Thanks for all the responses. Lots of good ideas, and I'm going to sit down with them all and rework our schedule starting Monday morning... Thank you all so much for helping me think through this and for the ideas for scheduling our days a little differently. Wish me luck next week! Robin

I like the idea of a timer. I really do. We do tend to get carried away and caught up in something and before we know it, much more time has gone by than what I originally allotted. I'm not sure I can by pass the sleeping in on Friday thing... just a couple of hours. As it is, she only gets around 7 hours of sleep Wednesday night, she goes from 8:30a.m. until almost 10:00pm on Thursdays... if she didn't catch up on her sleep Thursday night, I think she would get sick because Saturday is another heavy day. I was planning on my rule being "no going anywhere Fridays at all... relaxing day of catching up and getting our work for the next week organized... maybe watching a history related movie in the evenings, etc." Hard to do, though, since Friday nights are such big "social" nights with teens. Thanks for the ideas. You are right about public school - I am allowing WAY more time for each subject than what she'd get if she were in school. Maybe I need to back off all the way around. I appreciate your response! Robin

thanks for the ideas... she is not allowed to vibrato her scales and etudes anyway, which is why I thought they might be the better morning activity... yes, the bowing exercises she needs to practice daily (sautille for Czardas, as an example) can be done without using the left hand at all (except to hold the instrument). That's why I thought about making that the last thing she does in the evenings. Other things, too... certain shifting exercises, etc., could probably be done when she is tired. I need to sit down with her and ask her which of her daily practice points require the least and the most amount of energy and let her decide which to do when. I can maybe let her try doing some things sitting down (like sight reading). Her wrist is completely healed, but the damage is likely permanent (torn cartilige) which is why her endurance is compromised... But as this relates to my original question, I can see how breaking it out like this might help our day quite a bit. It is easier to grab a few minutes here and there than it is to block out an hour. Thanks again!

That's probably what I need to do... let go of some of the pressure I'm putting on myself. FWIW (if this helps), my dd is an only child - I do realize that I can commit to a little more than larger families can simply because she is the only one I have to deal with. Tennis is the most negotiable item on the list... but it is less than five minutes away, and since she doesn't have siblings or neighborhood kids to play with, she gets NO physical activity to speak of. She is a little heavy because of that, and that is the one thing I've made a promise to myself about this year - I am going to see to it that she gets good quality exercise this year and gets into a little bit better shape. Evening walks, etc., just don't seem to be doing anything for us in that regard. To me, her health is more important than history, so maybe I do need to cut back on that "ideal" history unit study and settle for just a decent us history course, so that there is time in the schedule for p.e. Thanks for the comment... Robin

Thanks so much Susie... you definitely understand that this is a physical issue... She had an awful left wrist injury last year that kept her in a cast for months and physical therapy afterwards. Her endurance level is not where it used to be... she claims that she doesn't want to do violin first in the morning because she feels like she's just not awake and warmed up enough yet. The stuff she is doing now is pretty demanding of that left wrist - very high positions, songs with lots of continuous vibrato (Meditation from Thais for example). Maybe what I should do is break up her violin practice into chunks... scales and etudes in the morning, vibrato exercise and new assignment right after lunch, repertoire review later in the day, and about ten minutes or so of bowing exercises in the evening... that way, the work in the later part of the day is the work that is less taxing, especially to her left wrist, and the most taxing work is not first thing in the morning, either. Okay, that's something to think about... thanks for getting the juices flowing :). Yeah, I could probably cut back on the history/lit but we really like the read aloud time together... it's so precious, I don't want to give it up yet! If only we didn't have to eat or sleep... or wash clothes :). Thanks again, Robin

This is an excellent idea. It may be time for us to look at spreading it out over the year if she really wants to do all this... Of course, I can't ask her what she wants to do subject-wise because she'll probably say nothing! LOL Except for latin, which she loves... but truly, if she wants to do the CYT thing, and wants to take outside courses (which she does), then she needs to be involved in finding the solution to all this. Thanks for the reminder! I tend to not get her involved in the decision making process enough... Thank you!

I agree... I think I've got too much time allowed for English. Right now, no writing is getting done and I want to nix that right away. We do most of R&S oral - she does the worksheets and sentence diagramming exercises. Well, music for us is a non-negotiable, and if she were in school she would be in orchestra every day... Whenever we relegate it to the evening it either gets short shrift or she's too tired to do it well. She needs to practice when she's not tired, because it is a physically demanding activity. The ability to prioritize violin like this is one of the things that we've enjoyed most about homeschooling... I will definitely consider your thoughts, though. Maybe it's time to rethink the order of things. Thanks so much for the feedback... I'll look at the english and music blocks for tweeking. Robin

Hey everybody, We are having a terrible time settling into a routine this year, and getteing everything done. I've tried to come up with an exact schedule to follow but I'm not sure what I'm trying to do is reasonable. Here's what I've allotted: 15 minutes for vocabulary or spelling every day (alternate). Workbook for the vocabulary, Spelling Power for the spelling. 1 Hour for math - Chalkdust prealgebra. Think we can reduce that to 45 min? 1 Hour for English - R&S Grammar (finishing 6, will start 7), a couple of resources for composition (sentence composing, etc) - I'm thinking I might need to whittle this down to 45 minutes or less because of the amount of time we're spending on latin, and this time frame is not intended to include the entire time spent on composition, just composition *instruction*. 1.5 hours American History/Literature unity study. Read aloud and discuss Hakim, outline important chapters; Critical Thinking series; timeline; occassional composition; a few American lit studies in depth; other literature; map work; memorization work, some arts and crafts stuff. 30 min - Latin. Henle. MODG syllabus. 45 min/1 hr - Music. Violin. She is an advanced student and we are making a huge compromise by cutting back to an hour or less, but it's the only way I know to do it. Most her friends at her level practice about 2 hours a day. 45 min - Physical Science. Apologia. She is taking this course outside the home, so all I oversee is the homework. 20/30 min. Starting Points. Again, course outside the home, all I oversee is homework. He doesn't assign everything so it's not a heavy course. Leftover time in the evenings, etc., to do homework and writing assignments. Here are my complications: Wednesday night is an awesome youth program at church and we're keeping high priority on it. So we stay up late on Wednesday nights. We are not home on Thursdays. Mornings are the outside classes, afternoons are at violin lesson and Christian Youth THeater classes. Fridays we are so exhausted from the Wednesday night/Thursday schedule, we sleep in a couple of hours and there goes the routine :). All our courses have to be completed in four days, not five, since Thursday is out. Dd is in the production at CYT and has rehearsals on Saturdays, so that day is not available to us for catching up. We had our heart set on Tennis two days a week (I can not overemphasize how much she needs the exercise), but it is at 2:30 in the afternoons and we're having trouble getting finished by then. So, we have Mon, Tues, Wed to do school in earnest, and squeeze in a couple of hours of tennis two days if we are willing to cut into homework time... Thursday is out... Friday would be a good "catch up" day to relax, do assignments/projects/wrap-ups since we're so tired, but I'm concerned about not having that fourth full day of school. Is it reasonable to expect that we will complete everything this year using my schedule above, knowing that we're only going to follow it in earnest on three days? (we'll still work on Friday, just not as intensely, and we really do a lot of oral work in the car on the way to CYT and music lessons... yesterday we knocked out a latin translation exercise in the car, for example). I want to get it all done, but I don't want to have an unreasonable schedule, either. And I'm concerned that I'm not allowing her enough time for pleasure reading/homework/composition by allowinig the outside activities (tennis, youth group, etc.). Thanks for any feedback!!! Robin

Oh, but I didn't have a link to her blog in my post (since she hadn't updated her blog yet). So thank you very much for your post! I was just sorry that you didn't see the news yesterday so that you could have been relieved sooner!

Isn't this great? I posted about this yesterday because she called from the med center to give the news... We are all so glad to hear it! I'm sorry you didn't see it yesterday, because it might have saved you a day of worrying! I know concerned people like you have been sitting on pins and needles!! Party time!! Whoo hoo!

It's NOT a malignancy!! Yoohoo!! It is a highly unusual case of Crohn's disease. She is being referred to a *non-onocology* gastro specialist. She might still need surgery, and Crohn's is nothing to take lightly, but this is no doubt fantastic news. Thought you would all want to hear asap - she'll be down at the medical center for the rest of the day and will update her blog later. Robin

Thanks so much for posting, Drew. I typically don't read blogs and haven't kept up with her since our move about five months ago. Yikes. Thank you, thank you, Drew.

This reminds of an old saying... don't ever mud wrestle with a pig. You'll both get filthy and the pig likes it. :) About the only time I've ever come across something that I thought was totally inappropriate, it got deleted by admin anyway. I guess I haven't run into any truly nasty people here yet... maybe I don't read the gen board enough! (on the other hand, maybe I read the gen board about all I should! LOL)

Oh, Kelli, I'm so sorry if it sounded like I was criticizing people who *do* use the ignore feature, because really... I couldn't care less and I'm glad the feature is there for those who find it useful!! I was just trying to explain why *I* would never find any use for it... it really says more about *me* than anything or anyone else... I'm the type who would probably not get any peace at all from the ignore feature. I'd probably obsess about it and start noticing the person's name more than I was when I *wasn't* trying to ignore them! LOL I just really resonated with a couple of comments along those lines. That's just me, though, and below Jenny did a real good job at explaining exactly how the feature has actually helped her deal with a certain poster which helped me see how others have get a different use out of it. Again, I was just trying to explain something about my own personality that makes the ignore feature not such a helpful thing :). Just answering the original question. Not really thinking one bit about people who DO use the ignore feature or how or why they use it!! Ignore away!! I'm really glad this new forum has so many features that everyone has *sometihng* (if not several things) that makes their experience here better!!

Hardcore just potsed that the 10pm update is going to shift the track to the east a little... he's got a pipeline to somebody. That's bad news for New Orleans. Links to things you could never find yourself on that thread... some of it personal stuff of the meteorologists (their working data, etc.). ETA: Forgot to say - yes that view is awesome... you can even see the ridge building in the north that everyone is talking about!! Thanks for mentioning it because I hadn't checked out Susie's link.

That was supposed to be under Kathleen. Sorry!

Here's a decent weather message forum (sponsored by the weather department of a Houston TV station - it is also the station that Neil Frank retired from and he is past president of NHC - the station has brought Frank back in to cover Gustav and the moderator of the forum has his "ear"): http://www.khou.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23078&start=2055 I'm linking to the thread on Gustav. It takes a while to figure out who they are, but about half the people who post on that forum are professioal meteorologists who are paid either by weather service agencies or corporations (for evacuation decisions, etc.). Then there's a lot of amateurs who freak out everytime a tropical system earns a name :). Most the warnings and advisories show up on this forum before the public can see them. Interesting to watch if you really need to know what's going on. (Folks in southern LA would probably benefit from keeping an eye on this thread overnight). Robin

Jenny!! We were posting at the same time!! I posted a response to you below before this one of yours came up. I understand better now how it can help in that sort of situation. Thanks for explaining! Robin

I'm glad you posted that, Jenny. That explains to me how someone would use the ignore feature in a positive way (something I was having trouble understanding, as I would probably use it with the same sort of feelings that are behind using a voodoo doll :)). So thanks for posting. Makes sense to me.

It's not projected to remain a category V, though... it will downgrade to a IV or III by landfall. IV would still be very bad, though. The waters are not as warm near shore as in the deep gulf, and that's why it will intensify tomorrow but downgrade as it gets closer to landfall. Katrina did the same thing. It was a category V Sunday, but a category III by landfall 6:00 AM Monday. We've been following this very closely, and the consensus for now seems to be that for it to be catastrophic to New Orleans, the storm's path will need to shift to the east about 50 miles or so... (to bring the worst of the storm surge into Lake Ponchatrain and N.O.). The uncertainty revolves around a high pressure building in the north east which, if given enough time to develop, will steer the storm to the west as it approaches landfall (or shortly thereafter) and cause it to stall somewhat. The faster the storm moves, the more northerly (or east) of the projected path and less it will flood. If it slows down any, it will likely get pushed to the west and possibly stall. For now, my area (Houston) seems in the clear. Stay safe everyone in coastal Louisana! Robin

LOL!!! That is so true... I feel like you and Colleen. If I don't like what a particular poster is saying to the poitn that I *need* a barrier to protect me from that person's words, then *I* am the one who needs to take a chill pill and back away. Seriously. It's really not any different than maneuvering through real life - you can't just zap people invisible when you don't like them! LOL! If I were to put someone on the ignore list, it would totally be a passive aggressive act (***See ETA below***). Maybe if someone was overtly harrassing me, I'd consider it then. But I do understand that rhino skin is not an easy thing to grow... :) *** ETA: Not that I think anyone here is being passive agressive - I'm just saying that if *I* did it, it would only be because I was feeling very passive agressive at the moment, you know... feeling like I was getting even - I can just see myself, "Nano Nano, buddy... I'll show *YOU*!!" LOL I don't like it when I feel that way so I try to avoid it - I don't think I could EVER use the ignore feature without there being a little "stick it to 'em" attitude behind it! LOL But that's just me...

First make sure you planted florence fennel, the bulbing kind. Common fennel doesn't have a bulb. I was under the impression that the bulbs of florence fennel formed above ground. Also, isn't it primarily a cool weather crop? Maybe it's just not harvest time yet. Good luck! My mil used to boil it till slightly tender, then slice it cross ways and batter it with italian bread crumbs and fry it. It was very, very good that way!

It's not a failure if what you've done is quit listening to people who are rude or intentionally offensive. I don't think we fail as human beings when we decide that we're just not going to spend our energies on worthless pursuits. I can assure you, I don't seek out every single poster on this board in an attempt to "hear" or "listen to" them. I do listen to the other point of view when it is expresed sincerely and respectfully, though. I bet you do the same. I don't use the ignore feature, but there are many times when I skip over entire conversations because I can see at a glance what it's about and where it's going... just about (but not totally) every poster that I have gotten my feathers ruffled by has at some other time posted something that I appreciated, so I try to focus on skipping over certain conversations (instead of particular people).

No. Can't imagine why I ever would, to be honest. Just like everyone else, I have my favorite posters... but I can not think of any reason why I would want to actually force a personality to go invisible on me... wouldn't that be kinda weird when you went to read a thread? There'd be all these responses to a post you can't see? What good is it, really? It sorta seems like a private "gotcha back" sorta thing that doesn't serve any real purpose. Maybe there's something to the feature I'm not aware of?

I said elsewhere in this thread that I think she's going to play like a female Ross Perot and appeal to populists (to give Biden a run for the working class vote - some might call those folks the Reagan Democrats, but I don't think this is exactly the same demographic).