I noticed a couple of things I haven't seen mentioned yet: You said you often get to bed between 1-2 am and you're not ready for school until noon. It seems like you might be bleeding time in there. Even if you go to bed at 2 you could possibly be up by 9:30 and ready to teach by 10:30, including breakfast. I'm not criticizing, just pointing out a place you might be able to tighten up. Does the 23-year old live nearby? Would he be willing to move back and help a bit with finances, housework, and schooling (when he's not working) in exchange for a place to live? As for what has been mentioned, I agree the kids need to be in bed by 9:00. And the 13 year old needs to make breakfast and dinner, assisted by the 12 year old in cooking and the 10 year old in other meal tasks. Time for a family meeting about reality and how everyone needs to pitch in. :grouphug:

Wonderful! And I love her hair too.

You sound overwhelmed. I agree with getting a babysitter so you can get everything done. I don't know your situation, but I think you should consider a paid one so you have no obligation outside money. Asking the girl to babysit is going to result in her expecting dinner or something. Re: the boxes. If you have TaskRabbit in your area, tell her she can contact them to take her boxes to the shipping place and if she does, you'll move them to the porch for pickup. Don't touch the boxes otherwise. That relative is going to grow up, have kids, and then cringe at what she asked you to do when she didn't realize what it's like to have two toddlers and husband who's away so much. Ask me how I know.

If there's some kind of dance or animal sacrifice you can perform to send the storm to CA, we'd be awfully grateful. (I can FedEx a chicken.)

First I check the peephole and then decide. If they are teens, I open the door and talk to them. If they are trying to make a little extra money by doing some work I want to support that. I also open the door for kids wearing scouting uniforms. Most of the time, though, teens are in a traveling work crew and then I call the police. (They asked us at the last watch meeting to call.) Usually they come out, talk to the teens, and find out if the adult has a permit. (They never do.) A few teens have asked the police for help getting out of their situation when they arrived. Here's a link from the Child Labor Coalition. For adults, I usually talk through the door and tell them we're not available. I want them to know someone is home. If I had a "No Soliciting" sign, I would probably tell them asking for an opinion or signature is also a solicitation.

"More depth" may be referring to the amount of poop being shoveled, if you get my meaning.

All these "Oh my _________" example suddenly make sense! I've never understood people saying, "Oh my!" It just makes no sense grammatically.

Hmm. To me there's a difference between memorizing multiplication tables and memorizing algorithms and how to plug things in without understanding them. The first, for me, is a given in order to perform calculations at a reasonable pace. And I sympathize with kids who take longer to memorize them. I was one of them and it truly embarrassed me in class. Memorizing algorithms or how to simply enter data into a calculator without understanding why is a different animal, and I agree that those who understand the mathematical reasoning or even better, have been led to discover them for themselves, will fare better than those who have memorized without understanding or deriving.

I'm glad your daughter is okay. Until I read this thread I thought all those warnings were just legal/liability CYA. I now realize they are for the teen brain. I can't wait. :glare:

It ran on time and was very fun and fast. I liked the French countryside and the farmers and their kids waving to us as we flew by. We went Business (I wasn't paying for it!) and had a wonderful lunch with French chocolates. I don't drink so I can't comment on the quality, but wine was also part of the lunch. It's quite expensive for the day, though. Have you priced it out? It's priced as if the traveller has to choose between the train or a plane. According to the fare table, roundtrip standard fares (as opposed to the more expensive Standard Premiere and Business Premiere classes) would be 89-419 Euros per person, so $100-$500/person. The exact fare depends on the time of day and season, like air travel. Just FYI. I know some people who've been surprised by the high fares. Those fares include taxes, I believe, but not credit card fees.

I saw this today and thought of this thread. ;) Japan zoo apologizes for naming newborn monkey Charlotte.

Are the math tests at home for his curriculum or ACT practice exams? Are they timed?

I think it's nuts that they're taking all those days before the test to watch a movie. I do agree with the "if they don't know it by now, they're not going to learn it" -- but my cutoff is dinnertime the evening before the exam, not 3 days before! I think it's better for them to have a relaxed dinner and evening, and go to bed early, not stay up late studying. But yeah, until then, they should be working their behinds off, including the teachers. The school is sending a bad message. Imagine a college student who had an exam on Thursday and was not prepared on Monday. Oh, and the exam had an impact on their graduation. Would anyone seriously suggested he or she not do anything in those intervening days to improve the trajectory as much as possible? Yikes.

I don't have any suggestions but you've inspired me to put together a much deeper history of Canada for my kids than I was planning.

Here's a good blog post from someone who's done it.

:lurk5:

I've only skimmed the thread but yes, I would adapt. I've travelled a lot, and different places have different cultures and standards. If that's their family's cultural standard, I would do my best. Soft swearing is something I can easily avoid for a couple of hours if someone finds it offensive. Nobody is forcing me to spend time with this person and expose myself to their standards.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: I am so sorry. :crying: I know it's difficult to keep the big picture in mind, but if you stay in their lives, some day they will be too old for this and will be more independent and you'll be able to be there for them.

Have you looked at comps for your area? Zillow is notoriously unreliable for estimating home prices, but if you go to zillow.com, enter your address, and hit submit you'll come to a results page with "Listing Type" at the top in the blue bar. Click on it, deselect "For Sale", "Potential Listings", and "For Rent" and only leave "Recently Sold" checked. It will show you what other houses closed for in your area on the right side and will pinpoint their locations on the map. You may have to zoom out a bit, depending on housing density and turnover in your area. That data is accurate public record, even if Zillow's estimate can be off by quite a bit. You'll have to use your own judgement about whether your property is older or newer, or in a better or worse location.

Every year around here, unfortunately, some charity for toys for kids ends up being robbed around the holidays. The media covers it, and everyone pitches in and the charity ends up with even more toys. Google "Christmas toys stolen" for hundred of examples. Sad but true. If your main concern is about the show, I would get the word out on blogs, yelp, the media (if you have no contacts, tweet to them), Facebook, etc. and get people to pitch in. You can possibly get a donated space, costumes, etc this way. If the owner isn't coming to the building, it sounds like you could put a sign up asking parents to contact you. Those parents may be able to get in touch with other parents. Maybe they know each other outside the studio, or maybe they carpool, or whatever.

We've found mint.com to be really helpful. We try to have a budget meeting the first couple of days of the month to discuss what's upcoming but that doesn't always happen. One good way to save, if you have a smartphone, is to get an account with a bank that has an app. At the bank, have a checking and a savings account. As soon as you decide not to buy something, log on and transfer the money to savings. So let's say you're out and about and think you want a coffee. Then you decide not to get it. Transfer the money for the coffee to savings, immediately, not later when you'll forget. Or maybe you were thinking of getting takeout but you decide to save money and cook at home. Don't leave the money in your checking to be spent elsewhere; immediately put it in savings. If you were willing to spend it before, you might as well put it out of sight and mind. The biggest thing that made a difference for me when I was starting out getting my finances in order was auto-withdrawal of retirement, savings, and investments. They just went out and I dealt with what was left. Each quarter I would get a statement and that was it. It was surprising how much easier it was to save when the money didn't really exist. I'm better at manually saving now, but I still have our retirement and 529s automatically deducted.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: That's a lot of money. I remember my dad crying when he realized he couldn't afford to send me to my first choice, which was a very expensive/prestigious school I had applied to on a lark and was not expecting to get into. My parents didn't want to take out the loans. I went to a different school and am glad I didn't go to the other one even though I was in love with it at the time. I had gone to visit, was wearing the sweatshirt everyday, etc. It broke their hearts when I had to decline but we absolutely made the right decision. I got a great education at a much lower price.

:party:

An interview with Haruki Murakami in The Japan Times today.

I still have Costco towels from college, 20+ years ago. They've held up well. No holes, no frays, no loose threads, just a faded tag and they're a bit thinner. I assume that's from losing little bits in the wash and dry over time.