Ok, today's been awful, so I think you guys might be right. Here's what I'm thinking... We're rearranging furniture so the kids can be in a separate room from us. This involves major furniture moving, making curtains (to be a wall), etc. So there's that mess on top of Thanksgiving mess, new baby mess, & moving mess. School...math is very easy for ds, easy enough for dd, but neither of them can remember that there IS such a thing as a noun declension in Latin. I've got bookshelves that need to be cleared (to make room for another bed). They're filled w/ great books we don't read, fun projects we don't do, games we don't play... So what if we clear off one shelf, read the books, play the games, pack/give away what we can live w/out, & then do 5 min of Latin, math, or Spanish. Maybe a logic worksheet. Then another shelf. So it's ALL getting done, just at a slower pace, & disguised as fun. I've started w/baths. We only have a shower in our part of the house, so to make that chore more fun, I let them go upstairs for bubble baths. They're getting clean & think they're being spoiled. :D Next would be an art matching game & some secret code books. You know, the fun stuff that we get all excited about & then it sits on the shelf because we never schedule it in. :tongue_smilie: But gosh, even the baby isn't happy today. You'd think we were making HIM do Latin! :lol: For 10 min, though, before all the crying started (& I do mean ALL--including 10yo!), I had 5 dc sitting around the table doing school. Well. Baby was nursing & drooling on 3yo's book, but I think that counts. ;) For 10 min, it was bliss, & I felt like I had everything under control, like I could even juggle, going back & forth between telling one kid how to write a 5, another how to decline "goddess," another how to hold his pencil & follow the arrows, & helping the last one w/ logic. :lol:

They're ugly! And my pants that fit in the hips don't zip, so I don't think these would help. The ones that zip...wow. They're way too small. And if I adjust them...then they won't fit if...well, I can't say it. And I don't know where my sewing machine is. And I've got curtains that need to be made asap. (We've rearranged all the furniture so the kids can be in a separate room, but building a "wall" for that room entails giant curtains...) Apparently, what I really want is to whine about it. :lol: I might put them in someone else's mending pile, though, & see what happens...:D

I have some of these that I made. I wear them at the end of pg when the shirts & pants don't meet any more because my 10lb babies stick straight out. They're too big to make me feel *covered,* though, when I'm not pg. I guess I could make more...I just don't want to! :lol:

I had to cross a busy intersection the other day, & oh my. My maternity clothes are bigger than I thought. I did manage to hold them ON, lol, but I've been looking at the bigger non-maternity sizes in my closet since then. Too-little maternity clothes are still too little--something in the hips has changed, & they're just not fitting. Big non-maternity clothes are awfully tight in the waist, although the hips are fine. :glare: So short of sitting around in pajamas (which also don't fit!), what do YOU do after a baby? Fwiw--I do the same thing every time: realize that nothing fits, feel fat & despondent, & eventually wear what I've got. It just takes longer than I want it to, & this time it's occurred to me that maybe there's another choice: a 3rd size of clothes. The mashed-potato shaped ones. :lol:

Mil sent some $ for a new wii game, & that was basically what I thought--we have what we want the kids to have. One dance game, the sports, wii fit. The other stuff that looks fun...looks like video games. If we're going to sit still, I'd rather be playing Catan. ;)

Why would I shoot you? This is what I WANTED to hear--it justifies making the thing disappear. Later, when ds has space, if he wants to get into model-building, fine. But starting it all because of one crazy gift from my bro who gives crazy gifts anyway? (One year, he gave the girls a palette of dirt. He thought it included seeds for gardening.)

Are all wii games active? Or are some just traditional video games?

YEARS ago, my bro gave ds a model airplane kit for Christmas. It's a Testor brand F4U-1 Corsair model, if that makes a difference. Db thought it was a kit that included everything, but it includes nothing. It's got a list as long as my arm of the paints, glue, brushes, etc that are needed to go w/ it. And it's pretty adult for a 6yo. Dh thought it was SO COOL, though, that he wouldn't let me give it away. :glare: So we've moved it something like 4 times, & it's been sitting on the shelf forever. I'm ready to be DONE w/ it, lol, but I need your advice. Is ds (10) old enough now? I assume yes. How many of the supplies on the side are *really* necessary? How expensive/hard to find are they? Should I just make the kit magically disappear? :bigear: Fwiw, I'm all for model building, but I want the kit to include what's needed. OR, if we have to buy stuff, I want it to be a *little* bit. Not enough to start a new hobby. :tongue_smilie: I guess that's what I'm really afraid of: that all the stuff will be left over, for future kits, & I'll actually end up w/ more to store instead of cleaning this one thing off the shelf.

:confused: I thought you were fine. :001_smile:

We didn't do much computer play for the bigs before moving; none for the littles. But the big computer won't go online since moving. I put the tag system on a Christmas list for ils, along w/ some tag books & a container for the thing. Just trying to include some variety--things they *like* to buy, you know. Well...they got the container-thing & not the actual books or tag pen. I think I could return it & they'd understand/not know, but IF it's a good thing for early readers/learning to read (3 & 4yo), there's a set on Craig's List--2 pens, 1 container, & some books. I could put that w/ the container ils are sending, & ea of the dc would have his/her own. So far, I've loved everything Leap Frog, although I tend to think like Chris in VA--NO electronics here. But it's been a slippery slope ever since Bill convinced me to try the Letter Factory DVD. :lol:

Zombies. Jane Austen-style.

Yes or no?

The book (LfC) says short a's are pronounced like short a's in English, "a" as in "act." So "casa" is cahsah? :ack2: I googled, then, & the first site I found said that a short a in Latin should sound like "ah" in "Dinah." (As opposed to a long a which is "a" as in "father," according to both sources.) I could imagine Dinah & father to sound the same, maybe. I pronounce Dinah more like Dinuh, though. And I can't imagine saying "cuhsuh." So if the short a is different from the long a...does casa sound the same in Latin as it does in Spanish? If so, how do you pronounce the long a? If not, how on earth do you say, "casa"? :bigear:

My kids buy all of their own Christmas gifts, for whoever they want to buy for. We do a family gift for grandparents, but they often want something that's just from them to add to that. They don't get an allowance, either, so they use the $ they get from birthdays, Christmas, etc, the previous year. They *want* to, though, so I simply try to steer them toward gifts they can afford. If one of them wants a more expensive gift, sometimes we'll subsidize that. Last year, ds had his heart set on matching bedspreads for his sisters. When they went on sale, we helped him pay for them, because $5/person is usually about the max they can afford, & that gets steep fast. Still, he paid for most of them himself, & he was SO proud.

Thbbbth! Dd is sitting here telling me w/ wide eyes that she's never heard of a noun declension or a genitive form. We spent so many weeks on that, I think I'm going to hyperventilate if I have to explain it again. Oh, the futility, when we take time off! :D

It's long enough for me to come out of the fog, take a look around, & be stressed & cranky. :lol: And...it seems like the longer we're off schedule, the more behavior deteriorates. And the kitchen. I just found a tupperware full of what I'm afraid is pumpkin seeds. From Halloween. The soft, moldy sound they make when you shake the bowl...*shudder.*

1. Baby is 3 weeks old today. 2. The kids (10, 8yo) have finished 6 weeks of school. We started before we moved (in Aug) to make up for the time I knew we'd lose in the move & new baby. They've finished nearly 12 weeks of history, though, because they kept reading when we stopped school. We *most* need to catch up in languages (Latin & Spanish) & math. 3. I also need to make time to exercise. See point 1. :lol: 4. Dh's work schedule is crazy. Late nights & he's home in the mornings or early mornings & he's home in the afternoon. His days off vary, but they're not traditional Sat/Sun. 5. Housework is (obviously) behind. 6. Other projects that need to be caught up. (Really!) 7. The littles (4, 3yo) need attention. Just doing school w/ them (reading stories) would probably be enough, but by the time they both show up, the bigs are finally done w/ b'fast, etc., & I hate to lose time w/ them because they've got so much to do. 8. The bigs are SLOW lately. 9. Ok, I"m slow, too. And tired. Sinus infection, I think, but surprisingly, not baby.

I have it. We've been working through it slowly. *I* like it, but I can see how a lot of people wouldn't. And it invariably sends my (artistic) dd into tears. In defense of the curric, though, she's a little on the young side for it. I like it because it's set up a lot like my intro to drawing class in college. I understand what it's talking about & can teach it. Otoh, that could be what's wrong w/ it, too: too mature for my intended audience. (Ds does well w/ it. Ds is 10; dd is 8.) I'm not sure how much of what I like is actually there & how much is what I'm adding to it, but it's the 1st art curric I've liked. We used DWN for a bit, but the kids balked at it mostly. I've looked at...shoot, I can remember what the books looked like, but...Mona Brookes? Was that the author's name? The book was rec'd in the 1st ed of WTM...Drawing With Children, maybe? The results in the book were nice, but *I* couldn't follow the presentation of the teaching. I think students AND teachers have to get along w/ the style of presentation for it to work. Here's a link to some photos (toward the bottom) of how our first projects turned out--kids were 9 & 7. Not great pics, but something.

No advice, but we did Bio in 4th so we could do Physics in 5th, too. We're also using NOEO & finding it too easy so far. And I'd sort-of planned Rainbow Science for the next year/year after, but I hadn't got as far as noticing the problems you've described. So...:bigear:

I've never had one in the car, & I'd be inclined to think it would take away from the togetherness of longer trips. So far, I've never wanted one, but we don't use the one at the house a ton, either. I guess I think things like that engender a lot of whining instead of happy, quiet kids. When they learn to entertain themselves, you get happy, quiet kids. Ime.

:grouphug:

If you need to hide, let me know. We can meet for coffee or something. :001_smile:

I will order pizza if necessary. If we weren't out of tp, I'd stay home. :tongue_smilie: :lol:

Other than staying home, any ideas for today? I know the grocery store is out. Maybe the zoo? :bigear:

:bigear: