I'm in Ca and to get funds we have to go through a public school charter school. They vary in how they are set up. My kids are considered public school students and have to be tested every year, though the testing doesn't affect anything. I get a set amount each semester per kid and can spend it on whatever materials I want as long as they are on the vendor list with the school and as long as they are not religous materials. I can also spend the funds on outside classes, which is really what we use most of our funds for- art lessons and piano lessons. I buy a few things through the school like online math (aleks) which is a good deal through the school. I usually purchased my story of the world materials through the school, too. Most of our other books I buy myself, it helps our budget out better because I can often re-use books I buy with younger kids but lessons you cannot. Charter schools have different "flavors" and some are more parent-led then others. It has become a toss-up as my kids have hit highschool age, I have more hoops to jump through and I seriously question each year if the funding is worth the hassle. So far though, we have kept up with it.

glad he's doing better! When my son was a toddler, he had several instances where he seemed to pop his wrist out of joint. The first time it happened, I didn't take him to the E.R. because as a homeschool mom with kids I wasn't vaccinating, I really feared what would happen when I came in with a toddler who just "woke up" with a broken arm (he was spending the night at his grandparents and woke up crying and screaming). I dithered about what to do, and ended up taking him to my pediatrician who has 8 kids, is a mom and is pretty understanding of "stuff" happening. She examined him, said the joint was warm and probably indicated a break, called ahead to the xray place for me to take him to...and then, as I was signing out in the lobby, it must have popped back into place. He took his arm out of the sling, used sign language to say "all done" and then started walking on his hands in the lobby. The receptionisist called the Dr. out to see it. same type of thing happened with him two other times, one of the times I was manipulating the arm to try to figure out if it was broken, with a nurse on the phone when I felt it pop back into place. freaky. some things are a mystery and yes, I get not wanting to do the ER thing. Even with insurance, when my kids were having croup/and asthma I always debated going in, it was not a fun place to be, the wait was usually hours and it was expensive. thanks for checking back and letting us know how he is!

thank you!!! the granola did not have any of those ingredients, so I'll just wait and see. I do have pumpkin, I was kind of thinking of that. I often make her homemade food with yams, I was kind of thinking in that direction. Rough Collie, thanks I didn't know that the rhubarb was not good for dogs, I'm so glad I asked here and that you answered. :) she seems like herself....I'll give her some pumpkin with her breakfast and take her for a walk. thanks Hive!

my labradoodle helped herself to a bag of granola while we were at church :glare: the bag contained 2 cups, and it had been used, so I'm guessing she ate maybe one cup or maybe one cup and 1/3 at the most. Gave her lots of water, just saw her go outside and try to go but didn't do anything, I'm thinking she may be a little stopped up. Any suggestions? I have this natural kid stool softener capsules that I use for myself (I have to take lots of iron pills) and it is really gentle, so I'm thinking of emptying one into her food at dinner to "help" a bit. the capsule has flax seed, prune fruit, fig fruit, rhubarb root, peach leaf and then some acidophilus. anyone see something I shouldn't give a dog? or does anyone else have a suggestion on what to give her. I'd rather not take her to the vet right away if we can manage this at home, if she doesn't produce anything after 24 hours then I will take her to the vet. edit to add: she's a big labradoodle, mostly standard poodle size.

I really like Wabi-Sabi Wanderings and Small Things and SouleMama

my dd did one using a soda bottle bottle, clay and jello. She didn't use any thing else edible inside, though. here's a link with a photo http://www.homeiswhereyoustartfrom.com/2012/04/homeschool-beat-what-is-hip-and-happening/

my dh fought a ticket in a different state for something like not yielding to a police officer (lights going we pulled to right but exited the freeway because of dense fog before stopping) and speeding (which he might have been doing, the speed would drop when you hit city limits, but it would have been only 10 mph more but with the fog he should have been going slower) dh kept the emotions out of it and stuck to the facts and didn't mention the bad conduct of the officer. He stated the conditions -extreme fog and the fact that a few days before a horrific accident on a highway in Texas due to fog had just been all over the news and we didn't feel safe stopping on the highway. He also stated that the officer had been following someone else ahead of us, then braked quickly to get behind us and immediately turned on the lights without enough time to pace us for speed. It worked, I was really surprised. He typed it up very neatly on the form provided and stuck to facts. **edited due to TMI

I'm so sorry for your loss {{hugs}}

I'm so sorry, praying for you. not a fix, but sometimes little things help in the moment. Lots of dark chocolate, get out and walk everyday - the exercise will help and also the vitamin D you get from the sun while out. I just ordered this meditation cd, I've never tried stuff like this before, but I have been scary depressed so I figured I'd try almost anything to help and I listened to it this morning and it did help here's a link Health Journeys depression mediation cd {{hugs}}

thanks for posting, I'll hop on over.... :D

free gifts and stuff you get at a convention or party

Praying for you, Joanne. {{{hugs}}}

praying for you all.

I think you can set a filter on your email to automatically take her emails and trash them or put them in a folder somewhere so you don't have to even see that they came in. This might help your peace of mind. or you could start a blog titled "dumb things my sister says" and post the items as they come in...which might be kind of fun

acsnmama, I didn't cut ties with my n mom, I just stopped making efforts to see her, the relationship just died off...though this worked because she was the ignoring kind- she was wrapped up in herself and didn't think of others, didn't usually think to call, never wanted to visit or do anything out of the way of what she likes to do. If your mom is like this, you could just slowly widen your contact to not be so close and then from there, distance yourself even more, in a subtle way. Sorry for your pain, I deal with depression, too.

thank you Tbog, that was exactly what I was thinking they would do, but not sure...thanks, that was helpful. :) thank you, ohElizabeth, very helpful, I'll check out the site. the hive is always such a wealth of information :D

there are blog writers who write articles on this, try SITS girls and also look on pinterest and search for blog or blog writing, I know when I come across an interesting article on making your blog better, I pin it so I won't lose it. Also check out bloggy boot camp page.

totally random, but I got an idea for my nanwrimo novel from several threads here. A few posters have had problems with people hunting on their land without permission. I kind of remember someone mentioning a camera. Can someone help me out- would a camera a hunter left in the woods (I guess by a deer blind) be a still camera or a video camera. It would be motion activated, yes? Are they night-vision? I thought I'd throw in some random comic fun and have my main character dealing with hunters-with-no-clue who set up a deer blind and leave a camera, my character would then have fun capturing funny things on the camera like a herd of chickens running by, a llama in a hat, stuff like that...but is that possible? Please, if someone knows about these cameras, could you tell me what they are like? thanks!

wow, great dog!!

Hi Lisa! I remember you and your blog :D -yes, things look so different here. So glad you checked in!

Puddles, yes, she is really smart. We have her sit for a treat, too. Then she has to do a trick, either speak, bunny-puppy (hind quarters with front feet in front like a rabbit) or shake hands, or pick a hand (put the treat in a hand, but behind my back then have her choose a hand...if she gets it wrong, she will choose the other hand). Her one real bad habit is her love affair with our neighbor across the street, he keeps a box of dog treats for her and when she sees him, if she is off leash she will run across the street to get a treat (I'm worried she will be hit by a car one day). I have had her on a walk several times when she sees him, and she immediately puts herself into "sit", thinking "treat" I guess. When she is off leash at our house and sees him in his yard, you can see in her eyes and posture that she is thinking about it, thinking about getting in trouble and then that flash when she decides to do it anyways. When I forget to feed her, she will come stand in front of me. I'll be doing something and then ever time my gaze falls on her, she will wag her tail. I look away, she stops, I look back at her, she wags her tail. Eventually it will dawn on me that she wants something and that I didn't give her dinner. If I don't figure it out, she will start groaning at me. She does this with the cat, it's funny/sad...she wants to play/be friendly and every time the cat looks at her she wags her tail hopefully. The cat looks away, she stops wagging, the cat looks back, wag. It's sad that the cat doesn't speak dog. with the crate thing, we had crate trained her, it went well, and then one night when she was about 7 months old she just had a complete tantrum- that's the only way I can describe it. She was going through a bout of the runs (food allergy we figured out finally) so I kept having to take her out and didn't know if she was upset because she needed to go potty, or what. Finally I just left her out of the crate in our room, and she became supremely/ queenly happy. Figured she was just done with the crate. Soon after that she gained the run of the whole house with little problem. She sleeps on a bean bag in our room. she has a standard poodle dad and her mom is a labradoodle (lab with standard poodle) so she is more poodle. She does not shed. She is really the greatest dog I've ever had. Her only fault is that she is non-touchy...doesn't like to cuddle, likes to be petted but will move away from you as you are doing it, though lately she doesn't move away so much. It's a real treat when she comes up to me and lays her face on my kneed to be petted. I think it works for us though, she would drive my dh crazy if she was more touchy, I think. I have a photo from last Fall of me and her in some leaves, I have my arm around her in a hug and she is clearly leaning away from me. I am dog-mom, though, she follows me around the house all day. The tradition continues, even though my kids are older now, I still can't be alone in the bathroom, the dog must come with me... :lol:

I went to see it because the kids liked it, I hardly ever go to a movie. I really enjoyed it, but** I made the decision to not read the book till after I saw the movie. I wanted to enjoy it without knowing what was going to happen next. I'm going to read the books now, I'm looking forward to it, I know the books are always better.

we have a 3/4 standard poodle, the other part is labradoodle. She is wonderful, very, very smart. She's very quiet, but does bark when someone comes up to the house. She makes me feel very safe, when she breaks into that deep bark when someone comes to the door. She figures out what we want and don't want, and figured out that we don't want her barking at the mailman. She was very easy to house train. She went through a shoe stage for a few months, but then after that was perfectly trustworthy. We had planned to keep her crated the first year at least, but somewhere around 5 or 6 months she decided she had enough of the crate and we went on to give her the run of the house with no problems really (except for the shoes for a bit). She communicates with us very well through body language. Sometimes at night, she will go out and bark at the opossums on the fence, we debated how to train her out of this and settled on treating her for coming as soon as called in....I realized the other day (she is 3 years old now) that she has indeed figured it out and goes outside, gives the obligatory bark or two and then runs right back inside for her treat. :001_rolleyes: she is a great dog, and I hope someday to get another.

praying for a good recovery

our labradoodle does not. She sleeps on a beanbag with a sheet or blanket on it, so she's pretty cozy without a blanket on top.