The only football game we miss is if our team(s) play Monday on ESPN. Otherwise, we watch all of them on the local channels. The only time it would be a major issue is if your dh is a fan of a team that doesn't get their games shown regularly on your local channels (i.e. if my dh was a fan of an east coast team, he wouldn't have much luck watching many of the games here on the west coast). You may be able to watch some games online with the computer but I'm not entirely sure. Our family is having more of an issue with Nascar races as so many of them are on cable-only channels, so far we've found no alternative. :( For finding out what's on, you can get the TV Guide or newspaper or you can look up local listings online.

Thanks for your thoughts! I haven't heard of it before but I will look into it, it looks like a nice program. I hear ya about summer/spring, lol! I am so thankful that the kids can get outdoors more. We all ended up sick right when it really began to warm up. I get a little frustrated that just about the time that everything is drying out from the rain, it starts raining again. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and input, it is helping me make this decision. :D

Our 2yo will be 3 this summer and she is begging to do "school" with her brothers. She loves to be read to and we do lots of reading with her, but she wants to do more. We've been working on colors, counting and letters. Right now she colors in her coloring book while the boys do their lessons but she is asking for more and gets mad if I hand her the coloring book and crayons. I already have a set of R&S preschool books that I had gotten for when she's ready but I also like Little Hands to Heaven. Is it possible to do both or would that be overkill? Any other suggestions are welcome too. :D

I'm trying very hard to be patient while waiting for my Well Planned Day binder and planner to arrive (don't get me started on my frustrations with how that's been handled). According to the UPS tracking site, the binder was in town last Friday but not scheduled to be delivered until today. Fair enough, until I found out why...they proceeded to ship the package further on to another town in another state then shipped it back to my town. :glare: UPS is now no better to me than USPS is, lol!

Same here. :D

Dh and I upgraded our account to add another dvd so the kids can get more of the educational programming they want. And doesn't it figure that right after we do it, 1/2 the dvds we are waiting for have been pulled and put into the "saved" list. :banghead: I'm about ready to switch back to just 1 dvd if this keeps up. It's not worth the extra $5 a month if everything we want becomes unavailble.

It may be silly reasoning, but I like that I am going to be able to add other notes and papers in with the planner w/o having to paperclip or tape everything on and have it all together in one place and not have stuff fall out all over the place since the binder zips closed. Some examples: I have 2 kids with special diets plus dh is on a special diet and now I will be able to keep the lists of their diet foods together with it. Another example is a I have a couple notebooks that I use for jotting down curriculum ideas and goal lists for the boys (they are both special needs) and I am forever spending time searching all over for stuff when I'm needing my notes cause I have the hardest time keeping my notes and my planner in the same place, lol! I also teach a preschool age class on family night at church and dh gives guitar/bass lessons at church, so we'll use it for that as well to keep track of all the lesson planning we do along with school. With the binder I can keep those activities seperate from the school stuff but still have it all in one place. Well, that's the plan anyway, lol! Plus it's pretty. :D

:iagree: I have to do that too with the subjects. I love TWPD, this next school year will be the 3rd year I've used it. I've looked at others and they are really good but I keep coming back to TWPD. I like how it's set up and it makes it easy for me to use. This year I ordered the binder to go with it, I'm having to wait forever for it, but for the binder will be a major asset for me. In the meantime I've gotten lucky to find some folders and a portable file folder that matches it. :D

:iagree: When we went to CA in March I found the best prices at the hotel chain's website, their published rates were better than any of the discount site rates were. What killed me was the number of discount sites that had rates higher than it was to go through the hotel chain itself.

I thought the exact same thing, lol!!! Congrats on the article Aubrey, you did a fantastic job!!! :grouphug: and congratulations on your pregnancy, I got a lot of grief while we were ttc #3, my parents didn't handle our losses and secondary infertility well and thought it best to talk us out of having more kids by saying some rather cruel things. I know now they just didn't know what else to do, but it still hurt. They are so glad now that we did have another baby, our 2yo dd is everything to them. :001_smile: Although, I will never forget my dear sweet grandma's response when I told her #3 was on the way "but...why?" :lol: It was mostly in reponse to the losses we had suffered and she didn't know why we would want to risk going through that pain again.

So far, no sign of them. Dh contacted the pediatrician, they said not to worry about it, that most likely he has already passed it and forgot to tell us he went #2 or they are still in there. They said that even if they are still in there, they don't have sharp edges and the metals aren't really toxic and as long as ds isn't in pain and is going the bathroom regularly to not fret, they'll pass eventually. They said that if in another week we still haven't seen them, we can take him it to have an xray done to determine if he's still got em in there. Ds is doing fine, feels well, going the bathroom normal, more curious than anything if the quarters are still in his stomach or not. ;) So, we aren't really happy with the ER dr scaring ds for really no reason, but what ya gonna do? Oh my goodness, that was the laugh I needed. That is so sweet! :D:lol: Thanks, that's pretty much how we feel, that he'll be just fine. He has at least learned his lesson not to put money anywhere near his mouth anymore. Now our 2yo, she's another matter, I grabbed a penny out of her mouth just in time this morning. :glare:

Eddie, Thank you for your help, I will add those to the list and check them out. :)

If you found yourself facing the possibility of suddenly welcoming an 8th grader into your home and needed to put something together quickly and didn't have a lot of money to spend, what would you do? I have nothing on hand for anyone above 3rd grade and I sure would appreciate some ideas. :001_smile:

We just did that trip to the same area last month except we came from Eastern WA and our dd is 2 and a half. I agree with ChrisB, the DVD player was essential for all the kids but especially the 2yo. We stopped at a Walmart for a break a few hours into our trip and they had a video of Spongebob episodes on sale cheap, that thing saved our sanity!!! :D We found that for future trips, she needs to have some of her favorite shows to watch along with the movies, just like EppieJ suggested. Stop as often as you can, even if it's just to let your toddler run around. Most of dd's fussing was because she was tired of being strapped into her carseat and having to sit still for so long. We packed our food with us to save money, but we stopped every time we ate so the kids could get out and run around. We planned extra time into our drive just so they kids could get out as often as possible and run around until they were ready to get going again. We listened to Adventures in Odyssey a lot, that was a nice break from the movies for everyone. ;) Something else we found out quick; her brothers (11 and 9) played their DS video games a lot and she wanted her own, dh found a Disney Princess handheld game at Toys R Us. She had no idea how to play the game, but it kept her occupied as she pretended too. We let all the kids kick off their shoes and socks whenever they wanted and brought them each a blanket. The more comfortable they could get the less they all fought and fussed. Good luck on your trip and enjoy it, I hope others can give you some more ideas!!!

Our 9yo accidently swallowed some quarters a few days ago (he was tapping them against his teeth when his brother suprised him and down they went). The doctor at the ER said to give it til this weekend for him to pass them, if he doesn't then they will need to go in and get them. So far, no sign of the quarters and ds is getting scared. Frankly, dh and I are nervous too. Thankfully ds hasn't had any pain or discomfort and is eating and using the bathroom regularly, just hasn't passed those pesky quarters yet. I'm beginning to think I should expect a medical emergency to happen with every holiday as that is what seems to happen the last few years, lol! :001_smile:

No us, but my brother and his wife do this, especially at church where they pay zero attention to my neice and nephew and just expect everyone else to keep an eye on them.

On my mom's side I had one great-grandma I knew and she was Grandma Susie. My grandparents were Grandma last name and Grandpa last name. We lived a long way away from them and didn't get to see them much, my cousins all knew them as Memaw and Pop. On my dad's side I only had my grandma and she was Grandma last name. Dh had Grandma Rachel on his dad's side and Grandma and Grandpa on his mom's side. For our kids, my parents are Mamaw and Pawpaw (although our 2yo has been calling him Pop lately, lol) and dh's parents are Grammy and Papa James. The 2yo has taken to calling any older lady she meets "gamma". :D

Does wearing dress up costumes count as wearing clothes? :D Cause that is what the 2yo prefers to wear more than anything else. If we go somewhere or have company, all 3 kids have to be dressed. When it's just us at home, half the time the kids don't even change out of their jammies simply cause we get the day going and I completely forget to have them change clothes.

:lol: Girls can be pretty disgusting too. When my neice was 4 she came around the corner of my mom's house, pulling up her pants. My mom asked her what she was doing and she said "I had to poop". Mom went to check and sure enough, she had gone around the side of the house and done just that. Her explanation? "I had to poop and I didn't want to go inside cause I wanted to stay outside and play".

Awesome!!! It's hit or miss here, I've gotten very lucky and got some great buys. One week you'll find tons, the next week there'll be nothing. It's still fun to go and look! :D

I do packaging for a local baby products company. It's part time, work from home and fits in pretty easily with homeschooling. We just got slammed the entire month of April with huge wholesale orders and both housework and the kids' lessons suffered for it. I am praying like mad that it all slows down so we can get back into our routine, lol! My delivery schedule just got changed so we are having to readjust our entire schedule including the kids' weekly speech therapy appt. The nice thing about the schedule change is it now puts me working the same days of the week dh works. I have to give a lot of credit to dh, he has really stepped up lately and is jumping in to help the boys with their lessons, do more housework and keeping the 2yo occupied when I need to focus on the boys.:001_smile:

Best hosptial birth we had was with our daughter, we went to the same hospital we went to with youngest son but they had built a brand new birthing center plus changed some of their policies especially for c-sections. Our OB was wonderful and did so good, joking with us throughout the whole c-section and keeping us relaxed, I had never felt so calm with the other 2. The nurses were fantastic. The best part was I was only away from dd for the 15 mins it took them to do her exam, then they brought her right into recovery so I could hold her and start nursing her. The absolute best part was we got released after just 2 days, the OB and pediatrician said both me and dd were doing wonderful and we'd recover better at home so they let us go home a day early. :001_smile:

Thanks for all the info and insight, I appreciate it so much! :)

Thanks so much for the info! Piano Adventures is one of the programs we are looking at. Dh and I are both musically experienced (dh has played guitar & bass for 25 yrs and now teaches both, I have played clarinet for 25 yrs and sang in competition choirs in high school). You are so right about teaching theory, too many people do not put nearly enough emphasis on this. When dh teaches he always starts with theory and he always has one student who whines about the theory part but realizes later how important it is to learn it right from the start. Thank you for offering to help, if I have any questions I will be sure to let you know. :)

We are getting a piano (yay!) and I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations for piano lesson books. We can't afford private lessons right now (maybe someday soon) but we don't want the kids to wait to learn. Thanks! :001_smile: