Our last house was completely open - bedrooms/bathrooms opened up onto the main room (which was kitchen/dining/family). Our house looked like a mess ALL the time ... we didn't have enough room, either so that was a big factor as well. We just built our 'dream' home plan and it is semi-open. You cannot see anything but the entry and a slice of the living room from the front door. The kitchen and dining area are tucked to the right side of the house, the kitchen opens up to the family room (divided by an island). The kids room & play room are upstairs (YAY!) so their mess stays up there. We are able to keep our house much nicer looking now. I don't think I would like every room being closed off... I like being able to converse with DH while getting dinner ready and/or keep tabs on the kids.

That's really neat. I love stuff like that. I hope the day comes when my family can afford to go visit places like that (and others with more historical significance, lol).

Another for East Tennessee! I love it here. There are tons of homeschool groups, co-ops, etc. The weather is awesome, the mountains are awesome and we have tons of lakes. Great for homeschooling as well. Plus, there's still plenty of 'country' here for relatively cheap if you look. :)

Oh! We do the science that comes HOD which is 2x a week I think and then we also add in the Magic School Bus kits. They usually do the experiments with DH and I didn't count that time. (We only do the experiments when DS requests ones b/c most are still over his head a tad). He does watch The Magic School bus every day to introduce him to different concepts. If he has questions we'll expand on that with books from the library. What is FLL (sorry... I don't know all the abbreviations yet)?

Well, we're following the HOD schedule. So History is reading about a page in the history book, a corresponding bible story and then discussion/review (so Bible & History are combined according to the HOD schedule). We do a memory verse... read it three times, repeat. One chapter from our current read aloud (Adventures of Reddy the Fox at the moment). One lesson from MUS Alpha. SWR - I dictate 10 words for him to write in his journal and we go over phonograms. Handwriting is a page in the handwriting book that comes with HOD. 2 pages in the thinking skills book... It's only one page according to the schedule but I increased it b/c it was too easy. Last thing is he'll read aloud a reader of his choice (or my choice... depending). I feel like it's well rounded but it still only takes an hour. I feel that HOD LHFHG is too easy for him, but it is age appropriate and I just bought it so I'm not willing to just give it up. Am I doing something wrong that it's only taking an hour? He is not the typical K'er that wastes time.

Thanks for the suggestions :) We were flying through MUS (up to lesson 14 a couple months into the year) but I started going back to make him do all the lessons so now we're working through review on lesson 10. I felt like I was doing something wrong, lol. I'll start skipping some of the review from now on. I think I will add memory work in. We memorized a poem in the beginning of the year but it fell by the wayside when we went to HOD.

I must have mis-typed. I meant that if you decide to raise mealworms that the mealworms go through a beetle phase. But since you live clost to a pet store it seems crickets would be the better option ;) Iguanas grow to be very, very large. They can bit and cause a decent amount of damage.

:(

They need a good sized habitat - think a 55 gallon tank once they're full grown. You'll also need specialty lighting plus a spot heat lamp. They eat crickets or meal worms. Crickets are a big pain. Even if you have a cricket habitat you're still going to the pet store every week or so. Plus they end up being expensive. You can raise your own mealworms easily... that would be something you'd have to decide on...they go through a big beetle phase which I don't think I'd be able to handle (maybe your child would take care of the mealworms as well?). They don't really 'play' or anything. They just sit there and look around.

This is DS's Kindergarten year, though he's at the older end (turned 6 in the beginning of October). This is my first year homeschooling and I didn't realized until after I had the materials that we're doing more 1st grade than K, but DS is doing well so far. We follow HOD LHFHG with some substitutions. Here's our schedule: History - 5x a week Bible - 5x a week Read aloud - 5x a week MUS Alpha - 5x a week (one lesson per day) SWR - 3x a week (on days we don't do handwriting since he has to write in the journal) Handwriting - 2x a week Thinking skills - 2-3x a week Reading - 5x a week (he reads a reader out loud to me) Doing all of this only takes him an hour. He'll do artsy type stuff throughout the day but I don't count that in the hour. Should I add more? He gets easily frustrated with reading and writing so though we do them every day, I cannot push him to do more at this time. He is great at math, absorbs history readily (we already read more than the HOD schedule) and likes the Bible stories (I'll read as many of them as he wants plus what is on the HOD schedule). When not doing our hour of school he plays with his 4 yr old brother... it's constructive play which is good for both of them, obviously... especially the younger one since he isn't really intersted in school yet.

We have had A LOT of cats over the past 10 years... like 10 or more? Out of all of those we did not have ONE single cat that scratched where it wasn't supposed to. We have always kept a cat tree with sisal rope on it for them to scratch and that's what they do. Declawing adult cats is horrible. It's would be like amputating all of your fingers at the first knuckle. If you husband insists then I would honestly find a new home for both the cats. Another thing to consider is most cats will not be content going from being exclusively outside cats to indoor cats. They're also used to marking their territories outside... that may not stop once they're inside.

Do you SIL & BIL really want to go to that restaurant? If they do I would just suck it up and enjoy a really yummy $50 steak (and then be thankful you can make the same thing at home for $8...). If they're open to a change then I would just say what you've said here - that $50 for a steak is a rip-off! :)

Take the day off! We took a day off yesterday b/c ds's transformer ruined our morning from the start... long story, lots of frustration, lol.

Have you tried plantoeat.com? That site got me back into menu planning & cooking meals in general. I find it very user friendly.

If I were you I would be on a 1700-1800 calorie, high-protein diet as well as have a good weight lifting program in place plus interval training 2-3x per week (only 20 min each time). Muscle mass will burn calories. You will not bulk up (promise!). Interval training will get some cardio in but not so much cardio that you're eating away at the hard earned muscle. You have to keep in mind that when you're adding in weight training that a a pound of muscle takes up less room than a pound of fat but it weighs the same. The scale may not decrease as much as you *think* it should, but you will see major results in inches lost and body fat percentage. A good goal for diet is 40% of your calories from protein (4 calories per gram), 40% of your calories from carbs (4 calories per gram) and 20% of your calories from fat (9 calories per gram). So on a 1800 calorie diet that would be 180 grams of protein, 180 grams of carbs and 40 grams of fat daily.

My situation is a bit different so I didn't vote. The mom that raised me hardly ever calls me. Maybe once every 2 months... and that's if she's not have a depression spell or something else going on. Usually I'm the one that ends up calling because I feel guilty that I haven't talked to her in so long (how messed up is that?). My adoptive mom & dad adopted me as a newborn, adoptive mom left, my dad got re-married when I was 3. So she has raised me since I was very young but never had the true mentality that I was her daughter...more like competition for affection from my dad. I met my birth mother when I was 18. I now live very close to her and if I go 2 or three days without talking to her that's very unusual. I text with her and my sister (whom I also met when I was 18) every day... usually multiple times per day. The situation with my step-mom really bothers me. To me she IS my mom... to her I'm her fair-weather daughter. Things have gotten a lot better over the past 10 years but those scars run deep, unfortunately.

Quartz all the way!!! We just built a house and we chose Cambria (quartz) for our countertops. I love it. It looks great. Cambria just had some new colors come out in the last 6 months or so - the color we chose is called Canterbury and has copper flecks in it and is gorgeous.

I swear small dogs are sooo hard to train... much worse than larger dogs for some reason. The only advice I can give is to crate train & to take the puppy out ALL THE TIME. If the he doesn't go outside then he needs to go in his crate and be taken out again in 15 minutes or so (If you're home). When he goes, he gets to be out to play. I would seriously take him out every 30 min or so at first, slowly lengthening the time. Also, give treats when he goes potty outside. Good luck!

I have a K'er this year, I'm having a baby in March and my other son will be starting K in the fall so I'll be right where you are twice, lol. I started HOD with DS, SWR for reading/phonics and MUS for math. The HOD lessons are super short - it takes me less than an hour every day. I do one lesson from MUS (most of the time scribing for DS) and then A Reason for Handwriting came with HOD and is scheduled 2x a week (though he gets extra writing practice with SWR...which we're going through slowly). I really feel like the HOD schedule would be very do-able with a baby. Could you help him with some lessons while you're nursing the baby? Other than that I have no advice, but your son sounds like he's doing fine. I'm sure I'll be posting something similar here in a few months ;)

Are you sure your neighbors will mind? When I first fell into chicken-keeping we lived on 1/3 of an acre in a subdivision. We kept our roo(s) and never had one complaint. When we moved the chickens to our other property we had neighbors coming to us asking us where they were & that they missed the crowing, lol! If you have extra eggs, a few to your surrounding neighbors might help too. Just wanted to share my experience! :)

This is just my 2 cents (and I haven't read the other 14 pages of replies). If this is your son's live in GF then she's obviously a pretty big deal to him... as in she's the #1 woman in his life right now. She should be planning a surprise, party, etc. if she so chooses... or not, if she would rather that. I have a MIL that had a really hard time cutting the strings to dh and I don't want to be mean but it made her seem like a fool and like she was completely out of touch with reality. I love her and think she's great but her thinking on that subject was just wrong. I think you need to step into GF's shoes (and age) to see how she feels and try to understand her actions. Huge hugs to you. I cannot fathom the day my sons reach that point... I think my heart will break.

I am not anywhere near the teenage stage yet, but I would not tolerate the bullying or either of my ds's saying 'no' to something I ask them to do. Have you tried placing specific consequences for the action? It may seem juvenile, but he'll know what the consequence to his action will be and can make the decision to be kind or unpleasant. Also, if my ds was rude/belligerant/etc I would not be inclined to help him out the same day by driving him to his friends house. I would tend to reverse the situation - if he acts his age (in a good way, lol) and does chores - which is expected because he is part of the family - then of course you could find the time to drive him to his friends house. It sounds like he knows there won't be consequences and hour or two down the road and so doesn't bother. I had to watch my mom go through this with my brother about 7 years ago and it was awful for her. They made it through and have a strong relationship now... I hope that gives you hope. Hang in there!

Chocolate shavings! Easy and looks spectacular. :)

Ha! I would have never guessed that!

I think that's supposed to represent the scarecrow (?) ... I didn't think it was testicles, though! *giggle*