I am happily ignoring the lack of schoolwork being accomplished by my younger kids this morning because they are all cheerfully playing together and I haven't heard a single argument.

What is the legal situation of civilian military employees homeschooling in Germany? I know active duty military families can homeschool legally because they are in a special legal category under the Status of Armed Forces agreement. Does this extend to the families of civilian DOD employees? (OP, I apologize for the slight hijack. I've been wondering about this for a long time and Mrs Mungo's post made me think she might know the answer.)

Perhaps a thread about Messianic Jews drinking k-cup coffee while cooking crockpot meals and burning Moby Dick? All while lamenting the abysmal public school system and reading racist history books... ETA I forgot the part about their children playing in drainage ditches all day.

All About Spelling outside of the US Well, that really depends on which country you are spelling in. If you want to know all about spelling in France, for example, you could start with a French dictionary. Arabic speaking countries keep things simple by leaving out all the vowels, we really could take a page from their book if we want to cut down on the hassles of teaching spelling in English--all those pesky vowel sounds with different possible spellings...wll wrth cnsdrng.

This is what I would do, no ER but do go for an office visit. I had to do this once, Dr. Had to cut the splinter out and put in a couple of stitches--that was one nasty splinter!

I would also think depression, it can totally change a person's outlook on life including their view of past experiences and relationships. Also, with regard to childhood experiences, it sounds like your dh is younger than his siblings. He would not necessarily remember or know about negative relationship issues in their past. Discussions with my younger siblings have shown me that they don't remember serious conflicts I had with my dad as a young teen. He had a way of losing his temper with me that no one who has only known him and our relationship during our adult years or from a distance would ever imagine.

I would also think depression, it can totally change a person's outlook on life including their view of past experiences and relationships. Also, with regard to childhood experiences, it sounds like your eh is younger than his siblings. He would not necessarily remember or know about negative relationship issues in their past. Discussions with my younger siblings have shown me that they don't remember serious conflicts I had with my dad as a young teen. He had a way of losing his temper with me that know one who has only known him and our relationship during our adult years or from a distance would ever imagine.

TOG assigns a book called Mormonism Unmasked, I do not recommend it if you want an accurate picture of LDS beliefs (some of the things the book claims are Mormon beliefs are things no Mormon of my acquaintance believes and are certainly not taught as official doctrine of the LDS church). I'm not sure what would be an acceptable recommendation--perhaps this book http://www.amazon.com/How-Wide-Divide-Evangelical-Conversation/dp/0830819916/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1392683071&sr=8-1 which I have not read but at least it lets an actual believing member of the LDS church discuss his beliefs. If you want to understand basic LDS doctrines as taught within the church, this is a good resource https://www.lds.org/manual/gospel-principles?lang=eng it is a book used to teach adult Sunday school classes to church members. Regarding past versus present teachings, I guess it depends on what exactly you mean. Some past practices and teachings that have changed significantly over the years include the practice of polygamy and the exclusion of people of African descent from priesthood ordination. These practices have been changed in accordance with the LDS belief in ongoing revelation. Official church statements about these practices and their revision can be found here http://www.lds.org/topics/plural-marriage-and-families-in-early-utah?lang=eng and here http://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng Additionally, critics of the LDS church often use quotes from past LDS authorities, particularly from the 19th century, to make claims about Mormon beliefs and doctrine. Unfortunately this practice ignores the realities of how doctrine is established and formalized within the LDS church. The vast majority of sermons or pronouncements made by LDS leaders past or present are not official doctrine. Particularly in the early days of the church there was a great deal of speculation and extrapolation that went far beyond the pall of what the LDS church embraces as official doctrine. The fact that Brigham Young or someone else said x at some point does not mean x is official doctrine of the LDS church. Many of these misconceptions are addressed unofficially by Mormon apologists here http://www.fairmormon.org One of the difficulties in presenting LDS history and beliefs fairly is that there are few if any truly unbiased sources. You can find many books and articles written by believing Mormons, and many written by Mormon critics. There is almost nothing written from a disinterested, scholarly position. You might imagine a similar problem could have faced a person in the second century AD who wanted to find an unbiased source of information about Christianity; they would encounter both fervent believers and venomous detractors, but few sources that could provide an unbiased perspective.

Is there somewhere we can find these ideas "from the horse's mouth?"

Is there somewhere we can find these ideas "from the horse's mouth?"

Yes, I have used LH tests when TTC and found them helpful. The benefit I could see in terms of NFP would be in helping you chart your cycle over a period of months to get a better idea for when you ovulate. I am not aware if any method that can predict ovulation more than five days out. On the plus side, the most recent studies I have seen indicate that fertilization is extremely unlikely if intercourse occurs more than 24 hours after ovulation, seems the fertile window is approximately five days before to the day of ovulation, which is shorter than what I was taught years ago.

Mary Poppins?

Oh, I bet autocorrect does that to his name all the time...

I don't think TOG is particularly dominionist (though I'm not exactly clear on what that means) nor patriarchal. It is reformed. I have issues with TOG at the moment because they have chosen a new book for their three week study on Mormonism and it is highly biased and inaccurate. There are plenty of legitimate LDS doctrines to discuss if you want to do a unit on what Mormons believe compared to what Protestant Christians believe, it drives me bonkers when people start telling me I believe things I don't and my church teaches things it doesn't...for now I am giving Marcia and her crew the benefit of the doubt and assuming they just took the book's claims to accuracy at face value and are not intentionally teaching falsehoods. As for ATI-- nah, Marcia Sommerville's hair is way to short for her to be associated with them :)

My mom go pregnant unexpectedly at age 50 but ended up with a miscarriage.

Here's another. I find any first hand account fascinating. http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/SRich.html

Another biography, but with less first hand writing https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/supporting-saints-life-stories-nineteenth-century-mormons/5-salt-earth-lady-martha-cragun

Not quite what you are looking for, but this page has a biography and excerpts from the diary of one 19th century Mormon woman. Whoops, forgot the link https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/supporting-saints-life-stories-nineteenth-century-mormons/9-diary-lucy-hannah-white-flake

Widstoe died over sixty years ago and did not have access to the large compilations of data available to researchers today. The best information I can find indicates that women did indeed outnumber men among immigrant converts in the 19th century. i.e. http://books.google.com/books?id=mZyjXkA-MUYC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=male+female+ratio+mormon+converts+utah+scandinavia&source=bl&ots=Cc1fBorRcl&sig=zky4alR1FPfmsxH0jAIcEmDoCgw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rAIAU5T6I5TYoATr2IKgBA&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=male%20female%20ratio%20mormon%20converts%20utah%20scandinavia&f=false

The question at hand is not the reasons for or justification of polygamy, but whether it's practice does or did lead to a surplus of unmarried men. Within the context of the 19th century LDS church it does not appear to have done so. We've simply been exploring the how's and whys.

Raw census numbers are misleading. There was indeed a surplus of active LDS women in Utah, just as there is now a surplus in areas with many converts. There was a huge disparity in the ratio of male to female non-LDS immigrants, but LDS women wanting to marry LDS men would not have considered the surplus of non LDS men as eligible partners. http://blog.fairmormon.org/2010/10/12/go-west-young-man-and-sex-ratios/

I take and enjoy small breaks throughout the day. With a houseful of young children, I can't imagine what a large chunk of down time would be like. There is always more that needs doing than I am able to do!

This information is incorrect. To understand regional accreditation, read this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_accreditation ETA for those who want the reader's digest version: regional accreditation is actually the gold standard in the United States, it is national accreditation that is less well regarded.

Definitely look into the Five Love Languages book. Sounds to me like you have a fantastic husband who maybe speaks a different love language than you.

I thought the Core was worth reading. It is not at all about CC but just another take on classical education.