YES! Beyond the words of encouragement and advice from so many I've never met in person, Little Izumi let me come over to her house and she taught me how to knit. It was some desperately needed time out of the house for me and I didn't have to be alone (I usually go to the library) but I like talking. Linguist Mama told me about a Yahoo group for a homeschooling group that meets in our area. Again, very desperately needed. Veritaserum taught my childbirth class. I may have paid her :D but I would not have managed a natural birth without it. I will be forever grateful for her expertise. And Natasha in DFW is a great friend.

D'oh! Didn't look close enough. They're free if you have Prime, not for Kindle. NM

I've been contemplating going GF. Just as an experiment. A friend gave me a link with all these free cookbooks. She said some of them aren't always free. You can always use the Kindle for PC program if you're like me and don't have a Kindle. Hopefully these can be of value to someone. :001_smile:

Breakfast? We had eggs and bacon on toast. It is Pigby's day at school, so I try and make sure he's got a really good breakfast so he can make it to his first snack. Lunch? You don't want to know. See my thread from yesterday. :blushing:Dinner? I had thought of something, but now I can't remember what it was. I'm hoping it comes back to me. Maybe we'll just get Subway. Apparently they're having $5 on all their foot longs this month and we need to go to Walmart. What are your plans today? Since Pigby's gone and I have a little free time, I'm trying to plan a gluten free menu. I want to try it for one month and see if it makes any noticeable improvements. I'm scouring Azure Standard for things I want. Are there any signs of spring where you are? It's been raining the past few nights and very sunny the past few days, but it's really windy out there. Dislike!

Thanks everyone. I just woke up from a much needed nap. For a completely separate reason, I haven't been able to sleep as much the past few nights. I wish I had time to comment on everyone's post, but I still have to go make that dang Hamburger Helper soon (I think the boys were scrounging around and eating Pop-Tarts while Chuck and I were sleeping. Yup, we bought Pop-Tarts for breakfast).:lol: Well, I hadn't really connected the two when I posted, but the food and the CIO were essentially the straws that broke the camel's back. I've been so tired and so stressed for so long, I've been a witch. A really big witch for far too long. It got to the point where I had a mental breakdown and confessed to DH that I thought I ought to leave him so that he could marry someone who would be a better wife and mother. I went into counseling soon after. The food just makes me feel like I can't do anything right. I have so many balls to juggle: cleaning, homeschooling, patiently dealing with the kids, working, patiently dealing with DH, exercising and loosing weight, and cooking. It seems that I can only manage about 3 of those at a time, the others will inevitably fall and then it's not long til everything else does too. Then we have to pick up all the fallen pieces. I've done that baby girl's entire life. :grouphug: It's the only way I could get her to eat because if I did it downstairs, she'd rather watch the 2 year old's antics. Thanks, I know I should have done it awhile ago, but my last thread on CIO made me feel so guilty even for thinking it. I know there were many supporters of it, but I figured I could make it awhile longer. Yes, we are back to styrofoam plates and plastic forks. I've bribed myself with a nail polish at the end of the week if I can do one load of dishes every single day. At first the bribe was if I could keep all the dishes clean. Then if I could do two loads a day. Now it's one load a day. There's definitely lowering expectations here. DH has also suggested we go back to baby steps, so I've been trying to keep the kitchen table clean all week. It's been nice having a clean table and at least some clean dishes. Even if the rest is a disaster at least I have those :D All your ideas is how I generally try to manage, but things kept falling apart more and more as my mental health declined. My hope is that with her sleeping, I can get some sleep and not be so crazy. And yes, I love the girl named Chuck. 10 bonus points to whomever knows where all of their nicknames come from. Anyway, I have some friends coming over on Saturday to make freezer meals. Hopefully it can help me get back on track. And a big thank you for anyone who said it was ok to eat from a box. Before children, that was all I did. I think they'll be ok for a little bit.

three times now I have bundled the kids up and walked a mile down to the grocery store. Then I buy Tuna or Hamburger Helper. I know :ack2: right? *sigh* The good news is that we're walking two miles and actually getting some fresh air. The bad news is that it's all processed garbage. We've also been buying V8 drinks, not the 100% juice kind. I put a little in their water in an effort to get them to drink more (They're both extremely dehydrated) I know it would be easier to wash some pots and pans and dishes and make something. But I'm tired of washing dishes and I'm tired of cooking all the time just to hear "I'm hungry" 20 minutes later. Also, three nights ago I made baby girl cry it out. After that one night, she's slept through the night every night. Ok, someone hand me the bad mommy of the year award. And give me a kick in the pants to not be such a slacker. (If anyone else has any other confessions of any type, feel free to do so here. No judgment from me :D)

We had to borrow the book from the library for a long time. When we bought it, the first thing I did was take it to Office Max and have them chop the spine off and spiral bind it. I HATED having to try and hold that huge book open with one hand and point at the words with the other. After he got bored reading out of the book, I'd just write the words and sentences on the white board or chalk board. For some of the patterned words like ank, ink, and onk, I'd write the ending on the left side of an index card and then write the various beginning letters on the right side of the card. We'd practice those as necessary.

A similar thing happened recently. He said it doesn't seem like I'm putting for any effort at cleaning. I know I'm not doing as good a job as I could, I know I could do better. But he got a very serious threat that if he wanted to see what no effort at all looked like, I would be more than happy to show him and he would be responsible for setting it right again. We had a nice discussion and all is right again. I know I couldn't handle his job, but I don't think he understands as much that he couldn't handle mine.

Wouldn't it depend on the weight and height of your child and the weight and height limits of your car seat? Do you still have your manual?

the notebooking pages in this thread come with a schedule. I think it's a two day a week schedule only, no option for 5 days a week.

During the winter it's at 70 during the day and 67 at night. In the summer we have the swamp cooler running 24/7 and it's still 82 degrees downstairs. I hate to know what it is upstairs.

I am so sorry. Praying for you.:grouphug:

My son loved Charlotte's Web. I also downloaded a bunch from the Booksshouldbefree.com site and he's listening to Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. I've never heard or read that story, but he seems to like it. Other ideas: Little House on the Prairie Books, Narnia, Beverly Cleary books, Peter Pan, Secret Garden, ummmm that's all I can think of. I don't know your thoughts/opinions on Harry Potter, but I've been listening to the ones by Jim Dale. They are absolutely amazing! He's the best audiobook narrator I've ever come across. And I loved him in Pushing Daisies too; he's just phenomenal.

I know that the entire set only costs $ 604:D I totally wanted to buy the whole thing; my husband suggested I see if I could get them from inter-library loan. I picked up beginning algebra, geometry, and the second algebra last night. I am so freaking excited! I'm only three chapters in beginning algebra and there are already several things that make so much more sense to me. I've always hated algebra, many tears were shed and many math books were thrown in high school. They give a typical textbook question in the beginning and I didn't even know how to answer it! How pathetic is that? But so far, this book does a great job explaining the concepts of math. I have the books for another month. I'm going to go through them as much as I can and if they are really, really good still, I would buy them for my own self education so I'm ready when my kids get to high school math.

it's not really a classical method of homeschooling; it's an unschooling method of homeschooling.

Not quite what you were looking for, but this is how I organized all our school things. I am planning on doing a blogpost with details, but it won't go up until next week

I know. It is hard to understand. I sometimes feel that way about parents who push their teeny, tiny kids into regular TV or movies. The stress in that industry is so high. I don't know, it is sad that kids are being exploited like that. Whether the parents are doing it for the fame or the money, it seems to be a two edge sword.

How many seasons have been shown? How many have been filmed? What kind of lying/toying do you think the producers have done? If they've already done multiple shows, then yes they probably had to sign contracts for more than one season. If it's the first, I would assume the producers would want an out in case they aren't happy with the family being filmed (too boring, not enough fan base, etc etc) And don't forget, some people would rather be "famous" and on TV and would willingly put up with a lot just to achieve that end *coughcoughJerseyShorecoughcough*. It's possible the moms like it and/or are trying to upstage each other with crazy behavior in order to ensure they get screen time.

I doubt they're getting alarms for their homes. I've never seen that show, so I don't know what the premise is (if the people are traveling or whatever) The production crew is fairly large and I would assume that someone is providing security, not only for the Duggars, but to make sure the crew doesn't get mugged and the equipment stolen. That sort of thing. And so far as NBC providing town cars, it depends on who is footing the bill. (I am not sure what they're weekend entails of but am assuming that either NBC or TLC has covered the costs). When filming, production crews need to control as much as they can. They have enough "situations" come up and for the sake of costs need to keep disruptions to a minimum. So someone is probably providing them a car so that they don't have to deal with crowds, delays, hunger, potty breaks, etc etc. What the production company provides depends on the contract. What goes in a contract is a wide range of possibilities. Have you ever heard the stories (usually about divas) who wanted white pillows, a certain brand of champagne, red plates, blue M&Ms only, etc in their dressing rooms? That's because it was in their contract. So far as reality TV show stars, there's no real way of knowing until someone leaks the information. It varies from contract to contract

Yes, a few months ago it only took a day or so, but now people are waiting a week (maybe longer, I don't know). They usually give up waiting and ask someone to send them an invite. Those go through right away.

You can also find a thread about pinterest on here and browse everyone's boards and click the "repin" button when you pass your mouse over the picture. You can post it to an existing board or create a new one. (Just a word of warning, this is what people are talking about when they talk about how addicting pinterest is. I've wasted lots of time today and yesterday browsing through multiple food, homeschooling, and organization boards. But oh my heck, 90% of these ideas are so fabulous)

GAH! I've had it for awhile but resisted the addiction by only pinning what I came across myself. Then last night I went through the several threads about who's on it and looking through their boards!!!!! Hi, I'm Megan and I'm a pinterest addict. :glare: http://pinterest.com/meggie84/

dp

Anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours, depending on what he wants to do. He's only in kindergarten, so I'm not really requiring anything. He usually wants to start with math, then do spelling. Grammar is the one he most often wants to skip.

Pinned it! Can't wait for the DVDs to come out.