If a side-car crib won't work and the co-sleeper doesn't work - sounds like baby will be in bed with you. I love the idea of the amby-beds but I wouldn't use one in my bedroom because of nursing, I like to sleep and nurse. With a king size bed, I'd probably just do the bedrail instead of the pillow that would take up tons of space. You can do a little pack and play bassinet to put baby down first and on first waking bring into your bed for the night, maybe? We have done the side-car crib and just took it down after having it up for 3 years, oh the space is back!! But we also did a bed rail for when the baby was in our bed and the toddler was in the side-car crib and that worked out okay with only having a queen-size bed (and dh and I are not small people either). I would snuggle dh in the night until babe woke and then roll to her to nurse. Oh I also used rolled up receiving blankets wedged between babe and me just to she wouldn't keep rolling into me as I moved around, that kept her in her space and so did swaddling that we do for a while to help with better sleeping. eta: if you mainly want babe to have a place to sleep for first part of the night, then the hammock bed could work well. I'm kinda unsure as to holding stuff. But that and a bed rail could be used.

Instead of using Pinterest, I use Evernote to sort and remember everything. I can sort things into groups/notebooks and put tags on items to make finding them later easier. Even better, if I find a website I like the project, I put it in Evernote and it copies the whole page and all the photos right there so I never have to worry about the website vanishing sometime later or not being available. My stuff is available offline and I really like that. I have a free account and I use it a ton and often get near the limits they put on how much you can save but I haven't felt like I need it buy a paid account yet. However, I have used it so much and find it so valuable for saving everything that I would actually pay for it at this point. Another big plus, when I'm out and see a poster of flyer or something, I can take a photo of it with my phone and save it to evernote. And then later, when I'm searching for something, all the text in the photo is also searchable -- that part is really awesome! :) I play with pinterest a little and I like the layout, but I hate that I have to click on an idea twice to see it and the majority of things I click on aren't linked properly and I don't get right to the source. But that's just when browsing pinterest. When I add stuff to it, I like my links, but have decided that since I really don't need the social element, keeping it all in Evernote works better for me.

Does the school system have a curriculum review committee? We have a Curriculum Council (http://www.carrollk12.org/instruction/instruction/currcoun/default.asp) that would probably have a better idea. But I think that educators think more in objectives and such and not so much the name of the book or company or curriculum they're using because the idea of different curriculum doesn't really come up a whole lot since they're just teaching what they're given to teach from. I find the idea of of 'what curriculum" to be far more a homeschooling concept. Our schools have website with all the content areas laid out (what is being taught but not how it's being taught) and what not, but I realize that not all schools or states will have up-to-date websites with that information. Actually, looking further into our county website, it only looks like they give that information as a lot of it is missing.

When teaching early childhood, I *loved* the liquid watercolors we ordered from Discount School Supply - Colorations brand. They were some of the most vivid colors even and I just loved watching the kids explore them. Not the same as a high quality true artists set but I felt they had amazing results.

First I've even heard about the book. So I checked the library and now I'm #10 on the hold list for whenever they get a copy. :) Not really pulled to read it at all since I know nothing about it, but why not check it out.

1. Would you give your life for your country? If you were invaded, would you take up arms, whether you are civilian or military, to defend your country? No, I do not believe the war is the answer. 2. If your child murdered someone and told you about it, would you inform the police? Yes. 3. If your child murdered someone and you had no idea where they were that day, would you provide an alibi for them anyway? No. 4. If you knew a good friend of yours was cheating on their spouse, would you inform the spouse? Probably not but I would talk with my friend about doing so and it would probably put an end to our friendship as well if disclosures were not made. If I was friends with the spouse, I'd tell my friend that by x date I would inform the spouse. I just wouldn't feel comfortable exposing the information if I wasn't friends with the spouse. 5. Would you die for your faith? If masked gunman invaded your house of worship and threatened death for anyone who would not denounce their Spiritual Figure (i.e, Jesus, Mohammed, G-d, etc.), what would you do? If someone put a gun to my head and asked me to sing the alphabet backwards, I'd give it a try. I don't feel statements made under duress as anything more than a chance to stay alive, my faith wouldn't be impacted by such an action either. 6. Would you risk your life to defend a stranger? If you came around a corner just in time to see 3 thugs drag a woman into an alley, would you intervene? I would absolutely intervene in terms of getting other people to notice and making a scene if it's among a group of people and action would happen (calls made, thugs approached, etc). If I'm alone, then I'd probably be calling 911, freaking out about what else I could do and then act further based on further information is obtained from the scene or whatever. If major sounds of distress were happening, screaming, whatever, then most likely I would act far braver than I felt and approach the situation while praying that support was going to appear any moment and that we'd all live through the encounter.

*hugs* I share the same feelings - making friends is such a challenge and even more challenging to maintain the ones that we form as well. I wish I had good advice, but then maybe I wouldn't feel like I am in the same situation. My partner is a wonderful friend but he's not home that much and there is so much other stuff going on that I try to not drown him in all my ramblings that I wish I had a friend to call about.

Free Chick-fil-a sandwich! Only if it's free food to a place I know I will return to again. I've seen discounts for return visits and such but it's usually not somewhere I'm going again. So basically Chick-fil-a is the only place I take the survey for. And I'd never do it for one of those "win $$$$" offers.

I'm glad to see the suggestions, we deal with this for my 4 year old as well. So excited to go play with someone and then won't talk to them or look at them or interact for the first 40 minutes or so. I've been at a loss, especially when other friends that she has seen many times come up and say hi and she won't respond and they're really taken back by the fact that she won't even talk or acknowledge them. I've been trying to come up with good responses or suggestions that didn't use the word 'shy' because I felt as a kid I was labeled shy and felt very stuck in the role after a while. I'm encouraged to hear it will wear off eventually. We were at a birthday this weekend that she really wanted to attend, but refused to play with anyone else and would run away when someone came to play with her. But after about 40 minutes, she was there in the mix of it all (again, mostly a group of kids we see over and over again).

I have had success using it in meals to replace part of the meat as mentioned above. Chili or tacos something with a heavy favoring that also has lots of other stuff too. We don't eat it any more as we've stopped eating almost all soy products, and my family was never a big fan of it either. They have been a fan of using lentils in taco filling, I was quite surprised at that one. :) Totally not related though.

I am too caught up on visuals. My DH would be all about which setion and I would be talking about the lighting and layout. :)

For me it depends on how badly I want it and when I need it. I'm a discount shopper for the most part and $5 off wouldn't really sway me unless it was a $10 item. But if I really want the item, I know I'm going to buy it anyways and need it now instead of waiting to see if I can find it cheaper, I'm happy to buy from someone else for a little less than new.

I soak in water with some vinegar - no vinegar taste or smell and I'm pretty sensitive to smells and such. I use my salad spinner for soaking because of the great strainer basket. We have the oxo brand I believe and it's good and hefty and gets used all the time. It's the kind with a push down handle, not one of those awful crank versions. :) I don't usually spin out the fruit-veg though, not sure why, just never thought to I suppose.

Funky obvious with smell or when they're super slimy - if you rinse often, this won't be an issue. And large seeds take a little longer in my totally uneducated opinion (I think I sprouted them before). :)

This is what we are doing this year for PreK but it would work well for K as well. We also have phonic instruction option with OPGTR or the 100EZ Lessons, if we choose to do it. And we may also do a Letter of the Week for fun. Wee Folk Art: http://weefolkart.com/content/homeschool-companion-guides

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I'm excited for you. I really want to try a spinning class as well but I also come up with all the excuses you were mentioning to yourself. Maybe I should just get over it. :)

Yes, I do this here too and all the options are healthy options. But I work to make sure that each meal or snack is high fat and protein so that it will be more filling and so they don't eat all the fruit in one sitting. I also recognize that they often want to eat when they're bored at times too and want to avoid having food consumed just to be consumed. I know my kids get plenty to eat and meals are well portioned and they chow down and get their fill, but all those inbetween eatings are rationed out a bit more.

Shredded BBQ. But otherwise I use it just like chicken. I don't care for turkey so I always have it in something with a heavie sauce or seasonings. But BBQ is one of my favorites or just on top of salads. I freeze what I can't eat in 2-3 meals because I get tired of it (or anything over and over) quickly.

I talked myself out of this last night, so why am I looking here again and wondering 'hmmmm maybe' again. Tsk. I have what I think I need for prek and k. There were two other things that looked interesting and then a lot that I might or other not ever read. Must stop thinking about this.

Every snack had fat and protein and every meal is heavy on fat and protein too. We mostly dropped grains though not completely. Glasses of water always available. And if I know I fed them a good meal then snack time is 2 hours later at least and if we are out they will make it until lunch. So I know a large part of "I'm hungry"'every 20 minutes is boredom. When I limit snacks and snack access they eat more at meals and I feel less like a kitchen slave. However I am easily distracted and often serve up a snack before really thinking about it. My teen just scavenges whatever she can find but is usually too annoyed that everything takes cooking or prep and just waits for meals.

@kungfupanda and @quill -- am I to assume we're neighbors since I'm also in Carroll County. Wondering if we actually already know each other irl. :) Though haven't been in homeschooling circles since my teen was in middle school and will join back in next year as my littles are getting older.

Lots of nearby folk posting I see. :) MD Sheep and Wool, almost always Sugar Mapeling Festival Roots Music Feetival (can't wait to do full Common Ground on the Hil classes) Sustainable Living Fair, the years they have it Hayrides and pumpkin picking Maize quest type event Might go more national events but it is an hour plus drive in. But now that the littles are less little, it will be easier and less overwhelming.

I would imagine that it simply falls under a business expense. If they're not a legit charity, then it wouldn't be a charitable deduction but I'd imagine it could still be classified as something like a marketing expense or something. But that's my uneducated opinion as a small business owner that should have hired a CPA 3 years ago. :)

I should not have checked in here - looks like a nice collection. Going to debate if it's an essential or would like to have. The Confessions of a Homeschooler items have been on my maybe list for a while. There are lots of extra that I wouldn't usually even consider, so I have to calculate if the savings on the items of interest is enough to jump now or not. (yeah, I'm totally trying to talk myself out of this, aren't I...ha.)