3-4 days by myself. 😳I would never ask for it, because it would break my kids hearts, but I need a break. 😖

Fruit or vegetables with hummus.

I'm currently reading two on going books-the entire Narnia series during morning time and the entire Harry Potter series during bedtime. I also read picture books to my youngest whenever she brings them to me. My kids are 12, 9, and 6. Foster son is only 10 months, but he listens in when he's awake lol.

Oh yay! The poll worked!

Um. I tried making a poll, but I don't know if it worked. After reading the other sleepover thread, I was surprised at how many people do not participate in sleepovers at all. This is where we are currently. We have done them in the past, and honestly they never went well. I don't enjoy the responsibility of extra kids, I am not comfortable parenting other people's kids. So when they refuse to be quiet at midnight, or get into the pantry and open bags of snacks, or are unkind to a sibling, I don't know how to handle it. I like my quiet time after putting my own kids to bed-I NEED that time, since I am the only parent with them most of the time and I don't often get a break. Plus, I have three girls, so if I allow one, I feel obligated to allow them all to have a friend, which is insanity. The last sleepover we did was at the girls gym six months ago, where they stayed up until 4 am. 😣 This started some major bedtime anxiety for my oldest, and we are still working to through that. Prior to this, my youngest had night time terrors for two years. Multiple times per night. Just as we got over those, my oldest developed this horrible bedtime anxiety. Sigh. I have always been very reluctant to let them go to other people's houses to sleep over, because when I was a child, I was a victim to some yucky stuff. Right at our neighbors house. 😣So I've been a bit jumpy at the thought of my girls having sleepovers elsewhere. So far, the only place I've allowed it has been at one friends house that I trust 100%, so it's not been an issue. But I worried that opening the floodgates could lead to sleepovers with parents I don't know quite as well. My neighbors were the nicest people, it wasn't the parents but the older brother. I never said anything, and it happened more than once. You can understand why I'm hesitant. Anyway, I have felt like a total grinch for just putting a general ban on sleepovers, but perhaps I don't need to feel so guilty? It seems like it is more common than I thought to not allow them. If you do not allow them, can you explain why? And how your kids feel about it?

Ooooh! Me!!! We've never done a formal 'morning time' so I'm really researching this now. Next year we will be doing the Build Your Library geography year. I bought the books from a friend for my oldest dd, who will be in 7th, and then added picture books for my youngest and short chapter books for my middle dd. At last count, I have over 200 books and stories to be read next year! For now, I'm thinking we will do morning basket for one hour, first thing. We will be studying one continent every 4-6 weeks, so the books will be coordinating. I'll have a picture book, a chapter book, a map to color or fill in, and our poetry daily. I was also thinking about rotating books like Children Like Me, Celebrations, A Life Like Mine, Material World, and What the World Eats. Maybe even showing 15-20 minutes of documentaries? I know we are short on books for Antarctica, so I was wanting to show them the movie Arctic Tale... Other than geography based books, I want to do composer or artist study. I have about 12 of the Getting To Know The World's Artist books and a collection of 'composer stories for children' books. I have a great coffee table book, World Art, that has nice big pictures. I'm thinking my voice will tire if I try to read aloud for an hour, so I may have an audio books going as well. And I may have my middle dd read the picture book to the youngest, and my older dd read the chapter book. I'd love for the girls to put together an 'end of the unit' project or presentation, perhaps highlighting a specific country or person or animal they were interested in from which ever continent we have been studying. This will be very open ended, and completely their project. They can choose to do a poster or write a report or simply stand and talk. I'm wondering if allowing them to work on these things during some of the read aloud time would be too distracting? If it is, I do feel like I'll need some more 'keeping their hands busy' ideas for while I'm reading. Especially for my youngest. I'd love other ideas fro mm more experienced morning basket folks on what else to incoorperate into our geography year basket!

We did a family screen break last summer for 3 months. It was great. I talked to the kids beforehand, and it wasn't terrible at all. I think because I admitted it was also an issue for *me* not to be looking on my phone or iPad all the time, they were able to go along with it. I expected my youngest to have a much more difficult time, but she only really asked a few times the first week. In August we added a newborn to the family, and we stopped the break. Now we all have one hour (from 1-2 everyday) to have screen time. I try very hard to limit myself to that time, unless I'm answering a text. I can feel myself slipping though, which is hard because the kids keep me accountable. For my kids, knowing they will have some time and when that time will be helps tremendously. Also, staying busy helps. During the summer break, we went to the lake or pool a ton, we went camping a bunch of times, and saw friends most days. They also have gym four evenings a week, which helps. We pulled out those games and crafts that had been sitting in the closet, I let them make messy experiments, and we all tried to be outside more.

My third grader does more "subjects" but same amount of time. We also have two light days (because we go to coop those days) and three heavier days. On the light days, we work for about two hours, and on the heavy days about four. M/W (light days) Math-15 min Cursive-15 min Grammar-15 min Reading-30 min Typing/duolingo/geography-15 min each Coops cover-science (engineering), art, theater, kitchen science (chemistry) T/Th (heavier days) Math-30 min Writing-30 min Reading-30 min History-30 min Typing/Prodigy Math/Duolingo/geography-15 min each I read aloud to the kids every night for half hour, and we have a history based audio book going in the car. We are at gymnastics four evenings per week for about 20 hours total.

I'm getting my hard to buy for hubby some Man Crates for his birthday. They look fun and unique. I am torn between the whiskey drinkers one, the knife or ax one, and a bacon one. He loves whiskey, loves being a pseudo lumberjack, and has mad several custom pens on his lathe. He'll like all of them I think!

We are a family of 6, but if I exclude the baby's diapers, wipes, and formula, we are between $300-$350. This includes household items like natural soaps and shampoos, detergents, paper goods, cleaning products. We eat clean, organically when we can, drink only milk, coffee, or water, and eat a ton of produce. I spend at least $100 on produce alone. Our meals are a mix of completely from scratch to some convenience. We have a packed afternoon schedule, so I do need some quick cooking dinner meals that travel well in a thermos. As a family, I try to keep a carbs to a minimum. Very little pantry foods like chips or crackers, very little pasta (maybe once every other week for the kids), and pricey sprouted bread. Alternative snacks are either fresh produce, nuts/seeds, eggs, or dried fruit-all of which are more than boxes of crackers. We do like going out to eat, and we do that at least once a week.

Everyone's clothing is washed each night. Towels washed separately. Washcloths washed separately. Sheets and bedding washed weekly. Everything is washed on normal except bedding on the bedding cycle. Dogs bedding washed twice monthly.

The one we volunteered for did ask questions. However, the questions were meant to find out what additional needs the family had. Things like Do you have heat in your home this winter? Do you need kitchen utensils or appliances? Do you have child care needs? Do you need back to school supplies? Did you know about this or that service? Can we help you sign up for those? Every year, a different church hosts a weekend of free medical/self care for those who need it. Doctors and dentists, hair dressers, chiropractors, massage therapists all donate their time to serve the needy. It had nothing to do with this organization, but they wanted to be sure everyone knew about it and if needed, they would try to provide transportation. Are there clothing or shoe needs, blankets, bedding, towels? They also asked about food allergies, preferences, and family size, to ensure bigger families got enough food. They asked for birth dates so that a cake and cards could be sent in their weekly bin. There was also a transportation crew, so if you had no way to get to the food bank, a bin with a weeks worth of supplemental food could be brought to the family. We volunteers would gather in a church that had an industrial kitchen and not only put together bins of pantry goods, but cook hot meals and package them in foil containers, cut up fresh fruit, and make laundry detergent. Some families had babies, so we would put diapers or wipes in their bins when we got them. Every month we'd send home toiletries. We had a blanket drive in the winter. We delivered beds and other furniture to families who had expressed a need for them. We were able to deliver to the same family for six months, and it was wonderful getting to know them more personally. It allowed us to connect them with a friend getting rid of their (perfectly good, they were just upgrading) dryer when the family was line drying six people's clothing indoors. We were able to get to know their children and do Christmas for them. We brought them books to read, games and puzzles to play with. We also supplemented the pantry food with fresh fruits and vegetables mid week. I was the moms on call person to drive her to the hospital when she gave birth. The organization offered a lot of classes, like nutrition, and job training/search opportunities. They would trade volunteer and class hours at the pantry for coupons for extra things, (not necessities), like new gifts for birthdays or Christmas, toys and games, tickets for the movies or admission to the pool or zoo. I've never needed a food bank, but unfortunately they are a necessity. And the clients at a food bank deserve to be treated with the utmost respect and not be made to feel uncomfortable about questions asked. I felt that the organization did a fantastic job of that. The further questions were completely optional-you could just walk in and get food if that was what you preferred. As for what to donate, yes, they prefer cash. The food pantry shops at a bigger food pantry warehouse and gets food by the pound. I want to say it was something like $.16 per pound. It could be anything-cans, boxes, meats, cheeses, produce-that the warehouse has in stock. So it was more than six times less expensive for them to shop than for me to purchase things at my grocery store. Other things they appreciated were toiletries and baby items like diapers and wipes.

I have an 11 year old (6th grade), 8 year old (3rd grade), and 6 year old (K/1st grade). Well, and a baby, but he just gets held and fed lol. We finish by 12:30. Start at 8:30 on the nose and work straight through. Science, art, and logic are outsourced through coop, so I don't need to do those at home. So we need to cover math, language arts, history, foreign language. I'll put what my oldest girl does, the other two take less time. I basically rotate through all of them, giving the littlest a break between each of her subjects, the middle a break after 2-3 subjects, and my oldest one break while she has a snack and reads. 11 year old- MATH CLE math-20-30 minutes daily Problem solving genius-20-30 minutes once per week Prodigy math-20-30 minutes 2-3 times per week WRITING IEW-just finished SWI B, so we are taking a break for a couple of months, then moving to SWI B CC. This happens 3x per week for 30 minutes. Creative writing-she is working on her book, 2-3x per week for 30 minutes. SPELLING Phonetic zoo-10 minutes everyday GRAMMAR Language mechanic-15 minutes twice a week ROOT WORDS 15 minutes twice a week HISTORY Mom made early American history course, including 12 'literature selections', Howard Zinns A History of the US, the Smithsonian Encyclopedia of American History, and various documentaries. She spends about 20 minutes reading her literature selection everyday, and then once a week we work on the other stuff for an hour or so. GEOGRAPHY Mapping the World With Art by Ellen McHenry-20 minutes once per week DUOLINGO On her own time, typically 15-20 minutes per day. We are native Spanish speakers, so she hears that as well. She reads for several hours per day. She does 9-10 hours of gymnastics each week. I'm wanting her to learn to type, so I'm looking into programs for that.

Thoughts? We are loving it for middle school and I thought I read somewhere it was not rigorous enough in high school? Or am I mixing it up with another curriculum?

I am so very sorry for your loss. You are incredibly strong and a beautiful example of a mother. Lots of gentle hugs and love to you. Thank you for sharing your sweet, precious baby Nathaniel with us.

My dh was forbidden to use the restroom in elementary school and had an accident. It was not in K-3rd grade btw, and it was not just pee. He still gets anxious when we aren't near a restroom. I would be furious and would pull him out. No excuse for not letting a kid go to the bathroom!

Still thinking about you...glad you are snuggling with your baby.

Thinking about you...sending so much love and peace and healing to you both.

Could you share the titles of these books? Thank you.

An electric skillet! Lots of soups and stews in your crockpot, grilled chicken, meat, or fish on your skillet. Eggs and pancakes can also be made on a skillet. Crockpot oatmeal? Salads with a protein, or quesadillas grilled on the skillet.

This! Don't be shy about asking for specific help. I always offer to help my mom friends, but I never know what they need...and I feel like I'm intruding if I try too much, so it feels like an empty offer because they don't take me up on it. Heck, I'd be willing to come over, cook you a meal and fold laundry while you nap with the baby, or mop floors, or whatever! Definitely speak up and give specific ways people can help if they offer.

I would have tossed them all. Cats have very dirty mouths and I'd be afraid I wouldn't know if she licked more than one.

We went out of town to visit and do Christmas with grandparents (in laws and my dad) from Dec 11-18. It was Florida, so they got a lot of swimming in. Then we had a quiet christmas with just our family here. It was so peaceful. No rushing, no meltdowns, no stress. Kids spent the whole day actually playing with their gifts, building lego sets and making craft kits. Lovely, and I wish with all my heart this is our new norm.

Best chews we've found are antlers and yaks milk chews. Yes, I'm serious, it's yak milk lol. Neither of those stink, and they last a very long time. Both are quite pricey, but well worth it.

A chicken coop and run!!! Well, the coop I knew about, I bought it months ago and it has been sitting in the garage. But dh and the kids took this whole week to level and clean out the garden area and put in solid fencing. He built a little deck off the back basement door with a sitting area so we can hang out with the chickens. It was a ton of work, and absolutely spoke to my 'love language' which is acts of service. This meant a lot to me, since he is a gifts guy, and normally wouldn't understand how not having a gift to open would be ok lol. It turned out incredible and I can't wait to get chicks!!