My oldest was at the ps high school last year for two choir classes. This high school runs on a block schedule so her classes were 7th and 8th period, which meant, every day she had class the last period of the day and one day this would be jazz, the next concert, then jazz again and so on. It worked wonderfully for our schedule. Both my dd's, 9th and 11th will again be in choir this year, but I don't think the schedule is going to be so neat and tidy because they both are in two choirs, but not the same two. YIKES! Anyway - experience? Mostly positive. The school is a large one in a small city in a very rural county, so still a lot of small town good attitudes of helpfulness, friendliness, thinking outside the box. DD LOVED her year, and feels that she grew a lot musically, made friends including a best friend, all good things. She's excited about continuing in the music programs and was accepted into both elite choirs, again all good. The downside? She saw first hand the negative side of ps; getting cat called and verbally ogled in the halls, kids who hate learning and are just marking time, bullying, gang stuff, the stupidity of the clique thing, the amount of time that gets wasted even in her well taught classes. I think because of who she is, this all served to deepen her critical thinking skills and we had some incredible discussion over the year, so I feel we were able to redeem even the negative. She started the year still not sure if she liked home learning and it wasn't long before she begin to sing the praises of our way. LOL All in all, for us it was very worth it and we will continue to use the high school as a resource.

Mine was taken out 4 years ago and yes it was helpful and since it was making me unable to eat, having it removed very likely saved my life. It was day surgery and the recovery was a couple of weeks and then 6 weeks to really feel 100% again. As to life without my gb being bad or different? That greatly depends on the person. I have friends who can't have a speck of fat without it causing lower intestinal problems and friends who not had to modify their diets much at all. I fall into that group. The first 6 months I had less tolerance for fat, but gradually my body adjusted. Some things never bothered me, somethings stopped bothering me and one or two things still do. Sometimes the same exact food, prepared the same way will "upset me" when it didn't the last time I ate it, and doesn't the next time. Go figure. The result of this is I gave up guessing and just eat normally and if I get "hit" with an episode, I just ride it out.

Oh JoAnn - you are making me long for the Puget Sound!! We used to vacation on the Hood Canal every year until the owners of the cabin we used, sold it. :( Wonderful memories. Also, my sister lived in Oak Harbor for years and then in Anacortes, so we visited there often as well. Sigh... Hope your toe heals quickly.

Nope - retirement savings are up to us not the government, and I honestly don't expect there to be any there for us in 20 years anyway.

Bip - musical, friendly, independent Bop - artistic, social, girly Boo - funny, loving, compassionate :)

I have quite a bit memorized. I memorize easily and love the Bible, so it's been somewhat of a hobby of mine over the years. I'm slowly working my way through Psalms. Over the course of 6 months I memorized Psalms 119 but that was several years ago and I've lost or "shelved" much of it so I don't have total recall on it as I did then. I have many, many verses and passages that I'm so familiar with I can paraphrase them and in many cases directly quote them but I never set out to learn them. They are just part of my faith life. If I was going to undertake a major project for the first time, I would start with some Psalms or key passages like I Cor 13, or James 3 or the he whole of Ephesians, Philippians or Colossians. :)

:iagree: Too AND that has the spine or textbook on audio! The ONLY reason I'm settling for Apologia this year (and I'm not thrilled) is because I have a dd with an ld who needs to be able to hear the text as she reads and so far Apologia is the only science curriculum I've found that fits that bill without costing me an arm and a leg.

In our family we define real food as anything edible that: a) grows i.e. veggies, fruit, grain b) eats what grows or eats other eaters i.e chicken, fish, beef, pork, elk... c) comes directly (with as little messing about as possible) from grow or eater eaters i.e. milk, eggs, butter, cheese LOL - well that's kind of our definition. As far as organic - meh...not convinced it's any better especially on my budget. Local? Nice for somethings, but to stick to local only makes no sense to me, what about produce we can't grow locally, like oranges, cantaloupe, bananas? Anyway, we try to stick as close to our three categories as possible, I cook mostly from scratch, using very, very few processed ingredients and I think that's good enough for us. :)

The Karate Kid and Back to the Future are two that are still favorites around here.

We've stayed in some nice KOA's. No you don't have to be a member and many of them have comfy little cabins. If there is one near your destination, definitely check it out.

Yeah - given those events happened so close to you, it's certainly understandable to feel anxious. I guess what helps me to feel confident is the truth that crimes like you mention are actually rare. They make the news not just because they are horrific, but because they are out of the ordinary. I evaluate the potential risk of camping much as I do about flying. I mean 24 hours a day large planes carrying hundreds of people are zooming all over the world and only rarely is there a crash or a life threatening problem. When there is it's big news because usually a lot of people are affected all at once and again, because it's out of the norm. In the same way, every year thousands of people go camping and don't encounter knife or gun wielding maniacs, or any maniacs at all. In the last 20 years I've been camping all over Oregon and a few times Washington and Idaho usually 3-5 times a season and the only trouble I've ever had has been with raccoons and mosquitoes and once we had some firewood stolen. That's it. Hope that helps. :)

Yes! I've been camping with just myself and my three kids (dh is NOT a camper-guy) for years, in fact our first trip without a second adult was when my youngest was 6. We always camp in state parks or USFS camp grounds with a host and have never had any problems of the two legged variety. I always try to meet my "neighbors" and we're careful not to advertise by loose talk that we are man-less. :)

We do 100% oj only and just for breakfast. Once in a great while we'll have 100% grape juice. To me the amount of vitamin C in the oj more than makes up for the sugar. We've never done apple juice since both my dd and I can't tolerate it, and none of us like grapefruit juice.

Well mine are 13, 14 and 15 (almost 16). At this age and especially because of our limited finances, if they want anything beyond basic necessities, they have to find a way to earn the $. That's just our life right now and I'm not seeing it as such a bad thing. DD 15 is a worker! She has found paying work in one way or another since age 12. This summer she has her first actual pay-check job as a lifeguard, but she has babysat, picked berries, hosted and waited tables at the restaurant and runs our coffee shop as needed. She also likes to contract for big jobs around home when we have the money to pay her. She paid for a year of cello lessons herself when she was 14 and she's paying for her own voice lessons now. DD 14 helps at our coffee shop when she can. She worked for the our town's youth work program last summer and did well, she has pet sat, and when she's of a mind too and I'm able she is a good weeder. DS 13 Holds signs for our shop and has had some lawn mowing work, but he is our most difficult one to get working. ETA: Though we don't pay allowance and we do expect help with chores, the agreement is that transportation cost are on me as long as they are helping around the house. Not helping with chores results in paying the driver (me) for trips not on the drivers agenda. ;) The only thing that is not a basic need that we pay for at this point is ds's piano lessons. He and I are working on a plan to have him begin to pay for half of that cost this fall, and my goal is for him to pay for all of his music lessons in high school if he wishes to continue.

We used the book and the regular version of the Roadmaps with oldest dd and she LOVED it! She listened to the book on audio and picked and printed from the online student resources to build her own study guide. I added in a book list and dvds on a schedule. We did this over two years and it was a great success. We never used the premium because the regular was more than enough. :-)

JSYK...If you aren't sure about the seal, it is a super cheap and easy thing to replace. :)

My parents produced 5 children (all girls), 16 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren thus far. My own children are still young, 4 the grandchildren are adults but not married and one granddaughter is just getting started on her family, so the potential for great grands is quite large. So their total is 43 currently. My parents divorced after only 13 years of marriage and my father remarried and had 2 sons and now has 5 grandchildren from that union.

I read this book in book club a couple of years ago and it touched me deeply. I found so many similarities between the author's growing up years and my own. Her being about my age struck even more of a chord with me. Many of her descriptions brought back the actual smell and "feel" of times and places for me. I hope when I get ready to write my own story I can do even 1/10th as well in the telling. One thing I feel she did very well was to illustrate the complexity of living in a dysfunctional family that wasn't always or in all ways dysfunctional. I loved that she remembered good times and funny moments and times of pulling together and making do. I think this book could spark a lot of really good discussions. :001_smile:

Curious...why not bouillon? I checked for a friend and Herb Ox brand for one, and I'm sure others are gluten free.

Use Steel cut oats and cook them this way to make them soft (not crunchy) without tasting like glue: put the oats in the cold salted water, bring the whole thing to a rolling boil. Turn it simmer, give it a few stirs to settle it down so it doesn't boil over, pop a lid on it, walk away for 15 minutes or longer. Perfect texture! Very, very easy. I usually take my shower while it cooks. Best add ins? Fruit, brown sugar, whole milk or cream, butter. Yummy and very good for you too. :)

Short u - The boy is wearing uh a hat.

I used AG with my oldest and youngest and it was a huge success. In fact, my oldest (dd 15) who has a recently dx'd LD found it to be the ONLY program that worked. It's set up to be used over 1, 2 or 3 years and include a schedule for each choice. If you use if over 3 years, the pace is very doable and you'd only be spending about $35 a year for a complete grammar program. Dd used it over 9th and 10th. Ds (13) has one more "season" to do in 8th. Both of them will use the review and reinforcement after that. What I liked best about it: a) just grammar, no writing b) a straightforward, open and go curriculum. c) teaches sentence diagraming in a step by step way that makes sense. d) Teacher friendly - We go over the "lesson" together, on Monday and they do the first practice. Tue and Thur, practice 2 and 3, test on Friday. f) Tests are very comprehensive! You really know if the material is being mastered. e) you learn one part/concept at a time, but continue to use it as you go along so review is built in! f) finding the parts is taught in such a sensible pattern that it quickly becomes intuitive. HOWEVER - see my caution below :) My dislikes: a) correcting work can be a chore because as they progress, there are more and more "parts" to check in each sentence. I honestly don't mind, but it does take time. b) Finding the parts caution: We learned (the hard way) that in the beginning, the habit of looking for the parts, i.e. following the pattern, vs just looking at each word and trying to guess its part had to be intentionally taught. Once this was mastered, no problem. I put this as a dislike because I wish the author would address this in the beginning. We had several failed units before I figured out what the problem was. Wish, wish, wish!!!! that this was on cd-rom like Teaching Textbooks. That would indeed be my dream grammar program. :)

Ah - if your heading inland, perhaps you're planning on going through Cave Junction? If so, take a right there and head on up to the Oregon Caves! These are a must see in that part of the state. So, so worth the stop! :)

And if you like to day hike, the hike up to the top, or down to the bottom of the cape is wonderful! :)=

There is so much of the Oregon Coast, it's hard to know what to recommend, would you like to head north or south from Depot Bay? Here's my list of favorites from Astoria south to Newport. The whole coast is great for finding tidepools, vistas, lighthouses, day hikes etc.. *Astoria: Columbia River Maritime Museum, Fort Clatsop (site of Lewis and Clarks winter camp), Fort Stevens, The Astor Column, The Riverfront Trolley, The Children's Museum *Seaside: Nice downtown area including best candy shop in.the.world - The Buzz on Broadway! (Don't like the beach much, better beach at... *Cannon Beach - just a lovely little town a very nice beach & Haystack Rock great tide pools and bird watching *Ecola State Park - tidepools *Tillamook: Cheese factory - watch the cheese being packaged for shippment through big glass windows, self guided tour, don't miss the fresh squeaky cheese (curds) and Tillamook Ice-cream YUMMY, Also in Tillamook, The Air Museum housed in the humongous blimp hangers, and Main Street Pizza (awesome pizza) *Three Capes Scenic Loop along which you can see The Cape Meares Lighthouse, The Octopus Tree and the Three Arches National Wildlife Refuge - stunningly beautiful. Cape Lookout State Park day use area a wonderful place to hit the beach (a favorite and we love to camp there as well) *Lincoln City - several nice beaches, a couple of glass blowing places and home to one of the best little mom and pop cafes in the world - The Beach Dog Cafe. Specialty awesome hotdogs of all kinds, wonderful breakfast, from scratch cooking. It's tiny but amazing! Between Lincoln City & Newport take the Otter Rock Scenic Loop with an overlook at Devils Punchbowl - spectacular views *Newport - Yaquina Head Lighthouse (you can go in this one) Tide pools and Interpretive Center. Cost $5.00 per day to go in - well worth it! Lighthouse at Yaquina Bay Hope that helps - have fun! I'm blessed to live just 1.5 hours from most of these amazing places :)