I weighed myself and I'm sure that there is something wrong with my scale. It says I dropped 7 lbs. in 2 weeks. How is that possible? Am I going to get a rude awakening when I go to the 'Y' tomorrow? exercise: Last week I got in 5 days - 1 day 35 minute nordic walking, 2 days of 15 min. cardio on elliptical and 30 minutes of weights, 2 days of 35 minutes on the elliptical. this week, 30 minutes nordic walking. My exercise partner has been babysitting her granddaughter all week so I haven't had the gumption to go out into the cold myself. Food: On every day that I have tracked, I have stopped counting when I had 200 calories over what SparkPeople says I should have, so I am probably eating 2000-2100 calories a day. Pretty much why I need to lose over 20 lbs. My clothes aren't any looser, so it just can't be right. Okay, the scale says 159.

I saw the news story here in Chicagoland (even though I tried not to!) Too sad, both of these.

I have very curly hair so it is difficult to find someone who understands curly hair. Everyone says they do, but they just don't. My current gal has been doing an OK job, but not great. However, she treats my hair well (doesn't try to dry comb it and rip it out of my head like the Great Clips gal.) But, the last 2 cuts haven't been that great. She charges $32 for a cut and style. However the style part usually consists of blow drying my bangs and putting me under the dryer in the winter so I don't have icicles hanging from my head. I am not Miss Latest Styles - more of a Lands' End or Kohl's Clearance Rack gal. I think I am in the market for a new stylist, but they are SOOOO expensive here. Plus, ALL the better salons expect you to color your hair. I will not do it until my gray is more noticeable. TOOO much maintenance.

Dawn, You have my sympathies! I had one like this, only it was a 45 minute long blood curdling screaming tantrum. He would have 5 of these before noon every day. I tried every discipline method I could. I am not into spanking and I tried it on him. it just escalated things and did not improve one iota. Boy, that cured me of ever wanting to use spanking ever again. The only way we could handle it was to put him in his room, tell him that I loved him but i could not be around him with that screaming. On a calm day (meaning me being calm) I would then take my older son to the basement and we would pray for a while to calm our nerves. On a not so calm day (I was pregnant at the time so there really weren't many calm days) I would either lock myself in the bathroom and have a good cry or call dh beggin for him to find another wife and mother for this family because I was sure failing. Funny, his tantrums were less intense on weekends when dh was home (and he is a staunch no spanking parent.) He had so much more patience than I did, but he did not have to deal with them on his own. As it turns out, ds has major auditory and sensory issues. I think this was a major factor in his intractibleness. He did come out of it around age four - to where he had only 3 or 4 tantrums a day and they were only a few minutes long. I never did give in to the tantrums, but I did try to head them off by learning what his triggers were. He was and is a child who always needed more ... more love, more firm but gentle boundaries, more understanding. After we sought therapy through NACD, he has been a different child. He is still intense, but is a happier and more pleasable kid. I have to say that the worst part of that time was the judgment heaped on my by well-meaning family, friends, and acquaintances (and even strangers.) If I had a nickel for every time someone told me to spank that kid to shut him up or that I was "giving in", I'd be eating bon-bons and ordering around servants, LOL! The only reason I tried spanking was that I felt I had to try EVERYTHING and that I was feeling so low ,that I was such a useless parent. Keep your chin up. You are in my prayers.

My friend had a son (then 7) who did this. When I told her this, she didn't believe me, but she had him tested. Sure enough, he was deficient. When she addressed it, his desire to chew ice subsided. It can be bad for the teeth if one has soft teeth. I like to suck on ice (and chew it if is too big), but I am not iron deficient. Fortunately, I have strong teeth.

I don't think I would quit homeschooling, but I would make some adjustments. Doing the basics is fine. Sewing and electronics can wait since you are planning on moving. Can you do school out of the house - say the library - for a couple hours a day? When we had a house on the market, I found that the best way to keep the house clean and tidy was to not be there. We could put all our homeschooling supplies we would need for that time into a rolling cart and head off to the library. Also, we would do more outside activities, such as classes, co-ops, etc. Another thing that helps with tidiness for us (not something we are good at) is that each child has a bin that they work from. Almost all the things they need are in a sturdy rectangular basket. Also, instead of individual notebooks, we work form a single binder with tabs for each subject. At then end of the week (in theory), they empty the binder into their individual notebooks. hth,

I get up at 5:50 am so I can meet my exercise partner between 6:15 and 6:30. Dh leaves for work at 6:30. Kids wake up between 7:30 and 8. I am home by 7:30, shower, start a load of laundry and send constant reminders to my kids to finish their morning routine so we can start school between 8:30 and 9. On days that I don't meet my friend to exercise and I am too lazy to do it on my own, I sleep in til abou t 6:30 or 7. If sleep later, the day is a waste. Nothing gets done. :(

I got an 83%. There were several questions that I don't remember being covered at all in my history classes.

Two boyfriends? Cool! I had mine out at 18 since they were impacted and we didn't want to ruin my 4-years-in-braces-and-thousands-of-dollars smile. I had the first two out over the summer. No biggie. I went out with some friends that evening and didn't even need pain meds. I had the bottom two out on a weekend home from school. It was aweful. They had to break a tooth to get it out and they injured my jaw in the process. I couldn't open my mouth to get a spoon in for 2 weeks. All I could do was slurp soup and jello.

what we get: National Geographic Smithsonian Air and Space (gift from aeronautical engineer uncle) Science News Boys' Life (would like it without all the advertising and pop culture junk but can't seem to get rid of it.) Popular Science (I am thinking of trading this for Scientific American because I can't stand the 10 male dysfunction ads and other junk.) I used to get Mothering and Midwifery Today, but have let those lapse. I just don't have the time to read mags any more since I have 3 kids book clubs to keep up with and my bible study homework.

My kids get a monthly allowance, not tied to chores. They do the chores because they are a member of this family. Part of communal living. However, my one requirement on allowance is that they have to ask me and remind me to get money to do so. (I pay with debit so rarely have more than a couple dollars on me:) ) I have, on occasion, paid them to do a special chore that I really don't want to do. For example, when ds lost his retainer a couple years ago, he worked off the debt by cleaning out the crawl space. It tends to be a disaster because I am just to old to spend lots of time in that cramped space. Like Nancy said, it has to be something I really don't want to do if I am going to pay someone.

I just love this product. My kids have very nice handwriting (including my boys.) They've received comments about it. I don't think the books are babyish other than the first book. I like the copywork in the later books. Some interesting quotes. While reading looped cursive was a little challenge at first, my boys figured it out. Dd7 is still figuring that out. If she continues to have trouble, I may expose her to some loop cursive to help her read other writing out there.

My kids start a co-op class on Friday. My oldest is taking a constitution class and my youngers are taking drawing classes. We will go swimming at the Y and then proceed on to our literature club. On Saturday my daughter and I will go on a mother-daughter scout cabin-ing trip. I didn't know what else to call it because, to me, camping is pitching a tent and dealing with the elements. We will be staying in a heated cabin. Dd is so excited!

I expect my kids to to "A" work. If that is not what I get, we go back and figure out how to get there. For us, grades are not important. I look at grades as a "school" thing. The purpose is to communicate with the parents how the children are doing or to "separate the wheat from the chaff" for tracking purposes. Since that is not our goal in our homeschool, we just don't see a need for them. Either they know the material well enough for mastery or they don't. If it is not mastery, I ask myself "Do I need a higher level of work out of them or will more effort only produce frustration without results?" Since my oldest is in 8th grade, I am not sure what we will do about grades in high school. I have heard of people not using grades, but pass/fail for homeschooled classes, but keeping grades for outside classwork. Like many mentioned here, I am insecure on how to grade things that do not have objective criteria (math, science, grammar, etc.) I guess I have 6 months to figure that out.:o

I haven't read it myself, but I know people in real life like that. Prolonged exposure is not good for my self-esteem:|

My heart goes out to you. We have been there as well. Like others said before, the docs are making a best guess based upon their experience. Most docs will also admit that they can be proven wrong, that the estimate is just that, an estimate. About 13 years ago, my dad was diagnosed with liver and pancreatic cancer. After significant testing, they gave him 3 - 6 months to live. He did "try" chemo to see if they could give him more time. Well, he tolerated it is so well that he had weekly treatments for the rest of his life and slowed the progression of the disease that he lived for another 3 1/2 years. The doctors were amazed at how well he was doing. Around the same time, his BIL was diagnosed with the same type of cancer. BIL chose not to do chemo and died 3 months later. My dad worked hard in the beginning to get his affairs in order and make sure that my mom was well taken care of. When that was done, he went about living his life. One thing my dad's oncologist recommended was that he get a 2nd opinion from a major cancer center, with the caution that they will probably have a similar opinion. Dad chose to forgo it. Based upon what I am hearing about some cancer centers, I would recommend getting a 2nd opinion. That would depend on how strong one's will to live may be. You will be in our prayers.

:D That was too funny!!

I have to agree here. Whether or not they consider OP a SAHM is irrelevent. It is rude and disrespectful to all SAHMs. I have only known a couple women who figuratively "ate bon-bons", but they were either very sick with depression or were terribly self-centered women who did very little parenting and it showed. Most SAHMs that I know (not including the ones that homeschool or have homebusinesses) work VERY hard. When I worked part-time, the day at my job was WAY less taxing than my day at home with my littles. Just being that available to children is very draining. I wouldn't have traded it in a million years, but it did take so much more out of me (and I wasn't even superwoman at home - just ask dh:). I have to say that OP showed great restraint. I have slowly let go of my friendships with women who felt this way because it tainted everything else about our friendship. I could not feel respected in that kind of relationship.

I would probably say Next Gen. is pretty educational. It can spark some interesting philisophical discussions. I just can't get past the cheese factor in the original series. Maybe I've seen way too many parodies of William Shatner (even done my himself) to see that show as anything but pure camp! When dh and I were newly married, we used to race home after work to watch Next Gen together. They had reruns all week and the new episode was on Saturdays. A couple years ago, my son was reading something for book club (this swiss-cheese-for-brains in my head can't remember which one), it reminded me of an episode so we got it out of the library to watch. hth,

The "you make the mess, you clean it up" mantra is always in effect here, but some things need regular attention and I am more than happy to hand them off. We don't do fancy chart and reward systems (I am not much into rewards other than the priveledge of eating:p), but we do have routines. Each child has personal care routines (brushing teeth, making beds, getting dressed, picking up rooms, etc.) plus household chores (sweeping the floor, emptying the dishwasher, wiping down bathrooms, sorting laundry, daily tidies (we are messy, absent-minded people here), starting dinner, setting/clearing the table, etc.) I used to use a laminate chart for them to check it off each day, mostly because I didn't want to keep asking if they did this or that. I got to just say "check your list -is everything done?" We only used them for a couple months until they knew what was expected. Now I only ask them how their routine is going.

I was taught pretty sides together. 3 reasons: 1. feels better when you climb in. 2. folding an edge over the blanket looks more finished. 3. folding over the blanket reduces blanket contact with humans. Thus, the blankets stay cleaner. Okay 4 reasons: when the top edge is folded over the blanket, it creates a package for pulling the covers up. I is frustrating to be cold in the middle of the night and grab only the sheet and not the blankets along with it. Just one of my persnicketies that drives dh crazy:)

I am glad to see this thread. I am looking forward to a little accountability! I joined sparkpeople ages ago, but haven't been consistent about logging my food and exercise. I get frustrated because it gets tedioius logging everything, since much of what we eat isn't in there. Then, of course, dh HAD to make chocolate chip cookies last night. But, here I am, committing to make this happen. I am 5'8" and weigh 167. My goal is to be 150 by mid July and 140 by December (I was 130 when I got married 16 years ago). I may be tall, but I have a small frame, so this extra weight is all flab (and it is all in my middle.) My thin person is screaming to get out! I hereby promise to strive to exercise 5 days a week (either Nordic walking or cardio/weights at the Y) keep my calories under 1750 Keep my carbs under 200 gms (my weakness!) drink 8 glasses of water. So, do we sign in blood or something?

I needed an alternative to preschool when my oldest was going on 3. We heard about homeschooling and checked it out. The more we looked into it, the better it sounded. My oldest is now 14 years. Ellen