Congrats, and welcome to the club! I didn't homeschool mine when they were small, but I did have a 3 year old when the twins were born. Fun times :) Just don't put too much pressure on yourself, and plan on a relaxed school year or two. But it can be done!

If it is actually possible to order sushi where you are, then that is always the choice ;) I live in a place where I can't even get pizza delivered. So. Yeah. Sushi.

Me too! (She's allergic to all melons related foods). She has nut allergies too. Honestly, if I'm attending a potluck, I just ask about everything before putting it on my plate. OR only eat the things I brought. I don't expect everyone else to handle our multiple food issues.

People are weird. Wish I knew you IRL so I could jump up and down and squeal for you, and bring you a congrats gift. Babies are awesome. I AM excited for you! I think your spacing is perfect, btw. Praying that your sickness isn't too bad this go around.

Its normal. I'm a grouch. I suddenly see why so many older women in my life always seem so sour. I wake up hating people in general about 60% of the time. The other 40% I can just tolerate them. Most days I dream of living on a deserted island. (actually I'd love for everyone else to move to said island, and leave me with all the conveniences of modern life.) I talked to my GYN about it (who is a 50ish year old woman) and she just nodded, said "Yep. You can deal or you can try hormones."

I would probably skip a house completely that was all tile. I don't like the way it feels, and it causes me to have back pain after standing on it for very long. It is a pain to replace. I would love a hardwood floor throughout. We've owned three houses that were all hardwood, and loved them. Two have been farmhouses. ETA: Although I love the look of the dark wood, the lighter is more practical in my experience. The darker woods show every smudge and speck of dust. Oak isn't my favorite for looks, but it is what we chose for our current home. It wears well, and hides dirt and dust.

Personally, I would feel assaulted. If given all the correct information, she would have said no.

That is a whole other rant for me. My girls and I have the hardest time with shirts. Almost everything hits right at the top of our pants (which makes for interesting views if you have to reach for anything). We wear a lot of tanks under our shirts, but even those are hard to find that are long enough. We've actually bought things that were meant to be dresses (but apparently only for those that want to flash their undies or are under 5'5") and worn them as shirts.

Oh my. I'm so sorry for your trauma (and your dog's), but I have tears from laughing! It is REEAALLY early here too, and I'm snickering quietly into my coffee trying to not wake people up. The salted Caramel KY did me in though.

I do think they can change with age for various reasons. I know MY personality has changed a lot in the past few years. My shift is partially due to some rather stressful life situations, and partially due to hormonal changes (I think). I'm much more abrasive and less timid. I find myself angry a lot more. I don't always like how I've changed, but I very much feel like a different person.

Yes to this! It actually makes me rather ill that they don't do this. They expect my 5'0" tall MIL and my 5'8" tall self to wear the same pant length? lol. And the vanity sizing is getting out of control. I don't even know what size to pick up any more. I have a pair of Old Navy pants in my closet from a several years ago that are a size 18. I can get them on, but they are snug. I also have a pair of size 14 "skinny" jeans from Old Navy that I bought two weeks ago that are practically falling off.

My oldest just graduated last year, but she is currently working in the job she's dreamed of working in since she was small. She works part time at our library, and was promoted within a few months of getting the job. She's very pleased with her education and has thanked me for homeschooling her. She's in college full time and doing well. High School actually ended up being LESS work for me than middle school. We spent most of middle school moving them towards independent study. By the end of high school, I'm only the facilitator, not the teacher. We did not exclusively school the WTM way. We followed the history cycle, did Latin, and were lit heavy, but we did whatever math and science worked best for the kids. I did not begin homeschooling until my oldest was in the 6th grade. If we had homeschooled from the beginning I probably would have incorporated more of the WTM ideas.

Our co-op is run almost like a private school. Classes are taught by paid teachers (many of them are also homeschool parents, but they usually have education in the field they teach). There is a $40 per semester reg. fee, and $5/student insurance fee. Tuition is paid monthly directly to the teacher and ranges from $18/mo to $40/mo, depending on the class. (I pay $40/mo for chemistry with lab for example.) They meet once a week, and you can potentially have your kid there from 8AM-4PM. It is a drop-off co-op. The classes range from ballroom dance, to chemistry, to lit. Classes are from K-12th grade. There is a full range of high school classes, and even a few dual enrollment classes that have an agreement with our community college. We also have to volunteer an hour per week. This usually involves cleaning, childcare, lunch/break room duties, or set-up. You can also pay a fee to "buy" your volunteer hours if you cannot work the hours.

From the point of view of a parent that has no background in education (whether through college or self-taught like many homeschoolers), the implementation and the standards ARE the same thing. All they heard was "Common Core", "Common Core", "Common Core", then their kids are bringing home ridiculously inane homework, becoming extremely stressed out over testing, and generally hating their day at school. Of course they blame Common Core. Why wouldn't they? Common Core was the vehicle the school systems have used to push fuzzy math, insane testing, and developmentally inappropriate "learning". Whether the standards are good or not is a moot point now. The implementation isn't working in *most* cases. If the buzz words Common Core are getting the average parent to stand up and see the sub-par education their kid is getting, then let them use it. Children are becoming ever more depressed and anxious because of pressure to perform well on tests that don't even accurately measure what they are able to do. Educators are leaving the schools in large numbers because of the changes in method and implementation. Something smells.

It all depends on how long I can keep my mouth shut..lol. I will often start off helping with something and then leave him to finish to avoid bad feelings between us. If I start a project, I prefer he just finds something else to do. If I let him run the show, it goes well. If I try to make suggestions, he gets grumpy. I nearly chewed off my tongue while we were building this house.

BTW, this is the best way to eat Oreos: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/127491/easy-oreo-truffles/

I had a similar feeling this week in my college Econ class. The prof. was demonstrating creative destruction caused by new technology using music playing devices. In a class full of college students, none of them knew what a phonograph, a reel to reel, or an 8 track were. About 1/2 remembered what a cassette was. I think the only reason they knew record players was due to the recent come back in popularity for enthusiasts. Oh...and my kids cannot imagine what life must have been like in the stone age when there was no internet. You know...during my early marriage years! lol.

Sigh. I voted could not, would not. I love them. They are, however, gluten filled, which does not love me. As an aside, my dh had a colon rupture several years ago. The day before he had gorged himself on Oreos. The two were unrelated, but he can not bring himself to go near an Oreo now.

My youngest twin wanted to be a chef from the age of 8 or 9 until just last year. She was even planning on going through the culinary program at our CC. We let her cook anything and everything at home, and let her take cooking classes here and there as she could. She still loves to cook, and has mad skills, but now she is planning on going into video and sound production. As far as high school and such, we've always school with the goal of being able to get into college, even if they chose to go a different route when they got to graduation. So I guess, support their interests as much as possible, but know that it may shift.

Some swear words really make me cringe, and their rampant use right now drives me batty (specifically the f-bomb, it just seems extremely crude to me. Why do so many movies have to use it as punctuation?). I have mixed feelings on the morality of some of them. I really dislike taking God's name in vain. The other words? I realize that they are just words.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Oh...thanks for the laugh. I can let the kids go back to basement lurking and nose picking now.

Sigh. I'm old AND dealing with all this...lol. I have a "central" online system called D2L for turning in assignments. There is MyMathLab (which, thankfully my prof isn't using this year), a separate online program for my Econ Class homework, last semester there was a separate online program for Spanish class, student email, regular email, some profs. that want to be contacted ONLY by their .edu email, and some that ONLY want to be contacted through D2L, some that print a syllabus for you and don't list it online, some that only post it online, some that list out assignments ahead of time, and some that only assign in class. It is nuts. I keep my planner with me, and write EVERYTHING in it.

No, not getting it. None of the rest of the family is either.

So glad you caught it! My experience with advisors has been less than stellar. I have yet to met an advisor (for myself or my kids) that knew much. I can usually find out much more online. I have also been told some rather wrong things. I've been drumming into my girls' heads to do ALL the research yourself, double check everything the advisor says, and only use the advising appointment as the box you need to check.

No. But then again, I've not said anything that I wouldn't or have already said to her/their face. Also, I'd be very surprised if my MIL or FIL either one found this place and started reading.