We use Wellness. This week I purchased from Whole Foods since they have it on sale plus I bought a lot so I got a case discount of 10% (24 cans per case). Other times I purchase from a locally owned shop that gives a discount on 12 cans plus has reward points, plus are locally owned and very very big on customer service and community support. Another place I occasionally shop for it is PetSmart. (Dd doesn't like PetCo because she doesn't like the way they One of my cats is very picky -- trying to transition from junk food led us through the wonderful path of her trying to eat the poinsettias as a protest, getting constipated from the chicken baby food I was using to help her transition and then developing Fear of Litter Box for Poops because of that (which she's still not totally over). I am torn between sympathy for anyone trying to transition a picky cat, and side eye for anyone who doesn't bother trying because it's hard. It was worth it, though, because the digestion is better, no UTIs, and, frankly, the fur is so much better -- we have a long list of things that improved. Decent food is expensive, but so are vet bills.

Unfortunately, cherry-picking is too popular of a pastime. People will pick and choose the bits they want to support whatever their thesis. I mean, I hope that random people making their first foray into the Bible don't happen to flip open to Numbers 31:17-18, or various non-KJV translations to Ezekiel 23:20 -- neither would be my first choice for "what the Bible is all about." But people are going to choose the bits that paint the picture they want to paint.

A friend's son did cat sitting; it was a great business for him. BTW, when we hired a someone to look after our cats, she brought her laptop over and sat around with the cats doing other work for about an hour each day. She took selfies with the cats and emailed them to us every day. Another friend's son just set up an Etsy shop. Dh umpired Little League.

Absolutely, YES! This morning it's You're the Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me by Jim Weatherly. We saw a 16 year old girl do an AMAZING job with it on the stage of the Fabulous Fox during the Fox Teen Talent show this weekend; I was telling various people about the talent show last night, so I guess it was still on my mind. Really, all 4 of the singers who competed were amazing (I highly recommend going to this show if you live in St Louis -- it's free, and the kids are very talented). It will switch to something else, though, eventually. This happens to me almost every day. Lots of musical theater because dds have been in lots of shows. Some church music. Sometimes things that I seem to have made up on my own. Less often it's instrumental, such as a Chopin piano piece.

I just mentioned this thread to younger dd. She immediately pointed out that SHE HAS ALREADY WORN LAST YEAR'S PROM DRESS MULTIPLE TIMES, partly due to the fact that it fits her perfectly since it's was made specifically for her. (Dd is totally on your side.)

Speaking as someone who has made prom dresses, I get where you're coming from with this. Last year I made dd's prom dress; she instantly made plans on how it could be re-fashioned for future formal occasions. Both dds appreciate the amount of work that goes into garment sewing, particularly for formal garments. Dd wanted to maximize the usage (at least of what she perceived to be the "base") because of that. I also know that when I give something away as a gift it is gone, and the recipient does what they want with it. This is why I rarely give handmade gifts. I like that you reacted quietly to it. My kids would've gotten the signal just from that exchange. I think a quiet talk about not escalating/not having to "win at all costs" would be very appropriate. Honestly, my kids would get that talk if we had purchased the dress rather than made it. It was within her control to not get wet. Purchased or handmade, at our house the dress would be used again, whether given to someone else, re-fashioned, worn for another occasion, or something else. I think it's fine that you came here to unload about this, so to speak. It probably would've gone better if you'd done it on a sewing board, frankly. And now I've got to go work on a wedding dress for one of dd's friends. Handpicked zipper, appliquéd lace, hours of work -- but I know the recipient understands that it's hours of work. EDITED TO ADD: For pete's sake, people, it's only prom! Around here this isn't the life changing event that is the pinnacle of existence! It's a flipping formal dance that's fun, and then you move on to other things. Good lord, it isn't going to ruin a child's heart for something that happened because of a dance, make horrendous, life-scarring memories, etc.

Apparently there's a product you can buy just for this purpose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkAm3zFIfvg And the fact that someone is selling something like this tells me that this is a common problem. I wonder if there are other brands/types of this kind of thing. I just googled pocket repair, came up with this, and stopped looking.

If you do end up having twins we are ALL showing up to celebrate! :party: IN the meantime, so happy for you!

Dd is pursuing degrees in EE and in tech theatre/lighting emphasis, which have very little to do with each other. She went in with about 30 DE credits; I think all of them went towards Gen Ed. It's pretty crazy. This semester she's taking 20 credit hours. She'll take 10 credits in on-campus summer school. Last summer she took 9 credits of Gen Ed as online classes while also working 2 summer jobs. Next semester she's currently planning on 19 hours. She is attending a fairly small school, and someone else has successfully done a similar program before. Another person tried and couldn't do it. Since it's a small campus it's easier for the professors and advisors to get together and help figure things out. Her heart is actually more in the theater degree; I think she's sticking with the EE by virtue of sheer stubbornness. We shall see how the next 2 years go.

We just went to see Richard III last night at older dd's college -- they gave away 400 tickets for the weekend's run as a celebration. This week I read an interview with Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair, et al) in which he commented that R3 is his favorite. I'm really partial to Much Ado. My kids have been in many productions through the years, which has developed their understanding of the language. I think they follow it much better than I do. I was glad to have read the SparkNotes on the way to the play last night.

My kids are older, so maybe this doesn't count as much, but 16yo dd is really proud when all of her outfit (other than underwear and shoes) is second hand. Handmade is also very, very cool. I think it falls into the same category as using mason jars for drinks -- it started out as a thrifty thing, and has moved into the hipster realm.

Oh, man, I've been going back and forth on trying silks! Dd took a class last summer, and wants to again this year. They haven't posted the schedule yet, though, so I don't know if there's a class for moms-who-don't-normally-do-this-but-decided-to-givei-it-a-shot-and-are-likely-to-be-really-awkward. I used to do X number of minutes of exercise (weight lifting, calisthenics, stationary bike) in a gym setting Y number of times per week. I love Katy's idea of integrating movement into your life instead of having it totally separate all of the time -- it was really eye-opening for me. So now I walk 2 miles to the grocery store and carry the groceries back, stacking the activity of grocery shopping with the activity of walking outdoors. And I also enjoy doing yoga, and even some weight lifting, just because I enjoy them. But now there's more ... joy. Because I'm just thinking about how I want to move around instead of thinking about, "gotta go to the gym now."

I'm a fine weight now. Well, actually, I don't weigh myself, but I like the way things fit right now. (One reason I don't weigh myself is because weight is a function of so many things like bone density, muscle mass, hydration -- I just don't see the point.) I'm in the healthy range for women with my frame according to the charts. I used to be very slender/skinny (underweight according to the charts). Now I'm not. People no longer ask if I have an eating disorder :001_rolleyes: My family all tends to be small. I eat in a way that would horrify fans of the current theories of healthy eating. I love butter; I always choose full fat products over low fat. I love sugar. I gave up hydrogenated fats and corn syrup decades ago, though. I'm moderately active. I used to "exercise", but any more I'm a fan of Katy Bowman. I walk as much as possible, and generally try to move as much as possible each day. I REALLY like to get enough sleep, as ChrisB alluded to above. I think it's incredibly important for maintaining a healthy metabolism. I don't often get 8 hours, though, so I nap. Cutting calories and excessive exercise are great ways to reduce metabolism and suppress immunity ... which tend to lower as we age anyway. One of the most interesting books I've read on diet is The Schwarzbein Principle (or maybe it was the second one she wrote) because she discussed that when she was young she ate all sorts of sugary junk and was very skinny; when she decided to eat a balanced, nutritious diet she gained a huge amount of weight. I also think Ray Peat is interesting.

I would try Horticulture as a search term since that's what gardening is. Agriculture is a much broader term. When I plugged the words horticulture and high school into google I found: http://www.mnla.biz/?hscurriculum -- a curriculum for high school horticulture from Minnesota. If you're in the U.S. I'd check out your local county extension office, as they are typically treasure troves of pamphlets and handouts for this type of thing. One of the extension programs is Master Gardeners, which is a training program for gardeners. It's more geared for adults, but it wouldn't hurt to ask if they have anything for a 14yo -- if nothing else, you might find someone who can mentor your dd. Here's a start on finding out about Master Gardeners: http://www.ahs.org/gardening-resources/master-gardeners and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_gardener_program (Ok, true confession -- what I'd REALLY do is get so caught up in the planning of this unit that all other homeschooling would cease. LOVE THIS TOPIC!)

I didn't post a score because dd didn't want me to. If people wanted to see the range of scores we're coming up with as a group, I wonder if we could have some sort of anonymous poll type thing in which we could check off scores.

Wow, that's great!

I should've phrased that better. What I meant to say is that a high ACT is great, but it isn't necessarily enough for an out of state student to get a scholarship that will bring the price down significantly. Purdue costs as much as a private school if you're out of state. We don't know if the OP is in state or out of state. In state students will probably get more scholarships since it's a state school, as cave canem said. Dd decided she wasn't that keen on the program there for what she wanted to accomplish, so decided against attending.

For scholarships, it depends. I've heard that one of the local-ish schools will give you an excellent scholarship for a score in the upper 20s, but at other places upper 20s would put you in the lower 25% of students attending. Older dd's score got her everything from an offer of a full ride at one school to a thank-you-for-applying-here's-our-standard-rates at another. We looked at the stats on this About.com page for information on what the middle 50% of students at various universities scored, but I have no clue how accurate it is: http://collegeapps.about.com/od/choosingacollege/a/CollegeProfiles.htm

I'm so sorry. :grouphug:

This reflects our experience exactly. We're out of state, and were told that dd's high ACT scores didn't matter because the money just isn't there to award many scholarships to out of state applicants. We got this information by talking to someone in the engineering department. Having said that, things could change. You should probably call or visit for current information.

Yeah, that happens here, too. When older dd was in DE classes it wasn't this way. I do find myself wondering what happened to make them change, since OTOH they often seem really eager to get the high school students and their tuition dollars.

- Plenty of people aren't posting actual numbers here. I sure didn't. So who knows how many wish they could say they had a sophomore who got an 18, and are totally envious of you right now. - Scores will often be higher if you take it again. A couple of local high schools are doing practice ACTs for all their students today, probably hoping to capitalize on this. - I know seniors in public school and in homeschool who got a 19, which isn't that far off from what your sophomore got. - Most of all, for some kids, no matter the age, grade, and prep, 18 is a super, super score, and represents a huge amount of work. Shoot, just showing up and taking the test is a triumph for many of us! Edited to add: I also know kids (ps and homeschool) who scored high (in the 30s) who took a year of college and realized that they were in over their heads and dropped back out.

No email, but I checked anyway after reading this thread. There they are! Dd did the essay, which isn't graded yet; perhaps that's why we didn't get an official email yet. She was lower than she expected in English, but higher in science. Composite was a bit lower than she hoped, I think, but very respectable for a sophomore taking the test for the first time.

Palazzo pants came back at least a couple of years ago. Dd was wearing them last year, and she picked them up someplace like Plato's Closet, so they were a few months old when she got them.

Hmm, some of the Nordstrom ones look cute. Others look amazing like what I wear to garden in, or what I see old ladies walking around in if it's hot but they don't want to show their knees. Also, some of their shoe choices are really odd, like they were trying to see how many horizontal lines they could put across the lower leg. My lower legs are short and stumpy enough without all that help chopping them up visually.