Well, I thought my daughter was unique, but I guess not. She humms herself to sleep. We always know when she's drifting off because she does her humming sound. My boys, I have no idea if they do anything. They didn't as infants.

Our children were adopted through the County fost-adopt program here in California. We want to adopt #4 (and possibly #5 as a sib group) and have changed from our county agency to Koinonia. We are still in the process of getting certified with Koinonia, but we have been very happy with them so far - their philosophy, etc. etc. We got very frustrated with the county. We HS our kids, too, and know that we will be unable to do so with a foster child. There are a lot of really silly rules and regulations and it's a tough business to be in. We did have visitation with our kids' birthmom (supervised at the County HQ) and that was pretty awful. Our kids were very young (toddlers) at that time, so they don't remember any of it. Yeah, she was quite hostile, to say the least. But, you just go through it. When you get involved in foster care you get involved in the ugliness of people's lives, but you just have to remember that you are doing good for the innocent victims, which are the children. I don't want to discourage you at all. We went into it all wide-eyed and naive and ended up with a good dose of reality. But, for all that we would like to be foster parents when our kids are old enough to be "influencers" rather than "influencees".

We adopted our three children through our County CFS. It's free, we got a reimbursement while they were foster children. The boys were 13 months and 4 months when we adopted them (they're bio brothers). Our daughter was 2 days old, we picked her up from the hospital. The wait for them was pretty short (3 weeks for our boys, 6 months for our daughter). We are trying to adopt again and we've been waiting well over a year now. Initially we were very pleased working with the County, now we are very frustrated. However, our children are wonderful. They came from a very scary background, but I'd say they are a good example of how raising a child in the right environment can negate a lot of the bad stuff they got early on.

Central Valley, CA - hate the weather and the smog and California politics, but family is the only thing keeping us here. Bay Area, CA (East Bay) - Hated the traffic and the politics and the high prices, loved the weather Central Kentucky - loved it, no family there, though. Sao Paulo, Brazil - nice weather, hated the traffic, it was a big, stinking, horribly smoggy city. But, it was definitely an adventure.

Hmm, good question. I just attended my grandmother's funeral yesterday and I can't say I noticed what people wore. Church clothes, basically. I think head to toe white would be a little inappropriate for a funeral.

We will be spending less, but not because of the economy. Our kids just have too many toys and they're turning into selfish little buggers. They will be getting things for Christmas, but we're also trying to teach them about giving and that just because it's Christmas they aren't "entitled" to a big haul.

I just drink Yuban. Works for me. I started drinking coffee when I taught in Brazil for 2 years and their coffee is awesome.

I use it diluted to mop my tile floors. I use it straight with a little baking soda to clean the grout in my tile counter tops.

As much as I was addicted to those books when I read them, I will not see the movie. No one can duplicate the Jamie I made up in my mind. And I certainly don't want to see anyone replacing me as Claire.;)

I taught Saxon in junior high for a year and I hated it, too. It's horribly boring.

I never taught either of them, but I taught at a Christian school where it was strictly A Beka, except for History. Our admin. insisted that BJ History was a better program, so we used that. I taught science, so I never actually taught the stuff, but that was her opinion.

I never got flu shots. Until 2 years ago I got the flu. And it was the worst experience in my whole entire life. I was literally sick in bed for 2 weeks, and then after the whole thing was over ended up with a raging sinus infection and bronchitis. My whole family gets flu shots now.

I don't know of any and would welcome recommendations as well. My oldest DS is 5 and he really struggles with self-control. It's not a huge problem, but it does keep him from being liked a whole lot by other children.

For us, it's a gut feeling. We adopted all of our children. We first got the boys as a sibling group (ages 4 mo. and 13 mo., they're bio brothers) and that was the biggest shock - going from 0 to 2. We adopted our daughter when she was 2 days old, she is 2 years younger than our youngest son. We just know in our hearts we want at least another child, perhaps two, so we're kind of going back and forth. Actually, the big problem is our house size. The County will not let us have more than 2 children/room (this is a foster/adoption requirement) and we only have a 3 bedroom house. So, do we add on, convert our 3rd garage space? But, we know we want more children and are just praying about what to do about our house.

Well, my boys are young (kinder), so when they misbehave, they get a time-out and they have to make-up the work they missed during their t.v. time. They only get to watch 1/2 hour of tv a day, so it's a big deal for them. It works for us!

I am a former teacher as well. I taught jr. high science for years. There was so much I learned right along with the kids. Don't doubt yourself or feel like you're not good enough. If you don't know something, look it up. The information is out there and you'll be teaching your child to be a self-motivated learner anyhow.

We belong to a reformed church, we're Presbyterian and belong to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) Denomination. Generally you can tell by the denomination, but not all Presbyterian Churches, or should I say pastors/congregations are reformed. The pastor of our church who was there before we started attending was not reformed, but our pastor now is very much so. I think you can use the denomination as a guideline, but you'd really need to talk to the pastor to see what he preaches.

My five year old boy is 42 lbs. My four year old boy is 34 lbs. My 2 1/2 year old daugher is 32 lbs. The boys are just built very differently. My oldest is skinny as a rail, but he's all muscle, he's solid and he's very athletic. My daughter has been on the top end of the growth charts from day one.

I am doing A Beka Math for kinder and I like it. It's pretty straightforward (I like straightforward, which is why I like A Beka), but I've heard from many sources (including TWTM) that A Beka tends to overkill on the drill. So, if you're one of those (like me) who wants to "get my money's worth from this curriculum" you kind of have to restrain yourself and skip stuff if it gets too repetitious.

Hubbard's Cupboard http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/index.html is really a great resource for preschool stuff. She has a lot of great stuff, and she links to a lot of great stuff. I used a lot of her ideas last year when I was doing preschool with the boys.

In the summer tomatoes save me a lot, as well as peppers, zucchini, green beans and also raiding my parents/aunts and uncles' fruit orchards. I don't buy any produce from the grocery store in the summer. In the winter I grow lettuce for salads. This year I'm expanding my winter garden and adding carrots, leeks, fennel and onions. In the spring I harvest sugar snap and snow peas. I'd say it saves quite a big of money, especially in the summer time. I'm definitely noticing my bill is higher now since I'm buying more from the grocery store.

We're reading aloud the classic Winnie-the-Pooh and the boys love it. They also have enjoyed "A Child's Book of Virtues" and "A Child's Book of Heroes" by William Bennet.

Good for you. I love baking bread, and it's intimidating at first, but really, you just need to keep practicing. I've got a really good potato bread recipe that makes an excellent sandwich bread.

I was going to suggest the AIMS book, too. I taught it in a classroom setting an it's excellent. You don't really have to buy technical equipment, just lots of batteries and if you have an old string of Christmas tree lights, you're set. It's got some awesome activities. One of my favorite units to teach!

We're already the biggest tightwads I know, so we're not doing anything out of the ordinary.