1. Don't hug me. I have a bubble. 2. I don't want to shake 10 hands before I get to my seat. (our current church is guilty of this. We have to go through a "gauntlet" of hand shakers to get into the sanctuary. One shaker is really enough. Especially when I'm juggling my Bible, a notebook, the bulletin and my purse. I don't even have small children to wrangle) 3. I do like a smile and a friendly greeting. And the ability to ask questions if I'm new and do not know exactly where to go. 4. I really wish more churches would make their small group or Sunday school options clearer. A list of classes with times and room numbers posted where I can read it at my leisure.

I have found them at Target and Staples.

The one that irks me is paying .25 for a spiral notebook, then having to pay 2.00 for a spiral graph paper notebook of the same brand. The only difference is in the print on the paper!

We have a camera and alarm on our van. I can't say the camera has ever helped me avoid hitting anything. There are TONS of false alarms with our system though. (apparently it confuses gravel with objects a lot) And, I have had an accident in which I backed into a vehicle that was also backing out in a tight parking lot. The other vehicle never showed on the camera and the alarm never went off. It was perfectly in the blind spot.

Well, my MIL considers it a character flaw if you are still "lolling around in bed" past 8AM. But then again, the woman never sleeps! lol. My dh, one daughter and I are naturally early risers. We are up by 6:30 or 7:30 without alarms. My oldest daughter, however, will stay up until the wee hours of the morning and sleep all day when her schedule allows. She just seems to be wired that way and has been since she was small. My other daughter seems to be kind of middle of the road. Personally, I don't care what other people do. ETA: Actually, I'm glad there are some of us that are night owls. The people working night shifts are keeping things running smoothly while us early birds are sleeping!

I had a Kia Spectra that I loved. The only reason we got rid of it was because I had three teenagers and they were getting very, very cramped in the back seat. I bought it used (it was around 3-4 years old) and kept it for another 4 years. It never had any problems and it was driven from TN to TX and back several times.

It didn't happen all at once, but they didn't revolt. They were sad, but understood in most cases. They were 7-11 in ages during the reduction.

I don't have any answers for that really, but that is why we eventually ended going from 7+ critters in our house down to one dog. *I* only wanted one house pet, and since *I* was the one that ultimately had to care for it, I declared no more pets for the kids until they moved out! It always seems to fall back onto my shoulders to make sure the animals were properly cared for, no matter how much the kids loved them. One dog is all I can deal with for inside pets right now, so one dog it is. Edited to add: our number of pets reduced in various ways: some died from old age (hamsters, gecko) and some got re-homed due to moving, some just got re-homed to more suitable families)

My oldest is a senior this year. She is taking DE courses, and just a few subjects at home to wrap up her credits. School hasn't always been easy with her, and the idea of growing up in general has been hard for her, so I'm actually ready for this next stage. I see the adult peeking through, and she's a beautiful person. I will be glad when I am no longer the one in charge of this struggle with her, and I can just be the mom of this lovely young woman! The stranger thing to me is that my younger two are so close behind. After this year, they will be taking DE classes too, and in three short years, I will be out of the homeschooling business altogether!

I don't have any, but don't mind them on other people. *I* personally can't think of anything I'd like drawn on my skin that I want to look at forever. Dh has one that he regrets getting. It wasn't done very well and he doesn't care much for tattoos in general any more. Thankfully, it is where no one can see it unless he shows it to them.

Coffee with whole coconut milk in the morning. Usually tap water the rest of the day.

If you want to see what it looked like after it was built here are photos: http://s36.photobucket.com/user/aprylherrell/library/House?sort=3&page=1

This is our final plan. The area under the stairs is all accessible storage. The entire attic space over the garage is accessible, as is the attic space above the second floor. The computer/office space is where I store our school supplies, have my office and art studio area, and there is a small TV area.

Our house is 2000 sq ft for 5 people and a dog. Dh works from home, so we are all here, all the time. It is really just right. BUT, we built this house and squeezed out every inch of storage space we could. There is almost zero wasted space, including attic storage. The layout is also very efficient for us and how we live. Most people, after walking through, have a hard time believing it is only 2000 sq. ft., but it really is!

If I picked my friends based on their level of sin, I'd be pretty lonely. I'm open about my faith and my beliefs. I talk about them and I try to live them. I still manage to have friends that are Jewish, atheist, Wiccan, Catholic, Pagan, divorced, un-wed parent, etc. One of my oldest daughter's close friends is gay. He's welcome in our home, and he knows our (and our daughter's) position on the sinfulness of it. We don't give him the hairy eyeball, or preach to him every chance we get. Our daughter just shows him love, like our faith tells us to do. Our home is always open to any of our friends and family, regardless of their stance on our religion. I think the key to maintaining friendships with people with different lifestyles or beliefs is to be open. It has never been a problem for us to decline doing something with a friend when it goes against what we believe. We do it respectfully, and with kindness. I've never had anyone get mad at us about it. In turn, we don't push it the other direction. If they don't want to talk about our beliefs, we don't pressure them with it. It works for us.

I will only be 41 when my youngest two graduate. I'll probably do what my dh wants me to do and be a full time artist. It'll be nice.

Pretty much everything I cook is completely different than what my mom made or what I grew up on. We had lots of Hamburger Helper - Don't touch it now. Boiled vegetable pot (cabbage, carrots, broccoli, whatever veggie she had on hand, thrown in a pot of water and cooked until mushy) - Most of my veggies are steamed or roasted now...never a boiled pot. Spaghetti with breakfast sausage in the meat - Why? I'll never know. I was SO glad to never have to eat that again. 5lb Pancakes (Bisquick pancakes that were huge, thick and super heavy) - I make them from scratch now and use REAL maple syrup. We also ate TONS of lunchmeat, chips, soda, white bread, sugary cereal and ice cream that came in those big ol' plastic buckets. While we do occasionally have lunchmeat and chips, sodas are for special occasions, and I don't buy sugary cereal, white bread or cheap ice cream.

My dd got a job because I posted on Facebook that she was looking for one! Lol. It is a nanny type position for a distant relative :)

My new normal: French vanilla tea with coconut milk A smoothie with greens, almond milk and berries. Sometimes a few nuts if I am really hungry.

Bottled water (my niece calls this my apocalypse water..lol. Really it is just because we get thirsty a lot and I don't want to stop and buy water!) Plastic cutlery and napkins Crossword puzzle books (I sit and wait a lot with three teens!) Tums An emergency roadside kit Extra glasses cleaner Misc chargers A car game A brush Nail clippers Salt and pepper Baby wipes Umbrellas Reusable shopping bags Straws Ponchos I'm sure there is more...we have a van.

My three have dumb phones with unlimited texting and shared talk minutes. I just broke into the smart phone bubble a few months ago for myself..lol. They may gradually get smart phones as I upgrade mine, or the start paying for them themselves. They don't really care.

Yes! But when we bought it I told my dh that we would never get to keep it because I loved it too much. It was within walking distance of the library and biking distance to anything! The inside was gorgeous, and perfectly suited for us. The kitchen was awesome, and I had a little garden out back. Within a year, my husband had a pretty bad medical emergency and we decided that we needed to move back home, closer to family. I cried :( We built our "dream" home here, and while the inside is everything we wanted, I still miss the location of our home in Texas. I think, eventually I will let go of that place and learn to love this one as much.

I have watched my inlaws be grandparents for 19 years now. What I have seen is that their age has drastically affected their desire to spend time with the grand kids. When they were in their 50s they were more than happy to have the whole passel of grand kids over for a sleep over. Now, at 70, they get tired of being around them after about an hour. The really young kids, they don't like being around at all really. They are tired, and they just don't tolerate noise/activity nearly as well as they used to. Could that be part of the problem? They are just in that stage of life? I don't have much to compare to. My maternal grandmother I only saw a few times a year, and the kids were always banished to the outdoors. My paternal grandparents kept me for a week or two every summer growing up, but that was because of my parents divorce and my dad wasn't always living on his own. They never did anything with me either. I mostly remember watching tv and reading anything I could find!

I'm Aprylh76 on there. I was doing it for a while last year, stopped, gained even more weight, and now I'm tracking again while gradually moving towards an Eat To Live style of eating. My dh just got the diabetes diagnoses, and I'm probably headed that way. I'm down 10 lbs as of yesterday with a lot more to go! Anyway, feel free to add me :)

Have you talked to your husband about how he feels about you not working? Something that relieved me of a lot of financial guilt was knowing that my husband 100% wanted me to stay home and school our kids. Honestly, for him, it is way less stress knowing that he doesn't have to worry about the day to day stress of running a household AND working full time. In the past when I worked full time and our kids went to childcare/public school, it was more stressful on both of us.