Please share:bigear:

Budget: Well that's easy. I get paid through Paypal and all that money is designated for Christmas. We've never really done much for Christmas before, never really gave any extended family presents (we were always too poor), but I'm saving up to to homemade gifts. We're still poor, but with enough warning we can save up and make stuff. Gifts to make: I made a list of all the extended family and what we'll give them. For example, each kid picked a felt ornament for me to make. Each family will get one set. I've listed out what to make everyone. I've set aside two nights a week (although I may need to bump it up to three as I'm not very good at sewing) to work on Christmas presents. If I stick to that schedule, I *should* be able to get everything made. I've never been much of a baker, so making baked goods isn't much of a problem. Things to do: Make a list of all the possibilities and have each child pick one or two. For us, we'll buy one of those gingerbread house kits and make that. We'll drive around looking at Christmas lights. We'll set out milk and cookies for Santa. We won't be doing Secret Siblings this year or caroling and stuff like that. And my traditional Christmas dinner is a pot roast with veggies in the crock pot. I just got a 20 cent notebook from Walmart and have dedicated it to Christmas planning. Any brainstorming ideas or plans go in there.

Yes, I think you can. I think you are where you are as a result of a lifetime of habit. And the problem is that you keep thinking that if you were a better person/organizer/whatever that you could get this down. You CAN get this down, you just have to start replacing your bad habits with good ones. Dh is so good at this. He gets home and his car keys and wallet ALWAYS go in one spot. He takes a shower and his towel ALWAYS goes back on the rod. He makes dinner and ALWAYS puts the trash in the can as he goes (I'm more of a whirlwind) The reason you can't do this all at once is because you can't remember all the new habits at once. I would start by focusing on one or two. Sometimes when you focus on something new, previous things you were doing well start to fall. Try to envision someone juggling. It takes a person quite a bit of practice to learn how to juggle three things. When they try to juggle four or five, they're going to start dropping balls. It will happen to you, just pick them up and try again. Believe me, I watched my brother practice juggling when we were younger and I watched him practice new fancy tricks. I watched him fail and try again. Now the kid is juggling fire batons. You are trying to pick up the fire batons and on September 1, you're going to juggle fire. Do you see how silly that would be? Habits, one new one at a time. I'm so not perfect and my bedroom is starting to get that Hoarders feel to it (not the grossness, but the cluttered feel). But dinners are being made, bills are paid on time, trash is taken out, dishes are washed, laundry is sometimes folded and put away. I am so much better than when I first got married. :grouphug: to you

I'm going to be trying my hand at making homemade soap and lip balms and hard lotions for extended family members. Then I got a book from the library called Fa La La La Felt and I had the kids pick one ornament each. Each family will get one of each ornaments. Dh's siblings are young (1-14) so they'll be getting stuff for the younger crowd. I was thinking of making the sisters some owl purses, the camping set from this book for the toddler and Digby, and I'm not sure what to do for the 5 and 7 year old boys. Pigby will be getting a Perplexus and some Legos and Digby will be getting some Legos and who knows what else. I'll be making some owl hats for various children. Chuck will get the purse set from the felt book.

I'm saying this as nice as I can. You need to stop worrying about what she's doing. Who the heck cares what she calls herself or how much work you are putting into planning and organizing, blah blah blah? It comes off as high horsey and that type of behavior always comes back to bite you in the behind when someone else chooses to look down on you. :grouphug:

http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Ultimate-Building-Set-Pieces/dp/B000NO9GT4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346449969&sr=8-1&keywords=lego+sets Do you mean something like this?

http://pinterest.com/meggie84/preschool-ideas/ There's not a ton of ideas on that one, but a few. If you search Pinterest, there's tons of great ideas out there. I was never very crafty or fun, but these ideas have helped. I recommend having a place where you can put every thing and making sure that place can lock. We store everything in lockable filing cabinets. These things are fun, but a major PITB if they take everything out while you're occupied with baby.

:iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree: "Like" times a million. Lewelma (I think that's her name) had a very civil and open thread about evolution and the whys behind it over on the K-8 board several months ago. Why is it that the people on this board can't be as respectful? Seriously!

I'm saying this because I like you: Please don't do this. I'm going to have to agree with Audrey (and others). You know how a couple weeks ago we realized that we both have a tendency to freak out about the future, research going back to school like crazy, and see what we can do for money? I think you're probably in the middle of that cycle. Your angst seems to come from not feeling fulfilled somehow. I think your view of nurses and what they do is skewed and I think you're grossly underestimating the toll medical school will take. You know what happened when I signed up for my Coursera courses? I lasted one week. And then decided it wasn't worth it. Yes, I think going back to school is a good and worthy goal, but I recommend you try a free course or two before even doing some undergrad work. Treat it like a for credit class and see if you can easily fit that into your life. If yes, then go for the undergrad. I would explore further options in the medical field; there is a lot more than just doctors and nurses.

And no one will answer!!!!! They just keep posting colors. I've *NEVER* been so mad at the forum! :cursing: :tongue_smilie: I keep thinking maybe it's a conspiracy to not answer or everyone is so ADD that they *mean* to answer but then "Oh look more pretty colors!" :lol:

Finding the balance between stretching a child's limits and pushing too hard. How do you manage to feed everyone, keep the house somewhat orderly, school everyone, while there's a toddler running about? How to do the transition from nap time to quiet time. There is no way my preschooler would be quiet for even 30 minutes. I think I've heard you and your mom recommend that you just keep putting them in their crib for nap time and not let them know that getting out is an option. But the preschooler can get out on his own and the only time we can do school is when the toddler is napping. I'm just struggling with figuring out when to do quiet time without it being TV time. What on earth progymnasmata means?

Well, we make very little, but the COL here is very low so that helps a lot. Plus, we have a Costco, Winco, Sunflower Market, and Good Earth close by, so I can get a lot of our GF bulk items for very cheap. Yes, I have to grind my own grain, but those stores have been a huge lifesaver.

NO! You're too sassmastery:toetap05: :tongue_smilie:

I know there are many here who don't frequent the General Board much, so they may have missed this. We didn't want anyone to feel left out, but there's a group of us WTMers on Facebook. If you would like the info, you can PM me or Swellmomma. The tone over there is sometimes silly, but a lot of fun.

http://pinterest.com/meggie84/

It took me awhile to figure it out. The good news is that if *I* can figure it out, you can too as I am the biggest computer dummy out there. The best way to make Pinterest not a black hole of your time is to insert the Pin button on your tool bar. When you are signed in, go to the "About" Button on the top right of the page (it's next to your name.) Click "Pin It Button". Scroll up to the top of the "Goodies" page. Then at the top of your browser page (the top left) click "View" then "Toolbar" then "Bookmark Toolbar." However, on my firefox browser I have to click on the orange "Firefox" button then "Options" then "Bookmarks Toolbar". Once the gray toolbar pops down, click and drag the "Pin It" button onto the toolbar. As you go about your day, you can pin things as you come across them. Just hit the Pin It button, choose a picture and put it on one of your boards. If it doesn't fit with one of the boards you already have, you can choose to create a new board and pin it there. The black vortex of time people get sucked into happens on the Pinterest homepage when they sign in or when they search other people's boards. If you sign in and are looking at the homepage or someone else's board, you'll see a big page of pictures. If you roll your cursor over the picture, a few options will appear. If you click on the "Repin" button, it will put the pin on one of your boards. It's so easy to see someone else's cute stuff and spend hours repinning. http://pinterest.com/meggie84/ Here's mine

Don't they have an estimated delivery date on it? Mine was sent out yesterday and will *hopefully* be here Friday.

Ummmm...I hate to out myself as a dunce, but what exactly are you all color coordinating? Notebooks? Pen ink?

I would still teach phonics. My son didn't teach himself, well I guess to some extent he did, but we completed OPG and even still there are words that will trip him up. I guess it's just practice, practice, and practice but the phonics still comes in handy when they are sounding out those long words.

Yes :tongue_smilie: Probably about $100ish. I like gift cards and I know other people like gift cards, but they seem so impersonal to me. For someone I didn't know so well? Sure. But I want something thoughtful. Like when I moved to college, my mom packed little surprises in all my boxes. It was so cute. That's about all I remember though. I just can't remember what else I *needed* as a college freshman.

...would be good for a college freshman (one who is not living at home)? All I can think of is a camera :glare:. Anything fun?

There's also a little pinning tool (similar to the Pinterest one) that you can use to automatically bring up the PTE account so you can add it right from the site. Easy peasy. I'm meggie on PTE and I've got about 43ish GFDF recipes. I haven't done paleo, so I'm no help there. Also, I haven't tried all the ones I added and some of the ones I added didn't come from a dairy free source, so they had regular butter or milk in them and I substituted something else. Now sure yet how they'll turn out.

I am so excited!!! I have put together a weekly schedule that let's me sew, work (so I can buy all those Christmas presents), make Christmas presents, and study for my own self education. If I stick to this plan, I should be good. But I realized after making it, that it didn't take into account the fact that CASTLE starts up in a month!!!! Eep! :willy_nilly: Where is Castle going to fit?

I got a teacher's planner from a teacher supply store. I only homeschool one and he's only in first so I don't know that my experience counts for much, but it works well for me. I prefer having things in my hand to read instead of trying to view them on the computer.

Wake up, don't eat anything, get in the shower, dry heave, get out, eat whatever I want :D I know it's awful, but it's the only thing that saved me through three pregnancies