This must have been my MIL twenty years ago. Her boy had never shown one bit of interest in girls or dating *at all,* and then in what probably just feels like a blink of her eye, he's about to be a father of four. I think he went from zero to "all her, all the time, ever" faster than they ever expected. I feel for you. :) Just be yourself and be friendly. It's a great compliment to you -- a girl thinks your baby boy is pretty great! She's got good taste.

Around here, you probably could leave the keys in the car, and you can probably leave the door unlocked, and nothing would likely happen. Speeding is generally the biggest crime issue. But I wouldn't leave the keys in the car anyway, just in case. (And I've had a car stolen before, when we lived in Boston; it's not pleasant.) Also, at least one of our cars has locked itself without us in it, but with the keys in it; DH got out to pump gas, leaving the keys in the car, and the kids and I got out for a bathroom break. Car locked itself, with our only key in it, several hours from home. Was a pain to get someone to open it too. So I am a bit paranoid after that experience. (I do now keep a spare car door key and a spare house key in my bag; it's unlikely that I'd lock both the house door and car with both my regular keys and my bag inside one of them.)

I would definitely consider myself to be an intactivist and am absolutely against routine newborn circumcision, but I think this is a very slippery slope. I don't think it's the government's business to ban or require circumcisions, breastfeeding, vaccinations, hospital or home births, home or private school, raw or pasteurized milk, etc., etc. I believe that some of those things are wrong and/or harmful, or that they can be, but I sure don't want the government deciding that for me! What if the government trots out a bunch of studies showing why public schools are better for children and ends up making home educating illegal? No thanks. I'd like my government to focus on doing things for the great good of the country, like keeping the roads decent and keeping our country safe from terrorists; I can make my own decisions about how to raise my family.

My parents are at 4 children, 6 grandchildren, 1 stillborn granddaughter in Heaven, and 2 more grandchildren arriving in a few months.

So far, none of mine have dropped before labor at all. In fact, obviously DD must have dropped, but I didn't really notice it, probably because by the end of labor with her, I wasn't walking around much. I distinctly remember, though, with DS1 that when I went to walk upstairs after several hours of labor, I had the "bowling ball between the legs" feeling for the first time ever and thought that was kind of cool, to have something be new, even though it was the second labor. However, I apparently carry ridiculously low. Every. Single. Pregnancy. Someone has said, "oh, you've definitely dropped -- you'll never make it to your due date." So far, every single time, I've gone at least five days past my due date, and they're nowhere near engaged before labor. I've started hearing it already this pregnancy, and I'm only 33.5 weeks. While it would be a pleasant surprise to be done in 4 or 5 weeks, I'm not expecting the baby to appear for another 7 weeks.

If they'll accept you (and it sounds like they said they will), and you have access to cash to pay the deductibles and co-pays (which it sounds like you do), I'd probably go for it. I had one of those plans for a long time, through two pregnancies, even, and it worked out very well for me. I did pay for some midwifery expenses separately, but it was still far less than other insurance coverage (which might not have covered the MW anyway), and it limited my liability for a c-section or other major medical expense. If you have one that will cover a basic checkup occasionally, even better.

My kids each get 20 minutes a day of screen time, more for DD if she finishes a chapter book (which means the others also end up getting a bit more along with her). I allow more occasionally, in bad weather or if they've just gotten a new game or movie, but 20 minutes is the general standard. I deliberately set it very low so that one, DD would have some incentive to finish books (as I've mentioned before, she tends to start tons of them and not finish) and so that I'd be more comfortable with allowing more on occasion.

None of mine have had a pacifier; I just don't care for them. The only times I've ever wished for one were a couple of times in the car when the baby wasn't hungry but wasn't being soothed by sucking on a pinky, and when stopping wasn't possible. But none of mine so far have hated the car, and those were very rare occurrences. My older two both sucked their thumbs a handful of times, kind of as a "huh, look at that" sort of thing, but other than that, they just comfort nursed a lot, which I prefer over thumbs or pacifiers. My younger son would be fed and changed and sleepy; I'd tuck him against my chest in a sling, and he'd find his thumb and fall asleep. It was very sweet. That only lasted until 4 or 5 months, though, and then he stopped doing it. We've had long-term nursers but no long-term thumb suckers.

My son is about your son's size. His primary seat is the Graco MyRide, which I got specifically for the extended rear-facing capability. I love the seat and would recommend it, except that it's very big and may not be the best thing for frequent switching (and it's a bit more than you wanted to spend). I just went through the search for a good secondary seat for my son, for our other vehicles, and one option was the Nautilus, except that it's pretty expensive. I asked around and ended up getting an Evenflo Maestro. It should meet all of your concerns -- price, easy to install, safe (has nice side wings, moreso than the other similar seat we had, which was a Graco CarGo), and it will fit for a long time. Its harness will last until 50 pounds (assuming he doesn't outgrow it by height first) and then will last as a booster until 100 pounds. It installs easily, both with the vehicle safety belt and with LATCH. At my son's age, I consider it reasonable for him to be forward-facing for occasional use, especially since it's so expensive for a second rear-facing seat. (Not to mention that having him RF'ing in our secondary vehicles causes a whole host of other issues wrt the other children's seats.) I have one complaint about the Maestro, and I think it would be the same with any similar seat. In our pickup truck, the truck's rear seat back is so vertical that the Maestro is also very vertical, and if DS2 falls asleep in it, his head flops forward. We don't have that problem when we use the Maestro in our Ford Focus, though, and he naps comfortably in it in that car just fine. So unless you're using a pickup truck or some other vehicle whose rear seat back is very vertical, I'd vote for the Maestro. I think ours came from amazon and was about $80.

LOL, I know how that goes. I don't know that we'll get to everything that is on our list for each history era next year -- the library might not have a book in at the right time, or we'll have too much else going on to do a lot of extras, or the kids will be less interested in a particular area, so we'll cover it faster, etc. But it's all there, and I can pick and choose closer to the applicable time. I like keeping it all in a computer file via Word, so that all resources are listed together. If I wanted to do something like that for math topics, I'd just make a file and call it "multiplication ideas" or whatever. And for stuff that I printed but didn't necessarily get to, I'd just put it in one of those 3-prong folders that Staples sells for a penny each in the summer. So for instance, the next time we study the Middle Ages, I can call up the Word file and look at the 3-prong folder, and then it will be easy to tweak and add new stuff if needed.

Absolutely, I would consider Good Masters, Sweet Ladies to be a must-read. My children loved it, and it gives a great overview of what life was like for different classes. I didn't check to see how young your children are, but if you haven't read it already, my children (5 and 8) also loved The Castle Diary of Tobias Burgess, by Platt. We did like the children's version of the Canterbury Tales by Marcia Williams as well. Yes, it's a bit crude, but the children giggled a little, accepted that that was just common for the time period, and moved on; they know potty humor doesn't fly around here. (However, I know that for some kids, that's an ongoing issue, so if it is, I'd probably be careful with the CT.) And they wholeheartedly also enjoyed the versions of Beowulf, King Arthur and his Knights, and Robin Hood that we read, all of which we found at mainlesson.com.

I could understand if it was only temporary, like until he had to report income again, which I think is once or twice a year in my state. I would still consider it to be unethical of him, though. But I don't understand how lottery winnings are not income -- don't you have to pay taxes on lottery winnings? If so, isn't it income?

I end up googling "ideas for teaching X," plus looking through whatever books we have at home. I'm not familiar with TOG, but could you just make a typed list of the topics for it and then when you find ideas, just put them under the topics? That's what I do, whether it's a worksheet that I think will be good, an art project, a video, a supplemental book, a field trip, a game, a website, etc. Then when we are ready to start that topic, I just decide when is the right time for whatever supplements.

Depends. My DH is a decent cook, so they wouldn't go out/order in. Sometimes I'll start something ahead of time, and sometimes I'll deliberately plan something that DH likes to cook. Last night, I had a meeting, so I put a pork roast in the oven and started a vegetable cooking, and I told DH what other options were available for sides, so that he could pick something. Other nights, I've left pork chops or burgers that DH just cooks whenever he's ready. He doesn't really care either way. (I'm not a huge pork fan, but DH and the kids are, so I will often leave those for nights when I am gone. And, actually, even if I'm here, he does the burgers because he's better at getting them done just the way everyone likes than I am.)

I'd try building a bigger arrival time gap into the schedule. That seems to have worked well for our co-op this past year. For instance, instead of saying, "Start at 1 pm," with an implied earlier arrival time, we said something like, "Arrival, 12:45; Announcements and opening prayer, 1:00." I'm very bad about being on time. Partly because the area where I grew up *never* started anything on time, ever. A 1 pm start time meant that a large portion of the people wouldn't be there then, and it was a given that 1 pm really meant 1:10. I do the stuff like get the bags ready the night before and all, but I'm really horrible at judging how much time things take. I'm really working on it, and it's one of my big goals for next school year. The lateness thing wouldn't really bug me too much (I'd just adjust the times as needed so that everyone still had a firm end time in mind, even if that changed from week to week), but not being prepared would. ETA: If it was only a few people who were late often, I'd just start on time, and let them play catch-up. But if it's pretty much everyone, well, maybe it's not a big deal to them, so I'd just adjust the times as needed each week.

On a regular week (ie not a crisis/busy/company coming) week: Monday -diaper laundry -children's laundry -sweep the kitchen -general tidy -- there's usually some leftover clutter from the weekend. Tuesday -adult laundry -clean bathrooms Wednesday -sheets and towels -catch up laundry -clean the upstairs (bedrooms, office, large hallway/library area -- vacuum, dust) Thursday -diaper laundry -children's laundry -clean the kitchen (sweep again, mop, wipe kitchen surfaces, etc.) -evening -- full tidy of the house (I like to do this every day, but if it doesn't happen, we really try to pick up everything that's out on Thursday night, so that Friday's cleaning is easy, and so that the house is nice for the weekend.) Friday -adult laundry -touch-up of the bathrooms -clean schoolroom, living room, and playroom (sweep, vacuum, dust, etc.) Not that all of that gets done every week, but that's the goal.

We've stayed there, at Powhatan, in one of the condos that looks exactly like that one. It is very nice and comfortable. We had a first floor unit, and it had a hot tub.

We've already cut back on non-essential driving, and we're increasing our budget for essential driving. We'll also rearrange our routines so that if I have to do all grocery shopping when DH is home, so that I can take the more fuel-efficient vehicle, so be it. Fun stuff for the family has already been cut way back and will be cut more, if that's what it takes to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. I'm really, really hoping that gas doesn't go up much more, because if so, we'll cut out DD's dance class, and that will break my heart -- she lives for dancing, and it's the only outside activity, besides our homeschool co-op, that any of the kids do. Co-op would be the next thing to cut.

I love Caroline! It's on my list for this baby, with Joy or Grace as the middle name. Caroline Elise Caroline Isabelle Caroline Ruth

I'm so sorry this choice has had to be made. Even for the greater good, I'm sure it is still very painful and sad. I have been praying for all of the people affected by the flooding and will continue to do so. :grouphug:

And at least as many tractors passing your house as cars! And golf carts -- people around here really love their golf carts too. I can't remember if I mentioned this upthread or not, but one really nice thing about eastern PA is that within about 3-4 hours, you can be in all sorts of places -- DC, Baltimore, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, New York, Williamsburg, beaches, mountains, great camping spots, culture, etc., etc.

Everyone I've ever asked seems to love the Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna, and it sounds like they hold their value very well when used too, fwiw. I really loved my Ford Expedition before it died, but I've never driven nor insured a minivan, so I can't compare the two. It had a lot of leg room for the riders, especially in the middle row, but with the third row seat installed and not flattened, there wasn't a lot of cargo room. It looks like minivans might actually have more. Plus the Expedition got terrible gas mileage. We're probably going to get a minivan next time we buy a vehicle.

Yes, that. And now I want carrot cake with all of those goodies, and cream cheese frosting.

It's actually gone down here this past week (south central PA). It was hovering right at $3.99 for regular for a while, with a few pricier places hitting $4.00, and then this past week, it was about $3.89. We were out Wednesday in a nearby town, and I thought it was $3.89. Then when we passed that same place a couple of hours later, and it said $3.83. I'll take what I can get!

I want to use some of the selections from Tales from Shakespeare next year with my 4th grader, with the 1st grader listening a bit too. What tales have your children enjoyed?