#1: Our first camping trip with a pop-up tent trailer. To save money, we were going to go camping and cook all of our own meals in the trailer. Well, I'd never camped much and certainly never cooked while camping. I browned the meat and made rice for an "oriental" hotdish. (What did I ever have against Asians to name such a dish after them?). Well, no one mentioned that you don't want to cook with the water that's in the tank of a new camper until you've washed it out many times to get rid of the plastic taste and maybe not even then. So, I'm happily cooking and serving it up. One bite and everyone froze. It was disgusting, plastic-tasting hamburger and rice. This wasn't a subtle hint of plastic. It was more a grab you buy the throat and knock you to the ground plastic taste. Toast for dinner that night and in 13 years, we've never done oriental hotdish again. #2 I decided to be creative with a chocolate cake and boost the flavor. I thought sour cream would add a nice richness to the mix. NOT! In 10 minutes, I had rolling waves of black smoke pouring out of the oven, out of the windows, out of the doors, and neighbors running over to see if the house was on fire. The smoke detectors were going off and the kids were practicing crawling out of the house because the smoke was so thick. Of course, this is January in Minnesota, so it was like -25 below zero Fahrenheit. We opened the windows and doors and went to Burger King playland for dinner and a long recreation session. Still stuck when we got home. #3 Decided that sour cream wasn't healthy so I served baked potatoes with yogurt (unflavored, unsweetened) .... at a dinner party! Ah, NO. Don't try it. It is not the same; it is not even close. Oh, and I put it on the potatoes before serving them so every one had the yogurt spuds on their plate. Not the impression I wanted to leave for guests.

Eggs aren't killed by Rid or Nix. So, you need to retreat in about 7 days to kill newly hatched lice. And probably 7 days after that if you have thick hair. I'm lousy (no pun intended) on finding nits on blonde hair. Also, is anyone else infected? We passed them around a lot before we killed them. Not to frighten you, but we fought the battle for 6 months before 4 women with long hair stopped passing them around. Also, some lice are resistant to Rid/Nix. Are you treating your sofa? We found that our sofa was contaminated and one chair. You can go to the hardware store and get a bedbugs spray for sofas and other hard to launder things. It was MUCH cheaper than the Rid spray from the drugstore. I HATE LICE!

OH, yes, the honeymoon phase. We have just moved out of it. What a relief! We totally overbought. But the meats and produce at Costco are fantastic. I try to stay away the prepared foods; they aren't that good of a deal.

True confession time: I'm addicted to exclamation points. I love them and use them (overuse them) all the time!!! It's embarrassing, but I'm trying to show excitement and enthusiasm. And they are correctly placed (not randomly placed in the middle of a sentence). Hanging my head in shame, Pam

That's it: butterflies or rather "butterflies" die when someone misuses a quotation mark. LOL

Funny to see our pet grammar peeves! My mom writes notes with no subject. Like this: Writing to tell you about the trip. Was a great experience. Ate lots and swam too. Going to see Aunt Martha tomorrow. Will call when I can. Get home on the 22nd. Notice that the subject of each sentence is absent. Now, add in decaying vision and slight dementia and poor spelling and you won't believe how confusing her notes are. She recently posted on my 14 yo dd facebook page about how happy she was that my dd was going back to her old job. Ah, mom, she hasn't had a job yet. BUT...she doesn't use random quotes, so I'll keep her.

I feel for you! I'm just not a little kid teacher. Plus, little kids and an evening activity are not a good combination. We now volunteer to design/build the main set. I like that much better than wearing a costume and managing 3 year olds all evening. HUGS!!

Thankfully, the insomnia seems to be resolving, so I won't need more than a quick nap today :-) Done: edit a paper for someone (48 quotation mark errors in 3 pages....UGH!) put laundry away cook lunch To Do: Costco trip Bible Study quick nap wrap up paperwork for Board of Teaching Would like to: lose 5 pounds write lessons plans for conceptual physics win $1,000,000 (sadly probably none of these will happen) :lol:

Perfect blog! The entire three page paper could be submitted. That's 48 wrong quotes in three pages, or 16 quotation mark errors per page.

Yes! Or to imply a derogatory nature. 48 of those quotations!

I just edited a paper that had 52 quotation marks, only 4 of which were used correctly. If kittens die when apostrophes are used incorrectly, what dies when quotation marks are used incorrectly? I'm not a terrible grammar nazi, but that paper was ANNOYING!!! I removed all but 4 of them. End of vent! (But, I may save the paper as a "how not to write" example for my kids :laugh: LOL)

Parents who want their kids to avoid natural consequences for their action... I've had a mom call me to ask what her darling got on the final exam....5 minutes after the exam ended and I teach college pre-meds! I've had a mom call me to tell me what grade her son should get in my class. We had a father call to see how his son did on his interview for the job. The son had a PhD. BTW, we removed son from contention instantly.

I'm so sorry for your experience. My son is an eagle scout and has been on staff for 4 years now. He did not have a 2nd class A until he was staff. Class A was shirt and jeans, not khaki while he was in the troop. One class B troop shirt required at camp. Raingear was required, but wasn't scout rain gear. We did use backpacks, but it wasn't required. Tennis shoes, not hiking boots were required. For high adventure, the equipment was a required backpack and hiking boots. Otherwise, we tried to be frugal. These requirements are over the top. You have a right to be ticked off. Glad they enjoyed their experience.

I did it. I tackled that mystery pile in the master bedroom this morning. I'm sneezing from all of the dust and tossed most of it. YEAH! I also organized my shoes and purses and emptied a suitcase. We are hosting two high school students from China tonight for a typical American family experience. We are grilling out and having ice cream and cobbler. So, I'm house cleaning so they can look around at what a typical American home is like: closets, bathrooms, yards, etc.

praying for this horses leg!! Never seen anything like that in the barn. WOW!!

Hosting the teen Bible Study at our house tonight, so most of my work is cleaning. Clean kitchen Clean pool Make lemonade for Bible Study nap (still not sleeping well at night...UGH) Clean bathrooms Guess which of these are non-negotiable item: nap!

Got home at midnight and I'm tired!! Big goals for today: cook dinner or order it in update virtual farm nap unpack prep church visuals for tomorrow All in all....not accomplishing much on this gorgeous summer day and loving it :lol:

You know it's a rough day when napping is your highest priority. May you have a day rich in rest and gravy!

Your list exhausts me.......I think I'll take a nap on your behalf. Blessings on your day!

Take a look at Zumdahl's Introduction to Chemistry. I used it with some success for a very poor math student who didn't have any interest in science. She found it interesting (a bit) and understandable.

soils, minerals, rocks? erosion and hydrology? meteorology?

Potter's School with Madame S!!! My dd took French 1 and 2 with her. She provided excellent feedback, diligent grading, and quick responses. At college, my 16 yo dd (in Minnesota, you can do college for free during high school so we had her try some classes), aced the year of college French and they asked her to be a French major. She was tops in her class by far. She was very well prepared by Madame S both in French itself, but also in how to learn a foreign language. I give her 5 stars!! Highly recommended. (tough class, though).

How hard is it to can tomatoes? How long do they last when canned? Can you tell if they've gone bad after canning? Learning to can is something I'd like to do this summer.

Good day today: some work on scope and sequence for all five books -- done clean kitchen -- done cleaning LR -- done vacuum -- done plan snacks for Bible Study tonight -- done laundry -- never done, but several loads processed :lol: all kids treated for lice after mission trip -- done (those buggers aren't getting back into our house again!) Mystery pile in master bedroom STILL untouched from last week. This week doesn't look too promising either. Maybe if I decorate around it people will just believe that it was meant to be that way.

UGH!! These are tough days. Maybe the early waker with the loud voice could be returned to bed with a granola bar and a story CD? I can SO sympathize with you! I would be so very cranky if a kid woke up before I finished my first diet coke of the day. Maybe write out three realistic activities for the day and let them choose. It might give them the control they obviously desire (that's what all of that imagination is!) and still really keep the control in your realistic hands! Maybe get some costumes so they can do dress up (with or without underwear) and burn off all of the imagination. :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: