. I set firm boundaries but I can understand wanting to hide in in the house. I only have so much emotional energy and after dealing with arguements in my family, I really don't feel like or want to deal with arguments with children. Yes, I have talked to the parents. Yes, the kids are going to argue. However, when my kids tell them my mom said we can't do that or they are being rude and calling my kids names and my kids are telling them it is unacceptable, why than should I invest my emotional energy having them here every. day. Yes, I have been told it could be my mission. Is it really being unreasonable to say, I don't want the neighbor kids here every day? Especially since I just want to have some downtime after I am done schooling them and before my dh gets home, which inevitably is the time the neighbors are coming over? I think if someone is comfortable handling conflict, these types of things probably just roll off their back. I hate conflict. I can set good boundaries, but it is hard. Especially since growing up, I wasn't allowed to have healthy boundaries. What I thought, felt- didn't count. It was discredited. Most of the time, I was told what I thought was wrong or it wasn't loving toward the other person or I was selfish and just thinking about myself. I have worked hard on boundaries. So, the way I deal with this is to limit the play. Maybe it is wimpy. But I can own my wimpyness in light of the fact that I know my wimpy now is less wimpy than my wimpy before :tongue_smilie:

Hope everything is o.k. Still praying!

Awww..I hope you are doing better today :grouphug:

Praying!

Wow! I didn't know that. I didn't even look at it. I have the series in books and just thought it was nice it was on Kindle. Apparently, someone is going to do a free version for kindle that you can get of AO's website. I wonder if anyone from AO contacted Amazon in regards to this?

I think there would be a couple things I would consider doing: First, if it was possible, I would change the time from 10:00 to 9:30. If that wasn't an option, I would let her know that if she arrives late, you need to end at the same time since you have another committment you can't be late for. I would let her know that you won't pay her for the time she wasn't there for. I would make it clear that you can have the instruments tuned so she can just come and start at 10:00. If she doesn't like the tuning, you want her to get there before 10 to do that like she was when she first started.

Yes! This is what I was thinking. You set a good boundary with only being able to help up until March. However, I would be prepared that in the end, you will become a long list of her casualties because you didn't help enough or long enough or tried to make her do the things you were suggesting to her.

I think, if the spoken word is directed at a crowd, it can only be powerful with those that the word resonates with. I think words spoken to individuals have more power than those spoken to crowds. I think this is because it is a more intimate conversation. However, when the person or other people repeat what was said, it loses its power because it is the interpretation of what was heard. I agree the written word is powerful over a longer period of time. However, not all written word will have and impact on everyone. So, again, it is what resonates with someone that will cause the words to have their impact and power.

Oh my goodness! I am glad your girls are o.k. :grouphug:

:D Love it!

I offer to bring something. When I have people over, I don't expect them to bring anything. Even if they ask, I say no. However, I have had situations where after I have said no, they ask again and say something specific that they can bring. If that is the case, I will say yes. Just out of curiosity, if you don't bring food, do you bring a hostess gift? I know someone who always brings a gift. I haven't always brought a gift and wonder when you should do this?

Good to hear!

:grouphug: I am so sorry. It is really hard trying to understand that a loved one is gone. Than, the extra decisions make it harder. Make it a reality. Please don't let the "if only's" take over. You were doing the best you could and trying to balance many different needs with your family.

Prayers for your sister :grouphug: and prayers for you too!

bump!

Didn't see that this was posted so I thought people might be interested. The Charlotte Mason Original Homeschooling Series is available for Kindle right now for .99 Cents http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A6XO23M/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_DST-qb06RQ76W?tag=hydfbook0e-20&ascsubtag=US-SAGE-1358184337734-CZLBH

I get it. Whenever my mom would go into the hospital, or my dad, I never knew. Until months later. If I did find out about the surgery, it was usually by accident, from someone else. The tough thing was that sometimes it was serious and sometimes it wasn't. However, something healthwise was going on all the time. This really made it hard to know how sympathetic too be. I learned to just be indifferent and my sympathy levels went way down. It was weird because several times I was with my mom and things happened, her falling down stairs or in the tub. I wanted to take her to the hosptial but she called my dad and ended up not going. So, again, things I thought were a concern, weren't on their part. Things they thought were a concern, sometimes were, but a lot time wasn't in my point of view. :grouphug:

:lol: I said the same thing to dh. What? Water has always been a part of the Amazing Race. Take swim lessons, something to prepare if you are that afraid of water. What really cracked me up is they had been saying how they could handle anything because they have had to deal with pressure in their jobs.

Thanks for the update. I am glad she has been found. It sounds like they are going to have a tough road ahead so I will continute to pray for them.

I would have dh fix it like he originally offerred, especially since nephew is excited Since your dh is handy, I'm sure he could fix it up and it would look nice. Sounds like nephew might have a few ideas of what he would like to have is bike look like. Custom bike. Unique. No one else would have one like it right? See, how the SIL is after the bike is done. It may not be an issue any longer especially if the nephew is happy with it. :grouphug:

I have been in a situation where my son got something from another country and showed it too their friends. One of their friends left it in the driveway and their mother ran over it. Here is the deal for me, her kids are taught to take care of their stuff, put it away. Never a word was said. The child didn't have to apologize, mom didn't offer to pay. I can tell you if this had happened at my house,I ran over something of her child's, she would have thrown a major fit. Double standard. I try and think about if what I expect in the situation is what I would expect if the situation was reversed. If you wouldn't expect her to pay if it was your child's stuff than, I wouldn't give it another thought. I would also wonder if she would have offerred to pay if she had done that and it had been one of your children's bikes. I don't think it is just easy to say, pay for the bike. If I had been giving and giving and giving and there hadn't been return on the other parties side, it would impact how I felt and what I would do. Certainly, you don't give and expect equal return. But, I have been in situations where I have looked back and realized, hey, I am the one always giving. Does she have a sense of entitlement? Is she cheap? Did they just buy that bike? How bad is the bike? Can it be taken somewhere and fixed? How upset is the nephew? Did he leave it there on purpose because it was an older bike and he wanted a new one? Did he drop it there because he was called into eat and obeyed his mom immediately? Again, all of these things would impact my decision about the bike. For me, I wouldn't have told someone they have to pay. However, I would liked an apology. For me, an apology goes a long way. (Not saying your dh didn't do that). In that situation, with dh helping out, I wouldn't have said anything about the bike since he was doing us a favor already. I would probably pay for the bike but I would really think twice about doing work for her. What if something goes wrong with the work and she expects you to pay for that too? Based on experiences with family and doing work, I would not even go there. If something goes wrong, they don't think the work was done the right way, they feel they overpaid in the end, all of these things impact the relationship. It stinks to do be willing to do someone a favor and then have something unexpected happens and have them be ungracious. Especially, if you are in a habit of being gracious with them. :grouphug:

Thanks! It sounds like you have done this in the past. When do the physical reading logs need to be mailed in by? I see you need to enter everything online by March 1.

:eek: Glad it wasn't the saw!

We used to have this more frequently but we keep trying to find where the mice are getting in. Our exterminator told us they can squeeze in the littlest holes. So, we have remortered, filled holes but they still have a way in somewhere. We set a trap with peanut butter and they found it. However, we have had quite a few die in our walls. Nasty smell. Once we opened where the scratching was happening. Out popped the mouse. We caught it. However, our exterminator told us unless we kill it, it will return to our house. Even if you release far away. We couldn't think of what do so we drowned it. Never. Again.