I think the others have brought up some good points. On a totally different note, though, Minecraft on the iPad is not the same as the (modded) Minecraft that you can, if you so choose, play on servers with others from around the world. At some point you will likely need to consider this. Georgia

Our town's is 81... Median house value 73k. But we still met more frugal people in New Hampshire...

I love their personalities, it's the olympic levels of perseverance and the destructiveness that I hate. And the roosters... Although, we finally have a nice roo! The problem is that the chickens belong to my middle dd and she likes heirloom lighter breeds that think they are freakin' eagles or something. She raises them by hand and they are, I swear, 10 times smarter than regular chickens once she gets done with them. And now she's in college...so I have her chickens to deal with...and her turtles, and her dog... Ducks and quail are so dumb and easy to contain (in comparison, it's not that it is super easy, lol)...and I like that! 12 years of crazy, smart, eagle chickens at this house and I am so done with chickens here. lol. To deal with the duck poop thing we tractor them. We actually rotate every animal, including the goats. She also has call ducks which I think are calmer and dumber. Though that might just be my perception or my long lost optimism showing. lol. ETA - the first year we had chickens they were fat, slow Buff Orpingtons. Much easier, lol. Georgia

You probably live in a much nicer part of the state though, lol! Georgia

I SO agree about the ducks!!! (though not about the rabbits). Ducks are much, much easier for me to manage than chickens. The minute these chickens are gone we are moving to all ducks and quail. No.more.chickens,lol. I hope the goats go too,to be honest. Georgia

We do. You could easily rent a house for $400 a mo. A super nice house for $650. You could buy produce from a farmer for half what they charge at the grocery store. The trade-off is that it is a pit. Things like almost no parks (and the 3 that exist are pitiful), certain people actively fight things like a YMCA :glare:, etc. Yeah it's not worth it unless you are retired, which indeed a large number of the people who live here are. ETA - I'm not sure what living in a low COL are has to do with materialism? We moved here from a village in in NE with a LOT higher median income. I saw less materialism there, though of course that just my experience. Georgia

This is EXACTLY what my mother had. It was about $1200 plus a bit more for paperwork (obits) for everything. She wanted notices in three papers but the crematorium only got billed for two of them so that was maybe $150 total?? They were just small newspapers of course so not too expensive. She did not want an urn - we had one to transport for the scattering but the cardboard box worked out. We could NOT get a "funeral home" to do this. I called every other place within a hour's drive. We had to find a crematorium in a a location where people are very alternative/green. hth, Georgia

I don't have a 36 week schedule but I used it briefly (as a trial run) with my hs'er last year, and this coming year I will be using it as a spine in a multi-age/middle school project based tutorial. Since dd was way too old for the resource, but she graciously agreed to help me anyway, lol, it only took us about 4 weeks. In the class we will be doing it over an intense 6 week period, meeting twice a week for 1.5 hours w/ work at home and definitely pulling in other things. Imho, it's one of those resources where the time spent will depend on the kids and the depth you want to bring to it. I'm sorry that is not very specific! However, what I really posted to say is that I highly suggest that YOU go through the book first. The biggest issue I had with it is that the order of the steps he suggests is NOT the way I would have done it. I don't have my notes right now, but I do remember we had to stop and re-order everything after the first week. DD was not loving it the almost chaotic feel of it at that point, lol. hth, Georgia

Wow and here I though dh's employer was bad, lol. His salary is really crap and we barely scrape by but at least he gets good benefits. We pay $280 monthly for a family of 4 for medical. 3K deductible and an HSA that the employer adds $500 to and then also matches (up to a certain amount of HSA contributions) by the employee. They pay nothing until you hit the deductible, then it is a standard 80/20 thing. All of this assumes you are in-network, of course. And the provider is...hard to deal with. He does work for a large multi-national company. The healthcare system in the country is seriously broken. Georgia

No. I had a woman who gave birth to me. But I never had a mother. Of course I would never to anything to lessen other people's enjoyment of the day. I like all the pictures and stuff. I'm glad many people have such great mothers! Georgia

Wasn't Wilson already involved in plagiarism? A couple different books with co-authors? I seem to remember in one instance, he forgot to cite rather a lot of text that was basically copied from another book, but...it was not his fault, of course. You know,just that pesky editing process... Then didn't he later blast Mark Driscoll? about his plagiarism issues? Oh, the irony. Georgia

Well, you can just start a new trend and save everyone's hair in the process, lol. Also you can swim faster and more efficiently (no hair getting in your face:) Get some cool caps and wear them! Note that little kids usually have their ears sticking out for a while, until they get used to them. This, I find oh, so adorable, lol. My youngest dd uses these for everyday wear http://www.swimoutlet.com/p/sporti-multi-color-silicone-swim-cap-22370/?q=1 Older dd wears these latex caps http://www.swimoutlet.com/p/speedo-solid-latex-swim-caps-2875/?q=1 But they also have a variety of caps with funny sayings and pictures, appropriate for many different swim occasions. :glare: Georgia

Umm if they are on a swim team,then they and everyone else, for the most part, should be wearing caps. Usually only little-littles and some boys skip the cap. Those boys will have crunchy hair soon enough,lol. Not bathing caps but swim caps. No wonder her hair is tangling! Best prices can typically be found at swimoutlet.com or other swim retailers. There are 2 main types, silicon and latex. You might buy a couple of each to try as what you like is totally personal preference. And yes you can hear the coach. Think Michael Phelps, etc.,lol. Hth, Georgia

I agree. If you aren't going to teach it then by all means outsource it. Doing the labs etc. with others is often more motivating to a student than videos. There is no such thing as a "grade level" for high school biology (just books that are more or less rigorous or thorough) but if you are concerned about the content then you could require more from the student. You could add living books and/or require independent research on a topic that the student found interesting within each module. hth, Georgia

We all changed from Spotify to Google Play - we share a family account. Although Spotify is better for playlists, Google is better for using with the music you own. So my kids say anyway, lol. Two of the three of them won't use Amazon though I'm not sure why. hth, Georgia