Thanks so much to both of you. I'm going to try the Medicine one and see how it goes. I really don't see the need for any religious mention in science books so I might be more sensitive than your run of the mill secular homeschooler.

It never occurred to me that anyone ever used anything BUT cloth! We use cloth over paper because I never considered paper and don't like using any disposable products. When we lived in the US (we've only had a washing machine for a year) we used cloth TP also. Company gets the same napkins the rest of the family gets. I buy mine at the thriftstore about once a year.

I'm an old fart and i have No Idea who they are. Well, I know Robert Plant. But my music memory comes from the 60's and 70's.

Well, I had 2 spaces beaten into me in highschool typing class over 30 years ago.

Your gut is telling you the truth. You don't need to justify it with your pastor or husband. If you listen to your gut you know what you need to do. Her behavoiur of calling you back to "explain" and offer that the social worker left bruises on the child is very suspicious. i can't imagine WHY she felt the need to share that with you. I think you already know what you need to do. Good luck to you.

Mexico chiming in where we put the A/C on for a week in January but we're cold this morning at 72F/22C. No snow and we live at the beach. For the 4 weeks or so a year that it is cold we have to hunt down socks or go buy them at the store. Everyone ALWAYS takes shoes off here. Not saying that's the norm all over Mexico, but here at our house and at many beach houses we've been to, we take sandals off (if we're wearing anything) at the door (course that's assuming you have a door).

Amazon reports that the "Planet Earth" book is written from a Biblical perspective. Does anyone know if the Chemistry and Biology books are also?

What school accepted your credits? I have 45 credits from 30 years ago that I couldn't get accepted (English, Math, Sciences, etc.). I'm going to do the same thing (but not next year). I'm hoping to start this year. The problem is all the CC's want me to take placement tests and I would have to travel back to the US to do that. So until I can take a placement test I can't even start.

I agree, I was not saying $30K was comfort but that when people in the area i lived asserted it was impossible to live with a income under $75K, I found it quite possible at 1/2 their "bottom line" income. I would say $38-40K. But one person's comfort is different from another's.

This is so very true. I remember when we lived in the SF Bay Area people would lament about how impossible it was to live on less than $75K a year. Well, we lived on ~$30K and had no complaints. We bought everything at thriftstores (shoes, kitchen stuff, clothes, furniture - EVERYTHING) and really scrimped. I could have gone to Whole Foods and paid $4/pound for fresh green beans but instead I'd visit the farmer's market at the end of hte day and take away pounds of organic fresh green beans for free - they just wanted them gone. I bought the bruised and highly discounted fruit at the grocery stores. I shopped 5 different stores to get the best prices on certain items. We drove 1985 VW Vans and had no car payments. Since our cars were so old and big we could not only do our own work (no mechanic bills - we even swapped out the engine on one) - we could use them to pick up free manure and other large object people would give away. I could go on and on. It took time and planning to live as we did, but having one parent home was the most important thing to us so we made it work on that salary. I also had turned my front yard (south facing) into a veggie garden.

thanks so much for asking this! We have just last year started seeing HFCS in foods here. it is still pretty rare but we have been avoiding it.

Yeah, this is our first year of homeschooling after always unschooling and they have never thanked me. This is good food for thought though, I'm going to bring it up at our weekly family meeting to see what everyone thinks about the experiment so far.

We had the A/C on for a week in January (98F, 36C) but with one norte after another blowing through it has been consistently in the 60's at night. Absolutely freezing for us. It is 73F/23C right now and we're all in jeans and sweatshirts and socks.

Allergic to all dairy - I'm assuming this poll is about cow's milk?

We lived very comfortably in the SF Bay Area from 1994 to 2004 on $32K to $34K a year. We did use WIC though on years our income dropped below $30K and our family grew to six. We never had cell phones because we didn't want them.

My father's urologist says that each and every man on earth dies with prostate cancer in his body. it is inevitable. The cancer, however, does not kill them. My dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer in (thinking hard) 2006. Last year he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. So far, both are under control. He had radiation and has Lupron shots (for the prostate cancer) and has been doing an oral chemo pill for the bladder cancer. Both cancers are very manageable for him. His doctor says he will die of old age. :)

Well, we don't have welfare or any governmental assistance programs and hiring household help is the standard way middle class "helps" the poorer class. It is just expected.

For us, it is the socially responsible thing to do. If we were ever at the point we could afford someone.

We only get peanut butter sporadically - we live in Mexico and people bring it to us. We bought a TONNE last December on our annual trip - organic Costco (Kirkland brand). I'm not asking anyone to mule any down right now, but come April, I'm hoping to. Depending, of course, on how widespread the salmonella turns out to be.

Depends on your kids. There is a rape scene in Season2 that we had a discussion about beforehand. We always watched WITH the kids (we've only seen up to Season 3 as we haven't been able to get Season 4 DVDs yet). My boys were 12 and 14 when we watched (and still are). We have had some amazing conversations prompted by that show.

I made a lentil stew in the crockpot the night before last. Chopped garlic and onion, potatoes and carrots, covered with water and cooked on high overnight. Next morning added chorizo and lentils. It was done in a couple hours.

I don't know if you have Soriana in BCN, but they offer a tarjeta de puntos and as you purchase items points build up on your card. You can use the points to buy stuff (today they had all fruits and veggies for 100 puntos). They also offer a higher dollar/peso exchange rate than the banks and casa de cambios - but only for food purchases. Today was 13.40 in the casas de cambio, 13.75 in the banks and 13.95 at Soriana.

Living in Mexico in a very touristy area (so prices are the highest in the nation), we spend the same as we did back in the SF Bay Area. $600 a month for food and $50 a month for household items (paper product, shampoo, vitamins, etc.). We're 6 people, so depending on how you qualify food, either $100/person or $108/person.

Well, no-one ever posts a thread on sunday. :) I tried running again on Saturday but quickly found I'm not yet ready. So, back to the hour walk - same every day - about 14.5min/mile. I'm going to try another week of just walking and then try running again. At least this time I stopped before tearing it again.

Well, I SHOULD be drinking soymilk (fortified) and if I lived in the US I'd be drinking a cup of (fortified) rice milk. There is also fortified orange juice and a daily can of sardines. Unfortunately, I don't do any of those. I KNEW I was trying to drink a glass of soymilk daily. Now I remember why! :) TUMs are also excellent sources for calcium (and we use them as the antidote for growing pains).