Tammy, you are so right!!! Unfortunately, we are at the end of our deadline for finding a home. If we don't get one in the next week we have to wait another 6mos to look again. It is a special loan through the USDA Rural Development Program and they typically run out of funds at the end of July and won't have any more until after the election. Interest rates might be up and with this loan the mortgage will be $200 to $300 less per month than we pay in rent right now. Waiting is a choice, we just need to figure out how to make the expensive rent work until we can get in to the program again.

Thanks Sue! That is what I thought I remembered. Can they skip 1/2 Algebra after completing the newer edition 87 now?

#1 out in the prairie 10min North of town. Short acre with some fruit trees and raspberry bushes. Open zoning...goat, chickens, 1 horse, etc. Huge fixer upper. Our loan allows us to add 20k for fixing up, but it would still need work and isn't going to be a cute farm house just a late 70s ranch. Nice neighborhood. Next door neighbor has some questionable friends that were there briefly once. Seems to have lots of mosquitoes. Fishing only reservoir around the corner. 15min away from dh work. 2000sq ft. Some sort of water problem in the basement, but it might just need some concrete around the perimeter fixed to drain away from the house. #2 in a small town, but 25min away from dh work. Seller has done lots of upgrades, brand new kitchen and hardwood floors. Another ugly 70s house, but this one is a bi-level. 2300sq ft Parks, library, grocery, lake near by that allows boating and swimming and a nice walk way around. will cost about $100 less monthly for the mortgage. It was struck by a tornado recently so will have a new roof, rain gutters and paint of our choice before move in. The tornado knocked down all the trees and the owners really didn't do any other landscaping. We have been looking for over 4mos and have had 8 contracts written. For one reason or another other houses haven't worked out. It has been an emotional roller coaster and I am just plain brain dead and exhausted. We hoped to get into something at the end of spring to have the summer to settle in, but at this point I will do well to get unpacked before school starts. In the long run the acre will most likely be a more valuable property, but we also don't want to buy the money pit. Any ideas??? Advice??? I know this is a very personal decision, but I thought I would put it out there. TIA

You won't miss it. Once a season ends you miss it a week or two, but then life moves on. Our married life we have never had cable. We got rid of family TV once our first born was glued to the set whenever it was on at 10 mos. We did keep the TV and mostly rent oldies from the library for special occasions and use it for workout tapes. I guiltily admit that I have been able to get fox to come in on one little broken bunny ear and unfortunately got hooked on "So You Think You Can Dance", but only because my husband was working nights. After it is over I will go without again. It is so addictive, but just like junk food if it isn't in the house it is much easier not to think about it or eat it.

We are borrowing a Saxon 87 2005 printing edition and I have a chance to buy (at a very good price) the fourth edition from 1993. The newer edition says with pre algebra. I thought I remembered the older edition was not as good as the newer, because it left some important pre-algebra chapters out. Is this correct or is the older edition just as good? TIA

Southern CA:auto: too much concrete and traffic Arizona:mad: HOT Northern CA (Monterey Bay):party: Colorado:banghead: Cold, long winters, LOTS of driving. Everything is spread out here. I hope someday I can be back in CA! Catalina Island might be nice too.:willy_nilly:

this is what has worked for us. I like to stay up late and sleep in, but it is too stressful to do homeschool like that so I save it for the weekend if I am not too tired.:) You have to have a few miserable days of forcing yourself to get up early, then your body naturally adjusts. It helps to have something to get up to. I wake myself up by walking to the computer like a zombie and going through my email. After that I am a wake. It feels so good to be done with school at an early hour, besides we get lots more done this way and we are encouraged by our progress.

11yrs and :iagree: I don't know what I want to be when I grow up either. Certainly not what I went to college for.

Escondido with a exaggerated Spanish accent. I just love the way it sounds. I want to name my next child that or at least our next pet.:001_tt2:

Probably cow tongue. I forced myself, but now I am glad so I can say I ate it. Frog legs, buffalo, ostrich, and octopus.

Making mistakes!!!

When you are buying a home that is going to attract lots of potential buyers and you are the first one there, make your offer good and acceptance deadline that night. Don't give them 4days to decide while all the other offers roll in. :banghead:

Shocking about the lack of attention from CT drs. I contracted Lyme disease in CA and developed the bulls eye rash (thankfully!) otherwise they never would have known I had it. I never developed flu symptoms though. From what I understand, the flu symptoms develop within a couple of weeks and the bullseye rash took a couple of weeks too. It is the infection spreading out from the bite. Using thin tweezers, grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible and pull gently and slowly away from the skin. Do not twist, jerk, or pull hard on the tick or you risk leaving the mouthparts in the skin. After tick removal, disinfect the bite wound. Lyme disease is spread when the tick has been on you a while and starts to feed. I would try to remove the head. I had a friend who didn't and it festered.

2 of our ds were not dry until after 7yo. Another was dry all night at 2. We tried the book Dry All Night around 6 or 7 yrs and that helped a little. I say use pull ups and great bed pads until they are dry. It just happens later for some. I asked here many years back and everyone said not to worry until about 9yrs. That was good advice.

Kefir (fermented milk) and raw fruit. Veggie/ egg scramble

Another good reason to have a membership with HSLDA???

>Yes, we've always been willing to drive right past local churches if a church >that we loved was further away. I think that is a good reason, but it is very hard to participate and be a part of a church community if you are really far away and for me that is as important as listening to a sermon, singing, and fellowshipping for a very short amount of time once a week. I can do that at home.

I think it is hard for more than a month, because you have to keep tweaking it until it is very realistic. I thought we were doing pretty good too, until last month when I checked expenses. We spent over 100% of our income on food! No wonder the savings account is rapidly decreasing. I dropped our food budget down (I am embarrassed to say what it WAS) to $500-550. Very interesting how our meals changed and how creative we have gotten in the kitchen. We are learning to bake pizza dough, sourdough, and sprouted breads. By the way, we were not eating a lot of packaged food or junk food when our food expenses were super high. It is down to the basics now, not many frills.:)

I have both and hands down the vita-mix gets used way more often. Almost everyday. I say get that first and then a juicer. I have an Omega juicer that can do wheat grass too and really like it and at times it gets used a lot. Juicers can also make nut butter, pasta, and sorbet depending on the kind you get. I would go with a quality mill over an attachment if you are going to do a lot of grinding. I am with you, mill, Bosch,... this is what I collect, kitchen equipment! Also, I regret not getting the dry attachment with my vita mix. I have heard if you aren't doing lots and lots of grain that it works really well. You won't be sorry if you purchase a vita-mix.

This is what we have done twice with success. Take it apart and gently dry it with a hair dryer. I move it back and forth often so that the phone doesn't get too hot. It is more likely to rust if you just let it air dry or so I have been told.:)

Thanks for the story, I have a few friends that will be interested in this article. I am always glad that we didn't vax our dc. The only vax we gave 1st ds was for polio, because at the time they were vax with live polio from monkey cells(if I remember correctly), and you could catch polio from a child that had just been vaccinated. But oops, that wasn't such a good idea so they don't do that anymore. hummm. :mad: Many of the vax they recommended for our first ds they do not do today for various reasons, but at the time it was unheard of not to do those vaxs, but it is o.k. not to do them now, because they have better information, etc. End of beginning of rant. I heard the CDC just announced all children should get the flu vac. The old recommendation was up to 5yrs. Now up to 18yrs. My first thought was how much money that would make for the pharm co.s. Pretty good news for them. No thanks.

They do their chores. Empty the dishwasher, kitchen trash and all other trash cans, recycling, and bring clean clothes upstairs. After chores is music for one ds. If they are done before breakfast they go on to school work.

We are in! My dh has one we have been trying to get rid of with a slice of garlic held on with a bandaid and my ds has one too. We have Bragg's ACV so we will start tonight. Do you want an email as well as this post???

Here, we drink "monk" and eat with "poons". I often tell them a "tory".

Avoid like the plague! I learned many years ago with my family, the less said the better. One parent goes immediately in to full throttle conflict mode and the other into passive aggressive mode. Other than that they are very nice people.:)