But your government gives aid directly to people, right? Whereas mine is patently allergic to giving people money directly for fear that someone, somewhere is getting something they don't deserve. So, while one could claim as many exemptions as they can at the beginning of the year, some things like the child tax credit or the Earned Income Credit are refundable meaning that once one's income tax liability has been zeroed out, there is still an additional amount that may come back. There's really no way to avoid that in our current system.

Oven as hot as it will go. Baking stone in the oven as it preheats. Better yet get a baking steel - http://www.bakingsteel.com/shop/baking-steel Ken Forkish's same day pizza crust recipe from "Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast" is my favorite recipe, but any lean dough is a good place to start.

Great find, Hunter! Thanks for sharing.

Ds doesn't remember anything we did in Kindergarten. In fact, when he asked to learn about electricity this year, I mentioned that we had already covered it and he didn't believe me. I tried to give some of the examples of what we did and he looked at me like I was crazy. Save the systematic and in-depth stuff for when he's older. Instead, keep it fun, hands on, and engaging. The great thing about the four year cycle idea in TWTM is that you'll be this way again more than once. :0) In Kindergarten it was Magic School Bus videos, MSB picture books, a MSB chapter book, and a literature guide to go with the MSB picture book that had lots of activities. Oh, and snap circuits. I had to look back to what all we did in Kindergarten. It looks like we also spent a lot of time looking up videos on YouTube to see how different things work or how they're made. For awhile ds was obssessed with toilets so we watched videos and went to websites to learn how toilets work, how the wastewater treatment plant works, and how toilet paper is made. Then we hopped from there to other topics like how crayons are made, how paper is made, or how glue is made.

This was our experience as well - well at least the few books being available in 4th grade. There's nothing magical to the WTM progression. I can see where biology would be a good fit for most 1st graders, but if a child's interests align with another science topic, then following their interest makes sense. Ds did magnets and electricity in K, the human body and the solar system in 1st, rocks and assorted bits in 2nd (public school), biology in 3rd, and physics this year (4th). Next year we'll do chemistry because I realized we'd missed it so far. Dd1 has had biology in K and 1st because that's her thing. This past summer it was all birds, all the time. Dd2 will probably get something else entirely her first grade year owing to tagging along. That which gets done and gets done well is more important than "right" according to x list even if it's TWTM. I think what's most important is exposure to all of it at some point with an emphasis on scientific literacy.

I would. I use the US edition and if I heard it was going to be replaced or phased out then I would be buying it now.

Right, but I guess my point is that 1) there isn't a whole lot you or I can do individually when such a huge part of it is out of our control (see also: alfalfa) which I think is doubly true if your (or my) water footprint is already smaller than the average American and 2) simply switching from high water products in one region to higher water products in another is a tiny bit like shuffling the chairs on the Titanic if we don't also have some big picture changes that accompany it. The general "we" are going to need to do something about the 9,000lb gorilla in the room and I think we're going to have to change a culture that can't see past this year's profits. We don't drink almond milk here, but do eat all sorts of things that are grown in California since the ground is still quite frozen and our frost fee date is more than a month off. I'm not giving up broccoli, kale, lettuce, or peppers since our water footprint is already quite small and because my calories have to come from somewhere.

Well, cutting back on almond milk is probably good, but that's such a small drop in the bucket compared to the water used to grow alfalfa which is used to feed cows both here and in China (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26124989). Alfalfa is also used to feed pasture-based animal agriculture systems. Cutting back on lettuce and broccoli seems a bit to me like patching a tire with scotch tape. imo - for more bang for your buck, cutting down on meat and dairy saves a lot more water (http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/05/_10_percent_of_california_s_water_goes_to_almond_farming.html). I think even a 50% reduction on that side has a fairly big impact on the water equation.

Depends. I'm not familiar with THM. At this point, as with all initial weightloss, it's probably a lot of water weight and glycogen loss from your muscle stores dependng on carbohydrate intake. I'd be more concerned with sustainability - as in, can you eat this way for the rest of your life? Otherwise, there's always the risk that you gain it all back when you decide to end the "diet."

And you should definitely get one that duplexes and you'll save on paper. If you have a Staples near you, subscribe to their deals email. Just recently they were offering a case of paper for $27. They do this periodically so it pays to subscribe and time your paper purchase accordingly.

Better yet, if you have the printer and toner, get the ebook. It's slightly cheaper and you can reprint for future students so everyone has their own copy.

It doesn't work for me either. More protein usually makes me more hungry, not less. If I cut carbs and up fat I'm nauseous. My suspicion is that by not eating the bread you are either eating fewer calories or less fiber. Or a combination of the two. I'd try eating more with a focus on higher fiber foods and starches (veggies and/or grains). For me, that combination that fills me up far more than protein and fat and keeps me fuller longer. Since you mentioned eggs, what about having hashbrowns with them? You can cook frozen shredded potatoes in a waffle iron with a spritz of oil to keep them from sticking. You can also take rolled oats and make a waffle with them - http://mylivingcookbook.blogspot.com/2014/04/zebs-waffles-from-my-beef-with-meat-by.html. Both are relatively quick and don't require a huge amount of prep or pre-planning.

My youngest says "Puhzetta!" instead of "ta-da" for reasons I don't understand. And while we don't celebrate Easter, she calls the displays at the store and the associated eggs "eastern eggs."

I grew up eating vegetables so I guess for me it's hard to imagine not. My dh liked very few vegetables when I first met him although he was adept at piling his iceberg lettuce salad in the dinng hall at college with cheese, bacon, and ranch dressing. I think it might have had something to do with the girl he was trying to impress, but his vegetable intake increased significantly after he started dating me. Maybe you need a girlfriend? ;) Seriously though, I'm a fan of the "pick one new vegetable" idea. Pick one new vegetable and look up some recipes that sound good to you. Then go to the store with your list of ingredients and try it lots of ways - raw, sauteed, steamed, roasted, spiralized (or shaved into thin strips with a vegetable peeler), etc. Try adding it in to recipes you already enjoy. Maybe you only like it raw or maybe you only like it on Sundays. Maybe you hate it altogether. It's ok. Try it again in a few months - our taste buds are changing all the time so if not now, maybe later.

CWP wasn't enough hand holding for me or my kid, but Process Skills in Problem Solving was just right. I'm on my second swing through Singapore and I started dd out with Process Skills in Problem Solving and added in Extra Practice (instead of IP) and it's a really good combo. I plan on doing the same thing my third and final time around.

Mollie Katzen Nava Atlas "Wild About Greens" "From Asparagus to Zucchini"

Wow, that's rude. Who's talking about taking a stand or wanting to influence someone else's choices? I wouldn't buy the hot dogs and it has nothing to do with me judging another person's eating habits. This isn't equivalent to paper napkins and soda. I wouldn't ask a muslim to brink a pork roast or a Jewish family to bring bacon. Don't want to deal with that? Don't organize an event. Count me among those who finds the organizer rather tone deaf for asking the vegetarian to bring hot dogs?

I think it's a combination of small fridge and maybe how you're storing it. The way you describe it sounds to me like it's lost quite a bit of water. Broccoli will last more than a week here and still be crunchy. It'd be more likely to get slimy for me. I shop once a week at a local chain and live in the midwest. We're vegan so I buy a lot of produce and we eat the majority of it before it goes off with the exception of cilantro, but I think that's a storage issue on my part. I am also a fan of frozen veggies in those microwave steamer bags because even though they're more expensive, the convenience factor is huge for me.

School may very well take some of the opposition out of the learning part of the equation, but it is no guarantee of friends. It's not magic and it can be a very lonely place for a kid if they don't make friends easily.

Some of the more assertive greens (kale, collards, mustard, turnip, etc) are better if you quick boil them first. Cookus Interruptus has a video that shows you how to do it - http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/quick-boiled-collard-greens-4136-25.html Kale and collards can be massaged with a little dressing, oil, or salt and then eaten raw like a salad. We usually have one or the other everyday and most often in a salad like this. If you switch up the dressing and vary the other things you add it's a different dish every night. Are there flavors you already like? Pizza? Asian? Tex-Mex? Italian? Chances are you can find recipes that use those flavors with the veggies so you're starting with something you already like. Otherwise, around here there are veggies on the side and veggies in things so it all adds up over the course of a day. In your case, I'd start small. Small changes are both more manageable and easier to sustain. They also snowball over time.

Beyond creepy. Even creepier with my MIL's inscription in the front. You can explain it any way you want, but it's still creepy.

FIAR? Maybe that's too loose. MBTP I wouldn't suggest Build Your Library if typos and a certain lack of...polish might annoy. Honestly, I wasn't impressed.

I don't think that any of it is necessarily bad if you can separate the emotional component from the data gathering. In other words, if you were to plot all of those measurements and then looked at the data over time you'd be able to see the over all trend and use that as your measure. So, I can weigh myself once a day and then enter that in MFP. MFP will graph that for me and in the app I can see it over a 3mo period of time (on their website I can look at the last year). Then what you're looking for is the overall trend (in my case down because I have had weight to lose and still do). If you're trying to maintain what you'd see is individual spikes and dips all centered around a plateau that is your actual weight. You can't focus on the spikes and dips because they're influenced by a number of factors which include hydration level, salt intake, limitations and imperfections of your measurement device (the scale), etc. So, if I eat out somewhere and consume something that has more added sugar/salt than I would otherwise normally have and then weigh myself at home the day after I can be up as much as 5lbs. As the week goes on, I'll lose something like 1lb a day and in a week's time I'll return to where I was before or slightly under. That doesn't mean I gained that much weight and then lost that much weight. It's pretty much impossible to gain 5lbs in a day. I might have been up a smaller amount. It might have been all extra water. It's probably a combination of things that are nearly impossible to separate with the tools I have at my disposal. In the longer view, I'm still on trend when I look at the graph. It's like when people first go on a diet (and especially a low carb diet, but it's true for diets in general). They'll lose a crazy amount of weight at first as their body dumps water and glycogen in response to the dietary changes. It may be incredibly gratifying, but it's not necessarily indicative of fat loss. Hidden in the midst of all that noise (so to speak) is the actual fat loss which is definitely smaller. It's also why people will gain weight at first if they switch from a low-carb to a higher carb diet or even if they just eat more carbs. It doesn't mean they've put on fat. It's probably water and/or glycogen in the muscles. It's a normal, albeit frustrating, response. If you can't separate the emotional aspect from the data gathering in whatever form it might take, then that's a good sign that something needs to change. The thing is, though, just switching to a different measure isn't necessarily going to solve the problem because *every* measurement (weight, calories, measurements, the way your clothes fit, etc) is going to be prone to noise. It's going to be imperfect and it's going to fluctuate in ways that don't correlate with actual fat gain/loss. I think learning to deal with that is as important as reaching one's goal.

Me either! For me a diet that's 60-70% fat would be a recipe for nausea starting at the first meal and continuing 6 mos out which is when I gave up the last time I tried it. I gained all that weight back. If you look at the weight loss registry where people have successfully lost weight and kept it off you'll see that they did so because they made changes to what they ate and how they lived that they can sustain over the long haul. Moderation doen't sell books or look great on TV shows. It doesn't sustain blog/web empires. Does WW have a maintenance phase? I'd look into that if it's already working for you.

Do what you did to lose the weight except this time you'll want to eat enough to sustain your weight instead of lose more. So adjust the carb percentage in MFP if that's what you're going to use and don't worry so much about the rest. The scale will give you feedback. The goal is to lose weight in a way that you can sustain for the rest of your life. You know what works for you so it doesn't really matter what works for anyone else and there's no reason for you to change now. :0). Congrats!