I'm wondering though, do you not keep copies of everything you send to colleges? I'm thinking that I heard that it was a good thing to do, but since I have no experience yet, I want to make sure I do it if I'm supposed to. Thanks, Julie

If you're using Thinkwell, do you remember what you paid? I signed up two of my dc for Thinkwell about a month ago, and I seem to remember paying just under $90 each. Today I went to sign up my 3rd ds, and the rate was listed as $219! When I called Thinkwell, the operator told me that the rate had recently gone up for the homeschool version, but couldn't tell me about pricing because the sales rep. was out of the office. Could it really be that Thinkwell raised their prices to more than double? :eek: Or am I just remembering the price wrong from before? ~Julie~

Doran, I'm so sorry about your experience with the trap! We've even used that trap many times without incident, and I'm surprised that the edges of your trap had exposed sharp wires. Yikes! That sounds awful. Fwiw, we've actually never been unsuccessful, and never ever had one perish in captivity(or even come close). Even the adult cats have done fine with enough loving attention. We have done this with at least 12 cats/kittens over the years. Surely the OP would also not let the cat die rather than set it free, should it become necessary. ~Julie~ Hey, I'm a Worker Bee now! :-)

...I understand what you're feeling (I think), even though my ds seems to be an excellent driver. It's still hard to let go. {sigh} I hate to give this advice, but I can only think of two options I might take if I were in your place. 1.) Have him take an additional course of behind-the-wheel training, and make sure the $ for the class comes out of his pocket. 2.)(this is the hard one...)I think if it's been a couple of years, then you've probably done all that you can do, and you might need to just let him go. It's possible that what looks like awful driving to mom, might look fine to the rest of the world. I'm a perfectionist, and I have to really guard against pestering my ds for perfection in his driving. If you're a Christian, this might be the time to tell yourself, "I've done what I can with this", and then turn it over to the Lord in prayer. Obviously, if you truly believe his driving is so bad that he's putting others in drastic and dramatic danger, you will have to intervene and insist on no license. Maybe you could have a few other responsible drivers take him out and give you their honest critique? ~Julie~ (who's going to have 5 new drivers within the next 6 years! :eek:)

I'm really glad that you're all ok, and that you did call the police. I'm also glad that your dh was ok after taking her in the car, and I'm sure you understand that people's hesitation with that situation wasn't really dependent upon whether she had a gun in her purse. Many, many things could have (and still could) go wrong with your dh alone in a van with her. I'm so glad also, that you sound like a real (!) and normal poster. Thanks for your gracious response to what surely must have felt like an "attack of criticism." :) ~Julie~ p.s. I sure hope she doesn't come back!

I just read Doran's post, and now I feel a little bad about how mean our method sounds! A lot of the wild kitties we've tamed just didn't have the time for us to be gentle. Many were so undernourished and flea-ridden that we didn't have the luxury of just allowing them to come to us. I can say, though, that none of them have seemed miserable for more than a day or so. Doran's method sounds so loving--our method is more like "tough love", I guess, lol! :D Good luck, Julie p.s. Isn't it funny how having the ongoing attention of 5 dc makes me pretty wild, but the ongoing attention of 5 dc makes a wild cat pretty tame?

We have a dairy farm, and for some reason, people feel free to dump loads of kittens and pups here. My kids have tamed wild ones many times. They trap the critter (one way or another!). It sounds like you're a step ahead on that... The kids keep the cat in a small enclosed space, usually my laundry room or our teeny extra bathroom. During the day they pop in there often, grab kitty with a bath towel, and sorta "snuggle" the cat in there for several minutes at a time, speaking softly and soothingly, and petting the animal gently around the ears. They feed it regular cat food (or kitten chow if the cat is very undernourished), but bring special treats each time they snuggle the cat, usually a teeny piece of meat or cheese. If it's a very small kitten, needing to be bottle fed, then they're usually not wild enough to need taming, but that's another story. It usually takes a couple of days for the cat to become a bit tamer, and usually after a week or so, the cat can start venturing from it's small area. My kids have successfully done this process more times than I can count, but in the end, some cats end up tamer than others. Most of the time they are a bit more "fraidy" than our regular housecats, but they've all been loving to one extent or another. Another benefit to semi-feral cats is that they usually (because of their tough life) are really great mousers! Good luck! ~Julie~ p.s. As soon as possible, the cat should be brought to the vet for shots, deworming, and spaying/neutering.

I was pretty happy with Teaching Textbooks, and so was my ds. At the end of it all though, it was pretty clear that my ds still didn't completely grasp all of the Algebra he'd worked through. I don't fault the TT, because it was the same problem we'd had with a previous Algebra text. Just recently, I've switched two of my ds's to Thinkwell. It's TT "on steroids" imo. It has all of the great stuff about TT, but has other features that are even better. I like that with the Thinkwell, if you need more practice on a lesson, you just click and the program will give you a whole 'nother set of practice problems, as many times as you need. My kids *love* the humor of Professor Berger (sp?). The Thinkwell also functions more like the lower level TT, in that the exercises are interactive and self-scoring. There's a handy checklist page where I can easily see if my kid 1)watched the video lesson 2)printed out any available notes 3)completed the exercises satisfactorily 4)took the test & grade. I'll be using Thinkwell for all 5 dc, from 8th grade on. I'm not trying to convince you to switch to Thinkwell, but if you're looking for an alternative to TT, Thinkwell is a great choice! ~Julie~

Dave would tell you to keep the Jeep, I think. If you were making payments on it, that would be different, and if you could sell it for a lot more money, then I'd consider it. But no, I think you should keep the Jeep. Better than I deserve, Julie

Anyone here know anything about the book "Tender Warrior" by Stu Weber? Is the book aimed mostly at older, already married men? I'm looking for something for my ds 17. We are a family that could best be described as "leaning towards courtship", and my ds knows that he needs to be an adult in every sense of the word before he starts looking for the right girl. He has a girl "friend" from our church (also a courtship family). I think both of the kids know they're not ready for a romantic relationship yet, but rather than focusing on the "thou shalt nots", I'd rather have him focus on what he needs to do and learn in order to someday be a good husband. Although we've been teaching him all the way along what it takes to be a real man, I find that having a book to read helps him to focus and internalize. Amazon had a book titled "Tender Warrior" that sounds like it emphasizes the right things, but I can't tell either from the description or the reviews if it would be appropriate for his situation. Perhaps you know of another book that might be right? I don't want it to be about the courtship process, per se, but more generally about becoming a man the right girl will want to marry. Thanks a bunch, Julie

It was several years ago that I had service problems. They've probably improved! :) ~Julie~

Our denomination (RCUS) requires all of the kids to memorize the Heidelberg Catechism. Truthfully, I'm not thrilled. I want the kids to learn from the catechism as a teaching tool, but I'd rather they memorize actual Scripture. It takes most of the kids four years to master the memorization, and they do a *ton* of learning both of systematic theology and church history. At the end of that process the kids write an essay, do an interview before the church consistory, and then they are eligible to make a public profession of faith and take communion. I dislike the process, and feel that it is a misuse of the catechism to tie the memorization to communal membership, but I do love the amount of knowledge my kids have gained from their study. I have two ds's working on memorization right now. One of them will breeze through it, and one of them will never make it. I'm hoping that the process will still be enriching enough for the learning-disabled son that he won't feel wholeheartedly discouraged by his attempts. Overall, if I had a choice, I'd study the catechism in extremely great depth with my dc, but not have them memorize the words of man over the Word of God. :) ~Julie~

You're such a sweetie! Your post is the only thing that could make me regret the fact that I actually already bit the bullet and finished budgeting for this month. I'll be praying that yours goes well! Better than I deserve, Julie

My dh is not truly on board. There, I said it. My dh is not truly on board. He runs our business, and I run our household (including budgeting). I've just plain overspent (just a little, but for a long time), and now I have to deal with it. I explained to my dh about Dave Ramsey, and dh has heard him once or twice, but my dh still is holding out on a few things. He refuses to get rid of the cc. He never *ever* uses it, but he wants us to have it. I'm ok with that, but it's hard to maintain the "never use it" while I juggle fixing the problem. I'm getting better. BUT... We have an emergency fund. We have plenty of money in the bank to pay this today, but my dh won't let me touch it, regardless of the reason, because he thinks if he bails me out I'll get in the hole again. Once $$ is in savings, he keeps it there. Now that I think about it, the reasonable thing for me to do is try to save up a separate $1000 emergency fund of cash that I can truly use for the unexpected expenses. The problem with is that he's having a hard time with my budgeting method, and is having trouble believing that I'm really going to follow through. If I take even one step backwards, I've failed (just like he knew I would, kwim?). On the first, I have him get the cash from the bank when he deposits the paycheck. The money is for these categories: groceries, haircuts, clothes, gifts, music lessons, and misc/blow. The rest is deposited to pay: medical, tithe, utilities, and snowball payoff. He complains, and generally fusses about getting cash, because he seems to think I'm going to lose it or something. Now, lest you think I've been so irresponsible that I've earned his distrust, the amount that I owe on credit cards is equal to 3 weeks of our income--while it's a nagging, constant debt, it should be payable. He just thinks I have no willpower to carry it through, and while he's not standing in my way, he will also be right there to notice if I can't fix this on my own. He's sounding not-so-nice, but *trust* me when I say this, he's a *really* good guy. The good news is that I just bit the bullet and figured out the budget for this month. I can pay off the money that I re-spent on the visa, and I can pay what I owe on the dentist for last time, so I can take the kids in soon. The fact remains, though, that I just didn't make it for January. It was definitely a go-backwards month. I'm disappointed in myself, but all I can do now is tighten the belt for the rest of this month. I have a few pressing expenses that I didn't budget for (appliance repair & college textbooks), and it's probably going to extend my payoff date an extra month. Thanks for the commiseration--I feel better somehow, knowing that I'm not alone in my budgeting woes. :o ~Julie~ p.s. Anyone else have a husband who isn't quite as thrilled with the cash system? I'm finding that the more I use cash, the better I do with sticking to my budget. He just doesn't see why I can't still use checks responsibly.

I had a terrible experience with them several years ago, and when I posted about it here, found that other people had lots of trouble with them also. In my situation, they charged my Visa, but then never sent the package. I did get them to refund eventually. :eek: ~Julie~

I think maybe my discouragement stems from the fact that I just didn't make it in January. I used my cc for about $150. I can make it up from my money for February if I give up my $100 of "blow" money, skip my haircut ($35), and make up the other $15 from my grocery envelope. I also need $89 that I didn't budget for this month in order to get my ds in a math that I think will work better for him. My plan was to pay off the cc by March or April, and then save in May and June for school stuff for the fall. I wasn't planning on a mid-year curriculum change, but for my special needs ds, I think I have to do it now. I'm also a bit intimidated by the fact that I budgeted $100 per month for medical/dental copays, and I've ended up using that much and have not accummulated enough for us all to go to the dentist next month. Even though they'll let me pay over several months, it just feels like taking on more debt, kwim? Sorry for my bellyaching, I know many have it *so* much worse! We're doing great, and have abundance beyond what I ever expected. It's just a little rough learning to truly live within our means, even though our means are great. I don't know how I got used to living beyond what dh earns, especially since we have so much. It's one of those cases where when we were poor, I was a good manager, but now I'm out of practice. Pity party over, Julie :-)

I've been doing a good budget each month since October. All of a sudden this month I JUST DON"T WANNA DO IT! {whine} Anyone else doing their budget today or tomorrow and just not finding it very fun? The newness has definitely worn off. Bleah, Julie :( p.s. I just have to stick to it for two more months, and my debt will be paid except for my house.

Around here, if you told a real estate agent you wanted a "starter home", the agent would have you looking at homes with 1 or 2 bedrooms, one bathroom, and the lowest price available. It would still cost you around $200,000 :eek: but would be considered something you'd want to improve on as soon as you could. :) ~Julie~

My son (no braces) had some rather large areas of apparent decalcification. It's definitely due to poor oral hygiene, but this is a kid with some learning problems, and lagging fine motor skills. We do what we can. Our dentist sent him home with special toothpaste called MI Paste. It's supposed to rebuild the enamel, and it worked! It's not available over the counter, but a tiny tube was enough to fix my ds's visible spots. You might want to ask your dentist about it. ~Julie~

Our house was 1000 square feet of falling-down shack, and we had 5 kids to homeschool. As much as I sympathize with you, I would never quit homeschooling because of lack of space. Even though we are now in a really big house, my kids still keep their books in one square bucket each. Those buckets can be stowed anywhere when not used. I insist that all of the things the kids aren't using stay in the buckets. This cuts down on the clutter immensely! One other thing that I did for a while was homeschool at the library or in the park. Each kid just carried their bucket to the car, and then we were *very* portable! Actually, I found that we were much more focused when we did school at the library, and the park homeschooling days were filled with activity and were pretty much unforgettable. We even homeschooled in our church building when it was empty during the week for a while. Also, I wouldn't worry about all the extras that you're not getting done. There are seasons for those things, and maybe now just isn't your season! Since you said that homeschooling was a priority for you, I'm encouraging you to stick with it. ~Julie~

Hi Colleen {waving}! I've been thinking about the things I've posted, and you're right about some things. I realized that I've seen many dairies, but they've all been in California! That may be influencing my viewpoint about some things, especially the docked tails. We have enviable weather here, and although we have some wet weather, it's not nearly like what dairies in other regions face. I'm absolutely sure that if I visited dairies in wet locales, I'd see some docked tails. No, this isn't a plug for "buy real California milk!" lol. I lost track of the thread (it *is* pretty long now!), and was off-track about the slaughterhouse/rice milk reference. I had the cruelty to workers issue and the cruelty to animals issue confused. My bad. I'm still amazed though, that there exists a rather "Pollyanna" viewpoint about what should happen to farm animals at the end of their life. The format of today's society insulates people from the realities of food production in such a way that they sometimes only see snippets of "cruelty", and then crusade to eliminate the perceived cruelty without having a better solution/process in place for feeding our country (and the world). As far as the antibiotic usage, I agree that many farmers don't think twice about treating mastitis cows. I think the larger part of that is not whether you're quick to administer the antibiotics, but rather focusing on reducing the incidence of mastitis through prevention to begin with, kwim? So, if my dh's first impulse is to give the meds when he encounters the sick cow, his part in avoiding the antibiotics is via clean dairy practices in the first place, and culling cows he feels are at risk *before* the meds become necessary. Thanks for the "food for thought"! I'm always kept on my toes by a rousing dairy discussion. (Helps me clarify my own thoughts and positions on things too!) Good night!

Y'all discussed dairies without me? Although Colleen is much more articulate than I am about stating dairy facts, I just thought I'd chime in on a couple of things. Our dairy is not organic. We milk around 1200 cows and raise all of our own replacement stock. I don't know if you'd consider us one of the enemy big farms, or not. My dh and his brother (and our sons) operate our dairy. It's not owned by a corporation, and is definitely a family business. Milking as many as we are though, I think some folks might not think of us as a "family farm". The issue of treatment of farm help...Our milking help generally has a much easier & safer job than my dh and my dc. Insurance issues and OSHA regulations guarantee that our milkers are well treated, even though obviously we'd treat them well regardless...We have workers who have been with us from the beginning, and my husband's brothers have milkers on their dairies who have been working for them for more than 20 years. Their salaries are fair, they've been offered benefits inasmuch as what we could afford. They get coffee breaks, lunch breaks, and vacation time when they want it. All of the farmers in our area, large or small, are currently subject to those same regulations, and the dairy farmers I know are treating their workers fairly. We don't dock tails on our cows, and frankly, I don't know any dairymen who do. I am sure they are out there somewhere, but I've been on many dairies and never seen it done as a routine. Frankly, the concerns about cows being sent to the slaughterhouse have me puzzled! Where do the cows on organic dairies go at the end of their life? Where would you like to have them go? I'm not debating the actual process that takes place at the slaughterhouse, but buying organic milk isn't going to touch the problem of irresponsible slaughterhouse techniques. *All* dairies are required to sequester animals treated with antibiotics until the medications have passed from their systems. Large farm or small farm, that remains the same. Also, veterinary pharmaceuticals (including antibiotics), are expensive! Even if we were not morally opposed to antibiotic overuse (which we are), we wouldn't distribute antibiotics "willy-nilly" anyway. It would be expensive. We use them when we're convinced that the benefits to the cow(and ourselves, I admit) outweigh the costs, both in dollars, time, and well-being of the animal. I will grant you that we are less devoted to homeopathic and natural remedies than organic dairies, but neither are we careless or cavalier about drug contamination of the milk supply. We have never used any of the controversial hormones on our cows, and never will. Many, many dairies are not using rBGH. In fact, most of what I've read recently places the total amount of dairy cows receiving the hormones at under 20%, and I'm sure that number will continue to drop since many dairy farmers are finding it to be 1.) unprofitable and 2.)consumers are making their opinion clear. I am not saying that you shouldn't buy organic (I often buy organic products), just that I think many people are operating under misguided perceptions of what dairy farms are like! I'm sure there are *really* bad ones, but I think they're the exception rather than the rule. By all means, buy organic--but not as a knee-jerk reaction to inaccurate information! The dairymen I know truly want to have happy, healthy consumers, organic or not. Thanks for hearing my perspective, Julie

We've participated in egg-drop events a couple of times. We found it to be really fun, but I'm sure the atmosphere can change according to the group dynamics/competition. We did it as part of a homeschool charter school, and the kids were all very good natured. Make sure to bring your camera, and have your dc take notes about what worked/didn't work in case you get to participate again. When you get home, it's kind of fun to try and figure out what went wrong with certain "packages" and what went right with others. We've had intact eggs, and we've had broken eggs--I can never remember which techniques produced the best-protected eggs, but my kids sure can! Have fun, Julie

I'm surprised more people haven't responded to this question! Come on, there have to be more ideas! I love salmon, and it's pretty satisfying in terms of protein and "fill 'ya up-ness", but I wish it was just a *little bit* less calorie dense. I do a lot of steamed veggies too, but I usually go for the I Can't Believe it's Not Butter spray (yeah, the idea of it grossed me out, but it's not sooo bad). Actually, I'm pleasantly encouraged that when I team up a huge portion of steamed veggies, I can indulge in a really great piece of meat too, for not so many calories. Today I'm going to have the salmon and veggies, tonight I'll probably have marinated flank steak and more veggies. Maybe a salad too, if I can afford 100 calories to put some cheese on it. I don't like salad dressing, but I've gotta have a little cheese on my salad. Well, thanks for indulging in my dietary focus with me! Hopefully more people respond soon. The great ideas keep me inspired. ~Julie~ p.s. My favorite low calorie snack that's kinda crunchy, salty, and mouthwatering, is Vlasic kosher dill pickles. They're only 5 calories each, which is great, but watch out for the sodium!

Usually you can substitute a white sauce with whatever flavoring you're looking for. For mushroom, I'd saute some mushrooms in a bit of butter, add flour and keep stirring to brown the flour, and then add liquid (usually milk). Keep stirring and cooking until thick, and add seasonings as desired. For chicken, you'd add a little concentrated chicken base/bouillon. I don't really like cooking with processed ingredients either, but the "cream of..." soups are the exception for me. I still *love* anything with cream of mushroom soup in the gravy.