On weekdays, it's once a day. Oh weekends when dh is home all day, it's about 3 times in 2 days.

I'm not sure how well you know this person, but I was thinking of a little photo album of loved ones you could make on Shutterfly or something.

I don't have a problem with a paid attendant. But, we have a very small church. Our girls are the only ones in the nursery during SS. So, I would be the only one on the rotation. I might as well just stay home. During church, we have been getting more attendees, but a lot are new people and you can't quite say to someone, "I know it's only your second Sunday here, but you can't use our nursery unless you're on the rotation." So, that leaves us and another family and I'm on the children's church rotation as well. I'm not saying, by any means, that parents shouldn't help out. I think they should. But, when you have a small church with a lot of old people.... This has been a problem we have been struggling with for a long time and it tends to get ignored because there is no good solution.

I love this idea, too, for a natural look, but the kids are quite small and I'm worried about mess. Will put this idea away for future reference.

I can do that. I'm going to Walmart today.

Does anyone have any ideas on decorating plastic milk jugs besides drawing on them with Sharpies. We're making bird feeders at co-op and I can't afford to buy that many sharpies. Any other ideas?

Ugh! You have hit a nerve. We have a very small church and only have 1 nursery attendant, even though I have been harping for years about safety issues, liability issues, blah, blah, blah! No one listens to me. Yes, we have a hard time finding volunteers. So the attendant is paid. Sometimes I think it's going to take some kind of crisis to wake people up.

When I was a kid, there were merri-go-rounds at school. You remember those, right? Those horribly dangerous pieces of playground equipment. It wasn't at my school, but it was at a school where we had our church picnic. And I remember all the little kids would get on that merri-go-round and hold on tight and the big boys would get that thing going and we'd spin around so fast. And the thing was.... we all knew to hold on tight. We were all smart enough to figure that out. No one got hurt. And if you did get hurt you either.... held on tight the next time, or didn't do it again. With all these measures to protect kids, kids aren't learning how to protect themselves. They don't learn how to navigate life. They just go blithely through because when they were toddlers, all the sharp corners of their homes were padded and they couldn't possibly hurt themselves on anything, so they don't learn to avoid potentially hurtful situations.. Then they get to school, and it's the same thing. And then they grow up and think that nothing in life is going to hurt them or should hurt them and instead of learning to avoid things, or deal with danger smartly they expect the govt. to protect them from it. Good grief. It's pathetic.

I really like that. That should be our state's motto. Instead it's "tax 'em more".

Even here in my small town, my friend's son was suspended because a kid gave him a little leatherman thing on the playground. Yes, J should have turned it in, but he was only a third grader, he stuck it in his desk, forgot it in the mess and then on desk clean-up day it surfaced and he got busted. Two-day suspension and this kid is a good kid. Does his work' and then pulls out a book when he's done and the rest of the kids aren't. I was mad at my friend for disciplining him for the incident. I told her I would have taken him for a day out or something.

I've never seen an episode, either. I don't know why. I guess it's because we don't watch much tv and from what I've heard about it, I don't think it's my "thing".

Because they're idiots. Reason number 1,238 that I do not put my children in their care.

Love that cake.

Sunday school starts at 9:15 and goes for an hour. Church is at 10:30 and is about an hour, too. There's fellowship time after, so we're usually on our way home by about 12:00 or 12:15.

For sure!

I agree. We'd like to move to a bigger house and just today we called on a house in our neighborhood, but decided against it, even though we could probably swing it with a 30 year mortgage. But, it's not just the mortgage. A bigger house does mean it will cost more to heat, cool, and maintain. Prices are going up. Our electric bill goes up every month, the electric company keeps raising our rates. Our utilities are going up. Everything costs more and DH isn't getting raises because his company is still rebuilding because of the economy. We've been fortunate that he has a job. So, we're staying in our smallish house. We have a 15 year mortgage with payments less than $1000/month. We'll have it paid off before we retire. We have a pretty good cash stash that we want to keep. Things are just too shaky with the economy and personally, I wouldn't go near 34% of dh's income going to a mortgage. That's just too high!

We had a wonderful Sunday. I'm leading music for the kids and we're prepping for Palm Sunday. Sermon was excellent. It was on temptation and sin, with the text being Hebrews 4:14-16. Good day.

Does anyone have any good Christian character education recs? We are just drowning here with the lying, stealing, unkindness, disrespect and generally bad behavior and I'm thinking that maybe something formal might help. So, anyone have anything they like?

I can relate to that. I think there are some things that I am black and white about - i.e. moral issues, but other things I am gray about - ie. homeschooling (I realize it's not for everyone).

That's funny. I'll have to show dh, he's a ME.

I guess we're too far south. I didn't see it! Although I wasn't looking. I was probably too busy yelling at the kids. It was that kind of day!

I voted "no" in both cases. An ottoman is a foot rest. A coffee table is a table and we don't put our feet on the table, even if it is a low one. This is just my opinion.

I'm sorry, Julie. I've been praying for you! Did so today!

Yeah, well, yesterday we were talking about Christopher Columbus. Ok, my 4th grader, who has studied Columbus to some extent every year of his education could not figure out on a world map where he began and where he ended up. He actually had Columbus going north around Europe and into the arctic portions of Russia? And I'm like, seriously? How many times have we studied Columbus? I felt like an abject failure.

Well, since DH will be in Kansas and I will be in California, I am getting the Papa Murphy's Valentine's special with the kids. (sigh!)