Last week it was REALLY nice. It was in the 80's, which you don't get down here in the Florida summers too much. We actually played outside quite a bit. This week it is back to the high 90's....it will be 98 today. I absolutely cannot stand when it is so hot that you are drenched in sweat and feel like you need a shower just by walking to the car.

My blog isn't that popular....but I've found out that posting on a frequent basis helps. Not just once a week, but more like every day or two. Also, photos photos photos. If there's a blog with photos, I am more apt to take a look at it rather than seeing one without photos. Giveaways....do some contests, etc. The word will spread when you are giving stuff away. In fact, I may start this with mine soon.

We had leather couches when we had our cats (had to get rid of them because I developed horrible allergies). Sorry to say, but it wasn't good. Whenever they jump, they stick out their claws to help them land....so whenever they landed on our couch, they left small marks. Our ottomon is horible....marks all over it. Our cats were even front claw declawed. I'd try my best to keep them off of it.

DD is 3 (turned 3 in early March) and still nurses. Together, we have cut nursing down to about once a day. Occasionally it will be 2 or 3 times, but most days it is once. The once a day is usually at bedtime. I have no idea how to break that habit since it is how she falls asleep. So for the time being, I'm okay with it. We began with limiting nursing to only at home. If she'd ask while we were out, I'd tell her that we only drink milk at home. If people were visiting, I'd tell her that we only drink milk when our family is the only one in the house. Eventually it got to where I could reason with her and let her know that she could nurse later, but not at that moment. So now we're at once a day. Bedtime. I dread the day when I want to wean her from that. It will be some looooong nights. I couldn't continue with the 4 AM feeding. The middle of the night feedings were some of the first I tried to break. I'd let her drink for a few seconds and then I'd turn over. She'd grab at my back, cry for a few minutes, and then drift back to sleep. A week's worth of doing it that way helped with that. Thankfully, our 6 year old (who sleeps in our room) can sleep through anything.

I nurse as long as possible. I couldn't stop at only 7 months. I nursed DD#1 till she was 27 months old. It was her choice to wean....I think my milk probably changed taste and dried up due to being pregnant. I'm currently still nursing DD3.

Yep, carseat fanatic here too. My kids are both still in 5 point harnesses and will be till they outgrow them (and we bought the biggest on the market). I always pull their buckles tight and check that they are buckled in right when we get into the car. They are not even allowed to ride around the corner without being in their carseats.

I hope that she was just being grumpy and it is really not illegal. I take pics in the store all the time! I take pics of merchandise to save to Christmas lists on my phone or something I want to buy at another time. I take pics of books so that I can remember their titles when I get home. Yikes, hope I'm not breaking the law LOL.

We own a pop up. I grew up camping in pop up and just love it. We use fitted sheets for the beds. And I bring some blankets as well as a few sleeping bags. If the pop up has AC, it can get rather cold at night. When we pop down, I remove all the bedding. We hang rope lights around our awning. Looks pretty and provides light too! We bought a porta-potty type thing that slides into a cabinet. Great for night time bathroom needs. Otherwise you'll have to walk to the bath house. Before the age of small porta potties...my mom always brought a fish bowl for us LOL. We use a piece of indoor outdoor carpet under the awning, in front of the camper.....it runs nearly the legnth of the camper. It helps cut down on dirt getting on everything. I hope you guys have a fun trip! I love our pop up.....I couldn't sleep on the ground in a tent with no AC LOL.

My just turned 6 year old is like this. For the past year we've been doing kindergarten. It's hard to take her away from playing with her little sister. I try to give them as much playtime together as possible. They play in the mornings before we even begin school. Also, I tell DD6 that "When we finish reading and math, you get a break to go play with sissy. Then after the break, you will come back and we'll do some science and Bible, then you'll get another break." And so forth. She likes to be able to "see" the future breaks.

Our closes at 5 as well. Even Disney's Animal Kingdom is an early closing park. They usually close around 6 PM.

We do very limited TV. The kids choose one show each per day. The shows are usually about 20 minutes long. So they end up with about 40 minutes of TV. They usually choose to watch TV their shows in the morning, while they drink their milk. Occasionally the shows are pushed to the afternoon so that we can have a bit of down time later in the day. I do not require them to be educational....but I also don't allow the non-sense shows such as Spongebob, Barney, etc. They usually choose something like Diego (where they have learned quite a bit about animals), Kipper, Tigger & Pooh, or Chuggington. Occasionally, on the weekend I'll let the kids pick a movie from Netflix and they will watch their movie in the playroom while DH and I watch a movie in the living room. But that's only occasionally. As far as educational television, I use that as a part of schooling. Each Monday the kids watch a Signing Times DVD because they are learning ASL. And occasionally during science time we will watch either Blue Planet or Planet Earth.

I know several people who have used www.homelifeacademy.com and have had good experiences. Two students have graduated and they did great with getting transcripts, dual enrolling, getting a diploma, and getting financial help into college.

I usually go with my mom....but my husband was able to join us this year. We have to drive nearly 3 hours to get to our convention, so we make it a little weekend vacation and stay a few nights since it is usually at a really nice hotel and convention center. As for preparing? I just bring lots of money LOL....oh, and a rolling cart. And yes, our kids join us as well.

We live a pretty simple life. DH goes to work Mon - Fri, home weekends. The kids and I hang out during the week doing school work (we are schooling year around with breaks at varoius times). Our girls are best friends and are happy playing here at the house together. They spend a lot of time in the playroom imagining, building blocks, making zoos, etc. We read together, sometimes I play imaginative stuff with them but I'd rather play something more concrete with them. We attend church, we have a family game night once a week where we sit around the table and play board games. We try to read the Bible each night with the girls. We have a pop up camper and camp often. When I'm not schooling or cleaning, I like to take photos, edit photos, and digital scrapbook. I also enjoy reading. At night, after the kids are in bed, DH and I usually spend our evening watching a TV show together. Right now we are enjoying Friday Night Lights and Army Wives. During the day, we try to stay home often, but our errands consist of grocery store trips and Target. During the summer time it is so hot here that we don't spend much time outdoors. We have a pool and use that sometimes. It will get more use when we finish our sunroom and patio on the back of our house. Fun stuff includes activities at the library and the occasionaly kids movie at the theater. I'd love to make a small raised garden with the kids next spring. I dream of living on a few acres but that wont be happening any time soon.

I dislike cleaning, but I do it for my sanity. If my house is dirty, messy, or cluttered, I can't think about anything else. Seriously. I look around and think "Man, this really needs to be cleaned."

I'm contemplating our schedule too. My kids like to be home. I don't like to feel like I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I don't like feeling like school is rushed and we are not getting things accomplished. So I'm leaning towards the fact that less is more. Kids don't always need to be engaged in something. They need time to be free, imagine, create their own things to do, etc. At least that's how I feel. My girls love their down time at home. The other day the library was having Free Movie Friday and were showing Toy Story 2. My girls love Toy Story, but still opted to just stay home and play together in the playroom LOL. Last year we did a homeschool group on Wednesdays from 10 Am - 2 PM. I'm debating on whether to keep this or not. Someone we know is starting an American Girl club and I may put DD in that. We attend church on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings. And I'd really like to put DD in an art class. But that's it. If DD chose anything else, such as dance or soccer, we'd drop the art class. I don't want to do a lot at once.

Exactly why we hired someone LOL. Some people claim to find it relaxing....I claim to find it annoying.

I'd probably bring a dessert. There can never be too many dessert choices. :D

I would LOVE if they banned fireworks here. The only things banned here are the ones that go off of the ground. However, PLENTY of people still have do those kinds. Two years ago, the people in our cul de sac nearly blew the thing up! Or at least it sounded like it. They have one of those fireworks launcher things where it shoots them high into the sky and then it bursts in the sky. Well....it burst on the ground! It was LOUD...so loud that my ears felt funny for hours afterwards and the sound made me dizzy. Sparks shot everywhere. I have absolutely no idea how no one down there got injured. They were having a big gathering down there and lots of people were standing around. I thought for sure someone blew their hand off, or even died. We find so many fireworks on our roof and in our yard after July 4th and New Years Eve. It's much too dangerous in my opinion. I do, however, love when the city does a display....or Disney. Those are awesome!

I'm down here in Florida....and I've never seen a house that didn't have ceiling vents LOL! Are they usually on the floor up there? Gosh, I can only imagine how many small toys we would lose down there. How do you get them out?

I always thought it was spin off.....but speaking of makes sense as well!

DH got me a Dell (red!) laptop for Christmas. It's been, what, 7 months now and I haven't had any issues.

I do agree that people were more mature back then. They had to be - life was not as easy as it is today....there were not the conveniences that we have now.

We are in the process of making a bird book. We learn about a new bird each day, find a picture, put some facts in it. At the end DD will have a sort of field guide.