I couldn't decide last time between the Powerberries and the dark chocolate covered edamame. I went for the edamame. I liked it, because it wasn't very sweet. The rest of the family hated it, which was lovely for me! LOL Other favorites are the sweet potato chips (I could eat a whole bag alone!), and the Wasabi Wow! snack mix. DH is an Oreo addict, so we tried a package of Trader Joe's "Joe Joe's"...I am not ordinarily a fan of Oreos, but these were delicious! There are real vanilla bean specks in the filling. Kinda glad that TJ's isn't closer to us, or I'd eat up all of DH's cookies!

I'd definitely go to the doctor ASAP, probably even urgent care tomorrow. The "elephant on the chest" feeling is one I've only had twice, and that is when I've had pleurisy. (An infection of the lining surrounding the lungs.) Is it painful when you breathe? As a PP said, it could also be pneumonia--one of the times I had pleurisy, I had pneumonia at the same time. Both need antibiotics to clear up, and can turn really serious if you don't get on something soon. Hope you feel better!

That's totally me! Not that my kids are grown yet, but I already do that for my sisters when they come to see us. I will be one of those grandmothers, making everyone's favorites. I just can't resist my boys!

We had the privilege of living in Scotland for a year, and I LOVED it! Granted, there were times in the winter when the rain was pouring down sideways, from the wind, and you felt like you would never, ever get warm again, but...for the most part, the weather suited me just fine. Summer was very short, just how I like it! It's nice to know there are other summer-haters around. I know very few in real life. I have a little wooden plaque that says "Looking for Fall" and I hang it up by the front door by mid-July most years! LOL

Let's see... About $100 each for co-op classes... $150-ish each for Teaching Textbooks Math Around $100 each for other curricula/workbooks, etc. I'll add in an extra $50 for field trips and other incidental costs. So about $400 per kid, per year. NOT bad, considering that private school was over $400 a month! PER kid!

Well, considering that my in-laws have done a fabulous job of teaching me what NOT to do to one's daughter-in-law, I mainly hope that she and I can share a mutual respect for one another. Really, I don't think so much about what I expect FROM a daughter-in-law, but rather my end of the relationship. I hope to be able to strike a balance between availability and distance that we're all comfortable with. I want her to love God and my son and their children with her whole heart. The other night at dinner, my oldest liked what we were having and said, "When I get married, you need to come over and teach my wife how to cook." DH and I laughed and I said, "Only if she asks me to, honey." He was quite confused so I had to explain that a good mother-in-law offers advice only when she is asked for it. He was stunned. Of course, if you knew his grandmothers, you'd understand his confusion! :lol:

Congratulations!!! Three boys here, too, and I'd LOVE to have a little girl. If it's "in the air" I better convince DH to jump on board, huh? LOL

I'm loving this thread! How about this one? "You never hear of a husband being shot by his wife while he is doing the dishes." I'm so NOT-dull, that when I tell the kids it's time to clean up, they inevitably ask, "Why? Who's coming over?" :lol: I used to keep a pretty clean house. Then I had kids. And it's been a struggle ever since!

I go mainly to save money, but prefer some of their products now, like their spaghetti sauce. The only things I've tried from Aldi that I truly disliked were their lunch meats.

Oh, I am tearing up for you. I am so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine the grief your family is going through. I know that he was not KIA, but I am thankful for his service to our country. God bless and comfort you...and thank you for the reminder of what is truly important. :grouphug:

Thanks, guys. I hope it's not an issue! They're all very nice, and I can kind of relate to them in that I taught art at a private school for a year (grades K5-6th). I think it just feels so odd because, as I said in the OP, I'm used to there being at least one more HSer in most of the group settings I'm in. (I know I'm lucky to live somewhere that's the case--I know that some of you are very isolated as HSers in your community.) Anyhow...thanks again for the replies.

But all, except one, of the other mothers are public school teachers! :001_huh: LOL And the one mom who's not a teacher sends her kids to public school. I knew that we were the only homeschooling family in our church, which is really odd, because HSing is HUGE around here. I have never been the only homeschooling mom in any other church or other group setting because there are so many of us in this area. Anyway, the new small groups started meeting last night and I just had to laugh that we were paired up with three PS teachers. My older sons are the two oldest kids there, and I already heard comments about how helpful they were with the little kids and how polite they were. So maybe it's a good chance to "represent" for the homeschoolers of the world! :)

Well, I thought I wanted to live in Florida, too. I survived in Pensacola for two years, then Orlando for two years. It's a great place to visit, but Lord willing, I will never have to live there again! LOL If I had to, it would be as far north as I could get. So I second the comments about checking out the Jacksonville area. Why did I not like Florida? First, the heat...I thought I would love the warm winters but the heat gets old after a while unless you REALLY love being hot all the time. I never could get used to running the a/c at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The bugs are horrendous. Even with paying for exterminating we still had critters inside the house. That was in P'cola and Orlando. The tourists can be a nightmare. This might not be as bad in other cities as it was in Orlando, but WOW, my stories of dealing with tourists would be a whole other post. Anyhow, I understand the way you feel about it, as I felt the same exact way years ago. But, obviously plenty of folks never fall out of love with Florida! Maybe you won't, either. Good luck!

LOL! I like that saying. Our church only has 150-ish members but we use that website, too. I LOVED getting meals after our last was born. I had health problems after the birth and it was a true Godsend. And I love helping out in this way. It's a small thing to do that means so much to those who need it.

I don't like blogs without photos. I try to include a photo with each of my blog posts. Like a few others have said, my theory is that a stalker can find you regardless. I've authored a column in my local paper for over four years, and am pursuing a career in freelance writing. So it would be strange at this point to use anything but our real names. And because of the location of the newspaper I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find us. I don't know WHY anyone would want to, though. We're poor, I'm not a looker and in general, we're an odd bunch! LOL

Cool! I had no idea! I'm going to see about posting mine, too.

Love the Anne series, but every time I hear or see "Marilla" I think "Marilla the Vanilla Gorilla". :lol: Unusual names I've seen/heard... Dick Boring (a friend of my dad's) Sunny Day (a coworker of an ex-boyfriend) Aquanetta (from my old job) Rotunda (an acquaintance in college) Isis (a girl I taught; her mom pronounced it ah-SEES) Someone with the last name Peoples who named their son Tanner And a few branches back on the family tree... Twin boys named Colburn and Colquitt B/G twins named Edna and Edgar There is also a gynecologist in town named Dr. Rippy. Ouch!

Make sure, though, that you find someone who can show you pictures of clients years after having it done. My MIL did this several years ago, and now her brows have faded into a weird brownish-green color. It looks awful! And even when she tries to touch them up with makeup, they still look very weird. I would definitely consider this a last resort.

It's interesting that you say that, because my oldest, when he was younger, would always get diarrhea the night after swimming...it didn't matter what pool we went to. I often thought it must be from swallowing chlorine, but never could find any real evidence for it causing that.

:iagree: Thankfully, I've never had anyone accuse me of being selfish by homeschooling. "Selfish" is one of the least-likely words I'd ever associate with homeschooling. I have ran into the whole "let the good kids rub off on the bad kids" thing a few times, though. And it never works that way. I get my kids back having picked up bad behavior from the rogues, not the other way around. Putting my kids in school would definitely be one of the most selfish things I could do as a mom, because the only person who would get anything out of that would be me! (Free time)

It wouldn't, I suppose. Thankfully, they don't seem to be lacking in their love of learning, or seeking out new knowledge. I guess I'm just an old-fashioned mom who doesn't mind implementing an unpleasant consequence to achieve a desired result; in this case giving a child a dose of 'busy work', a reminder of their PS days, to focus them back onto the blessings of being homeschooled. YMMV. :)

No, but we aren't finished til the first week of June, so we aren't as close as you are. However, I have one of my policies taped to the bulletin board in our schoolroom: "The more you whine, the more work you get." So they know that if they slack off, or complain, or give me a hard time in any way about schoolwork, there's a consequence. And it's boring work, too (the kind they'd get in PS! LOL) Maybe threaten them that if they don't focus, you're going to tack on an extra week of nothing but worksheets. Signed, Mean Mama ;)

I haven't seen the movie (sons and DH did, though), but DS has read me excerpts from the books and they were hilarious!

Ha! Me too! We're pretty lax with clothing around here. Yesterday was very busy, running errands and going to appointments, so I am typing this in my PJs, having not gotten dressed all day! :lol: The older boys got dressed because they went out to play. It's spring break week for us, so we're even more casual than usual. Thankfully DH doesn't care much about it. Most days I do get dressed, but it's not anything fancy...just some comfy pants and a t-shirt. The kids are dressed every day because they almost always go outside at some point even if we don't have anywhere to go. But I don't have any rules about when they put on clothes, unless we have to be somewhere on time. One of the things we hated most when they were in school was that morning rush to get out the door on time. I think I'm still rebelling against that! LOL

Thanks, Jenny! Those cheesesticks sound amazing...my boys would love those!