I'm hockey crazed, so I know how great the playoffs are to watch! We haven't gotten rid of our cable (it's tied into our phone/Internet and when we priced the same services without the cable, it actually came out to more [go figure]), but we have cut down significantly on TV time. The only advice I have is to keep lots of books around, and board games and the like, as another poster suggested. After you get used to it, I think you'll be happy with all of the extra time you have, and, believe me, you and your family will find many rewarding ways to fill that time (things just sort of appear!)

Thank you for that link! Preparedness is not my strong suit, so it's good to have a list to work from.

My dh is rolling his eyes at me a bit as well. I'm not panicked, I just want to get as much info as I can. There are currently five unconfirmed cases in my state, and they won't release the locations until they're confirmed.

I wouldn't want any of my family members going. There are too many variables right now, and since those who are in the know (CDC, etc.) are saying that there's a lot they don't know, I would err on the side of caution.

You two want some conspiracy reading? Try Rense.com. Some of the stuff on there makes me scratch my head; some of it makes me want to direct the writers to the spell check and a crash grammar course - and some of it links to information released overseas that we don't necessarily get here. Interesting reading, at the very least, and some intriguing ideas for the novel I've always been meaning to write!

I'm Kris from NJ. One dh, one dd(8), two dogs and a lizard. I am currently using a mixture of WTM, AO and HOD with MEP math and lots, lots, lots of books!

Oh, boy, I feel for you. I was on bed rest from Week 16 to Week 38, and then I had a c-section. After dd was born I didn't have the strength to even take a shower. My calf muscles knotted up every time I walked (something about my tendons shortening from not being used, at least that's what the doc said). On the bright side, it only took a few days before I was able to at least get around, although to be totally honest, it was about a year before I felt back to normal. I had heart problems, though, and I'm sure that came heavily into play as far as recovery time. There are still times (8 years later) my right foot will swell up without warning. Nobody has been able to figure out what that's about, lol, so I just live with it!

Impressive! I'm going to save your advice just in case (our house is over 100 years old) - you never know! I, too, have a drowning method that I use, only in this case it's for camelback crickets [cave crickets]. From about April through November they invade our basement and it's like a horror movie down there. They crawl onto the ceiling and jump down on me while I'm doing the laundry (blech). Once in a while they make it up into the kitchen. I trap them in a gallon container and then turn the container upside down in a sink full of very hot water. It gives me the skeeves, but then again, so does looking at a live one of those! Eww. I can't even convey my disgust for those things. They look like an evil combo of a grasshopper and a spider.

No, dh did not ask me not to tell anyone; in fact, it's already out there amongst our close friends and family. I've gone over and over the discussion I had with our pastor in my mind, and the reason I'm so upset about what he did is because of the context of our conversation. I was voicing my own concerns, i.e. the problems that losing our health benefits could create since I'm currently having some health issues. After I explained my concerns, that's when I asked the pastor to keep it between the two of us, and I followed that with, I don't want dh to have any more stress than he already has. So, of course, after the pastor approached him, then I had to relate the entire conversation, and give him more stress! I appreciate everyone's kind suggestions. I will be talking to the pastor - once I cool down and can be a little more even-minded in my approach. This experience makes me wary of confiding in him again, though, and regardless of the resolution of this issue, I probably won't.

I am steaming right now. Two days ago I shared some information with our pastor about dh's potential job loss. I specifically asked the pastor to KEEP IT JUST BETWEEN THE TWO OF US, as it was done solely in connection with some concerns I had as to what would happen in other areas of our lives (worst-case scenario). Last night, dh was at the church. The pastor came up to him, and you can guess what happened next. Dh said he's not annoyed with me - but I can tell that he is. I am really having trouble understanding why someone would breach my trust like that, and oh, am I p*ssed! Perhaps it is time to move on....

My story exactly. I wasn't able to wear contacts again, so I had LASIK ten years ago. I know there are many horror stories about LASIK on the web, but mine worked out really well. Better than even the surgeon expected, because I was right on the border of being classified as legally blind before surgery and afterward I didn't need any correction at all.

FB isn't my cup of tea, either. I have trouble finding enough time to spend with the people I have friendships with IRL. I don't care for being the recipient of info from a general posting. If someone wants to share news with me directly, excellent. If not, no biggie. I kept in touch with the people I wanted to after high school and college, and I'm not interested in the details of people I haven't thought about in more than 20 years. I hope they're all doing well, I hope they're happy, but that's as far as it goes. Dh feels the same way. We like spending time together, and we have so little free time together that when we do, that's our time. Maybe that would seem selfish to some people, but it works for us. The way we see it, virtual relationships cannot and will not ever compare to the real thing. They work for a lot of people, I get that. But as the world becomes more impersonal, I'm making more of an effort than ever to reach out to people in person. All of the emoticons on the Internet will never even touch the sight of a smile on the face of a lonely, elderly person in a nursing home who gets an unexpected visit.

We've cut our TV viewing down to the food channel and hockey, so I'm not up on current schedules for many of these shows. I did watch What About Brian and felt that the writing was great in the beginning, and then seemed to lose its way. The story lines imploded and maybe they didn't know where to go with it. As to the rest, well, it would seem that Average Joe TV viewer is dedicated wholeheartedly to crime shows. I find them disturbing, to say the least. What better way for a potentially warped mind to come up with something bizarre to do than to see it done on a TV show? Ugh. Everything goes in cycles, though, and I'm hoping the reality show/crime show trend will run its course soon!

Best of luck to you, Diane - but if I could make a gentle suggestion, the part that is bolded above would make a wonderful marketing angle, as opposed to what is on Amazon right now.

I'll read it, if nobody else does...but her first page gave me a headache, so I guess I'd better buy a supersized bottle of Excedrin to go with it!

This morning I received a phone call that showed up on my ID as Paragon. Normally when the phone rings during school, I ignore it, but for some reason I answered. It was a computer call that identified itself as WAMU/Chase. It had my correct name and welcomed me as an account holder at WAMU (giving me the impression that it was Chase calling). It went on to say that I had recently been sent a new ATM card and had not activated it. It gave me three options: (1) I had already activated it; (2) I hadn't received a new card; or (3) I didn't want to activate it. I hadn't received a card, so I pressed (2). The next part of the message was something else I knew nothing about, so I pressed the menu option that would have taken me to a live person. In the course of that transfer, the computer voice asked me to enter my account number for verification. AHA! Finally the light went on in my head and I realized (before putting in my account number) that it was a scam. I hung up. The computer called me back several times after that. I called WAMU to let them know. Surprise - it wasn't the first complaint they received. The woman told me to notify the police and also to block the number from my phone. Which is all well and good, but a few things really disturb me about this call - the scammers had my correct name, my unlisted phone #, and the knowledge that I was a WAMU account holder. How did they get that info? Of course WAMU is insisting that no security breaches have occurred, but how else could the scammers have gotten a list of account holders and phone #'s? Anyway, I fear that senior citizens could fall for this scam very easily. Scammers have gotten very good at mimicking the actual company. It is possible for them now to have the Caller ID show up as someone else. I voiced my concerns to the person at WAMU (this was the Risk Management Department) but of course all she wanted to tell me was that WAMU is doing everything possible to identify the scammers and that she appreciated the call. The number for the idiot scammers is 817-524-0090. I googled it. Apparently these people have been pretty busy, because the number is listed in several forums as a scam. If you get a call from this number, IGNORE IT. I don't know how this kind of thing is going to be stopped, but hopefully someone will come up with a way before too many people are preyed upon.

I didn't watch the whole video, so did I miss the part that addresses the use of technology by children in order to bully other children, to circulate suggestive pictures and to post messages to each other that would make a sailor blush?

Mine should be out next week.:D I just read an excellent article that a gentleman wrote for my local paper in which he bemoaned the glut of "writing" that has flooded the internet. His point was that journalists and authors work years to perfect their craft, yet today, everyone is a "writer" and everyone thinks they have something important to say. (Which they may, but still...) He feels that in such an oversized pool of submissions, the good stuff is getting lost and overlooked.

Without addressing the effectiveness of whatever this woman's method might entail, my immediate reaction to what was written on Amazon was this: What better way for a new author to be noticed than to make a somewhat vague but snarky statement about what already exists in the marketplace? Of course she needs to say her way is better. She wants to sell her book. I read the sample pages on Amazon and my reaction to them was meh. Frankly, I don't care for the way she writes, and the front lawn scenario at the beginning of her book annoyed me. I don't want cutesy imagery, I want the meat and potatoes of how to give my child the classical education I didn't get myself. TWTM manages to do exactly that, and more. I'm in no way a perfect parent or a perfect educator. I've tried several ambitious things with dd's education that I felt would really enrich things, only to have them not work at all. Over the last two years, I've come to understand that it's a process. Every child is different, every child will respond differently. We all have our good days and our bad days. My job as dd's teacher is to find what works for her and build on that. Having TWTM as a guide has enabled me to stick to a basic plan, and at the same time tailor it to dd's strengths and weaknesses. I'm not trashing this lady or her book, but IMO, it would be very hard for anyone to come up with anything as comprehensive and well-written as TWTM. One last thought - this woman's marketing strategy may well come back to bite her on the backside. Once she pitted herself against other authors, that tends to make people form opinions. Had she simply put her book out there, people would have checked it out on its merit alone.

I plan to use When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr as an introduction to the WWII period with dd. It was by far one of my favorite books growing up.

I just heard a recording of Cry Me a River that Susan Boyle had made for a charity CD about 10 years ago, and I got the same chills listening to it that I had watching the BGT video. God bless her. The woman can really sing. I hope the critics out there who are saying she's a one hit wonder wind up eating their words. Link: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2009/04/16/exclusive-susan-boyle-s-first-ever-song-release-revealed-listen-to-it-here-86908-21283564/

Erica, Your family will be in our prayers.

I'm with you on this one. Another thing that really disturbs me happened a few times while I was watching a hockey game with dd. I'm a die-hard hockey fan - have been since I was a little kid - and dd is following in my footsteps. Anyway, aside from the fights (which have been explained to dd in the context of the honor system that exists in the game and she doesn't really pay any attention to them), hockey is marketed as "entertainment" and promoted by the NHL as "family friendly." Yet, several times as we have watched games, commercials for horror movies have come on that were incredibly offensive to me and very frightening for a child to see. Luckily dh knew the second the commercial started that the content was not good, but if he hadn't been there, I shudder to think of the images that dd would have seen. I wrote an email to the NHL to complain. I haven't seen those kinds of commercials on a game broadcast in a while, but I'm still very wary.

Perhaps not quite the same thing, but over the years I've learned that, because of the relationship I had with my sister, I am prone to following certain patterns with certain types of people. My sister is a critic - of everything. People, places, events, books, music, you name it. In order to be "accepted" by her, when I was around her I would fall into the same mode of criticizing everyone and everything. As I got older, it really started to bother me - snark for the sake of snark. Then we had a falling out and I haven't spoken to her in many years. The break allowed me to really examine the negativity and unhappiness that kind of behavior creates. For the most part I was able to put it behind me. Fast forward to recent times. There's a woman in my church who acts almost exactly the way my sister does. We both volunteered to be on a committee. She was the chair of the committee. Because she was the oldest in the group and I was the youngest, she decided to take me under her wing. Suddenly she was calling me constantly to hash over every little thing that happened at church. Her criticism knew no boundaries. At first I found myself saying, "Uh-huh, um-hmmm," (falling into the same behavior I'd been guilty of with my sister). Then I had a very clear realization that by going along with what the woman said, I was basically saying I felt the same way, and I didn't want to do that anymore. I left the committee and distanced myself from the woman. As I feared, she was going around telling our church family that I was the one saying all of the critical things. Luckily, the damage wasn't too severe. Many people had already had run-ins with her and they were willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. It was definitely a lesson, though, and I hope that someday I find a way to disarm those types of situations in a way that isn't hurtful to the other person. I don't think she does it out of malice. I think it's just her way of getting attention - the squeaky wheel gets the oil. On the other hand, some people just get a charge out of causing chaos.

Dd 8 carries at least 4 books with her at all times. She can't bear to finish one and not have another immediately available. We call her the bookmobile.