It isn't possible to make/keep a promise to love someone forever because no person has that much control over an emotion set that is so delicate. You can promise to try, promise to stay with someone and act loving even when those feelings aren't there, but all promises to love forever are just wishful thinking.

If he's not fixing them up, and they don't have plates, could he (or his friends) be stealing them?

Don't think of that stuff as food. Think of it as poison. Food nourishes and builds us up. That stuff does not do that.

Oh, yes! I completely agree that what Calming Tea described is not only true for myself but for ALL of the homeschool parents I have known in my seventeen years in the community.

5rd: MindBenders 6th: Art of Argument 7th: Discovery of Deduction 8th: The Argument Builder

I vote for Abraham. It's an awesome name. Everyone knows how to spell and pronounce it but you never hear it anymore. It makes me think of some kindly old man. In both those ways it matches Milo, Ari & Gus, too. If you go with William, consider the nickname Liam. Maybe someone else has said that. I can't stomach five pages of baby name talk. I named my sons the names that I had gotten used to calling them during pregnancy rather than the best names I thought of, and I deeply regret doing so. So I will put my two cents in against Ronan. Also it doesn't really go with Milo, Ari & Gus. It is trendy and sounds new (even though I know it isn't). Also, Milo, Ari & Gus immediately bring to mind sweater vests whereas Ronan makes me think of T-shirts.

My middle class relatives always said "pass gas" or "break wind". My well-off relatives always said "fart" or something funny but brief. So I grew up with the impression, and this is just mine, that polite terms are ways of seeming hoity toity. I have no interest in seeming hoity toity, but I also don't like the word fart. So I use the word plumper. I like it because it is fun to say. That combines the disinterest in the ugliness of "fart" of the one side of my family with the delight in just being honest of the other side of my family.

I sent my then eleven-year-old son to the public middle school for a STEM camp this past summer. I was a little worried because middle school can be so gross, socially, and he was going in full homeschool mode - long hair, old sneakers, bicycling there on his own rather than being delivered in an SUV, and thrilled to be there. He had no complaints about the social environment, was treated fondly by the teachers and had a blast playing with the expensive and complicated STEM toys we can't access as homeschoolers. The activities were set up as mini-competitions and for the first two days he came home with ALL the first place certificates. After those two days they changed the format. No one gave him any guff about it though. Perhaps because it was an opt-in camp for kids who are interested in STEM topics, it was easier socially for him. He's a pretty resilient little dude, though. He tends to attract friends because (don't laugh) he's pretty-- long blond hair, brilliant blue eyes, rosy cheeks, and a classic face. We joke that he could be a sociopath and people would want to please him. He is a bit standoffish and doesn't tend to initiate friendships but people follow him around nonetheless. Also, he's older than eight. I'm pretty sure I would not send a kid that young into any kind of school environment. It would probably be fine, but if it wasn't, it would take years to recover. (ETA: Wow, this sounds like a braggy post. Maybe I should also say that he's a seriously grumpy snot with me most of the time, would sooner starve than eat anything that is not beige, and has mastered one hundred and twenty ways to make one dictation assignment take five hours.)

My two older boys alternate who gets the evening shower before bed. My youngest gets a bath in the mornings.

How about if you offer him a trade? If he does Latin and piano in half an hour each with a good attitude, he gets half an hour to either watch TV or play a video game in the evening.

So, my family has recently been talking about what the sky would look like from a planet in a binary solar system, and we have all these questions and I'm not sure where to find the answers. So here I am, because you folks seem to have answers, or ideas about where to find answers, for everything. Here are some of the questions we have. How do the stars in a cluster interact with each other? Do they move in each other's skies or are they fixed like the faraway ones? Would you see them in the daytime? How does a planet orbit a binary star system, and what kinds of seasons does that produce? For that matter, what kind of days and nights? Any ideas?

Canadians are CANNIBALS?!

I just got CogAt and ITBS scores back for my twelve-year-old seventh grader. His results seem to be really good. I'm wondering if I should trust them and feel awesome, or if I'm somehow wishfully interpreting them. Shoot me full of holes, please. With the ITBS, he scored grade level equivalent 13+ in everything except math concepts & estimation (10.9), math computation (11.8) and science (12.8). His percentile composite is 97%, with lows in capitalization (89%), punctuation (84%) and science (86%). Everything else was in the nineties with four scores above 95%, two of those 99%. His stanines include two sevens, but are mostly nines. With the CogAt, his composite score has him at the 97th percentile, stanine of 9. So, is this awesome? Or is this a really easy test? Or maybe both of those things are true. Also, and I realize this is a vague question but I can't quite articulate it better, does this mean anything? Maybe I mean, should I do anything with or about these scores, besides email Grandma? We have been happily using a relaxed LCC-inspired curriculum for the past four years. He's not enrolled in any kind of classes or programs or talent searches. Would you let these scores change anything you do?

Dumpster diving and Food Not Bombs?

My grocery store has an "older produce" cart with severely discounted stuff that has to be used today. One in your neck of the woods probably has something similar. How about a stir fry with whatever vegetables are being clearanced at the grocery store and tofu or some kind of nut? They're good with just soy sauce, or you could get creative and combine some Asian spices and yogurt for extra protein and a curry-ish feel. (. . . I type, as I shovel a cauliflower/spinach/almond stir fry into my mouth.)