I know. My baby girl threw up 4 times this morning. I felt bad for her and bad for me. I called Mom and said the baby is sick. She told me to get down on my knees and thank God I was holding her in my arms. In my defense, I hadn't heard the news. I can't imagine what some people are going through this morning.

I bought an Ipod Nano last week. I am not into technology, but I thought I had it figured out. I did a trial run with some songs before I started making playlists for the kids. Everything seemed to work well for the first minute or so then the Ipod turned off. I tried again, many times, with the same result. I have to turn it back on and push play for the song to continue. If I touch the screen every so often it will play the entire song, but if I just have it plugged into the cd player or use headphones (but don't touch the screen) it turns off. Has this happened to anyone else? Is it user error - and how can I fix it - or is it defective?

I'd let him wear whatever made him feel comfortable - physically and socially. I wouldn't want him to be thinking about his clothes when he needs to concentrate. I've never been to a spelling bee so I don't know what the standard is.

We are 7 miles from a grocery store, Dh's work, and most of the kids activities. As a family we make an average of 9 trips to this town per week. We are twenty+ miles to a town larger than 5,000 people. We go to coop and Walmart every other week here. Church is 25+ miles away, and we go there once per week. We have sixty+ miles to an urban area with decent shopping. We make this trip once or twice a month. We are four+ hours from our nearest family and almost 7 from the family we visit most. To visit various family members we drive a 10-14 hour round trip every six weeks or so. We spend a lot on gas. I really hate to see the price go up.

I think a "bouncer" would be a better idea than asking someone to leave from the podium. My sister and I went to our first convention last summer. We each had a baby with us and were in a room with several very noisy babies. After the talk, a fellow attendee who had sat at the front of the room approached us and asked if it was our first convention. We thought she was being friendly for the first couple of sentences, but she got pretty ugly with us and lectured us about noisy babies. :confused: My sister's baby had slept through that session and mine had made a couple of very soft coos. I would have been upset if I had been asked to leave when it was someone else's baby making all the noise. Someone moving about the room would have a better idea of where the noise was coming from.

I voted that I could afford private school but choose to homeschool. That is technically true, but we would be tapped out even if it wasn't an expensive private school. I'd want to homeschool even if we had twice as much money.

:grouphug: Moving is tough. I think not knowing is the hardest part. We're not military, but Dh gets transferred with his job. We were told last fall that we'd be moving this spring. Now they are saying next spring. All we know is that it is coming...sometime. I'd like to get involved - teach a homeschool class, volunteer for the church nursery, plant some fruit trees - but when they give two weeks notice, it just isn't worth it. Someone mentioned a market for your books after you move. When my sister was an expat, she would have been thrilled to buy some English books.

If God is putting this on your heart, He is being very specific. I'd say that if you meet a little Karen about Dd6's age who needs a family, God will stretch the money, find room in your home, and give you enough energy to do His will. My question: Does feeling you are supposed to be paying atttention to this mean actively searching out a little girl named Karen?

My MIL. I think it is a good product. I think it is way overpriced even with MIL's discount. Everytime my Dh orders from her, which is not very often, I'm amazed at how small a box we get for $100. I wouldn't sell it because of the price.

I think there may be two different discussions here. I don't believe there is any "bad" personality trait. Each trait has two sides, like a coin. That stubborn kid who. will. not. do. something, might be the CEO, the martyr, the man who will do anything to save his marriage. Or he might be the guy who quits his job because he won't do part of his job description, won't do something to please his wife just because he won't, etc. I DO think children need character training. In the short term, I think kids who are "naughty" deal with some unhappy isssues. It is hard, sometimes, to enjoy children who are often naughty. Kids know when someone (another child, another adult, their family) doesn't like them.

Okay, you've got me sold, but I am really behind the times with technology. I use VP Bible and History, Geography Songs, etc. so I see the value of what you recommend, but what exactly would I need to buy to set it up all together?

Good for you!

:grouphug: My brother is in construction; it's tough right now. Could he do odd jobs to make ends meet? Remodeling can be nasty work, but more people try to fix up their homes than upgrade houses in this kind of economy.

My baby is just over a year now. Honestly, we just get through the day. Dh thinks I'm joking when I list the baby getting a day older as an accomplishment for the day. The only practical advise I could give after reading your post is to move supper time. Dh often takes the baby with him while he changes after work. Then he'll play with the kids a bit while I work on supper. We eat a little later than most families, but it is one less thing to do while watching the baby.

Okay. I wouldn't argue this. But what happened at my parents' house wasn't bored redneck boys. I'm really not trying to argue or ruin the fun, but I will never think animal sacrifices are funny after that experience.

You don't need a truck if you sacrifice the animal on the owner's property. Dad "only" lost one cow to ritual sacrifice. There was suspicious activity other times. Now he moves cattle around at certain times of the year. We never talked about it to anyone. Someone who would do things like that.... When some friends bought a house, they found evidence of a cult there. We don't know how widespread it is or who is involved. ETA: When I say we don't know who is involved, I mean we can't talk to anyone about it. Our local sheriff's dad grew pot for years and years. At one time, almost half the law enforcement was made up of young men who had been in trouble throughout their teens. Gotta love small towns.

I don't know what the laws are, but even if you don't need a license you might might to look into insurance.

Okay, I wasn't going to reply to this thread because everyone seems to be having fun, but the whole animal sacrifice thing isn't really funny. There is a cult somewhere around where my parents live. Several times a year, Dad has to move all his livestock up close to the house. It doesn't fall under freedom of religion if you are mutilating someone else's $800+ animal. Or if you are leaving the remains on their property to be seen and disposed of. And the whole subject just isn't that funny.

I like the visual for showing the effects of carrying, but it isn't how I would teach a child to solve a math problem. I have to say I was impressed with her cube. Either she has a very good eye or lots and lots of practice making cubes.

The playroom, their bedrooms, the livingroom, even the bathroom now that I think about it. I fantasized about the "I don't allow my kids to have toys" a minute after I read it.

When she was young, my mom worked in a bank. They wouldn't give loans until you had 60% to put down. You should have heard her tirade when she heard about no down payment, interest only loans.

:ack2::ack2::ack2::ack2::ack2:

I knew the instant I met him that I would marry Dh. Does that count?

I'm afraid I painted too harsh a picture earlier. Dh's company pays for movers to box up most things and move us. I was mostly rearranging the furniture since all the biggest pieces were in the right rooms. I pushed heavy furniture around, but I wasn't loading it into a truck. I hauled a lot of goods/boxes up and down the steps, but if it was really heavy, I would unpack a box and make several trips. It is just a sore spot, because I felt most evenings that it was hard on my pregnant tummy. I couldn't actually go to my mom's because I'm afraid that it would end up being a very looong stay if I waited for Dh to unpack boxes.:tongue_smilie:

I don't mind being responsible for housework. The problem I have is when he thinks an eight hour day at the office is equivalent to a 16 hour day at home. If I am getting up at night with the baby, start working with breakfast, and work through supper, then look around and see more stuff to get done than I can get done in an evening and Dh is watching TV every evening, all evening, I've got a problem with that. Since the baby was born, I have spent exactly 4 hours away from the children. I've got a problem with that. My time and energy are finite. To me it is just as disrespectful for a husband to take a stack of clean folded kitchen towels and put them in a dirty firewood box so he can lie down on the couch as it is for a wife to spend so much money that the husband has to get a second job. But maybe that's just me. Both cause extra, needless work. At this moment my Dh has the older three kids at a lesson while I am sitting here at the computer with the baby. When he gets back I'm going to leave him with all 4 kids and go to my 2nd ever TKD lesson. I fully expect him to put the kids to bed while I am gone, so it isn't like he does nothing. But our workload is not anywhere near equitable. My consolation is that when the kids are older, I'll still be home with them but we won't have the constant messes, potty training, etc, and they will be much more helpful. Then I will be the one with the light workload.