We left a charismatic, prosperity-gospel "new religious movement" based on the healing campaigns and "prophetic ministry" of William Branham at the end of 2011. That was the religion in which my husband and I were raised from birth. I sort of was dragged by God kicking and screaming (not literally of course!) to a Southern Baptist church where the pastors lean very Reformed. Lots of doctrines of grace coming over the pulpit. We are in a suburb of Louisville, KY where the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is becoming very Calvinist in its leanings. Heather, I am so happy for you that your church situation is sorting itself out. I was planning to recommend that you seek out like-minded families for a church plant of some sort- so what is coming about sounds wonderful. I would just be lost without a church family and a place for corporate worship. Our church gave Faithful Women... away on Mother's Day last year and it was an amazing read! I also love Radical! Taking Your Faith Back From the American Dream by David Platt. (But maybe everybody else has read that!)

I love cupcakes, and kilts, but I'm a bit ambivalent wrt Johnny Depp. Sorry gals. I think it's funny that nobody has to designate a "fun chat" thread because nearly any thread can turn into a fun chat thread at a moment's notice.

Do you accept Baptists who are Reformed-ish?

Oh, wow, Katie Ann and Sally Ann are so pretty. I also like Molly Ann, Jeri Ann, Ashly Ann, Dorie Ann, Glory Ann, Heidi Ann, Jolie Ann, Julie Ann, Jessie Ann, Jenny Ann, Janie Ann, Jacey Ann, Jeanie Ann, Joanie Ann, Ginny Ann, Holly Ann, Josie Ann, Laurie Ann, Lindy Ann, Roxy Ann, Sadie Ann, Terri Ann.

Aiming at Cheerios?

For sixth grade, I think Adventures in the Sea and Sky would be fabulous! Otherwise, maybe Quest for the Ancient World (or Middle Ages).

Does this make you think of The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler? I have sometimes contemplated running away and living in Wal Mart... (not really! ;) )

This is exactly what I was thinking! I was hoping somebody wanted a nice lit-based program planned out in scholaric.com, and would send me a book list and pay me by the hour! My dream job!

I'm going to join this challenge! I printed the Jan. calendar. Day 1 - Set up a donation and selling collection station for the items you declutter. I have a corner of the basement laundry room set aside for this purpose. Day 2 - Create binder for household notebook I have one. Day 3 - Create template for daily to do list that works. I use the FlyLady one, which is in my notebook. Day 4 - Declutter or make place to store old Christmas cards. I am saving these for tomorrow's final party of the year in case my Mom wants to read them. Then I will TOTALLY do the gift tag craft- love that, thanks! I was wishing I had bought tags Dec. 26th on clearance, but we have been sick.

We are doing AW for the third time (two diff kids, one on two diff levels). Love that program. We also did AS1/AS2, which I loved. We tried IRTL, HIH, and S&S with less success, mostly for the same reason as Annie Laurie wrt preschool, and then because I was combining and tweaking too much. I am going a more mom-scheduled route, but I always go back to WP title picks because their visually attractive materials and adventurous lit readers (not so emotionally heavy as many of SL's titles) appeal to us.

It depends on the Aldi store. We lived one city to the west, and the Aldi was gross. Spills on the floor, rotten produce, smelled of spoiled milk. I went in ONE time to buy something quickly and was so skeeved out I could not bring myself to return. Fast forward 10 years. We were really needing to pinch in the grocery budget. I decided I will try Aldi again, once more. In our new town, Aldi is very clean and respectable. I was pleasantly surprised that, like Meijer and Kroger, they had milk without hormones and bread without HFCS. As a matter of fact, I have found that most of their things are made with regular sugar. I can even get premium ice cream without HFCS at what would be rock bottom sale price in any other store. Except for really busy or lazy weeks, I always go to Aldi to stretch my grocery pennies. I prefer to bring my own bags anyway, to save trees and plastic consumption.

Welcome to the homeschool world! I think it sounds like a good start. Adding science and history/social studies type content will be a great way to round it out.

There is another set of resources on the Southern Indiana side of the Ohio R., here in the same area. The Christian group is called Heart and Home.

:iagree: This is the right thing to do. It follows your gut and the generally recommended methods for dealing with anyone's dh's parents.

We have a front loader and I hate it. The ONLY good point is kids can reach the controls. Spot treating is very difficult. There is no such thing as running a small amount into the tub and soaking. (you have to soak in a sink). Clothing tangles up together and when I pull some out, other clothing clings to it and drags onto the floor. We have an unfinished basement, so I have to put a rug there, otherwise our clean wet clothing is on concrete. ICK. I also think more spots "go through" the wash. I have begun using powder Tide instead of liquid, because the liquid was leaving shiny marks on shirts, etc. Everything is just a pain with the front loader. I'm not a fan of the dryer either. It seems to take forever.

That is true of the church where I grew up. It is not true of the church I attend now as an adult, although there are certain churches viewed as having "less truth" than ours. A lot of other churches are viewed as "different flavors". I should say that the church I left was a cult-ish fundamentalist church and the church I am in now is considered conservative evangelical.

Here's part of ours with my boys:

I had the same problem. I ended up choosing the first option because I do believe salvation is only through faith in Jesus Christ. However, as an adult I found that the church my parents attended taught some things not a part of the Christian faith. So we are in a different church, so I chose the third option on question two.

I am INFJ and I find that your description of the quandary over expectations versus reality is very much a part of my life. I have not figured out what to do about it. I am actually quite panicked that what I think ds11 should be accomplishing does not come close to what I enable him to accomplish. It's to the point that if I could afford Christian school for him I'd likely send him. Although then I become panicky about how we would accomplish the homework and scheduling. I'm a mess.

How did it happen that you got stuck with feast prep? I am thinking that there would have been no feast if there were multiple adults present who refused to participate in prep. We would have all gone out to Cracker Barrel or something and I would have been Cinderella at the ball with the rest of them. (Naturally I agree that your dh was WAY out of line in every way, as well.)