That's tough. Some of us are just wired to be more uptight and not deal with stress as well as others. I, for one, am not someone you'd like to have with you in a crisis. And then God gave me five very high-energy, noisy, strong-willed children. I think yu got a lot of good advice. I don't handle stress well, either. One thing, though, I try to do is, is when I'm stressed, I lower my high standards until I can get a grip. It's ok if we have pizza once in a while. We don't always have to have several veggies and fruits and a made from scratch meal. Some days we can just do reading, spelling and math and call it school and I shoo the kids outside so I can have some quiet and get a few things done.

I'm so sorry, Joanne! You have been through so much! (( hugs))

Hugs, Julie. God will see you through this! It may not seem like it at the time, but the promises in the Word are for you!

I love Al Mohler, the president of SBTS. I believe it is because of his influence that the seminary is leaning Calvinist. His blog is excellent. http://www.albertmoh...egory/blog/���� He wrote a beautiful piece about Sandy Hook. OK, the link to Dr. Mohler's blog isn't working the way I wanted it, but .... it'll do.

Same here, though I grew up here in Central Cal. I went to a Christian high school and we did a "comparative" study on Calvinism vs. Arminianism in Sr. Bible class and went out of there believing that all Calvinists were heretics on the highest level.

I am so sorry!

Quite possibly. Don't say you haven't been warned (and right here I'd put the little winking smilie guy, but I can't get the emoticons to work)

Not yet, but.... we've only been paid once this year and that was with the Social Security shock.

I just finished a fantastic book on faith/reformed doctrine. "Putting Amazing Back into Grace" by Michael Horton.

Yeah, they drink it. I didn't let them till they were about 4 years old. I don't buy it, but they get it when we go out to eat.

I hope today is better than yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that. Just a lot of conflict with ds1. Lots of conflict. Plus, I'm on my second round of a z-pack for a sinus infection that will not go away and now I'm working on a yeast infection for my troubles, since I ran out of my probiotics and the new stuff hasn't come in the mail yet. But, we will carry on. - school is what I hope to accomplish today -visit from the social worker -bil coming to put cabinets in the garage - gotta get ready to start a new semester of co-op - I'm teaching three classes of aerodynamics to three different age groups

When I taught 5th grade I read this aloud to my class. Ok, I was standing in front of my class bawling, half the class was bawling and a few boys were looking around at the rest of us bewildered.

We enjoyed this one!

She's just adorable.

Keep them home.

My kids have all had it for one degree to another. The doctor says to keep the kids from scratching or rubbing them and it'll go away eventually. None of the pediatricians have been particularly concerned. I hate it, though.

We are EPC (Evangelical Presbyterian Church). Until about 4 years ago we had an awesome pastor who was really strong on Reformed Theology and he taught our church a lot. We had a lot of good doctrine, I learned so much from this man, it was amazing. He brought our church through separation from the PCUSA (our family wasn't attending at that time), joining the EPC and did so much for our church. Well, while he had some amazing strengths, he had some pretty devestating weaknesses and 4 years ago he confessed to an affair, amongst other things, resigned his position, resigned his ordination, blah, blah, blah. It was a horrible time in our church, we weren't really sure we were going to make it. But we did. And we got a wonderful new pastor. He is a wonderful man, he is exactly what our church needs. However, he is not very strongly Reformed. At all. But, we do love our church and will continue to attend. And continue to remind people of the Doctrines of Grace.

I'm on my second round of antibiotics for a sinus infection I've had since Christmas. I hope this kicks it.

My engagement ring is soltered to my wedding band. I only wear it (and my anniversary band) when I go out of the house. My solitaire is a marquis cut and it is kind of sharp, so I don't like to wear it around the house. Plus in the winter, my fingers shrink a little and I'm always afraid I'll lose the set down the drain.

I think you should, too!

It is 9:51 pm in Central California and the temp. is 32.4 degrees. It's gonna be another chilly night here. The citrus farmers aren't too happy! We can hear the wind machines running all night.

I've had quite a bit of experience with them and love them. They're pretty noisy (but DH has been researching and you can find quiet ones, but they're quite a bit more expensive) but if you live in a dry climate like I do, where summer morning lows can be in the 60's, but the afternoon highs are in the high 90's, it really makes a difference. If we turn on the fan in the morning, cool the house off really good and close the windows, we can be very comfortable until late afternoon and only have to run the AC for a couple of hours instead of most of the afternoon and evening. Worth it to us! We're putting one in this summer.

We do Memoria Press. I got the Latin DVDs and the workbooks, everything and I learn right alongside the boys. I'm doing Prima Latina with my 3rd grader this year and Latina Christiana 1 with my 4th grader. I watch the DVDs with them. It's tempting to just sit them in front of the DVDs, but.... ok, for a 4th grade boy who's rather be doing anything but schoolwork, I have to be there beside him to keep him paying attention, but it's also been good for me because I'm learning it, too. He's really learned a lot. Both boys are doing well with the program. I am quite pleased.

Congratulations! Welcome to the world, Baby Boy!

When you posted your question ( 7:37am) it was 28 degrees here.