Once a day. I don't put in larger items or pots/pans. We have six people; dh is gone during the day but the rest of us are three meals a day!

Such a beautiful young lady, and a beautiful tribute to her. :grouphug: May you have peace as you remember her today. Thanks for sharing her with us!

:grouphug: We have several friends who are foster parents. It seems like the good-bye transitions are the hardest part, especially with younger foster kids.

I like your plan! Can I join you there?

:grouphug: for you, Julie, and anyone else going through hard times right now.

Does your ping pong table fold up? Can you keep it in the back living room, but folded up and against a wall when not in use?

I've purchased from there also. Great service!

Praying for you and your dad!

I am praying for you tonight, and of course for your family as well. :grouphug: for you, dear Bethany. The Lord is faithful. Father, hold my dear sister in your loving arms tonight, and give her peace that goes beyond any circumstances. You know her pain, her fear, her heart. I lift her up to Your loving care.

This. They do need you, and while you may be at a really rocky place right now, you won't always be there. I am praying for you tonight and will continue to pray through tomorrow. The Lord give you strength.

I would suggest contacting Peace Hill Press and asking them about the Kindle edition. I know the 2009 edition used to be available on Kindle, because I thought about buying it for quite a while. Now, it's definitely gone!

Christianbook.com has all three books, and they have some decent samples there. The books are expensive new, but you can usually get them used from Amazon for a decent price.

Just agreeing with you! We are at the end of the second book. I read it aloud with ds13 and ds 11. We love it!

One things that has helped me evaluate purchases in a different way is using a zero balance budget. With a zero balance budget, you can split up your total budgeted money however you want/need, but everything needs to be accounted for. This is different than the traditional budget where you have a certain amount for each category for the month. I have a set amount of money that goes into an account each month, and it needs to cover certain expenses. But with this way of budgeting, instead of thinking "I have only this amount to spend on groceries this month", I am thinking "spending more in one area means less for another area". And the opposite as well: "spending less in one area means more for another area". Obviously, some things are not negotiable. But in areas where I have some choices, this really helps me. It can be a challenge for me to spend less on groceries, for example, so that I have more for other things, like homeschool items, or saving for Christmas gifts. For me, this is really changing the way I look at the available money. Instead of thinking in "deprivation mode", I am thinking in "choices mode". It has also helped to be keeping track of everything we spend. I resisted doing this for a long time, b/c I thought it would suck up too much time. But not that I've got a simple system to use, it's really easy to keep up. It is a good reality check to see it all "down on paper" (or on the computer screen), and it's also helpful to see exactly how much total money I've spent for the month so far.

I've had good success with Born loafers. They are expensive, but sometimes you can get them off of Ebay or at places like Marshall's for a good price.

I'll definitely miss SWB (of course she won't be at any other convention either), and I'm not at all interested in Ron Paul. There are a few new speakers that I'm interested in hearing: Steve Demme, Jamie Martin. But there's a reality that there a several (many?) speakers that I'm interested in but never heard, or heard just once or twice, because I just can't fit in all the sessions I'm interested in. So I'm hoping to hear Kathie Morrissey, Susan Kemmerrer, Diana Waring, Jim Weiss, Kathy Kuhl, Janice Campbell, Carol Reynolds. I've never head any of them live, only recorded. And I'm always interested in Andrew Pudewa, Todd Wilson, Jay Wile, Christopher Perrin, Kirk Martin, Adam Andrews, Martin Cothran, MCT, and Andrew Kern! So I guess there's still plenty there, it looks like my schedule will fill up fast like always. Plus, it's the closest big convention to me, and I'm not interested in going to a convention if it's a major drive.

I'm planning to go and my ds13 (and maybe ds11) will be coming with me to attend the teen track. I have stayed at the LivInn the last couple of years. It's a bit of a pain to drive in and out, but it's only about 20 minutes, and the $$ savings is pretty significant. The LivInn has nice rooms and a decent breakfast! :ohmy: But how can we get together without you??!! It was a good get-together last year. Did we do it on Friday night? I thought it worked out well, but perhaps a different restaurant, if we could find one, for the reasons you mentioned. I do know what you mean about ho-hum regarding this year's line-up. I'm sure it will be a good convention, but I'm less interested than I have been the last few years. However, my son would like to go to the teen track, so we're registered. And high school is looming, so if we decide to homeschool ds13 for high school, I'll need to spend more time in the vendor hall!

I'm always happy when I realize there's a job I can offload to my children! I looked at the MM app too. I think it could be useful for me, but I'd definitely have to customize it. I may do that at some point, still thinking about it. I just dislike lists that are "cluttered", meaning that they have items on them that aren't relevant for me, or that I don't need a written reminder for. So it seems to work best when I make my own lists!

I think that you (general) need to see the books, systems, etc. as a possible solution to a perceived problem. If what you're doing in certain areas is working, then don't even looks at systems geared toward those areas. With the rest, if a system or book doesn't resonate with you or seem like a system that would be workable, discard if and look at other things that might work. In general, I immediately discard any ideas or systems that I can tell won't be helpful for me. And I dont' feel like I'm missing something! For example, while I learned some really good things from FlyLady, her overall system doesn't work for me. So I took what works, leave the rest. Or Motivated Moms - it's a great system but it feels too scattered for me. So I don't even consider it! I'm doing pretty well with tasks like make the bed or clean up the dishes, things that need to be done daily. And I've worked out my own system for menu planning & grocery shopping. So I don't look at anything that relates to those areas, because I don't have a need. But there are defintely other areas where I feel like I'm drowning, or at least swimming and swimming with no progress! So that's my encouragement to anyone, I guess, to not be motivated by guilt, or an idea of perfection, or the idea that "everybody says this sytem is great, so I must try it". By all means, keep doing what's working for you, just look for help in the areas you know aren't working!

:grouphug: I have a 13 yo boy too. Sigh. This entire week has been most unpleasant, getting back in the school groove after Christmas break. The other three kids? No problem. The 13 year old? Yikes! I'm taking consolation in the thought that they can't possibly be 13 forever. There's hope of great maturity somewhere down the line....

I don't care much about beautiful entrances, but functionality of main living spaces is of uttermost importance. I do not like the kitchen on the second house or the main floor layout in general. The "mudroom" looks very small, and I don't like how it opens to the main front hallway. I also strongly prefer a laundry room on the main floor and close to my kitchen. Back to the kitchen, the one in the second house not only has less counter space, but the actual kitchen space is very narrow (9'). On the 2nd floor I actually like the second plan better, but 2nd floor is secondary. The owner's suite on the first plan is humongous, and I'm not a big fan of putting so much space into that. But I would still choose the first plan over the second. So it's pretty obvious I'd choose the first one based on the floor plan! When you're building a house, you should choose a layout that works very well. Nothing is perfect, but if you're starting new, it should be very good, not just sort of acceptable! Good luck! Building a house is overwhelming, so many decisions! We've been in our house five years now, and I'm so glad that the building process is in the past! But you can do it, and it will be worthwhile in the long run. Just remember to focus your major decision making energies on the things that aren't easily changeable. Then hopefully you won't get "stuck" with major dislikes.

I would encourage to consider keeping track of your expenses so you have a better understanding of where your money is going and what you really can and "can't" afford. I just started doing this last fall, after many years of not keeping track. I found a simple budget system (Budget Simple website), and use a zero-balance budget. I had a decent idea of where the money was going, but now that I keep track more closely, I feel much more confident about my purchasing. I can say "better not buy that large item right now, already spent $$ in that category", or "no problem, our groceries have been low so far this month", instead of always having a vague feeling that I was probably spending too much. As much as I fought budgeting/keeping track of expenses (for years, my poor dh!), I really like the clarity of thought and decision making it has brought!

We have six people, (but two are just 8, so it probably about evens out with your family), and we spend 600-800 a month on groceries. However, that does not include non-food items, like cleaning/laundry supplies or toiletries, and we have no pets. Your $400 is probably fine if that's a "stock-up", but if you spend $400 every 10 days, that's probably a lot! Do you know how much you spent on food (groceries plus the fast food runs) in previous months? That's really the only way you can compare and see if you're saving money. As far as the time cooking, yes, it does take time. But I have found that I am more efficient as I do it more. I do understand why you're cooking and feeding them in the afternoon (active teen boys = bottomless pits!), but I would suggest streamlining that as much as possible. Perhaps choose 2-3 different items that you take them, then just rotate those. As much as possible, so the work for several days at once: prepare enough pasta for several days, for example, so all you have to do is reheat it another day. Remember that the beginning of new habits and practices is always the hardest!

We went to Orlando a year or so ago. We loved the Kennedy Space Center - it was our one other "big" outing besides Disney World. But we realized that you get "more bang for our buck" by adding days at WDW rather than going to a completely new place. So we did 6 days at WDW, then several days at the beach and one at KSC. Be prepared - all of these places are pricey! So while we'd like to do Holy Land Experience and Sea World, we decided to save those for another time.

I was able to read the original thread, and want you to know that your family is in my thoughts and prayers. Your dd is blessed with awesome parents! I am glad to hear that you have a path forward. :grouphug: