Hmm... What's more important? Cheap? Or easy? They are at odds. ;) Cheapest is homemade. Jay's Pizza Crust off Allrecipes is the BEST and it can be used with a lot of whole wheat and still good. It's even better when you make it early in the afternoon and punch it down a few times. (It's easy that way too - make it during the end of naptime and cook at regular time.) Good sauce: Tomato sauce Chili powder - just a bit Smoked paprika Garlic powder Parmesan cheese (trust me - IN THE SAUCE!) A bit of salt (just a dash or so) A tiny bit of brown sugar *I know that's a generic recipe but trust me on the ingredients and our amounts are VERY skewed for the average family. ;) We don't do individual pizzas unless it's VERY special or someone's birthday wish- too much work. Instead we make three pizzas and you can plan them each in halves as far as the ingredients. Now, if you're looking for cheap, individual pizzas are the wrong way to go because everyone is going to "special order" ingredients and that's when the cost goes WAY up. You're going to buy 15 toppings when you could have gotten away with three. ;) Cheap vs. easy vs. making everyone happy is the eternal challenge, lol.

Absolutely. I also think there is some weird hereditary factor. In my family one side tends to be heavy, the other not. One of my aunt's did have her stomach staples and list an incredible amount if weight but gained much of it back.... I think most do? In my husband's family they tend to gain weight and be diabetic. The man eats the same food I do and FAR less of it. We have entirely different metabolisms and not because I'm crazy active or because he's inactive. Our bodies respond very differently to the food we eat. I could live on white bread and not gain more than five or ten pounds. He eats a few small meals each day and his metabolism operates much slower. I will say the guidelines in Trim Healthy Mama did work for him. Slower, but they worked. He needed to eat each morning to start his metabolism and then eat small meals every three to four hours to keep it plugging along. Some day we'll admit that is no one perfect solution. Oh, and that sugar is evil. ;)

I haven't had this personally. I have heard some complain about the costs of buying supplies to send their kids to school or for a book fee and have had to bite my tongue a bit hard, but other than that, not a lot of folks asking for handouts around here. Let's hope I'm the majority. :(

I don't want to get your hopes up, however, I had what really looked like a full period with Elizabeth. She was the one right after the little girl we lost and I'll tell you I was a basket case. Thank God she was just fine. Bleeding lasted three days. She is a beautiful healthy little girl. One never can tell.

Some things are foundational. Some things are busywork. If you can differentiate between the two, your life will be so much more pleasant. And don't make mountains out of molehills.

My experience is that it is someone uncomfortable with her written expression and would rather talk than be self conscious and text.

Knitting is a fine hobby to have here. :)

Waving from the south. ;) (Only a nice couple of hours away.)

You should probably have a good handle on how kiddo behaves with money. Will they balance their account? Both my two oldest have debit cards associated with their checking/savings accounts. They are with our local credit union.

And that is all well and good to say it's American culture and we are simply boiling everything down to numbers. However, frankly, the strange thing is that children like to eat and they generally need medical care and both of those things aren't paid for with contentment. Since Medi-whatever you want to call it has been expanded here in the US, DH's company has passed that cost onto us. We will now pay almost $10k out of pocket before they take over bills each year. Frankly it's like getting a $10k paycut, or at the very least cut by annual medical costs. I saw a current study that said we are currently at a lower living wage than the 1960's. No, I don't think we're being shallow by saying, "Kids need to consider what their degree is and not follow simple folly. College needs to be considered a worthwhile investment." It's all well and good to have underwater basket weaving as a hobby, however, children generally don't like to eat reeds. ;) KWIM? Much of this is said tongue in cheek, but there is a great deal of truth to the fact that once there was the freedom to simply follow your feelings. I honestly feel this generation will have to follow their responsibilities.

Imo, reading helps with writing, prosody, the rhythm of language. Keep reading! I cannot think of a more important activity, academically speaking.

My husband worked a full time second shift job to support us and went to school during the day. Then he delivered pizzas on weekends. Then when he graduated with his bachelor's we had student debt. Four years in the Army took care of that. We were stationed at NTC which made it possible for him to get both his Master's and his MBA while he was in and the Army paid for a bit of that as well. Yes, there are ways..... Not easy ways, but ways.

This makes so many assumptions that you have to see past the individual situation. For example, if you're thinking about up and coming children, there is NO WAY they are giving up a $60k job to go to school in this day and age so that isn't a factor, kwim? Let's take my kids for example, shall we? My oldest daughter is on a full tuition scholarship, but if she wasn't, in-state flagship tuition, because, let's face it, if $$ is a serious option, ya better be considering in state universities. Tution: $8500 Books: $1250 Room & Board: $9700 Total: $19,450 Now, that's food and rent (dorm) included, so let's assume DD is working 20 hours a week at minimum wage minus taxes. That's about $600/mo or $7200/year. She can live off that, especially considering bus and public transportation. So, $80k. for four years. HOWEVER, my DD decided to carry excess hours and go summers. She completed 49 credits in one academic year. A motivated person could finish school in 3 years, thus reducing the costs to three years, or $60k. *But* let's assume the first two years is community college. DS attends community college. It's $145 per credit. Most four year universities will transfer in 60 credits. So that's two years of "tuition" which amounts to $8700 for the two years of school - half the price of university. And let's assume he's renting with someone. $500/mo would cover rent and utilities for a shared apartment so that's $6k per year plus food. He could stay at under $10k easy. So - first two years would be total $28,700. Then switch to university for another $40k. That is a grand total of $68,700. The income gap between college grads and non-college grades is almost $18k per year. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/02/11/study-income-gap-between-young-college-and-high-school-grads-widens The difference is made up in four years... Then add on the difference of the next 30 or so years of working. Yes, I have to believe the best investment you make is in your education. I also believe student debt should be avoided at all costs and to work your tail off to make that possible. We have dual enrollment. My son's first 46 credits will be covered by the state as long as he is in high school. We're hoping we're looking at strong SAT scores so that he will be offered scholarships as well. He'll be living at home. Is that exotic? Or even just crazy fun? Nope. But it will save them $10k in borrowing. Can you imagine graduating from grad school with zero loans and your life in front of you? Happy sigh.

You know, I have to ask, hasn't anyone here done raw for cats? For a long while we fed our dogs raw until the cost just became crazy. (Raw chicken is still inexpensive in bulk but they need a decent percentage of red meat and that was very cost prohibitive for large dogs.) Do people feed cats raw? I should think that would solve the problem of teeth care and digestion? Especially as they are so small (comparatively speaking to a 100lb. German shepherd) that the cost wouldn't be a factor. I know for Legend, raw just did phenomenal things for his coat and teeth.

So I think we're going to go meet her. If we decide she is a good fit for our family then what do I really need or want? That sounds so silly but our dogs are on grain free food, have favorite toys, one of them needs a crate, another sleeps in a padded chair.... It's wet foodbad for cats? I thought I had heard that? Something about ash content? Do they really like those scratching posts? Trees? Cubbies? Best litter for cleaning up?

I'm actually really fearful about too much interaction for the kitty. :( I've always heard cats are loner animals. Our dogs get an insane level of interaction during the day and they are outside. I really was afraid we'd fall into way too much interaction for a cat and I wanted to shield her from that. In the basement is where older kiddos are throughout the day. Toddlers are upstairs. I don't mind if she wants to spend time up here (though I really don't want a toddler in the litterbox, kwim?) but I just think it's too chaotic. The owner says she REALLY likes small kids, but she's still a cat, kwim? Really liking a two year old is totally different than really liking a 5yo, a 4yo, a 2yo, and a 1yo. I just think it would be overwhelming for her, kwim? No, definitely NOT lonely. That is nowhere on my radar, lol.

:D We owned cats all of my childhood *but* there is a world of difference between living on a farm and having farm cats vs. having an indoor cat. Quite the learning curve.

Pretty much.... our youngest daughters are 5, 4, and 2. :D I said she wouldn't be alone even half the time during the day......... Some people have basements as storage. Some people use them as living space.

She'd be in the bedroom with the girls. Would she still be unhappy at night?

Reading the other post, it occurs to me that we might REALLY enjoy a dog door - but our dogs are outdoor dogs. We let them be in our mudroom/laundry room during cold weather. It would be awesome if they could come and go outside when they want. Buuuuuuuttttt.... It would involve us cutting a human door. We planned on doing that anyway in the spring so not a big deal, but I have a couple questions on this too. Can you take a regular security door and modify it with an extra large dog door? How bad is it on utilities? We live in the cold Midwest and this door would face west.

Four bedrooms, four windows, one living room, one utility room, one living room... currently in progress, lol. Windows go in this week and then some finish work. It will be so NICE to be DONE remodeling. But, yes! Lots of people down there coming and going, and, except for absence of a kitchen, it is essentially a house - a little over 2,000 square feet for one cat. Hmm. We have the really big Furminator for our dogs and it works AWESOME. I didn't know cats would allow brushing. Crazy but awesome. The people will definitely be in the basement. Three kiddos do various schoolwork throughout the day. (The boy is NEVER going to let ANY cat in his room. Just saying. Ever.) Then all of "Read or Sleep" time is 2 hours in the afternoon. Then we are moving the tv to the basement for the only place to watch movies. ;) I'm thinking not a set of cats. The owner specifically said she is not good with other pets/animals - dogs or cats, kwim? Hm.. Two cats. LOL. I'm picturing telling the husband that. So for mamas with pukers- I'm used to German shepherd puke. I assume we are talking far less quantity? And how often are we talking? My tolerance could do once a week but I'm not sure I could handle 2-3 times a day. So give me specifics. :D

IMO, Saxon is perfectly fine for college prep. Have you seen that they do have accompanying teaching DVDs for Saxon now? They are actually pretty inexpensive, especially used. There is always Teaching Textbooks, but obviously not rigorous but reasonably priced. Do you have a dual enrollment option that is feasible (family time and cost) in your state? You mention $400-$500 per level. The only one I can think of that is that expensive (without there being a teacher) is Chalk Dust. Do a search on Larson. This just came on my radar this past week. The other option is doing an online class like Derek Owens or our own Jann from TX instead of teaching it yourself. ;) More can weigh in. My oldest daughter was NOT math-y and wasn't going into a math field. We did Life of Fred and Teaching Textbooks for her. My second is math-y, is going into a STEM field. We did Foerester (with the Math without Borders DVD) for Algebra I, the TT for Algebra II, but we are now doing Larson Intermediate Algebra for a more rigorous experience, followed by College Algebra (Larson) and then he is going to take the rest of his math at community college as anything into Pre-Calc area is past my ability level. ;)

Crickets.................

LOL, a fellow is coming this weekend to saw holes for our basement windows. Those tubs WILL be packed and put away for the season once and for all if it kills me.... And it might.

The HUSBAND suggested getting a cat for Sarah this weekend. You could have knocked me over with a feather. So a few questions: 1. If I feed her any kind of super special magical food will it not get hair balls or puke a lot? 2. If we have big, giant windows in the bedrooms down the basement and she has a window seat and everything, will she be a happy girl to stay there *most* of the time? 3. They make those gloves for grooming to pick up hair - will cats allow this like dogs do? We think we've found a young female (age 1) that is for adoption. We've not committed, just sent the family a short email to discuss, but they want a home with children (good with small children) but she isn't recommended with other pets, which is perfect for IN our house!