We had two for a while, but ended up sending them back to the company as I could not longer deal with the stinkiness, and no one else in the family liked them. :(

Very nice!

Thank you!

We also much prefer Dreambox. I found with IXL, my dcs would get very frustrated that they would have to do really easy problem sets in order to get the full set of "tokens" for a grade. Dreambox doesn't calibrate perfectly, but it is much better at giving them "just right" problems to do. In addition, they learn different problem-solving strategies; not enough for it to be a full curriculum, but much more than simple drill.

No advice, just prayers. So sorry all this is happening at once.

Agree, agree, a thousand times agree.

So sorry for your news.

What sad news. ((((Hugs))) to Kay and her family.

We have Hunter Douglas room-darkening shades in our boys' room ($$$ but good). We had Redi-Shades (sold as temporary, but as others mentioned above, quite durable) for quite a while and they worked well.

Congratulations! :hurray:

Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl (a novel, despite its title!) reminded me a lot of The Secret History.

Good for him!

I put a lot of photos on Shutterfly, grouped by month taken (or by major event, such as a vacation). Then I make a yearly album of them which I send out as Christmas gifts. I also back up to an external hard drive, but I take some comfort from having photos in "the cloud" as well.

I like the formulation, "Luck is the residue of design," which is attributed to Branch Rickey (the man who began the integration of major league baseball).

Thomas Edison has a message or two for you.. http://pinterest.com...ctric/hey-girl/

Other - we start in the same bed, but 90% of the time one of us moves to the couch in the middle of the night!

We are about where you are in SOTW2. Any good books you have planned as supplements for upcoming chapters? We really enjoyed the additional reading recommendations on your blog for SOTW1.

yay! :hurray:

great news for you all! :001_smile:

Some other points to make about him: * While he published some devotional books under his own name, his most famous works were published under pseudonyms (like "Johannes de silentio"). The reason was his belief that each person must have an individual encounter with God; and that that encounter was best provoked by a kind of Socratic questioning. In his works, he rebelled against not only the state church of Denmark, but the hyper-generalizing philosophy of Hegel and other German philosophers of the time. * He believed that human life was divided into three "stages of life's way": the aesthetic (living for sensual pleasure, like Mozart's Don Giovanni); the ethical (living according to a set of rules that applied to everyone - more praiseworthy than the first stage, but still not adequate); and the religious (called by God and in an individual relationship with him, as Abraham was; and perhaps incomprehensible to others, as Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac might seem to us). * He was indeed a depressive! But he was an acute observer of his times, and he has inspired a number of not-quite-as-depressing authors. In particular, Walker Percy's early works, The Moviegoer and The Last Gentleman, were inspired by him.

Thank you!

Ds 7 and 6 do tae kwon do at a local studio, where the motto is "Focus and respect." While there is discussion of the origins of martial arts, there is much more emphasis on proper form and mindset and the need to use the skills for self-defense only. The instructors are excellent role models, and we plan to continue the boys' studies as long as they are interested.

Remember Zork, don't remember grues (I was never very good at those games!).

We have the 3-Lane Raceway, which I bought (1) because it was the only one that got halfway decent reviews on Amazon and (2) it runs on AC power, not on batteries. We've had it for six weeks without breaking, and the boys still have fun. It is not nearly as exotic-looking as some of the other sets, but is more sturdy as a result.

I just noticed that it seems as though only the most recent posts by a user are showing up in their profile. I have always enjoyed being able to read the longer posting history of some of the "old school" users - will that be available in the future? Thanks so much!