Yeah, I agree, and I always feel sorry for Larry - obviously his Dad is abusive when he is there which is not very often, and his Mom is an older, nervous and very ineffective parent. I wish Ms. Lander's would have a heart to heart with that awful Judy or better yet, send her to Mrs. Rayburn's once in a while for being such a prig.

I'm in the middle of watching the whole series on Netflix - loving it too btw - and she sure does. They all do actually, even Wally. Once in a while they even have a story line based around Eddies "antics" where one or the other parent with the boys or the boys with each other have a conversation where they try to understand where Eddie is coming from and end up either being sadly sympathetic that he's so messed up, or at least kind of realizing "he's, well, Eddie".

When my three who are age stair-steps were very little, I began purposefully dividing the day to give them time to learn how to spend time NOT needing me. From get up to lunch, I focused my day around them, we played, we learned, we did all kinds of fun activities together. After lunch and naps, was mom time. I expected them to entertain themselves until dinner. I honestly worked at this, and it worked. They became very self entertaining! I was not mean about it, but I was firm. I'd go about my business, cleaning, or cooking, or whatever and if I needed to shop or visit, of course they went with, but I was NOT on "tap" unless it was a serious need, like getting a boo-boo, or being ill. I was present but not at beck and call, if that makes sense. When Daddy got home, he was all pretty much "all their's" until bedtime, at which time I was able to take over without feeling so overwhelmed. I also did the bulk of bedtime, but that was by mutual agreement, because I'm the singer, reader-out-louder. After I had them settled, he'd come do tuck in and chat and pray. Another thing that helped? Upon the sound advise of a veteran mom, I lovingly let dh know, very, very soon after we first become parents, that I needed some "me" time on a regular basis to stay sane and to be a good role model of healthy self care to our daughter. He was glad to help, so (at first once a week) he would take over for an evening and send me out with a girlfriend, or to walk or go to the library, or whatever I wanted to do. It was one of the smartest things I ever did as a young parent. As time went by and our family increased, I didn't get to go off so often, but he was always very good to see when I was nearing melt down, and shoo me out, or to make it possible for me to get the down time. HTH

First day of 9th for ds. middle dd started last week (ps) and oldest is half started LOL. She's a senior and is doing electives at the ps, but finishing her life guarding job up, and won't start her hs classes until next Monday. Guess we're all over the board. Ds and I had a very good day and I celebrated his high school launch with a mini blizzard (picked up when I dropped oldest at school) which made him extra happy LOL.

I'd start with the very basic staples for cooking and baking (if you bake) stock or make sure those are stocked. Start thinking in terms of ingredients instead of whole dishes. It's kind of like building a good wardrobe, think in terms of single items that can be used many ways. After that I'd start just replacing as you go. Whenever you need to replace something pre-packaged, or a convenience food of any kind, look at what you would need to make that from scratch, and add those ingredients to the pantry.

:iagree: Used this for two students with great success and both quickly were able to move through it almost independently without dvds.

DS will be doing Algebra using this text this year. We considered using the Callahan dvds, but the cost is kind of steep for us. DS likes using videos for learning, so I'm wondering if any one has used this text in conjunction with Khan Academy and how that worked out? Also, do I need the teacher's guide, or will just the Solution Book and the free Callahan's syllabus be enough? Thanks

Well it's been a dozen years since I bought a diaper, but we learned the hard way, we could pay for cheaper diapers and spend more in laundry. We found that Huggies worked best for us, though Pampers was an ok second choice.

Yes, I would because in our family the operating rule is "everyone gets what they need". We don't do "fair", as in trying to make everything equal. Of course there are situations for that, handing out cookies for example, but just because one child is ready for a certain movie, or needs a new pair of shoes, or one on one time with Dad, or is invited to a birthday party, doesn't mean the others are automatically included. :)

That most of us pronounce her name wrong. That she had a baby with her on the trip and that she was a huge help to the Corp, in fact helped save their collective bacon at least once. :)

Either because I want them to lead their own lives, but I definitely HOPE they have babies because I want grandchildren :tongue_smilie: If they do have children and choose to homeschool that would be awesome, but I'll love 'em anyway. :001_smile:

Current kiddo - turned 14 in February and will be starting 9th grade work in September. Next oldest , fwiw, was an Oct baby and just finished 9th (ps) so she was 14 at the beginning but most of the 9th was 15. :)

Yes it's typical, at least to set it up before launching the "get parental-unit permission" campaign. LOL. Perfectly normal teen behavior. In our family, we have two basic rules regarding this, the first is, Kidlet must not ask for permission in front of the friend or put PU's on the spot in any way. The second is, yes all PU's to be in the loop and be comfortable with ALL the variables including communication of some sort PU to PU, everyone knowing who is going to be in charge/supervising, what if any risk involving activities are planned, etc. It's just the way it is. So yes I would insist on talking to the hosting parent. Mortification is temporary, grief is not.

I cook from scratch and the reason it saves me a bunch of money is that each ingredient I buy can be used many different ways. Using the humble potato as an example I can paying $2.00 for a box of au gratin potatoes that makes a side dish for one meal or I can pay $2.50 for 10 lbs of potatoes, $5.00 for 2 lbs of cheese, $3.00 for a gallon of milk, $2.00 for 1 lb of butter. all totaling $12.50 and from which I can make, au gratin potatoes, baked potatoes, fried potatoes, mashed potatoes and potato soup. That's 4 side dishes and a meal plus I can usually make at least one of those side dishes twice. In addition, I won't use all that cheese, butter and milk on those dishes, so I have those for other meals. That's not bad for $12.50 BTW: I'm feeding 5 people, including 3 teenagers one of whom is a 6'1" growing boy. :)

Considering that the guy himself may only be 30, I would bet he just needs to be whacked upside the head with a cluebyfour. Was in youth ministry of one kind or another for over 20 years and yes, youngish parents can be very, very clueless. Icky.