:iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree:

I swear by olive oil as well for my face. I have super-sensitive skin and that's the only moisturizer I've found that works. I might have to try the coconut oil just to shake things up. DH says I smell like an Italian restaurant at night, which isn't bad, except he has lots of bad dreams about going out to eat and nobody taking his order.

I watched my dad go through the same type of panic attacks as his work stress dramatically increased due to workload and upper mismanagement. He had been on Paxil for years as well. He went to his doctor and had a long talk about what he was experiencing. He took along a journal he had been keeping for about 4 months that chronicled his med dosages, daily work life, and any stress-inducers over and above the everyday work stress so he could have documentation and peace of mind that he wasn't just "going crazy" as he put it. The journal gave the doctor a good understanding and timeline of the situation. They were able to adjust his meds, which helped dad to be able to endure the stress. He retired 3 years later and few months after retirement was able to readjust his meds to lower dosages. I'll be praying for y'all.

Can I join you ladies? I'll bring cinnamon rolls. As for our life, it's fairly boring and I like it that way. I had enough drama going on until a couple of years ago to last me a lifetime. I crave the quiet, simple life we've carved out for ourselves. My children go everywhere with me except my homeschool group meetings once a month. We started a garden that isn't growing and the boys love it anyway. We built a tree fort in the big oak tree in the backyard for them to scare me to death daily. We cut our cable to save money and realized we saved our sanity as well. We purchased a family zoo pass for our sorta local zoo and take the kids there about once a month or so. That has been a delight to watch them be afraid of the animals at first but now they've "named" them all and have favorites we have to visit each time we go. We are very active in our church and with our church families. My children are at an age where they can't truly participate in rec league sports or outside activities like that so we're holding off on all that until they show an interest (and we save more money for it).

Dh lost his 14 year IT job last spring, one month before our daughter was born. Thankfully he was given a severance package. He was able to get a part-time job for 8 months working nights that paid some of the bills. Last summer, he got a job as a trash man/maintenance man for our local county parks and rec. He also picked up another PT job as our church administrator 2 weeks before we had to move out of our house and area to live with the IL's. This extra job enabled up to keep our house. We're living on 50% less than we were 18 months ago but began planning in spring 2008 for a massive downsizing. I was working in direct sales and saw a monumental drop-off in orders over 3 months that couldn't be explained away with "it's summer-nobody's buying anything". Plus, groceries were going up. Thankfully, he's still working away at his 2 jobs. We're still living on 50% less than what he had been making but we're doing ok for now. We have friends who are gracious in providing free groceries, hand-me-downs, and extra meals from their freezers. We're growing a garden to help offset grocery costs as well. Thankfully, my children are young enough that none of this emotionally impacts them since they don't know any different. I am grateful for the many times I sat and listened to my grandparents and great-grandparents talk about how they survived the depression. I've manage to incorporate many of the things they talked about. Dh's church job comes up for renewal in September and we don't know if that will continue or not. If it doesn't, we'll have to sell the house and move in with the IL's. We bought our house 3 years ago and thankfully, do not own more than it is worth. Unfortunately, we can't even sell it for what it's worth due to the housing glut in our area. Groceries are still going up, along with gas. I fear a second dip as I sit and watch prices for everything going up again.

Hey wait a minute, he was just here Monday. And he even remembered me from last summer when I told him I was a vegan (I'm not but I refuse to buy meat from a truck driven by a strange man with smoke coming out the tail pipe). He asked me if I'd gotten my head on right yet and I said "no" (how was he to know I never have my head on straight).

My name is runmiarun and I have a research addiction. And my eldest is only 4 but I've almost got his elementary years mapped out or I did until I started reading some of the other threads and now I'm finding more things to research. Then today I stopped at Target for toilet paper and came home with flash cards and workbooks from the dollar zone.

Congrats!!!!!!

I wish that would work here in coastal GA but we get the joy of factoring in the humidity so we can have the heat index from June-August. The humidity and heat index throw everything off here.

Thanks for the laughs and cringes tonight. I needed the reprieve. Many years ago in a galaxy far away, I worked for a construction company. My department was the in-house hardware and lumber store for the company. One of my subdivisions had a builder who was a former Marine drill instructor. He thought it was just rollicking funny to call me all the names he formerly used on his recruits while in the Marines. After about a month of this fun, he showed up one day at the office to try his schtick out in person since an order had been delivered wrong. He started in on me while I sat at my desk. I stood up, leaned over, got in his face, and very quietly said, "Your mama would be very disappointed in your behaviour. She didn't raise you to talk to southern ladies this way. You know better." The blood drained completely out of his face and he stammered an apology. Turns out, his mother was a saint who raised him after his father died in Korea. After that, he never said another mean word to me. We ended up being good work buddies and shared many guffaws. My last boss before becoming a SAHM believed that every other word in a sentence used within the confines of the office must be the F word. Unfortunately, the confines of the office could be loosely delineated based on who was around to hear her sentences. Complete strangers got the hear the best of it.

What an interesting thread. Let's see. Mine was absolutely lovely after reading of your day, tap tap tap, but it was not without controversy, from my point of view. We had a very small wedding party and wedding. It was immediate family only-all 8 of us. Bad: My husband ran over my cat on his way out of my driveway, in my car. Our honeymoon consisted of moving me to Baltimore to live with him so he took my car to finish his errands in and meet me at the church later, crammed with almost everything I owned but the furniture. My mom was driving me around all day for all the up-do/make-up/etc. We tried to find a vet who was open and would see the cat but it died before we could find one. My brother officiated the funeral in the backyard so that my mother would stop crying. The stylist with whom I had an appointment to do my hair forgot she had an appointment, well, several appointments, so she closed her shop and went to Biloxi for the weekend. I am make-up challenged so a good friend of mine offered to do the "full Mary Kay" wedding look for me for free. She forgot and went to Lake Burton in north GA for the weekend for a booze cruise on a pontoon boat. The church organist fell and broke her arm on the way to the wedding so we had to stop at Tower Records (in wedding garb) and pick up a CD of wedding music and a boombox so we could have a wedding processional. The restaurant where we had our very small reception had us down for 2 hours after our original reservation time so we had to wait while they rearranged the outdoor seating area we had reserved. This is after calling that morning to confirm. Their response-"nobody has weddings at that time of day so we couldn't have written that time down." GREAT: We're still married after 14 years. We got a police escort to our reception since we were the last wedding allowed at the church due to closing the side streets for the Atlanta Olympics. Not quite that day but 3 days later: we arrived in Baltimore, happy to get out of a car loaded with stuff and us. That night, the Olympic torch came through our neighborhood and we got to run with it along the sidewalks for 3 miles in the pouring rain in our pajamas. I discovered that the wedding day is pure chaos and elopement is highly under-rated.

What a fabulous gift! Oh my, those kids are going to be so excited and make so much wonderful noise-outside! Yippee! How thoughtful of their uncle.

Praying for y'all.

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Morris The Bible-ESV Aveeno lotion Nystatin powder for dd's diaper rash Plum Island-Nelson DeMille Shoal of Time-History of the Hawaiian Islands, Gavin Dawes The View From Pompey's Head, 1939 version, Hamilton Basso Square Foot Gardening, Mel Bartholomew Better Homes and Garden-Nov 2009 The Naming of the Dead, Ian Rankin I keep a mixture of reading material since some days my brain is completely fried at the end of the day and some days it's only slightly sauteed. That alone governs what I can handle at my bedtime reading.

I was in the same boat you are earlier this year. The math overwhelmed me. After talking to some of the ladies in my homeschool group, friends who homeschool, and even some public school K teachers, I realized I can hold off on a formal math curriculum until ds is closer to 6. He loves math so I take advantage of the household items and daily life goings-on to teach it, as suggested by southwind. I also bought a bunch of the math workbooks from the dollar zone at Target for those days when my brain and body are exhausted but he is not. We can work on them while resting on the bed. They have stickers in the back so ds gets very excited when he gets a page finished and can put a sticker on it.

We have a schedule for school but it is a list of what we need to accomplish for the week. My OCD kicks in if I start getting into a more disciplined schedule and that's not good for any of us (trust me). If we get ahead, yippee. If we get behind, we regroup and reschedule next week. We do year-round so that helps considerably for us.

I so sympathize with you. My ds4 wants more friends so bad and now so does my ds2. But with a 15 month old and #4 on the way, I'm doing good to make it outside before it gets too hot. I do recommend starting small, say taking your kids to the park by yourself. You don't have to stay long, just enough to get everybody out and see how it goes. One thing that has helped me was joining MOPS, Mothers of Preschoolers at one of the local churches for $65 for the year (Sept-May). We went 2x month and they have babysitting included in the price. I got to socialize and nobody looked at me too weird when I turned my back and covered up to nurse. The boys had a blast meeting new friends. We've had some of their friends and mom come over for morning or afternoon playdates, but only one family at a time so we're not all overwhelmed. The key for me is having somebody over here. I'm very uncomfortable at others homes since I'm always on pins and needles about my rambunctious boys breaking something in their rapid curiosity. But I'm quite comfortable having a couple of extra kids running around the yard with the boys while I attempt to chat to another mom. I'm a complete and utter hermit who rarely likes to leave the yard, much less the neighborhood. This only progressed rapidly in the past 5 years. I don't want to pass too much of that off onto the boys so some days I just have to force myself to venture forth. I still can't make the library since ds4 doesn't like large crowds (which turn out for story time) and ds2 wants to climb the shelves to see what's up there. I only attempt the beach early in the morning and if someone else goes with me since I have 2 wanna-be seals and a sandcastle architect extraordinaire who refuses to get wet. Also, all 3 of my children like to greet the sun as it rises in the morning so by the time most of their friends are heading out to play (10amish), we've been up for 5 hours and are heading towards napland. I joined a local homeschool support group this past fall that has been a huge blessing for making friends for the kids. They meet for playdates monthly, usually at someone's house and since everybody has 2+ kids and some teenagers thrown in to do "extra eyeballs", there are plenty of "eyeballs" watching my kids. I can actually get a complete sentence out to another adult. It's a completely freaky thing. I used big, adult words and everything. I cried on the way home I was so happy. And the boys happily chased the other boys around a tree shaking dead branches at each other.

I vote for Jekyll Island, GA. I live in the Golden Isles of Georgia, as our area is called. Jekyll is one of our barrier islands that is delightful for vacation. They are in the midst of a much-needed renovation so the prices are affordable for lodging. There are several places to eat in a variety of price ranges. I could go on for pages but will just provide the link to their website: http://www.jekyllisland.com/. I've been coming here since I was a kid so when we had the chance to move here, we did it. There are several island here to explore as well so here's the link to the local visitor's bureau: http://www.comecoastawhile.com/. The beaches are not pristine white since we are a coastal estuary and have 3 rivers drain to the ocean but our beaches are wide with plenty of room for everything and doing nothing.

When we lived in TX, everybody had 8' privacy fences. I was completely freaked out, having moved from Maryland and prior to that Georgia, where you only had fences if you had a pool. Now that we're back east, half of our neighbors have fences (pools), half don't. We have a 3' chain link fence painted black with gates on all the sides for our kids and the neighbors kids to freely traverse through all the yards on the street. It came with the house since the previous owners had a dog. I wasn't thrilled at first but given the amount of strays (humans and dogs) and unleashed dogs in the neighborhood, it's turning out to be nice. Plus, it gives me another straight line to swath in flower beds.

My pediatrician told me the same thing for my now-2 year old when I was bfing him. And that same brand was all I could find at the drugstore. I called a good friend who was a pediatrician in another city and had breastfed her 4 kids. She recommended holding off on the vitamins and taking him outside in only his diaper for 15-30 minutes in the morning in the sunshine every day before it got too hot or sun was up too much to cause sunburn. I tried the vitamins first (so I could tell my ped I tried) by dropping them into the back of his throat so he wouldn't fight so much but this went over like a brick wall. Evidently babies don't like the taste. I tried mixing it in his cereal, no luck there either. While doing these, I was taking him outside as well since none of the vitamins were staying down. At our next appt, I told the ped what I was doing and how he wasn't taking the vitamins no matter what so he never mentioned it again. I do know vitamin d is not passed along in the breastmilk since we only make enough for our bodies to use. Getting out in the sunshine for an hour a day (ages 12 and older) will provide enough vitamin d for that day, at least that what 3 doctors have told me when I asked.

We're reading and working through "Shepherding a Child's Heart" and like it so far. It's a biblical approach that works to get to the heart issues that create the unacceptable behavior. The author also does workshops around the country, which we attended locally last year. http://www.shepherdpress.com/product.php?productid=16134&cat=0&page=1

-Charlie's angels lunchbox-I cried for 2 days when my mom made me start using the red Tupperware lunch box. -Party-line telephones-this was fantastic for sleepovers at friends' houses after their parents went to bed-we would sit for hours listening to absolutely nothing, waiting for someone to call someone else -TBS afterschool-growing up in middle GA, we only got 2 channels on tv, TBS and a station out of Macon. I can still rattle off the afternoon shows from my elementary school days as a latch key kid. -pony tail bands with the big plastic bubbles on the end -hearing "Margaritaville" and "Hotel California" for the first time on a hi-fi and being put on restriction for listening to scandulous songs -Disco Duck -one piece solid color jumpsuits with fringed collars -hee haw overalls -watching Lawrence Welk with the granparents and dancing with granddaddy Oh so many more but I'll stop.

Walk around your house and see if you have areas of good sunlight and/or catch a breeze. I live in coastal GA where the humidity is usually equal to the temp. I hang my clothes line between my house and our shed where we get a little breeze. It gets quite a bit of sunlight in the afternoons through the oak trees. Hang the wet stuff out as early as you can after the sun comes up and just leave it. Check on it a couple of hours later. Leaving it overnight will allow any dew or early morning fog get it wet again (voice of experience speaking). The only time I've never had laundry not dry was when a heavy storm was coming in and you could feel the rain before it fell. My line is retractable so when not in use, it can be wound back up so the boys don't attack it with sticks and baseball bats. I think where you are located, you could conceivably hang clothes out until it snows. Winter is great for clothes lines since the humidity is lower (at least around here, that's the only time we don't have humidity).

Reformed churches are evangelistic but this does not necessarily play out in the worship service (i.e. altar call). In our church and the few other reformed churches we've visited, the worship service is for worship and teaching. I'm a reformed presbyterian and our services are very low-key with singing of traditional hymns, lots of prayer time, and significant amounts of scripture reading. Our services average 1 3/4 hours to 2 hours in length. We have other churches of our faith who have contemporary services with full bands, newer worship music, and more multi-media outlets for scripture sharing. Evangelism is a natural and daily extension of this teaching and in-depth bible study and sharing this with our neighbors (work, neighborhood, etc). Also, many of the protestant faiths have reformed groups in them, i.e. reformed baptists, reformed lutherans, reformed presbyterians. It depends on which protestant faith and each church as to how they conduct their services and practice evangelism to their families and neighbors. As for salvation of children, we share the scripture with our children daily and talk about Christ and salvation. I view that as my responsibility as a parent in planting the seeds of the faith. Sunday school and catechism classes are vital as well to growing the understanding and knowledge of Christ for our kids. It seems some in homeschooling who are more on the extreme side of staying out of the "world" might be operating from this kind of view. Is it really that common? I think reformed is getting to be more common as many people are searching for a different kind of faith than they have or grew up amongst. As for the homeschooling to stay out of the world, that can be an extension of really any faith. I do see it more in the more extreme, traditional sects of a variety of faiths so I see your point there. Of the families in our church, half homeschool and half go to public/private school. For us, it was a personal decision on the best way to educate our children (as it probably was for all homeschool families). By the way, I concur with Donna regarding their evangelism at her church. Our church does much the same, getting out into the community and building relationships with people. ~Mia

We had the itch, had 2 boys. We were done, no more-can't get our minds around any more-can't handle anymore. God, in His Infinite Wisdom, blessed us with a girl last spring. Again, we're done since she was a delightful surprise. No more, can't afford it since DH had a job change, got rid of all the baby and maternity stuff. Fast forward to this spring, DH gets the itch. Big time. Thankfully, we both got the itch at the same time. Then he turned 40 and whammo-itch went away-literally overnight. Ok, fine. God, in His Infinite Wisdom, is giving us another blessing in Feb '11. We joke that the new baby is DH's 40th birthday present.