C-SPAN it is! Thanks!

We have been amazed tonight at the main network commentators and their constant talking during the Republicans' speeches instead of showing the speaker and letting the audience listen to the speech. We ended up on PBS so we could actually hear the speeches. I think we watched the Democratic convention on PBS, too. Did the network commentators jabber so much during the Democrats' speeches, too?

We sometimes make a game of play-acting the right response during non-conflict times. The kids love it. Sometimes it helps if you and another adult can be the actors and have the children find the wrong behavior. Then, the one that has the biggest problem with this behavior get to take the place of the person doing the wrong thing and practice reacting in an appropriate way. If he/she does it right, then the other one can come out and take the other person's part. Then, they like to switch parts. We never point out "you need to stop doing ___ and that's why we are practicing this today." We do play with several different scenarios, so it isn't as obvious. Still, they understand. Usually, one of them will say, "Hey, I'm going to remember this when ___ makes me mad next time."

When I read the news I was relieved to know that the dd is not the mother of the 4mo baby. I'm glad to know that Sarah Palin didn't lie about whose baby it was. That would have been the end of it, IMHO. However, having a candidate have an older teen dd that is pregnant is not an issue for me. The teen was the one making the choices that put her in that situation, not the candidate. I'm glad to know she chose to allow her baby to live. I hope that she and the father pray through the entire situation to know if marriage really is the right choice or if it would be better to give up the child for adoption.

The plan was simple: to sort out the bookcases and file drawers so I'd have room for the piles that have taken over my school room. Nice plan. You'd think I'd be done by now. I never follow plans. ;) Instead, I spent yesterday cleaning my bedroom of all the piles there. Now, I can find my dresser, my clothing is folded and put away, and all is good. Next, I moved on to the kitchen and sorted out the disaster of a mail rack. I recycled most of it and straightened up what was left. I washed all the dishes and bleached the sink. I cleaned the bathroom. I put away CDs. I had a date night with my dh. That was enough for one day, even though I never touched my school room mess. Today, I started with the magazines. Oh, my. In the living room alone we had 8 months of Smithsonians and National Geographics, plus a bunch of others. Ds went through the 7 years of them on the shelf in the office, moving the ones he wanted to keep to his room and the others to the recycling bin. I moved the encyclopedias to the empty shelf in the office, giving myself a place to put the first stack of books. Hooray! Last night I bought 2 storage bins for the books I don't need to keep out on the shelf. So far I've filled a huge bin with math and logic books, another one with language arts and foreign language stuff, one paper box with history and science books, and another with books that I'm willing to sell or give away. I haven't even looked at the fiction yet. I still haven't gotten to the papers and whatever books are mixed in with them, but now the shelves have some space on them and I have hope that there will be a place for everything. Dh insisted that since I was going to add things to our storage closet, we had to sort out in there, too. Lots of perfectly good cardboard boxes for shipping books went into the recycling, dh found some household projects that I've been waiting for him to fix, and I was able to escape without having to put in much time there. Whew! Tomorrow, I plan to finish putting books on the shelves, label the boxes, make a note to put by the computer (so I don't forget they exist), and start sorting the papers. That will take hours, I expect. To go along with that, I'll be emptying the file drawers of junk. Maybe. The dc want to do something fun tomorrow, so maybe we'll hit the pool for the last day of swimming. I'm just not sure what our plan will be. So, that's how my decluttering weekend is going. You have to make a mess to clean up a mess, right? Progress is being made, it just looks worse than when I started. Soon, though, soon....

Just wanted to suggest to all the bearded ladies - go to the dollar store and get a pair of 3.5 or 4.0 glasses. They'll magnify your face back to the way you saw it at 17. Every nasty, little flaw will show, and you will be amazed at what no one has told you about. Go on a plucking spree, give yourself a facial, and get some good mineral makeup on that lovely face. Be sure to look at yourself through those high-magnifying glasses when you are done to verify that you look as great as you thought you did. You'll be glad you did! :)

Piano Adventures by Faber and Faber. If you do a search, there was a discussion about it within the last week or so.

You all give such great advice! I'm going to take it! I think this needs to be step one. Thank, Stacia, for the idea! This is great, nestof3! I have all this stuff and more! Good advice. I'm kind of an out-of-sight, out-of-mind person, but maybe if I post a list of the containers near my computer, that would be enough to remind me! Thanks, frogpond1! My perfectionistic tendencies are what get me into this mess in the first place! I don't have to do it all at once, do I? No, I don't. I appreciate the reminder! Okay, ladies, I feel better. I have a plan now. Thank you for being my brain! ;) I'll let you know how it turns out!

I thought so, too. He looks a little like Rick Warren, doesn't he?

I'm glad you posted this! I was just singing this to my ds today and I forgot "the world turning our way" part. It annoyed me and I meant to look it up, but I forgot. Thanks for the help!

Some scales are 90-100 for the A range, 80-89 for the Bs, etc. Others are higher. What scale do you use?

How do you organize your school decluttering? For some reason, this particular job is overwhelming me and I'm paralyzed with indecison. I need some real guidance in this. Could you please pretend you have come over to help me with this, take stock of the situation, and give me a list of what I need to do? Simple is fine - I just need someone's help to get me started here. I have books, papers, and misc. stuff in piles all along the floor by my 12' wall of bookshelves. I thought I'd get it all cleaned up before we started school, but then I realized we just had to start and hope I'd get it done later. Well, it's later. Now, what do I do? My bookcases are full, and I've already culled things I don't need or want. What's left is good literature, lots of history and science books for various ages, reference materials, and curricula for this year and several years to come. I've thought of boxing up the stuff not in use right now, but I'm afraid I'll forget I have it and buy duplicates when the next one gets to that point. (It's happened before.) How do you remember what you've packed? All of my file drawers are full, so any papers don't have room. How do I make choices with what's in the file drawers? What are your criteria? Any other suggestions you may have for me would be great. Thanks for any advice you can give!

How about the middle road. You will call once your ds gets his work done, whenever that is, and her dd can come to your house to do her math. The book never leaves the premises, so you have nothing to fear about getting it back right away or it being damaged. In fact, if they have a syllabus that details assignments, maybe she should spend extra time and work ahead so that she has several assignments done. There really is no reason your ds should be without his book at any time, just because this family chose not to have required materials at the start of the course.

Laurie - I PMed you!

Thank you for all the suggestions! I'm going shopping tomorrow!

I would assume they were trying to figure out if it was serious or not and didn't want to worry you if it wasn't. My male relatives are terrible about telling me anything about their health or their wives' health. I've learned 6 months later about major surgeries, lengthy hospitalizations, etc., and sometimes only because one of them mentioned it in passing to my dh, not me! I gently try to let them know that I'd like to be told when someone is in the hospital or having serious tests run so I can pray for them, and that has helped increase (slightly) the frequency with which they contact me. Their wives have certainly taken it to heart and encourage them to contact me more often with health issues. Still, I don't expect to be told every time someone is in the hospital. It isn't because they don't love me, it's just that they are busy at the hospital, and letting everyone know isn't high on the priority list.

Is it affecting his ability to write neatly? If not, it may not be worth worrying about. However, you can purchase cheap pencil grips that show where to put the fingers for good grip. They have a star where the thumb should go. They aren't very comfortable, but they may help. Once your child gets the hang of it with this one, switching to another type of grip may help him hold on better. Another, even more uncomfortable option (but which will straighten things out in a hurry) is the Zaner-Bloser pencil frame. I know they still sell it, so if you can't find it on the site, call and ask about it. It is impossible to hold a pencil the wrong way with this thing, but it does feel uncomfortable. With one of mine, I just had to threaten getting out the frame again for the thumb to hop back where it should go and stay there for a week or more.

Jean, I tried to rep you, but it won't let me. I agree with all of this. It's hard sometimes to let them mess up and work their way out of it, but it's essential for them to learn how to do it. I just hope to survive watching it happen!

It's a natural worry taken to the extreme. You've had some really hard experiences, and it's natural to worry about your only child, especially when you are the sole caregiver. However, if it happens often it sounds like it's more than just typical mom worry. Do you struggle with anxiety in general, or is it just about death? It is possible to have nutritional deficiencies that express themselves as anxiety. You may want to consider seeing a naturopath for supplements to treat any underlying nutritional deficiencies which can cause anxiety, or see an M.D. for medication. Of course, seeing a psychologist or other therapist to deal with the emotional baggage might be beneficial, too.

Back to the original post... I hate simplistic surveys! I usually don't take part in phone surveys, but when I am willing to take the time, I want questions that don't require explanations for me to clearly understand them. Where are the health classes being taught? By whom? Are the students adults, teens, or children? Is the question really wanting to know my perspective on teaching abstinence or my perspective on teaching condom use? How much information are the instructors going to give regarding those topics - will they explain all of the benefits and the possible risks of both, or will one be presented as beneficial and the other as risky? I always feel sorry for the survey people who call me. They can't answer my questions. They have no idea. They just get paid to call and ask.

Did you have him practice beforehand using an answer sheet with the bubbles? It throws a lot of kids for a loop to have to do that for the first time in a testing situation. Before you have him tested again, you might consider getting a practice test book from the library or bookstore to help familiarize him with putting answers on another sheet with bubbles.

I need to expand the high-protein snack list for my hypoglycemic dc who can't have most dairy products or gluten. Now, it's limited to cheddar cheese on a tortilla (cheddar is the only dairy product that's okay), nuts and raisins, meat, and peanut butter on a rice cake or on apple slices. What am I missing? Thanks for any suggestions!

Good heavens, Jennifer. You worry too much! Of course you should have decent furniture! The set you picked is very nice and you'll enjoy it for years. I have a suggestion, since you want to sell your house - that floor pattern is very bold and loud in the dining area, which might be part of the problem. Some people just aren't into bold patterns on the floor, KWIM? However, it could be muted with a solid-colored area rug. It would set off the new table nicely and dress up the dining area a bit. You could accent with a matching-colored flower or two in a vase on the table. I could see using a very dark red or dark green, but I'm sure other colors would work, too. You could probably get something decent-looking very inexpensively at a warehouse home repair store - Lowe's, Home Depot, Menard's, or whatever else you might have in your neck of the woods. It wouldn't have to be high quality, just in a nice color and new, KWIM?

Look toward the end of the Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. If you read about Jesus ascending to heaven, or about Jesus appearing to his disciples, you've gone too far and need to back up several chapters within that particular book of the Bible. The first three books are very similar throughout, but John tends to be a bit different. Sorry I can't give you exact verses right now - I'm typing in the dark without my glasses on, so I can barely make out the computer screen, much less a page in the Bible!

I'm considering scrapping the "math and grammar in the a.m." approach. My dc don't particularly enjoy either subject, so they get slow and grouchy, which makes me grouchy, and then we tend to get off schedule and less is done. If they do math and grammar in the p.m., which they end up doing in homework time, they tend to work faster to get it done so they can go play. What I'm considering is to have all mom-intensive subjects in the morning - science, nature walk, history, Spanish, dictation, oral spelling words, and memory work. After lunch, with read-aloud, the dc would be on their own to read silently, do their math (one on TT, so I could help the other), and grammar (GWG and they do it independently). Does this sound like it would work? What pitfalls would there be? Have I missed something critical?