I tend to "overspend" at conventions. I still have a few things that looked great, but I didn't go there to buy them, so they simply don't get used. I may try to get a friend to pick up some paper from Miller's. I'd like free shipping from MUS. But not so much that I want to drop $25 to get in and drive 2 hours to do so.

Is it worth it to sell my 2004 versions to buy the hardcover TM? I have Primer through Epsilon. I did buy Alpha in the new version (I do like it so far, but I don't open the TM.)

I love the DVDs. At this point, I have my kids watch them. We are moving quickly and I see no need to reinvent the wheel. I pause the DVD before she writes it on the board as to give my kids a chance to think. And her penmanship is so beautiful that she is a better model for the kids. I do wish there were a bit more discussion in the guide. But it sticks better even with me when I hear her so the system works.

If you will be selling a new version Gamma, look me up. I'm in the market. :001_smile:

I have an account that is not linked to a bank account. I have hit my sending limit of $10,000. :001_huh:

I just spoke with Mrs. Beers. I asked her about my children and placement. She said that anyone over 3rd grade and is NOT struggling can accelerate through Levels 1 and 2 (as fast as you can.) Levels 3 and 4 need full attention as they are so rich with information.

I bought all 4 levels within the past few months. I need to get my 14yob on track. I was stuck on the toolbox and the build it flashcards. So today I went to Michael's. They had little wooden tiles (like Scrabble.) I also bought the self-sticking magnets. I wrote all the letters, digraphs, markings, music notes, etc in either red or blue. And now they are all mounted on the magnetic board. Building words is SO easy now. I was thinking about switching to Barton for my 8yob but I really think that he will get PR. He knows his sounds and their numbers. He sings (not happily) the rule tunes. And now he has tiles.

I ordered on Tuesday morning and my order still says "processing." :glare:

When Phonics Road was on backorder, they called me. I ordered PR3 and PR4 in that 20% sale and they have been sitting unopened on my dresser for at least a week now.

I've been using one for a couple of years now. I had to get surgery on nasal polyps in January. He told me that there would be about six months of "cleaning" visits. By my third visit, everything was all healed and I was done. He was simply amazed. I can't get my husband to do it, but I can get all the kids over 5 to Neti. They actually request it. My future son-in-law actually let me Neti him. Now that is trust. :)

FedEx Ground and UPS, Monday-Friday FedEx Home, Tuesday-Saturday Amazon Prime even alternates to FedEx Home delivery so that you don't have to wait over the weekend for UPS.

I have my 14 year old going through the 2 books before he goes back to Ancients in September. He had many choices and he chose this one. I like that it has little quizzes after each chapter so that he can reinforce retention.

After a boatload of delays, they said that they would take pre-orders at the end of March and ship mid-April. I see no pre-order button. Anyone hear anything different?

What we have done is a hit. But with Easter and strep going through the house, school has been on hold. I ordered level 3 and 4 on the Adoremus sale last week. They will be here on Wednesday. It will be good to see the whole program. I can't forecast grade levels so it is difficult to set up plans. And I need plans.

If running is a life change, then you won't be needing them anymore.

We just watched Food Revolution and I want to watch Food Inc. with my kids. Is there an age at which I wouldn't want a child to watch?

I've purchased 2 armoires from Craigslist in the past two years. One was solid cherry and the other was Ethan Allen maple. They were both less than $100 so pricing is your key. I am actually going to start searching for more. I plan to have dh convert them to bookshelf/storage space.

When dh and I got married and started having children, we had two rules that we enforced. No soda and no gum. We used to give the high schoolers permission to drink soda on youth group activities when nothing else was available. After a lifetime of no carbonation, they never really liked it. But now in the wake of HFCS and scary artificial sweeteners, that offer is off the table. On a side note, we had no problem with the no gum rule until my 2nd oldest got her braces off and the orthodontist gave her gum. Are you kidding me?? So anyway, I went to the farm to pick up our raw milk with my 14 year old boy. We get 8 gallons a week and this boy drinks half of it. I mentioned that we spend just over $2000 for milk each year. Then he says that he thinks that it totally fine since we are the only people he knows that don't drink soda. I mentioned his comment to dh and he found it quite interesting. So now we are trying to figure out how much people spend on soda. We are thinking that 2 liter bottles are the cheapest. But that usually isn't the only method that people buy soda in. Figuring fast food, restaurants, convenience stores, soda machines, etc. He found that the average American drinks 50 gallons of soda each year. He also found that one soda had double the amount of "daily allowable" sugar and that one or more sodas per day raises the risk of diabetes in children SIGNIFICANTLY. So how much do you spend?

The last time I saw it is was afternoon. They do some stuff with the schools so there is lots of good information there, too. I just keep the sound on and the window open so if I hear talking or when Molly calls McGee, I know when to watch. I wouldn't get anything done if I didn't.

The key is to buy local. It is super expensive to get certified as "organic." But if you talk to your farmer, he'll tell you what he does. We live in a cow share state so we "own" cow shares. We get 8 gallons per week. We used to get 1/2 a cow ($1.10 on the hoof) so I guess that it is about $2.75-$3 per pound when all is said and done. We've been doing that for over 10 years. But this year I am switching to only buying specific cuts from the farmer. He has a store that he keeps stocked with beef. There were a bunch of things that we just never used so it will probably be more cost effective if I just buy what I want. We'll see. If it costs us more, we'll go back to the other way. We have chickens. I never saw a need for buying eggs at the farm. A chicken is a chicken, right? Then I bought eggs at a farm. There was such a difference. But these chickens stayed in a permanent coop. Then we got our own chickens that we "tractor" through the yard. Again, the quality of our eggs is far superior, even to the farm eggs. The food expense/health care expense is totally relevant. I have eight kids and there has been one sick visit (ear infection 17yo) this year. Last year, my little ones had ear infections early in the year. And then there was that H1N1 thing. :glare: I just bought Food Inc and I am really making a push to teach everybody to eat REAL food. I don't know how we lost sight of that.

No, McGee doesn't sit on the eggs. Try to catch the Carlos webcam. He usually says good morning and then last night he did a big question and answer session. SO interesting!! He said that in the courtship, McGee would bring her 6-8 rodents a night. Then she started laying eggs. At one point, he gently coaxed her off the eggs so that he could see them. There were 3 and at that point, the food went down to one which then in turn caused her stop laying so many eggs. She stopped at six. Also, the night before Max hatched, Molly went for a fly. McGee came back with a rat. There was no Molly. He just stood there like "Where's my woman?" She came in a few minutes later. But Carlos said that they have an outer mount camera that only they can view. And when she came back, Molly and McGee bumped beaks so to speak. He said it was awesome to see. That had never been documented. I thought that it was amazing how she kept Max hidden while she preened him. And then she presented him to the camera for a few minutes. Then she repositioned him at the front of the eggs and sat down.

I don't see a whole lot of difference in the thickness. And the kids said it was good but no different than my normally good yogurt. :001_smile:

We buy raw milk: 3 gallons per week in our winter months, 8 gallons per week for the other 9 months of the year. In our low time, I won't use the raw milk for yogurt. I've tried not heating it up so high and the starter just gets overwhelmed by probiotics. So I do take it to 180 degrees. The big difference is that if I forget to catch the raw milk when it is cooling (like I went out and forgot,) no big deal. I reheat it and off we go. If I do that with store milk, it gets thrown away.

I just tried the Oikos as starter yesterday. It totally looks thicker than when I use regular plain yogurt. We'll have the official tasting at breakfast soon (three of my kids always eat yogurt for breakfast.) It is twice the price, though. I'm not sure if it wouldn't be a wash if I just used twice as much regular yogurt as starter. Have you tried making a second batch from your first batch made with the Oikos?

Quite possible. She messaged me yesterday and was waiting to hear back from her doctor as to whether she should go in or not. I haven't heard back so I am thinking that it was a yes. :001_smile: