About $2200. Taxes eat up $500/mo; insurance about $200/mo; P&I is roughly $1500/mo. We live in a rural town in CT, house is about 2600 sq ft, 3 acres.

We are using FLL3 this year and it does a ton of diagramming. It's very easy to understand. The workbook is pretty reasonably priced.

My kids have been enjoying these video clips about each of the elements: http://www.periodicvideos.com/# I haven't found any books I've been totally wild about, so I'll be watching this thread for some good suggestions.

Well, I haven't seen level 2, but I have a fairly advanced 8 year old who is doing level 1 and I think it's a very good fit. I would start your son with that. HTH.

Okay, I watched a lot of older reruns...how about Rob & Laura Petrie and George and Gracie Allen?

I check out the book reviews on Amazon.com. This usually gives me a good idea of how good the book is and if the age range is appropriate. But sometimes I still can't make up my mind and I'll just get a few books on the same subject to check out at home.

One of our all time favs is Good Night, Mr. Night by Dan Yaccarino. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Good-Night-Mr-Dan-Yaccarino/dp/0152163867/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227647984&sr=1-1

We are using WT this year with my DD8. We both enjoy it. It varies the activities so it's never boring. She's doing really well with her writing (her first formal writing curriculum) and she loves the games. It brings in grammar, spelling and vocab as well, which is a bonus since it reinforces what my daughter is doing in those other subjects.

We are using Getting Started with Latin. My DD is 8/3rd grade. I'm glad I didn't start any earlier because there is a lot of grammar that you need to understand/know (at least with this curriculum) and it's coinciding perfectly with FLL3. My daughter is understanding it all well at this age, but would not have last year. HTH.

Our favs are: Blokus, Brainquest, Cranium Family Fun, Mexican Train Dominoes (truly addictive!), Payday. My daughter wants to get You Gotta Be Kidding game (which is Would You Rather for kids) which looks fun.

Ketchup works great for cleaning any copper.

I've been to a few, but the only one I really thought was worth it was the one where everything was $1. I spent about $20 and got some really great books, mostly non fiction or historical fiction, a couple of gifts and craft kits. They are set up in an organized fashion, it's not like you have to go scrambling through boxes or anything. Everything's on shelves. I'd get there when it starts though, for best selection. Oh, and they don't always have boxes, so you may want to bring your own box or bag. I've never seen enough to have to set a budget...maybe $30 or $40 was the most I ever spent.

Glad you asked this, because we are thinking about it as well. Personally, I think labs and retrievers are too hyper for me. We had a lhasa apso and they are NOT good with kids...they're barely good with adults :) While going through some issues with our lhasa, we were told by numerous "pet people", ie vets that King Charles Spaniels are wonderful with children, although they may be smaller than what you're looking for?? I would second the beagle and mutt recommendations also.

For CT, my vote is Mark Twain House, Mashantucket Pequot Museum or the Wadsworth Atheneum (the nation's oldest public art museum).

I used two off the wall curriculums to teach my kids to read. With DD, now 8, I used Simply Phonics. With DS, 6, I'm using Progressive Phonics. I haven't heard talk of either of these on the boards. I just purchased Word Attack spelling for my DS...I believe someone on the boards self published this. We are enjoy it so far and it's working well for my son.

How about bean soup mixes, chili mixes, salsa, dry rubs for bbq?

My kidney stones resulted in a 2 day hospital stay on some wonderful pain meds (I, too, was vomiting from the pain). My pain was all in the front. My father gets fairly mild pains with his, but I do believe his pain is usually in his back. Hoping you pass it without much pain. You can buy a screen to pee into to watch for it to pass, giving you the option of having it tested. Then they can try to figure out the cause. At least that's what I was told by my MD.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I'm no prude, but some of the things my husband and I have seen clicking through the channels on cable TV are unbelievable. It's like the HBO of my youth. My children rarely watch TV but I so resent the fact that I have to stand with my clicker in hand ready to change channels if something inappropriate comes on (like commercials). My husband and I don't even watch much TV, but I'm not sure we'll be able to watch at all once my kids are staying up past 8 o'clock. Also, my parents and in-laws seem oblivious to what's on "kids" channels these days. I've told them both to please not allow my kids to watch TV when they're there and invariably I find out they watched Cartoon Network or something. Cartoon Network is NOT for kids IMO. Arrgghh.

This is my dirty little Dave Ramsey secret, as I am an organic, healthy food freak. I have started buying the 12 packs of Ramen noodles (I think they're less than $2 here!). I throw out the seasoning packet and cook the noodles in fat free, low sodium broth (chicken, veggie, beef). Then I put in a bag of organic frozen mixed veggies a few minutes after the noodles start cooking. It's super cheap and fairly (?) healthy. I'm struggling with my food budget on Ramsey...we don't eat much meat. I'm buying lots more chicken thighs and legs (which honestly, we prefer the thighs to breasts anyway) and as someone else stated, lots of beans and rice, pasta. I figure we'll only spend so much time getting out of debt and then we can go back to eating better, but for now, we're doing what we have to.

My husband sang this to me one evening at an inn and it became "our song". He also sang it to me at our wedding. It's called "I Could Write a Book" by Rodgers & Hart. If they asked me, I could write a book; About the way you walk, and whisper; And look. I could write a preface; On how we met; That the world will never forget. And the simple; Secret of the plot; Is just to tell them; That I love you, alot. Then the world discovers; As my book ends; How to make two lovers of friends

Oh, another plus...absolutely NO homeschool regulation in CT. Super, super easy :)

New England! I can't imagine living anywhere else. We live in northern CT, but I'd also recommend middle MA, southern NH or maybe southern ME. Easy to get to Boston, easy to get to New York, very definable seasons (gorgeous foliage), close to the ocean, lakes, mountains (think skiing!).

Just an FYI. As far as writing, they're basically "re-writing" stories in their own words. They have a chance to add creative touches in their final draft, but they're sticking to a specific story. Again, I think it's great and we love it, but I wanted to let you know the methods they use to teach. Another book we use sometimes because it's really fun is Games for Writing. It gives my daughter an opportunity to do really creative, imaginative writing. HTH.

We started with WT1 and I think it's a perfect fit.

I dropped Spelling Workout for my DS6, although it works well for my DD8. I dropped WWE for my DD, although that works well for my DS! Surprisingly, everything else seems to be working very well--knock on wood :)