My kids are very hit or miss with sitting still for reading, but one trick I have found is they pay a lot of attention if I speak in some kind of accent, especially some vaguely cockney accent. At some point, I am sure they will realize I am an idiot, but it works for now.

Taco Bowls; Once a week I mix up a lb of ground beef with brown rice and home cooked beans and I add homemade taco seasoning. The kids can make some taco related meal out of it; they can make burritos, nachos, or taco salad out of it.

They were all living in Syria and had done pretty extensive travel in the middle east. They were hiking in a relatively stable area of Iraq. From what I understand they were not far at all from a fairly well established trail to a waterfall when they just wandered a bit too far.

We go to Sayulita, Mexico every few years. It is an hour north of Puerto Vallarta, and airfare is usually only 300 or so from Seattle. We can rent a house for our family of 6 for about 1500 a week. It is one of the best vacations we have ever taken. There is not a ton of stuff to do in town, and we usually spend most of the day hanging out at the beach, which is also pretty cost effective.

We watched Kung Fu Panda with my kids, including my adopted daughters (9,10). They didn't verbalize any anxiety from the adoption sub plot. It does take them a week after watching all martial arts based movies to stop kicking each other, though.

Thanks, this is exactly what I have been looking for!

We play them on a rotating basis at night while the kids are going to bed. After about 6 months of them listening to them off and on they can all recite them from memory.

If you are staying in Jersey, there should be an easy train you can take into the city. That isn't really specific, but I would imagine that the campgrounds could tell you how to get in. I would avoid driving into Manhattan at any cost, myself.

PCOS and thyroid would be at the top of my list. An initial screening for these could be done with a fasting blood sugar and TSH.

We did a ten day road trip years ago. If you are a little pressed for time, I would definitely concentrate on the South Island vs. the North. Christ Church and Wellington are both nice towns. Abel Tasman park is amazing. We did not make it down to Queensland and we really regret it! Aukland and the North Island were nice, but not as spectacular as the South Island.

I appreciate hearing about how other working parents do it; I am a family nurse practitioner with two jobs. I work in a clinic on M,W,Th. My husband is a contractor and works Tu,Th, Fri. I also round for a few hours a week at a nursing home on Tuesday afternoons and Thursdays after work. When we are both working, a grandparent is with the kids. There is almost no down time, but I also like that I get to spend my time at home with my kids rather than sending them to school and not seeing them until dinner time.

Central California Coast.

I have rosacea and the only thing that has ever worked for me is to take oral doxycycline daily. I tried a lot of other topical medicines, both prescription and OTC and finally gave in to taking medicine.

San Christobal de las Casas in Mexico would be a good, fairly cheap place to stay and is beautiful. I have been to a spanish school in Dominical, Costa Rica that was good, but I didn't find the town very family friendly. I also love Sayulita, which is near Puerto Vallarta. I know that there are a number of Spanish language schools there. Most of the schools I have heard of or attended are not very vigorous. I would probably decide how off the beaten track you wanted to go. The more primitive, the cheaper it will be and the more chances you will have to speak spanish, but for a month long trip it is really nice to be closer to amenities.

I am actually starting to like watching my kids play, and they all really enjoy it. Having three different practices on three different fields, not so much.

Definitely Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

We are a family of 6 going in November for 3 days as a part of a SouthEast road trip; we are relatively frugal, and I am budgeting about $2000 for the 3 days (which makes me cringe to write).We are staying in the All Stars Family suites, which were about as low cost as a big family could get and still stay in the parks. Because we are only there for 3 days, we are spending more money on getting park hoppers and staying on site. We plan to get our moneys worth out of the trip.

I have a decent Trek Roadbike that I got through Craiglist for 350$. It has gotten me through a few triathalons and I hope to do the STP next year.

we are still very new to homeschooling; only two months in, but we split it pretty much 50/50. He takes Mon/Wed and I take Tues/Fri; they spend Thursday at their Grandmother's house. Subjects are broken up pretty evenly with what we are interested in teaching.

We were drawn to Ethiopia after reading the book there is no me without you. One issue that was suprising for us is that our girls are not really orphans. Their Mom died in child birth, but we have exchanged a few very brief letters with their father, who could not raise them and brought them to the orphanage.

After ten years of marriage, we are in a comfortable place financially (able to afford extras, not living paycheck to paycheck and savings). We were never in bad financial shape, but this is the first time I would ever say that we were prospering. It is really a direct result of my education; I finished my masters to become an NP two years ago and that has enabled me to get a part time job that pays well and provides health insurance. For us it was a combination of working, timing, and good luck. I also credit government programs that enabled me to get through school debt free as well. We both grew up in lower income households, so just having enough money to pay bills without stress feels really good. Now we also help support my parents, who were really horrible with money and are living on social security.

I have no experience with independent adoptions, but we used Adoption Advocates International, which has new programs in Ghana and Uganda. They were great, and I cannot imagine trying to do the work independently. Even with our agency adoption, the paperwork was head spinning.

We split everything in half; we each work 3 days a week and stay at home 2 days a week; my MIL, who homeschooled all of her kids, watches them the 5th day. We each do Math, Piano, and reading with the kids. He does Writing/English and I do Science/History/spanish. I do most of the planning, but it works out well because he is very type A and I am really laid back, so the kids benefit from both of our styles. I don't know if we would be homeschooling if we didn't split it up.

My husband has an almost religious like devotion to board games that I can't match, but there are some I like that are way more fun than the old standbys. Dominion, Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, and Cash n' guns are all games that get pretty regular rotation at our house.

I like dissecting things...but I won't do any crafts or projects that involve glue.