:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Praying! Kris

Have you been to nearly every church in the country? How do you know this to be true? It's not true of the church I attend. I can't speak for the rest, but I would hazard a guess that there are actually many, many churches that don't use the pulpit for politics. I have attended many different churches and have never heard politics preached even one single time. Kris

The new Battlestar Galactica is awesome. You can get the DVD's from Netflix. Kris

I use it to keep in touch with my two military sons, one deployed and one stateside. Like another poster said, it's a window into their world. I love it. Kris

I don't really know what's enough but this is what we do: Daily: Bible study-Explorer's Reading-Sonlight Readers History-Tapestry of Grace Language-CQLA Math-Singapore Cursive-Reason for Handwriting Spelling-Sequential Spelling 4X Week: Noeo Science 1X Week: Art-Artistic Pursuits Geography-TOG Literature-TOG It usually takes 3-4 hours, sometimes more, sometimes less. I too worry sometimes that it's not enough. I also read aloud to her every night from a fun book. We've been going through the "Little House" books for several months now. She's totally lost her focus by the end of our school day and it's sometimes a challenge to finish what is scheduled. I won't be adding more subjects in until I can drop something, like reading or handwriting. Kris

Our favorite date for reconnecting is a hotel room near a restaurant that serves good wine. :tongue_smilie: Really. Kris

Aww... No problem! :)

:lol:

I would appreciate it if you wouldn't paint all Christians with the same brush! Kris

The thing is, DR would recommend that you follow the Baby Steps with that 20k. First save 1k for your baby emergency fund, then pay off all debt, then save enough cash for 4-6 months of expenses. You didn't say where you are in the steps, whether you're debt-free or not. It would make a difference in how he would advise you to use the money. I have heard him say that buying a cheap used mobile home to live in temporarily is sometimes OK. Kris

I'm up to 3B/4A and have never used either. So far we're doing fine without them. I'm thinking I may need to buy the TG next year though. Kris

I have fifty too.

We love "The Week" and "The Economist." Kris

That was a very interesting article. What struck me is that he wasn't so much pro-Obama as he was anti-McCain. I would have liked to read more of what he likes about Obama, rather than what he doesn't like about McCain. Although, I do agree with his summary of McCain's shift in character. Kris

If you click on the link for more system requirements it shows XP. The shipping on it is is $5 though and I don't have anything else I need to buy today to get my order up to $25 so I'm going to skip it. Kris

Yeah, me too. When I lend something it's always with the idea in my mind that I'm choosing to give it away. If I get it back, great, if not, great. Kris

When I see people dressed differently from the norm it makes me curious and interested. I feel like I want to approach them and talk to them and get to know them a little better. I get so tired and bored of everybody looking and acting the same. I love getting out of my vanilla middle class suburb and mingling with people of varying cultures, interests, and tastes. I enjoy going to the airport and sitting and watching all the interesting people. When I see one of those high, stiff, spiked mohawks, my first thought is that I want to touch it and see what it feels like. Kris

I started Book 1 with my 3rd-grader. She spells totally phonetically. "Do" is "doow." "Ocean" is "oshun." We just finished Day 26 and the improvement is amazing already! The words she's learned from SS actually transfer to her writing. And it appears that she is thinking about spelling in a different way now so that she seems to be spelling better overall, even words that she hasn't learned yet in SS. I appreciate those on this board who recommended it. Kris

I voted yes before I read your post. I wouldn't actually go to a professional photographer but have let my husband take photos. Maybe that would be 'other.' Kris

Yay, I did it!

Hmm... Apparently not.

I just wanted to see if I was successful at uploading a photo for my avatar. Kris

That looks like the roll call from last week. Here's one from today: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iE1r_DuYH2j4rBy8JqBaVQ40MiOQD93J6A400

My daughter loves these. We go almost every month. They are totally free and they have never run out of kits in our experience. They also give each child an apron and they get a pin for their apron for each project. Some of the projects are better than others. You might want to find out what the project is before driving for an hour. Kris

We switched to cash in categorized envelopes about a year and a half ago and it has made a huge difference in our spending. I didn't believe that the statistics about how using plastic causes greatly increased spending applied to me. I though I was already extremely frugal and I resisted the change. The first month we tried it, I took my $25 in cash we had budgeted for eating out to our favorite Chinese take-out. We spent about half as much as usual! I was determined to make my cash last as long as possible and we ordered less food and had fewer leftovers than usual. We haven't looked back. The only cash I actually carry around is my monthly spending money. I can spend it on whatever I want and don't have to account for it to anybody. So if I want to spend it all on Starbucks I can. But when it's gone, it's gone. The other envelopes only go into my purse when I know I'm going to need them. For instance the grocey money envelope stays in the cabinet until I'm heading out the door to buy groceries. I don't really understand the reasoning that using a credit card helps a person keep track of spending better than the envelope system since the cash is categorized into envelopes. I do use my debit card to buy gas so I don't have to go in. Kris