5 minutes or so unless I'm shaving...then add another 5? I don't usually linger. My girls? It seems to be inversely proportional to how many people need a shower and how long we have before we leave :glare: My oldest will take for-ever in the shower. You can chalk off a good 30 minutes or more if she is in there.

I wash my face in the shower with natural goat's milk soap and my hands. I will also wipe my face off with a wet washcloth in the mornings, no soap. If my skin is feeling dry, I use a little coconut oil. ETA: I never wear makeup. That is it. I've had acne problems most of my life, and finally after this minimal care routine I have next to zero acne on my face. (the little I do have only pops up about once a month, IFKWIM)

Cold brew is great and not bitter. Also, if you like coconut, full fat coconut milk (I recommend Thai brand in a can) is wonderful in coffee. I quit adding sugar at all after I started using the full fat milk. (plus coconut milk is good for you!) Try several different brands of coffee before making a judgement. The taste varies widely.

Thank you!

We've used it as our spine, and are finishing up this year with MOH IV. It does increase in content as you go along. It does have a protestant slant, but I challenge you to find a history book without some sort of slant. I have supplemented with additional reading over the years, and we do a lot of the things in the activity book. Additional reading has included source documents, biographies, reference books, and historical fiction. It has worked well for us, and the girls have retained a pretty good overview of history from using it. What I have liked is the fact that their eyes don't glaze over while reading it. We have found some inaccuracies, but I've used them as an opportunity to learn how to research and interpret fact from opinion.

Are there any good links to examples of these? I just entered the murky world of Common App last night. I didn't realize how much I didn't know.

Can you change your dh's card to your daughter? (do you and dh both need to have one?)

I should have multi-quoted in one post, sorry. About 90% of my episodes are brief and ignorable. About 5% are very uncomfortable and feel very much like a panic attack. Another 5% are downright scary and I can't function until they pass. These are the ones where my heart gets out of rhythm, beats way too fast, I cannot catch my breath and I feel like I might pass out. I also feel very panicked and claustrophobic when those happen, and will often stand/or sit up suddenly (it is almost like a flight response). Even though I stand/sit up quickly, I don't go far because I can't breathe well. Thankfully, except for one episode, these have always passed within a minute or two. Very often after an episode like that, my heart is very fluttery for a day or two.

True! One thing I did not mention is that if I'm having an unusual amount of symptoms or I just don't feel like things in there are working properly, I don't hesitate to go to the doctor. It doesn't take much for them to check and make sure there isn't something else major going on with my heart.

I have it. I was diagnosed at 20 after nearly 4 years of trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I kept having docs try to put me on meds for anxiety and depression. Finally, I had a particularly bad episode of my heart racing that required a hospital visit and medication for it to return to a normal rate. I found a woman doctor that listened to me, and after an echo they found it. I have also had Holter monitor tests. My two biggest issues with it are arrhythmia and racing. I've had periods in my life that it was worse than others. I've been on meds off and on for the arrhythmia, but they always make me feel like I'm dying. So unless I'll actually die without them, I will no longer take them. (I don't have ventricular arrhythmia, so it isn't considered life threatening) I too find that caffeine has an effect on me. I have to watch how much I drink, (usually limit myself to a cup of coffee a day) and sometimes I have to go on a caffeine fast to get things settled down again. It is almost like my body will build up a sensitivity to the caffeine and has to purge or something. My prolapse doesn't make much noise, so doctors can't hear it. But it is very visible on echo.

Mine all three have dumb phones with unlimited texting. It works for our family. I can keep in touch while they are out and about. We also have friends in several different states that they keep in touch with via text. We haven't had a land line in 4-5 years, so it was important (to me) for them to have a phone if we weren't home. They started out with one phone to share, and gradually moved to all three having phones. I think they were 12 or 13 by the time they all had one.

Yes to salting melons. (And yes, born and raised southern). Never heard of French dressing on pizza. We did eat blackstrap molasses on biscuits growing up, but never peanut butter. Dh has an aunt who ate Karo syrup on her cereal instead of milk...she just passed away at age 90.

I'm an adventurous eater. Nope, nope, and a big fat no. :ack2:

For DE she is taking: 1st semester: Statistics Beginning Chinese 2nd semester: Beginning Chinese II Archery? (not sure about this one yet) At home: English IV (EIL: World Lit, Poetry and Plato) US Government (1st semester) Economics (2nd semester) Personal Finance (2nd semester) She is also reading through our Modern History for my 10th graders, but she doesn't need the credit. She takes fencing at a local club, and volunteers at the library and a raptor rescue center.

The full fat coconut milk makes a wonderful whipped "cream" I use it in puddings and such as well. As the previous poster said, Thai brand has the best consistency.

I'm staring this in the face as well. My oldest is DE this year, and only has a few subjects at home (things like Econ and Personal Finance that really don't require my involvement). She graduates this year. My younger two will be DE next year, so my free time is expanding. Once they can drive themselves to CC, I will have to really find things to do with myself! I'm trying to get back into my artwork, and I'm toying with the idea of ramping up the photography business (but I'm not really feeling that in our recession economy).

I love my girls. They are awesome teens. But YES! There are days in which I just stare at them and think "Who ARE you?!"

I would start with the Ancients. I started homeschooling with two 3rd graders and a 6th grader. We have studied history together since the beginning. I started with Ancient History and worked our way through. Our history cycle never quite lined up with the WTM cylce, but it really is just a guideline.

I read them at a young age, but I read and was exposed to a lot of things that I shouldn't have been, honestly. My kids are free to read most things, but I have steered them away from King novels. Well, I have suggested a few to my 17 year old recently, but she doesn't want to read them. The Stand does have some graphic sex/rape scenes, suicide, and very mentally disturbed thought processes of some violent characters. If your kid isn't emotionally ready to handle those types of things, then stay far away from most King novels.

Ok, I found this: "To be eligible to receive a Tennessee Promise Scholarship, a student must: • Be a Tennessee resident • Graduate from an eligible Tennessee high school, complete a Tennessee home school program, or, prior to reaching 19 years of age, obtain a GED or HiSET diploma • Enroll in an eligible college or program and attend full-time the fall after graduation (students attending a TCAT may enroll the summer following their high school graduation) • Complete the Tennessee Promise application at www. TNPromise.gov • Meet all deadlines and requirements before enrolling" This is on page 6 of the TNPromise handbook: http://www.tnpromise.gov/pdf/TNPromiseHandbook080514.pdf

Everything I've read so far does not exclude homeschooled students. I applied for the scholarship for my daughter this morning. There is an option (a drop down menu) for selecting homeschool. Once you select homeschool, a list of schools shows up in another drop down menu. Our umbrella (Home Life Academy) was listed. TNAchieves may not have updated their information yet. The original TNAchieves program WAS limited to public school students within Knox County. TNPromise has a much wider scope. I will try to find the article or documentation I read (I don't remember now where I saw it) that addressed non-public schooled students. In TN, if you aren't registered as a homeschooler with the PS district, then you should be under an umbrella. An umbrella is legally a private school. So, unless they plan to exclude all private school students from this program, then I don't see how they can legally exclude homeschoolers.

I would eat them TODAY after bringing them to a boil. I wouldn't keep them any longer though, frozen or not.

If you are a senior this year, be sure to apply for the TN Promise scholarship BEFORE NOV. 1st, even if you aren't sure you'll use it. Come Nov. 2 you will not be able to apply. http://www.tnpromise.gov/

I pulled mine out when they were in the 3rd and 6th grades. The younger two were on board with the idea, the oldest absolutely did not want to leave PS. (friends) We pulled them out for a whole list of reasons. I wasn't happy with the level of education they were receiving. They were at the top of their classes and stuck waiting on everyone else to catch up. They weren't being challenged. The schools were expecting developmentally inappropriate behavior out of my 3rd graders and their classmates. (One daughter's class was on complete silence in their classroom for 6 weeks. Eight year olds! And they were being denied recess for behavior problems, go figure) One of my 3rd graders was missing a lot of school due to stomach aches, vomiting and headaches. My oldest child was getting harassed at middle school, basically for being a good kid that followed rules. Her personality had changed from a happy-go lucky child that loved everyone, to one that came home crying more often than not. The final straw on a big pile of straws was when my oldest daughter had to watch as a 14 year old fractured her 11 year old friend's jaw. It was a fight over the 11 year old telling the 14 year old that a woman flashing someone was gross. They have done very well at home. I was astonished at how little my 6th grader knew in math. The top of the class A student couldn't work on grade level. My two 3rd graders, who had been in different classes, were on completely different levels although they were both top A students. (one knew fractions, multiplication and division, the other was still on addition and subtraction) We had to spend around 18 months re-mediating my oldest in math. The other two caught up quickly, I think mostly because they were brought home earlier. Now, my oldest is graduating this year and retained her loving personality. She is SO thankful I pulled her from school. My younger two are on track to graduate a year early. One of my twins would happily go back to PS tomorrow if I let her. She doesn't give me a hard time about it, but does get wistful. It is mostly because her best friend is PSd. BTW, she is the one that had all the stomach and headaches...which went away for the most part after she came home. The other twin has no desire to go back. I am absolutely happy with our decision. My kids wouldn't be the people they are today if they had remained where they were. We have also become so much closer as a family, and the girls have become stronger in their faith. My only regret is that I ever sent them to PS in the first place. If I had a do over I would have kept them home.

I would stick with the WWS. It helped my dd that struggles with writing improve quite a bit. I've also given up on forcing her to write creatively. Her mind just doesn't work that way. She can write beautiful articles and non-fiction research papers, just don't ask her to write a story or analyze a poem. Instead, we have concentrated on getting the structure of a well written essay down and honed her research paper skills. For literary analysis, we have focused more on learning the terms and discussing literature orally rather than writing papers about them. I wouldn't recommend this approach for everyone, but for my daughter and her goals for college, it is what works best.