Yes! Yes! I do that, too! Especially the belt order. And it always bugs me when there's a checker who's chatting around and missing stuff so I end up with cheese in a bag with pantry items. (Though I always thought it was because I shopped 50 miles away, so a. I needed to put the cold things in the cooler in the car and b. I was so tired when I got home, I would put away the perishables, but often leave the shelf items for later) Of course, I do the same thing hanging out laundry and there's really no reason for that. :tongue_smilie:

I got Avalon Organics lavender last time. This time, I ordered Kiss My Face "Whenever". (Both come in a pump bottle) As far as salon style-ability, I don't think it matters. It matters (to me) what I put on their bodies, though.

Well, if it makes you feel better, there probably wouldn't be much you would use coupons for - they're normally only for packaged foods. Assuming you're in the UK, you probably don't have the cold storage to stock up on meats, etc, on sale, like people do here. (Though you could pressure can mince for shelf storage, as my Amish friends do). Toilet rolls are also probably not such a big expense that switching to cloth would provide significant savings. Oil lamps instead of ambient electric lighting? (No idea how pricey lamp oil is) More vegetarian meals? From what you've described, you can't cut too much more out of "the norm" before you venture into Dickens territory. What about handmade gifts? I plan to make reversible flannel pajama bottoms for mine. Do you knit / sew? Thrift stores (here) often have garments that can be used for yardage. You could make bean bags for tossing, roll-up game boards, bags, etc., and could do it without a pattern, even.

I agree. My SIL has taught in a center for special needs kids for over 15 years and has the same issues with parents - months behind in their tuition, but late because they were at the manicurist. :glare: You'd think people would be on top of paying a premium for the care of their child, but it's almost as if they figure you can't throw the child out into the street without looking like a monster... I'd cut her loose. Post haste.

In the case of allergies, I've always found that a preemptive "please forgive me, I've been out gardening / cleaning the basement / the pollen count is astronomical..." makes people feel better, without feeling like I'm on the defensive about their being upset. Obviously, that doesn't work in a lecture hall. Sniffles and sneezes and the last dregs of a cold don't bother me. It's when people look like death warmed over, are traveling around with a box of tissues, and sound like they need an iron lung that I wonder about why they're out sharing the love with the rest of us. And, frankly, given that H1N1 can travel, airborne, about 10 feet, I would think there would be a greater understanding of missed classes due to illness this season.

We're (the grownups) watching Dr. Who on instant watch. The kids have been enjoying The Muppet Show and the original Electric Company, and really like the old, dubbed Pippi Longstocking movies. Nothing educational going on here. :D

Mama said there'll be days like this... :grouphug: You could obviously use some . Hopefully, tomorrow is a much better day.

Ok, so you've entered your assignment information and then hit "Save". If you make changes and hit save again, you're just updating the same assignment. If you would like to make several copies of a blank assignment - i.e. a daily language arts assignment - then you would save it, click 'Copy', then select 'Repeat over date range', fill out the days of the week you would like to use, and submit it. All of the assignments will be generic, but you can add the lesson/pages/whatever, and the grade earned as they're completed. (Or go into each lesson for the week and add the specifics, if you're going to print the student agenda.) Or, you can put them into the Lesson Plan feature under the teacher tab - Add each lesson (or add one and copy it down until you've reached the last one in your curriculum), then highlight all of them, right click and select 'Submit to assignment grid'. In that pop-up, you can select which student(s), the beginning date for the first assignment, the days of the week for that subject, whether to skip holidays you've defined in your school calendar, etc. Does that make sense? (The lesson plan feature is only available in the Plus version, so disregard that if you're using basic)

Yup, I used to shop at Whole Foods for 6 of us, dog and cat, and I didn't spend more than $1000 a month. Now I shop through a buying club and with local vendors and spend less than $500. That includes natural/organic cleaning products.

We're using RS4K physics this year (I liked Living Learning Books chemistry last year, but they don't have physics) and I can't find anything other than physics in it. I went in knowing the ID beliefs of the author but, really, I have seen nothing but pure science in the curriculum. Is it possible that her comments about winning over atheists was made in the context of demonstrating how pure science and religious faith can coexist? (I haven't read the blog, so I have no idea) Noeo is also perfectly secular science, though the authors are Christian. And I would expect one's faith to touch all they do, but that doesn't make it bad science. It just means that I may have to supplement for evolution (not really a prevalent subject even in public school science) and human reproduction (ditto), so that's really never a big deal for us.

I'm as yet undecided. At first we thought yes, but I shop there less and less as we get more and more organic/local. The meat is good supermarket quality, but I'm not sure the prices are better than the butcher. The produce is well priced and fresh, but most of it is conventional and imported. At the one in Dover, member gas prices are higher than the Wawa across the street, and I've found several items that are much more expensive than just buying them at the grocery store or Walmart (Kashi cereal comes to mind). I think it would be beneficial for large families that eat a lot of processed food, though.

I was wondering about how much installation would be. Still, last year the oil company wanted a monthly payment that was the same as our mortgage, so I'm feeling like I know how to pour a pad and dig a trench, you know? ;)

Yep. But I was up sewing at 5:30 and we have bowling at 1, so the kiddos better get a move on. (Ok, *I* had better get a move on because I'm puttering around on the boards instead of being dressed and doing phonics with the boys. )

Those are fabulous! Adorable leos for an adorable girl... Good work, mama!

Yup, those are mine. Not really a fear of either, but I make it a point to have enough coffee. Money, well, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax. You know, I just did the same thing and found that I had a remarkable stash of salsa and muffin papers. If they sealed up our houses for a couple hundred years, I wonder what the anthropologists would think about us. :001_huh:

:drool5: Right now, we have hot water baseboard, fueled by fuel oil. We have a wee little wood stove (that we're planning to upsize, come tax refund time) in the living room and a fireplace in the dining room. We were knocking around the idea of an insert for the dining room fireplace, since the fireplace itself it so dreadfully inefficient, and we were talking about a ventless propane insert for the foyer fireplace - the flue was sealed in favor of the furnace flue because we have one, central chimney and you can apparently only have three flues. That wood furnace would be AWESOME, though. Much better than the diesel furnace and, since it would be outside, we could reconstruct our back staircase (that was ripped out to create a furnace room). I am totally bookmarking that page! Thanks!

Me, too! I'm all:willy_nilly: trying to winterize the house because we just can't burn through a whole tank of oil in 3 months this year. :svengo: I can't figure it out, though, because we've cut out some bills (dropped cable / cable internet / VOIP and saved $180/month), food bills have gone down, and, I swear, the money is flying out faster than before. I'm going to have to caulk up that - growing - hole where the money's leaking out, too.

Right now, I have King Arthur and the Black Knight from The Holy Grail 9yes, my family is entirely inappropriate in our entertainment and I giggle hysterically when I hear one of the 5 y.o.s saying "Your arm is off!" to the other) and some sort of affair that involves a cloak which, as yet, only exists in the 8 y.o.'s mind. (Except it has just been announced that the 5 y.o.s want to go as "Charlie", our UPS guy, again. :001_huh:)

:smilielol5: That's just funny. The only thing I've "figured out" after four kids is that once you "figure out" how they work, the next one comes along with a completely different playbook. I agree that it's probably a phase. We did all the things - swaddling, quiet, the swing - at different phases, depending on what was going on and how profound our sleep deprivation was at the time. We co-slept, so I didn't have to physically get up, but, man! sometimes that swing saved our sanity.

We've had a couple of families take a session break from our co-op, for the reasons you mentioned. We also do field trips, park days, and whatnot outside of co-op, though, so we all do get to hook up with our friends on break periodically... Our "rule" is all or nothing, but we've had a family or two over the past couple of years who have come for the last period only (we only go 9:30 - 12:00) to take some of the pressure off and still allow then to attend. Our attitude is that the co-op has to work for ALL of our members. Nothing is written in stone, and we're happy to hear new ideas that help to make the whole thing a positive experience for everyone. This has resulted in some great "innovations" for us, like teaching rotations for classes, a later start time, and other things that have really made it a much more comfortable, tight-knit group... I guess my point here is, have you spoken to anyone about sort of splitting the difference, or making other changes that would help your situation?

uh-oh! I was planning on digging out mine after the summer hiatus soon... :blink:

That's the excuse I use when my Dyson demonstrates (again) what disgusting people we are. :D Good to know Hoover is making a worthwhile vacuum again. We went through two Windtunnels in a year before we bought the Dyson. If that ever dies, I may have to take another look at Hoover.

None of my four - aged 20 to 5 - have "gotten" rhyming until later. The 20 y.o. and the 8 y.o. are avid readers, and the 5 y.o.s (who still don't get it) are sounding out words. I honestly have never thought to be concerned about it.

I would have, if I'd had had a c-section with the boys and my OB was "already in there". But I didn't and I wouldn't just opt for abdominal surgery. (So my husband went for it instead - 20 minutes, all good. ;))

I vote F: Requisite Other I think your kids are old enough to lie around on the couch while you run out for TP (and an impulse-buy treat of your choice that you can eat without scrutiny or sharing on the way home.)