How fun! My husband's sisters had babies within 16 hours of each other ... one in the evening and the other the next morning, but it's still pretty cool for the cousins to be so close in age (they were born a few days before m-i-l's birthday, so it's a big week now in our family).

This is a great time for her to learn personal time management skills. Even if she was living on her own, household tasks would fall to her -- they all would. She needs to start learning how to pre-plan for her Sabbath just how you have to pre-plan for yours. On her day of preparation (whatever day of the week that might be), she would need to be in charge of doing whatever preparation she needs to do -- laundry, her share of the household chores, preparing a lunch to be consumed on her Sabbath if meal prep is an issue, even making sure that the toilet roll is full if you/she are going to take the 'no work' to that extreme, etc. And it's defeating the whole point if she is doing things that are a disservice to other family members like leaving her stuff in the bathroom, etc. there is nothing about serving God in inconveniencing others in that way.

Can and DOES are two different things. Any of my dc CAN organize their rooms, the playroom, the schoolroom, even the kitchen and pantry, including going to town with the labeler. Do these spaces usually look like that? Umm ... not even close.

Out of my three kids who have reached the age of 12, I would only really trust my current 12 year old with this sort of thing. He's systematic and meticulous enough when it comes to such things. The others, yeah, maybe not so much. They know how to do some plumbing repairs in theory, but in practice, it's their brother who has actually done them. the older two were able, at not quite 12 and 13, to paint a bathroom completely on their own, including prep and cleanup.

She said no internet at home yet. Is she REALLY going to make us wait until she can get back to McD's or the library or somewhere to let us know the fate of Mr. Turtle? Aubrey? Aubrey?

Thanks! Sometimes my kids seem to be doing more than kids around them, but this list has them just about on track for their ages (with a few substitutions).

My 14 year old sees his friends at youth group (3 hours on Sunday night, but 1 hr is a service, so not much social), Boy Scouts (2 hrs on Monday night), homeschool science class (2 hrs on Tuesday -- adding math and maybe English next year for almost a full school day), Civil Air Patrol (3 hours Tuesday night), Karate (2 hrs on Wednesday night -- not much time for talking, etc.), and at Science Team (2 hrs) and homeschool church group (2-5 hours) on Friday, and at karate on Saturday (3 hrs, time for social varies). If school is out (usually a Monday), one of his Boy Scout friends usually has a pickup football game reffed by his parents. Every few months, he might go over to a friend's house just to hang out. Last week, school was out for 3 days and he hung out with the boys next door, which I don't really like as much as his other activities ... they're couch potatoes and sit and play video games that I would prefer ds didn't play (dh and I have discussed and decided that's not a hill to die on for us, though we have expressed our concerns to ds). My 13 year old is more introverted and has fewer local friends (she has a lot of friends on her writing forum and is trying to set up time to go see a couple of them before her writing camp this summer). I'm trying to get her connected with more IRL friends, and she'll be going to ps next year (her choice), partly to expand her social life. She's in youth group, karate (not many friends her age there), science team, and homeschool youth group. She volunteers in a therapeutic riding program, and sometimes interacts with girls who board their horses there, but most of the time is with the ladies that run the program and the students (10-12 year old boys right now -- she used to work with one of 8 year old dd's best friends). She's in Girl Scouts, but they only meet a couple times a month at most. She used to play with a girl down the block who is her age, but after repeatedly politely turning down requests to join the girls church/activities, it seems the family wanted her to keep to friends who were members of their church.

It's not exactly a low-stress job, and he did express some reluctance in taking it, but felt that he owed it to John Paul II and to the Church to finish what was started, tie up loose ends, but he really wanted to go back to Bavaria and end his days quietly with his books, and had expressed that sentiment 10+ years back. Up until John Paul II, it was more the tradition for people to go to the pope than for the pope to go to the people, so while I believe that papal travel is a positive innovation, it's not essential. I am hoping for/looking forward to youthful energy like what John Paul II brought, but we shall see how the Spirit moves the electors.

I probably would. I was raised a Navy kid, so I don't usually feel that much of an attachment to places, I know I can put roots down anywhere. We kind of did that back in '01. Moved from Denver to Seattle just because. Dh didn't like it there, so after a year, we moved to Salt Lake City. Then we needed to go for a number of factors and are in Austin for now. But if a good job were to pop up elsewhere, I'd be willing to go.

I'd be more likely to cut it all off than a faux hawk ... but for a close friend for whom it would mean a lot, I probably would. Dh wouldn't be thrilled with it, but would get over it. He does understand that it's *my* hair (and it WILL grow back).

Yes, there always is the chance of reaction, and they make us stay for a half hour after each shot so that she's there during the most likely window. But I also have to carry an epi-pen for her, especially for 24 hours after a shot.

My daughter takes them, and dh is (finally) starting them. It's 32 doses to ramp up to maintenance dose ... and then she'll be there for a year and a half before they re-test/reformulate.

TracFone charges $100 for a whole year's worth of service ... for $150, I got 2 years' worth of service on my emergency phone and the one I got for my middle kids. The kids' phone only cost me $10 at Family Dollar, I splurged and spent $25 on mine. It works great for keeping in contact when we're running in different directions. With the minutes doubler that came with my phone, I think that I have something like 1200 or 1500 minutes with the 2 years, which is plenty for what I use it for, and it rolls over when I renew service.

Usually Kirkland Free and Clear, but occasionally another free/clear type, usually liquid because it works better in our HE frontload washer. My 13 year old is allergic to most regular detergents, I miss having scented laundry, but we tried a bottle recently and had to re=wash all of her clothes and linens because she got such a rash.

My husband is an Assistant Scoutmaster and is going to go to the Philmont Training Center for training (he's being trained on the new gaming merit badge) ... while scouters go for training, their families have the option of taking part in the family activities. One of the options for teens (14-21) is an abbreviated trek with a crew made up of other scoutmasters' kids whose parents are also in training for the week. The cost for dh's training and ds on the trek is about $500 each. The younger two dc and I will go as well, there will be camp activities for us all week while dh is in training (ds leaves as soon as we get there on Sunday and gets back just in time to leave on Saturday).

Not completely unrealistic, but yeah, a bit ambitious IMO. Our troop has recently gotten more into backpacking, but the most recent trip (first or second backpacking trip for the first year scouts) was about 6 - 7 miles total over 2 days, 1 night. Yes, they still had a problem with inappropriate gear (ill-fitting packs and inappropriate footgear, mostly), but they all seemed to have a great time. The Philmont crew did a faster pace, and the younger crew (led by my older ds, who is the current SPL), who is doing his Philmont trek as part of a Training Center crew -- a bit shorter (time and distance) and a good deal cheaper than going with his troop (who goes with the council -- we're bringing 5 of us for the price of him going on a council trek). My younger ds looked at the amount of gear that he'd have to carry, and the fact that it's January and could be cold and yucky (it wasn't) ... he's done another similar backpacking trip, and didn't enjoy it, so he skipped this last one. He's only 4'7" and 62 lb, so carrying what he needs is tough. Even for older ds (14 year old Life Scout, OA, but only 5'0" and 84 lb), he is having to do a lot of conditioning to prep for carrying all of the gear he'll need on a week-long, 30 mile trek, and that's with some supply drops.

Up until the kids started hitting their teens, family dinner was an every day thing. Now that we're more in the teen stage (though with a mid-elementary thrown in), it's not every night, but we do usually manage 3-4 nights a week. Their activities, work, dh's work, etc. don't make it possible every night, but we do pay attention when making commitments and try to keep a few nights a week open. (On Thursdays, I've claimed a prior commitment to some people, but really, it's just so that we have a chance to at least eat together.) Some nights, activities line up nicely ... like Mondays, when dh and the boys go to scouts and youngest and I have classes (I teach, she goes to another class in the same building). Other times, like Tuesdays and Wednesdays, eating together isn't practical ... dd gets done with work at 4:30-4:45, and I have to pick her up, then leave to get the little one to choir at 5:15, and the boys either come with me to start their carpool or they're gone by the time I get home, and then aren't back til 9:30 or 10 ... dh picks little one up at 6:15 on his way home from work. On Wednesdays, dh has karate from 5:30-6:30, and then the boys have to be there at 7 (thankfully, dh moves up to the next level next month, so we might have a bit more sanity in the schedule and a chance to eat together). On the nights that we don't eat together, I do encourage them to sit down with whoever also needs to eat ... so on Tuesdays, the boys eat together (while I pick up big sis), sometimes with baby sister, or sometimes the littlest waits until after Dad brings her home and eats with big sis, Dad and I (crock pot meals are a must on these days).

I agree with you, OP ... it's not illegal, but not recommended. As long as the airbags can be turned off, I think that it's reasonable, if less than ideal. Sometimes you have to do what you've got to do in situations you're given, like working with what vehicle you have available.

I think that they have summer camps open to Charleston kids in the summer. That's where I learned to shoot 30 years ago ... I was in 4-H through a school club at Hunley Park Elementary, just off of the Air Force Base.

With 3 under 3 (my oldest and third are 30 months apart), I found a front to back model much more useful, as in a pinch, I could put a child on the floorboard of the back seat -- it really came in handy several times -- my oldest has special needs physically and couldn't walk long distances, and my middle of that bunch was a runner, and only 17 mo when the baby of the group was born. I actually liked the Graco, but McLaren also makes a really nice model that is really light and compact but can still hold a carrier.

I'm glad that she has such a great reason to celebrate by doing this! Yeah, it's a bit unorthodox, but like someone else said, regular piercings heal up pretty well if she gets tired of them (unlike some of the gauging -- I know a young man who is saving up for surgery to repair his ears as he has now outgrown what was a phase for him). I like the idea of the different colors going up.

My older two were 10 or 11 or so before they had the opportunity. My third was about 9 (he has made shots that have completely bowled over my Marine brother). My last one will likely be more like 11 at the rate things are going. The biggest thing for us is that they are at the point where they have outgrown the impulsiveness and distractibility enough to follow gun safety rules at ALL times -- no hearing something interesting behind them and swinging around with the gun. We're not hunters, so for us this is only range shooting, but I would probably test this at a range before taking them out in an open, less structured environment. So many firearms accidents are a result of the gun handler just not paying attention, so that's what we focus on for readiness.

Girl Scouts have the Gold Award. Not as widely known, but my daughter's Silver project is more involved than any of my son's Eagle ideas, and my Gold Project was a lot more involved than dh's Eagle Project. The amout of badge work, etc. was probably a little more for dh than for me, and now the girls do less (but what they have to do is more limited and kind of a pain) than 25 years ago. I know that there are some scholarships that are offered to Gold Award recipients as well as Eagle Scouts. I don't know if Campfire has an equivalent, but they might, and I don't think that American Heritage Girls have one yet, but they're still a relatively young institution, so by the time your dd is ready, they might have an equivalent recognition as well.

That was a favorite -- that and 'The Witch Doctor' driving mom crazy, running around the house singing 'ooh eee ooh ahh ahh ting tang walla walla bing bang'. My grandmother always insisted that I have the latest and greatest, which in 1974 when I was two was one of these, which also had the part that came up to fit the 45s (red thing)