This Elizabeth supports the choices elizabeth has made : D

Double post, no idea ho that happened!

It's hard for we Introverted types to do hostess work. For me, personally, I would hang out with people individually and savor the time together. Big groups would scare me. I always have the food read and out when the friends arrive so there is minimal time spent in the kitchen. Make a date with yourself and invite friends over in small batches. Say you had a standing date on Saturday afternoon - you can schedule out a month in advance. Once you get back in touch with people and comfortable again with hostessing you can make groups larger and mix things up a bit.

I'm a believer that a tiny exposure is good for the kid in question, so if someone went way out of their way I'd let the child have some. No seconds, though.

Well, sure I do know all that. But not once in those quotes is Jesus talked about as the *Pascal* Lamb. Off to read!

Five is a fearful age. This is a good and safe place for her to learn to overcome her fears. Since she does mostly enjoy it I'd let her stay in it, and do a lot of talking about dealing with fear.

If you set up a password on your router/modem that will help with the house access. As for out of the house, I have no idea. You could contact all the parents at all the clubs she goes to and explain the situation to them. As for Facebook, again I am not sure what to say. Legally, your daughter is old enough to not be covered by SOPA laws. If there were provisions put into the laws for people with disabilities they could easily be overturned as being discriminatory. It's a rock and a hard place, something legislators don't like dealing with.

"Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution" is great and shows how differently people parent and interact with children in rural France. "Kindergarten" by Zhang Yiqing is also amazing. It documents a year in the life of a BOARDING Preschool/Kindergarten. Yes, BOARDING SCHOOL. The children area there week days only, but start around the age of three. Again, such a different take on how children are parented/taught. While they were filming 9/11 happened and the crew was able to interview the children on what they thought happened, why it happened, and how the US responds to it. "Finding Sugarman" is suppose to be great. "Being Elmo" is great but might be a little heart breaking right now "Dogs Decoded" is facinating "An Inconvienet Truth" is great "Paris is Burning" is a moment in time documentary. I'd love for there to be a follow up to it. "The Calling" is about a handful of people all in the process of becoming religous leaders for many different religions. "Jazz" by Ken Burns is up there, but I can't find "The War", which is also by him. "The War" will change your understanfing of WW2 profoundly. One I really want to see is "The Art of Rap" by Ice T.

Welcome to parenting a pre-teen girl and her first dose of those wonderful hormones. As with every stage of development it will pass and a new one will kick in. My dd is just now getting to the point where she can tell if her upset is actually at the level she is expressing or if her hormones are ramping it up. It's taken us years of talking, some therapy, and a bit of medication to get us to where we are today. Lots and lots of tear filled talking. In my observations it's like their body is trying to learn how to PMS and does it too long or for really short and intense bursts. Now, the disrespect I don't tolerate. Not one bit of it. I can arch my eyebrow and normally she stops talking which is really something of a miracle. It's a hot button issue for me, so it can be hard to keep my emotions in control and to help my dd get her emotions under control. When my dd is being disrespectful to me I tell her I don't like the tone of voice she is using, or the word combinations she's coming up with. Huh, let me think. Today she called me a "grammar Nazi" and I said very simply "I don't like being compared to an ideology that resulted in the murder of over six million people." She hemmed and hawed and tried to say she was saying this or that, trying very hard to get out of the corner she painted herself into. I just simply said "It's okay to admit you didn't think your wording through too carefully. However, you need to not do that again." She apologized and said she won't do it again. Next time I'm sure I'll be called a "grammar fascist" and we'll have another talk. You remember when you were helping your daughter learn to name her emotions? When she was SO FRUSTRATED and ready to tear the world apart and you would say something like "I see your heart is feeling very frustrated" and then she would calm down? This is the second version of it. She needs you to be able to say "Hey, I know you're really upset and feeling *XYZ*, but you can't be disrespectful to me. That is the wrong way to express that feeling. This is a good way to do it" and then show her how to do it. I let my dd beat the bed with a pillow. It helps get the rage out. They know that they are too young for making all their decisions but the desire to have more control over their lives is blooming. That feeling can be both liberating and terrifying. There is the little girl in them that still wants their mother to make them food and hug them, but then there is this new part of themselves coming out that wants only to eat their food and to never been seen in public with you. Please remember that as odd as the behavior seems to you it's scaring her. This is hard work, this mothering. It's the hardest work you'll ever do. If anyone else in the world were to do or say to you the things your children will do and say to you we would resort to violence. Really, if a stranger came up and vomited all over on us we'd not respond with "Oh honey, you're not feeling well! Poor dear! Here, you run up to the bedroom and lay down. I'll be right up after I tidy up this mess." There would be cursing, gnashing of teeth, and at the very least they'd have to pay a dry cleaning bill.

There is NO WAY it should have cost that much or should have taken that long. Blond to black is easy - heck ANY color to black is easy. Dark colors to lighter colors is hard on the hair, takes a long time, and is expensive. Really, the hair is super fried going from dark to blond, especially if it was colored. As for the streaks, those are the easiest - just go to Hot Topic and get a color and away you go. Well, always getting the exact streaks is hard to do yourself, but if someone else can do it it can be easy.

Uh... hu. I mean I get the sacrificial part, and the innocence part but not how it's tied to Passover other than the timing. At the original Passover lambs were slaughter and their blood used to mark the doorways of the Israelite. This was done to save the first born of all the Jewish homes from the final plague. So, in calling Jesus the Pascal Lamb are we saying that with his blood those of us who follow his teachings are marked to be passed over for total death?

*HUGS* I'll be praying for all of you.

First off, this idea of Jesus as the "Paschal Lamb". Can someone explain that to me, because it doesn't jive with what I've been taught about the reasons for his death. ' That's a rather odd statement in a discussion about Jesus and his celebration of Passover. He was upset with legalism and corruption of the rituals. For example, them money changers *in* the Temple upset him to the point of rage. It was a defilement of the holiest of holy places. Had I been in his place I'd have tipped a few tables over myself. This is true also of the LDS church. We don't believe in original sin and in fact believe that all souls are born good. It was one of the selling points for me. I've found that, in my life, the hardest path leads to the most growth. *HUGS* Your testimony is wonderful : D The Book of Job is an excellent answer to this very complex question. Now for my own thoughts on the discussion so far - y'all may be talking me into studying more about Orthodoxy. Nothing would thrill my Mom more than seeing that happen. She is a very.... traditional traditionalist? She has the zeal of a convert, fifty years after the fact. If you want to see her loose her cool bring up the secularization of Christmas and the disappearance of Advent from the Christian community. I'm forty and still want to hide under the table when she gets on that topic. Back to what the OP has asked, about seeking other traditions. My Mom had a great sermon this summer while doing some services for a friend while he was on his sabbatical. The whole congregation was suppose to be exploring how we encounter G-d. Mom pointed out that a number of religious leaders have, over time, pointed out that the seeming hollow place inside ourselves is actually the space we need to go to to encounter G-d. Martin Sheen said something very simular in an interview about the movie "The Way". He said that he had found that empty spot and said "Isn't G-d amazing? He hid what we all look for deep inside ourselves - the last place we look!" Those two observations have stuck with me, deeply with me. I don't fear that empty spot anymore.

First off I want to commend Lampost for having the courage to post, courage I have lacked for a few years. I may do a spin off thread since my dd is twelve and a lot of this advise would work with younger children but not so much with a logic-stage child. Lampost, I believe this dd of yours will grow up to be the most faithful of all your children. She is asking, seeking, learning all at a very young age. These are questions she wants answers to, questions most people never even consider. You've gotten some great advise in this thread. I can't really add much to it aside from encouraging you to answer the questions she asks, and keep in mind her developmental stage. Right now she likes things she can touch, and G-d is an abstract concept. If she could sit down in his lap, or get a hug from him then she would believe. Faith, belief - these are seeds we sow and allow to grow.

Uh, no. - http://www.worldthinkingday.org/en/news/22022

Dang, I love this thread but can't read it all because I have to get to therapy. I will be back, though! Now see, I'll have to tell her that. When she took the Belief-O-Matic quiz she came up 100% Orthodox and was rather horrified that Mainline Protestant came in second at 97%. Not that she has anything *against* Orthodox Christianity, she's just spent most of her life building up the Episcopal church.

It's the main way I get my dd to dive into things and really think about them.

It's not intended to be a backhanded compliment - your friends are preemptively defending you against stereotypes and from being attacked. To me it sounds like you have great friends, but that they are not as well informed as you are about the realities of home schooling. Were I in your shoes I'd try and find a way to gently say that all the people you know who home school are hard workers. It'll help with your discomfort and educate your friends. It'll be tricky to find a nice way to do it, though.

Yeap, I was wrong. Reasons why religious education needs to be taught by people who know what they are talking about. I had been taught in Sunday School - many moons ago- that the reason the number thirteen was unlucky was because Jesus had thirteen disciples when he was betrayed. On the other hand, my Mom and I were talking about my mistake and she said "I'm fine with you saying there are thirteen. While not explicitly stated Mary Magdalene was likely there and I've always viewed her as one of the disciples. Really, it's not like they had a catered Passover, so who did the cooking?!" I love having a Feminist mother with a Masters of Divinity and a near half-century of heavy duty studies with involvement in the church to explain away my mistakes : D

It's not the height that scares me, it's the impact after the fall that scares me. I also don't get on airplanes anymore. The only way to deal with phobias, IMO, is therapy and maybe some medication.

I know. It doesn't change the fact that this is a very important life event.

Yeap. Judas was there for Passover : D

Yes, because a high school graduation only happens once in a lifetime. A stage production happens all the time.

Uh, you point out the very reason that Christians shouldn't do a modern Seder and why having a Rabbi come in would not work - the ritual has changed in the 2000 since Jesus celebrated it. When Jesus sat down with all thirteen disciples there was lamb on the plate, which modern Jews don't do since the most recent destruction of the Temple. I've been to over a dozen Seders done by Christians and never once been told that the Matzoh is about the Trinity. I have to strongly disagree with this. What would you say to people who are of Jewish or Native American/First Nations heritage who DON'T identify with the culture they were raised in and seek out what may have been denied them due to institutional prejudice? AS has been pointed out - being Jewish is not just a religion and not just a cultural heritage. Most of the people I know who self-identify as Jews are religiously practicing Buddhists. Many of the religious Jews I know are converts. Are either group less or more than the other? Let me be a bit more specific. I have Jewish ancestors way far back. No one had any idea in my modern family about this heritage, but there it is. At the time those ancestors converted it was done by coercion. Does that mean I have no right to explore my Jewish heritage? As a Christian does that mean I have to ignore the history of a Mikveh in the ceremony of Baptism? Without Judaism there is no Christianity or Islam. To remain ignorant of the foundation is to be ignorant period.

My response to the hunter spot would be to take it down and move it into my back yard. Next would be to put up signs that says "Trespassers will be shot" and then third to actually shoot in the general area they are in should they come onto the property. Not to actually shoot them, but to scare the carp out of them. You can put up signs all you want, but if there is no enforcement then there is no respect.