I've been thinking about this for awhile now. My oldest did not like to color. Several people on these boards suggested that having him color was necessary to strengthen his hand muscles. It's only been a few months, but I can definitely tell there's a HUGE difference in his abilities. I doubt he'll ever want to color for hours and hours, but he can do it. Secondly, my DH has some natural talent for drawing and painting. He's wanted to develop this talent over the years but has only recently found time to work on it. I wish I had encouraged him earlier; it is pretty amazing. My best friend's husband is in the animation program at BYU. Their admission to the program is based on their sketch book. I was completely shocked when she told me that he wasn't all that great of a drawer when he decided he want to go into animation, but through lots and lots of practice he became skilled enough to make it. So yes, it's possible you haven't found his "thing" yet. It's possible that coloring and visual arts may never be his thing. But no matter what creative routes his interests take him, there will be a lot of work, practice and failure involved. No one becomes a master at anything because they automatically do in perfectly; they become a master because they keep trying even when they make mistakes and they learn from those mistakes.

:iagree: Totally agree. Plus Harry wasn't even frozen in place (sorry, can't think of the name of the curse that made him unable to move). Having him stand there, able to help, but do absolutely nothing takes away from him being a hero. It was so stupid.

You would think so, but my sister goes to the movies and hasn't read the books and is ALWAYS asking questions, "Why did they do that? What did that mean?" Arrrrrrgghh! READ:banghead:THE:banghead:BOOK!:banghead:

This is why I don't spend money on any licensed character merchandise. I'm not going to spend a lot of money on something they'll outgrow so quickly. I need things that will last. And honestly, growing up I had more problems with Jasmine being a hypocrite, Aurora "falling in love" with a stranger after an hour, Snow White making all those animals do the work;), Ariel "falling in love" with a guy she'd only seen but never talked to, etc etc. The only one I had no issues with was Belle. Yes she was pretty, but that wasn't enough to make up for the fact that she read and had a mind of her own. They all thought she was weird. Gaston only wanted to marry her because she was the prettiest in the town, but she saw through him. I do like the added scene in the DVD, you get the feeling that Belle's and the Beast's relationship was based on actually enjoying each others' company.

No, you are not the only one. In my opinion, the movies are poor adaptations of the books. And believe me, I understand the difference between portraying something in the written word and portraying it in visual format. I understand why the movie makers felt they had to make things flashier. But the way the screenplays are written, the characters' motivations often make no sense. If I hadn't read the books, I would have had no idea what was going on. They leave things out because of time (necessary) but pick it back up in later movies with no explanation. My husband and I have dissected these movies over and over again. Well, we pretty much do that with all movies. But these movies leave so much to be wanting. Number three is the one I think was done the best; the kids were better actors than in 1&2 (with the exception of Hermione being overly melodramatic, which she does in #4 too) the story made sense, it wasn't so long because they weren't trying to shove in superfluous details. The only qualm I have with it is that it never explains how Lupin knew about the map (because he was one of the four who created it). If you hadn't read the book, you were left guessing. Major plot hole, imo. We are super big film snobs though. There aren't many that come out that we like

I'm trying to get to the point where I'm not beating myself up over all my failures. *sigh* it's a long road. For me, I consider getting to my son's schooling enough to not beat myself up over. I consider it quality time with him. I consider washing a load or two of dishes (by hand, so they're small loads, but it's very time consuming) enough. I consider the living room being clean enough. I consider making healthy meals enough; nothing fancy, but not junk food. Is it perfect? No, but it's so much better than how I've been most of my life, so I consider it a success. I am a perfectionist by nature and when I fail I took it very badly. My husband had to stress over and over (and over again) the fact that I needed to take baby steps and I'm not a failure as long as I keep trying. So that's where I am on my baby steps and some days I'm still not very good at that and get overwhelmed and want to quit, but I just keep trucking.

Also I really like this interview by Professor Steven Harper of BYU. He's the man I took my LDS history class from and can I just say how amazing he is? He sure knows his stuff. He talks about how he wants his students to make him verify his facts. He doesn't just want them to passively accept everything he says, he wants them to question what he knows and how he knows it. And learning is an exercise in study AND faith. I think that's very important. That's probably what I was trying to get at in my last post. In any kind of learning you need to study and you need to have faith.

Someone more eloquent than I can talk about purgatory. Although I had a friend in HS who said our spirit world was similar to their view of purgatory. Whether that statement is true or not, I have no idea. I'm not really familiar with Catholic purgatory and I'm not sure how familiar she was with the spirit world. But since I know more about LDS history, that's what I'll talk about. Enough things make sense logically. Joseph Smith's mother wrote a book about him. She talks about what he was like as a child and adolescent. He was not a liar. When he told his family what happened, they believed him. I don't know that many 14 year olds could tell a story like that and have their own family believe them. Second, it's not all that unheard of; Moses saw a burning bush, Samuel heard a voice. Visions do happen. And yes, I'm with you, I do believe most of them are fake. (ETA: Oops, poorly worded. I do believe the visions in the Bible actually happened. I do believe in Joseph Smith's visions. I do believe there are other people throughout history who really had visions. But for the most part, I do believe a lot of people are making them up/lying/deceived. I follow the Matthew 7:15-20 "by their fruits ye shall know them") Third, according to him, he only had basic reading, writing, and math skills. He came from a poor farming family. They didn't have much education. Yet he somehow managed to translate and publish a book that no one with that little education could have ever pulled off. His own wife Emma even said he couldn't write a well worded letter on his own. Fourth, the Book of Mormon has 11 other witnesses besides Joseph Smith. Three of those witnesses claim to have seen the plates, seen an angel and hear the voice of God testifying that it had been translated by the power of God. Eight different witnesses claim to have seen the plates and look at them without the heavenly messenger or voice. Out of those 11 men, 8 would fall away from the church (at least 2 came back, but I'm not sure about any of the others). Even when they were no longer members of the Church, not one would ever deny that they had seen the plates and/or seen the angel and hear the voice of God. And believe me, it would have been greatly to their advantage if they had. Their testimonies can be found here. Fifth, 11 other men who never deny their testimony, claim that Joseph had an obscene amount of gold (the gold plates). And he and his family were very poor. And yet he never used it for financial gain. Eek, there is so much. But in the end, it does come down to faith and a personal revelation. Nothing I've said here could be enough to "convince" someone logically. It could be enough to make them think about it more or start to wonder if it's true, but even that could be rationalized away. If you want to know more about the History of the Church you could read this book. It's our manual for LDS history. I would also recommend the biography by his mother. The leading authority on Joseph Smith's history is Richard Bushman who wrote this book. Others might have good recommendations.

Nope. As long as both parents are in agreement.

Taken from the Church's handbook: "Birth Control It is the privilege of married couples who are able to bear children to provide mortal bodies for the spirit children of God, whom they are then responsible to nurture and rear. The decision as to how many children to have and when to have them is extremely intimate and private and should be left between the couple and the Lord. Church members should not judge one another in this matter. Married couples should also understand that sexual relations within marriage are divinely approved not only for the purpose of procreation, but also as a way of expressing love and strengthening emotional and spiritual bonds between husband and wife." And taken from The Family: A Proclamation to the World: "The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife." I have met a few LDS families that practice the quiverfull "how ever many the Lord sends us" but essentially the leadership of the church leaves it up to the parents. To us, all children are blessings, but it is ok to use birth control. It's between us and the Lord. I've never been asked anything about it in my interviews with leaders (for things like callings and temple recommends). ETA: I have known various families who have used every type of bc from the pill to sterilization to NFP to barrier method, etc. It is never asked about by any of our church leaders. The only cases where the leaders would support an abortion is in the case of rape or incest.

PAGE awards.

I totally understand where you're coming from. My oldest is the same way. What I had to do is give him the carb/starchy item AFTER he was done with the protein and veggies IF he was still hungry. I need to make sure he was getting a varied diet and he would always eat the carb/starchy item first, declare himself full and not eat anything else. So now, when we have fajitas, he gets the chicken and veggies first and if he's still hungry when he's done, I'll give him the tortilla. If it's something like a stir fry, I'll just give him less rice, more meat and veggies and mix it up for him so he has to get through the veggies to get to the rice.

Heck no! :D We just have to put in the business plan that it made the top 25%. Not as good as top 10%, but you just keep on trucking :driving:

Didn't make it :sad:

I thought they were typos at first. Now I think people say "carp" on purpose so as not to say the actual word. I'm not sure if they're worried about getting in trouble with the mods or just don't want to use foul language or if it's a regional thing. *shrugs* I think it's funny because I had put a lot of thought into why people were doing it, but to me it's just nothing to get worked up over.:001_smile:

My oldest will officially start Kindergarten on August 22. We sorta did K last year, but never anything very formal. We also took time off when baby girl was born. If he were in PS, he'd be starting K this fall, so I'm just calling it K even though he does some 1st grade work. Technically, I don't have to report him or record hours until next year, so this is my practice year to make sure we can do school consistently.

For the youngest grades, we only got the workbook and Teacher's Guides. I don't use the teacher's guide much, but they do have the pattern in them for the wood pieces. I just cut out the patterns and traced them onto foam sheets and cut them out. Cheaper than the wood blocks. We also already had a small chalkboard, but we don't even use that.

Thanks guys! Only a few hours left and I'm getting so anxious/nervous/excited/impatient. I'm hoping so bad it happens but am trying to not get too upset if it doesn't. I am the most impatient person in the world. Having to wait is killing me:svengo:

My "practice" year begins on August 22. Coincides with the local district.

oh and fiber is considered a carb, so when you look at a cup of white flour and it has XX amount of carbs and a cup of whole wheat flour, there's not less carbs because the fibrous part is taking up space. It's all the same.

No, carbs and protein have 4 calories per gram. Fat has 9 calories per gram. Processed carbs like white flour are converted to sugar quickly. Whole wheat flour has fiber and a little oil (fat) that can slow down the conversion process a little, but it will still be converted to sugar. As far as satiety goes, I've heard that protein, fiber, and fat will help keep a body satisfied longer. So in our meals, I try to have a healthy balance of all three. Not too much fat, but a little bit of the "good fat". Lean protein (so as not to get too much fat). And a good amount of fiber. For my family, I've found it works pretty well.

Excellent!

I'm so sorry. :grouphug:

No, it's just the message I give myself. Like if other people can do it, there must be something wrong with me because I can't.