I have a 2008 Sienna with 212,000 miles on it. It only quit on me once and that was in the middle of a very hot summer when the battery went out. I always get leather seats. My first car had cloth seats and I decided to use the attachment on the carpet shampooer to clean the seats and the color of the water in the tank was disgusting. Also, my dogs ride in the car often and leather doesn't collect dog fur and the time that one of my dogs tore a paw pad and got blood on the seat I was thankful to be able to clean that up quickly. Just don't get the run flat tires. They are expensive and don't last as long as regular tires and I didn't like the idea of not having a spare.

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Another vote for apply and defer. Pulling together all the necessary paperwork for college applications will be easier during senior year. My DD knows a young man that received a scholarship to the University of Nevada and was able to defer until after his mission.

I don't use babysitters often. In my 23 years of parenting I can count on one hand the number of times I have hired a babysitter. If this event had come up in my family I would tell my family we wouldn't be able to attend and I would send a gift (and, since you can't hear tone over the internet this would be said in a cherry "see you next time" way). To be honest, if I were in you position, I would be happy the children were not invited so I would have an excuse not to go. Sorry you have family issues.

I have a German Shepherd and two cats. A couple of years ago I bought a microfiber living room set and I consider it one of the best purchases I have ever made. I had planned to get leather but decided it was too expensive and I was worried about my cat's claws leaving scratch marks. The microfiber is super easy to clean. I sometimes vacuum but most of the time I use a terry dusting cloth to brush off the cat fur (my dog isn't allowed on the furniture but there is no stopping the cats). My old living room set was cloth and in order to get the fur off I would have to vacuum and then use a lint/pet hair roller and I would still have fur that was stuck in the fabric.

This caught my eye. I doubt your friend got sick from the treats you served. If the peanut butter was the problem I really think someone else would have gotten sick.

I do not have much experience purchasing violins but both my DDs (ages 23 and 11) play. I would be concerned that a violin at that price would sound terrible. DD23 has a really cheap violin that some of her friends purchased for her and she told me it is a wonderful example of how bad a violin can sound. I know the orchestra teacher at our local middle school and he buys Samuel Eastman VL100 violins to loan his students. I have the same model and we use it as our spare violin (DD11 outgrew the sound before she grew into the full size). I had the good fortune to find the violin at a garage sale but I looked online and found they retail for $180-$350. And I agree that a good used student violin will sound better than a new cheap one.

This thread is making me feel better about a decision I made a couple of weeks ago. My 6th grader is very good at her studies and playing the violin. It seems that everyone where I live is impressed with her and I am often told that my daughter is gifted and I am so lucky because all the other children have to work so hard for what comes easy for my child (my daughter does work hard, people only see her at recitals so they do not see the work that she does). My decision was to buy her a puppy. DD loves dogs and she has been working with our dog at agility but he is not the right dog because of size and breed. I really am not in the market for a puppy but now I am thinking this is the best thing for DD. She can still be brilliant at violin and be so very smart (according to the people we run into) but she will have another activity that she can focus on that is just for fun.

I don't think my children are gifted, but I do believe they are very smart. I enjoy reading the posts here because I live in a "bottom of the barrel" state. I don't think my state has every ranked above 46th in the nation. But if you come to my town and talk to the parents you would think that every child here is gifted and every school is wonderful and extremely rigorous. You should have witnessed the number of angry parents when the new principal at the high school decided that the normal track for students in science would be Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Up until this time most students were graduating with Biology as their highest level of science. When I attempted to point out that most universities expected students to take science up through Physics I was either ignored or treated like a snob. Thankfully, I can come here and read about other families that value education so I don't spend my time wondering if I really am the "crazy homeschool mom" (which I am sure is my reputation in my town).

For us it was both a success and a failure. DS (an engineering major) just didn't get how to do the assignments. He just seem so confused by the entire program (so I dropped it). DD (starting her masters in English this fall) loved Writing Strands and tells me it was one of the best things about homeschooling.

My dog used to wake me up at night because he was scratching so much. I added salmon oil to his diet a couple of years ago and now he rarely has a problem. I buy Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil at Costco and give him 2000mg twice a day (he weighs 100lbs.). It took a few months of giving him the pills daily before I began to notice a difference.

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Hugs to you! You have a lot of small people! I have super high standards for my home. I have had friends worry that their houses are too messy for me (after visiting mine). I always tell them that their mess doesn't bother me, it is my mess that bothers me. I really wish I could allow myself as much grace when it comes to housecleaning and I allow others, my life would be so much easier. One of my problems is that I think my house should be "PERFECT" because my youngest is 11. I allowed myself so much more leeway when my children were young.

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I know how you feel. My oldest is 22 and my baby is 11. Homeschooling has changed so much since I began 13 years ago!