Haha, I have several good friends that are holdouts as well. Sometimes they peek though through their kids' fb accounts. ;) Lisa

Yes, I don't think Pinterest is very social. They've added that message capability, but so many places to check messages! No thanks. I also think it's just a great way to search and find great ideas. I used Pinterest for many years just by searching before I took the plunge to join. Lisa

See, I keep hearing this especially from my fb-averse friends. Lisa

We've done memory work for: *skip counting and math facts *basic information like states/capitals and order of the presidents *lots of scripture memory -- whole chapters, long passages. This is our main area of memory work *VP history cards *most recently, IEW's linguistic development through poetry Lisa

Someone tried to contact me recently using Twitter. But I don't twitter and I haven't downloaded Instagram. I know most of my kids and many of my friends use Instagram. I feel pretty out of it! And I keep deleting all invitations to Linkedin. But I do pin on Pinterest. :) What do y'all use? My instagram friends claim it's easier and less time consuming than fb. Lisa

Rats! Dp. I'm deleting this one so everything can be in one place. Sorry! Lisa

6Pack, our decision was entirely personal. I share it very rarely and would never preach it as law to anyone. This was God dealing with me (us). I don't preach it to my kids either, although we did tell our kids why mom was having surgery and that we had not even prayed about it at all and that God had really worked on our heart about some issues. So my response was not meant to sermonize. It was a completely personal answer to a personal question, since I did have regrets I would never have anticipated! :) Lisa

When I used it with my olders, I think we coordinated with VOS. But at some point, our Bible reading took on its own trajectory, so nowadays, we just read the information given with the online self-paced class. We do lots of Bible so I haven't coordinated. Also, I only used a children's Bible when we first started. I realized I really preferred the real deal, straight as it was written so my kids all have Bibles as soon as they can read -- usually around first grade. Lisa

Weren't there people in her life that would have provided accountability? Family or friends or support groups? She must have been quite unattached. Lisa

I had a tubal and was perfectly happy with it... until about 2 years later. I'd had 5 children in 7 years and we only meant to have 3. :) It wasn't that I craved another baby. It was a spiritual issue for me. And I had never heard of full quiver or any of the names associated with large families. Shoot - we were the largest family we knew! But God out of the blue just challenged me and my ideas on trust, control and life. So, after seriously wrestling against it for a few months, I finally went to dh and told him my heart. We hadn't even prayed about it. We had just done what we wanted. Fast forward, we saved up bonuses and I had a reversal. I miscarried twice and have two of the most cherished, precious blessings post-reversal. Like Margaret, I only regret what may have happened in the few years where my tubes were tied. Lisa

Here's one of every single one of my kids reads at some point in middle school: The Yearling by Marjorie Kinan Rawlings. It's a classic coming of age story and Pulitzer Prize winner. Plus, you can follow it up with family movie night and pop in Gregory Peck! Definitely watch the older version of The Yearling before watching the newer version. Do I remember correctly that you're in Florida? If so, you'll love the setting of rural, cracker Florida. I grew up around the area of The Yearling and it's barely changed! Most of it is still very rural. You can visit Marjorie Kinan Rawling's homesite and orange grove as well. Other books my kids have enjoyed in middle school that I can recall off the top of my head: The Giver Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer The Bronze Bow The Book Thief The Hiding Place Lisa

We're still reading through the Narnia series. We're on The Magician's Nephew (we didn't start with it; we're reading in the order that Lewis wrote the books). And we just finished a book on CD in the car and for the life of me, I can't remember what it was! :huh: I've always been like this (unless the book seriously stuck with me). I would NOT have done well with the interview question about the last 3 books I read! Lisa

I actually take less shortcuts now as well. Mostly that's b/c I've slowly gotten more healthy in our eating. When I first stayed home, I was all about making it work Tightwad Gazette style, so lots of pasta and no organics. Now my shortcuts are that we just don't have as many sit-down dinners. Once my older kids starting with sports, we would eat later or eat in shifts or (after dh died) eat in front of the tv. And I'm with AnnieG and Excelsior that b/c of the quantity my boys eat, it just makes sense to eat from scratch. We do tend to have simple meals and meals that I know off the top of my head. I experiment less and try new gourmet recipes less. Lisa

Happy you get to stay! It's been fun following the travels and planning to Italy. Even your Ker will have lots of memories with another 3 1/2 years in Europe. Enjoy!! Lisa

I'm not schooling a large family anymore, but I did for oh so many years! We always had a routine, not a schedule tied to time. A routine worked very, very well for us. I made charts for those 4th/5th up so that they knew what to do in which order. They each had spots at the the table or a desk in their room where they worked. Sometimes I needed to lay out work for the day, other times, they had their set of books and could turn to and complete the correct pages. The kids rotated through a one-on-one time with me. Even the littles had a certain amount of independent seat work so that they were busy working while I was meeting with another child. I usually met with each child for 30 - 45 minutes each day to teach the math, spelling, grammar at their level. Then I would combine later in the morning/day to teach history or science or Latin. After lunch was ALWAYS quiet time/reading time. The littles napped, the olders read for 1 hour without talking to each other or me or getting up for snack. This was my time to regain some sanity, read, get online, do my own Bible time. It looked a bit different every year, depending on the ages of the kids, what we were studying, what if anything was outsourced. The routine helped keep all of us on task and set an orderly rhythm to our days. Lisa

This is the second time in one day I've read about morning pages. I just read a reference to it on Emily's Chatting at the Sky site. Glad you are getting the creative juices flowing! It is defnitely a snowball. If I can carve out any bit of time for my own writing, then it invigorates and leads to so much other creativity. But, yes, for me also, time is a scarce commodity. I've had to learn (am learning) that I have to say NO to so much to keep that time for writing, But then, I can start to feel isolated... so always working on reconfiguring time for some balance! Lisa

What do y'all plan on doing about the essay, since it's now optional? The reasoning I'd heard colleges was that they wanted the ACT with essay to compare apples to apples to the SAT, since it was mandatory. Wonder whether colleges will still want the essays? All new research. :( Lisa

Had my last at 42. She's a blessing, not just to me but to all of us. She has such a special relationship with her older brothers and sisters. Just today, my older dd, home for spring break, took my youngest two out for a day of fun. They were so excited to go and she loves being with them. The blessing of your child will be exponential. And my parents, they have thoroughly enjoyed my youngest two because my dad is retired (he was still working when my olders were little) and he and my mom have just mellowed to such a point that being with these two littles invigorates them. Physically, my last pregnancy was the easiest of all. Congratulations. I imagine you will have to process the shock but I hope it becomes a thrill for you. :) Lisa

Had my last at 42. She's a blessing, not just to me but to all of us. She has such a special relationship with her older brothers and sisters. Just today, my older dd, home for spring break, took my youngest two out for a day of fun. They were so excited to go and she loves being with them. The blessing of your child will be exponential. And my parents, they have thoroughly enjoyed my youngest two because my dad is retired (he was still working when my olders were little) and he and my mom have just mellowed to such a point that being with these two littles invigorates them. Physically, my last pregnancy was the easiest of all. Congratulations. I imagine you will have to process the shock but I hope it becomes a thrill for you. :) Lisa

I'd recommend just having your daughter do biology along with your son. No sense having her double up, as physical science isn't a requirement to do biology or chemistry or physics for that matter. Only 2 of mine had physical science before physics (honors) either through dual enrollment or our virtual school and all did well. Also, almost all of my kids so far have taken biology in 8th grade and did fine. They, and you, will definitely appreciate being able to devote the year to biology. There's so much you can add into Apologia's biology with field trips and some outside reading. You don't need to add on to it, but I'd do that before having your dd go through both the physical science and biology books. HTH, Lisa

Haha! Oh man, I was introduced to the smell of multiple teen boys *with football pads* in my van after a summer day's practice. Ack! Another veteran football mom shared her laundry concoction for getting out the stank and grime from white practice pants. My boys are super aware of possible smells and keep deoderant and Axe body spray in the glove compartment and door pockets of my van. They'll often use it when we're on the way somewhere. smh. At least your boy still loves you enough to flop onto your bed! Lisa

Yes, that seems to be a mismatch b/c rather than asking what your estimated income will be, it asks for the income figure! I'm a bit in the same boat. I estimated as best I could and once my taxes are finished, I'll update with the accurate figures. I'm still waiting on one of my core statements so that I can even turn all of my stuff over to my accountant. Lisa

Yes, VP is Biblically grounded and everything I've seen so far in the history is grounded. Lisa Editing: I didn't read your title closely enough! We've never used VP's Bible courses, only the history courses, so I have no idea how the information is presented. But we've been very pleased with the history for more than 15 years. :)

Congratulations! It's been a long time Karenciavo. Once a WTMer, always a WTMer. Off to look at his page. Lisa