Also, OP, I see in your sig that your oldest is six. In that case, you really don't have to worry about anything for a while longer. PA doesn't require reporting of any type (unless your child has been to first grade or higher in a school) until the beginning of the school year when your child is eight. For instance, my DS1 turns eight in a few weeks and is in second grade (at home). I have not had to report, do testing, make a portfolio, etc. for him yet, and I won't have to until next school year starts. I'll turn in paperwork for him before July 1 of this year, and I'll start his portfolio then too. Pauline's site covers all of that and is really helpful, but I thought I'd point that out. We moved here when DD was almost 5, and it was nice not to have to jump into paperwork and portfolios for a few years.

From what I understand (and I'm not a shooter, but my husband is), you can practice in a group, but you don't have to be friends with anyone to begin with. At my DH's club, there's a specific weekly practice where everyone knows that people will be there. They'll set up situations for each other, and they're always happy to have newcomers of any skill/experience level. No cliqueishness. People can also practice on their own, but for the type my DH does, it helps to have someone else to time you. Then once a month, they have a competition for anyone who wants to participate, where a few people will set up rules/targets/shooting scenarios, and everyone gets to shoot in turns. My DH is very introverted, but this is just enough socialness for him (and his club provides lunch after the matches, so there's some casual hang out time too). Then there are also bigger matches that involve more people (and trophies) if he gets really interested, but of the people who shoot monthly matches at my DH's club, only a few do the bigger matches. The nice thing is that you have to do a qualifying test every year, so you only compete against people of similar skill, and the emphasis is on enjoying yourself and improving yourself -- very fair to newcomers, as they can still take home trophies because they won't compete against the more experienced guys. Check out idpa.com for some info. There's also ipsc.org and uspsa.org, but I know less about how those work. Also, yes, he'd probably be very good at shooting. My DH is also very good at carpentry and tools and does very well when shooting.

Scrunching may be perfectly comfortable -- after all, she is still used to being scrunched up from the womb. However, just be careful that she's not letting her head drop onto her chest; that can compromise breathing. I would try tying the Moby tighter. I'm an ex-leader of our local babywearing group, and we tell people that if you put your hand on the baby's back, and she curls up, she's too loose. How are you wrapping the Moby? With a newborn, I prefer to wrap so that the X crossed parts are supporting the baby, with the cummerbund part across the belly on the outside for an extra support. (Otoh, when using a woven wrap, I prefer to put the cummerbund next to the baby, X on the outside) I tie a Moby really tightly with a newborn. A sling might help, but a lot of people find that those are tricky with a baby who still needs head support. I would keep trying with the Moby, and if it doesn't work, look for a mei tai, like a Kozy. A stretchy wrap like the Moby works for me up to about 16 pounds before it just sags too much too quickly. And yes, I do a lot of popping the baby in and out -- I prefer a woven at home for the long-term support, but the stretchy wrap was my favorite for being out of the house because of the poppability.

At 4 months, it depended on the day, but generally, I'd have the baby in a carrier for large parts of the day. Typically, I'd throw on a ring sling to make breakfast, if I wasn't dressed already, and at whatever point I was dressed for the day, I'd put the baby in a wrap, and he'd sleep while I did schoolwork/dishes/etc. (I'm really short, so I have to switch to back carrying fairly early when cooking and doing dishes too, but I'd try to time that so the baby didn't fall asleep for a long nap on my back.) If he was awake, he wasn't happy (and that's been the case for all of my babies) in a carrier on me if I was sitting, so I'd try to time things so that I saved certain things for while I was holding/nursing the baby. (Like, it was easy to read history while nursing/holding the baby, so I wouldn't do that when he was asleep in the wrap.) If no big kids were available when I needed to shower, and the baby was awake, I'd put him in his carseat, and I'd occasionally lay him on a blanket or in the carseat if I needed to use the bathroom, take something out of the oven quickly, etc. Also, in the afternoon, so that I could tidy up/make dinner/fold laundry/etc. quickly, I'd sometimes lay him down on the bed for a nap. Sometimes my back just got tired, and the truth is that it's faster for me to do some things while not wearing him. I cooked a lot of dinners with him on my back, though, my Ergo being my preferred back carrier. (Alternately, I'd wait until DH was home to hold him. My big kids were really helpful, but I tried not to rely on that too much so that they didn't feel overly burdened; they loved when it was their turn to hold the baby, and I wanted to keep that, not have it become a chore.) But yeah, at 4 months, I wore him around the house a lot.

Would pistol shooting be appealing to him? Many of the people I know who are involved with that are around his age, and it's very doable when you're getting a little "creakier." As I was reading your post, I just had to say that he sounds like a really great guy. I hope he finds a fulfilling social outlet.

We don't generally use electronic learning, just paper and pencil (and we're low-screen with the kids too, no TV, very limited computer and movie time), but I also don't discount the benefits of electronics in learning. E-reading has been a blessing for my child who dislikes reading; she can't skip around easily, and it's exciting to her to use the e-reader. She prefers to compose on the computer, and if it encourages her to write creatively more, I'm all for it. I'm not opposed to some edutainment; I grew up playing Carmen Sandiego and learning a ton about geography and history from it, so I'm not bothered by the occasional drill game/app. And I think, at some point, some computer/typing skills are necessary in today's world. I guess I figure everything in moderation, and electronics have their place, I suppose. We do mostly paper, pencil, paper books, etc., but I have found that judicious use of electronics is yielding great benefits.

I have had a couple of really good days with my crew, in terms of attitude and getting work done in a timely manner, and I'm exploring why in particular. These are just my random thoughts. One, we started back to school last week but only did a few subjects. Yesterday, we ramped it up to full work. I think ramping up gradually (I did that back in the summer, starting with a couple of subjects and adding more every few weeks) really helped the kids. Two, DD is not a fan of reading; she's easily distracted and doesn't like to be still. I gave her my cheap e-reader, and that has been a huge hit. She can't skip around easily, and she feels grown-up with the e-reader. She's been reading her schoolwork reading on the e-reader before bed. So not only is she enjoying reading much more, but she's starting school each day having already completed one subject. Three, I do a lot of stuff as a family, rather than too much independent reading/work. I do Latin with DD; I don't make her write the answers very often, just answer them orally. I don't require her to read a lot of history independently; yes, she probably could (and sometimes I do make her read an additional book), but she loves history and loves when I read out loud (she also really likes audio books; listening is a better medium for her), so I do what I can to keep history (and Latin, her other favorite subject) enjoyable. (Otoh, she's not a fan of WWE, but I do pull the "yep, you have to do it" card with her for that.) Four, for math, we have a deal that if she gets 90% or better on the tests, she only has to do the evens or the odds in the practice sets for the next five lessons (we use Saxon). I haven't seen a difference in her understanding in only doing half of the problems, and 15 is less tedious than 30. It flies by; 30 drags. Now that DD's had some really good days and has seen how beneficial it is to get her work done faster, she's more motivated to work faster and harder, I think. I also got noise-canceling headphones for her, and I allow her to take her work to her room -- these cut down on ambient noise distracting her. Screen time (a weekend privilege) is also tied to a pleasant attitude about chores and schoolwork, including how quickly she gets them done.

My second grader does: 4 days a week: -math -independent reading -read alouds -WWE -some sort of general skills -- spelling practice, math facts, generic social studies, etc.; when he finishes the current workbook, we'll switch to cursive for general skills -rotating list of extras -- music study, art (and picture study is every few weeks at co-op), religious biography, Shakespeare We like history a lot, so we do history pretty much 4 days a week too (and often the read alouds/car audiobooks are correspondent to history -- right now, we're listening to Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief and James Baikkie's Peeps At Many Lands: Egypt). The general aim is SOTW on Monday, the corresponding map work and supplemental books on Tuesday, more supplemental books, activities, and projects Wed. and Thurs., sometimes Fri. It doesn't always happen that way; we might spend more than a week on a topic, or we might do two SOTW chapters in a week, or we might do the map page the same day as SOTW, or we might skip history on days when we're out, but that's the general plan. 1 day a week: -science I am really, really pleased with my second grader's year. I really feel like he has a good balance of fun/easily enjoyable stuff, challenge, and skill-building. Two hours a day is usually enough (excluding read alouds), and that seems perfect for him.

When all else fails, my 4yo gets some time to play the Lightning McQueen or Pooh apps or he watches a movie. But I really, really try hard not to have that happen; it's rare that it does. Mostly, he is really good at entertaining himself, but that's a personality thing. He plays with his little brother sometimes, or he goes in the room next to us and gets out blocks, trains, Legos, etc. Or he sits in the rocking chair in our schoolroom and reads books to himself. When I can (and I make a point for this to happen), I read some picture books to him. He has some workbooks from Rainbow Resource that he can do if he wants to "do school;" usually I give him some direction, and then he works independently. I also have a box of early learning activities that I pull things from and put in his schoolbox (he insisted upon having a workbox of his own), rotating to keep it interesting -- pattern blocks, matching activities, fine motor activities, etc. Sometimes he likes just cutting paper into shapes. He has crayons but hasn't shown a huge interest in drawing yet. Sometimes he just wants to sit on my lap or bug his big brother (his favorite playmate/buddy), but in general, he'll be happy to play/work independently for an hour or two, during which I do the work that I need to do with the older two. Audio books would be a good option for little guys too, I think.

I would recommend checking out the books Physics Lab in a Housewares Store/Hardware Store; they have lots of suggestions for finding things in the kitchen and toolbox.

I'd set up a Notability note myself, but that's because I adore Notability. It is exactly the all-purpose keeper of lists that I've always needed, and I don't lose it. In fact, I set up a freezer inventory on it, which is really helpful. For your purposes, I'd maybe set up a heading for each month, spreadsheet (I use QuickOffice) or note, and list the things that need to be purchased in those months. In my case, I know that we use certain staples a lot -- frozen veggies, canned tomato products, chicken breast, coffee, certain household and personal products -- and for those that tend to be expensive if not on sale, I watch for sales so I can stock up. For instance, when I inventoried my freezer the other day, I saw that I was low on chicken breast and coffee, so I made a note to purchase those the next time I saw them on sale. Lo and behold, chicken was on sale when I went to the store last week, so I bought at least a month's worth. Today, there was the buy one get one free sale on the coffee we like, so I bought 8 bags, which should last us for about 8 weeks, which is roughly when the sale should come around again. Now that I write that, I think I will make a note of when I bought things like chicken and coffee so that I can, over time, track the sales. I do shop mainly at one particular chain of stores; I live minimum of 10 miles from any grocery store, so I would waste more in time and gas to shop at multiple stores each week than I would save (plus I rely heavily on the gas discount points I get from the one chain), and that probably helps, because I know what is a regular price, an okay sale, and a great sale at that store.

Like other people said, it's really not that bad. It's just a few minutes of work to comply with the law, but there is a LOT of leeway, and mostly it's just annoying that we have to do it at all, but it's not taxing. If you do have a choice about school district at all, ask around to see which districts are easier on the homeschoolers. Some like to try to overstep the law a bit and make things difficult.

Receiving blankets make really nice fitteds/pockets, if you sew. My prefolds are Chinese prefolds from jardinediapers.com, and I've been really pleased with them.

I "failed" the one-hour test with my first two babies but "passed" the three-hour miserable torture test both times. My first baby was still nearly 9 pounds, and my second was nearly 10. So I figured either I had GD that the test didn't catch, or I didn't have it and just grow big babies, and I decided that I was never going to do the test again because it was so miserable. So I declined it with my third baby and just ate sensibly. Baby was only 5 ounces smaller than baby #2 (probably because he was gestationally three days earlier). None of them had their sugars checked after birth but none of them showed any problems. So with my fourth baby, I again declined the test and ate sensibly. But since I am at higher risk for diabetes since my parents both have it, my midwife gave me a glucose tester and meter, and I spent a few weeks testing my own sugars in the morning and one and two hours after meals. I found that to be really helpful, because I could tell what spiked the sugars and what didn't, and I was able to correlate my meals to how I was feeling. Sometimes when I'm pregnant, I feel woozy and weird, but by testing, I was able to see that yes, I was feeling that way because of a particular meal. I did find that it was easy to keep my sugars in normal ranges if I observed a few simple rules (like, very limited carbs at breakfast), and it's carried over into how I eat when non-pregnant. So I would talk to the OB about doing something like that instead. (If I had not been able to keep my sugars in range, I'd have talked to the MW about official testing and treatment.) Oh, and baby #4? He was exactly 8 pounds. But whereas all of my others were about 41-weekers, he decided to appear at 38w3d. He was on track to be the same size as his big brothers. (And he was healthy after birth too, no sugar issues.) ETA: This is also what convinced me not to do the testing again. When I was waiting for the three-hour test with my first baby, the MWs told me to limit simple carbs, no juice, no bananas, no fruit in the morning etc. Three years later with my second baby, they told me to eat as many simple carbs in a day as I could, 300 grams, for three days before the test. So with completely different eating protocols, I passed the three-hour test both times, which convinced me that, for me, it's not a useful test.

Re: buildup. I do have to strip my diapers every so often, a couple of times a year, maybe. That just means a lot of hot washes with no detergent, and I want to say that I added lemon juice or extra vinegar too, to break down mineral deposits. I think the last time I did it, I also added some Calgon water softener or something (which I wouldn't use every time, because I've read that it can make the diapers less absorbent). I'll occasionally bleach them too. We were noticing that a wet diaper would really smell a lot, but stripping them took care of that problem.

I've been using cloth for a decade, and I love it, but there are some considerations. You're not crazy. I have very basic prefolds -- 2-3 dozen newborn ones (at about $18 a dozen from jardinediapers.com) and about 2 dozen larger prefolds (about $22 a dozen). I use wool covers that I knit myself (anywhere from $6-$12 worth of yarn, but there's a time factor involved), but I've also used PUL covers (about $5-$6 a cover, and you need about 6 that fit the baby at any one time -- different brands will fit differently at different times) and have liked them too. I've also used made-by-me fitted diapers and prefolds with snappi clips under Bummis pull-up pants, and that was a really good setup. I have well water, so I'm not paying extra for that, but even when I had city water, I still don't think it was anywhere near the cost of disposables. Hard to tell -- kids just mean extra laundry anyway, so who knows about the diapers alone? Cloth takes me a couple of extra minutes a few times a week, and maybe seconds more at changes. (And a few minutes now and then to relanolize the covers.) However, it does tie up my machine for a few hours, and when I don't hang the diapers, they take a while in my dryer. (I don't like them line-dried, winter or summer, though I do it in the summer sometimes; I don't like them stiff.) What works best is if I do the cold prewash (no detergent) at night, then set up a hot wash (with detergent and vinegar) to soak overnight, and then I leave a note for my DH (who leaves for work at the crack of dawn) to start the wash (which is also set to do an automatic second rinse) when he leaves. That way, they're done and ready to dry when I get up (or are close to it), and I can do the other laundry. DH doesn't change many diapers, so he doesn't care what I do. I'm better at the cloth, but mainly because there are subtle adjustments I make on the fly, so I know what will leak and what won't, and DH isn't used to all of that. If I want him to do a diaper and want to make sure it doesn't leak, I do have a couple of fitted diapers that work for nighttime, and they're easy for DH to use. DH does like that we're not paying for disposable diapers. :) ETA: Powdered detergent doesn't work here, as we have crazy hard well water. I use the cheapest free and clear detergent I can find at the store. It's usually the store brand, sometimes Purex or All. Sometimes I throw in some baking soda too.

I missed the original thread, but (((HUGS))) and prayers for your family. . .

I just acquired and have just started using the youversion app; it's free, and you can download several versions of the Bible to read offline (which I appreciate because I don't have cell use on the iPad).

Mine like to play with Legos, play outside, and run around with lightsabers/swords/other random battle gear. Snacks -- um, my kids are not picky. If I were bringing something to share, it would probably either be cookies, banana bread, or buffalo chicken dip. My favorite sea creature has always been a bottlenose dolphin. My favorite creature ever.

I've never had a particularly difficult labor/birth; the longest was 11 hours of labor and 1.5 hours of pushing (the first). They've gotten progressively faster. My fourth baby was a home waterbirth, four hours of labor, a week and a half before my due date (and about 16 days before we even thought he'd arrive). And one push. Seriously, one push. No crowning burn at all, just one big push. (My third was about two pushes; the head came out, and then the rest of him just slid out while I was waiting for another contraction so I could push his shoulders out, so I wasn't surprised that #4 was really fast too.) I got in the tub and wondered if I could feel the head since my water had broken. Yup, I could. I wondered if I could push. Yup, I could. Hi, Baby! It was amazing! My big kids missed it because it was so fast; DH nearly missed it (I barely managed to call him back, because he stepped out to call the big kids). *I* almost missed it. ;)

I melt a stick of butter and saute a few slivers of garlic in it; then I add the sprouts (I usually use frozen as well) and stir to coat them in the butter. I also sprinkle them with a bit of sea salt. Then I simmer, covered, until they're cooked through and lightly browned. They're very good this way! (They're better fresh and cut in half, but I usually have frozen on hand.) All of my children love them like that!

Buffalo chicken sandwiches: Pour hot sauce and some ranch dressing mix over frozen chicken breasts; bake until done. (This works really well in a slow cooker.) Shred cooked chicken with forks, and stir it around with the sauce, adding a couple tablespoons of butter. Cook a little longer, and serve on rolls with ranch or bleu cheese dressing for dipping.

I'm still getting used to my iPad, but I'm totally hooked so far. I don't have stylus yet, but I definitely think it will be helpful for writing, using the iPad as a whiteboard, writing on PDFs, etc. I love reading on it with iBooks and the Kindle app. I love Notability a lot, and I also have the Mango app for using Mango Languages through my library. I've gotten used to Dropbox, and I like how easy it is to go between the iPad and our desktop. I also got the QuickOffice HD Pro app, and it can do spreadsheets from scratch or imported from OpenOffice from the desktop. It can do word processing too, though I haven't created anything from scratch with that yet. Between QuickOffice and Notability, I seem to be well-covered. I think my biggest issue is going to be two of us needing it at the same time -- DD wanting to read or do her math on it (she loves working electronically) while I also need it for something.

I don't have a Kindle, but I do have the Kindle app on my iPad, and so far, I love love love it. I have really small hands, and it's very hard for me to hold a paper book comfortably with one hand (and my other hand is usually holding the baby); the electronic reader is so much easier for me to hold. I also love how easy it is to bookmark and change print size and everything. My DD, who likes reading but who is easily distracted, loves reading electronically (she can have fewer words on the page, less tendency to flip around, dictionary is handy, etc.). I also love that I can have a bunch of free public domain books loaded at any time, so we always have something to read with us. I big puffy heart (love that description by a PP) PDFs on the iPad and on my cheapie e-reader (E-matic); it is SO pleasant and easy to use them. The only thing I don't like is that I don't buy a lot of books new (can't afford them); we use our awesome libraries a ton, though. They have lots of paper books but not a huge selection of e-books yet. (But the ones I've gotten, via the Kindle app, are really seamless to download through amazon.)

My DH would suggest anything by Bill Bryson. I would also suggest Ann B. Ross's Miss Julia series and Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek Quilts series.