My advice...truly...NO. I did this. I got my cocker spaniel from a breeder in December (a few years back). By that March, I wanted another puppy. I got the 2nd puppy and it was a nightmare. The two dogs loved each other...but trying to potty train two puppies, dealing with two puppies chewing, etc. It was HELL. It ended in me re-homing one of the dogs (which breaks my heart to this day). Mine were boy/girl. However, cockers are hard to housebreak, etc and that may be part of the problem. My oldest ds's dad got 2 Great Danes at the same time and never had a problem (except that he has over 300 pounds of dog in his house now!) I would get the first pup over the hump of puppyhood before considering a new pup. Just my BTDT advice.

Hmmmm...what I believe in and wish I had done now does not always match up with what life was really like. i.e. My parents were divorced and I never wanted to be...but then I found that I didn't much care for fist fighting my ex husband NOR did I care to be called a stupid b*tch daily...so I divorced. I am assuming this post was sarcasm meant to be a slap in the face to the poster about her family choices. I, in no way, believe in or wish to practice polygamy...but I absolutely applaude the OP of the polygamy thread for being so open and honest about a lifestyle that many of us would never even consider. She is showing us that it is not just freaky "out there" types who have different beliefs - gosh... aren't we, as homeschoolers, already going against the social norms? Why, some (inlcuding myself 10 years ago) would call US freaks..... I am thinking glass houses and stones here....

:lol: So true.

You have so many things on your plate. I know it is hard, but your husband is the less stressed of the two of you right now, and him coming home from work and dealing with the kids is not going to hurt him. It sounds like he WANTS to do this for you...and definitely NOT like it is a burden to him. Do the best you can to relax, forget for a bit that you are the parent, and allow yourself to be the "child" and say goodbye to your mother. My thoughts and prayers are with you in these very difficult days. My grandfather was given 24 hours and lived 4 weeks. I remember those days and how they crept by. I remember how we prayed for him to go on - and how we begged him to let go. That was 18 years ago this past May - the pain in just remembering is still there after all these years. I want to also add that, when my grandfather was dying (9 mos he fought), my behavior changed radically. I didn't visit him often in the hospital (I was afraid...my mom and grandma thought I just didnt' want to...but it wasn't that at all. It was all of the machines, the atmosphere. To this day, I can not go in a hospital and not get the heebie jeebies). At school, at home, virtually everything in my life was in uproar - chaos. Your sons are losing their grandma and they are watching her die. In a way, they have lost you too for now. It is so hard to be mom and daughter and shoulder everything at once. They know that - and you must know that too. Give them a bit of slack. They are hurting with you. God be with you and your family!

Is he getting enough sleep at night? My younger son would start "acting up" at that age and generally, it had to do with sleep issues. When he slept fully, it seemed he could become content more easily. An alternative to time out would be redirection. When he gets into something, don't just correct him and turn your back - move him to the next activity and get him engaged in something else that you prefer. I remember that I would let my ds play in a cabinet in the kitchen. I picked one, cleared out all the dangerous stuff, put in little plastic tubs and wooden spoons, and he would have a ball. He thought he was getting into something exciting, and I knew he was safe. :) And it was so much easier to let him have some freedom there than it was to constantly be correcting him to stay out of the cabinets. Soon, he knew the one he could play in and didn't even try the others. And I often changed out the "stuff" so it was new and different. That and his play yard in the living room were the two best things we did!

I have OCD...clean and organized are the only way I can do it. If things are a mess, so am I. I notice that my moods and mentality tend to follow the state of things around me. Weird, I know.:tongue_smilie:

I would put the book in one child's box and either indicate on the schedule that the others are combined, or, if you want to be more "fun" about it, put a little note in each child's box/envelope/cubby to indicate they combine for this activity.

Wow. That is definitely "different." Not sure I could ever share my husband, but if it works for you, then okay. Thanks for sharing your story. I will definitely not make judgements, because the family I grew up in could be on Jerry Springer. LOL

Oh my gosh! Thanks for the heads up. I will NOT be selling on e-bay now. That is just a PITA!

Oh my goodness! What a cutie. Congrats! Oh...and have fun potty training! LOL That is my LEAST favorite part of having a new puppy....the cuteness makes up for it though, usually.

LOL I love the mistake. It was a good giggle for me. :)

:iagree:

I stayed married to my ex husband after he looked at porn to the point of me not being able to reach him when I was in labor. It was a non issue for us, other than the fact that he didn't answer the phone when I was in labor! When I was pregnant, I wasn't exactly wanting tea everyday and he was (he was 21 years old, for God's sake!), so I really welcomed the porn. It took care of him without me having to even be there! Later, we made up for the porn by making a movie of our own which he watched when I wasn't forthcoming. We divorced for reasons totally unrelated to porn.

Nope, we don't plan to use any boxes. The shelves are what I wanted. I didn't care for the boxes because the stuff would not lay flat. The shelf was made by my dh and FIL. FIL is a wood craftsman, but I designed the shelf...he just made all the specs work properly. I originally had 12 of the long shelves on the top, but due to height restrictions, it got cut to 10. Not a big deal, I can make do...and if it had been any taller, ds10 could not have reached his work. Heck, I can't actually see what is in the top shelves until I back up a bit, so this height is perfect. I know ds10 will likely grow (and with a grandad who is 6'7", he will likely one day be much taller than the shelf!), but *I* need to be able to reach the shelves too. LOL FIL said this was a pretty hard shelf to build. Lots of intricate cuts and detail work, but he is somewhat of a perfectionist in his work, so likely that is the issue. It really didn't take much wood. If we were paying for labor AND wood, I would say the cost would be somewhere in the $200 range. However, 2 rolling drawer carts would have been close to that too! I will say that it was a b*tch to paint!

I absolutely do this. Oldest ds is blue, youngest ds is green. Their assignment notebooks, folders, workbox numbers, etc are all the same. Even their schedules are done in their own colors. :) ETA: Even their ages in my siggy are their colors. LOL

Here is the first few stages. I designed the shelf with the top cubbies for my ds10 and the bottom for my ds6. I don't anticipate using them all and I also have modified the system a bit to fit out needs for my older. His assignments will be in order based on what he can and can not do alone and when I have time to work with him vs when I am working with his brother. I am still working on the specifics. And...I am not loading up the boxes just yet either (we are still on break for summer!) :) But here is the start of my workbox system. :) The little things to the right of the shelf with the black dots are the sheets where the kids will put the numbers as they finish. It is hard to see the numbers of the workboxes...but they are there.

Take the computer out of your family room. Put it in your bedroom or in a locked closet area. It sounds drastic and like a PITA, but he is not 18 yet and he still lives in your home. He has to obey your rules. I would also confront him on what he did and perhaps, if applicable, ground him by taking his car keys away for a week (or whatever else it is that he loves to do/use). At 17, it is so hard because they are SO CLOSE to being adults. If he likes porn, you likely won't stop him from looking at it. There is an abundance of it out there - internet is just one place. Movies/videos are readily available and likely he has friends who are over 18 who can buy it for him. As for why it is harmful if you are not Christian, I am not sure that is possible to explain. It is toxic to a marriage, but he is NOT married either. When I was 9 mos preggo and going into labor with my first child, my ex husband was tying up the phone line (read: I couldn't reach him to say, "I am on my way to the hospital in LABOR!) downloading Pamela and Tommy Lee porn. :( So....ask me how I know about the porn in a marriage thing. Oh, and note I did say my EX husband....

I would private message the admin (type Admin in the pm "TO" section is all you have to do, I think) and explain the details. But I would also be VERY careful not to accuse wrongly. Is this person being deceptive and causing problems?

My best friend's mom was deaf. My best friend is hearing and she did fine. Her mother raised 2 children from babies to adulthood and never was there a problem due to her lack of hearing. The main thing, I think, is that, if the mom does make a mistake (as we ALL do at some point in child raising) that she realize early on that it is not her lack of hearing - but that we all do it. Bless her heart. I am so sad that her own family would put this in her mind and cause such doubt. :(

I use a canister vac for deep cleaning on my hardwood and tile floors. I also have been known to use a toothbrush on the grout, but I wouldn't recommend that. LOL I clean with Spic & Span on the tile and it works wonderfully. In between cleanings, I have a janitor's dust mop (and I don't mean a wal-mart dust mop...I mean an actual janitors dust mop from a janitorial supply store - the strings are very thin and close knit to pick up and amazing amount of stuff and trap it inside) that is amazing and keeps the floors dust, pet hair, and crumb free in between deep cleanings.

Oh how sad! I am so sorry!

Here is ours: :) Since these pictures were taken, all we have added is our class pet, Henry.

I have often thought of this - I know that sometimes I sit here and think..."oh, if I only had the money to buy this or do that" it would cheer me up...or maybe I would be happier. People like Anna Nicole, MJ, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, and many non-famous people find that money and having everything you can possibly buy in the material world is NOT the key to happiness.

Having had someone in my family wrongly accused of a sex crime makes me feel differently about MJ in that respect. The man accused was my dad. He was accused by his then step-daughter. For almost a year, he was presumed guilty, because, in sex crimes, that is kind of the way it goes. The girl made up horrendous stories - stories that she included my sister in - things she said she had seen and heard. In the end, it was all a lie. She had intercourse at the age of 8 with a boy behind the mall dumpster. Her story finally unfolded, she admitted to her lies (it was hard when she accused my dad of being with my sister in front of her, but then my sister had an exam and was found to have never had intercourse!). Anyway, the entire ordeal was humiliating and life altering - and WHY? Because some little girl decided to lie. MJ was famous, had tons of money, and had people "wondering" for a long time because he surrounded himself with children. You can't tell me that the allegations weren't possibly an attempt to cash in on the superstar's fortune. I don't know if the man is innocent or not. It is not for me to decide. However, I have heard so much talk about "what if he did..."...WHAT IF HE DIDN'T? Then what? Who are we to judge him? The facts are that he made an impact on music, he was obviously a tortured soul, and now he has passed. My heart goes out to the family.

We use our school room exclusively. The kids usually do school in here only (unless mess is invloved and then it moves to the kitchen). Occasionally, my oldest will work at the bar in the kitchen, but otherwise, we are here. It just makes sense because this is where all of the school "stuff" is located too. If you have space and want a room, then go for it!