I agree. My youngest two will be 12 and 10 within a month, and after watching a short news story on a "real live" mermaid, they've spent the last few days turning their Barbies into mermaids with leftover Christmas wrapping paper. They play with Legos and Lincoln Logs and they love those small realistic looking animals - especially the horses. They do play less and less with toys as they get older. Sometimes the toy-play just comes in short spurts. Just a year or so ago they played "house" a lot and I had made tons of crocheted play food for them. Sadly those days are over and I guess I'll have to wait for grand-kids now to make play food for. :( My girls play often with our neighbors children, who are pretty young. I always tell them they will be awesome mothers with great imaginations. :)

This was me and my oldest daughter, who is 14 now. Her personality is just like my husband's - very strong-willed, very much a leader. I'm a follower and that doesn't work well in a parent-child relationship. She says if she ever marries it will have to be to a man like Jim Bob Duggar and NOT like her Dad. :) We had a very difficult relationship for most of her life. A couple of years ago I decided that I was not going to lose her, that I was going to do whatever I had to to bind her to me in love and have a good relationship with her, now and forever. How often do you connect with your daughter? Give her a hug? Tell her you love her and that she is special? I know at first this can be hard when you feel angry and even hurt. Personally I feel at this age, when she acts out the focus needs to be much less on consequences for her behavior, and much more on connecting with her and helping her work through why she is acting that way and why it's so wrong. We all get frustrated about things in life. With my own daughter, instead of just focusing on her attitude and behavior and telling her to knock it off, I started talking with her, listening to her, and I let her know that, yes, I understand her frustration. I understand WHY she lashed out. This right here brought about a major change in her. First of all she knew that she could be honest with me about what was going on and knew that I would listen and try to understand. Often I would explain things from my perspective, which she couldn't see because either she's a child still, or she was too close to the situation. She has changed SO much over the last 2 to 3 years and even more so in the last 6 months. She has just started taking it upon herself to clean the kitchen on Friday nights (a night all my girls normally have off from chores) to give ME a break once a week! What a blessing she has become! I wouldn't tell her at all. Get her to tell you. Have her explain the scenario. This would happen with my daughter ALL the time. At first it would take a while before she could see that her actions were wrong. She might have grabbed one of her sisters by the arm and hurt them. She would think that her actions were justified because the sister did xyz. We talk it through. Why did she do what she did? Was it okay? Would she like it if her sister or I treated her that way? You will find at first that she is just angry and will deny any wrong doing. Keep talking until you see that barrier go down and you have her heart. There are still times when I just say to my daughter "watch your attitude" or something along those lines. Almost always now she will come and apologize for it later. We also talked about how, yes, she is young and hormonal (and I am old...er :) and hormonal) but we can't use that as an excuse to lash out at others. Also, try magnesium and fish oil. :) This is something I have just started with my daughter. She is sleeping better and her attitude is better all around. Before it was like she was fighting to have the right attitude, now she is just naturally more relaxed. She also said her concentration is better when she is doing school. :grouphug: Hugs to you!!! Don't give up. Ask God for wisdom and guidance. He is faithful! James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Since you have confirmation that it was delivered I would say it's now out of your hands/responsibility. If in the future you send a package that does NOT arrive and it's been plenty of time you can file a Mail Loss/Rifling Report (PS Form 1510) with the post office. This has to be done by the party that mailed the package. A kind seller did this for me when a package had not arrived after a couple of weeks and the post office found the package.

My girls use Saxon. They entirely self-teach, checking their own daily work. The only thing I check is the weekly tests. (I do float around from time to time making sure they are actually doing the work) If they have questions they can ask me, but it's so well explained that most of the time when they don't understand it's simply because they did not read thoroughly and look at the examples close enough. One of daughters expressed frustration with the spiral nature of Saxon, saying they taught her a concept and then she didn't see it for several days and by then she'd forgotten it. I explained that this actually will help cement it in her brain over time, and showed her how to use the index to find where the concept was first explained so she could review it. She has not had a problem with it since. We follow the Robinson Curriculum, which recommended starting Saxon 54 after the child had mastered the math facts for all 4 operations. We got through addition and some multiplication and went ahead and started Saxon because my girls were somewhat behind. They review math facts daily and are doing very well now.

Google: block website with host file.

Has anyone heard of/tried Lesson Minder? I just came across it yesterday while searching for a free planning software.

Natalie Grant - especially this song: Bebo Norman Downhere Sanctus Real Selah Watermark

Some songs from Secret Garden and Vivaldi. The and from Steven Sharp Nelson.We also like music from the John Adams HBO movie soundtrack. I'm going to look into Chopin. :)

I've read that a refurb might actually be better than new since it's bugs have been worked out. I've had my Kindle keyboard for about a year and a half. It does occasionally reboot itself, but less now than it used to. I was also having a problem with my collections disappearing, but that hasn't happened for months now. Perhaps it was fixed during an upgrade. I also have the non-lighted cover with metal hooks and have not had a problem with it thus far. Does anyone know if there's a way to just buy a refurbished Kindle outright for that low price? We would like one or two more for the girl's schooling.

Other. We scrape as much off as possible, I rinse depending on the residue.

Most Christians - no. Most would believe either in eternal security (once saved always saved) or that if you left the faith you could come back. I believe the Bible teaches that if one is a believer in Christ, and then rejects Him after having already believed in Him, then they cannot be saved again. Only God would know a person's heart and true beliefs in this matter. I believe in "security of the believer" - that is, as long as one continues in the faith of Christ, they are saved. Works do not get us saved and they do not keep us saved. They do, however, prove our faith.

LOVE this yarn! It's soft and feels nice to work with and stays nice when washed.

What you reference here is different than the "unpardonable sin" that Jesus speaks of in Mark 3:29. Heather's link is exactly correct - in the context of Mark 3 Jesus is performing miracles and the scribes (unbelievers) say he is casting out devils by the prince of devils. Jesus' answer is that a house divided against itself cannot stand - Satan casting out Satan is impossible. According to Jesus, those who say that the work of the Holy Spirit is the work of the devil "hath never forgiveness" - meaning even if they repent they cannot be forgiven. But what you are referencing, Hebrews 6, is talking about believers falling away. If a believer truly falls away they cannot be saved again. Christ died once. He is not going to die again for them. However, the main point of Hebrews 6 is really about "going on unto perfection, and not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God." All Christians know people (or know themselves) who keep rededicating themselves to God, keep trying to start fresh, keep thinking they have back-slidden and need to get right with God again. The author is essentially saying "stop getting saved". The point is that you either are saved or you aren't and if you have been you can't be saved again if you lose it. It doesn't say anyone *has* lost it, just that if they do it's impossible to be saved again. The author says in verses 9 and 10: But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. This is speaking of believers who sin. The "sin unto death" is not an unforgivable sin in the sense of eternal d**nation, but of God not healing one in this life and so because of their sin, they die. That does not mean they have lost their salvation. Sometimes the flesh is killed, to save the spirit.

Yes, some call it Saxon Grammar. It does have a writing portion but many skip that part. The Grammar portion takes my daughter about 20 minutes.

T-tapp!!! The MORE workout is highly recommended. http://forum.t-tapp.com/showthread.php?72574-Scoliosis-sequence http://www.t-tapp.com/challenge2008/angelac/index.html

I guess it just depends on the people. Dh and I just celebrated 16 years and we still fall asleep every night totally intertwined and holding hands. :001_wub: :D

We are using Hake Grammar - it starts at 5th grade and goes through 8th.

I have 3 daughters and rotate their chores every 4 months. My almost 10 yo does these chores daily: Cleans the mirror and sink in my bathroom, gathers the trash. Vacuums the living room. Loads the dishwasher with breakfast dishes. Folds and puts away towels. Makes her bed. Straightens her room. Picks up her stuff from around the house. We use Chore Packs and the above chores are separated into morning and evening chores.

:iagree: We do everything for every lesson. At this time the lessons take about an hour. We follow the Robinson Curriculum, so I'm prepared for 2 hours of math daily if it comes to that. I do not check/grade my children's daily work. They do everything themselves, copying the problems in a notebook and showing their work, then checking with the answer book and correcting the missed problems. The weekly tests show whether they are getting something or not. They call me if they have a question but mostly I encourage them to re-read the lesson and try to figure it out themselves.

When we have a bug that seems to linger or keeps re-infecting us despite all my natural remedies that usually work for sickness, I diffuse essential oils into each room of the house. Based on the Thieves blend, I use cinnamon, rosemary, lemon, eucalyptus, and clove. I have one of those Vicks steam inhalers and I just add a few drops of each oil to the water and let it steam in the room until the water runs out, then I move on to the next room.

I've had this before when bleeding very heavy. It's possibly low iron. Try taking a Tbl of blackstrap molasses in a cup of milk - I don't like molasses but this is actually kinda nice.

Diatomaceous Earth for mites or bed bugs. Buy the food grade kind. http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/diatomaceous_earth_mites.html http://www.stopskinmites.com/products/diatomaceous-earth

I suggest T-tapp and/or Callanetics and focus on inch-loss and toning, not weight-loss. I do and love both. They both create long lean muscles for an elegant body without weights. I have the newer CardioCallanetics, but I prefer (and get better results from) the one from the 80's called 10 Years Younger in 10 Hours. The leotards and the music are a bit cheesy, but it's very effective. Brush the skin to firm it up and keep it from sagging as your muscles cinch you in like a girdle. :)

Magnesium and/or potassium.

We have been working our way into the Robinson Curriculum for several months which suggests 2 hours of reading daily. We just increased the reading time from 1 to 2 hours, broken up into two 1-hour sessions. One hour they read a book from the RC booklist and the other hour they can choose what they read, for now. Eventually the two hours will be strictly school books.