Ack! Really! Well, then perhaps I should talk to my husband about spending $68 for this one. Thanks for your help Ellie! WE have several Kate Seredy books and I love all of them. I found "A Tree for Peter" for $8 a few months ago online and was so excited. P.S. Are there any other books that are worth "not eating for a week"?

Thanks for letting me know! Do you know if the paperback copy is called by the same title? All I have seen so far is the really expensive older ones. I would really like to find one of those but the cheapest I have found from all sources (Bookfinder, eBay, AbeBooks, Amazon) is like $68. I know the book is supposed to be wonderful and I love Kate Seredy but $68 is just too much for me. I will have to keep hunting!

Rhonda, You might have better stuff than I did but I had a giant list of books to sell. I didn't even sell one. But, perhaps your stuff is more in demand than mine. For me, it ended up being really nice that my stuff didn't sell because the post office is 20 minutes away from me and I don't think that I would make much at all counting how much in gas it would take to get me there. Plus, I am massively struggling with morning sickness.

Oh how beautiful! God is so gracious! Praying for you and your new addition! Hooray! :hurray:

USPS just raised their prices again recently, especially Media Mail. They also do not offer "Parcel Post" anymore and instead offer "Parcel Select" which seems like it is about twice as much as "Parcel Post". t had been really frustrating for me because I find my stuff online and now it costs even more. Plus, no one seems interested in purchasing my books for resale. I don't blame them either as postage is so expensive! This high shipping is something that I have noticed has really affected eBay prices. On the bright side, Amazon is still the same. They don't do their 4 for 3 promotion anymore but I have noticed that a lot of books are just cheaper. It seems like they took away the 4 for 3 but lowered their prices on those books. For example, one 4 for 3 book I had in my wish list was $9.86 with the 4 for 3. Now it is $7.96. I found one book I needed brand new on Amazon for $3.75 with free shipping!

Ellie, I have been looking for this book for over a year- online and in used stores! It is just so darn expensive- like $100! Do you have any tips for finding it? Lauren

I'm sorry! :( :grouphug: You could adopt us! I have three little guys and a new one on the way! We live on a farm and love farms. We could bring you boxes of fruit. :tongue_smilie: We are one of those who only have one set of grandparents in our lives. My parents don't really want to have much to do with me, my wonderful DH, or my little guys. My in-laws are great and love having the boys around! Although I must warn you, despite the animals, lizards seem to get all of the attention around here. :001_smile:

I will be praying!

There are so many good ones mentioned already! We have also enjoyed the Brambly Hedge books by Barklem, Just So Stories by Kipling, For the Children's Hour by Bailey, and James Herriot's books. If you are interested in a more science type of book, my boys have LOVED the Eyes and No Eyes Series by Arabella Buckley. We have the ones published by Yesterday's Classics. I am surprised by how much of this they remember! It is very wonderful and descriptive writing.

I just purchased an 8 lb box of random Lego pieces off of eBay. I would check there! There are so many auctions for Legos there. It seems like the best deals are from real people and not the sellers who are selling "500 pieces from this giant pile". Those more professional sellers are selling to make money while the pictures of a box of random Legos from a person seemed to be the best deal as the people are just trying to get rid of them for a decent price. Hope this helps!

Have you seen the 1000 Great Books List? Also, Ambleside Online has good recommendations. Look at their Year 0 recommendations.

Lol! I am so happy I found them before my little ones get too big!

It is spring again so I am getting excited for gardening again. Although it already feels like spring. Last night we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows around the fire at my in-laws because it was fairly warm. It feels more like May! I am planning sugar snap peas and shelling peas plus onions to be planted soon. Later, I am hoping to plant tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, pumpkins, butternut squash, and my kids want to plant watermelons. I always grow Zinnias along with the veggies in the garden. They look so lovely! I also have a morning glory that I hope will come back this year. I am planning on starting a herb garden as well. We have an old orchard so we will be awash in apricots, peaches, and apples. We also have some Asian pears and sometimes have cherries. And, I don't want to even think about how many plums. We have about 40 trees I think and you sort of feel like you might die from being buried in plums come mid-July. Lovely flowers in pots will be planted by the house. I also wanted to mention something that will produce free fertilizer for those on a budget or in addition to compost. Last year I started a worm farm with my boys. We just took two 1 gallon ice cream containers and drilled holes in the lid and bottom of the first bucket (tiny holes!). The bucket that was drilled was filled with a little bit of dirt and then my kids and I ran around one day finding worms. We found probably around 50 and put them in the bucket. On top we put veggie and fruit kitchen scraps and then shredded paper on top.The first bucket was placed into the second undrilled bucket so that they are nested together. That way, any liquid can seep out of the top drilled bucket into the bottom bucket. Once the bottom bucket is filled with liquid I put it into a mason jar to use as fertilizer. This "worm tea" is the best fertilizer ever! You can to dilute it to one part "Worm tea" to twenty parts water. You can also use the dirt after it is processed more by the worms. Anyway, I think that any container that nests together and has a tight lid will work so you could find something just laying around. I continue to feed the worms with kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, hair, and egg shells. You can even feed them weeds. You can look online for more information about feeding them and fancier setups. But, this didn't cost me anything and has been really great. This winter we moved our worms into a larger bucket as we found more and they had babies. The only thing that I have discovered it that the paper layer on top needs to be fairly thick and replaced when it gets more disintegrated. If not, a few of my worms have escaped. But, as long as I keep the paper layer going there are no escapees. Anyway, I thought someone might be interested.

I was going to mention AO's website too! Here is another one though. I really like the website for Valerie's Living Books. I have found some OOP treasures from her recommendations: http://www.valerieslivinglibrary.com/

Hi Susan, I recently learned a lot about sheep too from the book "A Shepard Looks At Psalms 23" by Keller: http://www.amazon.com/Shepard-Looks-Psalm-23/dp/B000JTHGIQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1360001647&sr=8-4&keywords=a+shepard+looks+at+psalm+23 I really loved this book and it was so insightful. If you ever get a chance to read it, it is wonderful.

I am so sorry...I am praying for you right now...

I am glad it helped someone! Her toys are just so nice!

I recently made a purchase (Beatrix Potter!) from this Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/MomNmee?ref=seller_info And I wanted to post it here because the little toy I received is just so beautiful. This lady is truly and artist and her work is so nice! She has amazing tiny little details that are just so lovely. I was so impressed I thought I would share. I thought someone here might enjoy this!

Hi! Could I join your group as well? I think that I will participate in the Reformed thread as well if that is ok. I love hymns and am trying to learn them. Does anyone have any good suggestion on how I can learn them to teach them to my little guys?

Could I join your group? I am Reformed and we go to a reformed church in teaching that is non-denominational. I have been reading some wonderful books lately. Here is my current reading list: Communion with the Triune God by John Owen/Taylor/Kapic The Joy of a Word Filled Family by Barnett A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D.A. Carson The Life of Arthur Pink by Ian Murray Favorites of all time: The Two Volume Biography of Hudson Taylor. These two books are GOLD and I cannot recommend them highly enough. A lady in our church who was a missionary to Africa recommended these to me. She told me she reads these two books every year and I think that I will probably be doing that too. Here is a link with the cheapest price. Worth every penny: https://www.omfbooks.com/p-76-hudson-taylor-the-growth-of-a-soulwork-of-god.aspx I love to read and have lots of others to recommend if anyone else wants to know! Love in Christ to you all, Lauren

Ambleside Online has forums where you could ask any questions and perhaps find some answers and help! Here is the link: https://amblesideonline.org/forum/

I just bought the Scotch Laminator before Christmas. If you are willing to wait, the Scotch Laminator is Amazon's Deal of the Day every once in a while. I bought the laminator and a 100 pack set of Scotch pouches for $30. It was a great deal!

On finding a swing and other things to buy- is there baby/children's consignment stores near you? We have three around here. They seem to have really great prices on everything and everything is so nice. We have one that offers a certain percent discount on certain colored tags everyday, plus off season clothes goes on sale for $.25 to $1.00, and they have a punch card. It seems like the local ones have better deals. I just found them by searching on Google. But, here is a chain one: http://www.onceuponachild.com/ I have found tons of great stuff there for my three boys and it has saved us so much money. Hopefully there are some near you!

I have quite a few Doorposts materials- For Instruction in Righteousness, Plants Grown Up, As Unto the Lord, some of their charts, etc. I LOVE their products! I love them because they are an incredible resources for teaching my children the precious Word of God. Under each subject they have many verses that apply to a whole gamut of situations. They have many, many suggestions on how the verses might be applied to your children. But, obviously, they are just suggestions and you as a parent choose what is best for your family. I haven't really found any verses taken out of context but have found that some verses apply better in different situations. All of the verses are faithful to the context but they have included all forms of the topic found in Scripture which is really nice. I like to think of them as a giant textbook of scripture helps for me to come to again and again for different situations. I appreciate their suggestions too even if I don't use them all as they have ideas that I would not think of. I have used "For Instruction in Righteousness" so many times! The Bible is so precious and I long to make it the center of our lives as you said. I long to create a home in which the gospel and Scripture permeate every aspect of our lives and is not just a subject tacked onto school. Christ is altogether lovely and His saving grace is so precious! The price is very expensive but the books are really huge! Plants Grown Up is 480 pages long! Plus, the CD that comes with the new ones is really nice to have. You can find them used sometimes for a good price. I also use "For Instruction in Righteousness" and "Plants Grown Up" in conjunction with some other books.The other resources help me teach and instruct my children in a way that reflects the gospel and magnifying Christ for my children. It is His precious work on the cross that they need to save from their sins. Leading Little Ones to God by Schooland Sheparding a Child's Heart and Instructing a Child's Heart by Tripp The Faithful Parent by Pearce and Scott Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Piper All this to say, I think that you will be greatly pleased with your purchase! I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Pinterest! There are a ton of Lego ideas on Pinterest. Also, check out these educational ideas with Legos: http://colintgraham.com/mathematics/activities-and-resources/101-manipulative-lessons-with-lego/ http://www.examiner.com/article/five-fabulous-ways-to-use-legos-for-learning