Yep, and if the farmer paid himself minimum wage for every hour he and his family worked, they'd probably never break even.

Spy Car, I really don't want to get into a farming discussion with you, but until you have bought a farm, farmed it, and filed a tax return, you have no idea what you are talking about. My family bought a small (400+ acre) farm when I was ten. We poured, literally, blood, sweat, and tears into that farm. After we were somewhat established (maybe 4 years in), my dad was filing our tax returns. We had some income that year. Our net profit was $7. My brother, who had spent hundreds of hours helping Dad that year, said, "I want a recount." You go buy yourself a piece of land. Where my parents live you can get 80 acres for about 100,000 dollars. So if you want a farm that will eventually pay a livelihood, you better come up with 400,000 - 600,000 dollars to get started (of course, if you buy a farm where we live now, you'll need 14,000 dollars per acre). That might set you back a bit more. Then buy yourself some equipment. 200,000 dollars will get some very used pieces. Of course, you may find yourself spending hundreds of dollars a month on repairs as things regularly break down. Then you can buy your seed and put in dawn to dusk days getting your seeds planted. Then you can get down on your knees and pray that you won't have so much rain that your seeds are flushed down the creek or so little rain that the seeds won't sprout. If the weather conditions are favorable for growing, you can continue to pray that you won't have hail, frost, or tornado (wiped out a neighbor's field this year) before harvest. And then, when your crop is finally safely harvest, you can pray some more that you'll get a decent price for it. At least enough to pay the mortgage, because the farmer's wife that has an outside job (mine cleaned houses) to put clothes on our back really doesn't want to pay the mortgage on the farm one paycheck at a time. A farmer that has $500,000 income, has hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses. ETA: And don't even get me started on the death tax that makes it impossible to keep a family farm in the family. Mom always said that a farmer is the only person that lives poor and dies rich.

1. You can teach your child. You don't have to commit to teaching her through high school. It is okay to take one year at a time. 2. I usually start at the beginning even if my child knows the information. It doesn't hurt to do several lessons a day until they need to work on something. 3. My oldest started K at just turned 4. She did not have very good fine motor skills. I really regret making her do all that writing practice when she wasn't ready for it. Just because my Dd could read, it didn't make her little hand ready to write. I don't have any great advice for you, but I wouldn't push writing if it really is too much.

I checked out this site after you posted last night. There are a lot of beautiful plans on it. I really don't know how I would go about choosing one. If someone showed me 5 house plans, I could easily pick the one I like best, but there are hundreds and hundreds of plans to look at. I feel the same way about paint colors. There are just too many choices.

So do you have any favorite ones I should be looking at? I'm looking for 2500-3000 sq ft. I'm considering just about anything right now and I don't particularly need a master suite, but this one http://details.coolhouseplans.com/details.html?pid=chp-33760&FoundID=34&sid=chp23&ordercode=C101 has a LIBRARY in the master suite.:drool5:

I was looking through house plans tonight, because there is an outside chance that Dh will take a job near my parents. If that happens, Dad will build us a house. As I looked at each house, I tried to determine which room would be used as the school room. After looking at hundreds of plans, I stumbled on this one: http://details.coolhouseplans.com/details.html?pid=chp-26524&FoundID=9&sid=chp23&ordercode=C101 Is homeschool officially mainstream now?:tongue_smilie:

You had already sent an RSVP to SIL's party, so you were already commited to that date. My extended family rearranged their family Christmas (a process involving 30 plus families and all their inlaws) the Christmas after Dh and I were engaged so that Dh wouldn't have to miss his family Christmas to come meet everyone. My future MIL changed the date of their family Christmas from the traditional Saturday after Christmas (which is when my extended family had intended to have their Christmas) to the same date my extended family had moved their Christmas to. Then she blamed me when Dh missed his family Christmas. Don't play that game. Everyone who said yes to SIL's party should be there.

I haven't looked up any facts, but I'm assuming that most people who bomb/attack abortion clinics would self-identify as christians. I can only remember seeing pictures of whites, but that may be because I live in the midwest. If they were doing security at abortion clinics and I showed up at one wearing a prolife T-shirt, I would expect extra scrutiny even though I condemn acts of violence against abortion clinics. (I'm not wanting to discuss abortion here; I was just trying to find a subgroup where I would be the person profiled.) Profiling should encompass much more than race, religion, age, etc., but to ignore those things to be PC is foolishness.

:party::party:Praise the Lord!

I've only given the kids things they can do on their own. I've been stripping wallpaper from the kitchen wall. It needed to be done anyhow, but today was a good day for something like that, because I really can't think about anything else. If he is convicted, I don't know if my faith in the judicial system will ever be what it was.

I'm sure Tap has lots of things going on right now, so I'm not expecting her to post for a while yet, but if the proceedings go long is that a good or bad sign?

No, my husband does not. When I am in a good mood, I try to think, "He is not thoughtless; he's just not thoughtful." Dh has many good qualities, but unless something directly affects him, he doesn't think about it.

:grouphug: Praying that God be with you and everyone working on your son's behalf this morning.

When my kids first started watching kids programming, they would ask me for 10 things a day. I'm not opposed to buying my kids things every so often, but after hearing the begging for two or three weeks, I told them if they ever asked for something because they saw it on a commercial again they would never get it under any circumstance. In the past two years they have only forgotten the rule once. Commercials still influence them. They may ask for something when we are out and about (although I rarely buy something on the spur of the moment). It has helped them think about whether they really want something or whether it just looks fun in the commercial.

Lock-ins are quite common and lots of fun, but if you have concerns, there is no reason to do something outside of your comfort zone.

My high weight in my cycle (this is based on weight loss from my first three) didn't coincide with my time of the month. It was more like the early part of my third week. Since I fluctuated in monthly cycles, I assume it had something to do with water retention, but I never really figured out what caused it. For me, it was enough to know I would have "low" weights and "high" weights each month. I measured my weight loss month by month instead of week by week (keeping track day by day, but not "counting" it until I'd gone a full cycle). So if I was 175 at my low weight one month and 171 at my low weight the next month, I would consider it a 4 pound loss for the month. I didn't worry overly much if I only showed a 1 or 2 pound weight loss as I passed through the high weight week as I knew I would adjust downward 2-3 pounds the following week. This was with my normal weight loss after pregnancy, not necessarily dieting. If I was exercising and dieting, the numbers were a bit different but the pattern remained the same.

I don't drink alcohol. At all. I had a cousin killed in a drunk driving accident. I think alcohol does more damage to society than Happy Meals. I still wouldn't be in favor of banning a legal substance. Motorcycle laws: I am saying this gently because I know you have been hurt. If he was an adult, the law or absence of a law did not kill your brother. He made a choice. Please don't think I say that callously. I am very sorry for your loss.

At week 2, you lost 1 pound. At week 6, you lost 1/2 pound. At week 10, you gained a bit. It could very well be water retention and not actual weight gain. I hope your weigh in tomorrow goes well.

:iagree:

I wouldn't expect my family to make house payments. I feel very strongly that we are not owed a home. I do feel very secure that as long as anyone in my family has a home and food to eat, my family will, too. If the worst should happen and one of my kids needed cash to pay for, well anything of an emergency sort, my parents, sister, and brother would come up with anything we couldn't cover. It might take months to sell off assets but I would get the money. I would hope to never have to ask. I would also be willing to sell my house if a relative needed the money that badly.

I like it. I don't know if I'd use it, but there are lots of names I wouldn't use.

Of the ones listed, I voted: Kansas Sky - Ranger But if I'm going to associate Ranger with a state, it would be Texas. I know Texas doesn't begin with K. I just associate the Rangers with Texas so it seems funny for Ranger to be paired with Kansas. My FIL raises and trains border collies. Dh and I went round and round on baby names. I tended to favor one syllable names, and his response was always, "That's a dog's name." Best of luck finding one you like.

:iagree:

This makes me so angry. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? Lack of physical evidence should not hurt him. As a twelve year old, I would have wanted to be there, but I have younger children so I can't really advise on what I would do as a parent.