I'm praying. :grouphug: And, yes, she can still be alright. Visit The Simple Wife blog and you can read all about another mom (almost 40) who has been through the same thing. They thought she wouldn't make it, but through lots of prayer and support she is making an amazing recovery.

Have any of you contacted SWB's assistant about setting this up? I'd love to be invited and help, or I can even host.

Why am I reading this thread when I'm on a strict diet? :banghead: The two closest fast food places to our house are both Sonic, so I've indulged a few too many times (hence the strict diet). I love their ice too, but my complaint is they fill the cups up with so much ice there is hardly any drink.

I can top that. Today I finally had to dig out some of those tiles that were put away for future use and noticed two tiles that said "nb". At first I thought it was an odd consonant team and tried to think of a word that had "nb" in it. And then it dawned on me. I flipped the tiles upside-down and they suddenly became the "qu" tiles I've been missing for a year. :blushing:

When we did Adventures in My Father's World last year, American Pioneers and Patriots was the only history spine we enjoyed. We were also using A Child's Story of America and quickly dropped that.

:iagree: My workbox system is not nearly as structured as the Sue Patrick book. We use a cart with plastic drawers -- and I don't even number or label the drawers :eek: At the beginning of the year I found in the dollar section of Target some cute pads of paper for lists (numbered 1 - 12), but when these run out I'll probably just make my own. I write their individual assignments on the lists and then put the materials in the corresponding drawer. Since each child only has 10 drawers, I usually make #6 on this list be some form of exercise (10 push ups, etc). I always meant to make cute numbers for the drawers, but never got around to it, then realized it was unnecessary. They understood the concept just fine. Besides, if they both end up on a subject where they need my help, I just tell one to find the next drawer that they can do alone. I find this is much better for teaching flexibility to my autistic son. I love our workbox system, mostly because it keeps things from getting lost or forgotten, and my kids have a better idea the progress they are making.

We don't have to name our homeschool, but the kids did it for fun when we first started. When people ask my youngest where she goes to school and she proudly answers, "Blue House Academy," she gets some pretty strange looks. We recently had a waitress who just shook her head and said she was too old for all these new ideas, like homeschooling. :D

No, yes, and maybe -- how's that for an answer? ;) My oldest started attending a Christian school last year and loves it. The level of work she's doing scares me -- I worry I wouldn't do as good of a job if I were homeschooling her. But I'm committed to homeschooling my son with autism through high school unless God directs us differently. He's behind grade level in most subjects, so I'm likely to be visiting this forum for a very long time. :grouphug: My youngest will be homeschooled until 6th or 7th and then we'll decide what to do. I love homeschooling her, so I'm not opposed to the idea -- it's just that fear thing I talked about earlier. :001_unsure: It would also depend on how her brother is doing. Right now I can combine a lot of stuff for them, but if I couldn't do that, then sending her to school would probably be a better option.

There is a small but very neat Lewis and Clark museum in St. Charles (just outside St. Louis). We went after we studied L & C for history and I'm so glad we did. I wrote about it here on my blog.

sending :grouphug: and prayers

Praise God! :grouphug:

Looks like my family is fine on the milk, but I just knew the price of Costco's organic butter was too good to be true. :tongue_smilie: At least we've only been using it a couple of months.

Thanks for that link! Very interesting. I wonder which is more effective, freezer or dry ice.

So do you keep your grains in the freezer permanently or just long enough to kill the eggs? And, no, I'm not going to ask how you know. I'm grossed out enough already. :ack2: Thanks for the warning though!

There are lots of bugs, and they are alive. I didn't notice them at first, but then I saw them trying to escape the Nutrimill. When I looked in the bucket they were crawling everywhere! :eek:

I'm still kind of a newbie when it comes to milling grain, so I need some help. I put some soft white wheatberries in the Nutrimill today only to discover the grain was full of bugs. They look kind of like ticks, but different. I store the grain in food buckets with gamma seal lids in my pantry. I bought the grain sometime in the fall, through my food co-op. I have two other buckets in the pantry (one with spelt berries and one with popcorn) but they are bug free. Is this common? Did I do something wrong? :confused:

I put mine in page protectors and a binder too. I got mine at Staples, but other homeschoolers buy theirs here: http://www.keepfiling.com/ The binders online hold more cards, but you can still fit two sets of cards in a Staples binder.

Thanks for your replies. I love getting everyone's $.02. :) Anyone else? I haven't been on the boards much lately, so I wasn't sure if there was any news on when we could see samples.

My youngest did SSL in K and 1st (purposely spread it out over 2 years). This year (she's in 2nd) we've started LFC A, although I do not plan to go further than Unit 3. My oldest went through the LFC series, and I thought 4th grade was the perfect time to start. But my younger two were begging for more Latin after SSL so I decided to start LFC A and just take it really slow. Perfect for me because I no longer have to feel guilty about being "behind." ;) Plus, spending multiple weeks on a lesson lets it really sink in. She struggles a little bit with the writing, but overall is doing fine.

Does anyone know when we'll be able to see samples of the new 5th grade book? Also, I'm wondering what others would do in my shoes. My son is in 5th grade this year. He did great with the FLL series. He's doing fine now with R & S. I already have the R&S 6 materials (new condition). I'm really trying to keep homeschooling costs down next year, but ALL (funny abbreviation!) is so tempting. Would you stick with R & S or go back to something that worked great? I'm not so much concerned about him being behind grade level, since grammar is the only subject he is doing at grade level.

I haven't used it, but I have been eyeing God's Great Covenant. But the OT is covered in two volumes instead of one, so it might not be what you want.

I've probably missed some of your updates because I haven't been online much lately, but you are still in my prayers. :grouphug:

And Can It Be I Know Whom I Have Believed More Love to Thee, O Christ It Is Well With My Soul I've Found the Pearl of Greatest Price May the Mind of Christ, My Savior God, Be Merciful to Me From Every Stormy Wind that Blows Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul It's hard to know why these are my favorites -- I love the melodies and lyrics, but that can be said for so many hymns. I guess these are just the ones that God has used to really touch my heart. The last one became my favorite when our church hosted our denomination's Synod meeting -- hearing a church full of men belt that one out was incredible.

Thank you so much, everyone, for your ideas! Love the retro night idea, but we'll see what DD wants to do. And for those who asked, yes, we do have Netflix, so I'll probably be doing some research tonight. If nothing else, I'd like to see some of these movies again. ;)

My daughter is having some friends over for a movie night and is having trouble deciding what movies would be fun but appropriate for a group of 12 & 13 yo Christian school girls. We're somewhat conservative in what we let her watch, but it sounds like some of the girls have a little more freedom. Any suggestions?