Jamaica! I have been there before. Love Ocho Rios and Montevideo Bay. Former British Colony so English speaking and just a couple of hours by plane from Miami.

Someone I know IRL is being divorced by her husband over this. His comments have been that she looks middle aged and he isn't attracted to that. Well guess what jerk wad, you aren't exactly Ryan Gosling there and are in fact by any standard a plain somewhat paunchy middle aged guy with some grey hair and she isn't the one leaving. I suspect he may have been fooling around, wants to shack up with the new woman, and is just using this an excuse to justify his behavior. But I have no proof. In general, I think that once a marriage reaches a place where these kinds of conversations surface, there are deeper problems than just weight.

My first semester freshmen had honors writing, but it was still "ink shed" writing so revising, submitting, revising, submitting and that went on for six weeks. Then they began turning in weekly assignments without revision which meant they wrote a lot.

Wow!!! Some people just have no idea how they come across. I would have been tempted to snap back.

US Virgin Islands? Guyana Malta has a high percentage of people who are reasonably comfortable speaking in English. I know. Let's find an island, buy it, and you guys can sail all you want, and we'll hang in the bungalows on the beach. :biggrinjester:

Well you could join us in the Great Lakea Region but sailing in the winter is harsh!!! 😄

Australia scares me folks! It just seems like all the animal life forms on that continent and in the water surrounding it are out for blood!!!ðŸ˜

Very true. But I also do see Arctic's point about curriculum hopping. My sister in law did this with my niece the very last year she homeschooled. Five different math programs in one year and as a consequence, she learned nothing and was genuinely confused all the time I am not certain quite how to word it. I have a headache that is pounding ever since I used fiberglass resin on the fin fillets of my rocket. I feel like I am struggling to think. But scope and sequence being unsimilar between texts and such can disrupt and confuse kids if they change midstream.

Oh, it is a crazy language to be certain. The weather is temperate so it doesn't get as cold as Michigan, but also doesn't warm up much past 65 so ya...

I have done some standardized testing just for my own reflection, but I also have lots of friends who teach so I bounce ideas off them as well. Once the kids hit 8th grade we began using the ACT which was the preferred college admission test for state schools, but then Michigan made a move to SAT a year ago so used that for ds who is a senior. I also have two friends that are college professors as well as a cousin. I have been known to pay them to give occasional feedback on papers, exams, or projects.

Yep. I know a couple locally who was like this in their early marriage. They went into remote regions with zero back up and "what if" plans, many of these places being quite dangerous. It was "their thing". All three of their daughters were born with no prenatal care, no assistance, no post partum and the eldest was two years old before they hiked out to civilization. They reminded me of the Sean Connery role in the movie, "Medicine Man". One was a communication expert and put up radio communication outposts and the other a botanist. They like to tell their stories. Fascinating, and quite often scary and for my own family I would deem reckless. But I think that some people are just deeply motivated to this kind of life. My problem is when children come into the picture. Let the adults do what the adults want to do. But once children come, somebody needs to grow up and put their needs ahead of the hippy stuff. As for this particular case, I have wondered about personality alterations which can happen in long term captivity plus the possibility of brain damage if he was knocked around a lot. Given what we know about boxers, it is possible that he took a few to many blows to the head. He may not even remember them, and she may be to traumatized to talk about it, or been separated from him at the time of the incidents.

We give ds $300 a month but he has no meal plan so does all of his own cooking, and has to pay to do laundry. The first two weeks of school the only part he used was for laundry because groceries are cheaper here than near campus so I loaded him up. He won't use any the week of Thanksgiving. I will go pick him up, and he is welcome to bring laundry home, and then with only 3 weeks to go to Christmas having been sent back with Turkey leftovers, and more groceries from home, he will probably oh use $100. He would get $100 a month if he did have the meal plan. We pay above that for things like school supplies, trips for class, etc.

What's his Doug could be Doug Phillips sex abuser and popular Jamestown nut. Or Doug Wilson popular for writing the Veritas Press Omnibus and then outed for supporting slavery, marital rape - he thinks women like to be conquered and should be in no doubt about who is the boss after the wedding night- and matchmaker extraordinaire for a convicted, prolific pedophile whom he thought he could cure by arranging a marriage to a young, naive woman in the congregation so the guy could have a baby and molest him by the time the little boys was a year old but Doug the moron still defends he pedophile!!! Bingo we have two "winners". Don't read any of the articles by the Moscow Idaho Daily News articles on him because you will want to puke. Wartburg Watch had some of it if you want a synopsis but really, it will just ruin your day so don't look.

I think the Amish in my area are absolutely a cult, and a very abusive one at that. They abolished Rumspringa after two teens opted not to join the church. Then they beat the crap out of the two of them before shunning them. The police gave them a pass. Their children do not being language instruction in English until 3rd grade and the school now only goes to 6th grade. They also only meet four days a week from Nov. through March. So the instruction is limited, the amount of time in school is small, and with only three years of English we are now seeing a crop of young adults who cannot read or write it, and are very limited in what they can read. I have always felt that they SERIOUSLY violate the civil rights of their children, but recently it has gotten far worse so I definitely think they belong on the cult list. The local Mennonite population has a K-8 school but then the kids do 9th and 10th grade Rod and CLE and some attend the tech center. Many take the GED and pass, and then do go on to a professional licensing course. A few do four full years of high school all the way through trig and physics and go into to college at Goshen College which is a decent LAC. Nursing is a common choice for the girls but there are a lot of majors available. We have had young couples leave the community and join local mainstream churches or deconvert from Christianity all together. The ones we have known who chose this have said extended family relations are a bit strained, but there is no shunning. There are probably Mennonite Communities that may be tougher to leave, but this one isn't too bad and the opportunity to get a foundational education is there. I think they do spank, but our sheriff says that he doesn't see a lot of abusive behavior, not more than in the general population. However runaways from the Amish report widespread abuse, neglect, young children left out in the elements for punishment some of whom die and are buried, and since they have no birth certificates because this bishop only allows home births and Amish midwives no other assistance, these are undocumented children. The maternal and infant mortality rate is high because of not allowing obstetrical assistance. I can not stomach it and quit buying by produce from them quite a while ago. Definitely a cult here.

Hey Creekland, my autocorrect messed up. I meant Iceland not Ireland.

nm

This. When we book our overseas trips, we usually end up getting our plane tickets with Expedia and buy a special medical emergency coverage policy through them.

It is usually and interpretation of Matthew 5:28. There are churches in this area that do teach that this verse means what you think can be sin, and because they view homosexuality is sin, then thinking that you might be homosexual would be a sin in their eyes. I am not saying most or whatever would believe this, but for SOF type groups who believe this, then it naturally follows that they have judged her as sinning for thinking it.

Touch a snake. Not happening, not happening. This would be the human equivalent of forging an everlasting world peace with Loki. So oh well.... The Royal Gorge Bridge. Without general anesthesia, I really don't see that happening. Hey, I drive the Mackinac Bridge with no anxiety so I think that I should be grateful and not tempt fate. When I was a kid, I got down on the floor of the car and hid when my parents took us across. Master the Rachmaninoff third concerto. I have tried. I do not think it will be happening. I do not seem to have the endurance. Conduct the DSO on a John Williams piece. Sing with Manhatten Transfer.

Iceland's debt per capita is a bit lower than the U.S.! If you can just get used to that no light, no darkness thing... 😠I had to edit. Stupid autocorrect turned Iceland into Ireland and I did not notice right away. Grrrr

((((hugs))) for what it is worth, I think when the phrase minimum standard is thrown out most people intend to mean for neurological children...no significant learning challenges. It is okay, Melissa. You rock as a mom, just like ArcticMamma does for her little man.

Arctic, it would be really nice if the others in my area felt the same way you do.

The parochial schools are Lutheran or Catholic. The people who believe this way do not believe Lutherans and Catholics (for that matter Epsicopal/Anglican, Orthodox, and now apparently UMC is included) are not Christians.

I think that some people interpret scripture to include thoughts. So thinking she might be gay would be a sin and require repentance.

[NM