SW in IL
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Posts posted by SW in IL
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If you have a community college near you, take a look at their career services. Our local CC has all kinds of tests you can take to find out about interests, aptitude and more... The most expensive test is something like $50, most are less, and several are free if you live in district.
Sue
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A friend's son will be taking the ACT test next month. He's been going through the ACT test prep book he bought but he's at the point where he's going over stuff he's already done.
Does anyone know of any good web sites with samples? Especially for the writing test?
Thanks,
Sue
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We're doing a combination of mostly textbooks and workbooks. We're doing a bit of catchup this year in what should be ds's freshman year of high school. We're using an interesting mix that seems to be working for us...
American Government using the GreatSource Coursebook and Teacher's Guide
History of Science using the Joy Hakim book along with a student quest guide and associated teacher's guide
Basic Math DVDs from The Teaching Company along with assorted workbooks for the early topics and then will be using Key To... series books when we get to fractions, decimals, etc.
IEW for writing using a workbook instead of (and, at times, in addition to) the SWI/TWSS syllabi and using IEW supplements as needed
Windows to the World for Literature and for writing later on
Introduction to Computers using a college level textbook (an older version of the textbook used for the class at our local community college)
Spelling Workout, Vocabulary from Classical Roots, and Exercises in English to help him catch up in spelling, vocabulary and grammar.
I think that's basically what we're doing this semester and will just keep going adding in what works for us, be it workbooks, textbooks, coursebooks, curriculum, etc.
HTH,
Sue
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I've been asked to write a letter of recommendation for a friend's son who is applying to a small liberal arts college. I'm being asked to do this in the capacity of a family friend (for many years) and a fellow homeschooling parent.
Any ideas what I should include in the letter? I'm making lots of notes but I'm not sure if I should be speaking about him as far as his academic potential or if I should just be speaking about his personality and such.
Any thoughts? Any websites with good, somewhat homeschooling-related, sample letters that I could use as a springboard?
Thanks,
Sue
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We're finally done with my friend's son's transcript for the most part. All we need to do now is put in grades and then come up with his GPA.
Should we be giving more "weight" to honors and AP level courses than to regular courses? If so, is there a "standard" or "accepted" weight for those classes?
And, should we be using straight letter grades (A, B, C) or should we be using chromatic variants (+ and -) when applicable to his work? And if we use the variants, what do we do when calculating that? I read somewhere that a B is 3.0, a B+ is 3.3 and a B- is 2.7, but then would an A+ be 4.3? How can you have a 4.3 on a 4.0 scale?
Or am I just reading more into this than there is?
Thanks,
Sue
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didn't want to go to college and though she wasn't homeschooled the only difference in her high school education from those students who were college bound was that she didn't take a foreign language. We, too, figured that she could always pursue that on her own or through a community college if the need/desire arose.
Just my 2 cents,
Sue
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We're finishing up writing my friend's son's transcript here in the next few days and I'm having trouble figuring out what to do about Physical Education and a couple of other things. I've been searching the 'net for ideas (for PE, LotR, and Harry Potter) for hours now but nothing I've come up with so far seems appropriate.
PE is required here in Arkansas so we figured we should put something on the transcript. M (homeschooled son) did several years of Tae Kwon Do but that was before high school. We'd like to include something about that in the course description. Also, should we only count PE as being 2 semesters (1 credit) since that's what is required? M is active during the warmer months - hiking, swimming, camping, fishing - works out with weights regularly, enjoys sparring with my son, and still practices his Tae Kwon Do routines and the discipline he learned.... I came up with:
Physical Education provides the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to engage in lifelong physical activity and includes general physical fitness, basic techniques of conditioning, continued study and practice of Tae Kwon Do (including complex routines with an emphasis on discipline), basic Kendo, throws and break falls, one-step sparring, working with weights, walking, hiking, fishing, swimming, camping, outdoor survival skills, with an emphasis on applying these skills to real life experiences. Also includes basic sports medicine including the treatment of athletic injuries, basic anatomy and physiology, basic first aid, and treatment and rehabilitation techniques. Course credit and grading was primarily on the reading and written work as the physical portions of the course were practiced throughout the high school years.
He'd like to include a course on J.R.R. Tolkien, maybe one on C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling and/or comparing books with film versions. Any good ideas for including that when the study was done totally independently?
Also, M wants to go to culinary school but he will be doing his first 2 years (minimum) at a liberal arts college. We've come up with at least half a dozen different culinary courses (titles, descriptions, grades, credits) but I'm wondering how many of these courses we should include on the transcript for the liberal arts college. This college offers no cooking courses so he plans on taking general courses (math, English, history, science) before transfering to a culinary school that offers a BS degree and that will let him transfer the credits.
Any other advice?
Thanks,
Sue
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We made a list that included most of his assigned reading along with recreational reading. If he read a few books by a certain author we listed the titles. For other books, and all series, we listed them as "The Complete Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling" or "Assorted works by Edgar Allen Poe including ....."
He will be sending it along with his transcript (which we're working on) to show that he's well-rounded in his reading. And we did include authors for all the books listed. We intentionally kept the list to one page, mostly in the hopes that the college will think it's a small representation of what he's read instead of a comprehensive list.
Hope this helps,
Sue
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Thank you so, so much. I had looked through the AOP web site but never "drilled down" far enough to find the information we needed.
Sue
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She bought the workbook sets without the teacher editions. So, we have a basic list of the courses to work off of but that's it.
For example, his 12th grade science was 10 workbooks:
Kinematics
Dynamics
Work and Energy
Waves
Light
Static Electricity
Current Electricity
Magnetism
Atomic and Nuclear Physics
Kinematics to Nuclear Physics
My problem is how to translate the above list of topics into the transcript (when I don't understand half of what I just typed). We're trying to do a sort of cover page that outlines the courses, credits earned, grades, etc., and then an expanded one where we go into a bit of detail as to what each course covered.
BTW, thanks for the link to the transcript form. That's going to be quite useful to us.
Sue
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I'm helping a friend's son write out his transcripts... Well, I'm trying to help, but I'm kind of clueless here.
He has been homeschooled since about 5th grade and finished up 12th grade last spring. Mom simply bought the AOP Lifepac workbooks and he did the rest himself.
Any clue as to how to turn that into high school transcripts?
Thanks,
Sue
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Are there any websites anyone can recommend for printing out timeline figures?
We need such figures as:
Epictetus
Roger Bacon
Thales
Anaximander
Anaximenes
Anaxagoras
Empedocles
Herodotus
Pythagoras
Democritus
Aristotle
Plato
Aristarchus
Hero
Euclid
Archimedes
Eratosthenes
Strabo
Hipparchus
Ptolemy
Augustine
Cosmas
Fibonacci
Thomas Aquinas
Johannes Gutenberg
Ferdinand Magellan
We have a couple of sets of timeline figures but several of the above mentioned aren't in any of our collections. And the ones in the teacher's guide (that we're supposed to use) are cartoonish and all look pretty much the same (plus they didn't come out very well when I tried to copy them).
So, I was hoping to find a web site from which I could print out decent looking figures for our timeline.
Thanks,
Sue
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I used to sell on eBay but ended up pretty much giving up on that about 2 years ago. I've had experiences similar to other people's... My most expensive loss as a buyer was when I spent $160 on curriculum and never got it. I did put in a claim with PayPal (which I won) but it took so long and the seller disappeared so I never got my money back. I bought a bunch of Progeny Press guides (from more than one seller) and many of them were obviously illegal (to sell) photocopies. I also bought a video course only to get obvious copies of that. Complaints to eBay, PayPal, or the sellers themselves usually didn't resolve anything. The ban on selling Teacher Editions (including ones marked as Homeschool Instructor or similar) hit many of us homeschoolers hard. And now, us small-time sellers (be it of homeschooling curriculum, clothes, or whatever) are being pushed out in favor of the bigger fish. I've switched over to selling books on amazon but even there I can't compete with sellers with thousands of books who can afford to post their books for under $1 ($5 is the break even point for me on amazon and eBay).
Craig's List hasn't been the answer for me. Homeschooling books and children's books don't sell very well. The people I've run into when trying to sell clothes, expect new outfits at garage sale prices. But when they're selling, they want outlet store/new prices for their "gently worn" clothes. And some of the clothes I've gone to see... Gently used, sure... Each of a dozen kids gently used it so much that there are stains and holes. Some of that stuff I wouldn't even bother donating to Goodwill! And then there are the scammers. They're coming after people who are selling $5 items nowadays! I had 4 scammers contact me wanting to buy a bike I was asking $15 for. Also, on Craig's List, I've had people say they want to buy something but never show up at the appointed time.
For curriculum, my favorite place for buying or selling is here. I do sell occasionally on homeschoolclassifieds and VegSource, but only by answering WTB ads on those boards.
Sue
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We're traveling on Amtrak and will be gone for about a month so we have to take school work with us. Going through our baggage, though, I don't think we have anything that will work well for packing the (somewhat heavy) books.
What do others do for packing items like that when traveling (non-car)? I'm thinking a backpack on wheels, or maybe one of those things that look like milk crates but have lids and are on wheels. Or should I just split the books in various bags? I'm hoping to do some school work on the train so I need those books with us (carry on). But most of them could be packed in our luggage. Last time I did that, though, I had all kinds of stuff in my luggage and it was tagged saying that it had been inspected (and everything was thrown back in helter skelter and several book covers got bent or ripped). On second thought, I don't want to do that again.
Ideas?
Thanks,
Sue
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We're going to be traveling on Amtrak in a few days and I've been scouring the Amtrak web site to try to find information but haven't come up with much.
DS (15) has his carryons picked out... Both are smallish bags. One will have his medical supplies (he's diabetic), the other will have his "stuff" (books to read, mp3 player, etc.). In addition he'll have a small cooler with his insulin in it. Does the bag with his medical supplies and/or the cooler count as "equipment required for a passenger's medical condition" that is exempt to the 2-item per person limit? We do have a note from his doctor saying that he is diabetic and that his insulin needs to be refrigerated. Or should I have him repack his 2 smallish bags into a larger bag so that the bag would be one item and the cooler another? Or so that we can take more on board the train?
The other question, which is the more important one, regards coolers. The small cooler my son will be taking is one of those "personal sized" ones... big enough for a couple of sandwiches, his insulin, and maybe a couple of drinks. In addition to that, we have our regular cooler which is a 40 quart plastic cooler with handle and wheels. It is under the size limit for both carryons and for checked baggage. I'm planning on filling it with perishable food, throwing in a bag of ice and using it as one of my carryons as I'd be afraid to check it (I can just see it being thrown into a luggage compartment, landing on its side and breaking open or leaking ice water all over). Plus the Amtrak web site says "do not accept plastic storage containers" and it seems to me that the cooler is nothing more than a plastic storage container designed to keep stuff cold.
Any thoughts/advice? This is DS's first time traveling other than by car and only my second time on Amtrak. I want it to be a smooth positive experience for both of us.
Thanks,
Sue
p.s. We'll be leaving Chicago Saturday afternoon and arriving in Little Rock early Sunday morning... Wave at us if we pass by you! :seeya:
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My son was about 12 when we gave him a prepaid cell. We had minutes leftover when we switched to AT&T so we figured he could use the phone and talk to his sister or grandparents and use up the minutes. My ex did the same with my daughter at first... He got a regular (contract) cell phone and gave dd his old one that still had prepaid time on it. But my older daughter (who had already moved out on her own by the time this was happening) got into real trouble with people she met in the Internet. When I really thought about it, I decided I didn't want either dd or ds calling weirdos they met on the Internet (or even worse having them call us!). When they first got their regular cell phones, I was checking to see who they were calling at least a couple of times a week. I was a bit neurotic about it.
At some point I realized that I'd pretty much done all I could and it was time to start letting them make their own decisions. There are still a lot of non-negotiable rules especially when it comes to cell phones... Things like don't give out your number to weirdos. At first we asked them to come to us before giving out their phone numbers and we'd discuss with them why they wanted to do it. Now we trust them to be vigilant about protecting themselves and our privacy. They know that we CAN check to see who they're calling, but now the only time we do is if we notice they're using up a lot of the shared "anytime" minutes. Both dd and ds went over their alloted minutes last month, so I looked to see who they were calling just so that I could remind ds (for example) that calls to his girlfriend are not free unless it's on the weekends.
Hope you find a compromise.
Sue
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A local school charging non-attending students to take the PSAT? A friend of mine called the local school district (same district we live in) and they were told that yes, her son was welcome to take the PSAT at the school but his scores has to be reported to the school and she had to pay an additional fee on top of the fee for the PSAT.
I'm not sure what she did about it or whether he will be taking the PSAT there. I need to ask her about that. I do know that he would be taking it as "practice" for next year.
I wonder why they don't do the PSAT the way the do the SAT/ACT. Seems it would be simpler/easier for the schools and for the students.
Sue
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We tried getting dd (now 16) and ds (now 15) the prepaid cell phones but didn't like not knowing who they were talking to. Plus, they weren't yet old enough to have jobs, so I was paying for the minutes. We tried doing it so that we paid for the first hundred or so minutes per month but then dd was in a car accident and had used up all her minutes like 2 weeks earlier and so couldn't call her dad or me.
In the end, we ended up adding them to my cell phone plan. We pay $30/month for unlimited texting/IM (for all the phones on the plan), and then $10/month for each of their phones. They get a monthly "allowance" of "anytime" minutes (we have the cheapest plan -- 700 shared minutes/month) and they have free nights, weekends, and calling to other AT&T customers. Plus, every call and every text message or IM they make or receive is logged and I can check and see who they're calling or messaging on the web site (though it does take a couple days to show up).
We also have rules like no talking/texting during dinner, etc. I admit that I don't enforce the rules as often as I should but I do usually talk to ds about manners/etiquette... How it's rude to constantly be interrupted during mealtimes... How he needs to concentrate on his school work instead of texting his girlfriend... How it's impolite to walk off in the middle of a conversation with me or a friend in order to answer the phone. That type stuff. And I try to set a good example with my own cell phone... I'll answer during a meal (if I know who's calling) but if they're just wanting to "see what's up," I'll ask them if it's alright if I can call them back after the meal. I also ignore text messages I get during a meal and when I'm driving (I will answer calls when I'm driving but only if I'm using a bluetooth hands free thingy).
Mostly it's been trial and error for us and it's an ongoing process. What's working now may not work next month, but hopefully we'll figure out ways to integrate the cell phones into our lives and minimize the disruption they cause.
Sue
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If it's fiction, we most likely get it from the library. Especially with popular fiction and classics, our library most likely has enough copies that we'd be able to get it when we wanted/needed it and keep it (renewing if we had to) until we were done with it. Same thing for non-fiction that we only need for a short period of time such as when DS took an interest in llamas after we read Secret of the Andes. He read several books and learned alot about llamas, the Andes, all that... I encouraged him and we found a great book at a library sale for 50 cents, but otherwise, he used the library for that reading.
We also have an advantage... There's a library about an hour away from us that has a "Homeschool Resource Center." Anyone with an Illinois library card in good standing can check out their materials and keep them for 6 weeks (and can renew them!).
I buy a few books to help me plan/more effectively school DS, but usually only after I've borrowed said books from a library and decided that I would use them enough to justify their purchase. Same thing with reference books -- if we keep checking a book out from the library, I'm liable to buy it, especially if I can find it used.
Textbooks, workbooks, stuff like that I pretty much always buy... Most of the time, used if I can. I do end up with quite a bit of stuff that we don't use (either buying something and then later finding something that we like better or, more often, hearing about how great something is only to find out that we hate it) which is something I'm working on.
But between eBay, homeschool sale/swap boards, amazon, used bookstores, thrift shops, rummage sales, library sales, garage sales, people selling (or giving away) stuff at our homeschool group meetings, and the like, I rarely spend a whole lot for the materials I buy. And usually I can cover those costs by selling that which we over-bought, shouldn't have bought, didn't use, or finished with I can usually afford to buy what we need. This year was the exception as we made the jump to high school and want to go with a mixture of textbooks, video courses and workbooks.
Basically, follow your gut and buy used when you can. At least, that's what seems to work the best for us.
Sue
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750 miles divided by 30mpg (highway, which is what she gets) = 25 gallons of gas. 25 gallons of gas x 2.50/gallon (we paid $2.539 here a few days ago and gas down their way is at least 20 cents cheaper than here) = $62.50. My "clunker" has a full tank of gas... I'll fill up in Missouri which normally costs me $35 to $40 and leaves me with about 1/4 of a tank of gas when we get there. Yes, I'll have to do some driving while we're there, but we usually take their van on outings and they pay the gas. So, it's is usual for us to get down there on $50 for gas. We usually do it on under $100 for gas and meals.
I don't have the money to hire a lawyer and legal aid will only step in to "defend" me once my husband files. But he doesn't want to file (probably because he's pretty certain that he'll be ordered to pay spousal support). I did talk to a couple of lawyers but since my 2bx-husband works very sporadically (he was unemployed for over a year before taking a contract job last summer which ends in December or January) and since he doesn't have any savings to speak of, no lawyer is keen to take the case on. The court isn't going to make him pay support if he doesn't have a job and if there's no earnings to garnish, the lawyers won't get paid either. He (husband) doesn't care if he works or not. If he's not working, he gets free housing through the VA and free meals while living in VA housing (he has a history of mental illness -- which I didn't find out about until long after we were married. He just stores all his stuff in a friend's garage and is perfectly happy living basically as an inmate. When he gets bored, he looks for another short contract to go work on and repeats the process. Plus, DS is not his biological child, so even though I can prove that he's financially supported us for years (until he walked out on us back in 2003, since then the money's been sporadic at best) the courts won't order child support. Man, I hate trying to deal with our legal system with all its ins and outs and loopholes.
I have pretty much decided not to fix the old car. At the rate we're going, the $1000 will only keep it going for a month or two. I'm wondering if I can sell it. The engine was replaced a few months ago (with a rebuilt engine) so that right there should be worth something. The body is in fairly good shape with just the beginning of rust around the wheel wells. If someone was handy enough to do things like the brake lines, rack and pinion steering and the boot, and then follow up with whatever crops up next, she could probably (with enough time and money) once again be a reliable clunker that gets good gas mileage (around 24 city, 30 highway). She's nothing much to look at, but until about a year ago she was reliable and pretty easy on the wallet. At this point, though, I'm not going to have the money to keep putting into her and I'd like to try to recoup some of what I've already invested.
Thanks for all the thoughts,
Sue
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My son and I both have cell phones which we use instead of the land line. For a while about 2 years ago, we only had cell phones. Here are some of my thoughts (both for and against)
We have 700 (or maybe 750?) anytime minutes/month spanned across 5 phones. Granted most of the calls we make are free (other people on our plan, other AT&T customers, free nights and weekends), so each of us is supposed to keep our anytime usage under 100 minutes. I learned really quick that trying to get a teenager to keep their usage under control is like trying to herd cats. From my daughter "Does that mean I shouldn't have called my Dad when we were in that accident?" Of course not... Situations like that is why we try to have that 200 minute cushion. With my son, though, everything is drama and none of his friends have AT&T... "You have a test tomorrow? Call me when you get home from school" (despite the fact that this particular friend lives a block away).
Then there are the calls from telemarketers. Even though they're not supposed to be calling cell phones, I get calls a couple of times a week. Mine is also a cell phone only area code, so they can't claim that they didn't know it was a cell phone. I looked it up one month and I had like 50 calls from telemarketers. I wonder what portion of our minutes were used up on those. And that was despite being on that National Do Not Call list! The calls only abated when I'd insist on talking to a manager every time they called me. And then there are calls from collection agencies (they're after me for a bill my ex-husband didn't pay from almost 15 years ago!), all those "vote for so-and-so" calls during election years, etc.
For us, dialing 911 hasn't been a problem. I've had to call maybe 4 times in all the years I've had cell phones and each time I've gotten the correct municipalities emergeny services. And you do not need to have an active cell phone plan in order to call (as I found out one of those times). They must put the call through regardless, without charge. But you do need to tell them where the emergency is, as they cannot pinpoint your location down to the street address/intersection. If I had a child who was too young to be able to communicate that information, I'd definitely keep a land line.
Back to the cost for a minute... My daughter is already on her third cell phone in less than 2 years. I don't know what she's doing to them, but about a month after she gets a new cell phone, I start getting calls... "Mom, when can I get a new phone? This one doesn't _____." And my son already lost 2 cell phones (in as many years). So far, I haven't paid to replace any of those, but I know the time will come when I'll have to. Cell phones are sure expensive when compared with land lines... And when was the last time you lost your land line phone... (mainly meaning the kind that are connected with a cord or mounted on the wall... I think we've probably all misplaced handsets from cordless phones at some point).
Also, out here, people are regularly mugged and have things like iPhones and iPods stolen. Much as I would love an iPhone (and disregarding the fact that they're way, way more than I can afford), I'd be scared to take it with me when I went out, thus kind of defeating the purpose of having a cell phone.
Then, of course, is the question of whether people can get a hold of you (especially in areas where coverage is iffy)... But the same can be said of land lines. If you're not home, you can't answer.
When we didn't have a land line and I'd get asked for my home phone, I'd just give them my cell number. But then when asked also for a cell number, I'd only have the same number to give. When I explained that all I had was a cell phone, I was told, more than once, that "everyone" has a home phone. Now that I have a land line (or have access to one anyway), whenever I have to give out my phone number I give out my cell as my primary number. When my son was taking a class, they even put a note on his paperwork saying to call the cell phone number first and then, if they couldn't get me that way, to call the land line. Invariably, though, they'd still call the home number first (we live with my mom and the land line is hers... DS and I are not supposed to use her phone).
It's a tangled web for sure,
Sue
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with a friend's son who will be starting college "somewhere" next fall and my daughter who is off to college in fall 2011.
The friend's son wants a Bachelor's in Culinary Arts are there are only a handful of schools that offer that degree. Most culinary schools only offer certificates. Add to that the problem of there being no culinary arts programs in the state in which they live. And that they are poor and cannot afford the high tuitions of private schools (he's been unable to find any state schools anywhere that offer the Bachelor's he desires). He's beginning to give up on his dream, thinking it's unreachable.
My daughter wants to go to U of I with Illinois State University as her second choice. She has the grades (hasn't taken the ACT yet) but as with so many people nowadays, not the money. We checked into 2 community colleges (the one closest to us and the one closest to her) and while credits earned at the community colleges will transfer to many other colleges, the 2 she's most interested in are not on the list.
An article in our local paper recently stated that this is the perfect time to go back to school (while the economy picks up) and the local community college has more adult students than ever before. It's also easier and cheaper to go to community college right now. But enrollment in the state 4-year-schools is down for the most part. And many people are finding out that only some or maybe none of the work they did at the community college level transfers to the 4 year schools.
Sue
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I'm tending to agree about the trip... The $50 would have been enough for gas (we did it last time and gas was more expensive) but I don't trust the car to make it there and back.
But what should I do about having a car in general? I need a car to be able to see my daughter, to get myself and ds to various doctor appointments, etc. And the car has to have hand controls in it (which my old clunker does) so I can't just borrow a friend's/relative's car to go places.
If it were you, would you put a thousand bucks into this old thing? We put almost $2000 into it in July and that money only bought us about 1500 miles and 2 months of driving. I definitely can't afford to put $1k and have it only last for a month before it needs another thousand and then another. But the only option, it seems, would be to cash out the IRA and try to find something more reliable. x2b (ex-to-be; my husband and I are separated), isn't going to help after this.
<sigh>
Sue
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We're a week from leaving to spend a month with friends in Arkansas... Some 750 miles each way. I had planned on driving to make this a very cheap trip as my 2xb is refusing to help pay for any of it. I was seriously planning on doing this on a real budget... $50 for gas and as many sandwiches and drinks as we could fit in the cooler.
Today I took my car to the mechanic because it just hasn't felt right. The car is still there as he tinkers away trying to nail down the problem with that. He's already found enough other problems to recommend that we not drive to (and from, of course) Arkansas. The brake lines are shot, the rack and pinion steering is leaking and ready to give out, and some other stuff. Just to fix that stuff is over a thousand dollars.
x2b is possibly willing to fork out the thousand dollars to get the car fixed but we've already put around 2k into the car since July and at least $500 in the months before that. So, he says this is the end of what he's willing to sink into it.
The mechanic's advice... Drive the car locally (no more than 20 miles or so per outing) until it absolutely has to be fixed to go any more and then junk it. The catch for me is that the car has hand controls in it just so that I can drive it more than 20 or so miles at a stretch. My daughter lives just over 100 miles away and some 30 miles into the drive, my legs get so tired that I have to switch to the hand controls. It's going to cost around $500 just to have the hand controls taken out of this car and reinstalled in something else.
Plus, I don't really have much use for a car that can only be driven locally. I don't do much local driving... not in the 20 miles/trip sense anyway. My dearest friend is 22 miles one way; my dentist is 28 miles one way; my son's diabetes doctor is 17 miles one way... I can go on and on. Almost anything close enough that I'd be able to drive the car to/from is probably close enough to walk to in the first place.
x2b will not help purchase a new car. His suggestion is to call of the trip to Arkansas, cash in my IRA (a bit under 4 thousand dollars), and buy a new (used) car. But the last few cars we've had have all been like that. $3k to $10k to buy a car that lasts 2-3 years before needing major repairs. I'm sick and tired of buying someone else's headache. On the other hand, I need a car that I can drive.
My thought is to take a train down to Arkansas, get away from all this and figure out what to do next. But x2b won't pitch in for the train ticket.
BTW, I have no other income except for whatever x2b throws my way. I'm disabled and have pretty much never worked outside the home.
Grrrr....
What would you do?
Sue
What else do we need for Thanksgiving?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
Here's our line-up so far... We're still fine-tuning it and have time because we'll be having our Thanksgiving dinner either Friday or Saturday (to accomodate a friend who has to work Thursday night). We're a small group - 1 elderly lady, 3 adults (1 male, 2 female), 3 teenagers (19, 15, & 14) - and we don't want to be eating leftovers for a month.
Chicken Bites (appetizer)
Turkey
Homemade stuffing (has mushrooms, cranberries... delicious)
Green Bean Casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Roasted Vegetables
Rolls (of some kind)
Apple-stuffed Challah (not sure if this will be for bread or part of our dessert - we're trying something new)
Pumpkin pie
Plus desert being made/brought by the 14yo.
What else should we make? Soup? Salad? Sweet potatoes? What does your menu look like?
Thanks,
Sue