the Lion Boy series, great boy hero.

congrats! :hurray:

Pegasus, ..."He is now teaching the prison population and is so much happier." sorry, but that just made me :lol: :lol: :lol: great quote :D

we've bought chromebooks for 3 of our kids, and so far they are great, we've had two since last Christmas and just bought the 3rd this month. They are just browser laptops, you can't download any programs onto them, but you can purchase and get apps on it. It works for most of what my kids do; fb, email, some games, looking things up, and they can use google docs for writing, they can do their Aleks math and Veritas online history on them. There is no disk drive, so you can't do any other school programs that need discs or need downloads. I'm pretty happy with them, my kids are not on my computer so much anymore. They were just a bit under $250 on amazon.

albeto, love your story! :lol: recently, I used my "mom stare" on a 50 year old man who was having a full-on toddler meltdown. I stared him down, he calmed down and then did what I wanted. I'm not tall and kind of petite. I was so surprised it worked on him, it was all I had.

i like to just click the "popular" search, I find lots of interesting things, and then I like to look at idea of who I'm following.

it's un-knowable, just go consume vast amounts of dark chocolate to self-soothe....

I had problems with the patches the first few times I used them, got the dilated eyes- couldn't read after wearing it a day, my eyes hurt, were scratchy...but I wasn't motion sick, and I am usually miserable and throwing up on planes/trains/buses...so I put up with it and didn't wear them long. I told my Dr. brother about it and he insisted it wasn't the patch but that I must be touching it and rubbing my eyes, which I insisted I wasn't, I'm very careful about washing my hands after I put it on and take it off - and then I monitored myself the next time and caught myself touching it to make sure it was still on, because I get so motion sick that I was paranoid about not having the patch, so yes, I was touching it, getting some of the medicine on my hands and then touching my face/eyes and getting the reaction. I now make sure to not touch it and I don't have the problem with my eyes anymore while wearing it. I have insurance and my co-pay has always been reasonable for it.

I get very motion sick, to the point where I almost always drive everyone myself. The fix that changed my life are the patches you put behind your ear, now I am no longer afraid to travel on airplanes or by boat. I can't even read in a moving car, I can't look behind me into the back seat for very long to help the kids with something, it's that bad. You need a prescription. I don't go on trips without them.

:grouphug: she does sound exhausting. sounds like you have tried to bow out of the competition in real life, but that she is stalking your fb statuses to one-up you. What about limiting what she can see posted by you? I'd block most of your posts, but the boring ones from her sight so she can't compete. so sorry, stinky situation to have with your own sister. I had a sis in law who had to brag about everything in her life and never listened to anything you said or even let you finish a sentence. I found peace (and amusement) but giving up and just lavishing compliments and or sympathy on her -whichever her story needed. It made her feel good and lessened stress for me.

OP, now we have to know, curiosity is killing us! Could you pm someone the details and then that person could post it as a "dear Aunt Abbey" post so it won't be so easily linked to you?

Arcadia, wow, they must all feel like they dodged something fierce, wow.

I agree with the others who said it is not a gift, it's a manipulation ploy. Almost any action gives her some kind of satisfaction whether it be drama or reconnection with you, or just the sheer joy of knowing she is poking you and causing you to spend any amount of minutes thinking of her. the only way to win is not to play. Not playing, to me, means no reaction. No thank you note, no returning it, but give it away to someone or donate it and take the tax credit. If you feel a need to thank Dad, do it privately in person when she is not around. And then explain to dd that a gift that is not wanted and is given even after being told it's not wanted, is not a gift but a mean thing.

I would almost always stay silent. People change, mature, change their views- your child might start out parenting one way and then change their direction, but they will always remember how bad you made them feel with your {to their thinking} judgemental attitude towards them. the serious relationship part: I'm living this right now and yes, at two different occasions when there were two big events/actions that pointed out how bad of a choice this person is for a future mate- we did sit down and seriously talk/discuss what we saw- I cried. And then, child continued the relationship. We have stepped back and try real hard to not say negative things when we see serious lack of judgement or serious lack of critical thinking, responsibility etc. on the future mate's side. We've had our say and our adult child will make the decisions that they make. We are trying to keep our relationship intact, if they marry, we want to be able to be a family still.

happy for you!

Paige, I'm so glad you are back!! We are an unruly bunch, but underneath, there is a lot of love. your thread is one of the legendary threads here, congrats! I'm not usually a cupcake girl, -though I do make them for my kids on occasion (so not anti-cupcake) but I will be having one on the 10th. :lol: *** make cupcakes not war*****

thanks Foucachon, that helps!

I am not technical, but when we first started, I had logged in and created passwords in the wrong program, thinking we were not part of the "school". Whatever I did, I created passwords for the kids, logged them in and was able to watch the "get started" video but nothing else. I called and spoke to tech support, they made me a correct account and all was fine. Last week we had a problem with one of the games, I called and someone fixed it for us on the phone. I'm in the West, and I try to call and catch them in the morning, their time. Good luck.

My sister and I have, very suddenly been thrust into caring for our grandparents. We are still trying to figure out what our long-term/short-term goals/plan will be, but right now, at this moment we need a way to keep track of Dr.s appointments etc. for both grandma and grandpa, lists, and I would also like a way to scan or photograph receipts. I have a really old cozi account I never used, and I am thinking this might be our answer, but I cannot find any details about if I can scan in receipts there or not. I'm thinking maybe we should go with cozi and then have a dropbox for receipts? I would really like to streamline things though and truly have it all in one place. any suggestions? right now, my grandparents are living on their own in a mobile home, with my sister and I checking in on them a few times a week and bringing some meals, and taking them to appointments. Grandma just had a fall and a stay in hospital, but is home now. Grandfather has dementia and we don't know yet what we will need to do for him. My mother died last Summer and now, we seem to be [it] as far as care for them.

I make food for our dog, who is allegic to rice, and I think maybe eggs. I do it in the crockpot, I'll have to look for the original recipe that the vet gave me, which included sweet potatoes, lentils, tofu, bone meal, vitamin B's and canola oil. I later found a dry food that does not have rice and feed that to her as her main food, I still cook food for her to add to her dry food, I don't worry about the vitamins or bone meal now, since the homemade food is only a supplement now, but what I make for her now looks like this: several big yams (orange kind- sometimes called sweet potatoes) skinned and cut up small, put them into a crock pot, cook for a few hours till tender. when done, add in cooked breakfast sausage or cooked chicken and a little bit of oil from the sausage or maybe some bacon grease (just a little). after it cools I scoop it with a 1/3 measure cup onto a baking sheet and freeze, then stick the frozen cups into ziplock bags in freezer. I warm them up as I use them and mix them with her dry dog food. I'll try to find the official recipe and post it later. making her some food saves us money, because the only canned foods she can eat are expensive.

I've been blogging for a while now, I homeschool in an eclective way and my blog reflects that style, it covers different aspects of our life. Next year, our homeschooling will look really different, I've gone from homeschooling my 4 plus a bonus student to graduating our oldest from our homeschool this year and losing my bonus student- and then next year my 11th grader will be going to a performing arts highschool she auditioned into. Things are going to look really different this Fall. We've got a mix of classical, CM, a brief journey into text books last year that didn't go well. Home is Where You Start From

I got the basic account over at smug mug and I am really happy with how nice the prints came out. I was dissapointed that the basic account prints out of ez prints and not the more professional labs you can choose from with the pro accounts, but I ordered several prints to test out and compare my monitor, and they were wonderful. I also like that with my basic account, I have unlimited storage, so I can have my photos saved as backup there. It's really easy to order the prints, too.

I am chronically anemic, and don't know why. my lowest record was a 9 and my dr. threatened iron shots if I didn't get it up quickly and then after that transfusions. I am surprised your Dr. isn't being more agressive about this. Anemia can be serious, and can cause heart problems. someone here on this board recommended taking raw liver, freezing it and then cutting it up into pill size bites, and swallowing it whole like a pill once or twice a day. I haven't gone this route, since my anmemia is not so bad, but it is something you might want to consider- or at the very least, adding it cooked to her dinner menu. I do a good prenatal vitamin, which has more iron then regular daily vitamins, plus iron pills and then I take an herbal children's stool softener when needed (not a laxative, learned the hard way there is a difference between softener and laxative, ugh!) nettle tea, and also some people take a spoonful of dark molasses everyday, and also you can cook everything in a cast iron pan, that will pass some of the iron onto the foods. I hope she feels better, and I hope you push for an answer. After about 20 years of constantly being anemic, I'm kind of fed up with not knowing why and now that I have a new Dr. and new insurance, I'm going to push for an answer.

praying!

Janie, I got what you meant, I worked in a Christian bookstore during highschool and college. We called all the Sunday School prize stuff "Jesus Junk" and "holy hardware" - plastic junk like combs, whistles, bubbles, cheap plastic cars all slapped with a "Jesus Loves you" label or something like that. I get what you meant, they were throw away items that did not teach anything.