Oh I hear you Cindy!! I'm right there with you. *sigh* Add a newish baby who keeps crying to be held and a troublesome 2yo to the mix for me. I am counting down the minutes until dh walks through that door today. *double sigh*

LOL!! This really hit home for me. It's the ending of most school projects around here! :lol:

Has anybody on these boards used Mortgage Cycling to pay off your mortgage faster? What are your thoughts on this? Dh and I have been talking a lot lately about what we can do to improve our financial situation. I don't know a lot about this and was hoping someone on these boards has some knowledge they would like to share. TIA

This is what I use. Ozone is supposedly 50% more effective than bleach. Plus, after 15 minutes it turns back into regular water again. I use the bowl to wash all my fruits and veggies in and the sprayer to clean down counter tops and taps. Actually I use the sprayer for just about everything. We've had this for almost 2 years now and have found it to be really effective. Both dh and I really like it. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about it at all.

Is this the site you're looking for? HTH!

My ds who just turned 2 has a fairly extensive vocabulary for his age and has great articulation skills. His speech is very clear and understandable, even to complete strangers. He recently learned the song and lyrics to "Happy Birthday" He also still nurses to sleep for his naps. He calls this "Nappie Nursie" and will often come take my hand and take me upstairs when it's Nappie Nursie time. Well, lately, on our walk up the stairs he's been singing: "Nappy Nursie to me, Nappie Nursie to me! Nappie Nursie Nappy Nursie...." all to the tune of Happy Birthday. It just melts my heart!! And he's really good at holding the tune!

I would like to know what other WTM'ers do for vocabulary. Are you happy just exposing them to lots of stories and quality read alouds?? Do you use Wordly Wise 3000 or a similar program?? I'm :bigear: for suggestions!

Yup... DH!!! :lol::lol: Sorry. I guess I'm not helping. I despise the weight of our vacuum too, so DH does the stairs for me.

Thanks! I actually had remembered, and was waiting for Monday. I was just going to log off and head to bed when I read your post and looked up at my clock to realize Hey! It IS Monday. Uh oh.... :lol:

Thank you Jessica!

DUH! I feel so foolish! I read this as meaning, This is for me (to use with my kids). I was thinking it was an odd comment, as who else would be teaching your kids? :001_huh: lol. Total 'duh' moment. Well that was embarrassing. :leaving:

Congratulations Kendra!! I missed the announcement in the other post, but I'm really happy to hear about your new arrival. What a blessing for you and your family! I just checked out your blog... He's absolutely ADORABLE!!! Awww. I want another one now too! (and mine's only 10wks old)

:iagree: FWIW, Doran, I agree with your original post. I love that my kids want to show their love and appreciation for me, but I really find it unnecessary for them to spend their money on me. Especially on, um... little trinkets. I've been trying to encourage the children to give me/daddy/grandpa/grandma etc. the gift of their time. This year, they went out with daddy to a local nature area and put together 2 lovely bouquets of dried wild flowers. They were a bit odd, I have to admit (being dead and all) but I just LOVED the thought and care that went along with the gift. The best part was the enthusiasm they showed when they told me about each flower they selected and why it was important to them. That was the best gift of all. So never mind that it was my idea that they do this (they don't know but I told DH what to do). It was really sweet, they loved it, and money was not spent needlessly! Your children are older, so something like what mine did likely would not apply. But, I have been trying to teach my children that gifts aren't all material things, but also the talents that God has given each of us. To me, that could be something as simple as playing or singing a song that they put together. Don't get me wrong, we do give gifts around here- I just try to discourage material goods for occasions like Mothers/Fathers Day. I really don't think that that's what these days should be about. I guess that I didn't really answer your question though, did I?

I try to price things at what *I* would *like* to pay for them. Try to look at your items like you have never seen them before. What would *you* consider to be a *great* deal/find at a garage sale *you* attend? It can be hard at times to look at our belongings objectively and price them accordingly. There's nothing that bothers me more than going to a garage sale and every. last. item. and trinket is WAY over priced b/c the owner applied the sentimental value they attached to the item rather than what it was really worth. If I want to pay such high prices for stuff, I'd go buy it new. It really does depend on the item though & how badly you want to get rid of your stuff. An item like a baby swing could MAYBE be priced at 1/3 the cost of new (at most, and only if you can still buy it in a store) while a backpack (that is in almost new condition) should likely be priced around $1, regardless of the new cost. Clear as mud? HTH a bit anyways.

I haven't quite gotten to my bird study. I got a bit side-tracked but plan to start it next month. One of the books we'll be using is The Boy Who Drew Birds by Jacqueline Davies It's on the NOEO book list for Biology I. They also pair up the above book with this.

Welcome Baby Jesse!! So very happy for you and your family to hear that all went well!! Congratulations! He's so perfect. What a great blessing and a wonderful Mother's Day gift!

I've got them. They are pretty good. Nothing that you couldn't put together yourself if you had a bit of extra time, but that's exactly what they are: a time saver. Book III has 3 poems, 2 lists (12 tribes of Israel and books of the OT) and the rest are bible verses. They have what is to be copied on the right side along with a square for an illustration. The kids copy the verse on the left side, which is basically just a blank sheet. The copyright at the front of the book says that no book may be reproduced but with the way this one is set up with the extra sheets, I'd say you are okay with one copy between your two boys. Book II is a bit different. Instead of the kids just copying onto lines on the left side, the sentences are written out again with a blank line underneath for the children to copy directly under the text. This gives them more help with spacing and sizing of letters. Again, there are 2 poems, 2 lists and the rest are bible verses. There are spare copy sheets at the back as well as extra pages for illustrations. Because of the copyright at the front, if you choose to go with Book II you may need to get 2 copies if you want the blank lines under the words for the kids to follow. I like the books in so far as they are time savers. I have difficulty tying them into anything else we are doing b/c the verses are rather random. What I do really like about them is the area given for an illustration. It makes the child have to do a drawing for the verse which spurs their creativity. I really like this aspect as I have some reluctant drawers. It has given them confidence in trying new things and branching out in their drawing abilities. HTH I can give you more details about the passages and poems that are in them, if you would like. Just let me know.

:iagree: :cheers2: To all you fine mommies on this board.

That is SOOOOO me!! I often wonder if the other person is in as much turmoil inside as I am! I do find this (typing/chat room/forum/email/IM) setting difficult too. I can't really be as expressive as I'd like to be and as much as conversation does go back and forth, there's always that side of me that feels like I'm still just talking to myself. :001_huh: Now, *that* makes *me* nervous. :lol:

Oh! (((Kay))) I really hope you feel better soon. My first suggestion would be gargle with hydrogen peroxide. Since you've already done that, have you tried gargling with tea tree oil?? Just add a few drops to small amount of water. Fenugreek extract works really good. Add to water, and gargle. You can also get licorice and slippery elm lozenges. I can't recall the brand though, sorry.:001_unsure: A mixture of raw honey and lemon juice can help with the pain. Raw honey is also antibacterial. I only buy raw honey, so I don't know if the stuff from the store does anything or not. Likely not. When my dc's have sore throats I massage lavender oil onto their necks, over the glands. Just add a few drops to olive oil. Don't do this if you are going out- you will smell! Do you use homeopathics? Gelsemium works good as does Aconite. I LOVE homeopathics. Oh! And my favourite is Occinococumcillum. Yah, I totally botched the spelling up, but it's amazing stuff! Hmmm. What else? Up your Vitamin C consumption, for sure. Same for echinacea and goldenseal. You can buy those in tincture form too. When I have a sore throat I also put hydrogen peroxide in my ears. It's another of those Dr. Mercola things :001_rolleyes: but it really does work! HTH!! Sorry to hear you're not feeling good.

I'm an extrovert too. ENFJ here. I actually had to do the quiz twice, just to be sure. :D Same result. Dh says I can be both (or either, I guess I should say) when it suits me. I think homeschooling is starting to feed my introvert side. I have so much less time to be out socializing. Plus, with so many young ones, it's just too much effort to get out of the house most days!! :glare:

OH. One more thing... if you really want to get your scrapbooks caught up... TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER!! :lol::lol::lol: I would get so much more scrapbooking done if I wasn't here... :001_rolleyes:

Simplify. Use simpler layouts. If a layout works for one of your childrens' books, use it again for the other books- using different papers/colours. It's nice and all to come up with one-of-a-kind amazing layouts for our books, but when time is an issue and you have that many baby books to do, that is what I would recommend. They won't end up looking the same at all because the pictures will be different as will the papers that you choose. But, it will be a LOT easier because you don't have to think and re-think and then think again about how you are going to lay out your page. I've even done two books simultaneously using the same layouts for pages but in different colours. In the end, each child will have their own book that is unique to them. What is obvious to us as scrapbookers won't be to others. They will just cherish that you spent the time and energy putting together an album for them. Creative Memories has some great idea books that look great, but are simple enough to finish quickly. It is not exactly my style, but I've been able to make them work for me and it really is amazing how much more you can get done if you simplify.- that's been my experience anyways! I'm in the same boat as you. It's difficult to catch up with what needs to be done while you're getting further behind with each passing month! I try to focus on my journalling now rather than fancy pages. To me, that's what I think the kids will remember and cherish the most- more than fancy pages and hours spent on the perfect layout.- though, I LOVE to sit and ponder my layouts, I really do! Keep up with your most recent photos and work backwards. I believe that's what they recommend to beginner scrapbookers and I really appreciate this advice. When I tried to do it the other way around, I found myself getting more and more discouraged because there was so much I was missing out on. You may also want to consider how much you are scrapbooking for each child. I've managed to limit my kids' books to their birthdays each year, a layout for each activity they are in and usually just one more double page to high-lite the year. The rest of the photos go in albums or into my family scrapbook. How much do you do for your family album?? Can a bit more of those photos go into albums instead? Just do the high-lites of the year. Major holidays, significant events and a couple extraordinary pictures that you just HAVE to write about. When I desperately needed to catch up, I made sure that I put aside 2-3 hours each week (usually one night a week) to scrapbooking. DH knew that it was *my* time and at 7pm that night I would stop what I was doing and go work on my albums. Anything that happened from then until 10pm was *his* to look after. He was really cooperative about this and I got a phenomenal amount of scrapbooking done. It's a lot easier to get more done if you do it in one sitting as you won't have to haul all your stuff out, get organized just to have to put it all away again. I don't know if any of this was useful to you or not. But, I've BTDT and now I'm completely behind again as our #4 has already arrived! Good luck!! I'll be thinking of you on my scrapbook night! :lol:

:iagree: God knows your needs and He will provide! I find moving is always such a test of my courage and perseverance. Hang in there! Can you purchase a few, cheap plastic bins to throw the last few items and cleaning things in?? I found a lot of satisfaction in having the last of my stuff in a box, even if it wasn't organized. I found this helpful to me when I was at the end of my rope in a similar situation to yours. It's those last few boxes that are always the hardest. I moved a couple weeks post-partum and I found that even sitting down and allowing myself to have a good cry did wonders. Then I could pick myself up and get back at it with renewed fervour. You can do it!! Your back/leg pain sounds like sciatica. Do you have a good chiropractor you can see? Or even a massage therapist? I can't live w/o my chiro when I'm pg. I get wacky leg/hip/back pain too. I know how frustrating and disheartening it can be to watch your dh do a lot of that work himself. But if it's what he needs to do for his family, he'll have the graces to get him through. And you too! Keep smilin' and take care of that sweet babe who's growing and getting ready to meet the world.

Well, I'm sure this is very little consolation to you at the moment, but the surest way of finding the insert IS to call the company and order a replacement! :D We did this with the charger for our digital camera. We searched for weeks and were finally convinced that 2yo threw it in garbage. Ordered new one, it came in 2 weeks and 2 days later, we found the old charger... in the midst of the childrens' toys on their train table. :glare: