LOL I'm also from NJ with an Aug. 31st birthday!

When I lived in the north I did the same thing! I got stuck coming home from work in a bad snow storm for 6 hrs. My car was running low on gas and had to turn my engine off. That taught me to keep a heavy coat, gloves and hat IN the car. That way I could still go coat-less, but it when/if I needed it, it was available. Today, I live in the south and am a big wimp.

I moved to SC to get away from the cold and tonight it's going to feel like ZERO! No one here is equipped to deal with this kind of weather. My winter coat so far has been a sweatshirt. Luckily I still have our cold weather gear from when we lived up north, but no one else around me has anything more than a knit hat.

We LOVE Draw and Write through History!

This is what we do too. I have the CD's and we listen in the car. I bought the first set of CD's to take on a 12 hr car ride with us. After the first hour I looked over and my DH had the phone charger cord around his neck, pretending he was going to hang himself. You either love the stories, or hate them lol... Now we only listen to them when he isn't with us.

We used A Reason For Handwriting too.

I'm 48 and was cooking when I looked at my hands and saw my mothers hands! I never had her hands before, but now they look just like hers.

If you are looking for open and go, workbook style curriculum you can check out Starline Press. It is secular, but it's also expensive. It is basically the same as ACE, but with the religion stripped out of it. Edited to add: I am now an authorized Starline Press re-seller. I can get it cheaper than if you go to Rainbow Resources or through Starline Press. I have been using it with my daughter and have been very happy with it.

We have a small LEGO table and a few buckets for storage. My daughter got the LEGO Cruise Ship for Christmas and just finished it tonight. She did it all by herself.

I've eaten my weight in potato chips and dip today. My diet starts tomorrow.

This is how I do it too. I don't eat potato, rice or pasta (very rarely) but I still make it for the rest of my family. I eat the meat and veggies, they add the starch. I make sure there is something for everyone but I don't go out of my way to make special meals. Like someone else posted, it's much easier to make modular meals then all-in-one meals.

I didn't use it for punishment, but I had to send my youngest to ps last year for 2nd grade because I had to work. She loved it. This year we are back to homeschooling (hopefully for good) and even though she loved ps, she loves homeschooling much more. There have been times when she gave me a hard time doing something and I have told her that if she doesn't want to do her work at home, I will drop her back off at the public school. She gives me a hardy NOOOOOOOOOO.....and gets her work done.

I have a 21 yr old son with high functioning autism. I wish I had a dime for every time someone told me I needed to discipline him. Over time I have come to understand that people without kids on the spectrum truly cannot fathom what it is like. My son ate a total of five things for his first 15 yrs. He will not eat anything out that is not pre-packaged. He will eat what I make at home, but he will stand there and watch everything that I make before he will eat it. Someone mentioned not being able to wash dishes because of the feel of soapy water. I solved that problem by buying rubber gloves. Platex makes kitchen gloves and that is the ONLY way he will touch a dish in the sink.

This is coming from the not fully developed brain of a 12 yr old. Let her keep the focus of what she wants to do and as she matures and enters college she will see that there is more to it then just what she WANTS. She might find that she is happier in a different area Special Ed teaching. Does that make sense? My second son has autism. He knew from a very young age that he wanted to be an artist. Not just an artist, but an animator and his goal was to work for Pixar. Toy Story has been his obsession since he was three. He is now 21, and in college. He finished his Associates last year and is now working on his Bachelors. He already has plans for his Masters and his goal still is to work for Pixar. He is an awesome artist and animator, and HE knew it when he was three years old.

I'm going to come back to this thread with my menu plan but I wanted to post this recipe for Ooopsie rolls. They are carb free and work really well when you want to have a sandwich or burger. http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=259930 Ingredients 3 large eggs 1 packet of Splenda 1 dash salt 1 pinch cream of tartar 3 ounces cream cheese Tips DirectionsThis recipe comes from Cleochatra's "The Lighter Side of Low Carb" blog. There is a lot more about these rolls there, including a recommendation for special pans to cook them in. http://cleochatra.blogspot.com/2008/03/oopsie-perfection-at-good-price.html Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Separate the eggs and add Splenda, salt, and cream cheese to the yolks. Use a mixer to combine the ingredients together. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff (if you're using the same mixer, mix the whites first and then the yolk mixture). Using a spatula, gradually fold the egg yolk mixture into the white mixture, being careful not to break down the whites. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray and spoon the mixture onto the sheet, making 6 mounds. Flatten each mound slightly. Bake about 30 minutes (You want them slightly softer, not crumbly). Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes, and then remove to a rack and allow them to cool. Store them in a bread sack or a ziplock bag to keep them from drying out. Makes 6 @ about 85 calories a piece, >1 carb per.

We switched to ACE but not through the school. I bought the materials independently and they are working well with my daughter. We started out using Trail Guide to Learning: Paths of Exploration, which I dearly loved, but she did not. She liked the content, but not the fact that I sat with her to do most of her work. With the ACE, she can take a workbook and work at her own pace. There are no defined lessons, and that is what works for her. For some reason, defined lessons seem to stress her. She does not like working on the computer or working with me. She will ask for help if needed and I am available to do so. I check and correct all her work, I don't allow her to do that. I think ACE has gotten a bad rap due to how the ACE school runs their program. I wasn't a big fan at first because I prefer to work WITH her, but this is what works for her. I do realize it would be easy to cheat with ACE, but so far so good. She has always been a good student.

I've started pulling some recipes out of the dusty, hidden binder in my kitchen. I realized I'm missing a few essential ingredients which I won't get until the second week of January. I do my bulk shopping monthly, so that is when I will start. I'm also starting back on my diet which is very restrictive, so the meals I prepare will be for my DH and two daughters. I'm only doing dinners, as breakfasts is usually eggs (we have a ton of chickens) or oatmeal and lunch is almost always leftovers. I make homemade bread just about daily because my DH loves bread with dinner and I normally have fixin's for a green salad. So I figure that into our meals. The first week will be: Potato soup Crockpot whole chicken with brocolli. Beef tips over rice, mixed veggies Chicken and pasta (one skillet dish) Crockpot beef burgandy The other two days will be left overs or breakfast-for-dinner (meaning eggs or pancakes).

We switched to a boxed set at the start of the year but it didn't work, but not because it was boxed. It just wasn't a good fit with my daughters learning style. We switched to a different boxed set and she loves it. With our crazy schedule this year it's much easier to have something that is open and go and not teacher intensive at all.

I have chronic sinusitis too. I also have mild hearing loss due to having tubes in my ears more than once as a child. I can hear the sound, but I can't make out what the person is saying. If a person isn't looking at me for me to match up the lips to the sounds, I have to ask for them to repeat it. The radio can be on low, and I can make out the music but not the words. My DH can't understand how I can HEAR the sound, but not make out WHAT the words are saying. Maybe you can relate? I started wearing hearing aids. I went to the audiologist and they tried to sell me $4,000 hearing aids. I found a set at Sams for less than $750. They are small and don't give me the plugged up feeling when wearing them. They really do make a difference in what I can hear. http://www.samsclub.com/sams/hearing-aids/1710103.cp

My girls are 10 yrs apart but even if they weren't I still couldn't use the same stuff. They have completely different learning styles. My older daughter loved the computer based programs and used only SOS and TT. My younger daughter loves workbooks and cannot stand doing anything on the computer. The only way they are the same is that they both prefer to work independently. They do not like anything that requires lots of MOM included. Both are very self-directed and independent.

I'm down to homeschooling my last :( We use a modified workbox system. All her work is in a rolling set of small drawers. She does her math first (takes the longest) then can choose what ever subjects she wants. She also has her own student log and she will check off as she goes along. We started two years ago with the workboxes and it works very well for us.

I really need to do something like this for my family. My daughters classes run from 4pm til 6:15 every evening, meaning I don't get home until 6:30. It also means stopping for a quick bite to eat, which I cannot afford to continue doing. My DH gets home around 5:15 so if I have stuff that just needs to be put together or taken out of the crockpot he can do that. Also, I do not have a working oven. I have a toaster oven, a solar oven, crockpot and Foreman Grill for cooking.

My 8 yr old daughter is very easy going and doesn't give me a hard time (very rarely) about completing her work. She will just ask if she can have a break and I will tell her yes, for 15 mins. This would not have worked with my older daughter. She would be asking for a break every 15 mins! With her, it was a scheduled break. After three subjects then she could have a break.

After seeing that list I can say that I am definitely NOT paleo. I guess I'm what is considered low-carb. I don't eat anything white... rice, flour, sugar etc. But I do eat cheese and butter (lots of it!).

I had no idea that I needed a Kitchen Aid until reading this thread!