Yes -- this is my point.

Dh put the sherbet in the fridge instead of the freezer, and I didn't notice until it was completely liquefied.

Statements about the quality of play in other youth leagues, rules variations, etc. may all be true today. But at the time the Dixie League was formed, there was one issue: the founders didn't want to play with or against black players, and they would have to do that if they stayed in Little League. To sugarcoat it as "local autonomy" is disingenuous, at best.

We are thrilled that a team from our area is playing in the Little League World Series. Three of the kids on the team are members of our homeschool Co-op. And much is being made of the fact that this is the first team from SC to win a LLWS game in 60 years. The sad truth behind this statistic, though, is that a big part of the reason for that is that there are relatively few Little League teams in SC, because 60 years ago, the Dixie League was formed so that white kids wouldn't have to play against black kids. In fact, today there are still no Little League baseball teams in our county, or the one next to us, where most of dh's family lives. There are many articles available online that discuss the beginnings of the Dixie League, originally called Little Boys Baseball. Here is one such article: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?id=2126814 But here is a classic example of revisionist history at work. Just as the Civil War is presented as a states' rights cause, some still want to present the formation of the Dixie League in the same light: "The most fundamental intent of Little Boys Baseball, Inc. was to develop a program which would emphasize local autonomy. They believed that the workers and parents in the local programs and would know what was best for them and their children." (Quoted from this site: http://franklintondixiebaseball.webs.com/historyofdixieyouth.htm ) What a crock of baloney!

Last Spring, I texted ds to ask what he had done with the bag of Slinkies I had asked him to bring up to my classroom at Co-op. It was autocorrected to Slumlords. I used to think that autocorrects were based on previously used words. But I am one hundred percent certain I had never used the word Slumlords.

You are absolutely correct. And yet, when I was immersed in that church culture, it seemed right to me.

Way back in the Summer of 1997, there were two marriages of young couples from my church. Both couples had followed a courtship model for dating. The one I attended was one of the sweetest, most amazing weddings I have ever had the privilege to be a part of. They did have their first kiss at the altar, but they had held hands and hugged before the wedding day. In any case, their courtship was not all about the rules. The couple got to know each other in the context of family and church events, and as they served together with the homeschool chorus and theater groups where they had first met. The groom even made a humorous pitch for courtship at the wedding, saying that because of the way they had "dated", he had been able to save a lot of money towards their first home. Today, they are very happily married, have several children, and are still very family-oriented in a very healthy sense. The other couple were both from ATI families. They were supposed to be following Gothard's very regimented, rules-oriented courtship model. But somehow, she ended up pregnant, and the wedding had a somber tone to it. Only immediate family members and very close friends were invited, so I didn't attend. The couple confessed their sin before the church, and the bride's father offered to resign his position as pastor, but the congregation didn't want that. She is occasionally on Facebook, so I know she now has three sons, but I haven't seen mention (or pictures) of her husband. Interestingly, the groom's older brother had also followed the Gothard courtship rules but somehow ended up with a pregnant bride-to-be.

Would you rather use your Co-op "volunteer" hours teaching a class or watching teachers' kids in the nursery? Would you rather factor a polynomial or diagram a sentence? Would you rather have a day-long outdoor Science lesson or a day-long indoor class when it snows?

I am not one for following celebrity marriages and such. (The other day, I was on the fringes of a conversation about some celebrity, and I had to admit I didn't even know if this person was male or female, LOL.) However, I do hear enough to know that there are plenty of people who get involved with someone who has an unsavory past that has been made very public, and they still go ahead and marry the person. Women especially, I think, believe that they are the one who can turn someone around.

Well, I am in a unique situation, in that I can vent to dh about anything and everything, over and over again, and he will always agree with me, and never tell me we've already been over this, or I need to let it go, or anything like that. (For those who don't know, he has Alzheimer's and therefore has no short term memory.)

Am I the only one who has no trouble believing that not applying for a refund does not equate to "he must have actually had an affair"? Wow -- so many negatives in that question. Let's try it again: I do not believe that just because he didn't apply for a refund doesn't mean that he had an affair. Sigh ... not much better, is it? Anyway ..... Not a Duggar supporter, not an ATI supporter, not a Gothard supporter, but I can totally see me not remembering or taking the time to apply for a refund in a situation such as this. Not that I would ever be in *this* particular situation....

Just to show how times have changed: By the time I was 9 years old, my Mom was sending me to the grocery store by myself to pick up a few things. I had to walk about a block. I would take a check that she had signed, and I had to fill in the amount when the total was rung up. Sometimes I even bought cigarettes for her. On another note, I started my oldest son going into Dunkin' Donuts by himself while I sat in the car with his younger brothers. The store front was all glass, so I could see him the whole time. It gave him confidence and experience in ordering, paying and checking for the correct change.

We had to take a swimming unit (about four weeks long) every school year in CA. (editing to clarify: every year in high school) We were told we couldn't graduate if we couldn't swim. Every high school I knew of had its own 25 yard long pool and two diving boards, one regular and one a high dive. That was our main source of recreation during the Summer months. My brother and I would scrounge up 35 cents each, hop on our bikes and ride the 3/4 of a mile to the high school, and then swim / play in the pool. We did that pretty much every Monday through Friday afternoon all Summer long. All three of my sons love the water. They were in a pool before they were a year old. My oldest two are Fall babies, so they were seven or eight months old their first time. Youngest has a Summer birthday, so he was only a few weeks old when I first took him in. Except for oldest at about 3yo, none has had a swimming class, though.

I would be sure to bring microwave popcorn. And I would go for other snacky-type foods, like hummus and crackers, some good cheeses, chips and salsa, fresh fruit and veggies with dips, etc. I wouldn't worry at all about it being healthy and balanced for a few days. Have fun! (I did something like that once. On the second of my three days in the hotel, I called dh and asked him to bring the boys over for a bit. I thought I wanted to get away from them all, but I missed them right away.

My husband and I read through it together one year. We read aloud to each other, a few chapters a night. We were able to mostly stay on the schedule we had, but occasionally had to double up some nights. We used a Bible with some footnotes and such, but not one of the extensive Study Bibles that we now have. It was enjoyable and we both learned a lot, although dh knew a lot more about it going in than I did. I grew up in church, but as we read, I realized that almost all of what I knew about the Bible was in Genesis and Exodus, with a few other Old Testament stories thrown in, and the Gospels. I knew next to nothing of the most of the rest. I didn't even know, for example, that Ephesians was written to the church at Ephesus, etc. Dh, on the other hand, grew up in a family where his grandfather and father were both preachers. Not seminary-trained, but old fashioned Southern-style put-the-fear-of-God-in-you preachers.

Thanks for all of the advice. What's done is done. It looks like she is doing Math 101 at the CC. I don't get it, but I'm not in charge. I offered advice.

I knew a gal online who had a friend who had suffered damage to her house when a washing machine hose broke while they were away. So this gal always shut off the water to the washing machine when she left the house, even if it was just to go grocery shopping. That didn't make sense to me -- there are so many other possible points of failure in the plumbing system.

My son's optometrist told us that Portugal is a great place to go for dental work. She said that for major work, the expense of getting there is more than offset by the savings. And she was very happy with the work she had done.

We don't. One night, years ago, I woke up to a strange sound. On about my third step out of bed, I splashed, which brought me wide awake. It turns out that a hose feeding water to the toilet in the master bathroom had broken. I couldn't get that valve to shut off, and by the time I located the tool to shut it off at the main, we had a huge mess. The water had run through the master bath, master bedroom, down the hall, through the family room, dining area, past the kitchen, out the door to the carport, and was running down the driveway. We ended up getting a lot of new flooring. We avoided paying the deductible because I woke up the boys and had them help me move things out of the water and begin some cleanup. Our insurance adjuster said they would have paid for that work, so he wrote it off against our deductible.

I'm sorry, but this is just wrong! I forgot to say that not only do I not do ketchup on hotdogs, I don't put it on fries. I do like to dip my fries in all kinds of other sauces, but not ketchup.

Any time there are rankings, it is interesting to see the criteria involved. There was a list recently that ranked the most "liberal" colleges in the country. It turned out the ranking was based on looking at the political contributions of faculty members. :confused1:

I think the search function is not working properly. I went to page 4 in the list, noted the name of a college, then went back to the first page, typed in the name that I knew should be there, and it didn't jump to that page.

Ketchup! I like tomatoes, salsa, etc,, but I just don't care for ketchup on anything. I especially cannot tolerate it on hotdogs. Coconut. I really just don't care for coconut much at all, and especially not if it's combined with chocolate. A little cilantro is okay, but I never add it to anything I'm fixing myself.

New wrinkle: Now the Mom is asking me about Math 101 and 102 at the Community College. But the course descriptions sound an awful lot like high school Algebra 1` and Algebra 2 to me, both of which she has already had. Would those be accepted as an additional math credit towards high school graduation? Math 110 is what I would call College Algebra, and seems to line up with Lial's text pretty well, although they use a different text. But I don't think she tested well enough to take that.

Thank you!