Great thread!!

Our reasons for continuing to homeschool don't match with our original reasons to begin. I wanted to homeschool from the time I was pregnant with my first dd. I say I, because dh decidedly did not. Now we homeschool because we can tailor their educations to their learning styles and stages. My super smart 9 year old boy, is certainly all boy and would likely get labeled in the public school system. The worst thing anyone could do to him is to stick him in a classroom and make him sit for hours upon hours a day...and God help the teacher that took away recess from him as punishment. Little would (s)he know that it was a self-inflicted punishment on the teacher her(him)self. My sweet 16 dd can pursue college credit, write a novel, play violin and study French for hours on end, without putting it aside to finish hours upon hours of homework late into the night after her school day is over. Our dds can drop their academics for the day to help a nearby pregnant mom with childcare or meet mid-day to gather with friends at the university library to discuss macroeconomics or debate the justice system (for fun!!). We homeschool because....life. It is life. It is how I wish I were schooled. No matter how cliche it sounds, my children can use the world as their classroom. A tailored education will always trump an institutional one.

I am a bit embarrassed to admit my ignorance. One of my sweet boys has AA heritage. We keep his hair very short and encourage him to put coconut oil or a hair product we purchased from a hair salon that markets primarily to AA hair. What else can we or should we do to take care of his hair? He will be entering puberty soon, if that makes a difference.

In our old house we had our older girls in the master bedroom for a while. I liked it, dh did not. It isn't possible in this house due to its configuration and ratio of baths to bedrooms, but it would be *my* ideal. The next house we purchase, I will insist on a masterish type area for the kids for exactly the reasons you stated.

Yes, we currently do although the very youngest likes to sleep in the older girls' room most nights. We have had various configurations, but this one seems to be the best for the moment. Because our bedrooms are huge it is easy to change them up. My 8, 7, and (almost) 5 year old are all in the same room. One child is in a twin and another in a custom house bed that can be used as a bunk (the bottom bunk area is being used as open play space) and the third child is still in a toddler bed. A couple of years ago we had the now 8 and 7 year olds in a room together and although it was directly next to our master bedroom, it just didn't work. My preference and original plan was to have my 12 year old in with the younger girls. She requested to share with two of her older sisters. Our room division is currently 18yo dd has her own room; 16, 14, and 12 yo dds in another room; 8, 7, and 5 dds in their bedroom/playroom; 11 and 9 yo boys have a room. Of course, dh and I have the master.

I accepted....time will tell.

in high school sends you a Facebook friend request?

Relish tray to be assembled when you arrive Pies Rolls This is from Woman's Day Magazine: Thanksgiving Recipes That Travel Well: 1. Cranberry Sauce 2. Cheddar-Nut Cheese Spread 3. Wild Rice & Orzo 4. Mashed Potato Casserole 5. Mashed Sweet Potatoes & Apples 6. Green Bean Casserole 7. Roasted Veggies 8. Cheesy Mixed Vegetables 9. Pecan Pumpkin Pie 10. Lemon Cheesecake

:crying:

He is being insensitive, but dd needs to move on. She can physically remove herself from the room or keep a stash of new favorites to enjoy when he eats those cookies. Eta: He really *should* eat them privately. It is pretty disrespectful to her in this particular circumstance.

How do we find legitimate sites and weed out the scams?

Google the Daily Connoisseur. She suggests a 10 item wardrobe, however, t-shirts, sweaters, workout gear, dressy items, and pajamas are "free" items. She has great youtube videos and three books. A ten item wardrobe might consist of a skirt, two jeans and button downs, a couple of blouses and three dresses. Layer with the number of cardigans and sweaters needed to keep warm.

I have a peanut allergy kid and he (thankfully!!) is not severe. If he has a tiny bite of something with peanut or has trace amounts he is okay. He shouldn't do it intentionally of course, but it likely won't land him in the ER. (And, yes, I know it can get worse over time.) I would be irked that mom didn't disclose originally and even more concerned about the young age, however it is *not* a hardship to sub for peanuts or peanut butter, especially in the peanut allergy aware age whence we live. If one *must* make a peanut recipe, one can substitute with almond butter or sunbutter. But really, it is not a hardship. There are plenty of non-nut recipes out there!! And, no, I am not one of those my-child-is-a-special-snowflake kind of parent, so save the tomatoes.

We did the raw to freezer to slow cooker plan described upthread. Some of the recipes need tweaking due to personal preference, but it was an overall success!! I am currently working on the next two week's plan, which won't be shopped for or assembled until this weekend, but let the planning commence! Last menu's keepers that are making it onto this menu plan: Meatballs with sauce Pizza dough Vegetable beef stew Burritos Muffin Batter Granola New recipes Salsa Verde chx Chx Fajitas Garden Vegetable Soup Sloppy Joes Stroganoff Chili with cornbread topping (All done in the slow cooker!!) Chx Pot Pie (A different recipe from last plan) I am also considering freezing Enchilada casserole and a spaghetti sauce "starter." I make spaghetti sauce starting with a #10 can of crushed tomatoes. The starter would consist of the seasonings and a standard sized can of tomato sauce frozen in a quart sized freezer baggie. The plan is to open the #10 can and pour it into the slow cooker along with the frozen "starter" and let it simmer all day, saving prep time in the am. Breakfasts and lunches will be pulled from ingredients on hand per previous menu. Breakfasts will likely be oats or variation, eggs, and muffins. Lunches are leftovers, soups, Mexican or similar.

Maybe? I am raising said younger sibling's children due to her lack of functioning as an adult partially due to said raising, so I feel a little justified in my whining. ;)

Yes. I had divorced parents and due to step-siblings was the oldest at one household and the youngest at the other. I resented how much my youngest sister was allowed to do and feel I paved the way for her. At the other household, it seemed like the precedent was set with the older siblings and there was no changing the precedence per different circumstances. We try avoid the birth order trap, however the oldest child(ren) will always be the guinea pigs. As we change and grow in our parenting our choices, hopefully, reflect that change. It is easy to feel the older children are older than they are. Even when a child is two or three and that first younger sibling is brought home the oldest child can *seem* soooo much older. When you are a newer parent, you don't always know clear guidelines and expectations for each age and stage. Heck, I am still learning how to parent a newly young adult. Give yourself grace and try the best with the knowledge you have, it is all any of us can do.

Mix them with banana and lightly sprinkle with Himalayan pink salt. Mmmmmm

In this *particular* situation, split it equally. In almost every possible other scenario the driver is obligated.

Cabbage rolls using the ground beef, rice and cabbage Taco rice bowls, rice, ground beef, chopped onion and tomato A hearty hamburger soup after sauteing the onion and ground beef use all the good root vegetables and zucchini if you feel so inclined

The previous tips are excellent! I have a Windows phone and it links to Google Calendar and syncs to all connected phones. Any time you schedule an activity the calendar gives you a preset 15 minute reminder. You have the option to turn off the reminder or change the amount of time for the reminder from minutes to hours to days. We schedule in anything that requires us to prepare for it. Sunday morning Bible class and worship service are scheduled in and the reminder is set so it signals when it is almost time to leave. Guitar and French lessons are both at my home, but scheduled in the calendar with reminders so I will remember to have the rooms preset and generally picked up before the tutors arrive. The scheduled events also show up on my screen's home page, so the first thing I see on my phone is the next scheduled activity.

To freeze muffin batter, just place paper liners into muffin tins and spray each lightly with oil. Pour muffin batter into the liners and place the muffin tins into the freezer for a couple of hours. (We placed small cutting boards in between our muffin tins while they were freezing, so we could freeze multiple batches at once.) After the muffins are set and fairly frozen, transfer to labeled gallon sized freezer baggies. To freeze two dozen in the same freezer baggie, just add a loose layer of plastic wrap over the first dozen then top with the second. Lay the baggie flat in the freezer to prevent the muffins from sticking to one another. To bake, just pop the frozen muffin cups into muffin tins and bake per original recipe. They do need to bake a few extra minutes from frozen.

:lol:

They were incredibly simple to assemble. Please, share any keepers!

We are trying something a bit different for the next two weeks. I found a bunch of freezer meals that can be frozen raw then go directly to the crockpot whilst still frozen. My boys and I assembled them this weekend. In theory we'll pull whatever we are in the mood for in the morning and put into the slow cooker on low. Tomorrow eve is Salsa Chx, served in a rice bowl with lettuce and such. Here is the next couple of week's list with potential sides: Vegetable Beef Stew, likely with saltine crackers Pizza dough, served with a side salad and made into a pizza (duh) Pot Pie, stand alone or with rolls for the kiddos Orange Chx, over rice with sauteed vegetables Korean Tacos, with Cole Slaw mix in tortillas. Fried rice to the side. Meatballs in sauce, maybe over spaghetti noodles, maybe in hoagies, veggies or salad Mushroom Barley Stew, with freshly baked bread and butter Ginger Peach Chx, same as Orange Chx Also in the freezer for breakfasts and extras Sausage balls Granola Muffin Batter Taco Meat Burritos (thaw and eat for portable or emergency lunch) Lunches will be leftovers, an impromptu soup, or Mexican (taco salad, quesadillas, etc.)

I know it's obnoxious to quote yourself, but I looked it up and it varies widely from none to set hours to "start in the late afternoon and early evening hours." Huh! Who knew? Eta: Our population is 580,000. Many nearby smaller towns run into one another, so the city proper seems much larger than it actually is.