Yep, milked two to three times a day. Out on pasture the rest of the day. Really, they want to be milked. They will be waiting by the door hollering for you if you're late. As for the folks that say they don't want a bunch of meat in their freezer. I have split a beef between 4 people and sometimes between 6 people. It means I get a little meat, but not so much that I need to empty the freezer for it. Our cows weren't taken off of mom until they were 4-5 months. They were penned away from mom for the day while mom went out to pasture. Sometimes those little brats would get so harsh on the mom that we would have to wean them early. Calves can get mean and hurt the cows bags pretty bad. Some of those dairy breeds are pretty docile girls and won't kick the calves when they bunt too much. My beef cow never put up with behaviour like that. This is an interesting article on the environmental benefits of grazing animals. A lot of the studies that have been done have not pointed out the differences between grass fed and feedlot cattle. There is a huge difference in their environmental impact. A simple google on it brings up a bunch of stuff.

I'm kinda hoping that I can pick up all the stuff I'd normally get from Rainbow Resources while I'm down there. Shipping up here is horrible and the exchange rate makes me cringe every time. If I can find it there, or even have it shipped to where I'm staying, that would be awesome. How fast is their shipping usually if I were to order something at the fair?

I've learned to listen to my body and I'm trying to teach the kids the same. Some weeks we have more meat and protein, some weeks we eat more veggies. My only thing that I stress is quality over quantity. If we are eating meat, I want to know it's grass-fed and properly raised. If we are eating veggies, I want to know they are pesticide free (I buy local whenever I can). I can, freeze, and dry a lot of our own veggies, fruits, spices, soups, and so on so that I know the quality, but I have no problem with buying from someone else if I need a break. There have been months where we get busy and start eating more processed food and we all feel it. None of us do well. I think the thing that makes so many of these diets 'work' is that because they limit so much, they are also limiting much of the processed junk. Everyone is different. My youngest we call our meat man. He eats meat like crazy. He is a HUGE protein lover. He goes through 2-4 eggs every day (he's 7). He LOVES his dairy products as well. Dd is my veggie and fruit lover. She loves her salad. She could eat an entire english cucumber on her own. Melons can disappear in no time. I buy 80lbs of apples every fall just to make sure she has enough for her munching (I dehydrate a bunch for her too and make applesauce for her to add to stuff). Ds 11 is much more balanced. He does have a bit of a simple carb addiction, but he is happy and seems to feel good with whatever is there. His favorite foods are chicken soup and veggie fried rice. All of my kids are super skinny. Their height and their weight are not even close to being in the same percentile. They always tend to border on being underweight, but they are healthy and active.

Threads like this really drive home how slow my boys are. Ds 7 would take 4-5 hours total to read one and that would be if he pushed himself. He is a very, very, very slow reader, but his comprehension is great. Ds11 could do it in 20 min (I had him read one just now so I could time it), but his comprehension is barely passable at that speed. Dd9 takes about 30 min with good comprehension afterwards.

This year, I will be in Tennessee in July and a friend invited me to go to the CSTHEA curriculum fair. Normally I would go to our homeschool convention up here and do most my shopping in April, but if the one down there is really good, I'm considering skipping ours up here. I know there is often curriculum in the US that I have a hard time getting shipped up here. I'm rather excited about the opportunity. Usually I would be registering for ours about now, and there really isn't any info online about the Tennessee fair yet. So I thought I'd ask the lovely folks here and see what they thought of it just so I can ease my worry about skipping the one up here. So was it good shopping? Are there a large amount of vendors? Used books? Did you feel overall that is was worth going to?

Headbands are bad for that. Blowdrying is bad for that also. Over the weekend you could put coconut oil in her hair overnight (towel over the pillow). That will put some of the natural slipperiness back into the hair. Let it naturally dry whenever possible. Try doing things like clips and braids more. Ponytails break the hair off at the band so we only do them once in awhile. Braids put that pressure down closer to the ends of the hair. Also, trim VERY regularly. Blow drying my own hair daily would leave me with hair that would mat and tangle very easily. I need to be very gentle with my hair.

I hated math growing up. I could do it just fine. I got good marks. I just hated it. It was dry, and felt disjointed. Looking back, the program that I did worked in that it taught me how to get through math and I could do it well enough to make it, but it wasn't not a good fit for my personality. I have worked very hard to match my kids up with maths that appeal to them. They have a core math curriculum, MM, but then I add supplements that appeal to their learning style. For my oldest, CLE, for my youngest, Beast Academy. All of them have gotten to use K'Nex math kits. All of them use LoF on Fridays. My oldest did Pet Store Math for awhile as well. They all have their days where math is hard. They have all cried over their math. But all of them, will say they like math. They can see the fun side of it. There will always be a part of it that takes hard work, but the fun outweighs the bad enough they'll work through those tough spots with me. I REFUSE to allow math to become drudgery here. If I really want them to head into STEM type careers, it would be nice if they like math a little bit.

Some people just need to let go and move on. I'd probably healthier if I learned how to do so instead of just smoothing things over all the time and dancing around everyone else's buttons. How you feel is important. Being able to respect yourself is important. If the person is purposely hurting you then it's probably a good thing to back away. If it's an accident, then perhaps they need to just be made aware. If it's a constant problem, it's time to move on. If it was a one or two time thing, or a bad habit that they are actively trying to work through, then maybe stick it out. In the end, each person has to weigh those options for themselves. Walking away isn't wrong. Staying doesn't always mean that you are good at conflict resolution, sometimes it just means you are good at being a doormat.

Well, minus the exclamation points my approach might be similar to what you said. I have found that any responses that sound too exuberant tend to be less heard and just wind the people around me up more. I would probably just say, "I'm sorry I didn't realize you didn't like these movies. I should've probably asked you first. Next time lets make the movie selection your choice." I would tell her where I was getting the coupons but not offer to bring her one. If I share my finding spot with her in up beat type vocal tones, most people I know of feel bad pushing for handouts if they now have the information given to them to be able to get it themselves and the person saying it sounds happy and friendly. I might fiddle with what would be a happy middle ground for us for a few times through this before I would give up and start avoiding the whole scenario. There are some scenarios where I am not willing to bend and I know the other person isn't either. In those cases I search for a new thing for us and avoid the old one as tactfully as possible. There's always going to be something that I can't come to an agreement with someone on. I'm ok with that. I'll just leave that thing alone.

I don't forget, sometimes my approach to the person might change slightly, but usually just in a way that I can better assess where things are at. I have grown up with an emotionally unstable family. I have learned that staying angry doesn't help any of us, and that they are relatively unlikely to change. If I want them in my life at all, I have to take the new information, adjust my approach so that I can live with it and then continue on. If I held a grudge, I wouldn't talk to a single person in my family.

That's kinda sad. My dad changed diapers. My dad's dad changed diapers. My mom's dad sure didn't though.

My husband was there with all my kids, but looking back at history and seeing what he was like in the delivery room, I can completely understand not having some dads there. I wish there was less cultural expectation around it and that it was just something that could happen or not happen based on each couples choices. I always had my mom go in with me. She was a better delivery coach and didn't get all green looking over things. Midwifery in the US was pushed out pretty hard around 1910 until the 60's. When women stopped having babies in the home, fathers stopped being involved. Partly because in hospitals, for hygienic reasons, they didn't like extra people in the delivery room. I did like that dh could follow the baby and make sure it came back to me.

Everyone in my family has unattached earlobes. My widow's peak is there, but it's not a very deep one. My hair is wavy, but barely so. The wave is weak enough I wasn't sure if I should vote straight or not, but it does have wave (annoyingly so) and I can make it wave LOTS more if I style it right after a shower. I have only met a couple people in my life with a cleft chin. Both my grandma's used to tell me never to date a man with a cleft chin unless I was ok with an indecisive man. I can't decide whether I find it sad or hilarious that they would judge the character of a man based on his chin.

My kids often wear (and love) science and math t-shirts that most kids their age around here have no idea what they mean. It seems to have stilled any comments that we used to get about the kids education. That and my youngest keeps using words like misogynist and redundant with my FIL and my FIL had to ask me what those meant. They no longer question my schooling choices. Just because the other kids no longer tease though, doesn't mean they are going to be great friends. If the neighborhood families are the type to talk like that about other kids then they will be like that over any and all other 'differences' that come up. Pray for nicer neighbours and some good homeschool families I guess. That's what I'm hoping for here.

The only 'famous' person I have ever known is my Grandma's cousin who is Bobby Orr, the NHL hockey player. I can't even think of any friends of met with names that are the same as someone famous. I feel so isolated up here. lol

Mine is usually low 90's over 60's too. I went into the hospital once and had a 'normal' blood pressure and my doctor freaked out (I was pretty sick). It's not so much what is considered high or low, but rather what is high or low compared to a persons normal.

My FIL does but no one else I know does. I always cultured my buttermilk and used it in baking and cooking.

Not really. One still has choice on whether to search for answers or not. One can still try and fix it. But it's like other health problems, if the person is trying, and fails, you can't really blame them because they did try. If the person doesn't try at all, well that is a choice they made. There are still choices, just like with any other problem that hits us in life that we didn't choose.

I would so want to dig it up, but then I would want to rebury it so that I can have the last option happen. I want them both!!!!

I've gotten through 1/4 of my kitchen cupboards and half the counter space. Sent a couple boxes to a thrift store and a box was doled out to different family that wanted things and then a BUNCH of junk has been thrown out. I'm rather appalled at the amount of garbage that has accumulated in the back of my shelves. Feels good to be slowly reclaiming my kitchen space though.

I'm having a bit of a mental block here. I don't know what that means.

If I look through my family tree and the stories and behaviours that have happened back to the beginning of the country, in my family, the percentage is about the same. It's just back then they were called eccentric, or fragile, or were ignored. You read much for stories of famous people of the past and a lot of people were bordering on mentally unstable.

I know people like that and they actually are less healthy then those that seem to know their limitations. They push themselves too far. And yes, they are still moving and still ok, but it's really, really, really hard on everyone around them. Because they see every challenge as something to be conquered, they over do it. I know I have limitations. I know I have a breaking point. I do everything in my power to ensure that it isn't reached. Not because I value me so much, but because I value those around me. Also, I find a lot of those 'weaker' people are much more gentle and soft. They tend to have a little more empathy for others. The ones that must conquer everything tend to look at those that struggle and give them the 'suck it up' routine. At least that's been my experience. I'll take someone who fully recognizes their weaknesses any day over someone who doesn't.

We are not made to be independent. Humans are social creatures. Psychologically we do better if we have social interaction and bonding moments. Just because someone has had to be independent doesn't mean it's the healthiest thing for them, any more then the people who eat lots of fast food and are 'ok'. It will still affect them in some way that is less then optimal, they are just able to cope with it and work with it. Sometimes they might not even realize they are not living optimally because they have never known different and their brains have been able to work around it and cope (a healthy brain is really an amazing thing. It can cope with a lot). There have been enough studies about the need for social interaction with kids and the need to learn trust and the ability to depend on people that for me to rehash it all here is rather unnecessary. If we just shoot for 'ok' then all the people that struggle are going to fall through the cracks a little easier. If we shoot for the optimal, then the kids that end up struggling have a much better chance at making it to 'ok'. The ability to trust others is big deal. And it isn't 'refusing' to find someone to help. If you have had it drilled into you that you need to be independent, you'll fight with that until you suddenly crash and then it's too late. It's hard to recognize when you have to have someone if you have been taught that you should've have someone, and it's hard to find someone trustworthy when you need them if you haven't built those trusting relationships ahead of time.

Yes and yes. It is a rational response and for most people it will fade over time and most people will grieve loss in a normal way. For some people it could be a triggering event and they end up unable to move beyond it. Or some people will already be struggling with depression and losing a family member is too much to handle.