I get that. Relatives suck sometimes. I would have no problem leaving the obnoxious ones off the guest list if it came down to that. But this idea that someone's wedding should be the happiest day of his/her life is not necessarily something I agree with. Joyous? Yes. And I understand that people can interfere with that. Personally, my happy day was the day after my wedding. My wedding was lovely, but my dress didn't fit, people were rushing me through pictures because the cake was about to topple over, and the reception hall was way too small and crowded. But the next day I got to take off for a week alone with my best friend, where we could do whatever we wanted. I would never begrudge someone a destination wedding. But I will teach my daughters and son that they need to get married with us present, and our families and church(es).

Call me old fashioned, but I don't think the wedding is "all about the couple". IMO, a wedding is a public ceremony celebrating the covenant made uniting of two lives. I feel that weddings should include family, close friends, and the couple's faith community. I understand that family drama can complicate things, but I don't think escaping the drama by having a wedding in a different location is a good solution.

Wow. Are we reading the same thread? The vast majority of people here have said to tell her, "I'm sorry to have caused you pain. I am unable to accommodate your request, but will completely understand if you need to block me." That is an insensitive response? If someone in that situation wanted to change their privacy settings to avoid hurting someone else's feelings I wouldn't fault them, but I know that I would not be able to take that approach--I wouldn't be able to guarantee that I would never forget to disinclude her from a post, and I don't think updating on the phone allows that option anyway.

That's us, too. I have one day of the week where I don't have to go anywhere (Wed night, DH takes the kids to church) and one day where I only have to be out for an hour in the evening. I have one evening where all 4 kids have activities and I drive around for 4 hours, and one day where we're gone all day, come home for an hour, then we're back out for the evening. I try to use my crockpot a couple nights a week, but the best thing I have done is to make a 4-week rotating meal plan with a corresponding grocery list. Then at least I know I have everything I need for the meal for that night, and I can plan more complicated meals when I have more time at home (and use the crockpot on busier days).

The Sequim public schools are supposed to be some of the best in the state--high property values and lots of retired folks w/o young kids=more $$ per student. :) I don't know much about PA schools (my oldest was 3 when we left). I don't know anything about the shipyard, hopefully it works out though. The recession hasn't hit WA as hard as Michigan (that's where you said you are now, right?), so hopefully he'll be able to get a new contract or find something somewhere else. We knew a guy who commuted to Seattle (by ferry) every day when he was working. I do know where it is--just west of town on the water. For ALEs, there is WAVA (k12) and a handful of schools that will pay for your books, activities and field trips. The other thing we noticed when we moved was how much more there is to do in the Seattle area. However, if you're outdoorsy there aren't too many better places than the Olympic peninsula. They also have my absolute favorite playground in the world, and a terrific pizza place (Gordy's in downtown PA). I don't know anything about happy lamp stations (the weather isn't worse than the rest of western WA), but I know my friend and her husband have one that they use throughout the winter (they live in Fairbanks, AK)--you could probably get one for your home. The thing about PA is that it attracts a lot of loners. People can at least tolerate being so far removed from everything, and some people prefer it. It takes a specific mindset to do life that way (just like it takes a specific mindset to live in Manhattan). Hope everything works out for you!

Yes! It just seems like it should be see-quim. :) My favorite is Puyallup. Even people who've lived here for years and hear the fair commercials all September still get it wrong.

I lived in PA for 2 1/2 years and Sequim for 8 mo., in 2001-2004. I'll be the dissenting voice--it's not for everyone. It definitely wasn't for me. Pros: It is *beautiful*. The Olympic Nat'l Park is amazing. The Strait is also pretty. We lived half a mile from downtown PA and I loved being less than 10 min away from both the water and the mountains. The climate is mild--Sequim gets less rain than PA, it still has WA temps and cloud cover though. WA is an easy state in which to homeschool independently and we have some great ALE options. It is quiet and far removed from the city. The worst traffic gets is if it takes a few minutes to turn onto the one-way street that runs through town, or if the road out of town gets blocked. It's a relatively short ferry ride to Victoria. They have a great bagel shop, too--we live an hour from Seattle and don't have a decent bagel place nearby. It is safe and quiet, and the area just up the hill from downtown has a lot of charm (early 1900's homes)--most are small but cute. You can walk pretty much everywhere. It's definitely not a dive, a bit dated, maybe, but not run-down. And now for the cons: There is little shopping in town--you have to go to Silverdale (90 min away) or Tacoma (2 hrs away) for a lot of stuff. They have Wal-Mart, Jo-Anns, a decent bookstore, a general store, a hardware store, etc. No Target, no good clothes stores. I think Sequim might have a Fred Meyer now. PA draws loners--we found it hard to connect with people. There is a mindset you can't really relate to if you don't have it. The area is economically depressed. It is VERY hard to find living wage jobs there, unless you or your husband are highly skilled. Even then, competing against people who have lived in the area for a long time can be a challenge. The area is in general opposed to economic growth, so I wouldn't count on that changing, etiher. In most of the families I knew (who weren't retired), the parents worked opposing shifts so the kids didn't have to go to daycare. Sequim is actually more like half an hour from PA, so I wouldn't necessarily try to consider living there (it is also more expensive, though I wouldn't call either place expensive). I don't know if I would call the bus system decent--there is a bus system, but the buses don't run very often, and most of the area isn't reached by bus. The Twilight series was set in Forks. The whole reason is because it gets the least amount of daylight of any place in the US (except maybe AK?). The rainforest is pretty though. :) Anyway, sorry to be Nancy Negative. :P Some people LOVE it there and wouldn't live anywhere else. My biggest caution would be economic--if your contract is only 6 mo, make sure you have other options or the ability to get back to where you are now.

I panic within 30 seconds of entering a corn maze. I like to think I would have had the sense to yell for help in her situation, but I fully intend to never enter a corn maze again for the rest of my life unless I'm with a responsible adult, so I guess I'll never know. :P

Right there with you...minus the makeup. And I've told her she can shave her legs, but she can't figure out how, so she wants me to teach her. Gulp.

"I will comply with the terms of the subpoena when it is issued." I think lawyers throw around words like subpoena because they sounds scary. I wouldn't give any more information than is required...but I'm far from an expert with these things.

Always. There's this nagging you-don't-need-that, you-can't-afford-it, the-car-is-going-to-blow-up-tomorrow that always comes when I spend anything beyond our typical monthly spending.

My OB prescribed Ambien to end my "false labor". :glare: DD was born in the van in front of the ER. The only reason we made it in is because my husband was watching me and timing my contractions. I did not have the presence of mind to know that I was about to give birth until about 20 min. before she was born. I think anyone who takes Ambien should be closely supervised, at least at first.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm still not sure what to do. There are a lot of benefits to keeping everyone together. But the idea of 6 hours with no negativity and fighting is appealing, too.

I don't think of vocation and calling necessarily being the same thing. A vocation can be something one does financially to support oneself to live out one's calling. I don't think one is necessarily called to be a plumber, an account manager, a doctor, etc. I believe we have freedom in Christ to do what we enjoy and what uses our gifts. However, I do think there are limitations to this. Someone might enjoy caring for people medically, but not have the means to go to med school. That person might be better off being a nurse (please don't interpret this as a slight against nurses). Someone might not be academically-oriented enough to pursue higher ed and would need to consider vocations that require less education. And some people (like me) are limited by our family situations and do not have the ability to work outside the home. I am called to follow Christ. Because I am a mother, following Christ means raising my kids in a way that pleases God and trains them to follow Him. I am called to follow Christ, and since I am a wife I follow what I believe the Bible tells me about my relationship with my husband. I am called to follow Christ, so I use my gifts to serve my local church. I am called to follow Christ, so I have a passion for the lost and the poor. None of these necessarily translates into a vocation. If I was a single mom, caring for my kids would require me to provide financially for them. I plan someday to finish my education someday and possibly work as a community college teacher. I don't think of it as a calling, except that I am called to care for my kids and working will help get them through college.

One of the main characters is a prostitute, so sex is a frequent topic on the show. I would say the content is about as explicit as a PG-13 movie. There is an episode where she is with a woman, if that concerns you. There is a lot of value in the series--the dialogue and humor are excellent--but whether I would show it to a 14-year-old would depend a lot on the 14-year-old.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I think we're going to try a few more things before we seriously consider school, but there definitely needs to be a change. I think that's a big part of the problem for my DS too--my husband is great with him, but our evenings fly by so quickly and I think DS really struggles with being around girls all the time.

Just wondering. I have one who makes every day unpleasant. He bullies his little sisters and is disrespectful to me. Not all the time, but it is fairly consistent. I have always thought that consistency in the way I treat him and the standards I set would pay off...but it has been almost 10 years. At this point, one of the main reasons I'm considering ps is to protect his sisters, not because I think it would necessarily be best for him. But I'm also not sure it would be a bad thing. So I'd love to hear if you have a ps success story with a difficult child. Please do not respond if you just want to tell me that you would *never* tolerate such behavior in your home. You can tell me about your difficult kid who got worse, if you feel so inclined. Thanks in advance!

Thanks, everyone, for the evening entertainment. Having read the comments here vs. the comments on the blog, I am that much more sure that I have chosen the right group with which to identify. I did love the idea of public school being a "genuinely liberating experience". Or the notion that homeschooling=abandoning the public sphere. Or the idea that public school districts operate on multi-million dollar budgets, employ hundreds of people, have professional lobbyists and unions and hundreds of involved parents, but somehow me putting my kids in school is what will save them. You think I possess the ability to fix my local schools just by getting involved as a part-time volunteer, and you call ME arrogant??? Oh, and one more thing: Please tell me you didn't just say "frizzle-frazzled-fried".

Just finished it as a read-aloud--LOVED it!! All 4 kids enjoyed it, I would say the older two appreciated it more than the younger two. Toad is a delightful character, and it had some lovely descriptive writing that seems to be hard to find int modern writing.

One of the main reasons I favor a classical approach is because it's success has been borne out over many generations. I'm not talking about TWTM specifically, I'm talking about the trivium, literature, an integrated, chronological approach to history, a rigorous study of math and science, Latin, logic, etc. TWTM describes a quality education and tells you how to get there, but it isn't new--the methods have been effectively used for many years. It is and it isn't. It is my job to equip my kids to live the best life they can. What they choose to do with that as adults is their choice. Some kids don't have the capacity to learn at a high level, but those who do should be stretched and pushed to their limits--not in a stressful way, but in a way that inspires and challenges them. No one respects a parent who stifles her child's physical growth, yet for some reason it is ok in this culture to give a child a substandard education. And many people who homeschool are fine with being a little better than the public schools. My goal is to equip my kids, academically, spiritually, socially, etc., to do whatever God calls them to do. With my four, I have one who lacks motivation and who who lacks focus. They're all going to learn Latin though, and every other subject and skill that I find essential for a well-educated person. I trust that whatever their occupational outcome, my efforts will not be wasted.

My first grader "doesn't like homeschooling". We were just talking about it this afternoon. I asked her (nicely) if she would like to go to school, she didn't say anything. Then I asked her, "Is it that you don't want to have to do anything?" and she said yes. You're doing a reasonable amount of work with him--not too much to overload him, but not too little either. You might play around with the schedule a bit--if you're doing it in 15-minute chunks, try switching to getting it all done at once...or vice versa. Or maybe if he's used to taking a nap, "let him stay up" for 20 min to do schoolwork with you while the littles are sleeping. Maybe try to communicate to him, too, that big people have jobs. Daddy goes to work, Mommy takes care of you guys, and now that you're big, you have a job too! You get to do school so you can be an astronaut someday! See that astronaut? He had to learn how to read and do math when he was 5, too! That kind of thing.

I would let him teach what he wants, as long as it doesn't conflict with your values, and continue to teach SOTW on your own. If I remember correctly, SOTW only hits the Revolutionary War/forming of the Constitution, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights movement. In my opinion, it is not adequate as an American History curric, though it is an excellent World History curric. Maybe you could do some research and find some American History resources you like, and then show them to him and see if there's one that he would enjoy using. ETA: I just saw your kids' ages and agree with Jean. :) Personally, I would also save SOTW until your oldest is in 1st.

I don't have a specific job picked out for them, but I do want them working jobs that are fulfilling and use their gifts/abilities. I would be disappointed to see them settling for jobs that aren't challenging....which I think will mean different things for each of my kids. I would like to feel like the effort I put into their educations wasn't for nothing. :) Personally, I also hope that if my girls have babies, they have the flexibility to either work from home or stop working altogether, and I hope my son can provide for a wife and kids if he chooses to marry.

I'm far from an expert, but I do light mascara on the bottom and little or no eyeliner. What screams raccoon eyes to me is when someone has thick black eyeliner all the way around their eyes.

I agree with you completely. What you described sounds to me like a performance. There is nothing wrong with performances, they can even be done to glorify and honor God, but one should not draw attention to oneself when trying to lead others in worship. My favorite church worship is when you barely (if at all) notice the worship band (or pianist/organist/etc). There is a fine line between worship and performance, but sometimes you can just sense that someone is seeking to draw attention to himself/herself and it is very distracting. I think it is hard for teens (especially teen girls) to know the difference...good job drawing the line and offering wise perspective. :)