IEW. I've used it for 9 years, taught it in co-ops for 4 and am a regional sales rep for the company, which I love! :001_smile:

YES! This past year we lost a horse, a tom and our momma cat. My littles still get upset about them! Our horse was put down last spring and our fields are so empty without him. They are still :crying: over him and all of the cats we've lost since living out here.

For those of you who adhere to Christianity how do you pragmatically live out "Tis only one life, twill soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last." I've been mulling this over for several days and wondering how this works out irl. I'd love to hear others thoughts - what do you consider "done for Christ?"

Mine is finally up. Had a lot to think and blog about this week.

We live in Hobbitville. There was a murder two years ago but it was the first one in years. There has been a lot of people moving into the area and growth and there is more crime coming with it. The area was voted "One of the best places to live" by Money Mag a couple of years ago and according to one local a lot of riff-raff moved in after that.

hopes it's not too late to jump on in!:grouphug:

I'll have mine up way later. Looking forward to reading everyone's!

brilliant!!

Tracy, the amazing is born of necessity, eh? :) We make everything from scratch. Everything. I buy in bulk, have a large garden, freeze, can and dry. We glean when we can - this fall we picked several hundred pounds of apples, friends have often given us deer meat (they're hunters- cut with beef you can't tell) or eggs. For a while we weren't buying liqued milk or sugar or ground flour, no packaged cereal, etc. I do make granola and yogurt weekly so I am back to buying liqued milk IF I can find it for under $3 a gal. Cleaning supplies and paper products are t.p., fem supplies, shampoo ($1 for cheap, cut 1/2 and 1/2 with H2O and add a TBS of honey) and laundry soap (bulk at Sams). Cleaning products around here are cheap-salt, vinegar and baking soda. My littles don't eat a lot of meat so when we have it they get lots of side stuff. The hardest part when we were at $100 a week with 7 was having enough "filler" food for the growing ones- my boys were hungry ALL the time. We would do lots of homemade rolls, apples with p.b. and oatmeal. When our oldest girls were working this summer they would often add to the budget or take the littles out for 89 cents cones- what a blessing to have generous kids!! I have to admit it has often been very hard - with $125 a week we are actually getting to the next shopping day with food left in the fridge!!

Potato chips:001_smile:

sorry for the wrong link!!

For the last 2 years we've been at $100 a week for a family of 7 including dog food and household items. Last month we added $25 a week and our oldest dd is at college so we have a little more breathing room.

If there was one near you that was classical would you participate? www.naums.org/ Would you ever start one?

Beautiful! I love intrelac - it is so fun and satisfying. LOVE the colors!

Staci- what a great bday gift!!

Many happy returns of the day!! You rock!

True confessions- just went over to Mt Pleasant View and am in full feel like a failure mode. I'm still in my p.j.s drinking really bad coffee, 2 of the kids just got up and I'm still feeling rilly, rilly lousy because every election we were rooting and campaigning for lost. We've done little school this week, my house is a mess, it's not decorated, the fridge is yucky and I honestly haven't decorated (we have done majore home improvement but it's not the same- kwim? - since we moved here 5 years ago (in my own defense we have plaster walls and that does make it harder to hang things), I haven't sewn, scrapbooked, knitted, crafted, quilted or really enjoyed cooking since we moved here either. Sigh.

Well, I do feel more confident in expressing unpopular opinions on my blog. A certain couple of unnamed family members were angry about a couple of my posts and sent me email flames. That o.k. with me. It's been nice to express what I believe instead of always playing by their rules of nodding agreement to what I consider cr*p. (If you verbally disagree they will get real nasty - hate to have the kiddos see that. Generally what you see is what you get.

The Elegant Essay Buy now - $25 Building Blocks for Analytical Writing By Lesha Myers. Piece by piece, The Elegant Essay walks students through the entire essay-building process. From captivating introductions, to compelling descriptions and convincing conclusions, students learn to bring their words and their arguments to life. With explanation and practice exercises, it is an excellent extension and refinement of IEW Unit VIII. 100 pages. (Grades 7-12). Click here to view a PDF sample. We've used it. $25 well spent. It probably won't be anything earth shattering for your student but it will get their comfort level and ease with essays down pat.

Wanted to suggest "Creating a Beautiful Life" by Alexandra Stoddard.

Also, you might check Fuller Theological Seminary's School of Missions www.fuller.edu. They are cutting edge regarding contextualization (I belive the word was coined there by Dr. Hagaa and C.Peter Wagner). Lots of good stuff coming out of there (my dh has a couple of degrees from FTS so I'm biased). I'm sure that you would get some excellent book suggestions from their bookstore and they could put you in touch with people from whatever country you are looking at.

I have used ETC in conjunction with AlphaPhonics for all 5 of my kids- who all have radically different learning styles. They are all excellent readers (except the 5 yo who is well on her way). We do a lesson from AlphaPhonics and usually 4-5 pages of ETC a day. I have found it to be an excellent combo as the skills are reinforced- AlphaPhonics is more difficult so ETC seems like "fun"-kwim?

Mine is up: Ballooning. Link in sig block. Looking forward to seeing everyones.

Mine is up: Ballooning. Link in sig block.

My dd has been a missionary in Romania and is getting training now to go back f.t. If you'd like to email her or get her blog pm me. I would focus on grammar and languages- if they'll be in an area with Romance languages, definilty hit Latin. Not sure how I'd tweak TWTM but I would focus on history and politics.