I have sacroiliitis so I have to be careful with my shoe choice. I wear Danskos in the winter and OluKai flip flops the rest of the year. I wear them to shoot weddings so they are definitely comfortable on the go.

We keep P's hair short in the back, longer in the front. quick brush, bow to hold it back, done. I love her hair short :).

This is what I'm picturing my sweet newly three year old, sitting on the soft grass, pristine white dress, whilst petals gently fall around her. This is what I'm afraid I'll get, 100 people in the way :).

So, I am playing with the idea of taking my kids up to DC to do their spring photo shoot with the cherry blossoms...only I don't know if it is even feasible. I looked online for when the Cherry Blossom Festival was happening so now I need to know: 1. When are they generally in full bloom, at the beginning of the time, the middle? 2. How long will full bloom (not patchy) last, a week, a day? 3. Is there somewhere a huge concentration of them? 4. Is it super crowded, will I have to wait for people to mosey out of the way for every shot?

We have a series of "two hour delays" due to plumbing issues this winter. These include frozen pipes twice, clogged sink, and clogged line to the dishwasher, and the washer leaking. We took yesterday as a "sun day" since we schooled all through the snow.

Oh, no, it's back in my head on a repeating loop! I finally got it out over the summer!

You can say that about me, and I stay at home. Sometimes if we have a rough day schooling, I snap at my kids because I am just over "my job". I felt bad for her when reading the post because I know sometimes you have just had enough of what you do day after day.

I have to chime in as a former teacher, and this was fourth grade, not first, but sometimes kids get the work well ahead of time, but it doesn't make it home until the last minute. I would give study guide for a test on Monday, to be completed and checked by Thursday (including time in class to work on them), for the the test on Friday. I would have irate parents emailing me on Wednesday night about "excessive homework" and "no advance notice" and "we have soccer practice". Um, well, if your child hadn't piddled around in class and played with their pencil and made paper footballs rather than work on their study guide and if you had checked their planner (that I signed) on Monday when it was assigned, we wouldn't be in this predicament. So anyway, sometimes homework seems excessive because of poor choices made in school. *I know this is not always the case, but I just wanted to throw it out there for the other side :).*

One more thing, toothbrushing is a car activitiy. If we are leaving early, I let them brush their teeth in the car. Is it as good as what I would do? No, but I'll do a really good job that night :).

I also have a laundry room with all my kids clothes right by the garage door. We keep shoes, socks, all clothes but pj's, book bags and Awana bags there. Coats are hung on hooks by car in the garage. We rarely go anywhere that requires a coat (my kids are good at running fast from the car to the destination), but if we need one, I can grab everyone's quickly. If I had to run to separate rooms to get clothes, etc, we would never leave the house.

Well, I only have three, and we rarely arrive anywhere on time, so you can take my advice FWIW ;). I get the clothes ready the night before and put them WHERE NO ONE CAN FIND THEM BUT ME. If I leave anything where my 2 year old can see it, she takes it and puts it somewhere that I will never find it while she's still in that size. I put all book bags, shoes and socks in the car. My 2 and 7 YO always lose their socks and shoes so I will give them to them in the car when we are five minutes from our destination. If we are going somewhere early, I make muffins the night before, that way if they have to be eaten in the car, they can. I also fix water bottles and lunches the night before if we need them for the outing, and put them in the fridge. Basically, I just totally prep while they are all sleeping because it is a nightmare to do anything while they are awake. If you are not opposed to TV, my friend gets everyone ready 20 minutes before time to leave and then lets them watch Superwhy or Doc McStuffins. Two of my kids won't sit to watch TV, so that doesn't work for me.

Yes! I went to App in Boone, NC and we had at least one "thundersnow" every year, very beautiful!

We have tons of rental houses here. Proctor and Gamble recently bought something like 30 homes in our neighborhood for rentals for people that work for them (our subdivision has around 700 homes). On average, houses in our neighborhood rent for $1300-$1800 a month. But there are lots of other houses for rent in Greensboro for less (or more) money.

I don't know any homeschooler who bashes teachers :confused1: . I certainly don't blame teachers for the mess that our school system is in, and I would never think to criticize them publicly or privately. I think she overreacted to someone's opinion of homework.

This is my dream for my kids, all in one room and then the other room for something else :). We have the boys sharing and P all by herself. Sometimes I think it would work better for J and P to share, but I don't want them to sleep together (no sleeping would actually happen), and we only have big beds. If you have another boy, I would split by gender.

Yep, we have a friend that consistently does this, too. What drives me the most crazy is when it is a birthday party and I have taken the time (and money) to do favors and nametags, etc, and this person calls me the morning of and says "he's been misbehaving today, so we're not going to be able to make it." It has happened twice for birthday parties :glare: .

At Walmart last year it was $150, $75 for regular exam and $75 for contacts.

Another months/days, though I think we finally have days down. This is embarrassing in front of other parents, particularly non-homeschoolers, I keep meaning to teach them to him...and then I forget. I tried to do calendar with him in Kindergarten last year, and he hated it.

We don't ground from parties or other preplanned activities because to me that is being unkind to someone who is counting on you, they are being punished for my kid's misbehavior.

My kids frequently get grounded from particular things, i.e., whining about watching TV in the morning will get you grounded from screens for the day, throwing a fit about coming in for dinner will get you grounded from playing with friends the next day, not picking up your Legos or Playmobil will get you grounded from them the next day, etc. We have never done a blanket "I'm taking everything from you" type of grounding, but my kids are still young, there's plenty of time for that ;).

We are the only house in our cul de sac that does not use TruGreen, so we at least attempt to keep it weed free (I'm not sure moss even grows on lawns here). Everyone else has a golf course lawn and ours is some sort of weird grass that is definitely not golf course quality.

And for the record, I was not hs'd and read quite a bit of twaddle, as well ;). I got my hands on a copy of Flowers in the Attic the summer after fourth grade while spending the summer at my grandmother's house. Now THAT was an education.

I am trying to read this horror story with the balance of my own personal (public school) education. I was at the top of my class (10 out of 369), so not someone who was overlooked and passed through academically. I never learned any geography. Ever. When I learn it with my kids it is brand new information. I never was given any sort of historical overview, so none of it stuck longer than a test. I moved three times and didn't have fractions until fifth grade, like I was not presented with the information because I somehow missed it in each move. It was only through a very special AG teacher that I learned to write well, most of my peers were a train wreck in that department, she taught us to diagram and write really well. Most people I knew in school had to have intense after school training to be able write for the AP exams. So I am trying to keep in mind that whatever I do has to be at least as good as that...right?

Neither do, but, I just threw dh's away. His mother, who has never gotten rid of anything in her life, recently passed them on to us. I, who have never kept anything longer than two years, asked dh if he wanted to keep them, he said no, so I threw them away. So they made it 35 years until they got to our house ;).

Green. When we sort Legos, the clear ones the color of tennis balls go into the green bin :).