I'm not sure what next year is going to look like. It will depend on several factors. Ds16 is not my most academic child, nor does he see the point in learning most things. I want next year to be solid academically while meeting him where he is but also fun for him. Some of the things I am thinking about: Math: last two thirds of Foerster's PreCalc book, plus test prep Science: Berean Builders Physics Literature: OWC Early Moderns, all of the videos and about 1/2 - 3/4 of the reading Logic: Traditional Logic II History: American History up to the late 1800's Bible: The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study New Testament Other possibilties: Government Spanish III Film

I video as much of the kids' sports things as possible. Their father also competes and judges during their competitions and can only watch them a tiny fraction of the time even though they are in the same building together. Sometimes he is in the ring right next to them and cannot watch them. I would not be happy if I was asked to not video them so he can watch them. I also fairly regularly video other people's kids when they can't be there and always appreciate video of one of my kids if two are competing at the same time. I would not knowingly share a video publicly that would be problematic for others.

I buy triblend t-shirts from Shirt Space. I put designs on some for the kids and get Dh's white undershirts while I'm ordering.

Things I've recently sent home with a family: lasagna, chili, chicken tortilla soup, meatballs, and chicken pot pie.

That is wonderfully generous, but perhaps you might keep one or two in case a grandchild would be interested.

The name looked familiar. My brother got one of her books - Safe as the Grave - from a teacher when we were in elementary school. I read it and liked it. When I was an adult, I bought a copy for my kids.

Four of the six marriages in my family and Dh's are couples who "dated" before high school. They didn't date at that age, of course, but called each other boyfriend/girlfriend. They all dated through high school. Three of the kids broke up for varying lengths of time in high school or college, but still ended up together. The idea that young relationships can lead to marriage is obvious to me.

I'm going to delete these off later today, but perhaps you can see my youngest's old uniform (hand-me-down light uniform) and new one (heavyweight we bought her when she had some accomplishments to put on the back). Deleted for privacy reasons since you saw them.

We have to buy specific ones, so I've never looked online. Generally speaking, though, the heavyweight are a lot nicer and have a much nicer snap.

My mom came to visit for two weeks when each of my kids were born and also for my sister's kids (even the two my sister had in Spain - 13 total babies). She hemorrhaged at two weeks after I was born, so she didn't want us to drive or sweep the floor which were two of the very specific things her doctor told her not to do. She also cleaned and cooked and watched the older kids. She is the easiest person to have around. After my third, timing worked better for my dad to bring her up (6 hours away) on the weekend, so we invited my MIL to come for the first 3 days. We aren't close, but she was fine. It wasn't like having my mom, but she also cooked, cleaned, and watched the older kids. I think she liked being asked, and it worked out fine. My mom did not go to my brother's for two weeks when my niece was born, because my SIL would not have been comfortable with it. They did go out to visit (12+ hours) for a couple of days in the first 2 months when my brother was off work. I plan on offering to come for each of my grandkids but won't be upset if some families prefer I don't.

It is my favorite math book of any publisher or grade I've used. For my last three kids, I have used it when they were 12. Well, Dd13 just turned 13, but she is also almost finished. The boys did a 2nd year of Algebra with Foerster's, and I am planning on Dd13 following that pattern. They wouldn't need to, but I can only go so far with math and they've plenty of time. Most (maybe all?) lessons start with a real world application, the instruction is clear and comprehensive without being too wordy, and the problem sets are well designed to further a student's understanding.

Oh, I had a conversation with my older son (18) this evening. He is trying to break into the MTG pro tournament, whatever that is officially called. He is a very good player, especially in draft formats. I have been rooting for him, but not too much. Lol He is too young to get a hotel himself, so if he won a qualifier it would be another expensive trip. He has almost won a qualifying tournament already twice this year. He was asking me if he made it to the championship match at an upcoming tournament if he should make a deal to split with the other competitor - one person taking the invitation and the other the money prize (+/-$500). I told him no deals. If he won the invitation he'd need the +/-$300 for first place, too, to put toward the trip. He asked around and found out that Dallas is a likely destination for the tournament. Dallas is in driving distance and he has a cousin who lives there with whom he could stay. So I'm tentatively taking that off my list of things I may have to come up with money to pay for.

So sorry. Will your insurance cover a hit-and-run?

With the one glaring exception of the engine replacement, the month went fairly well. We would have been able to pay for the Memphis trip and TKD camp without using bonus money (Dh's bonus is what usually pays for TKD travel). With no TKD travel or other big planned expenses, I'm hoping to resave closer to $2000 than $1000 of the money spent on the engine, plus set aside some money for a few other things the engine money was supposed to pay for, which means February is going to be very thin.

Rest of the week: ~$130 gas $6 postage $30 medication $40 birthday party stuff $157 makeup for birthday gift $10 milk We are finishing the week at about $600. Ideally I'd like to keep household and gas spending under $500/week in order to resave the money spent on the vehicle. We'll see how that goes on a non-birthday week.

It is a very laid back class. A fellow homeschool mom who did ballet teaches it at a local church. There is no overhead. No costumes. It won't lead to real proficiency; it is just for fun. Well, I thought it might benefit Dd8's TKD forms because of the gross motor control, but, perhaps ironically, the TKD seems to have helped ballet. Dd8 picks the movements up a bit easier than some of the other kids. Anyhow, we couldn't do a second expensive activity, so everything else the kids do has to be cheap.

Monday: Gas $37.10 Groceries $106.xx I was only going to get a few things, but ended up taking advantage of a few opportunities. Cauliflower was 50c a head, so I got several. I'll roast two today. Multicolor 3 packs of peppers were $2.70. Spiral hams were 50% off, so I got two. I'll make a ham dinner Thursday night and use left over ham for ham and cheese chowder on Friday. It will be my daughter's 13th birthday and she requested it. I told her I'd have to see what the ham and cheese situations were. Ham products have been high and cheese has often been missing. There was cheese, higher priced than normal but available, so I got enough for a few meals. Activities: $40 for choir I got cash yesterday, but it will pay out today. I will need to spend $15 for homeschool ballet on Friday. It is $15/8 weeks so I honestly barely count it as an expense. Other than that, Dh will need gas at some point and possibly either or both Ds18 and Dd19, too. Dd13 will get makeup for her birthday (no idea what this will run but I am mentally prepared for $150-200, and she's asked for ice cream so we'll pick up some Culver's pints for about $20. And right now that looks like our week.

My husband and I each have a different vehicle to drive. We used the Expedition for church on Sundays (We can use my parents' van for that since we have it. We could not get a car rental. After trying for hours we asked my parents to bring us a vehicle. They drove two vehicles two and a half hours so we could take one home. Their other vehicles are farm vehicles, so my sister is lending them a car until we bring their van back which won't be until the Beast is fixed. I love my family so much. I told Dad how much I appreciated it and he said, "You'd do it for me." And I would, of course. It would be so much harder to get through these little bumps without family.) and traveling. We won't need it until the beginning of March. I think the engine is supposed to come in the first or second week of February.

No good news. The Beast needs a new engine. I notice some people have itemized their spending. My week would look something like this: Sunday: Clothes and activity books for the kids ~$150 Athlete Development Summer Camp registration for 2 people $1300 Monday: Gas ~$160 Food ~$50 Hotel ~$150 Tuesday: New engine and installation ~$9500 Gas ~$50 Exciting week. The Sunday spending wouldn't have happened if I had known Tuesday was coming. Interesting, too, that this happened after I said we don't usually carry debt. We'll pay everything, but we may have to borrow a couple thousand from one of the kids for a bit. This was an unexpected expense. Before the trip, the vehicle was running well. And based on mileage, we could have reasonably expected to put another 30-40,000 miles on it before it needed anything significant. We'll have to make some big cuts. We're already talking about skipping some tournaments. We'll have to make some other cuts, too, but I will have to think harder about those

TKD We don't generally carry debt besides our mortgage. We have had some odd circumstances where we carried debt to the next month, maybe 4 times in 22 years, usually due to miscommunication.

Plot twist: our vehicle started shaking and the check engine light is on. We get to add one hotel stay plus a mechanic visit to our trip bill. Definitely not cheaper than last year. I'm mentally dropping the Chicago tournament from our spring schedule. The kids won't need the points, so it would be for the experience.

We are on the way home from Memphis. It was going well financially - cheaper than last year - but then we hit a rather large snag. We signed Dd12 up for athlete development since Ds16 and Dh had to be there anyhow. She liked it. When I was clarifying whether or not Dh wanted to go to the training camp this summer, she calmly announced that she wanted to attend. I'm not going to send Ds16 and not her, so I signed her up. That was a chunk of change I wasn't planning on this year. Then today at team training, the coaches mentioned wanting to take teams to South America, South Africa, Europe, and Canada. Not every team to every location, but I don't know what that will look like for our family. I was definitely not planning on multiple international competitions. I cannot save that much money. Everyone in the family is resistant to me getting a job, but at some point we're just going to need more income if costs rise exponentially. @mommyoffive I talked to Dh and he is willing to change how we pay for things if it will make some of the rest of this easier to manage. What should we know about travel hacking?

You could have them organized by subject vertically. We built our shelves and put in shelves of different heights to accommodate our collection as efficiently as possible. I'd make the bottom shelves tall enough for your tallest books and then either split the remaining height for the other two (if there is plenty to work with) or make the shelves progressively shorter.

We have a larger vehicle that fits all of us. We drive it to church and for road trips. We also drive it if we need the 4WD or have a vehicle in the shop. Everything else we drive the smaller vehicles that are cheaper to drive.

And 4 kids at the same time! That is a lot.