Oh, (((hugs)))). I understand all too well. My 13 yo boy is in a similar situation, and it is heartbreaking at times. Prayers for your daughter and your momma heart.

That is a neat way to do the tooth fairy w/o actually doing the tooth fairy (hope that makes sense, LOL) I have the teeth in a little box, too, and keep thinking "should I just toss them....???" I also thought, "Oh! We have teeth to dissect!!" when we studied teeth recently as part of a unit on human anatomy. But then one of my boys still believes in the tooth fairy, and I didn't really want him to find out the truth by those means. So, I scrapped that idea. The little box I have takes up virtually no room, can't be used for much of anything else, so I've just kept them and probably will for a while yet. At least until they are all done losing teeth, and then....who knows.

Oh, Congratulations! I know (too well) the feeling of bringing home a little one after a long NICU stay......so very precious and sweet and perfect of you to keep Big Brother for the night and let Momma & Daddy settle in with Chloe. What a tremendous, tremendous gift that is for them.

What always gets me are the "go out and spend hundreds on a new more energy efficient appliance; the savings to your energy bill will be (double digit number) for the year!" Or "make the switch to the CFL bulbs; the energy savings will be (fill in the blank)" -- neglecting of course the up front expense of buying the bulbs, so that in the end, your savings are barely enough (for that first year anyway) to cover the cost of the bulbs. Or not enough to cover the pricier, more efficient appliance. That and "eat at home instead of eating out" or "limit your eating out to once/week." These articles never seem to have ideas that help people who are already trying everything they know to save money, only ideas for people who have never before had to save/watch the bottom line.

No experience with registering as a homeschooler (we were in Texas when we used the ps for speech) but our experience in Texas was a positive one. This was years ago -- my oldest son was 5 at the time (he's 13 now) and just barely diagnosed with speech problems. We did therapy at the public schools for about 6 months if I recall. The therapist was very good also at giving me things to do with him at home; so much so that when my youngest was speech delayed I was able to give him a headstart on things before we started him in therapy (much younger for him) and keep working with him when we moved to Brazil and his therapy ended. Just wanted to share a positive, and also give you a bump so maybe someone with specific info for your region can see this and chime in.

not Pandora, but a radio station in Houston (a Christian Station) plays Christmas music from day after thanksgiving to Christmas weekend. You can listen online at http://www.godlistens.com though you then have to click a link or two to get to the christmas music.

Well, we have not transferred books we used to own to digital (though we did load CDs into our iTunes library and ditch the hard copies), BUT I buy everything on digital version that I possibly can. We are seriously debating a Kindle for our boys. Probably we'll get one at least in the near future, as I begin using Kindle versions/ebooks for as much school as possible. For us, it's a matter of availability and convenience, though. We live outside the US, so finding books in English at a reasonable price (if at all) is hard. Downloading from Amazon is easy. We pared down our paper book library by huge amounts when we first moved to Brasil, keeping only the best of the best of the best. Still, I don't know if I'd have made the move to digital if it weren't for living outside the US where I can't just grab a $5 paperback at the grocery store check-out, or run to the library to find something, etc. When I started paying $20 US and more for a paperback, and had to budget my book money, that's when I knew it was time to change over.

Yes and yes. The easiest way to see the free content available at Amazon is to go to the Kindle Store page, select Fiction from the list on the left, and then select "sort by price: low to high" which will put all the free stuff first. Here's that link -- Amazon Fiction Titles/Low to High Price Or you could do "sort by: publication date" and go to the end and work your way back (to get to the classics; it sorts, unfortunately, by most recent on the first page). Here's Fiction Classics/Price Low to High Once you are in the Fiction listing, there are several categories you can look through as well to help you narrow your search. I've not used the other free books available (Guttenberg Press, etc.) but I know they can be put on the Kindle. Amazon has enough available, though, that I've not needed to. Now -- for the other uses, not sure how well the Kindle does. someone else will have to chime in on that.

We are using TT4 with my 9 yr old and TT7 with my 13 yr old. The CD content and book content (it is a large spiral bound book, not so much a "workbook" in the sense of a small, easily portable manual...) is identical (though the book does not have the bonus problems). My 9 yr old does his work on the computer exclusively; my 13 yr old watches the lesson on the CD only if he needs to reinforce the written lesson in the textbook; he does his work on paper/in the book. Algebra and up (maybe Pre-Algebra, too) do not have the student enter his answers into the CD/computer, so there is no longer self-grading/self-correcting for those levels. They could still watch the lesson on the CD, do the work on paper, and once mom or student has checked answers can still watch the correct way to work any problem, but the instant feedback of entering the answer and the program telling you "Correct!" or "Try Again" is no longer there at those levels. Also, I've heard too that the upper levels are not as hard/challenging as some, BUT that if you do go all the way through the final level (Trig? Pre-Cal?) it IS a complete program. Can't say that for sure myself, we're only starting Algebra next year, but it's what I've heard and what we'll be doing for math. It was easy for both my boys to go from Singapore to Teaching Textbooks. I'm glad we found it.

I have a 5 yr old who can be like that as well. (((hugs)))) to you as you recover from your bad day. I can't tell if you are asking for advice/suggestions, so I won't offer any just yet, but if you'd like some tips of what works for me with my son, I would be happy to share. Mostly I just wanted to empathize with you. Those days are HARD. My cure? A soak in a hot tub, with a book and a soothing drink (coffee, hot tea, glass of wine, whatever the day calls for....). I hope today is a better day for you and your son. ((((hugs again)))))

Yes, this. I'm not military, but do live outside the US (as an ex-pat) and you are so right about how very wrong this is. To exclude the visiting family.....that's just nuts. I'm sorry the BOG felt they had to do this, and I hope you and your mom are able to find an alternative that will feel just as nice as this would have. Maybe if your friends who are offering to skip the lunch really want to, you could all go to lunch together instead. Then you still get the girlfriend/chat with Americans time too. (though of course I understand why you wouldn't want to ask them to do that). :grouphug:

We've always had a policy in our home that it takes 2 yes and only 1 no. In other words, if I want another and he doesn't, I would ask the Lord to help me come to terms with that decision. If I was already expecting, through failure of whatever birth control means we were using, I cannot imagine submitting to an abortion. Well, my dh would not ask that. But, supposing for some strange reason he did, no way I would back down on that. Though, I can see for some that might become a marriage threatening issue, if the two are really that steadfastly committed each to his/her own stance on the issue. If we'd done IVF and had frozen embryos, I'd hope that we'd have reached agreement on what to do with said embryos before we got to that point. But, if not, and the issue came up that I wanted to use them and he didn't, I would argue for donating them rather than throwing them out. If that was still not acceptable to him......well, I would not be super happy about it, but no way I would insist we use them. Again, 2 yes, 1 no. If he was adamant about tossing them, it would break my heart, but I would toss them. And pray for forgiveness and understanding. But I'd for sure argue for donating first.

I think you must have misread my post. What I said is that the Nook is not easy to use outside the United States, unless using sources other than Barnes & Noble. Nothing at all about it being difficult to load content from other sources. In fact, if using outside the US, it is likely that with a Nook you would only be able to use other sources.

I can only say you do not want the Nook unless you plan to ONLY get content from non-Barnes & Noble sources. B&N makes it very difficult to get content from outside the US. I use and love my Kindle; there is enough content available from Amazon for the kids. I've not used the free sites so I can't speak to that. Also, Amazon is always adding content. A friend has the Sony eReader and likes it and has no trouble using it outside the US. I've looked at hers (she has the 1st generation) and prefer the Kindle, but newer Sony ones might be better than hers. I would check with your library -- will they continue to make the ebooks available to you once you are out of the US?? So, will that even be a factor once you move?

If you want one, start looking NOW. Really, start looking yesterday. The sets are becoming hard to find, and prices on some are going up because of that. Best of luck to you -- we're shopping for some ourselves.

I'm not sure what levels you are looking for but hslda has a list of high school on-line options, many of which actually offer middle school courses as well. Here's a link to that list -- on-line courses The list is a bunch of links that are places that offer on-line course work, not just high school level courses. Hope that helps get you started! As for how they are structured, it varies by course/company offering the course.

oooh, putting Murphy's Soap on my US shopping list.

Holly, does he want snail mail penpal or email? He sounds very like my boys ages 13 and about to be 10. If sporadic email is fine, we might be interested. I can't promise super regular correspondence, and I know we can't do snail mail. But if an every now and then email is okay, send me a PM.

you're not the only one. My youngest was climbing things before he could walk. seriously. we're going to buy some touch-up paint soon just so we can touch up the walls. I'm hoping beyond hope that we can find a semi-gloss paint here, somewhere. (it's very uncommon in Brasil). Washable walls are the single biggest thing I miss about the US.

This might just be the most brilliant thing I've ever heard. My walls are impossible to wash (they do not use gloss or semi gloss paint here) and the pencil drawings don't even erase off the wall. Chalk. Chalk will be my new best friend. 'Cause, yea, the unlimited paper is NOT working, and he's old enough to know better. Even several sessions of helping mom wash the walls afterward hasn't done the trick. Just sign me "moving all the pens, crayons, markers out of the house and bringing in chalk instead"

We do have debt. Before my husband was promoted/transferred to Brazil, we did discuss me getting a job. I did NOT say "hs'ing is more important, sorry" because part of the debt is my debt. As my husband did not get into this debt all by himself, and he is working is rear end off to make ends meet, and we weren't at that time (nor are we now) being frivolous or irresponsible with our money but still it wasn't enough to pay the regular bills AND pay down the debt......because of all that I said to him, "What can I do to help us get out of this debt???" and the answer at the time was, "once the littlest is old enough to go to school, maybe you should get a job." (because paying for daycare would have eaten up a lot of my potential income before then, and he needed various therapies during that time as well). Now, before that came to pass, he was promoted/offered the transfer to Brazil, and suddenly we are making enough to our normal living expenses, put money into savings for emergencies, travel (frugally) AND pay down the debt. We aren't "snowballing it" as Dave Ramsey would suggest, because we do want to keep the funds to travel, but we have made HUGE progress and one large bit is nearly gone. We WILL turn that payment towards the other debt ASAP. Still, if that hadn't come about for us, I was taking classes that would supplement my degree and help me get a job that would pay a decent wage. I would have gone to work to help pay for this. I was teaching my boys with that in mind, prepping them for an eventual entrance to the school system. I'm glad it didn't come to that, but if ever again we are faced with the choice, if this job in Brazil ends before the debt is gone or something (we have not accrued one cent of additional debt in the 3 yrs we've been here, and have paid down a great deal), I would still go to work to pay off the debt if I ever needed to. The debt is not his alone, and the responsibility to pay it back shouldn't be his alone either. Those are my thoughts. Then again, we are not hs'ing for religious reasons, so perhaps we're different than the norm.

For kids only or grown-ups too? We're doing a Coffee Basket for some hard-to-shop-for folks; you could sub tea or other beverage or even a food item. We're including 2 bags/pouches of regular coffee and then 4 small bags of gourmet coffee. In one or both that we're doing we might also package in coffee mugs instead of in a basket; perhaps on a serving tray. We did a themed gift for my new stepbrothers -- snow fun. We got snowball molds, snow fort molds (for fun shaped bricks), a book on how to build proper snow shelters and a book on crazy contraptions (one of which is a snowball flinger, but the majority can be used all year long). Movie night baskets have always been a hit -- a DVD or two, microwave popcorn, some movie theater sized candy, maybe a 2 liter of a favorite beverage, etc. Makes a great family gift. Or sub a board game for the DVD(s). Toss in a throw/blanket if you need a more substantial gift. Favorite Foods - I'll be doing this for my boys' stockings this year. Basically I'll buy a selection of favorite foods that they don't normally get (this is extra easy for us since we live in Brazil and will be in the US for Christmas, so their US favorites will make really appreciated stocking stuffers). You could do this for all ages, maybe get a decorative plate or practical rubbermaid type container with lid, do homemade goodies or favorite store bought goodies, and collect all sorts of favorite foods. Include a favorite beverage, along with fun cup/mug/travel mug if you want. Activity Basket -- you could stuff a basket full of card games, word puzzles, sudoko, etc. depending on age. Include some fun pens/pencils, maybe some dominoes, maybe poker chips or a set of dice, yahtzee, etc. Maybe a book of solitaire rules for various solitaire games. It could be a "quiet time" or "alone time" basket, or an "activity basket" or whatever. Really the possibilities are endless, but it's hard to just think of random things not knowing the ages/genders you are shopping for. Have fun, whatever you decide to do!

Mine are in the junk drawer in the kitchen, where I apparently took them off and stashed them last time I wore them. Maybe yours are somewhere like that? I hear you on the moving thing, though. The longest we've ever lived in one house has been 3 years. Things get in all sorts of wonky places when you move a lot.

ack! no!!! I need one set, pretty please??? (Tess, I pm'ed you)

Praying here. As an overseas person, it really is most likely lack of internet service/adequate signal for skype. Still, worrisome for them to drop out of contact completely. Update when you are able.