The other day we were canning tomatoes. We like to dice them and use them in soup and taco salad in the winter. I scalded them :closedeyes: (sorry, I don't mind doing that), my 4-year-old peeled them, my 11-year-old sliced them, and my 7 & 9-year old diced them. I like getting a system going with the little guys helping. The oldest two girls were gone at camp, so the younger ones all had bigger jobs than they were used to. It was kind of fun, though it has been a stretch to do canning and freezing without my older girls to help. Best wishes to all of you and hope you get it all done. :hurray:

My name is Lyndon. I actually am a teenager posting using my mom's account with her approval. I can definitely relate to not feeling like completing schoolwork; in fact, I still have a long way to go in that area. A lot of my unmotivation has come from forgetting about what I want to accomplish or not feeling like I'm really accomplishing anything. One thing that has helped invaluably is a program called CollegePlus. With this program, I am finishing high school quickly while earning credit hours toward my degree at the same time. Enrollment in the program also includes coaching, when my accountability mentor calls me about every two weeks to check my progress and plan. Please don't misunderstand me--this program will not work for anyone who is unwilling to become organized and motivated; however, it offers a powerful incentive to do so. Even more important for me has been remembering why I want to accomplish anything at all. When I forget that God has a plan for me and that I want to make myself useful to Him, I become incredibly complacent. Usually, my spiritual connection with Christ and my work performance are at approximately the same level. Regular morning devotions and focusing on Jesus help me greatly. That's just my two cents.

In previous years I have had trouble with birds clipping the centers out of my new tomato plants. This year I have had more difficulty with them clipping off a branch or two of leaves. Some of my plants were completely stripped with only a stub of a stem remaining. I finally took hair from my daughters and my combs and brushes and wound maybe 10 or 12 strands around each plant. That fixed the problem for me. Best wishes to you! It certainly is no fun to have to replant all the tomatoes.

I am the fifteen-year-old son of Homeschooler of 8. We use Professor B math. I love their Power Algebra, though they don't have a geometry course. I have finished Algebra 1 with hardly any help from Mom. Each lesson builds on what I learned in the last. It teaches logically, starting with the basics, and is easy to comprehend. Using it, a student masters a technique before he moves on to something else. If you are interested, you can visit the Professor B site at http://www.profb.com.