Oftentimes I feel bad that we always spend our vacation visiting family--not that I don't want to see them, just that it seems so... dull! But truly, they all have great homes in great locations, and we are always on a tight budget so the price can't be beat. When I actually wrote it all out, it doesn't seem that bad... but I do long for the days of new cities and hotels. I love hotels. _________________ My in-laws are in Williamsburg, VA--a great vacation destination, and we have our own rooms in their home--other guests may use them, but we have stuff there. Plus they have a pool! My mom and step dad are in Arlington, VA. DC is great for visiting with kids. We don't actually have our "own" rooms with our things in them, but they have two guest rooms we use. Plus, they just broke ground on a new house on the Delaware shore--I'm looking forward to visiting there next year when it is completed. My dad and step mom are in Tampa, FL. They only have one guest room so there isn't a lot of privacy (which can be stressful for my dh), but there is so much to do in Florida-- Disneyland. Beach. My brothers both live in FL too. Sister in law lives in Chicago, and is almost done building a new apartment--it's huge, is directly across the park from the lake, and has a nice guest suite for us to stay in. Chicago is an awesome place to visit with museums, etc. Other than that we drive to San Diego or Las Vegas for an inexpensive outing. No camping here--my dh wouldn't do it. Ever. Really.

Oh.... what a sad mom story! :( Even if you had been able to hear, you just never know what boys will get into. Give them hugs... it's so hard to see your children hurting. Take care of yourself too.

I'm with you... I like having my sunlight at the end of the day rather than the beginning---I'd do it year round and then have "double" daylight savings in the summer. Frankly, I'm much happier when the sun doesn't come up until after 7am, because I don't WANT to get up before 7am most of the time.

I'm a very vivid dreamer, almost always remembering my dreams and occasionally lucid dreaming. One of my constants is that I have a whole series of "dream houses"--not like I want to live there, but different homes that appear in my dreams. I can map out many of them--the weird apartment on the second floor, the four-storey courtyard based home belonging to my parents, the three storey home with the huge backyard--but none of them are real. I'll have dreams set in the same house and "remember" being it in before. My dh doesn't ever remember his dreams, but I like to recount my very vivid ones every morning. ;)

I am by no means the healthy police. I have been known to (cough cough) drive through. I will actually on occasion feed my children from the horrid "Blue Box of Death". I mix in peas first--that makes it healthy, right? Anyhow, just got back from some shopping and I'm consistantly shocked by the amout of crap that people buy. Chips. Cookies. Candy. Big cases of soda. Not a veggie in sight. And have you ever seen those pictures of "What the world eats"--the ones where the American family is surrounded by pizza boxes and fast food bags? So just to assure myself that the world is NOT coming to a culinary end--what veggies and fruit do you have in your house RIGHT NOW? Not what do you wish you have--but what do you actually have? Admittedly, I just shopped, so if you want to post on or after shopping day, that's fine. We'll count frozen--it is winter, after all. Here goes: Fresh Veggies: Asparagus Artichokes Tomatoes Cucumbers (English) Carrots (little peeled ones) "Snack Packs" with organic Broccoli, Carrots, Tomatoes and ranch dip Zucchini Onions Mushrooms Bagged Mixed Salad Greens Fresh Fruits: Apples (Granny smith and Gala--some new, some left over) Plums Raspberries Blueberries Mango (one--from last shopping trip) Pineapple Orange (one--from last shopping trip) Dried Fruits: Prunes (excuse me, "Dried plums") Raisins Frozen Veggies: several bags of green peas several bags of "mixed veggies" or "stir fry veggies" Brussels Sprouts (probably 10 or more bags--I love these things, even frozen) Green beans Hmmm.... just realized we need to get bananas, some iceberg lettuce and some whole broccoli. But we don't have those things now! The last bananas went on cereal this morning, and I threw out some old green onions and some old cabbage from the bottom of my bin. I hate that!

If the kitten is very young, she may not have learned to do this super well--and in my experience, some cats are better than others. With a tiny kitten, immediately after she has used the litter box you can hold her paws and make scratching movements--repeated instruction can help. I've had kittens I've "taught" to use a litter box properly. But after years of cats--some are good at this, others not. All of mine do scratch and try to bury, but some just have bad aim with the litter, and make ineffective little mounds of clean litter. Scoop often!

Lol! Pam, I am determined to have you come visit my church some day--if only to show that we aren't all that bad! Yuck, what a prayer! While I don't agree with all of secular humanism (as an actual philosophy), I have to agree that those who criticize in a public context often don't know what the heck they are talking about. Of course, I must admit I've never heard anything like this in person, never even heard someone really use the term "secular humanism"--except on television.

I think Noodles and Eggs is weird... I didn't even know other families ate it! I know in his case it dates back to his grandmother (of German descent, I believe). She would use leftover pasta, cook it with scrambled eggs in bacon grease. My dh makes this artery-clogging treat rarely--and garnishes it with strips of bacon. His dad would make it for family breakfast on weekends, and now it's his speciality. Of course, he'll make a ovo-only version without the bacon, and uses vegetarian bacon in my serving. He claims it tastes OK, but not nearly as good.

Hmmm... his childhood favorites he mostly cooks for himself when he wants them (meatballs in mushroom gravy, marinated flank steak and noodles-n-eggs). The only real "food of love" that I am solely in charge of is making Cheeseball on special occasions. His mom gave me the recipe when we first got married, but now he likes mine better than hers!

We did FLL 1&2, then switched this year to GWG. It really is so much easier to implement, not time consuming at all. My plan is to stick with FLL for my upcoming Ker, but make the switch to GWG3 when we get there... FLL is so nice and gentle, but also so very intensive teaching-wise.

They just finished showing the 10th (11th?) episode of season 3 on Nickelodeon, where the show originates. I'm pretty sure the strike put and end to the new episodes, so it will take some time before they get back on track and finish up the story arc-- One of the things I really enjoy about the show is that it has a plan (Three seasons--water, earth, fire) and an overarching plot. Well written and conceived. For now, you can always buy the DVDs... both seasons 1 and 2 are available as collections, season 3 is still coming out singly. We almost never catch anything as it is on anymore--just watch DVDs.

I (shamefacedly) must admit that I actually really like Avatar. I resisted... then got interested in an episode, so I made them go back and show me the whole series from the beginning. Now I can't wait for season 3 to finish. But Justice League just knocks me unconscious.

Congratulations to "Somebody"! How wonderful, and I look forward to hearing about all the cool work he's doing as well... And have a happy anniversary!

At least yours are old enough for "Film Appreciation"... we've just been having "Cartoon and Video Game Appreciation" this week. Doug and I and both boys have all been sick on and off since last week, and I'm ready to just sleep and sleep. We've got some school done, but not a lot. I know I'm tired when they put on something with super heros in it and I'm too tired to veto and demand something I'd want to watch.... ugh. Glad you are feeling somewhat better, and let me know how long it takes until you're 100% again.

Take care of him and check in to let us know how he's doing (and you too).

We just finished watching, and loved the episode! So, is Desmond back to his "old self" now (ie, does he remember the intervening years), or did he just stop himself from dying but is still missing that time? Also, we had what seemed like a blip at the end of the show--the journal page turns to the "Desmond Hume will be my constant" page (or whatever the wording was), and then we just had black... was there anything else that happened in the seconds before the LOST logo came up? I was hoping maybe another page....

Some current favorites are: Party Games: Wise and Otherwise Trivial Pursuit Karaoke Revolution on the XBox 360 (who knew singing was so fun?) Strategy and board games: Settlers of Catan Thurn and Taxis Pillars of the Earth Blue Moon City Arkham Horror (fun, if you like HP Lovecraft--plus, it's cooperative) Two person games (for when the kids are asleep, but no other grownups are over): Settlers of Catan card game San Juan A great resource is BoardGameGeek.com You can just check out the "hot" games list on the left, click and read reviews, etc. You'll get a feel for the strategy/randomness of each one, complexity, and other important design features. Often the most popular games that have lasted (like Catan, for instance) are the best.

I seem to remember reading in the last issue of Old Schoolhouse that Borders was trying to switch homeschoolers from using the old "educators" card to one that was specifically for homeschoolers. The discount was the same, but they were trying to track more specifically what percentage of thier business was actually homeschoolers, and wanted us to trade in old cards for new. Also, Borders was planning on carrying more homeschool curriculum, and this was all starting in February. Has anyone switched their card? Had problems? And since I'm not buying new books this year (for myself, that is) we aren't doing are usual weekly bookstore runs--has Borders really added significantly more curriculum? Thanks!

First grader here as well... we do copywork every day, usually just 1 medium length quotation plus the attribution. We also do quality over quantity!

Kitchen utensils and containers that look like vegetables. Amber jewelry. Oh, yeah... books. Thousands of books. That's about it for me!

I actually have a chart that goes through 12th grade for both our kiddos. I enjoyed putting it together, it gives us some goals... but I'm not really deluded into thinking it's going to work out exactly how I plan. I've already had to adjust things, and my oldest ds is in (cough cough) 1st grade. Pathetic, I know.

OK, so ds seems to be feeling somewhat better... liquids staying down with no problem, and he even ate some toast a while ago. Then I started throwing up. :( Fun, huh? Back to the couch for me. Thanks for thinking of us...

OK, my 4 yo ds has a fever and is vomiting. He's been sick since Monday, but has had periods of feeling better and eating. Now he's not been able to keep anything down since last night, not even water. What is the cut-off for going to the doctor or for dehydration to become an issue? It's been 12 hours at least since he could drink (including time he was sleeping last night)... he's had sips every 20 minutes when awake, but dry heaves have brought it back up since this morning. I'm sure he has whatever virus is going around, and I don't want to trek across town to be told "keep giving him fluids, rest, a BRAT diet when he can handle it..." I know all that. Mostly, at what point do I worry he's way over dehydrated?

Hey Michelle... my ds's love it, though they are younger than yours... I just think it's cool that another generation will learn to sing the preamble to the same tune I did!

Any ambulances that pull up around here are at my house... (well, at least 4-5 times in the past few years). I'd go watch. Doesn't bother me when neighbors come out to see what's going on, especially if they offer to help. If I'm in a panic and rude as I climb into the back of the ambulance, oh well... but personally I feel better knowing that my neighbors actually are interested enough to walk outside. However, I do have to say that our calls don't involve drugs, alcohol, domestic violence or other issues that can bring up strong feelings of shame. I'd stay out of those situations if I knew about them, otherwise I'd be right over there to see if they needed any help. I've actually had to ask my next-door neighbors (nice folks, but certainly not on the level of close friends) to watch my sleeping kids in the middle of the night as I went with dh to the ER--when life is on the line, you need all the help you can get!