Thank you all for your replies. I feel so much better after reading them. It is 1am and I think I have settled down enough to go to sleep now. I will definitely be talking to the girls in the morning and apologizing to them. But, I do plan on making sure they understand what led to my frustration. They are both really good girls - I am pretty sure we will not ever have this issue again. I love this group! Thank you all for your kind words and suggestions. Maddy

:grouphug: I just wanted to let you know you are not alone! I just posted something similar where I made a bad decision with my children and these wonderful friends completely helped me see that it isn't the end of the world. We all make mistakes and learn from them. Praying that you find comfort in your day and quick resolutions to your health issues. Maddy

Long story short...(well, still kinda long) Our two oldest dd's (ages 12 & 10) share a bed. Every night, they stay up late talking and giggling together. Every night, I repeatedly have to go in their room to tell them to quiet down so they don't wake up our younger dc. Tonight, they got completely carried away and were way out of control - laughing really loudly, wrestling, etc.....I told them three times to quiet down. Then, after them continuing to ignore me, I went to their room and gave them two pops on the bottom. They immediately got quiet and I have not heard another peep, but now I am feeling so guilty... There was really no need to pop them, but it is done now. All I can think of is that I have scarred them for life. I couldn't tell you the last time any of my children have gotten a spanking, so it really shocked even me that I resorted to that kind of punishment. I just had enough of being ignored and I couldn't think of a better way to get immediate results. Though they are entirely too old for spankings, it did get the results I wanted....but at what cost? I am just having a really hard time right now....it is past midnight here and all I want to do is go crawl in bed with my girls and apologize. Thanks for listening.

Praying! Do you mind sharing what his symptoms were and how they discovered his cancer? My mother died of colon cancer in 2005 and it is always in the back of mind when I have any sort of issues. Thank you and we will continue to keep you and your family in our prayers.

We don't do sleepovers - at all. Every bad thing that I was ever exposed to as a child happened while at a sleepover....smoking, forced to watch p*rn, and other equally disturbing things. And these were with my cousins and other very "trusted" people. When my dc have been invited to sleepovers, we allow them to go until bedtime, (say, 10pm or so) and then bring them home. They get to have fun with their friends while the parents/adults are all still around and awake. Then they come home to sleep. It is inconvenient to get out that late to pick them up, but we think it is the best of both worlds. We don't have other children sleep over, either. I don't sleep well myself when there is someone else in my house.

Oh, and I wanted to add that she is the one that wrote this letter. It isn't as if her husband was writing this letter and was bragging about her. That might have been different. There were paragraphs devoted to each family member and his paragraph was equally sickening :). Why does this grate on my nerves?

I received a Christmas letter this year from a family that seems so "perfect". The entire letter was about how wonderful their lives are and how smart the kids are. I really grated on my nerves. The one sentence that got me the most was this: " *The Mom* is working full-time as ever, as she home-schools our wonderful kiddos and keeps an immaculate and beautiful home for us all." GAG ME WITH A SPOON!!!!! Seriously, why would she feel the need to brag about keeping an immaculate home in her Christmas letter? OK, my rant is over :) Maddy

Thank you all for your replies. My husband has a couple of days off at the first of the year and we will use the time until then to pray for clear guidance on our decision. We will weigh out all the pros/cons of leaving, then sit down to decide what is best for our family. Thank you all again! I truly do appreciate it. Maddy

As some of you may remember, we are living in South Korea right now and will be here until May. I have a very difficult decsion to make regarding staying here with my husband until May or leaving in January. Here are a few details.... Obviously, you know the situation regarding North and South Korea...it is calm at the moment, but it is pretty stressful worrying about the "what could happen" thoughts. We are also building a house on our farm in the States and it is at the point that the builder is starting to need our input with many, many decisions. Being thousands of miles away makes it very difficult. Our quality of life would be SO much better if we went back to the US. We are very limited on what we are able to do here and our dc would be able to be part of so many wonderful things that we just can't do here. My husband works INCREDIBLY long hours...like, he is gone by 6:30am and doesn't get home until 10:00pm. And then the poor guy eats a bite, takes a shower, and goes to bed so he can do it all over again tomorrow. 6 days a week. I am glad that I am here when he is home, but he is home so little. Part of me wants to jump on the next plane leaving, but then the other part wants to stay to be here with my husband any minute I can grab. I am thankful that I have the opportunity to hold him, even if it is while he is sleeping, and I don't want to regret leaving when I could have stayed. But then, logically, I think of the real reasons why it would be a good idea to go now. My husband is completely supportive for me to go now. He says that it would take some of the burden off of him if I were there to see to the responsibilties of the house. And he would be happy that the children and I were doing fun/more quality of life things on our farm in the States. However, of course, he would miss us. He also worries about the "what ifs" of North/South Korea and feels like it would bring a certain peace of mind if we were not on the peninsula. Am I abandoning my responsibilities by leaving/dividing our family or am I being a helpmeet to my husband by helping ease the burden of his responsibilities? Thanks for reading this far. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Maddy

When I told my dad that we were going to homeschool our girls, he said, "Well, I just hope that they marry well." Needless to say, that did not go over well with me and he knew it.