Thank you, ladies! Saving these now! :)

Anyone have a good one? We're making homemade pizza tonight and it's been a while. I can't remember which of my two dough recipes we liked better, but I do recall that neither was all that great. I really don't want to Google it and be disappointed again. It sounds like there are a lot of great cooks here, so I thought it was worth asking for a tried and true pizza crust recipe that turns out nice and chewy like Papa John's or other carryout pizza. Thanks in advance!

Yes, there are several brands. We used the "Little Tummies" brand with this last baby. With my second son, it wasn't readily available but I'd heard such good things about it that I made my own from a recipe I got from a British friend. Here it is: <div>Gripe Water 1 c. water 1 t. anise seed 1 t. dried dill weed 1 t. fennel seed 1 t. baking soda 3 drops stevia Bring water to a boil, then infuse herbs. When cool, strain into clean bottle and add baking soda and stevia drops. Give 1/2 t. to infants for tummy upsets, hiccoughs, and when they can't burp after a feeding. Up to 2 t. for howling toddlers. Keep it in the fridge. It helped a lot!

:iagree: That's exactly what I was going to say. I don't know many HS moms who would just pass their child without making sure they knew the material. That's one of the reasons we homeschool!

Yep! Me too! My baby is almost 6 months old, and the past two days I have been trying to get things ready for DS2's birthday party tomorrow. In addition to that, I decided I'd make some food for a funeral I'm having to miss tomorrow, plus go on a field trip yesterday. I am sure I will be up til the wee hours finishing everything. I'm only online because I'm finally shoveling down a Lean Cuisine for dinner @ nearly 11 p.m. and I needed a ten minute break. My baby did not nap at all today and is still up, exhausted. Our regular weekdays are tough, but these past two have been INSANE...I don't know why I thought I could handle all of this when I can barely keep us all fed, taught and in clean clothes.

It's easiest for me to just link you to the columns I wrote about the topic last year. You asked specifically about healthcare outside the US--if you only want to read about that, my experience in the UK is featured in column #2. (Number One deals with our experiences with military health care, and number three is about a rat that ties it all together.) http://www.kariapted.com/2009/08/03/reform-or-deform-part-one/ http://www.kariapted.com/2009/08/10/reform-or-deform-part-two/ http://www.kariapted.com/2009/08/17/reform-or-deform-part-three/

Interesting to see that there are so many others who are the only homeschoolers in their church. That's the case with us. In my former church, there were four or five HSing families. But we're the only ones in this church of about 100. A couple of kids go to Christian private school, but the rest are in public school. One of the PS moms mentioned that she was homeschooled as a child and that is why she has hers in PS. :confused: I'm sure there's a story there, but she's not the friendliest person on the planet and I don't want to ask why she's against HSing her own kids....though I am curious! LOL

Cool! I didn't realize so many here participated in this! Here is mine: http://www.kariapted.com/2010/03/24/wordless-wednesday/

I just had to laugh...I finally found a sentence that sums up the way my in-laws have always felt about me! :lol: Thankfully, my parents are supportive of HSing. But yeah, the in-laws...I learned a long time ago that there was no point in trying to make them happy because they enjoy being miserable and mad at everyone. They, and their ways, are always right--and if you don't believe me, ask them! :tongue_smilie:

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

DH and I always planned to HS our kids; even years before they were born, we said that's what we would do. And everyone looked at us as though we'd sprouted a third eyeball. (LOTS of PS teachers on both sides of the family.) But when DS1 was born colicky and high-needs, I began to doubt my ability to HS. Still, when he was 3, I bought a structured preschool curriculum, because I thought that's what I had to do since all his little friends were going to preschool. Well, he hated it...I hated it. We gave up after a few months. I "knew" I was a homeschooling failure. We enrolled DS in the "best" local pre-K and all we got out of that were lots of tears and viruses. I pulled him out after a few months. Then DH deployed to Iraq the spring before DS1 was set to start kindergarten, and I was so scarred from our disastrous pre-K experience that I knew I didn't want to attempt kindergarten at home with a baby and a deployed dad. So we enrolled him in one of the "best" private schools. He ended up being there til the middle of third grade, when bullying and a few other issues made me realize I had to give Hs'ing another try. DH had always preferred HS, but let me decide since I was the one who had to take on the bulk of the work. Thankfully, God prepared us because in the year or so before we began HS, I was around some of the most amazing HS'd kids. And I had their moms pep-talking me and giving their support. It's been better than I imagined--we are in our third year and DS2 has only ever been to preschool. DS3 will most likely never go to school at all. We've officially become one of "those" families and I love it!

We're using cloth diapers for the first time on our third child, and I love them! I am seriously thinking of switching to mama cloth when my periods return, and using "family" cloth for myself. (I'm the only female, so it would just be for me, for #1. I think we'd have to still use TP for #2!) Since we're on a septic system, maybe using less TP will make it not need to be pumped as often? I'll admit, I am not the most eco-conscious mom. Financial reasons have led me to these cloth decisions. That, and DS's diapers are so soft, and his skin is so rash-free in cloth that I can't help but think how much more comfy cloth pads would be for me. :001_smile:

You've already gotten all the advice I'd have given (but isn't the post-deployment time FUN???) ;) I just wanted to say that I've never heard it called "Tea Time" before. :lol: I could use a cuppa....

Charlotte Mason Unschooling Elimination Communication

:iagree: It's stunning how many friends I have with "gifted" kids. As for me, despite being labeled gifted myself when I was in 5th grade (or perhaps, because of it?) I am in the "Let them be kids" camp. They're still ahead of where their PS'd peers are, but that is through no academic pressure from me. This might've already been said (I haven't had time to read the whole thread) but I'd rather be the mom of a happy auto mechanic than a miserable doctor. I just want my kids to do what fits with their gifts and abilities. IMO, having the skills to fix a transmission or bake a really awesome cake are just as much gifts as performing brain surgery.

I've seen Steel Magnolias and Forrest Gump a zillion times each, but I STILL cry every time Shelby and Jenny die. Oh, and when Forrest is talking to his Mama for the last time before she dies...that always gets me, too. A Forrest Gump marathon was on some channel when I was in the hospital after my last c-section. Hormones, coupled with cradling my sleeping son and that scene with Forrest and his Mama--I was bawling buckets of tears! LOL

Anything by John Rosemond. He offers the most practical, down-to-earth, no-nonsense parenting advice I've ever read. It's gotten me through many a rough spot!

Mine is a bad day. I ran out of Samoas. :( LOL

Didn't seem to help the Gosselins... :lol:

I have an Elias. We call him Eli. I just liked it better than Elijah, which is much more common. The one downside to it, though, is that the spanish-speaking nurses at the ped's office call him "Ell-ee-as" instead of the way we pronounce it, almost like "alias".

Here in GA, we're right in the middle on that "budget gap" map. My DH works for the state (not in education) and has had to take unpaid furlough days the past year. Teachers are having to take them, too. Friends who are PS teachers have talked about the increase in class sizes. Every school I drive by in our county is surrounded by a dozen or more trailers...I guess they do that instead of building new schools to fit the student population growth. Another teacher friend told me that she no longer has a full-time assistant in her classroom. It used to be that all classes under a certain grade level had a paid parapro in there all day. Now, if parents don't volunteer, she has no one. And they upped her number of students, many of whom are ESL. I don't know how she does it--I'd have cracked a long time ago!

My sister does that! What's funny is she used to own a boutique called Southern Charm. I hated it every time she said "Southerin Charm". And text typing...that is the worst!!!

Love this thread! :) Thought of a few more... -When someone says "cent" instead of "cents." I hear that all the time around here. "That'll be sixteen dollars and twenty nine cent." :confused: -"Chester drawers" instead of "chest of drawers" -And it drives me nuts on American Idol when they say, "A thousand, million percent yes!"

I agree that it could be a gag issue making her throw up, if she has any postnasal congestion. Another thing I remember reading once (you could probably Google it) is that some viruses are specific and others are more general. Meaning that some viruses will only give cold symptoms, or stomach symptoms. But others are more vague and will affect each person depending on where their personal weakness is. So one family member could have a fever and sinus symptoms while another with the same virus only gets diarrhea. So it could be the same bug affecting each of you differently?

I was overweight before each of my pregnancies, but only in the last one did any doctor say much about my weight. I'm thinking that must've been because I had gestational diabetes last time. In that pregnancy, I ended up gaining nothing until the very end, when I put on a ton of water weight. After the birth, I was 20 pounds lighter than when I got pregnant. I'm still right around that weight nearly 5 mos. postpartum. It's the first time I ended up with a net loss after a pregnancy! With my first, I gained about 25 pounds. With my second, I'd lost 40 pounds before conceiving, then gained 65! That time, I gained 10 pounds just between the positive HPT and the first doctor's appointment! LOL If I'm blessed enough to have a fourth, it'll be interesting to see how the weight issue plays out again. Hopefully GD won't be a concern, though I know if I've had it once I'm more likely to have it again.