my kids are all quite close in age and they quarrel constantly. They drive me crazy. I wish there was a bigger age gap between them. All that to say, nothing is ideal. In some ways, children close in age is great. In other ways, not so much. There are a lot of factors that determine sibling harmony besides age.

On schedule for school today. Didn't help that neighbor kids had teacher in-service this morning, so school started at 10:30 for them. They were outside riding bike this morning while my kids were doing grammar. I had to close all the blinds and still DS was in a pouty mood. I was glad to see them leave.

Good Morning, everyone! Allergies? Yes, right here! Got my Zyrtec, Astelin, Nasonex and that other stuff I take for post nasal drip ready and I still feel like death. Top that off with feeling yucky from the time change and I am not ready to tackle Monday. I hate Mondays, anyway. ** school ** mil coming for the morning ** clean up house for cleaners (sometimes I wonder if the stress of cleaning up the house and getting out of here when they are here is worth them being here. It's a toss up) ** library ** allergy shots ** bell choir Hope everyone feels better. Maybe we should all move to the desert where nothing blooms.

I'm here, better late than never, I guess! ** church ** did very little this afternoon, but I did bake bread ** the fiddleneck is blooming and my allergies are killing me!

If you aren't planning on doing much strenuous hiking I'd just do it in a good pair of tennis shoes. I bought a good pair of hiking boots 10 years ago and got good use out of them (before kids, now we hardly ever hike) but I paid good money for them. They have good ankle support, which I really need.

I'm sorry, Jean. Rant all you want. We're here for you!

Morning Girls, DH is home. He got home around 9:00 last night, but will be off to Vegas next week again. His company headquarters is there now. Fortunately, it's only a 1 1/2 hour flight from Fresno and in our same time zone, so it's not really a big deal. Today.... ** bake DS's birthday cake ** make homemade icecream ** try to figure out what to make for birthday dinner tonight (grandparents are coming over) **dd has kingdom Kids practice ** clean house ** whatever else needs to be done It's a beautiful day out this morning! I wish I could work outside, but I don't think that's going to happen!

They forgot about putting shampoo and lotion under the infant carrier so the toddler couldn't play with them and then forgetting about them and walking out the store without paying for them, only to discover them after you had put all the rest of your things in the trunk, buckled both toddlers into their car seats and then picked up the infant carrier. I did that a couple of times. I was too tired to go in at the time and pay for the items, but I did mention the mistake the next time I went in and paid for said items.

Because of the ages of my kids, we started in 2nd grade with SOTW and then skipped Modern on the first go round. Now we're doing Ancients agag with my older boys and the first time with my daughter. It's working out fine.

Hugs, Amy! Jean, glad you have power! Just got back from co-op. We're building rockets. It went well. I'm just exhausted. ** leave in 5 minutes to take DS to guitar lessons ** come home! make salad quick! pick up DS and take the gang over to my friend's house. We're both "single moms" right now (her dh is out of town on business, too) so we're doing pizza and salad.

Yay for Spring Break, Kristi! I wish we were, but we're taking our Spring Break when the schools around here do, so my kids won't be inside doing school while the whole neighborhood is out playing. So, we have another month to go. :(

Morning Gals! Just couldn't get up this morning. Don't know why. Today... ** school ** co-op ** ds2 guitar lessons ** dinner at friends' house. Her dh is out of town for work, too, so we're getting together for pizza. There will be us and 9 kids between us! ** dh coming home late! Have a happy Friday!

Are you doing A Beka math already with him? Or are you coming to A Beka from another curriculum? If you are coming to A Beka from another curriculum, then I might not try it.

I never try clothes on at Target. If I don't like it or it doesn't fit I return it. I hate dressing rooms. They are bad for my self esteem.

Morning, Girls! Tress, I hope you can take a quick nap sometime today! DH called last night from Vegas. He's having a good time. Today... ** school ** get rocketry stuff ready (not much to do, since we cancelled last week due to inclement weather and power outages all over the place) ** bake DS's birthday cake (we have 2 birthdays in one week around here, so we are inundated with birthday cake) ** dd has Kingdom Kids ** dinner at my parents' house Have a good day, everyone!

My daughter just turned 8. She's still wearing size 8, but has been wearing that size for about 6 months. She is tall and slender for her age, though.

I've been to conventions before, plan to go again this summer and I would not take children for the following reasons: 1) I want to be able to sit, relax and listen in a seminar. I don't want to worry about if my kid is going to disrupt or worry about them at all. 2) I want to browse in the exhibit hall. I don't want to rush, I want to look and think. I don't want to have to keep an eye on anyone. 3) convention is a time for me to re-group and get jazzed about what I'm doing. It's a time for me to step out of my family and sort of connect with the greater homeschool community. 4) convention can also be a fun adult time. I went last year with my sil and we had a great time together. This year I'm going to try to go with some friends. Get a hotel. Eat a meal out. I feel like I work very hard at homeschooling and this is one of the perks. Personally, if I couldn't go to convention without kids, I would not go at all. I am very firm on that. But, I have seen a few well-behaved kids there and it seemed ok. I just wouldn't do it.

School is done! Kids are outside playing, except for dd3 who is napping. I am teyng to clean up because a friend is dropping by this evening who I haven't seen in years, looking forward to that. The vacuum is in the fritz, though, and even though the replacement part just came in the mail, dh is in Vegas and can not install it. So, I'm crawling around picking up the big pieces.

Glad to hear that, Gentlemommy! Have a good date night! My DH left before 6:00am to catch a flight to Las Vegas! So, we'll be on our own for a couple days. He'll be coming home Friday evening some time. ** School - got a pretty good start this morning! ** make snacks for Cubbies tonight. I can't get to the store, so the kids are getting graham crackers with frosting! I used to love that as a kid! ** take kids to Awanas ** Ash Wednesday service at our church while kids are at Awanas (our church has no Wed. night program, so the kids go to Awanas at my parents' church) Hopefully that will do it. I have a terrible sinus headache. I hope I don't have a sinus infection!

Well, school is done! Birthday cake frosted. I even whipped up some cupcakes for her to take to tumbling class, though I didn't have the paper cups for them. Oh well. McDonald's eaten and spent an hour at the park. I hate McDonald's Playplace, so we generally do take out and go to the park. I did see a couple of guys smoking pot, though, in the bushes behind McD's. That was exciting. Heating up leftover soup in the crockpot. I just couldn't figure out what to make for dinner. It's good soup, though. Now, clean up kitchen, DS has a basketball game tonight. And dh is getting ready to go to Vegas for work and I am trying not to be resentful. Last time he did this, we only had 3 kids and I sent them to Grandma's house for a couple of days and went with him and spent 2 glorious days watching tv with my feet up and absolutely no responsibilities. Now, I get to stay home!

Well, two things come to my mind here.... 1) he's a boy and some boys just don't like school. Really. They just don't. No matter what kind of dog and pony show you do, they are not going to like school. So, you just do your best to not take it personally and get on with life. And keep reminding him that with homeschool, if you get your work done early you can play. As opposed to brick and mortar school, where if you get your work done early you're expected to pull out a book and read quietly. 2) my oldest son says stuff like that all the time. He says whatever he is feeling at that moment. That doesn't necessarily mean he feels that way all the time. We've had to figure that out about him. "I don't like school" means that right now "I don't like school." "I don't like Awana" means that he had a bad evening. Not that he doesn't like Awanas forever.

Morning Ladies, Well, Dh left early for his men's Bible study, so no walking for me this morning. Just a little extra time to chat with you all and do devotions. Today is Dd1's birthday. All my kids are adopted and we picked her up from the hospital when she was 2 days old. The social worker called at noon, by 3:30 we were walking into the baby place at the hospital with "that deer in the headlights look" as the hospital social worker put it (not unkindly) and half hour later we were walking out into a blustery March afternoon with our new baby. It was crazy. And today she's 8. I always pray for birth moms on birthdays. I have no idea what they are thinking on this day, but it cannot be easy. So.... today we have.... ** school ** lunch at Mc's (her choice) for DD1 ** frost DD's cake ** make cupcakes for her to take to tumbling ** take dd to tumbling ** DS's last basketball game ** return two week old shoes to shoe store! they are already coming apart Have a great day, Ladies

Hugs, Jean! Well, it's after 10:00pm. Everyone is asleep. The house is quiet except for the hum of the drier. I'm sipping on peppermint tea and enjoying the silence and getting ready (mentally) to go to bed. I'm tired. Though sometimes I hate to go to bed because I fall asleep so fast and then it's morning and I have to do it all over again.

I am so glad I'm not the only one who buys a curriculum, hates it and then goes back to it again only to find that.... I still hate it. I mostly do that with science because I can't find a science curriculum we like. I did that with REAL Science Odessey and am considering doing it with A Beka Science, simply because it's cheap and I can't find anything I like anyhow.

Amy, hugs!