I exercised regularly but still had osteopenia. I started BodyPump, a weight lifting class, and slowly upped my weight. I had a recheck recently, and I no longer have it.

Hi Candace :), My absolute favorite resource is Hands and Hearts History Discovery kits. We've used both the Early American and Westward Expansion kits. We learned quite a bit from just using the kits, lots of information and authentic crafts and activities. We also did an American Girl Co-op with crafts from some of the books, I think. It was lead by another family so I wasn't involved with the planning. The kids had pretend barn raising with popsicle sticks, made berry dye, sewed quilts, etc.

As long as it isn't dented on the seams of the can, it's safe to eat. My ds is a food safety auditor. ;)

My dd and I do crafts with a little 5 year old girl who wanders the neighborhood. We try to invite her in whenever she knocks on the door.

I'm sorry but I wouldn't wait. I would see if I could change the airline tickets and eat the cost.

How about Uncle Rick audio CDs? (He reads the book and gives commentary about character traits.) My ds loves all of them.

We have a Good Friday service at home using a homemade Stations of the Cross candle set. We try to decorate eggs in a new way each year. Here is a list of all our Easter week traditions!

We just started doing some crafts with a read aloud some evenings.

Awesome! :)

Could you take photos instead? That's I what I do and it has worked out well.

My ds needed vision therapy. We decided to try an at home program first then pay the huge pricetag for a therapy package if our ds still had problems. After completing 6 months of Dianne Craft's Brain Integration vision therapy, we had our ds retested by a developmental optometrist. The optometrist said he never would have known our ds had any problems if I hadn't told him. (I could see the difference during the exam!) This optometrist recommended one additional home exercise and never charged us anything additional for it. My ds started reading well and now loves to read! I highly recommend you try Dianne's program.

Also, the conference is planned the weekend after CA so vendors can attend both conferences (ie: come to AZ ;) ).

I don't often post, but thought it was important to agree with the other posters that you must go. Please go!

We celebrate Backwards Day. We wear our clothes backwards. The kids teach me. :)

How about Purim from the Old Testament? We celebrated today and had a blast!

My ds needed vision therapy. We decided to try it first at home before paying $4000 for a program. We used Dianne Craft's Brain Integration. When we finished, my ds could finally read well! We took him to another developmental optometrist and he tested fine. I didn't believe at home therapy could work, but it did!

We're going to read this too! I'm thinking about the sacrifice of "me time" in terms of relationships this Lent. I was inspired by a Sacrificial Hospitality blog post. We often do a theme for school too.

The past few years we've had a theme for school for Lent. This year, we're going to read the new book, Amon's Adventure, a continuation of the Jotham's Journey series. Personally, I'm thinking and praying about the theme of sacrifice for myself this year. I enjoyed this series of blog posts about sacrificial hospitality two years ago.

bedrooms and garage

If you can buy one extra item a week that is on sale, you could start to stockpile. You can store extra water and food items under your bed. Having extra food and water on hand may give you more peace of mind. :grouphug: Here's a homeschool mom in a suburb who has some good ideas about how to start.

We use Safe Eyes and it's very effective. It does slow our computer down a bit but we think a strong internet filter is much more important. We've also taught our kids to turn off the computer if any n*ked pictures come up as the pictures apparently keep popping up when you try to click off the page.

Udi's is the favorite here for bread too.

I don't know if blu-ray players can stream Amazon on Demand. We use that to purchase current television shows by the episode or movies to watch throughour Roku.

Roku works great! We love it here. You just need a wireless router for your computer. Using Roku, you can also purchase movies or television shows through Amazon video on demand. They automatically show up on your Roku.

I had pelvic reconstruction surgery due to problems with a large ovarian mass and did pelvic physical therapy afterwards which was very helpful. I had never heard of it but now I recommend it often.