I don't, but I would think any lean bread, like french or sourdough, would be fabulous. I sometimes make a french boule with fresh rosemary and oil-cured olives snipped into the dough. Isn't most bread dairy free? Or is that just the case in my world, where I'm too lazy to look at recipes so I just add stuff until it's the right consistency?

Disclaimer: This is only my experience My oldest daughter had horribly crooked teeth at that age. Really, really crooked. Aside from what our dentist described at "the family overbite", though, she did not have any other problems. My ex-husband started pressuring about braces when she was 8 or 9. I opted to wait until she was older. Getting her full complement of adult teeth helped to align everything a great deal. She ended up having braces, at 14, for about 18 months. She was getting hers off about the same time as friends who had had braces for several years. As an aside, we also consulted with a maxillo-facial surgeon who was aghast that I would not sign on to break her jaw and extend it with metal plates for purely cosmetic reasons. Aghast. He actually implied that I was not a good mother... something along the lines of not understanding a mother who did not want the "best" for her child. :glare: Evidently, by 16 we should have all surgical cosmetic enhancements available. Anyway, if there isn't an oral health related problem (like a teeth/jaw discrepancy), I would let time and nature take care of it, as far as they can. It's free and painless. ;)

You can just live with space and bask in the glory of keeping developers from building a million condos on it. Around here, people sometimes rent part of their land to local farmers. Ay'uh. Ain't that the truth.

Spam reported here, too.

I've reported the spam. :glare:

We were pretty loose for the first couple of years. For K we just puttered around, did some FLL, ETC and conceptual math, all on a completely ad hoc basis. First grade was pretty much the same, but with SOTW reading and a very literature-centric science. Last year, we got a bit more into a school routine, and this year we have my laminated schedule, which we pretty much follow. This is 3rd grade, though, and we certainly don't have 5 hours of school work. Maybe 3 1/2, if we stretch each subject to fit the time allotted (which doesn't happen often) and we only have a full school schedule 3 days a week because we have morning activities on Tuesday and Friday. (We have school year round, though) In that time, we cover (in order) grammar, spelling, handwriting, math, piano practice, French, history, Latin, chemistry and geography. Reading is still ad hoc, but she's always got a book going, so I don't worry about that. No issues segueing into a more definite routine, with more subjects. I think that would depend largely on the ages of the kids, though. As ksva pointed out, it would be more difficult to suddenly switch up on olders (in either direction, I suspect).

I highly recommend Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal Healing for Women.

:iagree: Mine lost as much as it did because it's in "aggressive growth" funds, which have higher risk attached. When it's reinvested, I'm leaning toward a target date fund that naturally moves from aggressive growth to capital protection as it matures. (Ok, not "naturally", the fund managers do it, but I don't have to keep researching and coming up with new funds to move the money.)

I am less flexible than I used to be. It seems to "count" more than, say, Kindergarten. We have a number of outside commitments as well, and I've figured out our weekly schedule to keep those times "blocked out" for regular school work. And then I laminated it and put it on the back door. (Really, so the 3rd grader doesn't go through the "gee, we have piano today, must mean no school work" thing.) People don't usually stop in, but they do call. I generally ignore the phone and call the person back when it's more convenient for me to do so. We have caller-id. They don't have to leave a message, I just call back.

Yep. Mine lost 47%. :glare: It'll recover. I'm only 38. (It WILL recover... I'm only 38... itwillrecoveritwillrecoveritWILLrecover... that crunching noise you hear is me breathing in a paper bag) It's going into a target-date fund, though, I think. Our 401k program was ended, so mine was liquidated for rollover purposes, not for "getting out" purposes and I'm simply not sure how I want to invest it in the new account. Hey... MAYBE the market will tank even more before the check gets deposited at Schwab! :D I would keep investing. The market ALWAYS recovers over the long haul. I would, however, be concerned about the diversity of funds and would not buy single stocks... essentially, invest for the long-term and be leery of any one company or sector factoring too heavily in the investment.

Godspeed!

Ooh, yes! Literary analysis. My only experience here is with the lecture-hall sort of approach, which is obviously not what we're going for as homeschoolers. (essentially everything Janice said above; she is clearly channeling my crazy as well as her own)

Oooh, yum! I love turkey. Chicken & dumplings, but with turkey. Turkey "white" chili. Turkey Tetrazzini. Turkey casserole. Turkey pie. Turkey - minestrone soup, cream of turkey soup, turkey chowder. Turkey enchiladas (my personal favorite recipe is the Enchiladas Verdes from Cooking Light). Cheese tortellini tossed with turkey, pesto, fresh mozzerella and grape tomatoes... (I'm feeling a little "Bubba Gump's turkey store".) :D

That's interesting. My machine has an onboard heater, but it doesn't heat cold water to any particular temp. It only heats on the "sanitary" setting - to 160 degrees... which is stupid here because my hot tap water is 185 and it takes forever if I set it on "sanitary". Plus, having experienced the wet laundry when I have see something in there that doesn't belong there and have opened it up to take the item out, I can say that the water is not even close to being tepid or even warmer than our room temp - about 68. It's cold.

Ummmm, no. I just scoop a little bit out at a time, melt it in my hands and then do my thing. It may take a moment if my hands are cold, but it doesn't generally take but 10-15 seconds. In the summer, it's liquid on my counter (melting point is 76 F). Maybe if you take the (closed) container in the shower with you, it would be more melty, less crumbly? Or, you could measure some out in a glass and put it in a bowl of warm water while you shower. That should get it at least nearly liquid by the time you're ready to use it.... I'm heading up to jump in the shower now. I'll gove that a whirl and report back. ETA: OK, here's the report. I out about 2T in a juice glass, which I put in the sink basin with a little warm water. It was completely liquid when I got out of the shower. Further, despite having knee-length hair and more yardage of body surface area than I care to admit, I used perhaps half of what was in the glass, pouring a little into my hand at a time. Huh. Who knew? (I poured the rest back into the jar)

She seems a little old for roseola, but that fits the profile - sudden fever, fever goes away, spots break out... Roseola is generally a virus of infants, though, because one you get it (generally as an infant) you don't get it again. All of my kids had it. There are no serious repercussions, and they feel fine while being dotty. Viruses can incubate for much longer than 5 days - the incubation period for chicken pox is 8-21 days, for instance. I think the meningitis that they're referring to here (and I could be wrong, but I was researching it for my husband yesterday morning, for a class he was teaching) is viral, which is NOT the meningitis you hear about on the news. Viral meningitis doesn't require medical intervention most of the time. Usually, if it does, it's for secondary issues caused by being sick, sort of like chicken pox. I would keep an eye on her and look for other symptoms, but I wouldn't get too worked up about it unless there is a change. Or, no change after a few days.

Heehee. I'm one of those, but I totally knocked it out of the park with a similar recipe just this week. I'll have to make crust again before I check it off my life list, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, but I seem to be able to make consistently edible biscuits, so I'm feeling pretty good about my new, non-yeast mastery right now. :D I LOVE strawberry-rhubarb pie, though, so I'll be copying this one down. Thanks!

I agree with your husband's thought. There is no need to go into why you don't feel comfortable accepting the gift (i.e. that they are constantly borrowing to meet daily needs), just tell them you can't possibly accept such a generous gift and that it should be spent on the baby.

Any sort of information on how to incorporate and expand writing would be a thrill for me. We are trying to expand writing with our seven year old, but beyond having her answer the Story of the World chapter questions (e.g. re-writing to incorporate the question in the answer, organizing them into paragraphs, etc.), I'm sort of stuck. I guess I would just like to see topics on preparing for Freshman courses with a focus on earlier skill-building. :001_smile:

Weeeeeelllll, only if your exchange student is living in the Middle Ages. You know, before forks were invented?

I don't think there is a standard measure here. It depends on how many loads there are per container and the cost per container, then you have to factor in the "intangibles". That said, I also prefer liquid because I do not find powder dissolves particularly well in cold water. So, in that way, liquid would be more economical for us, since we can wash in cold. Making my own, factoring in time to obtain ingredients, prepare it and the results of the washing, did not prove to be more economical, either. (Not dissing anyone else's experience - I'm sure a lot has to do with specific recipe, the nature of one's water, and how disgusting your family is. ;) )

Etiquette is culturally dependent. However, making creepy noises while eating is definitely a breech of etiquette here. (I employ the Continental method for flatware handling simply because it is more efficient. )

Apparently, I use Linear - Oldest First. I had no idea you could change it. I may have to fool around and see what there is to see.

I use straight, raw coconut oil (Nutiva), right out of the tub, as a leave-in conditioner / "product". It is, literally, the only thing I have ever used that makes my hair actually curl and not frizz. (And also not have that nasty, dirty feeling when I wake up) I just melt some in my hands and rub it through while my hair is damp, then scrunch it. It is never greasy or crunchy feeling, and is very shiny (though that probably has to do with a chamomile rinse, as well).

I wouldn't see why not. Just figure out how much a "can" is and be sure it's appropriately boned.