We painted paneling in our old house and loved the way it came out. The worst part is getting the black lines well primered (we ended up tapping it in almost like a stencil). KILZ worked great for us, too.

I'm Dawn. Kinda newish around here, I've lurked off and on for a few years and started posting more recently. I read WTM in 2004ish when my first was born. My husband, Jason, and I both knew we wanted to homeschool and talked about it when we were dating. We have 3 children, as you can see in my sig. Oh, and, my "big" one started really reading about 1.5 weeks ago and it is SO MUCH FUN.

I don't know all of them: HWOT - Handwriting without Tears OPGTR - Ordinary Parents Guide to teaching Reading MoH - Mystery of History WP - Winters Promise At the top of the main page there's a link to a listing of abbreviations that should help with others.

The book I referenced above recommends Club Soda for windows; that water is good and whatever they put in the soda to make it fizzy makes it dry quickly leaving fewer streaks. I've found it to work pretty well the few times I've used it to wash windows/mirrors.

I tried to stalk Dr. Perrin in Cincinnati (I mostly failed, but bought all his sessions on CD [grin]). His sessions are *full* of great information, but sit close 'cause, as he admits, sometimes he mumbles. One of these years I'll make it to Jim Weiss, I'm still in the "soak up all the classical EdPhilosophy I can" phase. ETA: Love his little pamphlet about Classical Ed, I found it extremely helpful. Which reminds me, time for a reread.

Thank you!

I found Clean House Clean Planet to be a helpful guide in getting started.

I bought the science talk CD at the Cincy conference and it is so well done! It makes her science sound quite do-able and thorough. I'd 2nd this rec :)

How much global warming discussion is threaded into the movie? Is it super-prevalent, or in the background?

When I have such a situation, I like to have appetizer foods on hand (cheese & crackers, fruit tray w/dip, veggies & dip, and maybe something else) to serve while the rest of the meal is finalized. My favorite is to grill, marinate some meat (chicken breasts, flank steaks, something quick grilling) starting on Saturday, and have some sides (potato/pasta salad and baked beans) that are easy to serve with little work. Don't forget dessert.

I think IEW is written about in the chapter (and the earlier chapters) but not in the list at the end of the high school chapter. Someone asked about it on her blog, in this post. My two friends and I are in the second row middle of the first picture of people ... just had to tell somebody [grin]

Seconding the New Best Recipe by Cook's Illustrated, it is my go-to cookbook. I love Ina Garten's cookbooks and Nigella Lawson's. The Everyday Food cookbook is excellent for quick, tasty, seasonal, easy to find ingredient foods.

I am amazed at how often the first 20 or so answers from the Catechism for Young Children come up with my little ones and help to explain a question they have. I'm looking forward to doing more with them!

For the rest of the schooling years, Doorposts Plants Grown Up/Polished Cornerstones is a wonderful character training resource. I just bought Polished Cornerstones to start with my 4yo next January and will buy Plants Grown Up at next year's conference. Definitely Christian in content.

You might try pm'ing karenciavo or going to the LTW boards over at CiRCE.

I have lanyard string tied across mine to make the squares; it doesn't touch the soil, so no leaching problems.

I'm pretty sure the audio people said that recordings of SWB's talks would not be available to order after the conference, so if you wanted any of them (except the one Tara mentioned wasn't recorded [Hi, Tara!]) to buy that day. PHP might have more information, though.

My friends were not at all impressed with the Millennium: the lack of preparation for two large groups checking in; the temperature control was not good ... my friends were fixing it at 2 in the morning (the window heater/cooler in a room of that price?!); and they never got more toilet paper in their room. I don't know if the prices were the same at the other hotels for parking, but they were going to be charged $20 a day to park downtown? We did like the restaurant, the $18 dinner special on Friday was excellent and a lot of food for the price (although at the lunch with SWB, I felt bad for the one waitress who was trying to deal with us and I was frustrated that my check wasn't processed until after her talk had started. While I think it is a superb conference organization, content, and shopping wise, the food issues (don't bring in your own, $3 bottles of water, nutritious food was offsite and expensive) and the convention center/hotel/parking garage's lack of preparation for that many people (long lines to check in, long lines at the convention center Starbucks, 40 minutes to get out of the garage Thursday night) was a touch frustrating.

Adam, before the fall, had a perfect free will: he could [sin] or he could [not sin]. Once he sinned, his descendants (us) are only able to choose sin because we freely choose to sin (Romans 3:23). We are dead in sin. The Holy Spirit gives the elect the ability to freely choose (Titus 3:4-7; Romans 8-9), and the regenerate have the freedom to choose what is good: God. The Bible says we are dead in sin and God makes us alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:1-10). A drowning man can catch a lifesaver and be pulled into the boat; he can choose. A dead man, OTOH, can only be hauled in by someone grabbing him. This is the picture of what God does for his elect; he hauls the dead in and makes them alive. Once the Lord has made him alive, can he again die? This is a basis for perseverance of the saints. The Wiki article on perseverance is pretty good. I don't really want to debate this, either; and this is a very imperfect (as all analogies are) picture and explanation of Reformed belief. The RC Sproul book, Chosen by God, is a much better, more complete discussion than could be made here. You can see how all of the pieces of the TULIP doctrine fit together to explain our will, election, and perseverance. I am not a PCAer but in the OPC, which as someone else noted is similar. There is a discussion of this on our denomination's site you may wish to read.

Hey, OhE. That was a great rundown. I did buy the new WTM, I was so excited that they had it there ... woo-hoo! I went systematically up and down the aisles. I knew where I wanted to stop and spend time (and, generally, $$) I met Angela in Ohio at the Doorposts table (besides the wonderful lunch group!) I spent a good deal of time at Math on the Level, reading through the "teacher manual." It looks great, I would love to use it, I don't think I could keep on top of it. My exciting (I hope) find of the conference was Bright Ideas Press' new Composer Study. Right now, it is CD-Rom and coming Mothers' Day it will be a print book. SWB was impressive with her rigorous schedule, wit, and grace under pressure. It was a great conference, and now my brain hurts.

I've used Coconut oil in brownie mixes (I know, kinda defeats the purpose ...), the brownies are amazing (I like the unrefined, it adds a nice coconut flavor to the brownies). I put the jar in a pan of water on the stove to make it liquid.

Please do! We have rollicking good fun here :)

Instead of scallops, bacon wrapped water chestnuts are a favorite here.

I'm staying with my inlaws, but my friends are staying at the Millennium and your post about food has thrown us for a loop! Do you know about our social group for this conf?

Dice it into a quiche?