What do you buy? What do you count/not count in your total? I have been buying things all year long. I ordered some odds and ends on Monday. Today my box from RR came with $157.00 worth of products. For my $157.00 I got: VP Chronicles through Malachi (only the enhanced CD and cards, no other resources) IEW Bible-Based Writing Lessons Primary Mathematics Textbook 2B (only the textbook) Strayer-Upton Practical Arithmetics Book One One historical fiction book One art biography Two literature books 3 penmanship books When possible I prefer to buy used, but I don't mind paying for goods and services. This was a very small box of materials though. I don't regret my purchases, but if I had only $150 to spend I would have chosen differently. But if I had to do art lessons for the price of one paperback biography, I don't think I could. Literature for $12? Math for $25? Language arts for $30? History for $8? That leaves $75 for Bible, Science, and Music.

I graduated in 2000 and haven't been back in 8 years. :(

It does happen more than we realize. I know of three instances. A drunk driver drove into a house in my home town. One of Dh's uncles had a heart attack and died while driving and ran into a house. And one of our pastors had a neighbor whose house was hit. When I was in Sioux Falls, we took a wrong turn and had to drive through town to get back to the interstate. We came up to a T in the road abruptly due to low visibility. There was a house sitting close to the road right at the T. It probably had two acres of land with it which is a lot for the city but I wouldn't buy that house for anything.

Well I missed one on the test. I misread it. Obviously, I need to brush up on my test taking skills.:tongue_smilie: Even though I missed one, I wouldn't say the test was particularly difficult.

:iagree:

In the flood of '93 Dh's aunt and uncle were swept off a bridge in his big rig. The freaky thing is that 2-3 weeks later one of their children was sitting at a stop sign and a big rig flipped over right where he was parked and killed him. It was a freakish accident anyhow, but the timing was especially horrifying. Logically, one person's death doesn't guarantee that a family member doesn't die, but what are the odd's that the parents and son would die in tragic accidents within weeks of each other?

A friend of mine went to a tech school in Beloit. Did you go through Manhattan getting there? I love that town.

:lol::lol:

Could you get Saxon 6/5 to use at home? You could skip the lessons he is comfortable with. Do the lessons in the middle of the book. Not necessarily all the review questions but at least the lesson practice. The lessons at the end should be repeated somewhat in Saxon 7/6. If you started soon, you might be able to cover a lot of ground before 7/6 gets difficult.

I struggle with this. The kids are basically all I do. I feel like I should be doing more, not so much for society but God. Right now my circle is very small.

I am really bad at this kind of thing, too, but could you do something along the lines of: Dear _____________, I hope you are enjoying your time at ACT. As you've grown into a young man, I have appreciated _____________________. (Maybe responsiblity? Then something along the lines of: It has been nice to have someone I can trust bring Dd home occasionally.) I have enjoyed listening to your music at Mass. My favorite hymn was _________________. I hope to have an opportunity to hear you perform again soon. Bible Verse Wishing you a fun time and good memories at ACT, If you write it on a card, long hand, it will look very full.

This. A short paragraph on each of these. A Bible verse. Well wishes for a happy week. A stick of gum. (Letters are so much more fun when there is something inside, and he is probably too old for a balloon.:tongue_smilie:)

Thanks for all the replys! Dh and I contacted someone from the link Speedmom4 gave this evening. We are going to have a technician come to look over the piano. If it can't be fixed for a reasonable price, we'll be able to tell the IL's that we got a second opinion. If it can be fixed, we'll try to make it work. I think it will depend on just how bad the sound board is and how much it costs to replace the parts.

I ordered from three places on Monday. I still have a list from Veritas Press. I thought I was about done last month. The odds and ends have really added up. I'm looking forward to getting my boxes. It is time to start filing again.

That stinks. I hate gardening. I spent an hour and a half this morning weeding. The only thing that makes it worth it is to see those veggies coming on. I hope you get some. Do you cut your kids' hair? I've heard human hair will help keep the deer away.

:blushing: I actually am a property manager. Kind of. The only checks I get now are from one renter. I deposited three months worth this week. But those happened to be Money Orders. Since we've moved away, it is an hours drive to that bank and the city has been dealing with flood problems so I avoided it for awhile. When I was the property manager (before we moved) I regularly held the first two checks until the third came each month so I only had to make one trip to the bank. One of the renters regularly paid late. The Dh was military and was paid on the first Friday of the month. So I often held the first checks for up to two weeks. But I was an easy going property manager. If someone paid late, I was okay with that as long as I eventually got the money.

I am bad about this, too. I wait until I need cash for something.

Thanks for the link. There are two listed a little over an hour from us. I'll have my Dh look into. The man who came to our house was a tuner. He could see what was wrong but he didn't, personally, have any experience fixing pianos. We live in a rural area where we don't have many options. I'm not musical so having a piano that was only in tune with itself wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. Paying a hundred bucks a piece for the broken hammers so that I could have a piano that was only in tune with itself would be a deal breaker. I think Dh would like to call some of the people from your link to get ballpark figures, at the least.

All those options and none of them fit. :tongue_smilie: I iron Dh's work clothes (not a uniform, but business dress) but not every week (he has enough for two weeks).

Thank you so much for telling me all this. Dh hoped our piano could be fixed for a couple hundred dollars, but I doubted it. I don't know what all is wrong with it, but I do know some hammers are broken. We were leaning towards getting a new piano, but we both feel badly about it. No way do we want to put that much money into this piano, though, and we've already delayed Dd's lessons for two years because of it.

.

Dh and I are going round and round on this issue (not fighting), and we think we finally have a plan. The problem we have is that neither of us is sure we have the right plan. Two years ago Dd8 started taking piano lessons. She had 2 or three months of lessons and practiced on a keyboard that belonged to a good friend of ours. When my MIL heard that Dd8 was starting piano, she offered to give us their piano. It was a very sweet offer, but I had reservations. I don't need to have the nicest piano in the world, but generally if I accept a family piece, I feel obligated to keep it. I knew the piano wasn't in the greatest condition, but Dh seemed to think it just needed tuning. Dh wanted to accept the piano because it was free. There was also some sentiment involved, but I don't think he would have bought it from his parents. We dithered for a month or so. Then we found out we were moving and would no longer have access to our friend's keyboard. Dh's parents brought us the piano (a six hour drive) the next month. It was no small thing for them to bring us the piano. I feel that very much right now. Once we got settled in our new home, I wanted to find a piano teacher for Dd8. The piano obviously needed to be tuned. We had a tuner come. He said the board was warped and it would never be in tune with another instument but that he could make it in tune with itself. Or something like that. There are a few keys that don't make any sound, and he didn't know how to fix that. So for 18 months or so the piano just sat there. I didn't know what else to do. Finally I asked Dh to get serious about getting the piano fixed. He has asked around for the past 6 months, but we haven't found anyone who knows how to fix it. Dd8 and Ds(almost)7 are both more than ready for lessons. I want a functioning piano. We could: A) Take the piano to a big city to have it repaired. Maybe. I don't want to even think what it would cost to repair a piano that can never be in tune. B) Get rid of the piano and get a new one. We could afford this, but what in the world would we tell Dh's parents? C) Let the piano sit in our living room and get a portable keyboard. I don't really want to do this. I want a more permanent solution one way or the other. The biggest difficulty with this is that with Dh's job we are guaranteed to move at least once more in the next 5 years. Maybe several times. It is a very big, very heavy piano. Worth moving if it worked. So, what would you do. Or if you know anything about pianos, could you recommend another course of action.

Bare minimum - all the kids get one day older. Sometimes that is all we manage.

Rachel enjoyed seeing Sarah (and Mary and Hannah). That first picture is NOT helping my baby fever. Luckily, Baby Girl was a real pill today.:tongue_smilie:

I only have 4 kids and some are young enough to still get into things free, but I hear you on the price per things that make having a bigger famiy more expensive. Energy bills don't change that much whether you have 2 kids or 12. Kids can wear hand-me-downs. Buying a movie to watch at home costs the same for 1 person or 10. But movie tickets? Theme park tickets? Eating out? There are some things we just don't do because it is a lot per person. Would some of your kids be more interested in doing one or the other? Maybe Dad could take some kids to one activity and Mom could take some kids to another. I'd hate doing that, though, I like doing things with the whole family.