I was always very thin in my childhood and through my mid 30's. Now that I've reached the 40's (I'll be 42 in May) I seem to be gaining weight. My diet is ok (not horrible though) and I exercise about 3-4 times a week on the treadmill. I know that I could do more but for now that is all that I have time for. Lately my dh and a few other people (mil for example) have made little comments about my weight gain. My whole adulthood I've been a size 8 and recently I've had to buy size 10. I would like to lose 10 pounds (I'm currently 5-6 and weight 140, which is the most I have ever weighed.) I stayed in the 120's most of my adult life. My problem is that no matter what I do I can't seem to lose the weight. I also resent the fact that people make these comments. I think it is because I was always super thin and now I'm average but it still hurts.

My ds used to hate grammar but he doesn't mind Growing With Grammar. I find the lessons to be to the point with clear instructions. The lessons are also very short and usually only take him 10 minutes to complete. Paragraph editing isn't a full grammar program but I have found that it has really helped both my 4th and 7th graders to improve with things like capitatlization and punctuation. It only takes a few minutes a day too.

Which book do you think would be good for him. Is there one that focuses on word problems but that aren't overly challenging?

Actually I was thinking about using Singapore math. We used it years ago for my oldest dd but I no longer have it. I just remember the upper levels 5B, etc. to be pretty tough. I also want to supplement so I don't want it to take too long. Maybe I will look into this though.

my ds is in 4th grade. He does well in math and is currently using Bob Jones 5th grade math. He does very well with the computation. He seems to pick up the concepts fast. For instance he did very well with learning fractions and is able to add, subtract, mult and divide with no problems. His weakness is word problems. He has trouble figuring out how to set up the problem and which function to use. I'm trying to find a supplement that would help him in this area.

My sil puts all of the toothbrushes in the dishwasher every day like silverware. They each have 2 or 3 toothbrushes so they always have a clean one. I don't do that but on occasion I will dunk them in hydrogen peroxide.

My dd was up until almost midnight last night doing homework I was really keeping my fingers crossed that they would call a snow day at her school so that she could get some sleep this morning. We got 14 inches of snow and they called a snow day! Of course this means that I have to give her siblings a snow day too but that's ok. They are outside having a blast building snow forts. Who else got a ton of snow. It's funny because they predicted we would only get 3-5 inches. I guess they were wrong.

I bought a Zune for my dd for Christmas but she still hasn't been able to load any new songs on it. Do I have to buy the music from the Zune website? Is there anywhere else I can buy it. Also how do the Microsoft points work. Are these the same points that are used for the Xbox 360. I notice that I can purchase those at other places such as Amazon.

This year my dd is going to a private high school with no bus service. My dh drives her to school in the morning and I usually pick her up in the afternoon. Last fall we got a call from a mom who lives in our subdivision. Her dd goes to the same school. Both parents work and have no way to bring their dd home a few days a week. The older sister brings her home a few days a week. It has worked out fine and I'm happy to help out. A few days before the end of Christmas break I got a call from another parent asking if I could bring their dd home too. They don't live in our subdivision but only live 5 minutes away. It was awkward to say no so I agreed to do it. Most of the time it isn't a big deal but once a week I need to get home for dd's piano lesson. Last time she was dawdling at school and I ended up having to drop my dd off and then go back out of the subdivision to bring this girl home. Again this isn't a huge deal but annoying. Today after school my dd called me on her cell phone to tell me that she couldn't find the girl. She finally went to the office and found out that the girl left an hour ago because of an orthodontist appointment. How do I handle this? I know that it would probably be a pain for the parents to have to call me any time their dd won't be coming home with us but I don't feel like waiting around an extra 15 minutes either. I feel that the parents and the girl are being inconsiderate but I have never even met these people in person. I like to help people out when I can but I feel taken advantage of.

When my dh is out of town I feel uneasy. I have to sleep with a light on in our kitchen. I also have a phone and a flashlight by me. Last night he was out of town and the weather was bad. We had wind gusts over 50 mph. I was sure the electricity was going to go out but it didn't thank goodness but we kept on hearing weird noises coming from the roof so I'm hoping that everything is ok. It was very hard to sleep last night.

I haven't been tagged.

Ds 4th grade: math, spellilng, grammar, Megawords, Phonics workbook (he still had a little difficulty reading at the beginning of the year), geography workbook, Handwriting Without Tears, Science, Vocabulary, Scoring High (we just started this today to help him ease his fears about taking the Iowa test in the spring). Report writing. We haven't been able to find a writing curriculum that works well with him so we are using this. He reads a book on a particular topic (for example frogs) and answers questions on a worksheet. Then he writes 1 or 2 paragraphs with the information that he found. We are also currently reading/discussing Stone Fox together and he reads about 20 minutes on a book of his choice. For dd 7th grade: math, grammar, Lightening Literature, spelling, vocabulary, science, geography workbook, Jump In writing, Test Best (prep for the Iowa test). She is also reading from the Bob Jones american history book about 10-15 pages a week as well as reading 10-20 minutes from a book of her choice. Most of the time she is also reading literature for the Lightening Literature book. I also do Mystery of History, English From the Roots Up and Star Spangled Workbook with both of them. We usually work from 9:00 until approximately 2:30 with 1/2 to 1 hour break for lunch. Wednesdays and Fridays are often shorter.

I make a "to do" list every day for my 2 children (4th and 7th grade). As we complete each subject they cross it off. Lately it seems like our list is getting longer and longer. At times I feel like we are doing too much but on the other hand I want to cover a lot of subjects. I'm curious how many subjects you have your child do each day. We typically have 14-16 items do do per day M, TU and TH and about 10 on Wed. and Fri with an occasional Friday off.

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My dd needs a book for her high school english class by Friday. I won't be able to get to the bookstore before then. I need to find an online bookstore that has reasonable expedited shipping. I already had an Amazon Prime trial last year so I can't do that again. Is there anything similar at another store?