I'm with you 100%! I'm constantly trying to live more simply. It's a hard process because we were so not simple living people.. I mean, I was poor growing up so in that way we lived simply because we couldn't afford a lot but the mentality was always, get as much as you can get. Work harder so you can afford more. I hate that mentality! So yeah, I'm so with you, struggling along making bad decisions and good decisions and hoping as the years go by that I'm able to simplify even more!

THANK YOU for starting this thread! I've been going back and forth over whether I should get one. And thanks for all the detailed responses, you've all convinced me, I know what's going on my birthday wish list now :D

I bought a laminator from Sam's Club for $80. It came with a pack of laminating sheets (I think 50 or 100 sheets!) It is a fantastic laminator, so if you have a Sam's nearby I'd highly suggest checking it out :001_smile: And to answer your original question, I LOVE my laminator. I use it all the time. At least monthly! I would definitely suggest getting one!

Pregnancy was much harder for me than the newborn phase when it came to homeschool stuff, if that helps. I don't know what curriculum you're using but the year I had my son we used Sonlight and I pretty much didn't do anything besides read them books. We didn't do math or phonics or spelling or anything besides read together. And it was just fine! When your baby comes you can read to your kids while nursing. They can do art and handwriting while you take care of the baby. And mostly, a few months of slacking won't ruin their education. Don't worry too much. It'll all sort out, probably faster than you think :001_smile:

I had to pop in and say thank you for starting this thread and thank you to everyone who responded. I've never heard of square foot gardening before! I've wanted to start a garden but have been way too intimidated by the work and by the fact that I know NOTHING about it. After watching that video I'm really feeling like I can do this! Thanks for sharing!

We have some chips in the pantry. I think there may be some candy in there, as well. My husband buys frozen pizzas anytime they're on sale. I think that's about it. We eat pretty healthy but I'm not opposed to a bit of garbage now and then :001_smile:

I really like Beautiful Feet Early American History. I've been looking at Sonlight Core 3 as well. I might buy that next year for 2nd grade (I think my dd is a bit too young for it yet.)

I like it a lot. The header is very pretty!

I really do think hard sell techniques are horrible. I don't know about evil but definitely really, really wretched ways of interacting with other people. Selling or not you just don't manipulate people that way :glare: My best friend from highschool got into hard sell marketing techniques when she married her husband since her husband is really into marketing.. pyramid schemes, hard sell, the whole package. She drives me absolutely crazy with the way she tries to sell EVERYTHING in life now. And I'm not talking about for money! She's become so absorbed into the marketing thought process that every single conversation we have goes into a "sales pitch" as soon as she realizes I may disagree with her line of thinking. It's put a huge strain on our friendship. In fact it got so bad for me that I was really close to completely ending our friendship. We're in the same church so that would be majorly awkward so instead of just been being brutally honest. It's still hard every time we get together to not let her manipulate me into doing things and buying things and thinking things I don't want to think. This got long, but basically, yeah, I think hard sell marketing is a terrible way to act for anybody. I don't know how those people go home and sleep at night :tongue_smilie:

I'm not ready to start my just-turned 4 year old on a formal reading curriculum yet but she's been asking to have reading time as well. I stumbled across this website (free!): http://www.progressivephonics.com/ when blog hopping recently. We've been using it for a week and my daughter absolutely LOVES it. She's so excited about having her very own reading lessons and majorly excited that she knows several words now by herself.

Congratulations!! She is so tiny and so adorable! I love the picture of the boys with her :001_wub::001_wub:

Baking soda and vinegar are great to start with. Along with those I use: -Essential oils (my favorites are orange for the bathrooms and lavendar for everywhere else) -Citra Solv -Non toxic liquid dish soap -Castile soap I love each one of these and though they're pricier at first they last a LONG time. Especially if you can find vinegar and baking soda in bulk. I'd recommend googling "non toxic cleaning recipes" or "natural cleaning product recipes" or something like that, there are a ton of sites with measurements and tips on how to combine these things for cleaning :) I googled just now and here's a site to start with. Scroll down just a bit and there are some formulas. http://www.eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm#substitutions ETA: I totally forgot but my favorite book full of tips and formulas and all kinds of good stuff for natural cleaning is "Easy Green Living" by Renee Loux. It's full of information and a really easy read :)

That was cute, thanks for sharing. I even put my cell on speaker phone so my husband could have a smile, too :D

I spend 2 or 3 hours cooking most days.

I've only been married once (still married). Surpisingly to me, considering the statistics of divorce, most people I know have only been married once and have stayed with their spouse. Even so, it's totally bizarre that your sister-in-law laughs about you being on your first marriage. It's the laughing about it part that I find weird.

I have a family member (or three) like that and it is really, really difficult to always be the one to keep the peace. Sometimes I think my lip will bleed I'm biting it so hard ;)

I'd just answer her honestly.

I've been saving a LOT of money since baking everything myself. At least $50 a month.

I'm wondering, too. Reading this thread has been so enlightening and enjoyable :001_smile:

I totally thought you were serious :blink::lol:

:grouphug: Don't let him cause doubt in your heart. Would he blame public school for behavior from other students who may be struggling in his class? I'm sure they're not the only kids in his class having a hard time or showing up late. He's just choosing to blame it on the fact that they were homeschooled. He's biased against homeschooling. He's going to be looking for flaws in homeschooled students to prove his point that homeschooling will result in failure. You know what's best for your children.

If my daughter brought it up to me I would tell her that I didn't think she needed to pluck and she was perfect and beautiful without styling them but that if it was bothering her I would show her how. A warm washcloth on the eyebrow area beforehand helps the pain.

Exercise and don't skip meals. The brushing teeth often one has been really working for me this last month! I had some dental work done 5 weeks ago and boy oh boy do I limit what I eat so that I don't have to brush more than three times a day.

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Ignore me, I think I posted on the wrong thread. lol