I use regular iodized and Kosher salt now. I used to use a really nice sea salt but we moved and I can't buy it in bulk anymore. I cook pretty much everything from scratch so I use the iodized salt in cooking and the Kosher in baking. Although, I use regular iodized salt in things with yeast as I get better rise and texture from the regular salt.

Praying for you so much.

I feel like I am so behind in my planning. Between morning sickness, finishing up the semester, getting our house ready to sell, and all the showings I am overwhelmed. Plus there is always normal life with kids. We also might be moving so I need to figure out a plan so I can organize everything so we can pack stuff up logically so I can find it so we can start early because I am having a baby. Ahhh :scared: But, I feel like if I start writing stuff down that will really help. Oldest Son (soon to be 9) Math: the rest of AOPS Pre-A and then moving onto Algebra, plus a bunch of fun stuff Latin: Getting Started with Latin and Henle First Year Latin French: no clue, what we did last year didn't work at all so I need a new plan History: my homegrown with lots of books Science: my homegrown with continued nature study and lots of books, my son wants to do physics so I am working on a plan for that English: my homegrown- we need to work on cursive and written narrations especially; other than that we will continue doing what we already are Literature: Ambleside Year 4 selections and a whole bunch of other books Art: CM picture study, a more formal study that I need to figure out Music: Piano and Music Study Middle Son (7) Math: Beast Academy and MEP and a whole bunch of other fun stuff Latin: Minimus French: same as above History, Science, and English- my homegrown Literature- Ambleside Online Year 3 list Art: same as above Music:Piano and Composer study Smallest Boy (will be 6 in Sept.) Math: Miquon and other fun stuff French: same as above History and Science: my homegrown English: work on reading, writing, and penmanship Literature: Ambleside Online Year 1 list Art: same as above Music: Piano and Composer study I also need to figure out my Morning Time selections as well. Sigh...at least I have some progress right?

You can purchase supplies online usually much cheaper than at a store in town. DickBlick.com and CheapJoes.com have really good prices and excellent quality. Sign up for emails and they will send you coupons too.

Our house is currently on the market but I would still choose the same colors again. Everyone comments on how pretty our house is and how restful and peaceful it is. In fact, if our house was not on land it would have sold the first weekend. We could have sold it five times over without the land. (People are intimidated by 45 acres I guess). I just picked classic colors that I loved; that went well together; that were fairly neutral and light, and that worked well with my house light, layout, furnishings, and decor. I chose soft blues, greens, and creams with a lovely crisp white for trim. Pinterest has lots of ideas. Be sure that you take into consideration how the colors you choose will go with the solid fixtures in your house- flooring colors, woods in your house, etc. You want something that complements those colors and not make them stand out or look more dated than they are. I made a mistake of choosing a gorgeous beigy-green for the entry way. It looks absolutely marvelous and everyone loves it. But, the previous owner loved old lady pink and that is what the tile is in the entry way- old lady swine color pink. The pink tile floors do not look so nice with the green walls and I failed to consider that. (Well, at the time we were going to stay here and had plans to change the tile but plans changed and now we are moving). I rectified the problem by putting down a Seagrass rug and now it looks lovely. Especially if you are going to be living in the house for three years I would choose something you like but is fairly neutral.

My in-laws aren't seniors yet but they are hoarders. They have one giant house and two barns crammed pack full of stuff. Quite a few rooms in their house they have little pathways. They are wealthy but keep lots of stuff "just in case" and because they might use it some day. They are ingenious at using stuff as my FIL is a contractor but so much of their stuff is complete trash- like rusty nails, or a half broken toilet, or essential oils that expired ten years ago. Tons of stuff is just left to get rained on and broken. A few years ago when we lived next door, I tried to help them sort out their stuff. It took two months to go through two areas of their house and another two months for tiny area of one of their barns. They sorted into piles and then left them there. Slowly, their trash and giveaway piles got slowly accumulated back into their house and barn. Because we lived next door they even went through our trash sometimes. Sigh...the six or so months I tried to help them availed to nothing and we didn't touch most of their house and barns. On the bright side, my husband and children cannot stand messiness now after living by them so that makes life much nicer for me.

I had never heard of it either and Googled it. Wow, I would not ever order that. It looks terrifying.

My school age kids are fairly close together. Right now I am teaching 3rd, 2nd, and Kindy. We combine for Morning Time (Bible, verse memorization, French, Shakespeare, and read alouds). Everything else I do separately and it has worked out really well as it allows me to work with each kid at the level they are at in each subject. This next year, Shakespeare will be moved to separately as well since my oldest will start doing real Shakespeare and not the retellings. I find that as long as I am organized with what I need to accomplish each day it works out wonderfully. To be honest, I can't even imagine combining since my boys are competitive and also learn very differently and are accelerated in different subjects. It sounds like your girls might benefit from working separately. Could you try it for the rest of the year and then see how it works out and if it is a good fit for your family?

I have a Samsung one that is just amazing.

Thank you so very much for all of the ideas. I already had beans and potatoes on our menu and must have forgotten to put those in my post. But, I was really inspired by all the different ways you all use beans so thank you. All of your ideas are great and I am so very grateful. Thank you so much.

My husband is out of work and so I have been keeping our monthly food budget to $350 a month including everything- diapers, paper products, etc. We have five kids ages 8 and down and they all eat a lot. Seriously, my one and a half year old eats more than I do. :) We live in a mid COL area I think so that has been so helpful. So far, things have been going really well and I have been making everything from scratch. But, I would like a few more ideas for meals and thought perhaps the Hive might have some really good ideas. So, could you share with me please? Here is what I have been doing so far Breakfasts: Oatmeal, grits, cornmeal mush, muffins, coffee cake, eggs, pancakes, etc. Lunch: Leftovers, cornbread and milk, stir fry, chow mein, etc. Dinner: Soups, stews, chili, casseroles, lots of rice dishes, lots of noodle dishes, biscuits and gravy, etc. I usually serve these with a side of inexpensive vegetables or whatever is on sale- peas, broccoli, cole slaw, green beans,etc. Snacks: Apples and bananas (sometimes other fruit when it is on sale), homemade bread and butter/peanut butter, hard boiled eggs, celery and carrots, etc. Drinks: We drink a lot of milk and have iced tea occasionally I would really appreciate any ideas you might have.

I found some Hotel Reserve ones at TJMaxx that are super absorbent and really thick. I just looked for ones that were really thick feeling and were made with all cotton. They have held up wonderfully for a year now and I bleach every time I wash them. Previously, I had some pink and blue ones that I bought twelve years ago at Bed, Bath, and Beyond from our wedding registry. They lasted really well and were the top of the line ones at the time.

About eight months ago, we painted our dark oak cabinets white and it has been amazing to have white cabinets. It was a fairly dark kitchen as it was north facing and the white just made it look amazing. Like someone said above, the oak hides a lot of grime and when we first moved here the cabinets were sticky with years of grease and food. It was nasty but I scrubbed them clean. Then, when we paint them white (we did it the proper way with the correct paint- that makes a huge difference even though it was a pain) I just wipe them when anything shows up. I actually vastly prefer the white for its cleanability because everything shows up so it gets wiped up right away. I have four little "helpers" who love to cook with me in the kitchen so it can get messy fast. But, the white allows us all to notice it right away. We even (gasp) painted our pink laminate counters a pretty taupe color and that is also the same way- It is lighter so everything gets wiped up right away. And there has been no chipping even with five little kids running through here and banging things into the cabinets.

One of my kids favorite books is Sugar Mouse Cake. It is such a sweet story and we have read it over and over. The Living Year by Headstrom is also really good. My oldest just read this and loved every minute. I agree with Ellie on the Chestry Oak. I was lucky to find a old copy and we loved it so very much. Now they have reprinted it so everyone can read it.

It is state law that public schools are not allowed to use religious materials. As Ellie said,the charters are a public school option for homeschoolers. Because of this, all the work you submit must not have any Christian material in it. Most of my friends chose the charter option because of the money but ended up being really frustrated because of the non-religious requirements. It also included the books they read. Some of them did the same things twice- once with the materials they wanted (and purchased with their own money) and once with an acceptable secular option. They obviously made it work but it was a lot more work for them and it kinds of seems like a waste of time to do things twice. Also, the supervising teacher you have makes a huge difference. My friends all had the same supervising teacher which allowed them more religious materials than would normally be allowed. When I looked into it, it just made both my husband and I uncomfortable with being dishonest. We are on a tight budget and the funds would have been nice but it felt like it comes at the price of our freedom and we would prefer that. So we did the private school option and I find our materials used and also budget carefully. All this to say, I don't know much about the high school stuff. This was all middle and elementary grades. Anyway, I don't know if this was helpful but here you go. :)

When I went to Europe a while back we stayed in Lauterbrunnen for a few days and it was heaven. Lauterbrunnen is a small traditional town and is surrounded by mountains and has lots to do. There are some underground waterfalls that are really neat and you can take a train up to the top of the Jungfrau mountain. And wow is it gorgeous. I loved it so very much there. We stayed in a traditional Swiss chalet bed and breakfast with yummy Swiss breakfast every morning. Make sure you eat fondue every night! I found this blog that has lots of pictures: http://theoverseasescape.com/this-most-beautiful-place-in-the-world-lauterbrunnen-switzerland/

What about a classic trench? Chic and goes with everything

I have burned through so many cheap vacuums- two have actually lit on fire. My last one was a Bissell I bought at Target and it broke after eight months. My husband thinks it is hilarious and calls me the vacuum killer. Our new house has a whole house vacuum and that has been wonderful. But that is not all that helpful to you. I wanted to mention that eBay has a lot of good quality, high cost used vacuums that are certified and are much cheaper than new. Perhaps you could find a good used Miele or another expensive brand for cheaper.

We just finished painting our entire house. We matched a white in the basement that was painted with Valspar paint and matched a color in the laundry room that was painted with Sherwin Williams paint. We used Benjamin Moore Ben paint for the rest of the house with the colors I picked out. Valspar- this was smelly but seemed to work ok Sherwin Williams- this was overwhelmingly smelly- my husband was painting a bathroom with this and just felt like he was going to be overwhelmed with the VOCs, it did not stick well at all to the walls and it really looks like he just rolled plastic onto the walls, plus it took way more paint to cover the area than the BM Ben paint- we will not be using this paint again Benjamin Moore- we used the Ben paint line which was very similar in price to Sherwin Williams- we love, love, love this paint. It is paint and primer and a gallon of this paint goes a really long way. It does smell a little but much less than the other two paints. It has been super durable in my kids bedrooms which we paint first about four months ago. It cleans well and I just love it. I have also noticed that the BM paint seems to have more saturated colors and better pigments and the colors change with the light more. I love that fact. Finally, the finish on the BM paint is really, really nice. It looks like you have painted with a much more expensive paint like in expensive hotels or fancy European homes. The Eggshell finish looks more matte and it makes the color appear nicer in the room. It is hard to describe but when I saw the difference between the SW plastic-like look and the BM look I was sold on BM paint. Also, the BM Satin paint for trim and doors really covers well- much more than the SW. My daughter had colored on the walls in our home and the BM covered it all with one coat while the SW took three coats. In terms of cost, BM has several lines of paint. Their pricer options include the Aura and the Regal Select. We used Ben paint as it was a much cheaper option but still a really high quality paint. We even used one gallon of their cheaper paint (Super Spec I think- I purchased it to try making homemade chalk paint but we ended up painting a bathroom with it) and it was still much nicer than the SW and it was cheaper. The Ben line was our favorite. Pratt and Lambert- We used their ceiling paint and it was really nice. It was less likely to drip than the other paints but it still would if you weren't careful. Anyway, my vote is BM all the way.

Yes, Hanes quality has gone way down in the past five years or so. I know because I used to buy all Hanes underwear and socks for my husband and boys. I purchased two packs of socks for my husband about five years ago and somehow the whole brand new unopened pack got buried in the back of the closet. When we went to move this past year I found them and compared them to the new ones and the new ones are so much thinner. You can see through the fabric of the new ones and the old ones are really nice and thick. So, I don't buy Hanes anymore for anything because their quality is so poor. I have three boys and I really liked the Target Circo socks. They held up forever. But now they don't make them anymore as nice as they did or at least I can't find the ones we have. So, I purchased some Tek Gear ones from Kohls and they are holding up really well.

When we were looking for furniture a year ago, we looked at Sam's Club but everything was so dark and bulky looking. We ended up purchasing two pretty Flexsteel couches from a local store in town for a better price than the Sam's club one. We picked a high performance fabric and they are just so comfy and nice. They look brand new still and it has been a year of rough wear.

My three boys were resistant potty trainers. They just didn't care at all and were happy to wear diapers forever. I briefly tried just underwear and it was a disaster. PullUps were so very helpful to me. They could pull them on themselves, the little color changing thing in front helped them realize they peed, and I never had to clean up accidents. They worked as well as diapers- the Huggies ones at least. It was much cheaper to buy these than to be doing so much laundry and cleaning up messes. Amazon had the best prices. My 3 year old girl pretty much potty trained herself and wears underwear now.

We are remodeling too and we are doing all of it ourselves. My husband is amazing and I am so glad he is handy. I can't even imagine how much it would cost to have it done with a contractor.

When I was growing up, my parents had one bookcase of books- all boring self-help type ones. We thankfully went to the library a lot and I LOVED the library. I wanted to be a librarian when I grew up. And now I am- a librarian of our own personal book collection. Where we used to live the library was horrible- I mean horrible. So if I wanted my kids to read I had to have books for them. So, I started collecting them from used book sales and home school sales. Anyway, I now have lots and lots of books. Somewhere around 2,000 I think. My kids love to read. Even my eighteen month old loves to look at books. We moved ourselves cross country this past year and half of our Penske truck was books. My husband is the best.:) There are lots of great articles about the importance of book in the home so I just take comfort in that.

My husband really likes the Nordstrom's Men Shop shirts. They are comfortable, really nice thick fabric, and last a really long time while still looking new. I find them on sale or clearance because they are pricey.