I think it's really up to you. I like having a separate spreadsheet for each week, because I also print them out, so that there's a page for each day, and then I check off stuff we do, plus I add extra notes, like "went swimming" or "listened to Such-and-such in the car" at the bottom. So it's my backup in case my school district ever questions me, and it's my personal family journal too. If I need to adjust something, I just cut and paste it to the appropriate day.

Cast iron here too. And my copper-clad stainless Revereware stockpot is going strong still (14 years). Actually, so is my Farberware plain stainless stockpot, though I did have to screw the handles back on and buy a new lid once.

I list all subjects straight down, one after the other, each lesson/assignment in a line. Then I use a second spreadsheet for each week. I copy and paste from the first sheet onto the second. The first sheet is all in order of how I want them on the second sheet, and I include blank lines too, so that that for history, I click and copy the title "History," then "SOTW, chapter 1," then a blank line, and then it's paste to the second sheet. It's a little cumbersome, but it works nicely.

Yeah, because everyone majoring in elementary ed is a genius. I may not have a degree in education, but I can do my fifth grader's math problems (which is more than I can say for the people who were in my math for elementary ed content [not even methods] class in college, who were taking the class for the third time because they could not do the math). And I know that Lichtenstein is a country (unlike my eighth grade social studies teacher, who argued back and forth with me about it). Random housewife. Harumph.

I believe it can also be called a carpet reducer, if it's between carpet and hard floor.

I use a Kleen Kanteen stainless bottle myself, and I love it. I don't have the insulated one, but I also don't generally like my drinks ice cold. I only put water in mine (and DD only puts water in her KK -- hot pink for the tween!), but DH has a big (40 ounce, I think; DD and I have the 27-ounce ones) KK in black that he uses for iced tea, and he seems to be happy with it. I have the stainless screw-on lid, and I like it, but it's squeaky sometimes when I open it. I don't have the wide-mouth bottle, but even the regular one can be a little messy for drinking while moving. Therefore, I got DD the sports bottle cap for hers, and she seems to like it. My KK is four years old and has been used heavily and dropped several times. It has a couple of tiny dents but is still in excellent shape. (DH's and DD's have a few nicks in the color, especially around the bottom, but otherwise, they're fine.) I would absolutely recommend Kleen Kanteens!

I remember needing a heavy pad and a tampon at the same time as a teen; it was not fun. I really hope my DD does not have the same issues, but wow, that is one very good reason I'm glad I homeschool -- dealing with all of that at school was awful. I like my Diva Cup a lot, but that's after several babies. I'm undecided as to whether I'll suggest it to my DD or not. Probably not if she was eight, though, but maybe if she needs it at eleven or twelve. I remember using tampons at thirteen because of cheerleading and swimming. I've also read things that say that the materials in regular pads actually cause more bleeding, so I'm going to look into cloth ones for my daughter. I know my flow has decreased since switching to the Diva Cup, but at the same time, I've also only had a handful of cycles in the past decade, all while breastfeeding, so that may well affect things too.

I'd probably prefer a book from the library, or a website, and there seem to be plenty of those out there. If I were to pay for something like that, I would want it to be for one-on-one help/motivation/assistance, more than a general overview.

I avoid peak sun hours as much as possible and use hats/protective clothing when possible as well. When those are not enough, I use organic sunblock. I don't use stuff that contains retinyl palmitate, because it's been shown to increase skin cancer rates. :( (Now, given the choice between that and a bad sunburn, for my older children, if the organic stuff wasn't available, I'd use whatever was available, but if organic wasn't available, I'd just not take the baby out.) We just had our eleven-month-old at the beach, mid-afternoon. We're all fair, and two of my older children burn very easily. We brought a beach umbrella and tried to move it as the sun moved; it helped a bit, but the baby is mobile. I put him in swim shorts and a t-shirt and used a wide-brimmed hat on him too. (He pulled it off once, despite the chin strap; I put it back on, and then, thankfully, he left it alone.) We were out less than two hours, but just to be safe, I did put a tiny bit of organic baby sunblock on his exposed skin. Not a speck of sunburn on him. For those who wear their babies -- hats are great for the heads, but beware that little feet can be exposed too!

This is one of the reasons that feeding infants is such a hot button with me. My mom says she was fed with the above mix, and she feels that it really set her up for a lifelong addiction to sweet foods, weight issues, etc. Yes, breastmilk is very sweet, but her experience (and my FIL's experience with huge allergy problems) is what has made me so careful about my own babies. You don't interrupt the sterile gut with sugar at my house. :)

I would be beyond livid. Even aside from the fact that all of my babies have been exclusively breastfed at that stage (allergies being one huge concern), I'd be so angry I'd have a very hard time calming down. Feeding infants is one of my very major "hill to die on" issues, because I believe that it can have very rough life-long consequences. Thankfully, my parents and ILs have recognized their own health issues, and they are very respectful of how I choose to feed my babies; if they felt the need to sneak something, especially something sugary, to an infant, that would honestly be one of the things that would cause me to bar visits from them. One, giving something to a baby without parental permission is just wrong (and if this is the other parent, that's a whole different can of worms). Two, there's no redeeming value to soda, and it is actively harmful to teeth, bones, taste buds, etc., plus it's horribly addictive. (The case can be made that juice provides vitamins, or even that since it's so hot maybe a little water wouldn't hurt even a breastfed baby, but the same can't be said for soda.) Three, just WHY??? Babies don't need soda to be happy. Ugh. This is beyond "oh, I was eating pizza/crackers/cheese/whatever and the baby wanted some." I'm sorry for the mom and her baby. ETA: I see that this is the other parent. Oh, dear. That would be so heartbreaking. (And no, I don't think that a parent doing something that is well-known to be harmful should be swept aside because of "at least he's involved.") I would insist that he stop (unless there were also other hot buttons, like not using carseats or smoking around the baby -- soda for infants would come below those things, though it would be close), and I'd also insist that he come to the next doctor's visit. If he refused to come to the doctor, I'd be worried about what else might happen when he had the baby, and I'd be looking at what point was needed to warrant a court visit to sue for custody. I don't know enough about how that works, though, and I doubt soda alone would be enough to make that point, but if the ped says no to it, maybe it can get added to a list if she has other concerns. (Yes, I'm married to my children's father, and I do think that sometimes Mom needs to keep her mouth shut, but if my DH was actively and often showing a disregard for the children's well-being, I'd be doing something -- whether that was never allowing him to take the children anywhere if I felt he disregarded basic car safety, or providing all meals/snacks myself if I felt he was totally clueless, or even removing them and myself from the home if he was smoking in it. When we have a question, we research and share our reasonings and have discussions; if someone can't do that and listen to basic health advice about children, that would be a problem.) Otoh, if Dad is otherwise a good dad, just clueless in this area, that's different, but then he should also be willing to listen to the ped's advice.

Don't rental applications ask for the names of all occupants, including the children? Can your landlord give you a copy of that that you could take in to prove that they live with you?

I wouldn't expect it to be a same-sex teacher, unless I'd specifically arranged it that way. I'd expect most driving instructors to be male, though our high school had one of each sex. I would think an adult should not be in a car alone with a student, period, regardless of sex; I think that's just prudent and common sense. When I took driver's ed, there were always two students in the car; if your usual partner was out sick or something, the instructor had our schedules and could find someone who was in study hall or something during that class period to be the observer/second body. Anything else just seems unwise to me.

Well, sure, because then you have to buy another $5 worth of stuff to get a few more 1-cent deals. That is going to make for some angry teachers, indeed!

Yep, I will be buying the computer paper; I will need it eventually anyway, and it'll get me the 1-cent deals. Last time there was a rebate that was a Visa gift card, the online form gave me the option to receive a check instead of the Visa gift card, which was lovely.

Oh, that would make sense. Schools here do seem to start pretty early, like August 20th or so. When I was in school, we didn't start until after Labor Day, but then again, potential for snow days is much higher here than where I grew up, and I think there may be a few longer breaks in the schools here too. So starting earlier makes sense. Glad to give the heads-up! :)

I see that Staples is starting their one-cent deals tomorrow, according to their website! Looks like glue, pens, and crayons are the deals, plus 25-cent printer paper after rebate. I'm just not entirely sure if that's for all stores, or just some of them, because I know last year, the hot deals looked like they rotated among our area stores, and they don't have a preview for next week for my specific store, but I thought I'd send the heads-up.

This year I am outsourcing picture study. Except for what directly pertains to our history studies, I am outsourcing picture study to co-op, because they will study several works of each of three artists. Instead of feeling guilty that I didn't get to picture study, I'm completely releasing it and being grateful that co-op will do it excellently. I'm also outsourcing writing by using WWE. No work for me, just open and go, and no guilt. I suppose math is also outsourced for DD, since I'm using Saxon, and it's open and go. I'm using Miquon and Singapore for DS1, but I've done the planning and tweaking and all myself. In either case, I will be doing the direct teaching of both, but I do like math and like teaching it.

Yes, this. I still have to go through the toy bins from time to time myself, and two of my kids are 7 and 10. Also, for toys with lots of small parts, even if it's just one set of things but still has a lot of pieces, my limit is 2, maybe 3, days, before I make them pick it up. I've found that after 2 or 3 days, the blocks, for instance, are still mostly in one room, but by the 3-4 day mark, they're starting to get scattered around the house more, and by 5 days, it's worse, and so on, and then it's a much bigger pain to clean up (and gets mixed in with other things more too). Also, for things like blocks or Legos, or a particular setup, I'll let them leave a small amount out if they clean up the rest in a reasonable amount of time. Keep out the Lego ship you're building, or leave the block wall to show Daddy, or leave the doll tea party setup for the next day, but clean up the rest of the Legos, blocks, and play food quickly and without grumping. Also, certain things stay in DD's room (namely her dolls, but also the pink Legos that she doesn't want mixed with the general bin of Legos downstairs, and her collection of horses). In theory, her room gets cleaned every day so that it only takes a few minutes, but in reality, that doesn't always happen, so she might have a mess of doll clothes or horses on the floor. I'm okay with that, as long as a) the main parts of the house are cleaned up easily, and b) I make sure she cleans it up before she adds a second layer (and then it spirals, so that before long, the room is a disaster and very difficult to clean).

That is great! And your son's comment about the rice cereal is adorable! I've been nursing pretty much continually for a decade, and my older children nursed until they were old enough to remember nursing. None of them has ever questioned a baby nursing, and it's all they know. They're somewhat of small lactivists. :) I never cover up at home or away, though generally, my shirt covers my breast so that nothing shows; if we're out in public, I'm more careful that the baby doesn't pull my shirt up, as he likes to do, but really, if there's a slight flash at home, eh, no big deal. I am pretty modest, but I do tend to treat normal things as normal, including breastfeeding. None of my older children has ever said that they thought it was gross; they just see that their baby is getting fed, and they're happy because he's happy. They think little facts about breastfeeding are really cool -- like, they think it's really cool that the flavor will change slightly, depending on what I eat, and they'll tell the baby stuff like, "you will get to taste that later when Mommy nurses you." I hope my future DILs appreciate my sons' attitudes about nursing. My MIL nursed both of her children, so it was what DH knew, and I have certainly always appreciated his support and acceptance for nursing.

I don't do much sorting, and I wash most things on warm. I used to separate DD's tiny baby clothes from DH's dirty work clothes, but now that he has an office job, I rarely need to separate his stuff. I wash diapers separately from anything else, and they get a cold prewash, a hot wash, and a hot second rinse. If I find something that needs special attention -- stained, delicates, potential for bleeding, etc. -- I pull it out and set it aside. It gets washed when I have enough to make a load of that type of stuff. Yeah, sometimes whites and light pinks get dingy, but I think that's not because of things bleeding; I think it's because of our very, very hard water. The diapers will get dingy after a while, and they're never washed with anything that could bleed on them.

Two hours is about right for my rising second grader, including math, independent reading, and hands-on projects, as well as other seatwork. It's possible it may tip to three as math and reading increase, though. (And that's aside from PE, not to mention other things he chooses to do that have educational value. But two to three hours for the concentrated academics.) Two hours definitely won't cover it for my rising fifth grader. Three might be possible if she works really diligently. Two to three hours is also about what it takes for the concentrated, mom-intensive work; that's what I expect to put into the day, aside from the work that they do independently, just asking questions as needed. Also, we do subjects that aren't covered in public school for elementary students, namely French and Latin, for my fifth grader. So I suppose that does factor in, and those are mom-intensive subjects, since I'm learning/reviewing along with her.

Alice and Julia were on my short list for DS3 (along with Katherine, Abigail, Elizabeth, and Caroline, sigh). Annie or Anna came to mind when I read your first post. DH really likes Bridget/Brigid a lot.

I'm very fair, and my DH is a redhead. Needless to say, my brother's kids got all the olive in the family, and mine got all the fair. I only use sunblock on them if they'll be out for extended periods of time, or during peak hours. The boys have swim shirts, which rock so much; DD has one but doesn't care for the way it feels when she swims. She burns easily, though, so she wears sunblock even if I don't think the boys need it. Generally, we stay inside between about 10 and 3 and use sunblock on the rare occasions that we need to be out then. For little ones, I just keep them out of the sun. I'm not a very outdoorsy person, so it's not so tough to do that. My parents watched the older kids at the pool last year so that I could stay inside with the newborn most of the time. I put sunblock on him for the first time last week, when we were at the beach, but I also kept a shirt and hat on him, and we had an umbrella -- no coloring on him at all! (It was one of the organic baby ones, so I felt comfortable with that vs. sunburn.)