Went grocery shopping today & ran less items to post office than planned since I'm in low spending month. USPS: $3 GROCERIES & HOUSEHOLD: $384 GAS: $27 So far so good! I passed both thrift shops and wanted to just "peek" in...but didn't! Hooray! :) I saw several things at the store today that I almost purchased bit asked myself, "do I NEED this" and it all was never picked up & purchased! :)

I agree with Amber. Good for you!! :) I would've caved for the wine after a day I had. :p

Thanks for sharing!

This is my go to list for daily chore focus. I obviously do the dishes, laundry, and tidy the house daily. I have 1 focus chore each day. Here is my schedule. HTH Monday: Vacuum house. This includes all bedrooms, living space, closets, ect..... Tuesday: Clean front bathroom. Deep cleaning includes cleaning toilets, tubs, shower, mirrors, counters.....stocking towels, toilet paper, take inventory of what's low and needs replacing..ect Wednesday: Clean master bathroom. Same as above bathroom instructions. Thursday: Clean Kitchen. I put this here because trash day is on Friday and I clean out fridge and freezers on clean kitchen day. Scrub counters, stove, microwave, fridge, sweep, mop, take inventory of what's low and needs replacing...ect Friday: Dust entire house. From top to bottom dust pictures on the wall, wall decor, computers, tv's, ect... Wash bedding as needed.

I'm on day 6. :)

1/2: $0 1/3: $0 1/4: Bills, Gas, & Groceries 1/5: Have to ship several things so the cost of those items

I agree no letter. I've done that before and I STILL hear quotes from it almost 10 years later. A letter would allow them to hold me accountable for an idiot action that I did umpteen years ago no matter if I matured and no longer handle situations that way. I'd rather not give them a reason to "haunt" me with my past of immaturity.

I agree 100%! I've ran at the mouth and it gets me into a bigger hole than before I ran my mouth! Very good advice. Thank You for the reminder that I've played the role of running my mouth and it served no good, only bad!

I'm joining up! I did this last year and loved every step of the way. My home is still very organized, but this will help me to touch up and continue to maintain!

What a great video. I learned a lot too and I've read a lot on SPD. That would be such a great vid to show family or friends that want to understand. Thanks for linking it.

I would say physical books. The kids can really benefit from the sensory aspect of feeling a book and flipping it's pages. Just like teaching a child to clean up their dinner plate and how to pick up their toys it's a learning experience for all involved. Our books have some rather loved on pages and we just use packaging tape and fix it the best we can. Pages are colored on from one of my dc who insisted they were the author and we still own a few of those books and still read them over all the scribblings! My kids prefer pysical books. We all own tablets and dh is the only one who reads the digital books. I have several digital books but haven't actually sat down and read one because the tablet to me is too distracting and I want to do other things on it...LOL! However when we're away from home and I need to have that option, I can read! :) Like someone else stated, I purchase books at thrift shops, garage sales, online discount places, & $0.50-$1.00 library sales. They are cheap enough to replace if needed!

It has made homeschooling life a bit easier. I actually purchased mine to use as a planner and now end up using it more for personal use than school use. I'm hoping to purchase a few of the next years curriculum in PDF so I can use it more for school related things. We do use it for A LOT, don't get me wrong. However we don't use it as much as I'd hoped. I wanted to use it as my planner but found out quickly that there simply isn't a planner like homeschool tracker for the iPad just yet. So I'm back to paper planning and I will input a lot of our planning into a planning app I do have that will work for now. I tried to use the planner on the ipad last year and within a few weeks I dumped it. I do have our science curriculum on the iPad which helps for lesson planning, but that'll go away once I begin the paper planning like I did before. My dh is rather disappointed because I agreed to both myself & him would both get the new iPad's. We LOVE them don't get me wrong BUT it's not the cure all for homeschooling planning...YET! My kids each used the iPad a lot for learning apps and really learned a lot. However they each own a kindle fire now with apps on it and they are having the time of their lives doing educational apps Friday mornings for an hour. We use to spend our Friday's like a weekend day. We do watch videos on it for our schooling purpose when needed. I use it to search easily. I use it to play music for the kids during penmanship time, and I use it for read alouds when they are available via iPad. However once they got their own tablet a lot of that went away as they are now learning to search items on their own and learning to play their own music during penmanship from their own tablets.

Tomorrow! We're starting back tomorrow! We've been off WAY too long it seems. The kids are even anxiously awaiting to return to their studies!

Spent $0 so far. This big shopping trip is coming on Friday, but I'm going to spend on food we normally buy since there is no cutting that back. I plan to spend ONLY on food, bills, gas, & emergency things. No random shopping that I tend to do.

I'm so thankful that dh & I are on the same page. After 4 years of being solo it was a breathe of fresh air to have his support. The past 2 years with him on board has been so rewarding! He now gets it from his side of things. Honestly I doubt I will EVER sway anyone that doesn't want to be open minded. My intent is to do my best as I would if we didn't move and she will see what we do and either realize why we do what we do or she won't. My goal here isn't to sway anyone. My goal is to control my tongue about the matter.

I appreciate your honesty. At this time we are going to be moving. There are good things to be mindful of however I posted the uglies as it's my current worry that I need help working through. My in-laws otherwise have been extremely caring, loving, understanding, and pro-active with our family as best they can 2200 miles away. They aren't all bad. It's this one particular topic that rears the ugly in all of us. I will look past this and move forward. They may be calling shots on how things will go for our family because before they did and we listened as we were both new to our relationship and brand new parents. We've grown up a lot since then and don't take lightly to someone telling us how to handle our lives. It was a geniune and still is a geniune concern of mine. I feel with standing firm on the topic isn't open for discussion route we'll be fine. My MIL has our back on this topic as she says it's nobody's business but ours, unless we're harming the children. She said she'd even help put her foot down firm to keep them at bay on this subject. I appreciate that from her. My dh use to be easily influenced by his family. I have a lot of pull in the decision making. If my dh was led so easily by his family I would've never been able to homeschool in the beginning. I continued to homeschool WITHOUT his support for 4 years. I'm realizing as I post more and more on this topic that with the right advice and guidance from other families who've been through this or how someone would handle it if it were them I can handle this bump. Another good reason why I'm going to be taking the necessary steps needed for ME to be able to legally homeschool my children and not have to rely on anyone else, not even my dh's college credits. Again another reason why I came here first. I knew that I'd be able to get the honest advice and guidance needed to get through this. I'm praying for this particular issue and hope that it's not an issue this time next year. I want to be able to begin our 2013-2014 school year in WA state and report back to the board to say it's going wonderful and my dh's family has stayed away from the topic with us.

This was my first initial feeling towards dh. Sadly I was going off of how he reacted at the beginning if our relationship almost 12 years ago when we lived near his family. Thankfully we've grown together quite well and I shouldn't have said that's how he still is. I panicked in to thinking he'd still react that way. We've talked intensely about this subject since I've posted as its got me panicked and he's made it crystal clear he's got my back. :)

Sounds delicious!

Why not fresh veggies with hummus, fruit slices, tortilla chips with salsa, little smokies wrapped in bacon on toothpicks as an appetizer with BBQ sauce for dipping, sugar free jello, homemade trail mix.....just to name some right off the top of my head that would be easy!

For the most part I know what we're using next year! I need to make a list of what's to be purchased since I will shop next month for it all. We're sticking to what we are currently using but just going up to the next level.

Thankfully I'm off to a good start because my first grocery shopping for the year is on Friday. I have time to schedule meals and check sales!

My dd9 has been wearing garden clogs and now they are too small and I can't find them anywhere. Or at least the type she likes. Her slippers she got for Christmas bug her immensely so I went out and purchased her flip flop slippers and she loves them!? I did have her pick out a pair of boots for family pictures and it took a few hours of searching and we found a pair, needless to day when they rang up at almost $40 I didn't even think twice! Whereas before learning all about SPD I would've refused to pay that! I was just glad we found her a pair. The tennis shoes she will wear are simple canvas ties that I find at Walmart for $5! She likes flip flops too, but I tossed those as soon as she attempted to wear them in dead of December! She is constantly wearing tank tops or soft cotton tshirts (not the scratchy kind) and her gym shorts. She can only wear leggings or jeggings. I've tried blue jeans & skinny jeans with her and its a crying battle and then she just won't be herself. Thankfully she wears a bra without issue anymore but in the beginning she had a hard time adjusting to the scratchy back snap piece so I had to find some sports bra style ones. I remember in the beginning if all this that getting her dressed was a huge battle. Now we've all learned how to help her get the items she feels safe and comfortable in and then we move on! :)

Thank you all very much. This has helped me realize what I need to do in order to move forward. It's also helped me to see that I need to put a zipper on what I talk about in order to keep this topic closed with them.

Perfect alternative to my horrendous reply! Lol! I'm so at a loss on how to exclude this part of our lives from people. Thanks for the guidance! I totally get what you're saying is wrong with how I put it. There is hope. She hasn't seen a homeschool family first hand, she hasn't seen what we learn & how we learn either. However I'm certain she's always going to think public school is better, but there is hope to show her why this is what's best for our family without words, but with actions she sees. She may not ever change her strong opinion on public school, but she could see why and how homeschooling works for our family eventually. My siblings, parents, grandparents, & my own husband didn't believe it was best. They are all understanding and actually promote it! My in-laws POV is NOT the same as my dh's. He now supports the decision & would rather our kids be home. But it took 4 years of proof in the pudding for him to ON HIS OWN see & understand it. He's just not opposed to public school if that's what it comes to, but it'd have to be something we agree on together. Again another reason why having me take the parenting course helps me lock in the decision making and not have anyone say I'm using my dh's college credits as a free ride to be allowed to homeschool.

Yes we as a family need to express the "it's not a topic open for discussion". I will begin playing that role now with all of us. I'm always talking about the kids & their achievements and what we do which involves homeschooling since its so much of our lives. This will be something I need to focus on NOT doing, otherwise I'm causing the problems too! As for the kids when they stated they would tell them why they like being home I knew we had to change their way of expressing towards the in-laws. My kids are passionate too so I will focus on teaching them along with myself. If they are asked if they like it should I have them answer or just reply with, "we don't talk about that"...and if they continue to pester my kids have them reply similar, "you have to talk to my parents because its not something we discuss" and have them come find myself or my dh? I would like to find a support group or at least a few families we can get together with for some "socialization". So if anyone is around the Tri-Cities, I'd love to know.