The things I make a regular trip to Trader Joe's for are: Dried fruits and raw nuts Cheese Tortilla Chips Frozen veggies/frozen fish Fresh Mild Salsa TJ version of cheerios/corn flakes/etc. Powerberries (they are delightful) Gravenstein Applesauce-this is by far the best jarred applesauce ever. Tomato and red pepper soup Sunflower seed butter Holiday time-Peppermint Jo-Jo's. I am sure there are other things I buy there fairly regularly but the above is what comes to mind. For the high ticket items-dried fruits and nuts their prices are the best around. It is also the only place I can get that applesauce.

We rarely do 'the family dinner". Between my husband's work hours and the kids swim schedule we are rarely home at dinner time. I eat lunch with everyone. My dh carves out time with the kids when he gets home from work. Some weekends we get to sit down together. To be honest, they are so not the norm that everyone ends up snapping at each other. My dh has unrealistic expectations of how the meal is supposed to go. Family dinners were a horribly stressful time for me growing up. We always had to eat together and my father often got home from work late. So we were starving. My parents were non-supportive so you never wanted to give away too much information. So answers were often one or two words. Then my father would pick up the newspaper and read and the rest of us would dive into our books. I believe it is important for families to have a common time to bond together I just don't necessarilly think that it has to be over a meal.

Does it count if I am taking my kids to swim practice and I will park my butt and read my book for 2 hours?

There is a reason I named my blog Our Homeschool Adventure. Overall we have a balance of smooth, wonderful, and yowza! This is my first year doing high school and there is a fair amount of yowza in making that work. Overall, happy as a clam. Even with the bad days I still think our lives are pretty wonderful. It is not so much how I envisioned it to be. My visions of snuggling on the couch with our daily lessons and everyone getting along and cupcakes and unicorns is more like "His foot is on my side! Make her stop looking at me! Why do I have to do science today!" But this journey is definitely wonderful in its own way.

My dh did Nutrisystem 20+ years ago. I met him right around the time he stopped. He liked the fact that he did not have to think about his food. It was already done for him. The best part for him was not having to think about preparing his meals. The most challenging was only eating their food for meals. No going out with friends for a meal. He did lose 30 lbs. He put most of it back on after he stopped the program. It may be different now but at the time it did not teach him how to change his eating habits. Once he went off he slowly went back to his old ways.

Definitely costs more to make your own over the on sale store brand. In the long run, in terms of health and knowing what is in your food, it costs less.

Most Disney sitcoms are awful. They do portray parents horribly. I have watched them with my kids when all of their friends were watching them. We talked about the messages in the show, reality vs. fantasy, etc. They can be great teaching tools. Phineas and Ferb, however, is genius.

Thanks to this thread I downloaded myfitnesspal and I absolutely love it. This is my first week and I am down 1 lb. Only 39 more to go. I plan on checking out walk away the pounds from the library. I have been using a basic step class dvd (which I enjoy) but I want some more variety then the wii fit and the step class.

It does sound like sleep apnea. She needs a sleep study.

You can try coating the earring post and the back of the earring with clear nailpolish.

Potato Soup http://www.food.com/...tato-Soup-74275 My dd says it tastes like mashed potatoes. I have followed the recipe as is, I have added carrots, corn, peas, parsnips, and turnips. It is great as is or as a base for something else. It does call for milk but you can substitute non-dairy milk.

One of the things I love about homeschooling is it gives me the opportunity to break out my They Might Be Giants cassettes. I have never seen the video.

My kids are quite fascinated that there was no internet when I was growing up. You either owned a set of encylopedias or you had to go the library to look stuff up. There was no googling it.

I am not gluten free but I have used my nutrimill to make flour from garbonzo beans, lentils, black beans, quinoa, and millet. I use a coffee grinder to make almond flour. I buy coconut flour because that one is work to make.

When I am on the ball-I withdraw cash on payday to last until the next payday. Gas, groceries, etc. are planned out so I carry the cash I need for the day. Otherwise I go to the bank when I need cash.

Breakfast is whenever we wake up. Lunch is somewhere between 11:30 and noon. Dinner-depends on swim practice. Dinner can be anywhere between 4 and 6:30.

My love of reading. Given the choice between cleaning and reading the book will win every time.

Yep. I know which stores carry what I need at the best price.

Up unitl this past year we were blessed by no one having any food allergies or intolerances. However, I have become intolerant to large amounts of soy oil (think mayonaisse) and guar gum. I can handle a small amount of soy oil but mayo does me in. I also seem to have an intolerance to ice cream that has guar gum in it. So, now I make my own mayo and only eat hagaan daz (the sacrifices I make in the ice cream department)

It depends. Sometimes I write a check, sometimes I use cash, and sometimes I use my debit card.

Catty-corner. I have never heard kitty corner.

I have not owned one but a friend of mine did. His biggest problem was getting people to pay. When times are tough the landscaper gets paid last.

Yes, you cut them off cold turkey. They will probably whine, complain, and wheedle for a week but when they see you hold firm they will stop. My kids know that snacking on veggies is always ok and fruit most of the time (sometimes I would like to get an apple before they eat them all)

I was a food theif and my dd is a food thief (and I am a closet eater). The only thing that solves the problem for me and my dd is not to have junk in the house. No one needs the junk (weight issue or not). Since my kids were babies we have discussed healthy eating and lfestyle choices. Eating the rainbow and all that. Bottom line-kids learn what they live. If your actions do not back up your words your kids know that. If your child is sneaking food the weird food issue is already there. You can talk till you are blue in the face about the long term consequences and I can tell you from experience it wont change things. You can not be the food police. Your child will want to have to stop. At 8 years old I doubt he will really want to because junk tastes good and if you are keeping it in the house and accessible that is too great a temptation. That is a set up for failure. All you can really do is control the food he has access too. Taking him to a nutrtionist might help in terms of really understanding what is at stake with food choices.

I think my mom was also doing this.