:iagree: Gifts are gifts, but if the kids want to give part of it to their siblings, they're free to give gifts, too. :) I just wouldn't make them do it, or even suggest it in the least, other than to casually let them know they're allowed to. If it's in their hearts, they will. If you take it away or divide it among them all, it sends the message that 'what people give me isn't really mine' (this is separate from the issue that all is God's) and, depending on the kid, it may cause them not tell you about it next time. Redistribution of wealth isn't any healthier in families than it is in society. Yep - this is a problem ... really the bigger one, IMHO. I'd do what Nathan the prophet did with David ... come up with a story to tell your husband that shows the injustice ... let him get his hackles up ... then tell him what happened. It'll be more effective if you keep your emotions at bay, though. Just saying, cause I know that can be difficult.

Unfortunately, magnesium isn't absorbed well though the gut in any form - it's much more readily absorbed through the skin. The best would be for him to use what's called 'magnesium oil' which is simply magnesium chloride dissolved in water until the water can't hold any more. Bathing in epsom salts daily would also be good, but we're talking 1-2 cups of salts per bath and that adds up. The 'oil' is simply sprayed on the skin, and the skin absorbs it well. Iron in pill form is bad news all around. Constipating (he really needs that!) and bad for the heart. 1 T. of blackstrap molasses a day and you're good to go. Just 15 days of it for a major change in iron levels. As for the constipation, a lot of that depends on what he eats and how much water he drinks. No amount of supplements or medications can help that. Water and fats lubricate the body - not enough can cause constipation. Not enough fiber - same thing. Cooked veggies are fine - the cooking may destroy the vitamins, but not the minerals, and not the fiber, and you can eat more cooked veggies than raw veggies. From what you've said, I'd drop out wheat products. Period.

If I don't figure out something a little more toned down, I think I'll use it. :)

Ha ha! That's good! It would be kind of daring to put that one on the list, wouldn't it? lol Reeeeeeealy don't know if I should, though. :)

Sure. But what I've found is that God doesn't want us to have blind faith. Blind faith is foolish faith. Our faith is supposed to be build on what God said, including his promises, which we find in the scriptures. If our faith in things is based on 'how we feel' about something, rather than what scripture actually says, we have blind faith. That's why scripture says things like "come, let us reason together, saith the Lord" and "my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge". Usually I find if my faith wavers on something, I need to study and see what God actually has told us on whatever topic that may be. When I discover the 'rock' to build my faith on, it doesn't waver because it's foundation is no longer 'shifting sand.'

Doing a Mystery Dinner for our local homeschool group and I need help coming up with a name for one menu item. Veggie Dip What to call it so it can fit in my menu category of "Great Fun"? Other items in that menu category are: Smiles Galore Yellow Surfboard Rolling Stones Ace of Spades Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Originally was looking to buy "Times Tales," but recently was made aware of the books "Teach Your Child the Multiplication Tables: Fast, Fun & Easy with Dazzling Patterns, Grids & Tricks!" and "Times Tables the Fun Way". All three seem to follow the same principals. Can anyone comment on them - maybe what you liked or didn't like about each one? Right now I seem to be leaning towards "Times Tables the Fun Way."

What board/card games does your family play to reinforce learning or that are 'educational'? Ours include: Spelling Scrabble (board game) Boggle (board game) Word for Word (card game) Vocabulary Blurt (board game) Grammar Mad Libs (card game) Math Muggins (board game) Geography Snapshots Across America (board game) Take Off (board game) Ticket to Ride (board game) History Made for Trade (board game) Thinking and/or Strategy Chess (board game) SET (card game) Outwit (board game) Guess Who? (board game) Point Blank (board game) Scotland Yard (board game) Some of these (like Outwit, Point Blank, and Scotland Yard) are 'older' games I've picked up at garage sales and thrift stores but end up being favorites.

Yep, me too. My mom had a cow when I first asked about wanting to shave my legs, so when it came to plucking (yep, unibrower here) I didn't ask, just did. ;)

If we were to take antibiotics every time one of us had a tick bite, we'd all be on antibiotics all summer long, every year. That would be silly. We've lived in the Ozarks for 12 yrs. now - everybody gets tick bites every summer - no problems at all. And no, it's not just luck. Like the other poster said, the tick needs to be on you, actively biting, for at least 36 hours before the disease can be transmitted. So just check for ticks every day. Everywhere. They like tight areas best along with the hairline around the neck and ears, but can decide to latch on anywhere. Tweezers aren't a very good thing to remove ticks with. You're more likely to squeeze the tick body when you try and remove it - that's bad - you can squeeze fluids from the tick into your body. It took us a few months of removing ticks to get used to it, but it's really very simple. Grab the tick gently and get your fingernail past the body and right next to your skin. Then give a quick pull in the direction of the tick's body - always in the direction of the tick's body. It'll come right off. Frankly, the diseases mosquitoes carry bother me more.

:iagree: And you can't hide them from me, either, no matter how hard you try! I also don't care much for beans (the dry kind, when cooked). I can eat them a little now, but never when I was younger. There was this time we visited another family for lunch during the height of summer, and she had made chili. Well, I politely declined to eat b/c at the time, I didn't touch beans - at all. (They're the ultimate mush - ick.) She felt so bad that she told me she'd get me something else, even though I told her I was fine and she needn't go through the trouble. She brought me back a big plate of sliced garden-fresh tomatoes!!!!! :glare: Nope - didn't eat them, either. I felt so badly for her, but I think she just thought I was weird.

Spankings work with little ones if you're consistent and start little swats when they begin to throw their very first fits. If you start with a zero tolerance level for fits from when they're small, you won't end up with this problem later down the road. If you feel guilty about it, fear to spank in public, or slack off for whatever else reason, it won't work. I personally know a couple with a young boy who throws fits, which morph into tantrums, then into meltdowns. They spank but are not consistent even though they think they are - I've seen it first hand more than once. So if you *think* you're consistent but aren't getting results (no matter what method you use - spankings or consequences), you need to take an honest, hard look at yourself to see if you truly are consistent. If you're not sure you can be objective with yourself, ask a close friend or your dh what they think - but be prepared for an honest answer that you may not like. Some ideas: If you're in a place where you need to leave and the child doesn't want to go ... simply tell the child matter-of-factly that it's time to leave. Pack your things, take the other kids if you have them, and leave. Act like you're ignoring the stubborn one. Walk off and leave him/her. At first they probably won't believe you that you're really leaving. Head to an area where they loose sight of you, but is still somewhat close. (Two parents working together on this one is easier.) Then you double back, or stop and wait out of sight of the child but close enough to 'keep an eye' on them. Let them panic - this is the very natural consequence because they didn't come. It won't work unless they think you really did leave. When they 'catch up' to you (allow them to), just matter-of-factly tell them that when it's time to leave, you're going, with or without them. With mine, they always knew I meant it, and we only ever had to do this once. (With each, of course.) Whenever they would have their first stomping fit (it always happened at home), I'd make them stand next to me and stomp until I told them to stop. (And each stomp must be just as hard as the stomps they did during their fit - not just marching in place - but hard stomps.) If they stopped before I said to stop, they got a simple swat for direct disobedience. As a mom, you have to be tougher than they are, even if it tears you up inside. I always made them stomp until they were crying - and you know your own kids - if they're quick to cry, don't stop right when they start up the water works. You have to make them hate the stomping. Never had to do this more than twice with any of my 5 boys. This can be done with other behaviors also - my mom made me do this once when I stuck my tongue out at her when I was about 7 or so - not nice - boy, can your tongue get dry! And yes, that's where my inspiration for this came from. What can I say - be tough, be consistent, and it'll work.

Our society doesn't often focus on the difference between 'love' and 'being in love'. If this is a 'decent man' that you would be 'content with' you will come to love him - especially if you 'perform your wifely duties in the bedroom' and are satisfied. Women are wired that way - during the big 'O', oxytocin is released in the body. Oxytocin is a 'bonding hormone'. That's why it's in the body in such large amounts during childbirth - it ensures the mother will bond with the baby. On the other hand, if his personality grates on yours, you could be miserable the rest of your life - but this doesn't sound like the case. As for the ooy, gooy feeling of being 'in love' - couples that have been married for years upon years will sometimes tell you that over the course of their marriage, they've fallen in and out of love a few times. I think that's perfectly normal, and probably one of the reasons the divorce rate in our country is now so high. The couple decides they're no longer 'in love', so they separate.

Yes, yes, and yes!!!!!! I've read that those who read fast (I hesitate to use 'speed read' - that means something different to me) are actually processing words on the next line or two down as they're reading. This makes sense to me because when I 'slow down' to read out loud, occasionally my brain will pick up a word in the line below and stick it in where I'm reading - and it doesn't have to be directly below where it got stuck in, it can be a little to either side. I hate when that happens, because then when I 'hear' what I was reading, it doesn't make sense and I have to stop, backtrack and 'fix' the sentence. This never ever happens when I read to myself, and I read very fast ... I truly think the poster above was right on ... I absorb it.

I'm a self-admitted socially-awkward introvert and dread large group functions unless they're made of friends. In addition, regardless of whether the group is made of friends or not, I still find them exhausting. If we have a few days in a row of lots of people interaction, a lot of times I won't want to see anyone outside my family for a good week. :glare: :iagree: except for the presenting part. ;)

Very true ... but let's look at it this way: 1. Parents are introverts, and decide to homeschool in large part to spare their children from the bullying and/or misunderstandings they experienced in public or even Christian/private schools. By nurture AND nature the kids are predisposed to beingintroverts themselves - their personalities may tend that way and their parents do not have the innate skills to proactively and explicitly teach social norms/skills such that they're practiced enough to become easier. 2. Then the children are homeschooled and their socialization comes in large part from their family - which is an introvertfamily. That is how you wind up with homeschooled kids who are predominately introverts. When the parents in the family are extroverts, generally the children are too b/c they are predisposed in that way (again, by nurture AND nature). When the parents in a hs'ing family are introverts they do not automatically transmit those skills to their kids AND the kids have more limited opportunities to learn them elsewhere (and I have found that introverted hs parents are less likely to be involved in homeschool/community activities - they prefer to keep to themselves and have few friends, which means in turn their kids have few friends and are not involved in much where they can learn those skills) I would agree - in our family of 7, there is only 1 predominate extrovert and 1 borderline extrovert. The thing is for parents to recognize this, and provide opportunities for the extroverts, even though it can be difficult. On the other hand, extrovert parents should realize that just because they have a 'socially challenged introvert,' that doesn't mean they'll change a whole awfully lot by being dragged (yes, introverts see it that way) to all sorts of social functions/opportunities. BTW, the article I posted a link to in my last post had a great example of this.

I would somewhat disagree, and am surprised no one else really mentioned this. In fact, I was thinking how natural it was to replace 'socially awkward' with 'introvert' as I was reading. And no, it has nothing to do with homeschooling or not. Obviously, there are extroverts who are socially awkward (in your face, can't read social cues, that type stuff), but their social awkwardness is different from an introvert's. (example: my dad - extrovert to the core but can't read people for hardly anything because his focus is so much on himself and what he's saying) From what I've seen, though, generally most socially awkward people are introverts (yep, I'm one, too). Think about it, its the 'people people' (people who need people/extroverts) who are generally good socially, and they do outnumber the introverts in society (by how much is debatable), therefore things that become social 'norms' are more likely to be 'defined' by them. Now, I'm not saying that there aren't socially skilled introverts. Many are very skilled socially (my dh & ds for instance), but that has to do with other parts of their personality coming into play. In addition, a lot of times those are the people who feel socially awkward, even though everyone else thinks they're 'normal.' Which brings me to 'normal' - for those of us introverts who are socially awkward, that's our 'normal' and it doesn't always need fixing. Sure, we can 'improve' over time, but in some ways we'll always be 'socially awkward.' An interesting look at it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-parenting/post/parenting-an-introvert-in-an-extroverts-world/2012/01/31/gIQAqmM1fQ_blog.html

The only one I use with my boys is Math Mayhem. http://members.learningplanet.com/act/mayhem/mayhem.asp They like it because they compete live with other people all over the place. You can choose to do addition, subtraction, or multiplication.

That was a series?!? I had what I guess was the first one when I was a kid and just loved it! That was one of my 're-read many, many times' books. :D Ooops - just looked it up - not the same one. Sorry.

Find someone he can actively play with. It's like anything else, the more you play, the better you'll get. Except me. I'm no good at it and never will be. I might be able to beat my 8yr. old. Might. (He's been playing since he was 4.) Edit to say: let him get proficient at the game before working on strategy. Again, it's like anything else, each person will have their own way of doing things, their own style. Son #1 (20/computer programer) can beat son #3 (17/dyslexic), but not usually son #2 (19/makes his moves very fast). Son #2 can beat #1, but not usually #3. Son #3 can beat #2, but not usually #1. Different styles.

The Great Brain series is a hoot. An older series, though, so might be hard to find.

As my grandmother's fond of saying ... it takes all kinds to make the world. Isn't it amazing how much people assume???? Never assume!!!! :lol:

That looks like a pretty awesome idea, but we've got so many, many legos it probably wouldn't be practical. We've got too many to store them in the box, so the box layers would end up being like sifters. Ours are just stored in two huge plastic tubs - makes for quick clean-up and built pieces can be nestled down into the lot. When they want particular pieces, they dig. Because of that, lego time can be quite noisy. Actually, legos are one of the few toys our boys have. Their toys pretty much consist of massive amounts of hot wheels, legos, k'nex, and wooden trains along with an occasional 'personal' toy. They also go through remote control car stages. :glare:

After I burned boiled potatoes (yes, it's possible) as a teen, my mom didn't have me cook. Once I was married, I 'attempted' to make a heart shaped cake for our first Valentine's Day. Don't know what I did, but it was terrible! Both the cake and the frosting! It looked kinda pretty, but it went in the trash. :)

After two or three 'instances', I would have asked to see the manager right then and there. Obviously, if she's the manager, she'd tell you so. Then I'd have told her that 'we would like a child-friendly photographer' even if we had to wait for the other photographer to be finished. It's the studio's 'unspoken' responsibility to provide such a photographer. If she responded by saying it wouldn't work that day, I'd have scheduled another day - insisting the Groupon still be valid. The problem was downright rudeness on their end - not with you & yours. When I go somewhere, I want to get what I'm paying for - which in your case meant more poses being shot. Period. Remember two things when dealing with businesses in situations like this: 1- the squeaky wheel gets the grease ... be very squeaky - and insistant. 2- most companies follow the business ethic of 'the customer is always right' ... remember that.