The Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding books are doing that for me :thumbup:. The ebooks are just $5 each, and that has been more than worth it for me. He's trying to both the basic building blocks of science as well as teach how to think scientifically, and I'm learning tons.

Dh says that they are probably using aggressive data mining techniques - compiling databases from offline sources and combining that with info gleaned online - and some people's internet security is loose enough to provide them with enough info to connect the dots. If you have your name stored unprotected in your browser, then they can get that when you surf and look up your phone number if it's listed. Ditto for email, geographical location, browser, operating system - they can legally query your browser for that sort of info, and get it if you don't have it protected enough. ETA: I am sorely tempted to go to that site and see if they call me as a check of my internet security.

I thought "looks like work, need nicer numbers" ;), and then "47 is close to 50, that's nice", and then "50*6 - that's 5*6=30 and add a zero to get 300. Then 3*6 is 18, subtract and get 282".

We were at a church in which a lot of people lived an hour away and were active. The church was downtown in a big city, and the parishioners lived all over, so some were over 2 hours from each other. Yet people came to all sorts of church functions, got together at each others' houses, and were very generous with their time (and money, too). I can't imagine doing it, myself - we were 10min away - but they all made it work.

:iagree: Same here (I'm Lutheran).

I've always had my hair waist-length or longer; right now it is the longest it's been at a bit past knee-length. I always thought of "long hair" as being at least waist-length - I was shocked to find out that in the hair industry, long is shoulder length - always thought of that as medium. I voted for bra strap - that's when I look and think long (clearly I've mellowed in my old age ;)).

Thank you! This is just what I needed :).

IDK, I think there are enough similarities for the label to be reasonable. Both New Math and reform math put the focus on understanding over procedures, and they use a lot of the same pedagogical methods to accomplish similar things. The main difference is that New Math was school math by mathematicians with little input from educators, and reform math is school math by educators with little input from mathematicians. But they are both on the same side of the pendulum swing, both trying to solve the same problem - they do so in different ways, but conceptually ;), they are close cousins.

I learned to crochet a couple months ago, and am working on learning to knit (can cast on, knit, and purl, and mostly end up with the same number of stitches at the end of the row as at the beginning :tongue_smilie:). So far I like crochet a lot better - makes more sense to me, and is just more fun to do. I was able to jump straight into lace - which was the whole reason I learned to begin with - and I've made some really nice looking projects already. And I like crocheted lace better than knitted lace (mostly; I like a higher percentage of crocheted lace patterns than knitted lace patterns, but there are some *awesome* knitted lace patterns out there). But I like knitted socks more than crocheted socks, so I'm persevering with knitting. But knitting intimidates me in ways that crochet never did - I think I'm persevering in part b/c I refuse to be intimidated by any craft :lol:.

I'm doing the Midsummer Night shawl for my dd (in sport weight, though - it's my first lace project) - I'm on the edging, now. I'm also doing the Maia shawl by the same designer for my mom, this time in actual laceweight. Technically I haven't started *hers* yet, as I've been working up a test case for me, first. But I think I've gotten the pattern well enough to get started on Mom's. I'm going to do the Gathering Leaves shawl, too :) - this one's for my sis. Got the pattern, but haven't started my test case yet (I only started crocheting two months ago, so even though I'm wildly confident about tackling semi-complicated projects :tongue_smilie:, I'm not so confident as to start one to give away without a bit of practice ;)). I'm also trying to learn to knit - I can cast on, knit, and purl (continental knitting, but norwegian purl - I read that tip here :), and it makes purling lots easier :thumbup:), and can more-or-less k2tog, skp, and yo. I'm trying to make this simple lace scarf, but so far knitting is not as fun as crocheting. I really want to knit socks, though, so I'm going to keep at it.

Here's a thread about New Math.

Same name. I'm a newish crocheter - 2mo - and a v v new knitter - have learned to cast-on, knit, and purl :tongue_smilie:. I have all my yarn and projects up :D, few though they are ;) (not many pics, though). I *love* Ravelry's search functions :thumbup:.

:grouphug: We are in a similar spot - horrifyingly underwater, been on the market for a short sale for 2 years. We moved before selling, though (dh got a much better job out-of-state while simulanteously losing his current crappy job, and we decided to just all go), and have been paying both the mortgage and rent for our house here. Our mortgage company has been willing to work with us with a short sale - cut a deal to forgive half the difference and write a seven-year note for the other half - but it just. won't. sell. We can just swing paying for two houses, but haven't been able to save anything but retirement, and there's a good chance dh's salary will have to be cut (and I don't blame them, they pay us extremely well - we *can* pay on two houses - and they've cut everything but salaries and workers and still are in trouble), in which case we will have to default (as opposed to seriously thinking about it but still chugging along). Worried about the credit hit, though. WRT the moral issue, my dad pointed out that most mortgages are basically "pay or lose/give-back the house", so there's nothing wrong with choosing the "give back the house" option. :grouphug:

That's what we did growing up. Didn't think about the new key issue, though. It's got a door key that pops out of the electronic key, so I'd probably just pin that and leave the rest in the glove box. Really, I guess it's basically the same thing as taking the door key off the ring w/ the door clicker, which is what I did in high school.

I gave birth to dd2.5 w/o dh, on accident. Hb, mom was there to watch dd5, called dh at work to let him know I was in labor, but he couldn't leave for another hour or so (no one to cover till then). DD2.5 was born 15min before he got home. It didn't bother me *too* much at the time, though I wished he'd have been there just to give hugs, put a hand on my back, that sort of thing (mom did all the practical things like bringing juice/snacks, gathering supplies, keeping dd5 occupied, etc.). But the more I thought about it in prepping for ds0's birth, the more I was certain he *had* to be there - laboring effectively alone wasn't much fun. I don't like a *lot* of people around - but *no one* is worse (yes, people were in the house, doing things - but no hands-on support, as that was dh's job; mom was too busy w/ dd5 and I wasn't comfortable asking mw). And dh is, by far, my top choice for emotional/hands-on support, anyway.

Induced with dd5 & ds0, and both our parents knew ahead of time. They all live very far away, so no worries about them showing up at the hospital, though they have good boundaries in any case (my mom was here for ds0, but she was watching dd5 and dd2.5 at our house, and had no intention of taking the crew into downtown Chicago - if I'd wanted them there, dh would have had to drive). Dd2.5 was a hb, and I didn't call anyone but mw and dh until after she was born (and dh still missed the birth :glare:). Mom was there, watching dd5, and she might have called my dad, but I've no idea - I was otherwise occupied ;).

Baked chicken and gf noodles, baked chicken and rice? Usually I make the noodles/rice and chicken separate, but occasionally I try them together (dump the noodles/rice into the pan, add chicken broth (40oz or so for the noodles for a 9x13 pan, double or so the instructions for the rice, but it does work better to cook the rice first and then add it too the pan, in which case no water is added - but I mostly guesstimate in any case), put chicken on top, squirt italian dressing over chicken, and bake for 45min or so, until the water is mostly absorbed and the chicken is done). We usually put cheese on, but it doesn't need it. When cooking separately, we bake the chicken in italian dressing, cook the rice in chicken broth, and mix an olive oil/butter/garlic sauce for the noodles.

More importantly, how can God's grace work in us, how can the Holy Spirit make us more Christ-like, without the Word (and the Sacraments)? (And this is the Word in any form - hearing, reading, remembered, sung - not just reading silently from a printed Bible.)

Yes, but how can we live like Christ without the grace of God? And God's grace comes through the Word (in every form it is brought to man; i.e. not just by sitting and reading ;)) and the Sacraments - we *need* the Word and the Sacraments - they are how the Holy Spirit works in us.

I took "reading the Bible" as encompassing hearing the Word in all ways. Could be personal bias, since as a liturgical Lutheran, I don't see the Bible as a "personal instruction book" either, but as a means of grace - and how can we live like Christ without God's grace?

Very true - God's grace is given through the Gospel, in every form in which it is brought to man. Reading the Bible is not the only way to hear the Word - the important thing is that we hear the Word *somehow*. God gives His grace through the Word and the Sacraments - we *can't* live like Christ without the Word.

:iagree: The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God, God's grace is given to us through the Word - how can we live like Jesus without that?

Not to jeopardize your self control and patience ;), but in my limited experience with learning to crochet (I started last month), I'm a fan of the "d@mn the difficulty, dive right in and make what you like" approach. I wanted to learn to crochet to make lace, and gosh darn it, I'm going to make lace :tongue_smilie:. I practiced a few stitches just enough to get the idea (with thread, no less - I took the advice to start with worsted unless you were masochistic as a challenge :lol:), and then made myself a snowflake. Made an easy lace shawl and some slippers and now I'm making a real lace shawl (sort of - complicated-ish pattern, but in thicker yarn), and as soon as I finish that I'm making a lace shawl in actual laceweight yarn. It's working out for me thus far - I'm learning and enjoying the process. If I had to march through a bunch of intermediate projects I didn't care about, I'd end up quitting - life's too short to make things you could care less about ;). Make that dog sweater as soon as you can :).

When I was in middle school, the ptb instituted a cross-curricular program that was supposed to help all kids learn to make connections between subjects the way gifted kids did naturally. They talked about how it would help kids make connections between, say, learning about peanut plants in science and George Washington Carver in history, that without some sort of help, the vast majority of students would never connect the two. (I was gifted, and making connections came naturally, and couldn't quite believe that most people were incapable of it, but figured whatever. The school had lots of bright ideas, including having no gifted or honors classes, b/c by mixing kids of all levels, the smarter ones would bring up the rest and *everyone* would be working at honors level. That seemed unlikely to work even at the time, and I didn't take the ptb's grand ideas very seriously.) And then in learning about hs'ing, I read Holt and Gatto, and their opinions that all kids naturally make connections, but institutional schooling trains most of them out of it. (And the related unschooling idea that we naturally learn and make connections between things we are interested in - the common failure to make connections in school is not b/c most kids are incapable, but that they just don't care about the school topics.) The latter makes more sense to me. Certainly dd5 has been making connections for years, and I find it hard to believe that most kids don't do that. Even dd2.5 has started making connections. But they are the only kids I know, and are certainly bright (no idea about gifted) - I don't really know what is normal. Maybe my middle school was right. I'm sure that gifted students make more and further connections, but doesn't a neuro-typical student at least make *some*? Because the way they sold the program to us students and parents, it was like most students couldn't connect *anything* between courses, and that still makes no sense to me.

I love my Kindle, but I see it as more a replacement for reading on the computer (something I do a lot of) than as a replacement for real books. I do read on my Kindle a lot more than real books - I read it while nursing down my toddler for nap/bedtime (before I got my Kindle I mentally twiddled my thumbs or took a nap myself - it's great having something to do). Yet I haven't been able to bring myself to actually *buy* an e-book, yet (aside from BSFU, which was so much a bargain that I couldn't resist), even though the ones I have my eye on are a decent bit cheaper than the print edition. (I get lots of Kindle sample chapters, though :tongue_smilie: - even of books I actually own :001_huh:.) But the e-books get *read*, unlike print books - that dedicated, distraction-free Kindle time is a big boon. So I probably will eventually. But there's still something about owning a physical copy....