Once, many years ago, I waited over 3 weeks to get my order. It then arrived when I was on vacation. Since then, I have paid the extra $10 so they will ship even if any items are backordered. I also always make sure to buy something little (like a pencil) that will disqualify the order from being shipped media mail.

Root beer floats don't require any preparation ahead of time. They can be inexpensive if you stock up during sales.

In the past I saved a lot of money through amazon subscribe and save and regular prime purchases. Over time they have reduced the percentage savings, my subscription items are frequently out of stock, prices drastically increased from one month to the next, things are shipped slowly through the post office (oftentimes arrive melted during the warmer months), and have added crazy limited programs like "add on items" and the new "prime pantry." Too much hassle. All that to say, now I do my household goods shopping on walmart.com. I just place a big order every other month and it ships free over $45. I can buy all my toiletries, cleaning supplies, and even some food items. Many times, packages start arriving the next day.

I have had good results from http://www.nationsphotolab.com/index.aspx . I order on the nicer paper with professional retouching.

Haha! I do this too. But then I feel guilty. And then I end up picking through vacuum dust.

Sorry your garage sale didn't turn out as you had hoped. Local Facebook sales pages are pretty popular here. Prices are more typical of what you would find on ebay. I tend to sell bigger items on these types of groups, donate the smaller items, and then forgo the yard sale altogether.

Impacted crop, maybe? http://www.tillysnest.com/2012/01/crop-issues.html

Cardboard boxes are compostable and count toward brown material. Composting is a good way to hide the evidence of all those amazon purchases. :)

Leaving a church for any reason is difficult. You say that you are a member of the church. Does your church have a constitution, membership covenant, or anything along those lines? Those documents often include a simple statement regarding the process of leaving or transferring membership to another church. I would urge you to meet with your pastor or an elder, in person, before departing. Prayerfully examine your reasons for leaving. If they all fall under the category of preferences, I do not think you have to mention them; just simply state that you need to find a church closer to your new home. If there is error involved, you should discuss those. I like the idea of sending a letter to be read to the entire congregation after you depart -- keep it positive and encouraging to the members. Once you have made your decision to leave, I think it is often better to make an exit rather than to drag it out. Transitioning out rarely makes things easier and only leads to worry and speculation on the part of the congregants and leadership. Last year my family became involved in a church plant. All of the sudden I was a church planter's wife. Wow! I have such a different perspective than I did previously! As members of other churches, those phone calls and check ins when we missed a week of church irked me. I'll be honest - I struggled with it. Why couldn't they just leave me alone? Why couldn't they just butt out of my life? Well, guess what? They CARED about us! They were part of our life. They loved us. When someone misses church, my husband worries about them. Are they sick? Are they struggling? Did they get in an accident on the way to church? What do they need prayer for? He does not call or email them in order to rebuke them, but in order to encourage them, pray with them... What a burden is lifted and what sweet fellowship is gained when a congregant sends my husband a quick message letting him know that they will be missing church. During church we can pray for the sick or pray for safe travels for the grandparents driving to meet their new grandchild for the first time. When we become members of a church, we have the privilege of sharing in fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We have a new earthly family. We have a standing invitation to gather together and to share in communion together at the Lord's Table. We are missed if we are not there. Just imagine that you were hosting a celebratory gathering and were expecting 20 guests and only 18 showed up. Would you not be worried about the welfare of your brother who didn't show up, or your daughter who moved away without telling you? OP - I will keep you in my prayers as you seek out an new home church. :)

We painted the entire interior of our house last year with Kelly Moore satin finish. I was very happy with the quality. Just be sure to pick a store that is within a reasonable distance from your house. You will be making a lot of trips! Expect to pay a cringe-worthy amount for decent paint. Enjoy the fresh and new look of your house. :)

I LOVE my Electrolux Assistent (newer model is the Ankarsrum). It has an 8 qt bowl and also comes with a smaller bowl for mixing regular batches of cookies and whipping egg whites and cream. It is so much nicer than my old Kitchenaid Pro mixer.

Last year, I was able to successfully combine Life Science for my 2nd, 5th and (tag along) PreK. I used RSO Life and CPO Life Science, with a little Elemental Science Biology thrown in. We read the RSO "For my notebook" page, and then I lectured out of the CPO text. I skipped anything that I felt was too advanced or unnecessary at this stage. My middle boy kept up pretty well. Here is the schedule I made: http://plankilt.com/other/Life-Science-Schedule-CPO-RSO.pdf It is ROUGHLY broken down by weeks. Some "weeks" took more than one to complete and other times we were able to double up. I used worksheets from the 100+ Life Science (for the older), and Giant Science Resource Book. Special Ongoing Projects - Animal Study: The kids made a nice animal study journal which had a narration for each animal we read about (mostly in Zoobooks). They also wrote about any animals they saw around our property and included a real photograph of the animal when they could. We also dissected a frog. Plant Study: They each made a plant lapbook. Human Body: We used the Adorable Wearables Human Body book by Scholastic. They colored the components as we studied them and then got to wear the outfit once we were all done. Even the oldest thought this was fun.

$2.19. I only buy kindle books that are highly discounted or free. We still prefer paper books.

That is fantastic!

What is the best sentence diagramming reference book you have found? For grammar we use all levels of FLL followed by Hake Grammar. I never learned to diagram in school, so I am learning along with them. I would love a reference book (not necessarily a curriculum or workbook) to have on hand when I need to look something up quickly. Thanks!

It is possible that they only eat that way when they get together with other homeschoolers. :)

Thanks for sharing all the great ideas! I have multiple children using AAS, so "Day 1" for each child is a different day of the week to lighted my load. Here's what we do: Day 1: Go through the new lesson. I write all of the new words on an index card for him to keep in his folder for the week. It includes any recent trouble words and any new rules we have covered. Day 2: Review AAS cards. Spelling City activities for about 15 minutes on his ipad. I have the paid version and put all the words into the program before we started the year. Day 3: He picks a Spelling Activity card (http://www.blessedbeyondadoubt.com/spell-cards-printable/) and does the activity. Day 4: Review AAS cards. Writing Station activity (if the lesson has one), otherwise Spelling City again. Day 5: Test the word list, any trouble words he has been working on for the week, and dictation. Any words missed (including ones in the dictation exercises) are added to the next week's list.

Great idea! I am going to try this.

My son, a natural creative writer, found it much easier than WWS1. We used TCW as a breather between the first and second parts of WWS. He actually just asked me today if he could do TCW2 before moving on to WWS2.

Have you checked out Meaningful Composition? We use level 4 and 4+ between WWE and WWS.

My DS11 has been learning a lot from Hake Grammar. It uses as spiral approach (which we personally haven't used in other subjects). The daily worksheets cover many topics, which means there are a lot of instructions to read. It was a struggle for him at first, but has been fabulous for him to gain skills in reading and following directions. These skills have carried over into other subjects, especially in math word problems. It is an open and go curriculum and fairly independent.

We also love our Tripp Trapp chairs. Right now we have full size desks pushed together to create one large workspace. In the future, we can separate the desks into individual workspaces. Have fun planning!

I apologize if I misunderstood. I was just using the info the OP provided in post #12 <<Our annual disability income is $24,000 for our family of four.>>

So sorry you are in so much pain! I would also recommend checking with an insurance agent. It seems like you should be qualifying for some kind of subsidy. These websites have been a bit unreliable. I went to healthcare.gov and plugged in: individual, health plan, NC, random county, 55 years (covering only one person), no other coverage available, 4 people in your household, income $24000. This came up: Blue Value Silver 3000 $29 per month $500/year deductible $700/year out of pocket maximum Are you not seeing something similar to that? I hope you find a solution soon!

Zucchini is great to dehydrate and takes up very little space to store. We throw it into soups all winter. My kids love "fruit snacks" made from zucchini and koolaid (or natural flavor extracts). it is a great way to use the large zucchinis. http://choosetothrive.blogspot.com/2010/09/i-just-made-killer-fruit-snacks-out-of.html