I doubt that....some very uncomfortable questions get asked of President's all the time. Now....these are journalists that have the PRIVILEDGE of being able to attend the White House briefings and I'm sure that they have to be careful about offending the President so that they don't lose that priviledge, which after all is very profitable to them and the news agency they represent. I've seen many reporters ask "hard" questions but in a respectful way. The President's advisors constantly coach them on the possible issues that will come up besides whatever they are meaning to discuss, so he should have had some type of response. I think Obama, more than any other President I can recall, gives a lot of "off the cuff" remarks. Of course, as those continue to backfire on him he'll likely stick to the practiced answers more, but that is unfortunate. I really would prefer to hear HIS response, not the hashed over, well rehearsed and well thought out responses that we are used to from other Presidents. Even after leaving office past Pres rarely make off the cuff remarks.

My understanding was that this was not the topic he was planning to discuss but that a reporter asked the question. Yeah, the Pres should have deferred answering until he knew more, but like the rest of us, he was probably reacting to the initial news reports. I can say that the initial reports had me a bit angry......but as the truth came out now I really am leaning towards to the police being in the right in this situation and Gates overreacting. President doesn't have quite the same opportunity to easily change his view as I do, because no one was asking my opinion before I knew more. Past Presidents would have probably deferred the question.....Obama doesn't do that nearly as much as past presidents have, and MOST of the time I appreciate that, this however wasn't one of them. It'll be interesting to see if he retracts that comment now that more is known.

I have wondered how the media arrived so shortly after this incident appears to have started.....don't know about this town, but around here the media don't typically follow the police around for what seems small time burglary......so how is it that the police arrive, request ID, have him step out on the porch and there are media there to take photos already? Almost sounds like it was staged? And sorry, but if he was getting disorderly, then he DESERVED to be arrested, black, white or purple, you don't do that with the police. The police were completely justified in requesting ID, that had nothing to do with his race it had to do with a phone call saying that someone was breaking into a house, arriving at that house and finding the door jamb damaged and a person inside. I had to break a window once to get in when one of my kids shut the front door while I went to the mailbox and then wouldn't open it (we now don't have those types of locks on the doorknobs, lol). The neighbor heard the glass break but didn't see me crawling in and called police. They arrived while I was on the phone with the glass company. I readily explained the situation, showed them my ID and then because my Driver's License had an older address on it, had to show them other proof (thankfully the bills were sitting on my desk, lol). They said they figured I was the homeowner as I had 3 little ones running around and most burglar's don't bring the toddlers, lol. But it was procedure to require photo ID and proof of address. I am Hispanic in an area of a lot of "illegal" immigrants, but never once did I feel that the white cop was racist. He was just doing his job and making sure I really should be in that home. We've since changed lock types and hidden a door key, lol. While I will totally and completely agree that as a nation we still have a lot of race issues, I also personally feel that a many of the incidents are self-inflicted by the person because of their attitude. The police had no way of knowing if this gentleman belonged here or not, only ID would prove that...and it appears he chose to mouth off instead of comply with a lawful request. My husband has a chip on his shoulder about race as well, and I do understand and even agree that he has been wronged quite often, but I also believe that he brings a lot of it on himself with that chip. It's obvious and I believe that it only escalates the situation that may not have ever gone there except for his confrontational attitude right off the bat. Obviously, we don't know the whole story yet with Gates, and may never know the true story as both sides are growing further apart in their telling of it, but I wonder how Gates would have felt if he'd come home to find his house broken into and the police telling him that the guy they found in there said he lived there and so they left without proof. That wouldn't have gone over very well either.

:iagree:

Banana Empanadas 1/4 cup raisins 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup shortening 2 tablespoons plain yogurt 3 1/2 cup cold water 4 large ripe bananas, coarsely chopped 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, or to taste 1 tablespoon cold water 1 egg white Soak raisins in hot water for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F In a large bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Mix in shortening using a fork, until the entire mixture is in pea-sized pellets. Stir in yogurt, and just enough of the 1/2 cup of cold water to hold it together in a dough. Roll out dough to a square 1/8 inch in thickness. Use a knife to cut into four 8x8 inch squares. Don't worry if they aren't perfect. Drain the raisins, and mix with the cinnamon and chopped bananas. Spoon some of the banana mixture onto half of each square, leaving at least 1/2 inch of dough exposed at the edge to seal the edges. Fold the dough over the fruit, and pinch the edges together. Make sure that they are secure. I like to roll the excess dough up around the edges and then pinch it until it's thin again. You'll want to have about a 1/2 inch closure in the end. You can trim the edges a bit to make them more aesthetically pleasing. Place empanadas on a baking sheet. Whisk together 1 tablespoon of cold water and egg white; brush over the tops. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

I throw a banana or two into store bought cake mix to add some nutrition. If the bananas are very ripe I don't worry about adding any more moisture, if they're still a little on the hard side then I'll up the applesauce that I substitute for the oil by a little bit. I also will throw a banana into pancake or waffle mix, again for added nutrition. And I know you didn't want smoothie recipes, but you can also drop a banana into a milkshake.....wonderful this time of year!

Not your mother's banana bread! Banana Peanut Butter Bread 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 cup white sugar 2 eggs 1/2 cup peanut butter 2 bananas, mashed 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup chopped walnuts Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease a 5x9 inch loaf pan. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs; beat well. Stir in peanut butter, bananas, flour and baking soda until blended. Fold in walnuts. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Banana-Caramel Pie 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (If you don’t want to go to the trouble to make dulce de leche, you can use caramel ice cream topping) 1 cup graham cracker crumbs 1/2 cup butter, melted 4 bananas 1 1/2 cups whipping cream 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract To make dulce de leche, place the unopened can of sweetened condensed milk in a saucepan, and add enough water to cover half-way up the can. Place the saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 3 hours, adding more water as necessary. Remove from heat and cool. 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 2. Combine the graham cracker crumbs with the butter in a mixing bowl until evenly blended. Press the crumb mixture evenly into a 9 inch pie plate. 3. Bake pie crust in preheated oven until lightly browned, 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven, and cool on a wire rack. 4. Open the can of dulce de leche, and pour half, or about 3/4 cup, over the pie crust. Slice the bananas and arrange half in a layer over the dulce de leche filling. Pour the remaining dulce de leche over the bananas. Top with remaining banana slices. 5. Pour the whipping cream into a mixing bowl, and beat until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla extract; continue beating until stiff peaks form. Spoon the whipped cream over the bananas. Chill at least 1 hour before serving.

I have found that one of the most important things that I am teaching my children is not history, math, science, bible, language arts, music, art, etc. It's the LOVE OF LEARNING. If you teach this to your child and are lucky enough that it sticks, then you have given them the tool to fill in the inevitable gaps. And the love of learning also means that the things that you DID teach them, but they don't quite remember clearly when they're older will bring them back to learning it again. But, since I do understand your question, lol.......there are a lot of books that give a snyopsis of what the author feels that your child should know....one of the more popular is probably "What your ___ grader should know" (fill in the blank with K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc., I believe they only go up to 6th grade however). The author of that series is E.D. Hirsch Jr, from the Core Knowledge Series. There is also a website coreknowledge.org. Some others along this same line: What your child needs to know according to the Bible....state... by Robin Sampson What your child needs to know when by Robin Scarlata ____Grade Success by Amy James and many more. Check your library for these as they may not be as useful as you really think they will be, though it is a comfort to go through and come away with a rather short list of what you think you "missed" that is truly important.

In my own experience it was starting an emergency fund that was the hardest....I kept telling myself that we couldn't possibly save enough to make it worthwhile, so I never started. Then, guess what, an emergency came up and we didn't have the money. That motivated me that after we got through the emergency (by borrowing money, yuck) that whatever it took I was going to do it. Chase bank sent us advertising that if we opened a checking account with at least a $100 balance that they'd give us another $100 (be aware that they term this "interest" and send you a 1099 for taxes, but hey, even paying taxes on it it's still free money!). My goal was to have 6 months income (after taxes) in that account in 2 years time. I gave myself plenty of time so I didn't feel like a failure, lol. That was my impetus to start.....and then it became almost a game to get money in there. When I bought something with a rebate....that check went into the account. When we sold non-school items to de-clutter I put that money in the account. School items that are sold the money goes to buying, used, the next school stuff we need, but that year we were gifted an entire math curriculum that covered all my kids! So the money we would have used for math went in the fund. Then from our budget I tried to put a little away each week as well....some weeks it was only $5.00, but you know what, $5 a week is $260 a year......while that's not an emergency fund, the point is that every little bit helps. My DH has always emptied coins from his pocket into a bucket....usually we just rolled that coinage when the bucket got full.....this time, it went into the fund instead of our regular account. Some weeks the savings on groceries can mean leftover in the budget....rather than blowing it on some special treat, I almost always (hey ya gotta have treats ONCE in a while) put it in the fund. It took me less than the 2 year goal to save up enough. I still will put money in there when it was an unexpected windfall and we have no immediate "needs", just because it now feels sooo good to have money in the bank and to watch it grow little by little. If I had waited until the budget allowed me to put a "substantial" sum in each week, even $50, I'd probably still be waiting, lol. Look over some of your extra expenses and see if you can find a way to tighten them up a little to have a few extra dollars. The kids and I used to go out to a fast food meal on errand day (since we were gone all day long). We decided that if we packed a lunch instead (we have a cooler that plugs into the cigarette lighter so that keeps lunch cool and safe) we could take that $20 or so a week and save it. We made jello in small 1/2 cup lidded jars (two dollars or so at Walmart) so that we could even have a dessert, something we didn't get at fast food! A little dab of whipped cream (homemade of course, as it's much healthier and cheaper) in each jar made it extra special. Took maybe 15 minutes of time on the weekend to make them for the upcoming week. My DH has taken his lunch to work for several years......this saves us enormous amounts of money because there are no fast food places nearby so an average lunch for him would be at least $10 a day and more like $15. The kids bake cookies or make extra jellos for his dessert. He often takes leftovers to reheat but when he's not going to be in the office he does just sandwiches, fruit, and the big "splurge" is we buy at Sams those individual potato chips. It was better than buying large bags that hte kids would then want to get into, or that half way through would be mostly crumbs, lol. He takes a thermos with a drink, usually iced tea. He started a trend in his office too.....within just a couple of months most of the office staff starting bringing lunches at least a couple days a week. I'm not sure anyone is as dedicated to it as DH is, he hasn't eaten out in years! I guess the point is that you can always find a few dollars if you really want to, but the biggest thing to remember is that even change will add up if you save it....it won't ever add up if you spend it.

You can also purchase this: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=100670376&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&keyword=dry_erase and paint it on any surface you want to make dry erase board. We have one wall that is dry erase and the other we used the paint on chalk board. http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100141287 The one thing we found was that we had to put double the coats recommended for it to really feel right. Might have worked with their recommendations but we decided to get another box and do it thicker for both dry and chalk. It's been at least 7 years or so, and it's still going strong. The chalk board is showing some wear and tear, but it also got the most work out when the kids were younger, especially the boys, lol. The dry erase goes floor to ceiling and the chalk goes up to the window sill.

Since snarky remarks probably aren't going to sway her, I'd turn it back around on her. And your remarks are based on what research? When she stammers out the typical lame "the NEA says so", lol....I'd tell her that part of what I hope to teach my children is that just because someone else says that something is so, doesn't mean that they should agree with it. That my children would be expected to research the facts and many differing opinions to come up with their OWN opinion especially if they were going to spout that opinion to others. And if that line of reasoning didn't work, I'd probably have to get snarky and tell her that part of the reason I DO homeschool is to keep my children away from uninformed ignorant people pretending to know more than they do, like her. Said with a sweet smile, lol. Seriously......I tend to just let this type of discussion slide. And now that my kids are older I also tend to let them be my pudding as in "proof is in the pudding" by saying "Have you met MY children and can still have that misguided opinion?" I like to think that I'm open minded enough to accept that not every family would benefit from homeschooling, and that public schools do serve a useful purpose to many. Not all teachers have that open mind though. Many teachers that I have met are open minded enough to realize that for many families homeschooling is a good thing, but of course there are other teachers who either are ignorant about what homeschooling really is, or more likely like this particular teacher, afraid that if enough parents homeschool she'll be out of a job! To be honest I think most of the NEA's argument are borne out of this fear, because I just cannot see their arguments when looking at my family or the other HS families with whom we have regular contact. I have yet to find anything significant that the NEA argues I'm not capable of doing at home just as well, though perhaps differently, than at public school. I do see a few families that are struggling, but then I look at some of the kids in public school and see year after year they are failing, or is it that the system is failing them? Our state recently reported the results of the AIMS test and are all excited because the scores are higher.....but they are still on the border of failing! This is something that I would NOT be proud of if they were MY children's results. I'd definitely be feeling like I had failed my child. Thankfully my children's test scores are well above the public schools so that bolsters my confidence that I'm doing good by them. I have two relatives who are career teachers....both fully support our decision to homeschool and while sometimes they voice concerns in particular areas, which I'm grateful for the "outside" perspective, they feel that I've done better for my children than the public schools ever could. And when I was first homeschooling and the rhetoric was about how parents haven't been trained as teachers and I was concerned about my abilities to even know if I wasn't doing a good enough job, they both, separately, had lengthy discussions with me about the types of courses they took to earn their teaching degree. It had a lot to do with educational theory and mostly to do with classroom management than it did with day to day lessons. They both separately expressed to me that a teaching degree would be mostly wasted in a home environment. One specifically said that if I had children who struggled or had special needs, then at that point some of their training in understanding different theory and methods of teaching might be useful, but that there is so much literature available to help me understand the specifics of the child in question (and mind you this was many years ago there is more now!). And every special needs parent I know has spend hundreds of hours researching their child's needs and how best to serve them, so I certainly haven't seen any evidence of any special needs kids being failed by homeschooling. If anything, I've seen many success stories because the parent can take the time and effort to cater to that child specifically, whereas expecting that from a public school with however many other children in the classroom is simply not realistic. But that's also not to say that all special needs kids would do better at home....it depends on the kid. I'm sorry that this teacher's comments got to you. Confidence in your own abilities is something that does take time, but when in doubt, I found that going to family and friends for a fresh perspective was very helpful, but only if they were willing to give me details and suggestions rather than simply calling my methods ignorant. That is worthless. And as I said, I didn't always get all glowing reports when I asked for evaluations.....but what I did receive was always helpful to me to see where improvement was possible. I can't honestly say that I've been able to make all the improvements, but then tell me what school has a perfect program either.

The no right click alone won't keep anyone with more than a little knowledge of Internet from getting your pictures....all you have to do is look at the source code and find the .jpg or .gif that was used. The no right click code and many other codes can be found at places like dynamicdrive.com. I don't blog so I don't know if these codes will work there, but if your blog is html than it should. I have to say I agree with the other poster that said you should probably keep the Christmas card photo off your website until you've mailed the cards out, lol. We use a montage of pics from the year for our cards because I can never pick just one. So perhaps that would work for you if your first choice was already distributed.....make it more a "year in review" than a single photo?

You might want to look at http://www.hena.us This is the Home Education Network of Arizona....another statewide homeschooling group. They will be having their 4th annual convention in March, 2010. HENA was created because there was a large population of homeschoolers who were very dissatisified by the turn that AFHE took......going from an all inclusive group meant to serve the entire state's homeschool community to a decidedly, and outspokenly, Christian group. Speakers with non-Christian views are not allowed. Period. And yes, as the other poster said, children aren't specifically excluded anymore because the year they were there was a lot of backlash....but it's very clear that they're not exactly welcome either. HENA on the other hand has a game room for the kids, workshops aimed directly at the kids, workshops that are for both parent and child, and a talent show at the end of the conference where any child that wants to perform is encouraged and welcome. The last two years the Homeschool Family Theatre group has performed their play at the conference as well....actors are all homeschool students and last year the play was written by a student. Next year's play is also being written by a student. I appreciate all that AFHE has done to keep Arizona's homeschooling safe and without state interference, but I have to say that I have not attended a conference in many years because of the serious changes that occured. I see from your location that you're near the border, so it's quite a drive for you. To be frank, I wouldn't make the drive for this conference. Although, if you want a large vendor room they will definitely have that, but to me it's not worth the cost just to visit vendors. And, from what I understand, advance sales of tickets has been way below expected......hence all the extra "reminders", lol. It's sad too, because when this group was open to everyone and tolerant of others it was a wonderful group to belong to and the conference was huge, crowded and the speakers were diverse and useful to everyone. By the way, before someone thinks I'm throwing bad apples....I am a Christian and friends with people on the board of AFHE. My beef is that I disagree with excluding others as they have and of having the conference being more about Christianity than it is about homeschooling. I have attended the 3 conferences from HENA and while there were certain workshops that were not my style, I was happy to see others able to enjoy themselves and gain encouragement for their style of homeschooling, or actually of unschooling. Unschooling is one of the choices that AFHE is openly against, to the point that one of the board members who runs a large newsletter does not allow someone known to be an unschooler to even subscribe, let alone post. She's very very particular about whom is allowed, and very open about that as well. Since it's her newsletter, well..... The HENA board will be making decisions about next year's speakers and Rebecca Keller and Susan Bauer are two that have already been suggested. They tried to get Susan for the first conference but that was the year that her new book had just come out and she was not doing conferences because she was promoting the book. I'm not sure why they didn't follow up on it in futher years, perhaps no one had suggested her again......but I know they're on the short list this year because I put them there, lol.

Actually you can buy alum and iodine at most Walmarts: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10535117 http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10324543

Here's part 2, lol: You'll want to sit down with your budget and see where you can eliminate things based on your expenses......we don't have a lot of extra curriculuar expenses around here so that helps us, but we have a lot of friends who spend money on art lessons, piano lessons, sports, etc. The Valley has a LOT of teachers and parents who offer classes to homeschool students for a charge and a lot of our friends seem to spend as much time in these as they do teaching on their own, lol......great if you can afford it I guess, but we can't and I'd rather do the majority of the teaching myself. If you spend a lot in this area, consider seeking out other moms to form a co-op that costs very little or nothing in exchange for each mom teaching to her strength. This time of year most of us are comtemplating next year's curriculum. Perhaps instead of buying new curriculum you can check out this thread http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1051093 for free curriculum and see if any of it will work for your family. We have an extensive book collection but it's volumes that will be used over and over, not books that we could borrow from a library for use in the curriculum and then would not really be used again. If I find that the kids are checking out a book over and over I'll often hunt for it used to add it to our personal library, but having a lot of books that only get used once or twice is expensive in both purchasing and space to store. I know a lot of folks on this board don't have great libraries near them, but if you're in the Valley, we do have great libraries. Using more than one library I have been able to find almost all of the "extra" books suggested in Story of the World. We bought the Encyclopedias because they'd be used over and over, but the chapter book recommendations we borrow from the library. In the few instances where a Valley library doesn't have the exact title, I check on Amazon to find out what's covered and there are always plenty of alternative books on the subject to substitute, but as I said this is pretty rare. Planning ahead works best for us for the libraries that are a bit of a drive....so we can combine other activities in that area to cut costs, and we only go to these libraries every couple of weeks as things come up due we get new books for the coming month. Yes we spend a few dollars on gas, but combining it with other errands plus getting lots of books all at once the gas is still cheaper than owning. The Valley also has a number of food banks....some that give food to those in need, others that sell a box of food at a great discount. Our food budget has been helped a few times by these when unforseen expenses have cropped up to wipe out the budget for that month. Food is probably the easiest one to adapt to what money you have available so it's always the last budget item for us after everything else is paid for. We don't spend much on fine arts, but we attend a LOT because we do student matinee field trips to the ballet, symphony, opera and several live theatre plays. We do this several times a month during the school year. DH gets left out of most but he's ok with that, and we typically spend less for all of us to go than it costs for just ONE person to go to a public showing. If you're in the Valley and this interests you, PM me for details. I know this has gotten ridiculously long, but hopefully there are a few ideas that will save you enough money. Most of all realize that you CAN do this.....most of us spend what is available in the budget....and it can be surprising to realize what you can eliminate or save on when you don't have the funds. Paying the required bills each month first to be sure they're covered and then knowing that whatever is left is what we have to spend dictates what we'll be eating or doing for entertainment but so far we've never gone without anything truly important.....but our perception of what is truly important has changed. Yes, I miss my manicures, but my daughter and I have a salon day and do each other....cheap and the bonding is excellent! I miss eating out, but have grown quite adept at copying our favorites, and sometimes even bettering them! YOU CAN DO THIS. If you've read this far, you certainly have the patience and perseverance to survive, lol.

We are also in Arizona....110 would be great, it was 113 today! First thing that struck me was you said your DH will now have an extra day off each week. If it's the same day each week, he may want to look into a part time job.....yeah it probably won't pay nearly as much per hour, but every little bit will help. Or maybe you can work that day each week while he takes over the homeschool duties...the kids may enjoy having a "new" teacher, lol. Even if you only get paid $10 an hour, that would be $80 a week or $320 a month. With minimum wage going up to $7.50 or something it's actually not hard to find $10 jobs....even the local In-n-Out Burgers pays over $10! It's not glamorous work but it's something. Anyway.....we had similiar paycut (25%)....here are some things we have done to weather it..... Eating out is now non-existent....wasn't much before but even ice cream at McD's is out. I've always loved to cook and now I'm making it a challenge to cook for less. The ads come out on Wednesday so our math and home ec lesson plan is to figure out the cheapest meals for the next week based on what is on sale. Round Steak is 99 cents at Safeway right now (only at select Safeways, otherwise it's $1.48 which is still cheap). I put one in the crockpot yesterday morning with mushroom soup, french onion dry mix, some spices and fresh mushrooms. Peeled and cooked potatoes (on sale last week from Ranch Market for 99cents for 10 lbs) and made mashed spuds to go under. Salad for veggie. Delicious, filling and plenty of meat for my meat loving DH. Total cost less than $8 for 7 of us. I of course bought several more of these to put in the freezer. By the way, this sale ends today, Tuesday, so rush out and get some if you can. There are lots of ways to cook this meat if you're not a mushroom soup fan, lol. If you weren't a big cooker before or have just a handful of standby recipes that you use, check out allrecipes.com or receipezaar.com, or get a couple of cookbooks from the library to try out new recipes. I find the online ones easier because I can plug in the type of meat that's on sale and come up with many recipes to choose from....a cookbook I might tend to want to go buy something not on sale to try out a recipe. This is a great time to do home ec with the kids and get them involved too....this is after all a life lesson that every child needs to know well, because short of some really really well paying job, they're going to have to cook for themself. We typically have a couple meals a month that are "meatless" and we even do "breakfast" for dinner once or twice a month. When sausages or bacon are on a killer sale I buy plenty....this plus homemade pancake/waffle mix and some eggs makes for probably our cheapest of all meals. On months where unexpected expenses come up and there is more month than budget left, breakfast for dinner is more common, lol. We never had Cable TV, but if you do you might consider eliminating that....most people seem to pay at least $50 a month. We use the library system to get almost any movie that is out there. Maricopa County Library system is probably the best for movies, but Phoenix and Chandler are pretty good too. Tempe has a lot of the oldies and a LOT of documentaries and other educational selections. If you live in Maricopa County you can get a free card to any of these libraries. I know many people on this board avoid libraries because they forget to return things and end up with huge fees. I do "library day" every Monday and combine that with other errands near the libraries. By having it the same day every week I don't have to remember what day something is due.....it's always Monday. If I by chance pick up something mid-week I will still renew it when I do my online renewals each Monday so it will come up as due on Monday anyway. We have SRP for our electricity and of course summer months that bill is killer with the Air Conditioner having to run so much. SRP has a program to equalize your monthly payment......basically they take the last 12 months of bills add them together, divide by 12 and you pay that amount every month. It doesn't SAVE you any money, but it makes the budget much easier to handle when the spring bills are the same cost as the summer bills. We also upped our minimum temperature several years ago and that saved us money (we keep it 85 degrees in the summer and 72 in the winter). To do this, start with a high temp and see if your family can adapt (adapting can mean a day or two of "discomfort" as you get used to the warmer house). I started out hoping for 87, but that was too high for us, so we lowered it one degree at a time and at 85 no one complained to loudly. We have lots of fans to blow the cool air around the room to fight hot spots and give a general feeling of cool because you feel a breeze. Also, be sure to turn the air OFF if you'll be gone from the house for more than 2 hours. Most people leave it on because they don't want to return to a hot house.....but that's expensive, and if you turn it back on as soon as you arrive home it cools down in about 30 minutes. We also don't use the air overnight....we have a fan blowing directly on everyone's bed to cool them. Another way we saved big was looking at our insurance deductibles. Obviously you'll want to take a hard look at your past use of insurance to determine if this is a wise step for you or not. Example: House insurance....we have lived here nearly a decade and never made a claim. Living in Arizona and not in a flood zone, we don't have any natural disasters to worry about....I'd probably not do this if I lived in Florida with hurricanes or Oklahoma with tornadoes or California with earthquakes, etc. But 10 years with no claim and high deductible means we have saved thousands of dollars. Health insurance, we got out of DH's employers insurance a few years ago....it's a small company (around 50 employees) and several of them have family with ongoing medical so of course that affects everyone's premiums. The company pays 1/2 the premium of the policy they offer, and agreed to pay us 1/2 of our premium if we went elsewhere so long as it's less than they'd pay if we stayed with their policy. First, our own policy saved us almost $100 a month for actually better coverage that the employer policy. Since we are relatively healthy and rarely go to the doctor so we never made their $1,000 deductible, so it was easy to up our own deductible to $2,000 saving another $80 a month. We figure it's really there for catastrophic illness, like a hospitalization or worse. That $80 a month means in 10 months we've saved that extra $1,000 deductible, so over the years we've saved a bundle. If we ever have to use it we have the means to come up with $2,000 immediately so no risk to our health/wellbeing. Car insurance we did the same thing.....since it's been 14 years with no accidents having a high deductible meant we save a lot each year, but we do have the means to come up with that deductible in the blink of an eye if it's needed. Obviously, you need to think long and hard about how you use insurance before making these changes....if you have had a few accidents over the years I wouldn't up my deductible....we'll probably be rethinking this in 3 years when our eldest gets a license. If you have ongoing medical needs or use your health insurance quite a bit each year, then obviously that's not going to work for you. But if you use insurance only for the catastrophic than a higher deductible will save you a lot of money. Other than the house we have no debt. We pay our credit cards in full every month (I use them all month long to earn reward dollars but never pay finance charges or a yearly fee. These reward dollars is my Christmas budget!). However, if you have a lot of debt scattered over several cards or loans, you might want to consider a consolidation loan. Applying for it now might be wise because most loan agencies will look at your year-to-date income, which is of course high right now making it easier to qualify and perhaps a better rate. Having one bill to pay instead of many is a savings, but ONLY if you don't then go out and charge up those other cards again. Obviously you'll need to analyze the costs of a loan and the interest rate over what you're paying now, but even with only so-so credit you should be able to get a personal loan at a lower rate than a credit card finance charge. If you have a problem with not being able to resist using a credit card then I don't advise this because you'll get yourself in deeper when you have credit balance available!! Cut up the cards if need be. Do keep at least one credit card available to you, obviously the one with the best terms, for true emergencies if you can resist using it. Don't carry it with you, leave it at home to avoid temptation, but know that it's there if an emergency happens. Shoot it's saying my post is too long, so I'll have to divide it into two parts....sorry!

My DH drives a mid 90's Camry and gets 30+ mpg driving it from work to home (almost all freeway). And it needs some engine work or it might do better.

"Loves animals".....any chance she might be interested in working (if your state considers 15 old enough) or volunteering in something related to animals? A pet store for working; a vet clinic or animal shelter for volunteering. Those are typically easy places to find and get into.....another that isn't quite as easy to find would be something to do with her computer skills. Those can be a career following so while addiction to them isn't positive and shouldn't be condoned, using the computer for constructive purposes should be encouraged. See if there are community services that might be looking for computer volunteers, or perhaps you or DH know someone in the computer career field who might mentor her or let her shadow them. You may have to be more creative to find a niche in computer than you would for animals, but it's out there somewhere. Working/Volunteering will quickly mature her....and since it's something that she'll enjoy she's more likely to WANT to mature and do a good job. It will also get her away from Youtube, lol. I would also say that in some ways you've described a stereotypical teenager. Has she always been like this, or is it just the last 2-3 years? I wouldn't be so quick to blame your parenting since your other child isn't this way......so you obviously have done something right! If she's always been like this, well, then it's her personality type.....maybe she's just a "longer" type person. I was....still am in many ways though as I matured I learned to handle social situations.....but I don't seek them out. My best friends live in my house with me, my family. I don't have a need to be outgoing with the public....oh I still have friends "out there" but not what I'd term bff (best friends forever in teenage-dom). But I'm not exactly hiding from the mental ward either....it's just who I am. And the funny thing is that some of my kids are like me....happiest at home doing our own thing, and some of my kids are raring to get out in the midst of others. It's a tricky balance around here, but we manage. I do think that every child.....boy or girl, young or old, should have some responsibilities around the house. They don't have to love their chores, but they do have to do them. It's part of being a family, having a home that needs taking care of and doing unto others. To illustrate this point when my children were giving me trouble in this area, I went on strike. I refused to cook, clean, or drive them anywhere. I threw their own words back at them...."I don't want to right now"...."I hate doing (fill in)" .... "Do I have to". It took 3 days of my strike and I've never had to take such drastic action again.....they now understand that this house takes all of us to keep it going or else someone is going to have to pick up the slack and be unhappy. And they don't want to be unhappy again, lol. Start small with the chores if she's never had any before......and work side by side with her so she doesn't feel as "put upon". Cooking would be a good one to make into more of a family affair (or a family minus dad if he doesn't come home from work before dinner prep needs to start). By having everyone do it will seem less like you're singling her out. Then later start adding in some other chores....doing her own laundry, cleaning her room and the living room, etc. Small steps. As for the computer....well around here we don't have time limits, but we do have what we term common sense rules......chores, homework and other committments must be done first (and done right, not sloppy hurried work to get to the computer, lol). It shouldn't interfere with family interactions but it's also not necessary for my kids to do everything with me/DH......but it's all about balance. Sometimes they get caught up in a new game or website and will lose this balance, but usually we can lure them away because we remind them about balance. In your case, balance has definitely been lost and if they won't voluntarily fix it themselves, then we do take it away. Unplug it, put a password on it, or whatever you need to, and know that she's not going to like it one bit, but that it's necessary. Let her know that she can have it for a certain amount of time, if.....whatever you want from her, chores, family interaction, etc. And lastly, I totally agree with the others....all of this must come with as much patience and love as you can muster. While it's not your fault and not likely your doing.....changing someone's habits isn't easy and with anyone, but especially with a teen, you have to tread lightly but not backstep, all in love. :grouphug:

I use Microsoft Publisher.

Any chance since you were planning on another dog that you could skip getting that other dog next year and instead accept this dog. Assuming of course that your son is attached to it. If not, then maybe help him to find a shelter in your area that will find it a good home and will keep it until that home is found. We have several in our area who have a time limit before the animal is put to sleep....and several that will house it forever if need be (though my understanding is it hasn't yet had a "forever"....I figure they must just work harder to find homes for them). At least then he will have achieved his goal of saving the dog.

Yep...with those kinds of odds you might as well just buy a lottery ticket, you got more of a chance of winning!

I would suggest that you and DH get some marriage counseling. If your making a lunch for him for the first time in 5 years was such a big deal to him, then I would say there may be other very "easy" changes that BOTH of you could make to keep your marriage strong. Sometimes it's the little things that make life worthwhile, and yet are the hardest to see. A counselor would be able to help facilitate some very honest discussion between the two of you about what each of you needs/wants/expects from the other and from "marriage". Simply vowing to become submissive, or whatever phrase you want to put on it, may NOT be what he wants. Making a lunch was submissive in YOUR mind, but in his it was about a showing of your love to him. He may not want a wife that is submissive in everything.....he may not see something as simple as making a lunch as being submissive. I know for my own marriage if I were to be as submissive as some of the books I've read, my husband would probably leave me over THAT. He wants an equal partner....one that will help him talk through the difficult decisions and choices we have to make in our life.....one that will shoulder the burden when it's feeling extra heavy for him and who will allow him to take on a little more when it's heavy for me. He wants someone who will tell him when he's wrong, when he's made a poor decision/choice, or isn't being fair with one of the kids.....not someone who will let him go on because he's the "man of the house". I know this may insult some for whom their spouse isn't this way, or they aren't....but in my house that wouldn't work. It hasn't been easy finding that middle ground of power especially since, like OP, I was an independent, self-sufficient person before we married and I wasn't about to give that up any more than he wanted to be less of one either. But the middle ground worked much better for us. I think the biggest thing we had to learn was when to decide that our point of view wasn't as important to us, as it the other's point of view was to them......in other words, when to give in because "it's not a mountain I want to die on". When it comes to the kids, I probably stand firm much more often than he does....he'd let them eat sugar and drink soda all day if it meant for less "oh please" from the kids.....but he knows that their healthy eating is vitally important to me, so he lets my choices take top priority, even when I can see that his face is saying "oh come on give it a break, it's a soda". For me, it's probably letting him buy the latest gadget which I find silly and a waste of money, but that is important to him.....he'll listen when I say budget says no, but then he'll figure out a way to make some cash to get it, lol. He respects the budget, thank heavens, because before marriage he was living paycheck to paycheck and I had a house and savings, so he knows which is better there, but every once in a while, his face shows his struggle. This isn't the type of discussion that you probably can have constructively just between the two of you....it can turn ugly quite quickly and you need someone as "referee" if not as a guiding force. Perhaps a trusted friend or pastor, but that's asking a lot of someone who knows and loves both of you, so it may be better to seek an independent and professionally trained person to oversee this frank discussion. In preparation for it, you both might want to privately think seriously about the things that you want from each other....the big stuff and the little stuff. Often times it's the little things that matter the most though....like lunches. I wonder if HE realizes how much it would have meant to you for him to make your lunch once in a while? Probably not. Or perhaps it was the "well she doesn't do it for me" syndrome. I know I fight this between my kids all the time.....she won't do that for him so he wont' do this for her, and neither is willing to be the first to give in....but if they would we KNOW as parents that the sibling fighting would stop. Parents are just big kids. :grouphug:

Just an FYI....that trash bag is leeching chemicals into your food, just like the non-food containers do.

Here's my recipe (great way to use up leftover rice): 1 lb of either ground turkey, ground beef or a combination of both (I've also used ground sausage for a little kick) 2 cups of cooked rice (white or brown) 1 egg spices (I tend to be a "whatever I grab" type of spicer, but it's probably 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons, and generally has garlic and some type of blend, Italian or Herbes de Provencale being my stand bys....maybe some pepper) Spaghetti sauce (homemade, again, great use for leftovers, or even a large jar of store bought) Mix everything but the spaghetti sauce and form into meatballs (makes about 2 dozen good size ones). Put sauce in pan, add the meatballs until boiling, reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes or so until meatballs are thoroughly cooked. I've also done this in a slow cooker, on low for about 1/2 a day.