I wrote that way sometimes in high school, because it looked a lot neater than my cursive, and my teachers warned me not to do that on the state tests, because the graders would count me off for not capitalizing "properly".

Dale Grote is a Latin professor who wrote a guide to provide (iirc) more explicit English grammar help for working through Wheelock's. His first version was what he put together for his classes and is freely available on the web in several places; here's a link: http://www.warmenhoven.org/latin/grote/ . Later he revised it and turned it into a book; here's the link for that: http://www.amazon.com/Dale-A.-Grote/e/B001KIJ9TE/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1 (there seem to be three editions, none of which are in print atm, but they are available used on amazon).

I made a standing desk (for me) by putting a computer table (that I already had) on two step stools (made for adults, not kids, with a 250 lb weight limit) - $20 for a standing desk versus $800 (what my cursory search for standing tables came up with at the time), plus I can easily make it a sitting desk again.

I knit and crochet. I learned to crochet first, and I found it easier than learning to knit - crochet was very intuitive from the beginning for me, but it took longer for knitting to click. (I learned them both a few years ago, from videos online, followed up with books.) Now they both make sense and I enjoy them both, although crocheting is faster for me, and so I tend to pick crochet when there's a time limit.

If I understood her correctly, the idea is that she could use all their income to pay down the student loans while putting all their living expenses on a credit card, and declaring bankruptcy to deal with the resulting cc debt. I'd definitely talk to an attorney first, because I don't think it's a given to have all eligible debts forgiven in bankruptcy, to try to prevent just this sort of deliberate running up of debts you plan to not pay. But it really does suck to do the responsible thing and feel like you got hosed because of it :grouphug:.

I got bifocals at 19 - it took a few days to adjust, especially wrt looking down, but it wasn't too bad. I had progressive lenses, which was supposed to be a little harder of a transition than lined bifocals.

In St. Petersburg, dh's family went to the beach at Pass-a-grille and the north beach at Fort De Soto.

I used Good Nites Tru-Fit underwear - http://www.amazon.com/Goodnites-Trufit-Underwear-Girls-Starter/dp/B00I1ZDGYS/- with newborn prefolds instead of the disposable inserts. It worked very well :thumbup:.

I think back to my younger self, when my mom was feeding me, and I can't fathom it either. I use to wake up famished, had to eat breakfast first thing. And I used to keep food in my purse because I'd get hungry when out and need to eat. And now I can forget to eat breakfast because I just don't even feel hungry, and I haven't touched my purse snacks in months - it's weird. But even then, sometimes I'd miss a meal and not notice till I was getting draggy and weepy. Anyway, I've noticed that for me starting the day out right with a timely breakfast goes much better than delaying or missing breakfast and spending the rest of the day trying to catch up. My day tends to be a delayed breakfast and an even more delayed lunch, and while that's enough to stay functional, it's not enough to feel hungry, and so probably isn't that healthy. Which kind of sucks because of how much effort it takes just to make myself actually *have* something for lunch, but all that effort kind of let me lose sight of just how delayed my meals tend to be these days.

I'm like this - in college I'd not eat until past lunchtime, and then it was a pop-tart in class. Part of it is that I don't tend to feel hungry - I just get run down and tired. And the more I need food, the more tired I am and the less anything sounds good. Junk food is easy to default to both because it's easy, and because mentally and emotionally it always sounds good, even when physically nothing sounds good. I try not to keep junk food around anymore because of that, but then there's nothing I want to eat, and the more I don't eat, the more I don't feel like eating - it's a vicious cycle, one that's hard to break. It fluctuates with my overall health - when I'm exercising regularly and eating regular, good meals and otherwise feel really good, I will feel hungry like I'm supposed to. But once exercise drops off, or I start letting meals slide or skipping meals or eating junk for meals, or just quit feeling top of my game for some reason, I quit feeling hungry again. And that makes it hard to eat regularly enough, which keeps the whole not feeling hungry thing going. I try to keep easy protein heavy snacks around, ones that are tasty enough that I'm interested in eating them even when I don't feel like eating anything but are also full of nutrients. And I've learned to identify the listless, tired feeling as a sign I might need to eat if it's been a while since I last ate. Really I need to get a regular eating schedule going, because even though I've been making a real effort to eat regular-ish, it's still been months since I properly felt hungry :(.

This is how I manage our books, too. I check out everything for everyone on my card (idk what the checkout limit is, but it's more than 200) and use the website to keep track and renew books - I'd be lost without the website and email reminders. I also have a shelf for library books, to keep them corralled; when my kids were younger I was *very* strict about putting library books right back on the library shelf, but now I'm a bit looser, because they don't disappear the way they used to. Growing up, we always went to the library on the same day every week, and we checked out exactly six books apiece, no more and no less, so we always knew how many books we needed to find. If I didn't have the email reminders and the ability to see my list of books out on the website, I'd do the same thing. I get fines on occasion - with the amount of books I get at a time, being just one day late can be $10 - but generally my system works (I usually only have problems if I don't check my email for several days, so I make sure I check every two-three days). I'm spending a lot less on fines than I would buying all the books, even if I got them all used from Amazon. (I do buy all our school books, though, even when I could/should have gotten them from the library (with renewals, we can keep books for 9 weeks). We manage to have 50-100 books out at a time just with non-school stuff, most of which I wouldn't have wanted to own anyway. I only buy books I mean to re-read - which is still a lot of books, though. I think we've around 2,000 books in the house now, which isn't *that* much compared to some people here, but still makes books the dominant decorating theme in our house ;).)

My girls and I all have long hair. When detangling hair becomes an issue for us, it's usually because the end of the hair have gotten dry. I deal with it by putting a bit of oil on the palms of my hands and gently running my palms over the ends of the hair a few times. After doing that once or twice, combing goes *much* smoother. (I use jojoba oil, which is light but pretty pricey; olive oil is a heavier oil but it can work so long as you use a very light touch.) In addition to regularly oiling the ends of the hair before detangling, I do several other things to try to prevent dry ends and other sources of damage (I do the same things for both me and the girls). I use a very gentle shampoo and don't shampoo every day; plus I put oil on the ends of the hair both before and after shampooing, to help protect the ends and keep them from drying out (I use oil instead of conditioner, but either works - just need to do *something* to counteract the drying effects of shampoo). I also detangle with a seamless wide-tooth comb, instead of a brush - ime brushing works best once you've *already* got the majority of the tangles out. Also, you want to avoid brushing wet hair, as that's a big cause of damage, and damage to the hair is a big cause of tangles. IME regular use of detangler spray can sometimes actually *increase* tangles. Detangler spray usually has silcones in it, and on some people (including me), silicone products used regularly end up causing more problems than they solve. After a few days of use, my hair starts sticking together more and tangling more and generally is a complete pain to deal with. It can take several washes before I get all the residue out.

At our denomination's seminaries (we're LCMS), the third year students spend a year on vicarage (basically an internship for pastors). Dh's vicarage church was in the center of a large TX city (downtown, but outside the skyscraper part of downtown), and we were able to get a decent apt in a fairly safe area 10 min away for $520/mo (although it's now been torn down and is being replaced by luxury condos for $300K, so idk how it would be now). One of his friends, the next year, was assigned to a church near Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, and his apt was $2400/mo! The church paid for it, which was good (and necessary!), as that was more than a vicar's entire monthly salary ;). That church's parsonage was worth over a million dollars.

My childhood church used the local school district's pay scales as a guide in setting pastoral salaries. They tried to pay associate pastors what a teacher with the same level of education and years of experience would be paid, and the senior pastor what a principal with comparable education/experience would be paid.

I'm doing 1a with my older K'er. (I though about RS, but I had SM, so I figured I'd try.) I wasn't sure how it would go, since unlike my logical oldest, my middle dd is much more artistic and musical, but it's went really well. I'm comfortable with math and we have a ton of manipulatives, so I added a lot of hands-on stuff as needed for teaching, but dd6 does great doing the workbook. Both my girls like the sorts of fun activities in the SM workbooks.

Score for Waldorf Education: 8 Score for Traditional Education: -9 Score for Unit Studies Education: 3 Score for Montessori Education: 5 Score for Thomas Jefferson Education: 6 Score for Unschooling: -2 Score for Classical Education: 17 Score for Charlotte Mason Education: 6

That happens to me every year, because the federal return has the standard deduction (or itemized deductions), which my state taxes do not have, plus bigger personal exemptions than my state taxes do. So more is subtracted from the AGI for federal taxes - enough to wipe it all out, leave me with no taxable income - while for state taxes not nearly as much as subtracted from the AGI, so I end up with taxable income and so taxes. Does that make any sense?

I donate to my church because I think they are doing something worthwhile, that I'd like them to be able to keep doing. They aren't perfect, I'm not happy with everything, but on balance I think they are doing enough good that it's better for them to be doing what they are doing than not. For me, a church whose mission and impact was such that I could not in good conscience help them keep it going (financially or by volunteering) - I thought that on balance it would be better if they shut their doors than remained open - well, why would I want to subject *me* and *my* family to such a church? Otoh, if they do enough good that I'm comfortable attending and being shaped by them, well, why do I want to deny them the resources to keep doing that?

There are quite a few C.S. Lewis books available on Kindle unlimited: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_feature_nineteen_0?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3AC.s.+Lewis%2Cp_n_feature_nineteen_browse-bin%3A9045887011&keywords=C.s.+Lewis&ie=UTF8&qid=1428788734&rnid=9045886011 Also, Chesterton's Orthodoxy is a great read, although it's in the public domain and so free on Kindle for everyone ;).

I'd expect somewhere between 10-11, but I'd figure the last hour or so would be movies or other winding-down activities. For 9yo, I could see midnight. Of course, I stayed up past midnight at a New Years sleepover when I was 7, so there's that, too. I would be surprised if they were supposed to go to sleep before 9 or much after midnight, I guess. Eta: to me there's also a big difference between 5yo and 9yo when it comes to "staying up late", too - I'd be far more strict with getting 5yos to bed at a not-too-unreasonable time than I would be with 9yos.

Concordia Publishing House is having a sale on confirmation gifts: http://www.cph.org/c-1736-gifts.aspx?REName=Sales%20%26%20Seasonal&plk=1517

Here's some benchmarks for reading progress (K-3): http://www.bullitt.k12.ky.us/userfiles/9/my%20files/accomplishments-in-reading-k-3.pdf?id=542813

Thanks :). And have a Happy Easter and Happy Birthday :).

If you don't mind a question from an interested non-Mormon :), I was wondering why the conference is being held on Easter? Google tells me that the conference is Easter-themed, but as an outsider it just seems a bit odd to have something like this on a major religious holiday - unless Easter is not so major for LDS? Or having two important religious events at the same time is seen as a plus - extra special awesomeness instead of taking focus away from each other? Or something else?

My grandparents live in a farming community, and I've been surprised at how many people fleeing the suburbs have moved into the area in the past 15 years. There are these big McMansion-type houses next door to working farms - it's really jarring. And it's an hour and a half commute into the city, too. Haven't heard of people complaining, though. (Although on the other side of the coin, my mom wants to cry when she sees good farmland being parcelled and sold to housing developers :(.)