By 9th grade, if they've got grammar down, we focus solely on writing. I've used Excellence in Literature, Power in Your Hands, and research projects for science and history. My #1 goal for my high schoolers in English is to be able to write papers well, and to be able to express themselves clearly in all of their writing. The focus has been a bit different for each of them. My oldest is a creative writer and we often worked on fiction writing with her, with a push for formal essay writing the last two years. One of my twins does not do well with the creative side of writing at all (she just doesn't operate that way) and we've focused mainly on literature analysis and formal essays. My other twin has done well with a mix of writing assignments.

I would do DIY cosmetic stuff on the cheap. (And this would be regardless of college savings plans). They have some VERY nice formica now. It is durable too. Check with your local cabinet shops and you may be surprised a the cost of just having new formica counters installed. Paint is relatively easy and cheap. Kitchen cabinets aren't horrible to paint either. See if you have hardwoods under your carpets, and rip out that carpet if you do. You can buy and install some masonite doors to replace any hollow core doors you have, paint them and it will look so much better. We've updated several older homes with just those fixes and you'd be amazed at the difference. As for college savings, if you can that is great. But don't hate yourself if you cannot. Due to various reasons, we had/have nothing saved up for our girls college. Right now we are focusing on being able to live off of our retirement so that our kids don't have to finance our old age...that's the best we can offer. Their education will have to be self-funded, with us pitching in a little here and there.

Apples to Apples, Spoons, Mafia, and Catch Phrase are huge hits for my teens.

I have one for study that is full of notes and such. It is my favorite. The writing is usually a clarification of a passage, or other passage references that pertain to the passage I'm reading. Then I have another that I take to church that I don't really write in, other than writing down sermon dates. (I am kind of obsessed with writing down sermon dates next to the verses that are preached).

No, nothing special for kids of divorce. It was pretty common where I grew up, particularly in my family. (Not one of my mother's 6 siblings remained married)

The smart phone has been a huge blessing for us. My oldest dd and I use alerts and alarms from our phones extensively. It is the only way dd has been able to show up at work or school on time. She even sets an alarm for "Stop hanging out with your friends at school, it is time to go home!" lol. She has issues with sensing how much time has passed as well. 15 minutes for her may as well be 2 hours. ETA: My dh totally does not get our scattered minds. For example, my dd's gas gage is no longer working properly. His solution? Reset the odometer every time you fill up the tank. Which in theory works just fine, but in practice is something that dd and I would never remember to do. He just looked at me dumbfounded when I informed him that we could never manage to do that.

It does vary greatly by state, even by district. Here, it isn't very easy to get back into public high school after 9th grade. It is completely up to the school as to what grade they are placed in, and what credits they will allow to transfer. There are also placement tests to be taken. It is far easier to dual enroll at the local community college as a junior/senior.

I checked all but three. (although technically I guess I do have more than one of the same size saucepan, but one is cast iron and the other stainless steel) I have multiples of A LOT of things. Heck, I even have multiple 15 year olds (haha) Life is just easier when I don't have to share ;)

I bribed my twins, but I think I was lucky and just timed it right. I told them they could buy anything at Toys R Us if they would stop. I REALLY lucked up when all they wanted was a Polly Pocket..lol. They were 3.5.

It is hard to transition from being the child to being the adult child of a parent. Kinks have to be worked out on both ends. That said, my girls would get serious talks about being disrespectful to ANYONE. She may not be aware that she's being a pill. If she isn't she needs to be made aware. Also, she needs to know that both of her parents are a united front. Disagreements are okay, but sass and disrespect are not. Explain to her that it is hurtful to even dad when that happens. Heck, it is hurtful to YOU since he is your husband. They don't always see parents as feeling individuals.

"The American Academy of Periodontology recommends dentists offer deep cleanings when X-rays show bone loss and a full-mouth exam reveals one or more gum pockets greater than 4 millimeters deep. Dr. Stuart J. Froum, a periodontologist and president of American Academy of Periodontology, says treatments should be limited to the affected teeth or mouth quadrant. “Treat only areas that are sick,†he says. " http://www.angieslist.com/articles/when-do-you-need-dental-deep-cleaning.htm

Get a second opinion first. I was duped into a very costly, unnecessary deep cleaning by a less than scrupulous dentist. (I was young and never thought to question it.) Do you have receding gums or gingivitis?

Sushi, appetizers, sparkly drinks, and games. Some years we have friends over, some years it is just us. I think this will be a year with friends.

Yes. I've homeschooled my kids from 3rd grade through graduation with a measly high school diploma. :001_smile: I just finished my freshman year at college (with my freshman in college dd, btw.) My husband's higher education consisted of diesel mechanic school and a handful of seminary classes.

No real stinkers here this year. Just one of my daughter's realization that when she asks for cash and gift cards for Christmas, it isn't much fun on Christmas morning when even mom is playing with new toys..lol. (But we are going to go buy her a pet mouse today, so it's all good). Oh, and another dd that met her boyfriend's family for the first time on Christmas day and got showered with an obscene amount of gifts. SO much so that she was mortified at her gift choice for her boyfriend and her lack of bringing anything but a pan of homemade cinnamon rolls for his family. She will be sending them a nice thank you gift basket.

Very accurate for me. The south east lit up flaming red. Born and raised in TN..lol.

Although his job has evolved into a more "white collar" job over the years, we come from very blue collar families, and started off as extremely low income, with no financial support from our parents. My dh started our marriage as a diesel mechanic, and has worked his way up over 20+ years in the same company. No one in either of our families have attended college. I am the first. He went to a vocational school. Actually my dd and I will both graduate from college at the same time, and be the first graduates on either side of our families. :) My oldest dd is attending CC, the same one I'm attending. She wants to get a library science degree. One of my other girls is planning on entering a STEM field, in biological sciences. My other dd is contemplating going into robotic engineering or video production. Education has been highly valued in our nuclear family. It is also highly valued by my father, and by dh's father. Neither had a college ed, but both are extremely intelligent, life-long learners, and heavy readers. This rubbed off on dh and I quite a lot.

I forget what I'm saying mid-sentence. I drive off without my kids. (they are older....never forgot them as babies, I promise!) I wash the same load of laundry 4 times because I keep forgetting to take it out of the washer. I am forever leaving just made cups of coffee sitting somewhere to be found hours later. Sometimes multiple cups will be made. I can never find my *insert any number of items here* because I set them down in the middle of doing something else. I make shopping lists and forget to bring them shopping with me. I will go to the store for milk, buy $50 worth of groceries, and never get the milk. I used to rely on my dd to help me remember things. Like when she was 5...lol. I beautiful example of my scatterbrained-ness: This morning I was in the kitchen making myself a cup of coffee. I noticed a bowl of leftover pop-corn on the table and thought the chickens would like it. I started to take it out to the lot, then thought that they would also like the leftover beans in the fridge. Got the beans and popcorn and took them to the chickens. As I walked back up to the house, I noticed that some toys were in the yard. I stopped and picked up the toys. I then noticed a bag of sunflower seeds for the bird feeders had fallen off the porch. I picked it up and found that it had gotten wet and sprouted. So I took them to the chickens. I came back and wandered through the flower garden and marveled at my cilantro that is growing like mad in December. Realized I had the seed bag in my hand an went to throw it away. Headed to the house to wash my hands and realized I'd left the popcorn bowl on the porch. Got the popcorn bowl, and realized that our outside cat needed food. Fed the cat. Finally made it into the house with the popcorn bowl. Started a sink of dishwater to wash the bowl and other things. Began loading the dishwasher. Picked up my full cup of coffee, now cold, that I had made 30 minutes earlier before I noticed the popcorn. My dh asked if I'd happened to see a moose with a muffin this morning.

We live in the south-eastern US. We do stockings, an artificial tree (a real tree would put a couple of people in this house in the hospital for Christmas), decorate the inside of the house, and we have a nice Christmas dinner with my in-laws. We also do Christmas Eve at their house and always do appetizers. We open gifts Christmas morning, and stockings are filled Christmas Eve night. Santa no longer visits, but when we did that, he left unwrapped gifts under the tree to be found Christmas morning. Oh and I usually make monkey bread for breakfast Christmas morning, but this year we are stepping it up a notch with Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls. We don't play a lot of Christmas music because most of it grates on my last nerve. We actually celebrate Christmas rather secularly, even though we are Christians. The celebration of Christ is kind of a year-round thing to me, with Christmas being a special time to spoil our kids a little. I would have loved to include more of an advent-type celebration as a tradition, but our family became Christians rather late in the game...and it proved to be kind of hard to start something like that for us.

I'm sitting here right this moment watching dh play it. He and I both really like playing it. It does have drugs and alcohol, but they aren't glorified, IMO. The alcohol can be used for making medicine or weapons. The drugs are very much portrayed as addictive and not good for you. The only thing that would really bother me for younger teens would be the language (if you aren't concerned about gore or violence). F-bombs are used often.

Mine just asked me how early they could get up in the morning..lol. You see their ages below. They are just excited over the gifts. I get excited too and usually don't sleep late either.

We've lived with my in-laws for a couple of months at a time at different times in our marriage. I hope to never do it again. I never could have lived with my mom and step-dad either. Or my bio dad. My kids and their future spouses? Maybe...depending on the spouses.

Not the norm for our circles, and I would not be happy at all. However, our kids did not spend a week with anyone else at that age. We weren't extremely trusting parents..lol.

I have mixed feelings. The wrinkles and gray hair don't bother me much. (actually, I LIKE my gray...the dry wrinkly skin, not so much). However, I don't like the feeling that I'm in the middle of my lifespan, especially when the first half seems to have gone by so quickly. I don't like the aches and pains either. I DO like feeling more sure of myself and that I don't have all the angst of my youth..lol. A big issue I'm having right now, is that I'm quickly approaching the age that my mother was when she died. She was diagnosed with cancer shortly before her 41st birthday. I'm turning 40 in April. My hypochondria is kicking in.

My mom is no longer living, but since I've moved out I have lived 100+ miles from her or any other family on that side. In fact, it was a condition of our marriage that we'd never move anywhere that was within an hour's drive of my family...lol. Dh lives less than a mile from his mom though, and our house is on the property she grew up on.