I've had mine for four or five years and love them. I love grinding my own wheat. Baking my own bread. Eating all the proceeds . . . :001_smile: If you know you'll use them, they are a worthwhile investment.

And I have been a part of the system for my whole life. I mentioned in another thread that my dad was diagnosed with a cancer twelve years ago that killed him in 9 months. My dad was told he would die in two weeks without treatment and 9 months with two rounds of chemo (in isolation at the cancer clinic for almost three months). They did not deny my dad treatment because he was terminal and it would be a waste of money to treat someone with a 9 month life expectancy. He was treated. Had a few great months. Died 9 months later.

Apparently this is only true for the patients. We have a large number of South African doctors practicing in our community because their medical system does not consistently pay the doctor for his/her services. (disclaimer: This is anecdotal . . comments from the doctors I have spoken with about why they come here to practice.)

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Your arrangements sound similar to mine. It's so easy to feel guilty about parenting when it seems others do more. I struggle with this sometimes but at the end of the day I love my children, they know it. We make the best decisions we can for our family's circumstances.

I want my children to be socially adjusted and I believe one of the best ways to achieve this goal is for them to have a strong attachment with their parents and siblings and when possible, extended family. I also believe that children are born with unique personalities and that being "social" for one child comes easier than for another. While I'm sure there are socially inept homeschooled children, I went to public school with plenty of socially inept public schooled children. I think it has less to do with where the kid goes to school and more to do with parenting and personality. Parenting you can change, personality, not so much. I can only speak about my own three children, two who were adopted at the age of four (which some might see as a another adjustment strike against them). My kids each have unique personalities but each of them is able to be polite in public (okay, and sometimes not so polite), hold a conversation with people of all ages, play with kids younger than them, etc. People have hired my daughter to babysit since she was eleven and my son has been busy all summer with his lawn mowing business. Equating unsocialized children with homeschooling is faulty logic. (Can you tell I have answered the "what about socialization" question a lot in my eight years of homeschooling?) If anything, in my experience, with my unique family, homeschooling is what aided to well socialized children.

I ordered Level 6 today and look forward to starting it again. We took a year off from it because I just needed to but the more I thought about it the more I knew I wanted my kids to have some more instruction from this curriculum. (BTW, my sister's kids, enrolled with a public school distant learning program, looked at her copy of R & S English and said it was excellent and that their English program couldn't come close to it.)

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Baked-Chicken-and-Acorn-Squash It's a taste of home recipe that I made last week and everyone loved. So good, in fact, that we're having it again tonight. I've attached the site address above. Here's a cut and paste: Ingredients: * 2 small acorn squash (1-1/4 pounds) * 2 to 4 garlic cloves, minced * 2 tablespoons canola oil, divided * 4 chicken drumsticks (4 ounces each) * 4 bone-in chicken thighs (4 ounces each) * 1/4 cup packed brown sugar * 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed * 1 teaspoon salt * 1 can (15-1/4 ounces) sliced peaches, undrained Directions: Cut squash in half lengthwise; discard seeds. Cut each half widthwise into 1/2-in. slices; discard ends. Place slices in an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Sprinkle with garlic and drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil. In a large skillet, brown chicken in remaining oil. Arrange chicken over squash. Combine the brown sugar, rosemary and salt; sprinkle over chicken. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 45 minutes, basting with pan juices twice. Pour peaches over chicken and squash. Bake, uncovered, 15 minutes longer or until chicken juices run clear and peaches are heated through. Yield: 4 servings.

I'm having an English Grammar freaking out moment and am going to try and collect myself before deciding. I bought AG last year but keep having nagging thoughts that I should have stuck with R & S.

If I wanted to pick R&S up again, would you continue with Grade six (the year we didn't do) or pick up at Grade 7 (the grade my kids are in)? Thanks.

But just today I was thinking how thankful I am for the DIVE DVD. I tried it once before about two years ago and it did nothing for me but this year it's working for us. I have three kids at the same level and I've worked a schedule where my daughter works independently in the morning using the disk and then my boys work the afternoon with the disk. And it seems to be working. Okay it's only September but hey I count every good day as a blessing!

Actually I collect cookbooks but I really like my new Cooking Light compilation. I love Cooking Light magazines too.

The first time I tried to give liquid pepto to our basset hound. I successfully stuffed it into her jowls only to have her shake her head from side to side spreading pink liquid all over my kitchen. Yeah, we promptly bought the pills for the next round.

Not to be complicated lol! :001_smile:

Given that she gave you a bottle of pepto I'm guessing the dog has stomach issues. Did she say feeding the alternate foods would be okay? I just know I've had dogs where any alternate diet would be disastrous. My dogs regularly fast when we leave them for vacation. I know it seems hard for the caretaker to see these fasting mutts but I think they'll eat eventually. Good luck with the dog sitting -- as a regular user of dog sitters (usually family members) I know how much dogsitters are appreciated.

I was just thinking of you and this situation this morning, wondering if I had missed an announcement. Don't give up . . . keep trying. It's disappointing when things to work out like we want. Keep up the dream though. I think it's great to hear you have four kids, homeschool and work on a project that you love.

It's Sunday a.m. and in my area all the pumps have increased to aprox. $1.51/litre.

I just returned from a 10 km run. It was my goal for this summer (the most I'd ever run was 8 km). The weather was fabulous! And I didn't die. I'm very excited about this accomplishment.

All except one station increased their prices after lunch today. The only station still at $1.39/litre has line ups down the main street.

From $1.39/litre to $1.51/litre. It's depressing given that I live in a small, remote community. I feel like it's going to isolate us even more as we make decisions whether it's worth driving anywhere.

We watch the series on dvd and kind of watch the whole season in a matter of a few weeks. We just started season three. I have to say that some of the scenes in season two were a bit much for me but overall the show is fairly entertaining. And who knows, maybe some of the entertainment lies in mocking the whole 24 hour thing -- like how could all that happen in 24 hours. Like how does Jack recover from torture so quickly. And, of course, the whole bathroom, eating stuff too.

http://thewelltrainedkitchen.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/sweet-potato-muffins-posted-by-momof7/ I make these often with great reviews. My kids love them! (Usually I do add the oil.)

I have gleaned so much valuable information from Karen. Aside from the obvious, (TOG notebooks, etc.) I just see you (Karen) as a mentor to do my best with my kids. You have definitely inspired me. Thank you.

Yesterday when I made them I completely forgot to add the oil. I thought I would end up with tough or unpalatable muffins. Wrong. They were fantastic. In fact, I just ate one now . . . 24 hours later . . . and they're still good. Who knew? I guess the pumpkin provides enough moisture. Anyway I just thought this might help someone watching their calorie intake from fat.

How's that for continuing the debate?