The first rule of pony club is: you don't talk ablut pony club (come on, you were all thinking it!) Just bumping for you, I have no info on ponies or clubs...but it sounds soooo cute!

I was going to suggest a flame thrower, but hydrogen peroxide might be a better choice ;)

American Girl goes up in value as the dolls become retired. I gave $180 for a Nellie three years ago. We gave $175 for a Mollie with several outfits and her dog last summer (not retired, but this mollie was a Pleasant Co model). Can you find any like her on eBay? That might give you a starting point. Also, cruise the website to see if the outfits are still being sold. Older outfits, on historical dolls anyway, can go for more. I'd start above my minimum of what is take. Especially on Craigslist.

I'll be darned. I almost bought Nora Gaydos and I don't know why I didn't. Truthfully, I think I just forgot them :rolleyes: I'm going to track down a set. We are visiting my parents in TN right now and our library system stinks here. I think I recall seeing some Hooked on Phonics stuff in our library in Chicago, though, I'll make a note on my phone to look when we get back. Thanks! We may try the I See Sam again. I tried them last year and it was a bust, he just wasn't ready, but he has come a long way now.

((hugs)) but from a little ways off (and with a protective layer of lysol fuming around me LOL) I live in fear of vomiting. Me vomiting. Someone else vomiting. It's all bad.

Wednesday is going well for me :) The kids have gotten through morning work, YDS passed his phonics lesson and did well in math so that was a nice touch. I've done two loads of laundry, swept the main floor, and reheated soup for lunch. We are going to do our "together" work (history today) and then the kids have some chores (ODS will wash the car - pollen, pollen EVERYwhere! -, and DD will wash lunch dishes). I'm going to grade this week's (yes *week*, don't judge me :p ) math, and hose down the porch and carport to get the awul day-glo yellow pollen off them.

I like the Bob books. I like that they introduce words slowly, and really work on the words throughout the reader. That said, the font is TERRIBLE. The spacing is "off" or something (I think it's supposed to resemble handwriting or something). That does NOT work for my kid with vision issues. We are working through the Kindergarten and Sight Words sets right now and it is taking much longer than it might just due to him reading two words as one sometimes. Is there, by any chance, a set of readers that is similar in content to the Bob books, but that has "regular" font and spacing?

One thing I did this year, because I wasn't sure if I wanted to use/invest in Wordly Wise, was to set up their word lists in Spelling City. Free. I also use the library quite a bit for the kid's literature. I made up my own US States and US Presidents units. I created my own notebooking pages (set up sort of like a study guide) that they fill in as I read to them, then they color in things like the state flag, the state bird or flower, etc... on another page. My youngest just does a handwriting sheet as opposed to a notebooking page. I did something similar for our mythology units.

You can. It's a free app. I use Mapquest's app, which is also free (and I find easy to use and accurate).

I know people who believe the bolded, or who won't stay AWAY from sick folks (and then, of course, "drop by" our house to visit after being with the sick person :glare: ). I just. don't. get it! To the OP, sorry, I understand. We are in TN visiting family, my husband (in IL) called and said he is sick. I think he may have flu. Even though we won't be home until May, I contemplated asking him to sleep in the bathroom LOL I flat out FEAR the flu! I may have to fog bomb the house when I go home :lol:

I have gmail coming to my iphone. I also use Google calendar and it syncs with my iphone calendar. ETA: My family also uses Google+ and, when I set up events on there they end up on my iphone calendar.

Nope, Tuesday tackled me LOL I stayed up way too late watching a movie, then had to get up at 7:40 to go in and help a friend at her store. I texted the kids their assignments (reading, vocab, spelling, and math) that I wanted completed while I was gone. Now, I'm home. We will eat lunch, then some friends are in from out of town so we are getting together with them. I neeeeeeed a nap :p That's about all I'm doing. I needed to make an exchange at Walmart, decided I was too tired to deal with Walmart, so that will go on another day's list LOL

I love having my ipad and iphone linked. I just upgraded my 4 to a 5, giving DD the old 4 as an ipod touch. The 5 is a smidgen bigger than the 4, if that helps. I looooove my iphone :p If I could afford to go all apple, I so would. I want to get everyone a MacBook to replace their laptops, but it is $$$.

So far so good. I really don't need to eat grain or dairy, so I'm not holding my breath .... but it was worth it LOL

The Pier is a fun visit, but it wouldn't be worth it in the cold and rain (the first time we went was cold and it was okay, but I draw the line at cold AND wet). I was underwhelmed by the Science and Industry Museum. It just wasn't my style at all. I liked the Field Museum, though be prepared it is HUGE. I want to do Shedd, but we haven't yet. I'm told it's "not worth the price", but I love aquariums and I think the basic admission would be all we'd need. My kids enjoyed strolling the Magnificent Mile (we also did American Girl and the Lego place and Disney, which *may* have been part of the draw ;) ). I'd recommend seeing "The Bean". It doesn't "do" anything, but it's awesome to look at and you get such cool photos :p

Is that HER head that you are smacking against a wall? Lol I know people like that, they are good for comedic relief if nothing else (once you learn to laugh at them).

That show disturbs me. I don't like violence for the sake of violence, I don't like gore for the sake of gore. From the little of it I've been unfortunate enough to witness, the whole story IS about how violent and gory it all is.

Thanks. I will pay for eating that pizza, but it sure is going to be good while I'm eating it. *sigh* I'm really super glad ODS is getting friend time so I'm letting a few other things slide.

Different strokes for different folks, but none of my kids (9, 10, and a very responsible almost 14 year old) are in any way ready to tackle training a dog with no help. My advice, if you want a pet, is get a cat. I love my cats. They don't want to be walked, they darn sure don't want to fetch anything for me, and they take care of the potty themselves (I just clean it). We have toys, occasionally use them to play with the,, but they mostly just want to lie near me and snooze or bask in the sun. If/when I do get another dog, I want one that is an adult, not a puppy. I have found that puppies are adorable, but I don't enjoy them much. The neighbor's old and arthritic lab is a my dream dog lol

My oldest son has a friend over to play video games, the downstairs is filled with whooping and hollering and I don't even know what. The older two are similarly self entertained - dd is making club penguin walk through videos (apparently there is a great demand for this, something my oldest son refuses to believe lol) and yds is playing his own video games. I've ordered pizza for lunch and I'm going to watch dark shadows while I eat. Why am I being bad? Well, one thing is I don't allow yds to spend much time on video games, but I gave in today so he'd leave his older brother alone. Pizza is pretty much not allowed on our diet, but we aren't on it for allergies (not them, but I probably do have some of my own) but I am buying pizza for lunch because I don't want to ask a 13 year old boy guest to eat quinoa and a salad (he is pretty much not in to dietary things anyway, and has lots of junk available to him). I called it a treat and threw in my towel for the day (and, yeah, I got myself a small Hawaiin pizza because if they are going to fall off the wagon, so will I lol). I'm tired, I got next to no sleep last night, had to take dd to the dr at 8 am this morning, have a house full of kids....I'm taking the easy way out. So sue me :p

Um_2_4 - what do you mean you don't know how long the lessons will take? Do you mean the lessons you are doing with them as part of homeschool or lessons like music/dance/etc? I can almost guarantee you that any outside lessons won't go on much past the specified, and paid for, time ;) As for lessons at home, I imagine you will find that gets easier to gauge as they get older., or at least easier to encourage them to put in effort and get things done so they can go out to do something (maybe, spends on the kid. LOL)

I would agree that babysitting might not be totally off the table, unless you mean he's tried it and got no response. My next idea would be pet care. Either walking them during the day while owners are at work, or doing some very light pet sitting (say while someone is gone a day or two). Lawn care sounds good, but it wouldn't work for us. We live in a condo in Chicago so no yards to care for anywhere around us, and in tn our neighbors all have hired "professional" lawn care people.

Uh, did you shoot back an email saying "Then how come you always send the child over here if you aren't busy?!" LOL I will say that when my oldest two were in school and my youngest went to Mothers Day out.... I didn't do a diddly **** thing while they were gone. Now, granted, I was dealing with multiple people's chronic illness, my depression, and not a whole lot of help from the other adults in my life, but....yeah. I totally went to bed or took myself off somewhere else when I was child free. Mostly to bed, if I hadn't I don't knew when I would have gotten any rest. I'm glad those days are behind me.

My vision inspires me, but, sometimes, I find bringing the vision to fruitition to be discouraging :p I do find that planning ahead, setting a schedule we can stick to, and compromising on outside activities (little enough for me, while still being out enough for them) really help. It also helps if my home is clean and orderly. Even my worst day, in a clean house, is infinitely better than a mediocre day in a mess LOL

It kind of depends on the food. We keep an orchard worth, it seems like, of green apples and clementine oranges...they can eat those pretty much whenever so long as they eat at mealtime. Bananas, carrots, salad fixings are all the same. Now things like yogurts, that are $1 each and my kids will eat 6 of them in one sitting (each, not six between the three of them LOL) I do sort of ration. I will buy six or however many and then let it be known that they each have x amount of them to eat. I don't care how they eat them really, all at once, spread them out, but when you've used your allotment up don't whine or eat someone else's. Things like zevias (soft drinks made with stevia), life waters, dark chocolate squares....those are treats and are bought with the intention of being used at certain times (on an outing, for family movie night, etc) and they don't get those without asking first. I'd be pretty hacked if they just drank/ate something they knew was intended to be a treat and not a free for all. I only have three, but they are bottomless pits, so I understand watching the food dwindle with dismay.