Well, my grandmother raised her family to believe that one of the greatest sins ever committed was to wear shoes in her house, and each of her daughters (aka- my mom) raised their kids that way. My grandmother always said it was easier for her family to take their shoes off than for her to drag out the vacuum cleaner 5 times a day. (And she would've too.) Thankfully I'm not that fastidious of a housekeeper, but the habit is so ingrained into me that I just can't wear shoes in my house. I never make it a requirement for other people but when they see me take my shoes off they usually do the same. When I go to other homes though, I usually ask what they prefer when I come in. The times I've taken my shoes off out of habit and no one else does I end up feeling really odd and uncomfortable. I like the idea of having little footies for people if they don't want or can't take their shoes off. Also, maybe get a big bag of heavy socks from the dollar store to offer to people if their feet get cold or something.

Well, according to my Rod and Staff book, it says that in formal writing, "shall" is used for first person and "will" is used for second and third person. In general speech, "will" is used for all three persons. (Like I ever use "shall" anyway.)

Beer. It can't be Bud or Coors. Microbrews are the best. Nothing on my Thanksgiving or Christmas table can be pre prepared. It has to be all made from scratch, esp. the dressing. No stovetop for me! Yarn. If I'm going to spend my time making something, then I want it to last. (unlike the first pair of socks I made with a 80% acrylic and 20% wool blend that the person at the yarn store said would make good socks with. Yea, holes within 10 minutes of wearing them.) Walmart. Can't shop there. No way, no how. Forgot- pens. I hate blue or black. Uck. I need some color to my life, but I'll settle for blue if it's not the regular shade of blue. I do hate gel pens though.

Um, yea, all the time. :glare: I think for me, a lot of it is when I started homeschooling everything was fresh and exciting. Then I get a couple of years under my belt, some curric works and others don't, and I sort of feel blah. I want something to catch my attention and make me feel EXCITED again! I might reread TWTM when it comes out just to catch that newness again. (Because, you know, the two older versions I have sitting on my self are SO yesterday)

I'm a Theistic Evolutionist.

Let's remember why Susan's mom started homeschooling in the first place. It wasn't because her kids were super geniuses with excellent study habits, and Jessie could tell at age 2 they would be destined for greatness. Jessie just taught her kids how to read, and then once they started going to school they were getting made fun of by the other kids and the teachers didn't know what to do with them, and it was starting to have serious negative consequences for the kids. (If I'm remembering correctly without having to get up and reread the intro to TWTM.) Susan is very smart, but how different would her education have been if she were only pushed to be equal to her classmates? And this may be unfair because there are many bright students to come out of the ps system, but each school is different just as each homeschool is different. So, although I can't change my answer from "both" I am going to to say that I think that the right enviroment and the right study habits can take any student and make the them the best student they can be.

Although I understand that the whole adoption issue is foremost in your thoughts, as far as the facebook account goes, I think you should be allowed to have private relationships with anyone without a family member having to read everything. I'm thinking of it as a privacy issue. I literally just signed up for facebook earlier this week so I completely don't understand the different things you can or cannot do on facebook, but if you don't want your brother reading your messages to your bio mother, you shouldn't have to. I understand that facebook isn't exactly a private medium, but you get the idea. In other words, even if you told your db and dm that you were talking to your bio mother again, that doesn't mean he can/should be able to read your private coorespondance with her. Think of it as two seperate issues. I do like the idea of having two different accounts with one for family. That way when and if you decide to tell your family about it, it wont be because of fear of getting found out but because it's what you feel is right at the time. I don't have any practical advice about the deeper issues though. Good luck! :grouphug:

I think both. My dd had problems in school, and was really starting to feel stupid. She's doing much better after we pulled her out during 3rd grade. However, she wasn't an academic genius then and isn't an academic genius now. (She's in 7th-8th grade). I'm not saying this to be harsh, her gifts just aren't in acadamia. However, she's still rather bright and with hard work and good study habits I know she'll be able to go much further than she ever would have if she stayed in regular PS. We're still working on those study habits though! (She wants to be a vet and is extremely good with animals and has a big heart, but I think she'd make a better stunt woman. And I'm not kidding.)

No question, Usborne Internet Linked En. The pictures are great for grammer age. We'd read the chapter/section in SOTW, open the corresponding pages in UILE, and the kids would get all excited locating and talking about a picture that tied in with what we learned in SOTW. Also, you can download some of the drawn pictures off their website if you wanted to for various reasons, in case your interested.

I was in marching band in highschool, so I had to attend every home game whether I wanted to or not, so maybe that's why I understand most of the basic rules of the game. Also, maybe that's why I like attending games now, because I'm not having to wear an ugly, heavy polyester outfit and can sit in the stands like any other self respecting fan.

I have a love/hate relationship with Science also. I just purchased a couple of TOPS books to see if it would put the fun back into science. I might purchase SWB's CD as Colleen in NS suggested to try to put a classical spin on it. The more and more I tried to use just a textbook (even with their experiements with it) the more I just find something lacking about it, at least what my ideal homeschool science projects CAN be like.

Um, Jenny, I hate to break it to you, but yea, I think you might be the only one in America. Sorry. :lol: Just kidding. Actually, I only like football when I'm following my teams. (Like my hometeam, my dh college football team, etc). The rest of the time I don't care, except for the Superbowl. Here's why. I learned a long time ago that it was more fun as a young adult to go to the Superbowl parties than always being the one scheduled to work because I didn't care about or didn't want to watch the Superbowl. Heck, I'd rather be a part of the fun. Now, we just moved and we have no friends, (sniff, sniff), so it'll just be my family, but I'm going to make plenty of unhealty junk food, grab some beer, and sit on my rear end keeping my dh company while I knit some socks. If the game actually becomes interesting (and I do know enough about football to tell and interesting game from a boring game), then I may not get a lot of knitting done, but either way I'll enjoy myself. And, I'll get to watch all the really tastless commercials so I'll know what the heck everyone is talking about on Mon. I mean, I've got to stay culturally educated, right??? ;)

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: I'm so, so sorry.

A History of Science works really well also.

Girl, you're preaching to the choir here! I actually don't mind once or twice a week, but every single day, three times a day? It doesn't help that I refuse to buy things like cold cereal either. I'm becoming more and more a fan of freezing things for the nights I just don't feel up to it.

I think that's a very false impression of nonsubmissive households. My husband and I talk and talk things over until we come to an agreement. The bigger the issue, the more important it is we agree together. I'm not saying that we don't have small squables like any couple, but my dh and I wont make a decision if one of us disagrees with it. Our ultimate goal is to have a happy, loving marriage and family. With that as our common goal, how could we not work together to make sure the decisions we make work for the both of us? After 14 years of marriage, we've never not been able to agree important issues.

How funny, cause I'm pretty sure that's what I remember. I know Mormons also used those verses to talk about idolatry as well. But, I'm not trying to prove or disprove Mormonism, but just wanting to clarify what the other posters meant. This is actually a rather interesting discussion. :001_smile:

Okay, then explain to me. (I hope I'm not hijacking this thread here.) I was raised Mormon, who do believe in the existance of other gods, but just in other galaxies far, far away. Mormons always used the above passages to show that God acknowledged other real Gods, but for our purposes, we were to only worship Him because he was OUR one and true God. Other Christians argued this point with me over and over about how there was just ONE God and He was the supreme creator of EVERYTHING and that the existance of more than one God was purely unbiblical. Now your saying, as a Christian, that there are more than our Heavenly Father? I'm just really confused! :confused1:

I always thought that these particular commandments were in response (for lack of a better word) to the Egyptian and Babylonian belief systems, who did worship multiple gods and made statues and painting of them. God was telling the Isrealites not to worship them, not because they were real gods and godesses, but because they were false gods (non-exsistant gods).

if anyone wants to understand the other side of the argument, here's a good book about it. Finally Feminist: A Pragmatic Christian Understanding of Gender by John G Stackhouse Jr. (sorry, I hve no clue how to post a link here, but you should be able to find it on Amazon easily enough). I'm not looking to change minds, but there are two valid sides to this discussion, and it's always good to understand the other side.

I don't know...I was facinated with them at first with how they managed their household, but now they kinda creep me out. Maybe it's a territorial judgmental thing...because I think Michelle (is Michelle the name of the Dugger Mom?) is too sweet and idealistic and submissive (ick). (Okay, I am NOT debating, just stating I'm not a submissive wife so you understand where my point of view is.) However, with Kate, on Jon and Kate plus 8, sometimes I just want to whop her upside the head. She can be SO critical of her husband, and a huge neat freak. She needs to chill sometimes. But then on the other hand...with Little People, Big World, I think the Mom (Amy) in that show really needs to clean her house up a little. You know...I think I'm actually showing more of my undesirable judgmental trait here that I really didn't realize I had. :001_huh: As if I'm perfect, or my house perfectly clean, or never grouchy, or always speak to my dh in a kind voice (especially at 4:30 am when he gets up for work.)

I'm not saying it's the wrong thing to do, but here's something to consider. It used to be you could go to the police just to scare some sense into your teen and the police would be happy to help out. However, now the police have to record EVERYTHING and it stays with the child permanetly. My dh was in a recruiting command for two years until recently, and several times a 19-20 yr old wanted to join the military only to find out he had a rap sheet for stealing, drug possession, what have you. When my dh would investigate, it usually ended up that a mom had called the police just intending to scare the kid straight, but the kid now had a record. AGAIN, I'm not saying don't call the police, but just realize that it's not JUST a disiplinarian tool to use. It will follow them when they try to find jobs as an adult.

Well, you have a family of 8, so I don't know if this is good advice or not but with my family, I've noticed that if I take any recipe that is supposed to feed 4-6, half it, we still have enough food to feed the 4 of us and usually have leftovers for lunch the next day. Or I might make the whole thing but in two seperate containers, then freeze one of them. I have a family of 4, but even with recipes that say it's for 4 people, there's still plenty of food to do that with. Portion sizes have really gone up over the years. ETA: Didn't finish my thought--- I was just thinking if you had any recipes that claimed to serve 8, if you could just half that and still feed your family comfortably? Of course, I don't know if you have any teenage boys in the house, then all bets are off!

About 3 months ago we moved 4 hours away, and we took whatever we had in our freezer, covered it in regular ice, and everything was still frozen solid when we got to our new house. The ice hadn't even started melting yet. I think as long as your casseroles were really frozen through you shouldn't have any problems.