Ooh, I did not think of that one.

Many, many years ago I made many food items from scratch that aren't typical: grapenuts, yogurt, bagels, marshmallows, etc. along with the more typical baked goods, soups, etc. My motivation was primarily to save money. However many things were so time consuming and were not favorites with my family. They prefer store-bought yogurt and marshmallows and bagels. So as my family grew and time got shorter and dh got a raise here and there I dropped doing these things. It makes my skin crawl to think about making homemade marshmallows again. I would rather just not eat marshmallows. But I am obviously not like other people in this regard. I just wonder what motivates people. Is it possible to pick one primary motivation? to save money to cut out preservatives to be more green to have a better quality product to be more self-sufficient it's just plain enjoyable despite any drawbacks other

I was wondering that too as my ds is working through R&S with the editing sheets. Some of the editing symbols I don't have a problem with. However, my biggest pet peeve is having to insert this mark ^ and then adding in your punctuation or missing letter. Honestly, the paper was so darned clutter with all of the little ^ . I told my son to leave them out and just write in whatever was missing. I understand it if it's a phrase or a sentence. You need a pointer to show exactly where it's to go. But if you're missing a comma, just put in the silly comma and be done with it.

My two current favs I tried several years ago and passed. My issue was basing my opinion on their entire program based on their books for the earliest learners. I LOVE Saxon math, once you get to 5/4 and R&S English. Years ago I tried grade 1 Saxon and R&S Phonics. Both programs made me want to poke my eyes out. I let that color my perspective on all their programs and it took me a while to give them another try.

:grouphug:If you want to salvage the friendship, you should print your post, or something similar, and send it to her. It sounds like you all are close enough to be brutally honest. If you are not comfortable with that then I would recommend distancing yourself, physically and emotionally. You do not need that kind of toxicity in your life. It would be awesome if you could hold a mirror up to her and let her know how her behavior is affecting you and your friendship. But that would be a very hard thing to do. I'm not sure if I would have the courage to do that. If you think deep down she's mature enough to be sorry that she's hurting you and self-aware enough to see that you are telling the truth, go for it. I would chicken out if I thought she would get defensive or bully-ish and just withdraw. There are other fish in the sea. :grouphug:

The disrespect was bad and disobedience were bad enough. But this girl distributed the post in such a way that it wouldn't go to her parents. What a deceitful little snot. I would tend to think that this family has a lot of issues and though I don't think what dad did was wrong I do wonder what his plans are to restore the relationship. The fact that he was living on his own at her age (15) tells me that parent/teen conflict might be normal mode and you deal with it by exerting your power. "I'm in charge because I have more power...strength, money, smarts, whatever." She'll be out of there as soon as she can and won't look back. Perhaps what he did as a teen.

You should have told him he needed work on his socialization skills.

I function in my actual schooling similarly to what you have described aside from schooling year round. However I find it very helpful in communicating with people and for various out-of-the-home activities to just state the grade they would be in if they were in school. It makes things simpler. It doesn't mean I push them to finish their 4th grade math book because school is almost over and we want to start with te 5th grade book.

After a very grouchy, grumpy day all around I sent my boys to bed with a reminder that we have school tomorrow as per usual and I would really appreciate it if they didn't act so put upon when I hand out the English and math assignments. Just prepare yourself emotionally, NOW, TONIGHT, before your head hits the pillow. School per usual. Whining is unnecessary and definitely not appreciated. GRrrrrr......

:iagree: Ummm...totally. Last year my 1st grader would have been clueless too. 3 R's and Bible. Get 'er done. It kind of sounds like you were digging for info with that little friend there. I would not be real happy if my little girl went to play and friend's mom was getting a little judgmental with my 3 R's philosophy and started prying. Just to throw that out there. :glare:

My kids have a bad habit of not finishing books too. It drives me nuts. What might help with the long chapters in Swiss Family is to have her read for a certain period of time instead of one chapter's worth. We read for 25 minutes here and then write about it for 5. It keeps me sane from constantly working up reading schedules for so many books. Currently my kids do choose their own reading books from a fairly large selection. My rule is, if my kids get into a book and don't like it they can pass. But, they HAVE to read the next book they pick all the way through. That's working fine so far. I really do try to guide them to books I think they will enjoy when it's time to pick a new one to avoid these scenarios. If I thought they were abusing my pass system I wouldn't hesitate to get more strict: one pass per 6 week term, or something like that. I used to require that they read at least 3 chapters before passing on a book, but that didn't work so well. Some were milking that for all it was worth. One of mine would act like a martyr making it through chapter 3 with heavy sighing, discard, and pick another one only to start the sighing martyr act all over again. rinse. repeat.

:001_smile: Anyone?

Does anyone have a Year 3 Biblioplan who wouldn't mind giving me the book recs for Week 19? I have just ordered this and want to start Feb. 20th after our winter break. What books do I need to order at the library to be ready? I put SOTW 3 on hold, but I don't know what else. Thanks!!

When I was pricing AHL last year the shipping alone was close to $15. $5 flat rate is exciting indeed. :001_smile:

I remember the Regent's exams. Not fondly. :tongue_smilie: I transferred into the NYS school system my junior year of highschool and took almost all of my regent's exams my junior year. (1989) It was absolutely hideous!!! Only thing I remember is that I got an A on all of them (shameless brag - although after reading the samples that might not be such an amazing thing to do :)) and got a cool sticker on my Regent's diploma which is hiding in a box somewhere. I remember feeling like the Chemistry test had kicked my butt but lucky for me someone had broken into the vault in Albany and stolen the exam or answers or something, disqualifying the test. Instead of making all of us retake it they just gave us the grade we got in the class. Otherwise I would have broken my winning streak with that one. Ugh!!

:iagree: I would ask the buyer what they thought to be fair and hoped for a 50/50 split but would pay the full amount of that is what they asked for. And in the future, as the seller, I would buy insurance or ask the buyer to purchase insurance for any package I was not willing to reimburse should its contents just disappear. I would purchase insurance over priority mail shipping and then I would tape the box so crazy it would have to be run over by a truck to open up.

I have 15 years left. So 55. My kids think that is hilarious. I think they picture me homeschooling in the nursing home. I anticipate picking up a part time job to help fund the younger's college. FAFSA will help the olders with so many dependents in the house I'm guessing/hoping. Plus, I'll go stir crazy. I used to work at the library and had dreams of working my way up, perhaps getting my Master's in library science. We'll see. And when I'm home I'll knit, knit, knit....for all those grandkids I'm expecting. Oh, and I want to be the kind of grandma where the grandkids come and play often. I didn't have that kind of grandmother and my kids don't have it either. :glare:

We had a white Easter here a few years back. I thought the neighborhood would cancel the Easter egg hunt. Nope. Kids dug for eggs in the snow. It was deep too, massive. The kids and I were delivering a daily newspaper that winter AND I was 6 months pregnant. I cried....A LOT!! #!$@@ people wouldn't shovel their @#$@ sidewalks and life was generally miserable. My kids have been doing a weekly route now. They do it on roller blades and there has only been ONE week that they had to walk it. That was miserable for them as it took 3x as long. I'm very, very, thankful for that!!!!

The kids were disappointed, especially the ones who got sleds for Christmas. Annual sledding party at church was cancelled. The snow derby was rescheduled based on a forecast and ended up on a weekend with no snow. :glare: I certainly didn't miss winter. The prolonged fall (my very favorite season) was incredible. I was and still am suspicious of the weather and am not enjoying "spring" in February as much as I would if it were April because I feel like as soon as I get emotionally attached to spring we'll get a blizzard of massive proportions. My mom was telling me that she came across a similar weather pattern in the 1800's in upstate New York when she was doing some genealogical research. The weather had gone from an extended fall to a very late, harsh winter (no spring) and then summer. They were not able to harvest due to there not being enough time from frost to frost and turned into a famine of sorts. She said it was later attributed to a volcano erupting in Europe a few years earlier that had messed with the seasons. Weird. That doesn't seem to be happening here. We did get a tiny bit of winter, freezing and snow. So I'm really hoping that this is just spring in february and I'm also hoping that we don't have a warmer than usual summer, becasue we don't have AC and our house doesn't breathe well. Ugh!! Oh, and I'm not looking forward to the bug problem that will surely be worse this summer. :glare:

:lol::lol: AAAAnnnnndddrreeww!!! Are you going to get me my lemon or must I squeeze it from my hat?! I speak French? Do I know what I just said? You gotta remember hon, you were in the Navy!

"He'll keep calling..." "O.K., I'll go, I'll go, I'll go..." "Ed, You sounded like Dirty Harry just then." "Who's bothering you this time, Jeannie?" "My sister's boyfriend's best friend's cousin's mother saw him pass out at 31 Flavors last night. Guess it's pretty serious." We totally fudge on this one. I have no idea how it really goes. "Bueller... Bueller..." "you just roll her bones on in here." ETA: I forgot "NINE times." and "wrap a hot towel around your head."

Skillwise: 1st Reading 2nd - Writing 3rd - Math Contentwise: 1st Bible 2nd History 3rd Science I did not know how to vote.

Love this one!! We quote this one frequently at our house. along with "Inconceivable!" Yes!! And when the kids whine (which is often) "But I was going to the Tashi Station to pick up some power converters." That's what we say. I don't know if it's word for word. You have to whine it. :001_smile: :lol: I had forgotten how funny this movie was. Also said at least once a week at our house. "You can hear that?" Is another favorite of ours from Mr. Mom. and "You're doing it wrong." (said with an irritated whine) We say this one too and frequently change it up. "These are not the chips you are looking for." "These are not the shoes you are looking for." It sounds funnier in the context of the moment. :001_smile: "I have you now, my master." Annakin to Obi Wan. My kids say "Gail, Gail, female" from Zookeeper all the time. It cracks them up. My oldest can do the whole monologue in character. It's very funny. Turd Burglar. Let go baby hippo. Ha Ha Ha...Mom bucks. (you have to sing this one) I like this one from Willy Wonka but I always mess it up and the kids have to correct me. Good morning, Starshine. The earth says, "Hello." I never say this one out loud without changing the words and it just doesn't come out the same. "Sh!tter was full." But we often say, "It's the gift that keeps on giving the whole year through. That it is Edward. That it is." "The little lights aren't twinkling, Clark." "I've got time." from The Incredibles. We also love to do the mispronunciations from Megamind. "Why am I so Me LON choly?" Re VENGE (rhymes with blanc mange) and Shool. Too many more to list. Yes, we watch too many movies. Lastly I'll confess to singing like the princess from Enchanted when she summons the city animals to clean dude's messy apartment. Maybe if I do it enough some friendly creatures will help me clean my house. :001_smile:

Oh I should read Great Expectations. I haven't finished Mr. Pip yet (almost) but it does inspire me to finish GE. I read about 2/3 of it 12 years ago. I'll have to start fresh, of course. :001_smile: I did finish The Phantom of the Opera this week. Yay!! :hurray: I'm going to have a hard time convincing anyone that it's a very good book and not difficult or sloggish since it took me so long. I just kept getting distracted with my audio books. The ending is great and twists much better than the movie version I saw. I have not seen the musical. The French names gave me a rough time. I couldn't keep some of the characters straight, the managers and other opera administrators. :tongue_smilie: I also read Things I Learned from Knitting by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I was looking for knitting patterns on the library's catalog and stumbled on it. It was a quick read, funny and inspiring. This week I hope to finish Cleary's Socks with the kids and start on The House of Sixty Fathers by DeJong. I also just picked up Home to Woefield by Susan Juby based on someone's rec. in Week 5. I'm excited to start it. I also started A Thousand Splendid Suns on PlayAway. I've not used this before. Our library has these devices with books on them and you stick in a AAA battery and your headphones and you are ready to go. Quite handy since I don't have a portable listening device. So I can listen while moving around the house. I gave up on the Internet book, The Shallows. I think it's premise might be true. I don't have the patience much for things that get tedious. But is that a bad thing? My 2012 Year in Review. 6 - Things I Learned from Knitting by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee 5 - The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux 4 - Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett 3 - Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith 2 - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 1 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee I want to share what my dc have read but don't want to make 5 different lists since some of the same books will keep appearing on each list so I am just going to lump them. My DC 2012 Year in Review. New this week: Twice Freed by Patricia St. John The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett Dog Days by Jeff Kinney Schoolhouse in the Woods by Rebecca Caudill Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling Little Women by Louisa May Alcott The Ides of April by Mary Ray Ben Hur by Lew Wallace Do Hard Things by Brett and Alex Harris To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger Darth Paper by Tom Angleberger Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Michael Morpurgo Mary Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer Beware Princess Elizabeth by Carolyn Meyer Happy Little Family by Rebecca Caudill

I didn't know one could talk that long with a slashed throat, but I am glad that God spared her life.