Mix 1 can whole-berry cranberry sauce, 1 package onion soup mix, and 1 c. catalina dressing. Marinate 4-8 chicken breasts, cut in half the flat way to make two servings, in that for at least 2 hours or overnight (or in the freezer!). Pour all into 9x13 pan, distributing the chicken, and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. I adapted this one from a cookbook.... can't remember which...

If you want to hear SWB talk about what classical education means to her you might like her lecture here. She talks about the concept of the trivium. These are sessions from a conference for classical school educators; scroll down to her name near the bottom of the list. http://www.societyforclassicallearning.org/index.php/resources/media/20-2012-conference-recordings

I really like the image of the fountain for steps 4-6. I don't know how to quote yet, but that is cool. :)

I have had this happen. When I get a new student whose parent proudly announces, "He's on level 4!", I try to smooth it over, something like, "Oh, okay! Then this (level 2 or 3) book will be easy for you. Let's cruise through this book as fast as you can, and get you back up to speed." I think a new teacher often sees holes in a student's knowledge for a few reasons. First, each teacher has her own strengths, and teaches to them; the old teacher may really have missed something. Second, students lose knowledge during the transfer time, sort of like a summer vacation brain-dump. Third, some of student's knowledge is situational - they are used to being in a certain context, and when put on the spot in front of the new teacher, they can't remember. If you think this new teacher is a good one, just hang on! I think you will all be up to speed very quickly and you'll see fruit from the review.

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/preparing-for-college/what-not-to-look-for-in-an-academic-department/

Go sixth-graders! And, I want a dog. I have a cat. A hostile, fur-exuding gray cat who loves my black couch.

That's a great resource! Thanks for posting it.

Crock pot yogurt! It works! What a deal you got.

Parenting = Planned Obsolescence. :tongue_smilie: Followed by friendship, I hope.

If my daughter got her Grandpa to take her to the bookstore, she'd come back with a LOT of books! He's a sucker for bookstores. And grandkids. :001_smile:

I don't EVER click on the ads. Several friends have had unauthorized and unwelcome postings on their facebook pages because they clicked on the wrong thing and got hacked. I have no idea if it was an ad they clicked. I'm too scared. :glare:

This is temporary! Hang tough! My kids are now almost 5 (changes outfits with each whim, puts each in laundry...I'm working on that) and 10 mo (not so gross anymore). My husband wears a uniform, and works out every morning, so that's a lot of sweat. My strategy right now is to do a load a day. There's a round basket in each bedroom and a stinky one in the laundry room, and I have an extra round basket for the load in progress. I pull whatever load seems to dominate in my room, add the items from the kids' rooms that can go along, and just do it. I do sheets and towels on Mondays. I need to fold right from the dryer. I hate folding. Right now I'm online instead of folding. :tongue_smilie: Oh, I have rectangular baskets for the CLEAN laundry. So I don't use the dirty basket to hold the clean stuff.

Elijah had doubt. John the Baptist had doubt. Paul Bunyan's Pilgrim got trapped in Doubting Castle (just learned that, thank you, TWEM!). I was raised in an evangelical Christian family, and experienced significant doubt as I became an emotional adult. FWIW, I am still a Christian in part because of several times God has unmistakably corrected my heart. My dad uses the phrase, "Thank you for touching our hearts." Never mind that - I know He's real - He's smacked me upside the head! :D But for sin, not for doubting. There's a neat website by a ministry called Credo House in Oklahoma City. It's aimed at doubt, and helping people "believe more today than yesterday". I haven't looked over ALL their stuff, but I listened to a neat podcast of last week's sermon and it was on John the Baptist's doubt. I hope this link works. http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2012/08/john-the-baptist-doubt-and-my-three-days-as-an-atheist/

:bigear:

Praying for him and you!

Gack. :tongue_smilie:

Thank you! That helps. Several really good ideas here. :001_smile:

So neat! Thanks!:)

My daughter will be 5 in October. People frequently ask her, "Are you in kindergarten? How do you like school?" The Sunday School teachers talk up going to school. She sees the big yellow buses around, and has started saying "When I am big, I'll go to school, too." I am going to home school her for the foreseeable future. I WAS home schooled. How would you phrase a response to this? BTW, I classify her as "preschool" because her birthday is after the Sept 30 cut-off for the schools here. She's learning to read and does what I've been calling "Learning Time" with me most days.

[Give the teacher a call and explain the situation, then arrange for a final lesson together. Have your daughter write her a card or give some kind of small token in thanks for all the years of lessons. If you have any photos from recitals over the years to share, that might be nice to share. Let her know how much she is valued, that you'll continue to recommend her to other parents, and stress that it is simply time for your dd to gain a fresh perspective on the instrument. :iagree: The photo idea is a beautiful one.

I teach piano lessons, and teaching my own 4yo is a lot harder. She's enjoying it and learning well right now. I teach her for about 5.5 minutes a day. That's it. I quit while we're both still having fun. We do piano about four times a week. I use Music for Little Mozarts, a story-based, super-slow curriculum for her age group. It might be too slow-moving for your oldest, though. Also, I am "fun mommy" when I teach piano. When I teach other kids, I work hard to engage and encourage them. I have to choose to do that for her, too.

What a great change! I remodeled our last house in Oklahoma City, and it had that kind of tile in two rooms. I had it tested (which cost about 10$ and took 5 days processing time at a local lab - check the phone book). They are definitely made with asbestos, which made them sturdy but dangerous if broken, sanded or burned. The lab guy told me how to remove them safely. I had only about 250 sq feet of it, and couldn't hire an abatement company for such a small job without crazy expense. Please do NOT sand those tiles to smooth any raised edges. That is exactly the wrong thing to do. If you want to remove them, they need to be damp, to keep the dust down, you should try NOT to break them in the process (though that is hard) and you should wear a respirator (which should cost 30-40$ at the hardware store). I had my family leave the house, and kept it all wet with a garden pump sprayer. Ours were installed with tar onto the plywood underneath and onto concrete, and I removed them with a scraper made for ripping tile of a roof, like a hoe but flat, with a blade front edge. It took about 2.5 hours of horribly hard work. Some of them were already loose. If you can leave them in place, I'd do that. I replaced ours with ceramic tile. Good luck - it looks like it will be a beautiful room. I love the window alcove. :)

I'm praying, too.

I think some people's idea of what marriage is has gotten so mushy that they can't function. I once spent some time trying to help a lady whose boyfriend asked her to move out after a few years of living together in his house. She'd moved across state lines to be with him, and had nothing without him. She kept saying, "I just know we are married in our hearts. I keep telling him that. I know he's going to realize it." He was not interested (or married). If her definition of marriage hadn't been only "in our hearts", she would have had some rights in the situation, but she had no recourse at all.

She might like CS Lewis' book, 'Til We Have Faces. It is a retelling of the Psyche myth, from the perspective of the sister.