I meant to add as well what works for me is allowing myself as much safe food I want those first days(the first 3 are the hardest). It depends on how bad the slip was on how strict I am.

Yep, me as well. I did "healthy" whole grains for a good while- 5 yrs or so maybe. Anyway, I have found I am gluten intolerant, likely dairy intolerant as well(all the kids have been so I abstain while nursing). I feel the absolute best low carb. Before I thought I had to eat all the time. Now, I know that was just my blood sugar crashing from the carbs so much. I also realize now I am a happy person I thought I was just a sad person, nope it was the diet. My last 2 pregnancies have been lc(like the gd diet but no gd here- I tend toward hypoglycemia) and were absolutely fabulous- even at 41 wks I felt wonderful- no swelling and bp 90/60(still gained 35 lbs-not like I starved myself). I eat gluten/grain, sugar, soy, and dairy free. I eat lots of grassfed meat, lots of yummy veggies, a good amt of healthy fats and rarely fruits.

We all go to bed about 9 most every night as dh has to get up early for work and I need sleep. I get up early (5:30-6am) and take a bit of time in the morning.

I would not call them classic lit by any means, but certainly not as bad as a lot out there. My son loves these books and it is a good opening for history and science.

We only have 1 library here, so we don't have much choice. However, we have certainly had some adventures as well- I know how fun that can be. To help calm things we do the online reserve as well- daddy can drop books in the outside slot if need be also. Also, that is a reason I do not use the monster carseat carriers, too hard to carry and always in the way. I put the baby in the ergo(which my 3 y.o. still fits in as well) that way I have 2 hands free. I couldn't survive without it!!

That has been my experience so far as well, it has gotten easier every time.

I have never lied either. I don't understand the point- it doesn't make my size different. Plus, it really varies from person to person depending on bone size/muscle mass etc. Same with my age, it is what it is.

I always joke that my parents are hermits, although it is slightly true. We were allowed and strongly encouraged to do school sports. Problem was in a small town that meant the options were softball and basketball, nothing else. I am not gifted in the least in either and in fact pretty horrible. I did cheerleading for a few games but had to quit because I was too shy it was painful to think of having to get in front of others. My one year of basketball the coach wanted to put me in for 1 game(as we were really ahead) I begged to be kept on the bench. I did Girl Scouts for a short bit, not sure what happened to that. We didn't have friends around to play with we lived in the country. My parents didn't have friends that ever visited w/ or without kids. It was extremely rare to do any kind of family activity. I remember going to the movies once. A family outing was a trip to WalMart and maybe Pizza Hut or Sonic very rarely. Vacations were ALWAYS camping to the same place, where dad had relatives. My biggest memories were spending time playing outside at Grandma's house, that was the best. I wished that I had the opportunity to do anything else beside sports. My goal is to have some balance w/ the kids(of course balance is defined differently for everyone). Sports are not a big goal for me or my dh. Neither of us were gifted in that arena and frankly a lot of the people involved in those around here are not the type we really wanted to associate with- I am sure there are plenty of people that take those experiences and it is positive(one of my best friend's husband is a wonderful guy and was a big jock). Unfortunately most the other ex-jocks I know are arrogant jerks and really focused on the material things- not that everyone is I am sure- just the people we know(both sides of the family). So, admittedly we are very biased on this. However, if any of the kids showed interest we would like for them to pursue it- I just don't want to force it though. We try to do lots of kids activities, especially the free ones. However, I don't want to be gone away from home several days a week. As it is we do library/park on Tuesday and Co-op on Fridays, Church on weekends. Try to have one decent family activity a month. I would like my son to do Boy Scouts when he is old enough. We will be doing swim lessons at the city pool as they are a lot cheaper, I never learned to swim at all and would like my kids to have that. Both of the older kids so far love being around people so we have to work on balancing things they enjoy while keeping a relatively calm family life.

Beatrix Potter of course- Milne has 2 collections of poems as well-'When We Were Very Young' and 'Now We are Six' Picture books there are so many we love. You didn't specify just classics so authors we enjoy: dePaola vanAllsburg-ds really liked - 'The Sweetest Fig' and my favorite was 'The Wreck of the Zephyr' Dahl-we especially loved the 'The Giraffe, Pelly and Me' anything by Lobel(he has one entitled 'Fables' as well) 'Little Bear' series Rylant- Luke LOVES the 'Henry and Mudge' books- we read 'The Cobblestreet Cousins' which I thought was good as well but it was a bit girly for him- she has lots of other books as well- another good one is 'When the Relatives Came' 'Ricka, Flicka and Dicka'- checked out these on the suggestion of an older acquaintance and dd(3) LOVED them all There is the 'Big Blue Fairy Book' by Lang it is on my list but I don't own it (yet) :) 'Beautiful Tales from Shakespeare' Mary Pope Osbourne (of Magic Tree House) has some on tall tales/legends

I am anxious to see this as well. This has been my greatest dissapointment in looking for hs material is the lack of good Catholic material in the style I want to use. I also refuse to support certain companies that are anti-Catholic.

I am new at this as well and have chosen Rightstart due to a lot of glowing reviews and it's heavy use of manipulatives.

I was curious about this program as well but with the lack of reviews out there it makes it hard to invest so much money. I absolutely love the idea though. We have decided at the moment to take history more low key this year- especially as ds is just about to turn 6 and we are ramping up enough new things as it is. I am going to reassess next yar and hope there is more info out there.

http://www.activitytv.com/default.aspx Luke really likes this site especially the science experiments. He likes building paper airplanes as well, but I have a hard time figuring out the instructions- origami is not my strong suite!

What awesome ideas. My "guy" is not quite 6 and stays entertained w/ geography pretty easily so far, but he will love the weapons idea.

Usually 1-2 hrs. Minimum is 1 hr for am and about 30 min for bedtime(although usually daddy does nighttime reading). I have 1 hr scheduled for the am but often in the afternoon he wants to hear more - son is almost 6, daughter just turned 3 and baby 6mo. I try to intersperse chapter and picture books to keep the 3 y.o.'s attention although she now is becoming better about sitting the whole time.