Change "then I can wash" to "then THEY can wash" and you've got my best tip ever. Each person has one load to wash, dry, and put away each week. Each person has their own laundry day (there are 6 of us). On Saturday night, I do all the household laundry and my own. Sunday is for DH. Works like a dream, and the 4 kids are ages 4-9.

Turkey sandwiches, in the car on the way to the fair! :thumbup:

Some of the things we eat most often include: homemade pizza (every Sunday) breakfast night! (every Thursday) bean, beef, or fish tacos (beans done overnight in crock pot) crock pot chicken w/rice (1 c. rice, 1 c. lemon juice, 1-1/2 c. water, 1 chopped preserved lemon, if you have it!) chicken soup with eggs stirred into it (I usually turn my portion into hot and sour w/soy sauce, rice vinegar, chili sauce, corn starch) hamburgers tofu mac & cheese spaghetti w/meat sauce miso soup w/tofu homemade (CHEAP!) veggie burgers felafel shiro (Ethiopian boiled chick pea flour; best description I can think of!) Those are probably most things we eat at least 1-2x/month.

We get up at 9, start learning at 10/10:30. Works for us! I used to think we should "improve" and start learning at 9:00, but I'm all over that idea. We just like staying up late. We all tuck in DH at 9:30, then we read stories until 10/10:30, then the DS5 and DD6 go to sleep and DS7 and DD9 read books until 11 or so. We're very happy with our (weird) schedule. :)

:iagree: That was the first book that came to my mind too! GREAT BOOK! :)

I was going to add too that it's not the planting that is so much work, it's the harvesting!!! Oh, my! It's all well and good to plant everything, but it's quite daunting to keep up with it all on the other end. I ended up feeding basil to the chickens because mine grew so massive I just couldn't put all the time to harvest it all. Plenty went to friends too! :)

I don't work fulltime, but I homeschool fulltime and have 2,000 square feet of (in progress) garden + several fruit trees + 5 chickens. It's a lot to manage. If I had to work fulltime also, I don't see how it could be done! We also do it w/o spending lots of $. The most important first thing is to build up your soil. Where we live we have very poor sandy soil. Our city provides free compost. We're adding free manure from our chickens whenever we have enough, plus from other local sources that are free, you just have to haul it. Cover crops aren't that expensive to grow and help a lot too. Compost in situ. Put your scraps directly into the bed your improving and bury it as you go. It will take 3 years to turn mediocre soil into good soil w/o going out and buying good stuff. We did spring for drip irrigation (huge time and water saver). It cost about $600 to do our entire planting area, plus a lot of time to install it ourselves. Totally worth it (or it will be when we're finally done!). We also got airplane packing crates (looks like wood fencing) from a local airplane manufacturer and used those to build our beds. Those are some of my random thoughts... it's a ton of work, especially in the initial stages but bit by bit everything comes together. We really want to do tilapia as soon as the other stuff is up and running!

I like the suggestion of taking him to Animal Control best. In our city, you pay a "donation" to drop off a pet at the Humane Society, but not at Animal Control. There is also always the possibility of an alternative scenario - perhaps he was newly adopted/rescued and escaped and ran pretty far away. I know it's not the most likely scenario, but there's always that possibility...

Sounds pretty normal to me too. DD9 is just now starting to do things more independently. I thought she would do more on her own last year, but NOPE! :) This year she can do quite a bit on her own and not stray. :)

My kids are 5, 6, 7, and 9. For several subjects (science, history, some of our Jewish studies) it's everyone all together, participating to whatever extent they're able. They pair up for things - 9 reads to 5; 6 & 7 do language arts together; 9 & 7 do spelling together; one practices piano while another does a computer assignment while another goes to play while another studies with me; one studies with me, three play a game. For math I start 9 for 15 minutes, then send her off, then 7 gets started w/me and goes off, then 6, then 5. In 45-60 minutes, we've all finished our math. It's a little dizzying at first, but once we've sorted out our routine, everything goes pretty smoothly. We spend 10:00-4:30 (plus extra time outside that for readalouds, piano, etc.), but we also have a dual curriculum that is 50% secular studies, 50% Jewish studies. We could be done a LOT earlier if we only did secular studies! :)

I've used VRBO many times for many years and have never had a negative experience. Wonderful resource!

Boxcar Children books are fun, and we really loved The Happy Hollisters too!

When we used Saxon once upon an aeon :) I just skipped all the calendar parts. Did you take the placement test for Saxon?? That would let you know how much you could skip.

So sorry. :( I had three miscarriages in a row too, so I can relate. For me, we're pretty sure I had scar tissue left from a uterine infection following my 2nd c-section that caused implantation problems. Have you had any uterine complications/illnesses in the past???

YES! We've lived here for 2-1/2 years and love it. Cost of living is great (very easy to find 3 bed/2 bath houses under $200K). The one down side is there is definitely a higher level of small-time crime than we had in Portland, OR. We've been broken into 3 times (but for some reason they didn't want our clothes, books, or dishes; I don't think they were happy thieves). At the same time, I never feel nervous walking around our neighborhood at night. GA is very homeschool friendly (easy requirements), and there are a few homeschooling groups in the Savannah area. Many more opportunities than we could possibly take advantage of. If you do a search for "Savannah crime maps" you can definitely see the areas to avoid. Generally, the further south you go, the lower the crime. It's a lovely place to live, and the people are very warm and friendly. The beach is close. North GA has beautiful mountains (5 hours away - wish that were closer!). We have several nice parks, and a really nice state park. Lots of great historical sites, museums, outdoor activities (except for when we hibernate in the summer because it's just so grossly hot). Feel free to ask lots more questions if you have them, on our off list. :) Savannah gets twelve thumbs up from us! :)

I've taught music for a very long time, and I will tell you that one of the hardest teaching jobs is teaching a student where you have to undo poor teaching. It's frustrating for the student to have to go back, but it's also essential to their future success. Hopefully it will just be a matter of a few months and they will be on their way again. It sounds like you have a good teacher, so I would trust her on this right now. :)

We just switched to Platinum Tel where we can get 3 months of service for $10 ($.02/text; $.05/minute talk). Perfect for us low-usage types. I don't know what they have for higher usage, but it might be worth looking at.

I can't even do the WWE4 dictations! :blushing: We muddle through it, though. Sometimes they enjoy turning the tables and giving me a dictation. Oh, well! We do the best we can. I'll go sentence by sentence if we have to. After they write it, I often see if they can then say the whole passage by memory just for the challenge. Definitely one of my weaker skills! :)

I always dread Monday attitudes. I'm all fresh and ready to roll, but WOW the bickering, moaning, complaining... I don't get it. It's the only time they really just don't get it together. Sigh.

Have you ever tried this kind? http://www.amazon.com/Handy-Steamer-Food-Rice-Cooker/dp/B001DDEC9I/ref=sr_1_64?ie=UTF8&qid=1350365678&sr=8-64&keywords=black+and+decker+rice+cooker I've had one similar to this for 15 years, and it still is in great condition!

Just wanted to add too that during my whole B.M. studies, I only had 1-2 non-music classes per semester.

Not a crazy thing to do! Between performing and teaching (esp. privately) one can make a very nice living and have VERY flexible hours. There are not many jobs you can do 1 hour per week or 50. It was perfect for me. Now I'm on homeschooling sabbatical from teaching music. :) Granted, my college applications were filled out in 1984, but I think I still have some advice left in me. :) I chose my music school by the teacher. As a music major, the bulk of her time will be spent practicing (my private lessons on my main instrument were actually 1/3rd my course load!). You will spend a lot of time with that teacher and have a close relationship, so picking the right one is very important. Many large music schools hold regional additions. I auditioned for Indiana University and Oberlin in Los Angeles. I visited Stanford in person since that wasn't far. Two other schools accepted videotaped auditions. I think IU and Oberlin would have also had I not been near one of their regional auditions. Re. academics, I would definitely NOT want to send my child to a place where the academics were ridiculously low. Yes, the bulk of time will be spent doing music (especially if one is pursuing a B.M. degree as opposed to a B.S. or B.A. in music). But other disciplines, especially history, English, and foreign languages, directly inform one's study of music. Certain business classes can also be useful because many musicians go on to make a "business" of themselves. That's all I can think of right now. Good luck!

That's why I said it was a good start. There are always many perspectives, even within a strictly orthodox perspective. ;)

Here's a good place to start: http://www.aish.com/jl/b/eb/ge/48965251.html

Just annoying when they're on the kitchen counters :glare:, and they seem particular prolific here this month in coastal Georgia!