No way I could wear a tank and get any support. I'm a 34J and my breasts are SUPER heavy.

The Elemental Science series, as well as Sassafrass Science

It doesn't mean minimal fighting, but the kind of fights my parents had were the never ending name calling type of fights. I don't understand how you can say you love them with all of your heart and can't live without them but then day after day call them a "fat A$$ B**ch" or "Stupid "Pr*ck", or other similar things I won't type out on the internet This wasn't short bursts, this was daily life while I was growing up. I can honestly say I think I saw them speak nicely to each other less than a handful of times.

The post office doesn't get gov't money for most of the things people think they do. Your tax dollars do not pay my brother or Aunt (both USPS employees) paychecks. They don't get free stamps etc, like many seem to think. The cost of stamps going up, that's what pays for the post office expenses. They however aren't allowed to raise those prices to make sure they come out in the black without petitioning congress, which generally drags their feet and once it acts only lets them raise rates just enough to break even. You simply CAN'T compare USPS to UPS and FedEx. The later are not required to stop at EVERY house EVERY DAY even if they don't have anything to be delivered. My mom retired from the USPS after 33 years of service there and was well loved by her customers. Sure not all postal employees are great, that is also true in every business out there and yes the USPS is just that a business who's hands are often tied by the government people think fund them.

I love being married to my husband. I don't know if I'd like being married to anyone else. I was on the verge of marriage with another person and don't think I would have loved being married if that had actually come to fruition. I do like to do some things by myself as does he and we know that about each other, but I don't like being single. Being married to a Sailor I get a taste of what it would be like to be single way more often that I would have liked, and although I did fine and made it through I missed the companionship of him being here. We're at a point now where he shouldn't deploy anymore before retirement and I'm so happy for that. Someone asked about parents and their relationship. My husbands parents love each other very much and have been married for 30+ years, they are still very affectionate toward one another, etc. My dad passed almost 3 years ago but my parents were married 38 years and should have gotten a divorce at year 10. They claimed to love each other more than life itself, but they fought all the time and it was pretty miserable 85% of the time for my brother and I. I wish they would have gotten divorced, I think we all would have been happier. My mom perplexes me now because she still hasn't gotten over his death, and it's confusing because it seems in her mind they had the best marriage ever. I just don't get it.

The shoulder pain from no underwire is something I had a long time. I'm a 34J. I love my Panache Melody and Tango 2 bras, but know that everyone has to find the right one for them. There were a few with wires that did hurt a lot when I tried them on, these did take some getting used to. I had the redness and was sore for about a week. The reason I need an underwire is that my breasts are very heavy. I could not go braless I get a horrible rash under them if I go that way too long. You may just need to find the right brand and style of underwire for you.

You've got me thinking about this now. My dd is 13.5 and still struggles with spelling. We've tried them all, and although I love AAS, the rules didn't help her at all. She could spout them off but it just didn't transfer to her writing outside of spelling. I'm wonder if Spelling you see would end up being the same, or if she'd internalize the chunking more. She is an artist at heart so I'm wondering if the colors would work better for her.

I've had my Bosch for 4 years now ( I think it's been that long, maybe longer) and love it. We even moved it from VA to TN. I wasn't leaving this baby behind in the rental. Never had any problems with it at all.

I went with HLA when we moved here last year because I found their site much easier to navigate than The Farm School. I don't know about sports through the local PS, but I do know that there are groups out here where my kids can compete in various sports and some they can even earn a varsity letter in.

If you have a PC there is Startwrite, which is a great program. Lots of different fonts to pick from, different styles of lines you can use. Even add pictures. I don't think they've updated the Mac version in a while, but I was told they are working on it. It also has a free trial.

My question is, how much is the class? When we lived in VA my daughter took a class from a local artist and it was $35 a class but included supplies. It was a 2.5-3 hr class and she went every other week. I felt it was super cheap. She only asked to buy our own supplies once but it was because my daughter was doing a huge 4 panel painting (4 canvases that were 10X30") Now that we live in TN my the class is weekly for 1 hour each time and costs $35 for the month plus supplies. So far my daughter is working on her drawing and the kit they sell for that cost $22.50 and was a sketch pad (10x13") and various drawing pencils and erasers. I've bought supplies for my daughter to do work at home and quality supplies are expensive. We loved Blick but were lucky enough in VA to have a Jerry's Artarama B&M store and liked them even better. Here we go to the local art store which is pricier but she likes that the people who work there really know their stuff. All that to say, I wouldn't bat an eye at $50 for the year per kid on supplies. That big painting I talked about it cost us $120 just for the supplies for that, she of course has some paint left over, but used about half a tube of each color she bought.

We've had our beardie for almost 2 years now. She never ate crickets, but used to love Dubia roaches. I actually bred my own colony of a good 1000 or so of them from a batch of 20 roaches I bought online. I sold them off to a store in VA before we moved to TN because she's now super picky and will only eat silkworms and the occasional super worm for a treat. She did eat phoenix worms when she was younger as well as the roaches. If you need a good online place for roaches check out Westcoastroaches.com He has a Facebook page where he has auctions where you can get stuff super cheap if you win. That's where I won the auction for my breading stock roaches. I order my silkworms from www.silkwormshop.com They are super easy to take care of. I buy the powered chow and make a batch up once a month or so to feed them. We've never used sand for a substrate but have used shelf liner, which is easy to take out and scrub if you need to. Spock mostly poops in her bath. We never misted her, just put her in a tub of warm water (up to her elbows) every other day. Now we've switched over to slate tiles for her substrate, which is nice because it's easy to clean, helps retain the heat in her tank and also helps to dull her nails from her walking on it. She prefers collard, mustard, and turnip greens. I've heard that Kale is good, but shouldn't be a main staple (our vets have all said this) She's totally spoiled and I must hand feed her the greens each day. She's never liked having a blanket so she just has a branch to climb on, and a rock hide to bask on or crawl in when she needs alone time. One thing we've learned is stay away from the coil UVB lights, get a tube light and a cheap fixture at the local home improvement store (the tube should run about 2/3rds the length of the tank and be on the same side as the heat lamp) Then use 3M strips to mount the tube light inside the tank. This way you're not losing part of the good UVB to the screen top. We actually took her screen top off because she never tries to get out, but some have other pets that would try to get in so they need to have it on. The coil UVB lights supposedly can burn their eyes. Spock actually had a rock that would allow her to get to close to the UVB tube light and we believe she may have some damage to her sight from that.

I understand that not everyone will read every post or that not everyone will check for updates, but then those people shouldn't be upset/offended/irritated if the OP states those updates within the thread as well. Apparently it's not just a case of "I'm sorry if you got your feelings hurt" because other posters have also posted things like, "She didn't say... " or "She already said..." So it's not just me taking certain posts that way. Sometimes frustration ensues because people answer without taking any time at all to even read the original thread, and sometimes people are just flat out rude.

My response that you quoted was only in reference to the post above it that maybe I should update my original thread, which I already had, but that didn't stop people from seeming to post answers which seemed to assume I was asking, "should I teach essay writing at all, or can I just skip it altogether because it's stupid" Maybe if the time was taken to read the whole post including it's updates that would help. I have no issue with the thread taking on a life of it's own as long as those off shoots don't seem to take the tone that some of the threads here have. Some of them were pretty obvious in their criticism of me.

Or maybe people could take the time to read the posts in the thread. Because apparently this part of my updated original post isn't getting across to them. Clarifying again. I really need to make sure I'm clear in my posts, sorry for any confusion. I will teach them essay writing, I'm not asking "should I teach essay writing or not teach essay writing" I'm asking if the 5PE is really that important of a formula or not.

Again, Essay writing will be taught, but not in the uber formulaic 5 paragraph theme way.

After thinking it over we're not doing it. The "Why not" is because honestly if I'm teaching them to write a well rounded essay does it really matter if it's 5 paragraphs or 3 or 7 or whatever length is needed to accomplish the task. The other "why not" is because I know my eldest son and he'll grab that very formulaic pattern and hang on to it like Golem with The Precious. It won't matter if I say that sometimes it's not the best formula to use. I was also meaning 5PE in the strictest sense of the word. Intro laying out the thesis statement and how you'll use 3 points to cover it in no more than 3 sentences, 3 body paragraphs of no more than 5 sentences each which will cover the 3 points you mentioned in the intro, and a conclusion which restates your intro. ETA: my plan now has us using WWS, which doesn't use the 5PE that I've seen from looking through the Table of Contents.

I actually have a few bookshark things for sale in the classifieds. It is a great program, but I found that lit based just isn't our thing.

I'm one of those that is supposed to get it. I have asthma, so they hound me and hound me but I never get it. My kids have never gotten it either and we've never gotten the flu. My husband is required to get it (he's military) and he's the only one to ever get sick, but I believe that is because he has a lot more interaction with people than we do.

I also never wrote any reports or papers with indented roman numerals

Now I'm wondering if people would change their vote if I had phrased my question as Is the 5 paragraph Essay essential, with this being the definition of the 5PE... The 5PE is an Essay which has A short (no more than 3 sentences) introduction paragraph in which you state the 3 proofs you're going to cover in the body of the essay, followed by 3 body paragraphs, of no more than 5 sentences in each, with each to cover one of the proofs stated in your introduction, and wrapped up with a conclusion paragraph of (no more than 3 sentences) where you restate the key points of the introduction. That's what I meant by 5 paragraph essay. I wasn't meaning it to mean any essay that happens to be 5 paragraphs. Somehow everything I was reading was using the very narrow definition above when talking about the 5PE.

This is the 5PE that I was asking about. Seems I should have clarified that. Sorry for any confusion.

I thought your discussion was quite helpful and appreciated it.

Nope, wasn't you. I appreciated your response, and thought it was a good question about what non-US schooling's approach to this is.

No your post didn't come across that way, But when people who's oldest homeschool child is younger than my youngest, and who's oldest child over all is only a year older than my youngest, come to a post and say things like, "IMO, you should have already taught this, my second grader can..." That comes across as rude and really condescending.