You are welcome to, but I am at the beginning of my conversion process so I don't know that I would be very helpful. :)

I think the second response is a reasonably close to how I would feel. I think the possibility of them getting along really really well would bother me. And...even though you didn't ask about this, the possibility of one man and one woman alone together opens the door for accusations that are hard to get over even if are untrue. That would also make me uncomfortable.

Yes, I agree. I read it through twice, because I was naively in shock over that level of disregard for her feelings, privacy, and work.

The blog is back up, but different.

My parents live close by and we get together a lot. I'm really close to my mom and when I am overwhelmed I do go to their house. They like to take DS for overnights once or twice a month and/or get him for a day here or there in the middle of the week. DS is 17 months. Before DS was born DH and I got together with my parents for dinners, hockey or football games, and just hanging out. My dad is my hiking/rafting buddy too. When we visit we all kind of keep an eye on DS, but my mom will ask about giving him treats or certain foods if DH or I are at her house. My in laws live in another state. We try to visit them once a year and, since DS has been born, they have visited a 3 times. My DH is close to his parents and I love them a lot, but I had a hard time adjusting to his family culture. I'm loosening up here and there. His parents are totally supportive of us taking a date night when we visit and have said they like to get the one on one grandparent time. They take over more when we visit or they visit and that's natural for them. They did before we had kids. They will respect my rules or limits if I speak up though. Honestly, DH and I have often said we feel like we hit the parental lottery. We've had our issues, but we're loved and respected and get along well all the way around.

Nope, not a clue. I understand that it involves a jack... When I got my first car I was 17 and asked my dad to teach me basic car stuff, like checking the oil, changing the tire etc and he said he would be there to take care of it. He did it right up until I moved in with my now DH and then he took over all that. If I had a flat tire I would my DH, dad, or roadside assistance. I wouldn't even attempt to do it by myself.

As of last week the construction was going strong, but most animals were still there. The area near the Okapi, gazelle, and such appeared to be the most affected. One side was the above animals on display and the other was a construction wall. The elephant/rhino/hippo area is right by the construction, but it wasn't bad. There was still plenty of room to see them. We didn't get to see the whole zoo though. The new to me Tropical Discovery exhibit was awesome. They have komodo dragons, snakes, crocodiles, turtles, and all kinds of things. We missed the primate area and birds. There's plenty of time to do it in one day, but my DS is 17 months and he had had enough. :) An older child should have no problems!

I was raised in non religious household. My parents aren't anti religion and I know one of them believes in God in the Christian sense, but we didn't attend church, follow any particular doctrine, and I was not raised to be a Christian. They believe raising a child to be a specific religion is harmful. I was offered the chance to go to church a few times a year with my mom when she felt like going and we had a Bible in the house. That was the extent of it....I didn't even know that Easter was a religious holiday until I was 12 or 13. I knew the story of the Nativity due to Charlie Brown. :tongue_smilie: The holidays were days for family. I was allowed to attend church functions with friends if they weren't designed to save me. My parents find the idea of children needing to be saved abhorrent. They would not have driven me to a church on a regular basis if I wanted to go, but once I had a car they would not have stopped me or been in opposition to it unless it was a cult or other group that encouraged cutting off family who didn't believe the same way. I am now slowly embracing Orthodox Christianity. I don't think they understand why I would want to, but they are also happy that I am happy and understand that I'm an adult who has made my own choices and they fully respect that.

This is what I get for not subscribing to threads...forgot about this thread while I was dealing with other life stuff. Today DS is in nap mode, so I get a chance to surf. :) The Festal Celebrations blog and the OCA activity books are new to me, thank you for the links.

And now it appears that Letters of Grace is gone as well. How sad that people couldn't do what was asked and not publicly share her/their work. My heartfelt thanks go to those who spent their free time developing these amazing materials and I am so sorry that this happened to you.

Thanks! I had seen it recommended, but finally took a close look at it today. It looks wonderful. I have to admit, it is sometimes difficult to find resources for religious education for homeschooling and I think that's why I was so disappointed by this blog shut down. I'm so new at this myself, the idea of creating my own plans is overwhelming. There's probably a lesson on relying too much on the work of others. :tongue_smilie: I have gotten some interesting looking resources from recommendations here though.

I was foolish and began downloading the Year of Grace, which is for children much older than mine, and am now wishing I had thought to download the Children's Book of Hours and the Jesse Tree coloring pages for little ones. The upside is I'm just starting my journey and my child is only 17 months. I have awhile to come up with something. :)

It's gone!. :( I was downloading frantically for my own personal use, but that's no longer an option.

I can separate a person's beliefs and their work with no problem. One of my close friends is a liberal GUS type person and I'm a Christian with somewhat conservative views. When a person, whether I agree with them or not, becomes needlessly cruel or condescending or outright lies about what OTHERS believe in order to bolster their position that's when I can get into trouble separating. As for some of the people specifically mentioned here? That said I still want to see the Bourne movies and Fireproof and I find the main actors in both of those to be condescending, so I'm wildly inconsistent. Mel Gibson...I've only ever seen one or two of the Lethal Weapon movies and that romantic comedy where he played a jerk, so I'm not missing much. Roman Polanski is a creep and I will never pay money to see/own/rent his work. I never saw any of Tom Cruise's weird behavior so that won't really affect my enjoyment of whatever he does anyway. A lot of my friends have recommended the Christmas Sweater(the book), but I just can't do that either. I have a hard time with the author. Two of my favorite actors are Steve Martin and Bill Murray and, oddly enough, they don't make the tabloids all that often.

I just saw this! I'll be so sad to see it got and am now downloading things rather frantically. :(

Thanks for all the replies! I absolutely agree that living the faith is going to be the best option for educating DS and me! :) I think I feel the need for other books/materials because it's all so new to me. Learning some of the things that people have done to celebrate/honor the various Saints days, Feast days, and so on has been so helpful to me and I'd like to find things to do with the kidlet that can help reinforce that. The books suggested look fantastic and I think they will help me pull off what I want to do. Thanks!

My husband and I are tip toeing towards Orthodoxy. We have one toddler who we hope to homeschool along with any other children we might be blessed with. What have you used for religious education for your children. I was raised to not be religious and have no idea what faith formation looks like for young children in any religion. Because I'm new to Orthodoxy and my priest assures me that conversion is a start and it will be a life long learning process, I would really like solid materials for all ages. :) If you have suggestions for other curricula I'm :bigear:. Thank you!

I used to work there, but commuted from a smaller northern Colorado town. The climate is...nice? It's usually sunny most of the year. Temps in the summer range from 60's-90's. One thing I wasn't prepared for when I moved to Colorado was the temperature drops at night. It can be a day fit for shorts and t-shirts and by 8:00 people will put on a light jacket. There's thunderstorms that are typically short and happen in the afternoon. In the 10 years I've lived around near(further north) I've been through a few BIG snowstorms, but most snow tends to melt within a day or two. Oh, one thing I loved when I moved to CO was the relative lack of humidity compared to the Midwest. We went back for visit in the summer and it was like stepping into a sauna compared to here. I don't know much about the libraries, hospitals etc. Ditto kid's activities in Longmont proper, but you would be near Boulder, CO and they have a huge array of things to do. Museums, hiking, camping, theater, and so on. This group might be able to help you more and they have links to other support groups in the Longmont area. http://longmonthomeschoolgroup.homeschooljournal.net/

Thanks. I have the other book, but have only glanced through it. My son is younger and I'm in the investigative stage. I didn't know she had a column and I'll have to track that down. I don't know how my son will learn, but I know what she's written speaks to me as a possible teacher. It also helped my husband see that homeschooling might work in our family. :)

I am reading this book by Rebecca Rupp and loving her descriptions of the unit studies she did with her boys. My husband is very intrigued by them too. She writes about making homemade interactive workbooks. Does anyone know what types of thing she may have included? I realize that her approach isn't classical, so this may be the wrong forum to ask on but it's worth a shot :001_smile:

My floors! I have a toddler and every morning the floor is clean...ish and by about 9:00 AM it's covered in all kinds of stuff. Also socks, nail clippers, keys, pens, tape, cleaning rags, garden gloves, and various kitchen utensils.

I have a toddler who I think I might want to homeschool once he's school age. Since I don't know anyone who homeschools I thought a message board would be the next best thing to understanding it all. I also wanted to know about all the different options and curricula available. I lurk mainly and want to thank you all. I have learned so much about education in general since I started coming here when I was pregnant and on bed rest.

I hope my DIL has a husband who treats her well, loves her, and respects her. I hope to have a good relationship despite whatever differences will occur. My MIL and I are very, very, very different. We still love each other and respect the other's viewpoints as best we can. Even if that means just not talking about them! Dh took a different path then she would have liked and I'm sure that hurts. I know it has, because we've had intense "discussions" about them. She disagrees with nearly everything we believe and how we want to raise our son and any future children. She bites her tongue and we, in turn, bite ours when something slips out. If nothing else, we want to make sure her grandchild knows her and loves her. I hope my DIL feels the same and I hope I can be as gracious as my MIL.

Princess Di: Accident Moon Landing: Actual event Kennedy: Oswald acted alone. Earhart: Accident Roswell: No UFOs How boring. :tongue_smilie:

Darth Vader visits the Death Star canteen is from a comedy routine by Eddie Izzard. I find Eddie Izzard hilarious, but that is not a recommendation! He's not clean at all, he dresses in drag, and he mocks my religion sometimes more than I can take. That said, I still love the Dress to Kill DVD. I saw it in high school with my parents and younger brother. I also love Brian Regan and Jeff Dunham's older routines. There was an old SNL skit called Rockers Help Explain Whitewater that I wish I could see again. I remember it as being roll on the floor funny, but it's been so long since I've seen it. That's all I'm admitting to right now. :tongue_smilie: