The first time is so much fun! They will probably start laying in 5 months or so. Exciting stuff. Just wait till your kids come racing in with their first eggs. It is awesome!

It's ok. I felt the same way last year with my dd 8. Around the middle of second grade she finally had something click in her head. SHE WAS ALMOST 8 YEARS OLD! I was so relieved. Each child is different. Let her read easy stuff. Let her read shopping lists, write funny things on the pavement in chalk for her to read, take turns reading sentences in the hard stuff with you. My dd LOVED the I spy series of books and I tricked her into reading them while I was driving. "mommy's driving; can you try to sound it out?" It made it worse since her older sister taught herself to read at age 4! I know it is harder on you since you have people commenting to you about it. WHO CARES WHAT YOUR MOTHER THINKS? Hang in there! She probably hates it so much because it is SO HARD for her.

Arent they cute! We've had 16 chickens of various breeds in my garage for 2 and a half weeks. Have you ever done this before? This is one of many batches we have raised. If you've never done it before you will be so suprised at how quickly they will grow!

have you tried baking soda? Scrub with a paste of it and let it sit. Or try some vinegar.

Only a rug in the bathroom here. I hate them. I think my house looks pretty homey without them.

Boiled water and vinegar would not be practical for my 600 foot driveway. I am very careful with the chemicals, change my clothing and shower afterward and never mix it up full strength. I also never do this on a windy day and use a garden sprayer so there is no overspray.

This is a good problem to have. I would much rather teach budgeting to a generous child than generosity to a stingy selfish child. Make sure you tell her that you appreciate her generosity. Give her instructions on tactful ways to turn people down if they ask. (sometimes kids do that) "My mom told me to buy these things but I do have enough money to get us both a snack in a bit" Don't let her take a friend to shop, unless it is the dollar store! DD had to learn this the hard way at camp last year. She loaned a "friend" her canteen card and the "friend" spent a quarter of the money that was in DD's account. The "friend" was no where to be found when my DD was missing snack times since the money was gone. I told her it would have been better to go to the counter with the girl, if she wanted to share, and pick out a cold drink and a snack for the girl to have. Sometimes kids just need some instructions on how to do things tactfully. The suggestion the pp gave about letting her do without if she gives away too much is spot on. But please commend her for her generosity. I'm impressed with her attitude and you can tell her I said that.

We raise beef cattle and chickens for eggs. This is not a commercial operation, we do it for our own family. We consider our meat organic but could never get certified for a few reasons. #1 it is a lengthy process. #2 it is my understanding that you are not permitted the use of different chemicals ANYWHERE on the farm. So the fact that we use roundup to kill weeds in the driveway and sidewalk would mean we are not organic. #3 I think that you have to verify that all your feed is not GM. (not clear on this one myself. Haven't spent too much time on it since it is not really an option) However, we consider our meat to be very healthy. IN commercial feed lots the animals are so crowded that they are always fed medicated feed. Our animals are not medicated unless there is an obvious illness. In 5 years with about 20 animals a year, we've had to give anti-biotics twice, I think. Our animals have a healthy happy life with lots of green grass and sunshine. So they have the best possible life before they end up on the table.

Any elderly neighbors that need help? Really just changing a light bulb, weeding their landscaping, getting their mail/newspaper on an icy day, dragging their trash cans to the road.... that all could be such a help to an older person, Show him how to use a screw driver (actually I think boys are born knowing how to use one, mine is 2 and he can do it!) to tighten up doorknobs etc. Even helping an older person with household tasks, like dusting would give him the rush that come with knowing you are needed and your work is meaningful. Something that working at home many times does not give a kid.

how old is he?

Focusing on the reason for Holy Week does not make you a bad church member. Sometimes we get confused that serving the church is the same as serving God. While it can be one way, it is not always the case. If it is too much for you then I applaud you for being honest with yourself. God sees your heart and he loves a cheerful giver. If it is more stress than you care to put on yourself, then participating anyway is not being a cheerful giver. Just my 2 cents.

How old are your DC? Do you give him an assignment sheet? He should be able to open a book to the correct page and follow your directions on an assignment sheet. Then you need to check over his stuff once a day, to make sure he is following through. If he said he was done and he lied about it, then consequences should follow. Maybe you should check his work before lunch; if it is not complete, then he can't have lunch till the work is completed correctly. (you're not being mean, he is *choosing* to have a later lunch by not doing his work properly) I know I feel pulled in 100 directions too and would LOVE to have a clean house every now and then, but I have had to think about it like this...my full time job is not housecleaning or laundry. It is educating my kids and parenting them. If I fail at that, my perfectly clean house won't matter that much. So it helps me to spotlessly clean my kitchen at night before I go to bed. Something about having the kitchen clean is such a relief in the morning. Before breakfast, I throw in a load of laundry. We eat breakfast and while I clean up the dishes, my dd 8 works on some easy stuff, like handwriting practice or spelling words. She is right there in the kitchen so I can see if she's doing her best. Then she goes upstairs to do some spellingcity.com spelling practice and math facts practice on the mathusee website. While she is doing that, I will go fold laundry for 15 minutes or so. My oldest dd12 is usually practicing the piano at this time and then she starts her assignments. After I get some laundry done, then I sit down to work with dd8. Dd 12 is in the next room in my sight so I can see when she gets distracted and say something to her. But I try not to let housework be priority in the morning so I can focus on the kids and their needs. Afternoon is when I usually try to clean and do errands. Get those kids involved in the housework so you are not so overwhelmed with it! Really it sounds like you need to give this guy some daily oversight, while not babying him to the point of opening every book and pointing out the page to be completed. The process of his becoming an independent learner is a process. It may take a couple years of maturity for him to become a self-starter. Hope this helps.

IT'S RUDE!

Bees/Honey?

Goats? If you want to milk, there is quite a market for goat milk. They also have the added advantage of nicely cleaning up those brushy areas.

Dawn you are a HOOT! LOL!

Don't think that my dd 12 would ALWAYS think that piano lessons are wonderful. Some days she has to practice when she'd rather do something else. Focus on your rites of passage. Tell him that when big siblings were 5 they didn't do all those things too. When my oldest dd does cool fun stuff with her 4-h horse club, I usually take my littles to McDonalds and let them play on the playground. For them, just getting to eat junk food is a treat too! So I find fun stuff to do when she does fun stuff and they don't think so much about what they are NOT getting to do. You probably want to nip this in the bud. His older siblings will (till adulthood anyway) have more privileges and responsibilities and you don't want a pity party all the time (not that he's doing that, but this kind of behaviour escalates into pity parties quickly and easily) I know this firsthand, since one of my dd's has this bent to her personality. A lso my oldest has WAY more responsibility than the littles, so they see that while the oldest gets to do more fun stuff, she still has more to take care of, and they can see the balance.

OH MY WORD!!!! I must save this for the future. My only ds is 2 but the day might come when I need it! Wow! You are one tough mama! Congrats to you for your fabulous DH who backed you up and followed through.

My oldest dd really did teach herself to read and it is weird. She read at a very high level in the 1st and 2nd grade. Then you have to be really careful about the word material you leave lyiing around. Even newspapers can expose early readers to topics that they don't have the emotional maturity to process. And am I the only mother who turns the Cosmo magazines backward in the checkout aisle at the grocery store?

I mean fluently, not just readers with three letter words. How old were they when they were able to read without sounding out every word? (the sounding out every word stage is the most agonizing stage of the whole process for me. I taught myself how to draw while listening to my dd read) My oldest dd was 4, while dd #2 was seven. I'm just curious, not throwing stones at people who wait till later or anything like that.

I think that is what people are trying to do, just make it all go away with some words. I guess they are uncomfortable with the raw emotion expressed. And instead of them reciting their itinerary, if the person is just covered up with stuff right now, it would probably be better for them to just say, "you're in my thoughts/prayers." instead of making a lame excuse. Even grieving people realize (for the most part) that the world doesn't stop because of our losses. Although your truest, closest friends generally find a way to be of help.

This got me thinking....when you've had a rough time, whether due to death or just hard things, what are some things that well-meaning people said that just DID NOT HELP! The things that you mad e you want to scream "Please just say you're sorry and go away!" For my family, it was when I had a miscarriage. Nice people would say, "well, you're young and you will be able to have more babies" I always wanted to say, "and that will make me miss this baby less?" they also said, "well, it's all for the best. The baby was probably deformed or defective somehow." Obviously, those folks had never been through that situation. Anyhow, what was the worst things that people said to you during a difficult time. This is to help me not go around and stick my foot in my mouth or hurt somebody who is already hurting.

It is really not too hard to make it raccoon/possum proof. Simply make it completely enclosed, with the latches something that is a little more complicated to open than just a hook/eye thingy. There are several types that work. We left about a 4 inch fringe of wire on the bottom, and let it flare out around the bottom of our pen to discourage digging predators. The books all say you will want about 1 square foot per chicken, but the more space you can give them the better; space discourages all sorts of undesirable behaviors, like egg eating, picking at each other, etc. Whatever you decide in the winter, make sure there is good ventilation, since chickens have very sensitive lungs, and they can be so dusty. You could also surround your coop with square hay bales. They are excellent insulators. And putting out a couple 100 watt light bulbs may just provide the warmth that would keep them alive. Of course, I live in TN so I'm just working in theory here :) The main problem we have in winter is keeping the water thawed enough for the hens. I am sure there are devices for this though, we've never used one.

If your run is shorter, that would be fine as long as it is portable so you don't have to crawl around trying to clean it out. I would recommend a roof, since raccoons/possums LOVE chickens. They will likely need some shade from the sun and some sort of winter shelter in the fall. Keep in mind that this type of arrangement only works if the pen is LIGHT ENOUGH TO BE MOVED! We made one that was way too heavy and it took dh and I to move it. Therefore, it didn't get moved as often as it should have. Hawks will carry off your baby chickens, but generally they leave the adult birds alone. What breed are you trying?

IMHO, Oldest DD should not be in charge of any of the children except for the last 2. The others are too close in age to have her bossing them around. Do they have plenty of space? Do they have to share stuff? We had success in labeling everything so that it "belonged" to one person or another; anyone else who had to use that item HAD to ask permission. Community property was a huge source of conflict at our house. We have put our kids on mute when they could not speak kindly to one another. (meaning they could not say a word for like 30-40 minutes) The trick was to have a family meeting, write out the things that are unacceptable and lay out the consequences. (bickering, picking fights, pestering and nagging must be addressed ) Then there are no warnings, no second chances, nothing. The moment they cross the line the consequences occur. Writing things down eliminates the debates on whether they understood you correctly or not. In my house it always takes 2 people to continue an argument, so both people are punished for bickering. But picking fights by pestering people gets a big punishment too. Additionally, I found with my older kids, that adding additional chores was more effective than taking away privileges. When they could not watch TV, play the computer or go anywhere, they got bored quicker and then they would annoy one another out of boredom. I picked the crummiest jobs I could think of too. Cleaning toilets, cleaning out the drains, picking up rocks out of the yard (we measure this in buckets of rocks--each transgression adds a bucket of rocks) wiping baseboards, matching and folding socks, you get the idea. Don't know if this helps. This is just what works for my family. Occasionally my kids will fall into their old bad habits and we have to have a refresher course, but after 3 or 4 days they come around again. eta: they probably won't love one another. I HATED my brothers growing up but I like them fairly well now. When younger siblings are punished for picking fights and pestering, then the older ones can tolerate them better. When older siblings are punished for bullying, they are not so bad for the youngers to have them around.