I know my limitations and know that I'm not a good enough driver to talk or text while driving. I really just can't focus on more than one thing at a time. That being said, I've talked on the phone a few times while driving...only if I knew someone was expecting me and was calling to see where I was. Now that ds is 11 I have him answer the phone while I'm driving.

Me! [raises hand] I always said Christmas was my favorite day of the year, but it may actually be Thanksgiving. I *love* it being just the three of us. I've been making Thanksgiving dinner for 15 years now and there's a such a nice, soothing rhythm to it. I know just what to start when. I know what my favorite dishes are, the dh's, the ds's. I like the three of us spending the day putting up the tree and decorating it and the house for Christmas while the smell of turkey permeates the house. It's just lovely.

Dh takes leftovers when we have them (today it's blackened salmon and rice). Otherwise...and he never seems to get sick of this...pb and honey on whole wheat, a yogurt and two pieces of fruit.

No. Thank goodness. Like 5forMe, my mom is crazy and I'm plenty screwed-up from the time I *did* spend with her. As for my dad, the poor man worked all day to make ends meet and then came home to take care of 5 kids. His day was non-stop work.

I'm naughty. I haven't seen the movie yet...but being spoiled doesn't ruin any of the pleasure for me. Just wanted to say I'm enjoying this thread!

I tend to have an easier time making friends with guys than other women...though as I get older it *is* getting easier for me to make friends with women. I chalk it up to having grown up in a house full of brothers and pretty much *being* one of the guys. Especially since I've become a parent...one grows used to seeing moms at various events. Then when a dad is there, he tends to stick out like a sore thumb and I feel compelled to introduce myself and make him comfortable. Up until this summer I did have guy friends I did stuff with. They were all dads, with sons the same age as mine, and doing stuff was more like getting together and hanging out while the boys played. But in June I met my younger twin brothers and their families for a week-long family reunion (they both live on the opposite side of the country from me) at a house on the Outer Banks, and that seems to have filled up my "guy" tank. Dh has never been concerned about my guy friends. I don't think I ever spent enough time with them for him to be concerned. Plus, it's always pretty clear how much I adore dh.

My ds was never recognized as gifted. In fact, since he's quiet and well-behaved it's more like he was regarded as a little bit slow. I admit, I put him in the worst possible environment--he was in a "choice" public school, one that parents have to enter a lottery to get their kids into. This school was known for its mixed-age classrooms: K, 1st-3rd, 4th-6th and 7th-8th. The classes are oversized: Each 1st-3rd grade class had 48 students and 2 teachers; each 4th-6th had 54 students and 2 teachers. He did really well in 1st-3rd grade. His teachers took the time to get to know him and by the beginning of 2nd grade he was working with the 3rd graders. He was happy and challenged. But everything fell apart in 4th grade. Frankly, 2 teachers with 54 students is *not* the same as 1 teacher with 27 students. The chaos in that classroom was unbearable. Ds was, as I said, regarded as a little bit slow, I think because he was overwhelmed by all the noise. He was placed in remedial math, remedial language arts. He never spoke up. When I'd peek in the classroom at the end of the day he'd have his nose in a book, trying to drown out all the noise. Homeschooling has been *wonderful* for him. His writing has improved by leaps and bounds. He is constantly making connections between what he's learning and the world around him. He's taking classes at the District Homeschool Resource Center--on his FIRST Lego League team he's been named lead programmer. Shortly after starting there he was invited to join the Math Team and is doing 8th grade math there. He has the time and energy to pursue his interests--he just recently passed his General Class Amateur Radio exam. There are lots of ways to make sure your child gets enough social time--ds is up and doing things at the HRS 4 days/week. He still goes back to his former public school 2x/week for Orchestra. And he joined Boy Scouts this year and LOVES it.

Ds is 11--6th grade--and this is our first year homeschooling. We're using History Odyssey Level 2 Ancients which has History Pockets assignments. I went ahead and ordered the Ancient Egypt, Greece and Roman ones, even though I wasn't sure how they'd go over. Turns out ds rather enjoys them. It's kind of a nice break from the regular reading and outlining.

I'm so sorry. I'll be keeping you in my thoughts.

B&N. I'm a member, so I love the discount and free shipping. But every once in a while I still find something that's easier for amazon to get hold of.

About 3 years ago the dh bought me a really nice Dell color laser printer for school as a Christmas present. It came in very handy--most professors put their notes and PowerPoints online and it's the students' responsibilities to print them out for class. I always used color when it was called for. Last week the dh replaced the black cartridge for the very first time ever. And you betcha it was a Dell. We got some *good* life out of our toner.

Present (raises hand smarmily)! :)

We're lazy and start late, and every day is different. But let me break it down for you day-by-day (ds is 11): Mondays: 10:00-11:00 Grammar 11:00-11:50 Math 12:00-1:00 Lunch/FIRST Lego League Team Meeting 1:00-2:00 History of Ancient Warfare co-op class 2:15-4:00 History Tuesdays 10:00-11:00 Vocabulary quiz/next lesson 11:10-11:45 Orchestra 12:00-1:00 Lunch 1:00-2:00 Math team 2:00-4:00 Science Wednesdays 9:30-10:00 Piano lessons 10:00-12:00 FIRST Lego League class 12:00-1:00 Lunch/FIRST Lego League meeting 1:00-2:00 Math 2:00-4:00 Literature Thursdays 10:00-12:00 Writing assignment 12:00-1:00 Lunch 1:00-2:00 Math team 2:00-3:00 Math 3:00-4:00 History or science Fridays 10:00-11:00 Math 11:10-12:20 Orchestra 12:20-1:00 Lunch 1:00-dad gets home Documentary Fridays! It's not unusual for us to work later on Mondays and Thursdays, seeing through whatever has been particularly interesting/challenging for the week. Tuesdays and Wednesdays our stop time of 4:00 is pretty rigid as we host one of ds's friends who needs childcare. In the evenings, ds practices piano and viola while I'm cooking dinner. After dinner he works on Boy Scouts stuff or amateur radio stuff. Documentary Fridays are subject to cancellation/postponement to a later time depending on where we're at with our subjects. And life will be much, much simpler once the FIRST Lego League competition is over and done with.

Is this a mandatory thing? I flew last weekend between Seattle and Sacramento and went through the regular x-ray each way. Dh is currently at the airport waiting to board a flight to Boston and went through the regular x-ray as well.

I might put a baking dish half or more full of lasagna in the fridge, or a half or more full casserole dish. But not my pots and pans! I use them too much!

We enjoyed the series here as well. For literature we're reading The Complete Tales of Sherlock Holmes this year and we slipped out of order to make sure that we'd read the stories each episode was based on before we watched our recordings. The 3rd episode was based on The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Affair, which ds and I thought was the weakest of the stories we'd read. That being said, it played such a small part in that episode, when compared to the game Moriarty and Sherlock were playing. I would have liked to have seen more of the story and less of the cat-and-mouse. Overall though, they took the basic plots of the stories the episodes were based on and updated them in pretty interesting ways.

ThinkGeek, JameCo Electronics, Chinaberry, Uncommon Goods. I've been doing a fair amount of gift shopping at Etsy lately.

To me, it sounds like she pulled a groin muscle. The tramadol should help, as should her cautious behavior.

Nope. We decorate the house and tree while Thanksgiving dinner is cooking.

I think the reason many people start going to HFSs is because they *don't* feel healthy. But they want to do something about it.

Do what you can for the kitty. Buy the best quality cat food you can afford. If you decide to have dry food, look for the highest protein you can afford. I know you say you can't afford to spay. But having kittens is a lot of trouble. Really look into getting that done.

Oh boy. We just got a new bookcase because the old ones are overflowing. But here's what we do: I have 3 cases in the living room with adult books. One is for fiction, and it's arranged roughly alphabetically by author. One is Russian Literature (my major in college), also arranged alphabetically. Nonfiction books about Russian literature/history/culture are below, and also arranged alphabetically. Below those are parenting books, in no particular order. The third case is for other nonfiction. Things like history, religion, philosophy--books that one would tend to read cover-to-cover are arranged alphabetically. Home and garden improvement books are under that, in no particular order. And below that are my cookbooks, also in no particular order. The bookcase in our family room contains my textbooks and classwork from college, things I think we might use as part of ds's home education. It also has craft magazines and fiction overflow. We have another large bookcase salvaged from a school that we are refinishing, which will also go in that room. It will be dedicated for homeschool, and I will probably put my college stuff in there as well. Ds has his own large bookcase in his room. It's pretty full, but I weed through it frequently. He takes good care of his books so we tend to regift them for his younger cousins. And we donate to schools and libraries. We have a large bookcase in our computer room as well. Dh has one half filled with programming books/technical manuals. My half is filled with craft books, our family's scrapbooks and art supplies.

I've been looking for the skit for you and can't find it either. I thought YouTube had everything!

I get up at 5:30-6:00 almost every day (somehow I managed to sleep in until 6:30 today! Whoo hoo!). Ds (the only one I have to plan for) sleeps until about 8. I spend that couple of hours catching up here, following links to new ideas/curricula, and planning what will happen during our homeschool day. Any work gets graded immediately after it's finished--and really, that's only math and vocabulary quizzes. His other work we talk through together as he needs. I try really hard to stay off the computer during the day, since our rule is that ds can't unless he's writing something for school. Then, in the evening, I might do a little more poking around.

Sears, Macys, Nordstrom. I've had the Nordstrom for years. It used to be that you could use it anywhere and you earned points toward a $20 shopping certificate. So I'd use the card to pay my college tuition, pay it off over the course of the quarter and get some new shoes for ds at Nordstrom. Now, I'm pretty sure you can only use the card in-store to earn those certificates, so the Nordstrom card doesn't get much play. The Macys card basically only gets used for towels. I have a weakness for Ralph Lauren towels. I like the way they feel and I like the way they hold up. So every 3-4 years or so I'll go in and buy $4-500 worth of towels and take a couple of months to pay it off. The old towels get used for dh, for showering at work (he plays sports during lunch). If we're cash-poor and our coffee maker breaks down, we'll go there to get a new coffee maker and pay that off at the end of the month. That's about it. The Sears card is fairly new. We bought a new washer and dryer in the spring for our new laundry room. Sears offered the get a card to charge them/0% interest to pay them off in 6 months, so we did that. Dh and I hate shopping enough that our store cards never really have much activity. It's the AmEx Blue that we use a lot--for buying things online. And that, unfortunately, almost never gets paid off. The dh is an online shopaholic.