I doubt it. My 16 qt is HUGE. A 28 qt, packed in a box, etc. is probably over the regular shipping limit for dimensions. But, yeah, shipping can be annoying. Really, really annoying.

HAHAHA! That's funny, I was just thinking the same thing. It's not sales tax, though, it's that our local appliance store doesn't have what we want and Dover is closer than Annapolis. We've paid sales tax on items delivered to us, when purchased in DE. The "rule" is that, if there is an actual store in MD and it's delivered here, we have to pay sales tax. So, when we bought our laundry machines at a private appliance store in DE, there was no sales tax. When we bought our fridge at Home Depot in DE, there was. We order things online because there is nothing here. I have to drive an hour to get to a book store. The closest homeschool store (with actual curriculum) is over 2 hours away, literally across the state. I used to drive to the one located at about the halfway mark, but they closed that location. Really, we have one grocery store, one discount store, and a handful of little basket/tchotchke shops and antiques stores. My husband did find it annoying, though, when LL Bean opened a crappy outlet neaby, thus requiring us to pay sales tax on stuff we order (because it is NOT available at the crappy outlet store). He also used to have a "thing" about going to the Sam's Club in Dover (rather than Annapolis) because of the lack of tax... except MD doesn't tax food, so.... Oh, and on "the rule"... the MD Comptroller rule is that we are supposed to record every purchase made across state lines and claim that unpaid sales tax on our return. Yeah, I'm sure everyone's doing that.

This one. Bonus - it is ridiculously cheap and readily available through Amazon. Irony - I spent over a year looking for a complete Palmer program, all of which appear to be out of print and each piece more than the whole Spencerian lot.

:iagree: There is no nutritional value. There is nothing in it that your body needs. It does real, actual damage to teeth and can cause or exacerbate digestive issues. And, frankly, bombarding your body with chemicals every day just cannot be good. He may feel great now, but how long can it continue? Ah, yes. If it has to be one or the other, I'd prefer the one with at least one actual food product... of course, here in the US, it's not sugar but high-fructose corn syrup. Actual sugar is apparently too expensive and we wouldn't want to burden anyone with a non-food food that cost three cents more. That would be scandalous. We like our food cheap, plentiful and of dubious origin. (oh, I'm sorry... rant over.)

When I was a kid, my mother tucked my nightgown under my pillow. I'm sure it had aired before she did that. Here, PJs generally get folded and left on the foot of the bed. Trousers are usually folded lengthwise, then draped over the hamper. Same with sweats or lounge pants (opposing times of the day). If the trousers aren't worn again the next day, I would hang them in the closet; they've been aired. Maybe a valet or blanket rack would be helpful here? I'm no help for sweaters... our current system (non-sanctioned) is to throw sweaters in the seat of one of the living room chairs. The dog is happily bedded down in a nest of wool right now.:glare:

Yep, that! :thumbup::hurray: Wow. What an awesome feeling!

Yep. The sugar in the cookies is hygroscopic - it pulls in moisture. The bread has moisture. I've always wondered about the apple; doesn't it lend an odd flavor to the cookies? Actually, anything with a little moisture in a closed container should work, even a damp cotton ball... though that is less appealing than, say, eating a bowl of cookie dough. :D

Audio To Go (like Netflix for audio books) has them, though. Amazon seems to be cheaper than iTunes, even.

I find that is the best way to keep them from getting burnt or stale.

What do you mean "big lined"? Like wide rule notebook paper? I like Spencerian Penmanship, but I'm odd. (And maybe a smidge obsessive about penmanship) Evan-Moor has various cursive programs, Handwriting Without Tears... there are a lot of them out there. I think they're all pretty similar.

Do you have corn? Shepherd's Pie? Polenta? You could make 30 Minute Skillet Tamale Pie (Rachel Ray) (maybe it's 15 minute... it's never done in either at my house) Just add the stuff you have - I never make it the same way twice. Meatloaf? Burritos?

"With our thoughts, we make the world" - Buddha "I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble." - Helen Keller "Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it." - Gandhi

I would probably call them to let them know, but I wouldn't make a huge deal of it. Chicken does naturally have bones in it, after all. They may want to be notified of this, in case there is a quality control issue with a particular lot, though.

Vinegar. Run vinegar through it. If there is a "clean" setting, use that. If not, turn it off halfway through, so the vinegar sits in the tubing for a bit. There is also actual coffee maker cleaner, allegedly often found in the coffee aisle of the supermarket. I have never seen it in any I have frequented, however. ETA: Could coffee grounds have fallen into the water reservoir? I'm not familiar with your setup, but my husband started the coffee without the lid on the carafe in my Cuisinart a few weeks ago - causing the filter to not empty, back up, etc. - and the clean light came on because there were grounds clogging up the works. There was some time spent with the whole thing upside down, rinsing it with the sink sprayer, and a few runs with vinegar, then water. Friends who have a similar model with an onboard grinder and they have this problem all the time.

:D

Us, too. Our milk comes in gallon pickle jars. Ask the local deli if they'll sell or give you their empties. Also, if you have a Whole Foods nearby, they have milk in glass bottles. You would, of course, have to buy the milk (and pay the bottle deposit) but then you could just keep the bottle for water use. Or you could just order a couple of these. :001_smile: I'm thinking of ordering a couple to transfer our milk into, rather than the plastic pitcher we use now (with the seemingly uncleanable lid... Ack!)

In short, yes. There are some viral illnesses that can compromise the liver a bit, which can be made devastating by adding antibiotics (mono comes to mind - not suggesting that's what it is, just an example). Taking a mild, non-broad-spectrum antibiotic will also kill off much of the natural bacteria that lives in and on your body, whose colonization of your person can keep the more aggressive, pathogenic bugs at bay. That can lead to an open door with full buffet for MRSA and other tenacious species that like to live in hospitals. Also, if it turns out to be a virus, then you may still be sick in 10 days. With or without antibiotics. See a doctor. Call your surgeon. Do not self medicate. Do not pretend you're not sick. It's not worth the risk. If it's a cold that spurred a sinus infection, there are other courses of antibiotics that will not just "knock it down" in a shorter time, so you will know they worked well before your surgery date.

I agree. The Well-Trained Mind, Gatto, and Holt were all quite inspirational in the incredible benefits of homeschooling. IMNSHO, inspiration is worth much, much more than a "why you should" do anything manual.

Isn't this the guns vs butter debate from Econ 101? If I recall correctly, that involves balance, not focus on one or the other exclusively, and it's (at least in the econ context) fluid.

Definitely. I tend to follow Michael Pollan's rules about eating (from In Defense of Food), among them the tag line, "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.", but also "never eat something your grandmother would not recognize as food". Depending on your age, you may need to substitute "great grandmother".

All of those things probably factor into the body's ability to heal itself and defend against illness. Inadequate nutrition, constant exposure to chemicals, stress... they all make your body work that much harder to just maintain. There is no simple switch to make, no panacea. It's a continuum. We don't eat processed food for the most part, and our diet is about 90% organic, but I am certainly not guzzling spirulina smoothies in the morning. (No aversion to spirulina or fruits and veggies at all, I'm just not a big smoothie person and that would not be something I would maintain, nor feel good about.) There is nothing wrong with chocolate. There is nothing wrong with pizza. There is plenty wrong with heavily processed, non-food food. Try addressing your eating habits in the same way you approached cleaning and personal care. I'm guessing you didn't outlaw all personal care options other than being blasted with a fire hose. You shouldn't approach eating - one of life's greatest pleasures - that way, either. Examine what you like to eat, then look for ways to improve it. Like pizza - organic pesto, goat cheese pizza does not have the same evil connotation as snarfing a Red Baron in the 7-11. The raw ingredients were not sprayed with petrochemicals every inch of the way. The cheese is not full of synthetic hormones and antibiotics. There are no fake nutrients shoved in to compensate for the nutritional wasteland of such ingredients. I bet it even had a whole grain crust. Your body can assimilate the natural nutrients that occur in that. There are a number of constituents there besides the ones the USDA accounts for in nutritional labeling. If you want chocolate, does it have to be half a bag of Snickers snack-sized, or would you be happy with something else? I make oatmeal cookies to quell my chocolate needs.. Use any recipe you have and use organic, whole grain, unprocessed ingredients. Then add some nuts, dried fruit of your choosing, chocolate chips, and 1/4 - 1/2 cup of cocoa powder. Yum. Popcorn is a favorite snack here. Instead of microwave popcorn with questionable food and non-food ingredients, I make it in my Whirly-Pop, with organic popcorn and oil, and top it with butter, parmesan and pepper. We also use meat (local, organically raised, grass finished) as more of a condiment. A pound of meat easily provides two meals for five of us. Do we feel deprived? Like we need that little other "something"? Nah. Not often anyway (though I will tell you my husband looks forward to trips to Dover - about quarterly - where there is a Sonic :D) because we're really not. Finally, you need to make time to relax. Meditate, pray, do yoga, hide in the closet and rock... something that works for you to keep your body un-bunchy. Chronic stress does damage.

Heehee. Ours are "allegedly stackable", but I would have to use a step ladder to push the buttons on the top on if they were. :D A friend has the all-in-one (she also only has one child, way past the diaper phase) and loves it. I aspire to a place in my life where my laundry could be done, one load at a time, in one machine. Wow.

Ok, and further investigation points to the French for pork ("porc"... English is so vulgar, sticking ks and zs everywhere) which got to them from the Latin "porcus". Though "poisson" to "fish" is a stumper. "Piscis" to "fish" really seems to imply a mass speech impediment somewhere. I love the word etiology game!

My parents blame my early reading on Sesame Street and the Electric Company. :D (Plus countless hours of them reading to me.) This would definitely describe me as a kid. I was/am a natural speller, though, too. I distinctly remember being five and annoying my mother by repeatedly spelling encyclopedia behind her while she was trying to cook supper... took her a while to catch on. I wonder why the same wouldn't translate to spelling. That's interesting. I never learned phonics; I had a delightful first grade teacher who would give me a book while she taught phonics, so I would be staring at a wall. We had this very concern about my seven-year-old this fall. She read the Harry Potter series in about two months and we were wondering how much she got out of the books, how many words she had just skipped over, etc. We recently let her watch the first movie and she spent half the time telling my husband what was coming next, why the person you were about to meet is important, etc. She had a very short introduction to phonics and hated it so we stopped. But she reads fluently and quickly, and is a pretty natural speller, too. My four-year-olds are more interested in spelling than decoding. I wonder what that means?:001_huh:

:iagree: Even books that seem like insipid drivel to you will make him more comfortable with the natural cadence of written language. Another thing you may want to try - because composing and writing simultaneously can be difficult at first and he is only just entering the age of self expression - is having him answer review questions, restating the question as part of the answer. Then you can expand that to include the answer and another statement giving further details about the first, then arranging them into paragraph form, and so on. Baby steps. We like Spelling Power. We have friends who like Sequential Spelling. Both seem to require a more systematic approach to actually learning the correct spelling of words than merely memorizing a list. Both allow the student to progress at their own pace, rather than being "done" with the lesson without knowing the words or being bored to tears because they already know them by the end of the first lesson. Also, it is not uncommon for kids who can spell in the context of a spelling test to not translate that ability to writing their own thoughts. Again, it's the simultaneous composition and writing thing that seems to hose up the works. And, if it makes you feel better, I've seen that level of writing in a college English class. :glare: