I remembered something else: When I was in high school my very best friend came from a very traditional Chinese family. I went to many celebration-type dinners with her family and extended family. They had their restaurants they went to, and they didn't order off the menu. They ordered very traditional celebration foods. I couldn't even tell you what most of them were; it's been so long ago. There were a bunch of uncles at these dinners, and they always goaded me into trying the foods, thinking that I, as a white girl, would be grossed out by their foods. They didn't know what garbage I grew up eating though! Their dinners looked wonderful to me and I sampled *everything*. But I drew the line at thousand-year-old eggs. The black yolks that look like they're surrounded by a congealed oil slick? No thank you! Has anyone tried them? What are they like?

That reminds me...when ds was old enough to eat solids, I spoon-fed him a fortified oatmeal for breakfast every morning. One morning, when he was old enough to tell me (maybe 15 months?), as I took the first spoonful from the bowl he clearly said, "I don't like that." I felt so awful that I'd been feeding something that he hated! And up to that point he'd just eaten it with no complaint. No turning his head away, just this resigned (as I look back on it) eating of his breakfast. I never fed it to him again. And today, at 11, there is still no way he will eat oatmeal.

I've never had veal or lobster. There are actually quite a few meats I've never had. Like a poster above, I've never had catfish because it's a bottom-feeder. I've never had quail or pheasant. I don't eat a whole lot of meat, and when I do it's pretty basic--beef, chicken, pork, fish.

I do, but I also try to counter it by turning out the lights at 9. By then the little kids have come and gone. I have no problem with leftover candy around the house! :)

I'm sorry you're going through this. I have a mom who is very similar, only she has never been able to keep the grandchildren separate from their parents, so when she's been angry at one of her children...all of a sudden the kids have no grandmother anymore. Personally, I had to cut my mom out of my life. I keep in touch with one of her friends, so I imagine I'll hear about it if she gets herself into a real jam, or if she gets herself well-medicated. It's easier for me though, because my siblings cut her out of their lives way before I did, so I don't have to hear about her bad-mouthing me to my brothers and sister. It's hard. I can't even recommend you do what I did. I feel horrible about it all the time, but I couldn't come up with a solution that worked for me or for my family other than to avoid dealing with it. I can't fix it...she has to fix it...so until she does I can't work with her.

For picture books I like Turk and Runt. It's cute.

I can accomplish a fair amount in bed/lounging on the couch. I take things a little slower though; I assign more reading. If ds has writing to do, I have him prop up some pillows and work next to me in bed, because he does like having me nearby when he's writing. I have no problems keeping him home from orchestra or math team if I'm not up for being on campus. I only have the one ds though. He's 11 and pretty self-sufficient.

With Christmas falling on a Saturday, I would either find a petsitter (you have plenty of time to get the person acquainted) for the day or pay for boarding Friday-Monday. I understand how you feel. I love my dog to pieces. But there is no way I could make relatives feel like my dog is more important than them (even though he is). It's super hard with a new dog and you feel like you're establishing a relationship with her. I feel for you.

Fleetwood Mac -- Rumours Eagles -- Hotel California Decemberists --The Crane Wife Death Cab for Cutie -- Plans Beatles -- Rubber Soul

I'll be honest: We have the books Building Thinking Skills 2 and MindBenders. The reason I like the books is that they are the only things where I feel like, if I have to take ds along with me to something boring (like a drs. appointment), I can have him grab those workbooks and do some work in them while he's waiting for me to be done. I prefer he do his other work at home, where he can focus more.

In our district students who are registered as homeschoolers are allowed to take a few classes in public schools, anything that I can't offer him at home or believe myself unqualified to teach. Obviously, I can't give my son the group experience of participating in an orchestra, so he goes to his former public school on Tuesdays and Fridays to participate in Orchestra. Since it's just a half hour on Tuesdays and an hour on Fridays I stay there and help the orchestra teacher with tuning instruments and pulling sections out (1st violins or cellos) to give more individualized practice and instruction. It's a win for me and a win for her since she lost a good chunk of money to fund a paid educational assistant.

We're doing TT7 this year (ds is 11 and in 6th grade). I know TT is "behind" other math curricula, but it is *so* easy for ds we're going to start PreAlgebra when he finishes it in January. Ds is on our area's homeschool math team, so he is getting exposed to more challenging math 2 days a week and I really think he's ready.

I keep a binder full of page protectors on the kitchen counter. When I get a recipe from a magazine or print one up online, if I make it and like it I slip it into one of the page protectors in the binder.

Christmas dinner is always something different here. Last year it was sauerbraten, cabbage, potatoes, etc. The year before was a roast filet with a coffee/chile crust, grits with arugula and mushrooms, etc. I'm liking the idea of doing a roast with Yorkshire pudding this year. We have Thanksgiving dinner just the three of us every year and I do the whole thing--turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, yams, roasted asparagus, two different pies, etc.. I *love* cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I've been doing it since I was a teenager so it's a smooth process. Everything's timed just right, I know just how the dh and ds like all my dishes. But it means we're pretty sick of turkey afterwards. I like making a fuss over Christmas dinner, but I like doing something *new* every year.

Upholstery. It cracks my dh up. I can't even *say* the word without pausing to think: Upholerstry or upholstery.

I don't like going out either. If it weren't for the ds I probably wouldn't. :)

I've only just started appreciating the subtlety of good mayo. Miracle Whip is gross.

I think we our Regionals are 12/4 with State on 12/11. Our homeschool resource center has, I think, 5 teams. There's one that's all girls and the others are all boys. From what I've seen, I think the girls team will do well. It's been interesting to watch how much of an easier time they've had deciding on their project and working well together. On all of the boy teams, each of the boys wanted *his* ideas to be the ones used and a good two weeks were wasted sorting that out. I'm not expecting much from ds's team, but I'm very interested to see how the girls do. I was not a fan of the segregation of teams. But I know there's been a fair amount of research that shows that girls do much better in math and science when they are in a same-sex environment. So I'll be really interested to see how this whole thing plays out.

I like mine very green--lots of celery and green onion, a little dill pickle and a lot of fresh parsley. I use real mayo, but keep it light.

I'm not much of a mystery/thriller reader, but I do enjoy the Alex Delaware ones by Jonathan Kellerman when someone passes one along.

I like raw tuna in sushi, but I hate it seared or cooked in any fashion. To me it tasted like canned tuna...only way more expensive!

Even though I ended up being sick that year and not able to go out trick-or-treating, my best memory of Halloween is my sister making me a Raggedy Ann costume. I LOVED Raggedy Ann. She sewed a flowered dress and a white apron and *made* a wig out of red yarn. It was the most beautiful and thoughtful thing ever. I wish I still had the costume.

Yes, it is possible to have too many chores. I was one of those kids. When my mom went back to work I was 10 years old and I was expected to watch my 8 yo twin brothers, do all the regular housework, get dinner started every weeknight, wash dishes and clean up the kitchen afterwards, iron all my mom's clothes for the next week, take care of the animals and get straight A's in school. It was too much responsibility. I was anxious all the time. I err on the side of giving ds too few chores...but I am trying to teach him to take care of himself and his things. His assigned chores are feeding the animals (4 cats, 1 dog), scrubbing down the bathroom counters twice a week and vacuuming once a week. Most nights he volunteers to help me in the kitchen though. And he's really good about putting things away in the right place once he's done with them. Even when they're things with a lot of small pieces.

This is our first year. Our homeschool resource center has a team and they meet on Wednesdays for a couple of hours. Ds was really looking forward to it, but so far it's too much science, not enough LEGO. :)

Pros: -- I love that *I'm* relearning some things that I haven't been exposed to in a long time--things like grammar rules and parts of ds's history curriculum. -- I feel pretty good about the quality of education ds is getting. I love that while I have a classical framework, I can still tailor things to fit in ds's interests. -- The way we have things set up--a co-op class, homeschool math team, FIRST Lego League, orchestra, Scouts--ds gets just the right amount of time with his peers. Like many of you, and as we experienced with ds getting bullied last year, I don't think there's any benefit to a child being trapped all day with his peers. Cons: -- I had to drop out of school to make this happen. Having planned on doing something in healthcare, this means that when I'm ready to go back, I'll have to retake a bunch of the classes I've already taken. -- I'm not someone who needs much in the way of alone time, but I'm having a hard time lately with realizing there's no transition time from teacher to parent. I'm going to have to institute some kind of quiet time to recharge my batteries. -- I'm having to set boundaries with friends. Now that I'm home all day, friends think they can just drop by to hang out or call to chit-chat. Or they think it means I'm free to watch their kids.