We just had a programable thermistat put in last summer and I love it. I also wash in cold water, yell "get out now!" to the kids, ha..that's my timer. Good suggestions :)

I live pretty close to you in S. Nashville but your house is double the size of my 2000 sq.ft. If I add my gas and electric bill together, they'd total about $250. so imo, that's outrageous. I keep the heat down to about 64 during the day right now and down to about 62 at night. In the morning I crank it to 66 or so to warm up the house then back down to the mid to low 60's for the day. We have a tri-level house and it's not easy to keep a decent comfortable temp. throughout the house. Is this a new house? Could you call the electric co.for an estimated average? I hope it's wrong.

OH, what great ideas you have!! I've been at this for 5 yrs. and I started with Sonlight and became quite comfortable after the first year to just pick and choose what I liked for each subject after that.

:iagree: This is how we would handle it as well. There is no keeping unread books for yourself.

In a word...no. My oldest dd is 17. She has never had a boyfriend or a date. My next in line is 14 and I plan on it staying the same way. That nonsense gets in the way of what they should be concentrating on. It clouds their thoughts and they lose common sense. no,no,no. I suppose when they are done with childhood they can engage in a romantic relationship so 18 sounds like a good start to me.

The Newport Mansions are beautiful. http://www.newportmansions.org/

You are not a horrible mom :grouphug: It sounds like he just feels a little lost right now. It doesn't mean he'll not find his way with a little help from you.

I could not agree with Ria more. He does sound as if he is calling some shots around the house that he has no business calling. We have told our dc often to "have a plan" and we walk them through what it will take. They have lists (short term and long term) on their bedroom walls to remind them to stay the course. I'm sure I'm now repeating myself but as an example of a short term: "What it takes to get my drivers license" get the study book, study and take online quizzes for 2 weeks, make my appointment If things are bite-sized, he may be able to see it more clearly and see that it is all attainable.

This is the way my dh explained the future to our dc... "If I told you to go to "xyz place" right now, could you get there?" They said "no." He said "what would you need?" and that was answered with "a map". He then went on to explain that life was the same way. You set goals- that is your destination. You write down how to get to those goals-that is your map. And then you do what you need to do to get there. We then had the dc write out a list of what it takes to get where they want to go. Maybe you could help him figure out a few future goals and write out what it takes to achieve them ? He may be overwhelmed with how much is ahead of him and needs it broken up into pieces.

In my opinion, your expectations are not too high. My twin 7yr.old dds do the same daily chores, more or less that you listed. They also have to keep up with the pets water and food bowls throughout the day and they have to bring down their laundry twice a week and fold and put it all away as well. I don't use charts or rewards but I do tell them that they live here and there is no free lunch in this world. I have told all my dc that it's my responsibility to make sure they know how to do these things because as adults, it wont be done for them. My guess as to why your dc are not doing these things is that they just don't want to. I know my dc don't want to either but heck, I didn't want to get out of bed this morning at 6am, either but I did because I have to. I do keep on top of what they need to do because I know that at least half the time, they wont do them on their own.Luckily, my 2 older girls (14,17)are very responsible and also hold their younger siblings responsible. I had my younger two shadow the older two and they were mentored by them in how to do their chores so the older two are like my mini-managers with them now, ha. It's just consistency- they'll get it.

Jim Morrison came to mind right away...otherwise, nada.

I've been in and out since 2005. I use to use the name vangogirl.

I will also guess it's your computer because mine takes less than 2 min. to re-start and doesn't seem to affect the computer in any way. But yes, if the computer is off, it doesn't work. I was on the phone with someone and I wasn't thinking and re-started my computer and cut us off- that is probably the one downfall but we rarely turn our computer off so it's really not an issue for us.

I've had it for at least 6 mos. and we've had no problems. So far, so good.

:lol: Love the description!:lol:

I stopped going when I figured out if was more of a business than anything else. And I can't stand the "membership" mentality.

This reminds me of a game my dd and I played while waiting at the airport for my dh to come home. First we guessed everyones name who came off the plane "thats a Dottie if I've ever seen one Then when we tired of that, we guessed peoples professions. A woman waiting for her husband noticed and began to play along with us. First we all guessed eachothers names, lol.

My dd said she'd think I was a professional shopper. hmmm. My dh looks like a younger Deniro so probably something to do with organized crime, lol. When we were meeting for the first time,(blind date) he said "Im in a white cadillac, I'll be the one who looks like I stole it."

I would have guessed an artist or some sort of artsy creative type...or a model.

I can relate. My dd (17, junior) just took her first ACT. She scored 28's accross the board except in math. Her math was an 18. I have used Saxon, Keys to.., Singapore and Teaching Textbooks. I recently bought her Life of Fred and she loves it. I'm hoping this does it and so far,so good.

Hi Elizabeth, We're neighbors! I homeschool my 4 girls and I keep 4-6 little ones. I'm about to scale down to just 4 and then to 2 unless I can replace them. It's definitely possible but of course if depends on so many things...the age of your children, the behavior of the ones you watch, etc. I've got 2 teens and 2seven yr.olds so I have lot's of help in all directions. I'd like to do ebay or something at home other than keeping children but it seems to be my most viable option at the moment. Good Luck!!

My dh wont get in a car with me. In MY opinion, that's ridiculous. In his, it's a matter of life or death. There is nothing wrong with my driving, he's just being male. I also hate to drive when he is following behind me. He critiques me when we arrive..."you took that corner too sharp", or "OK, Mario, slow down on the way home, this isn't nascar"....:auto:

OK- that's disgusting and I would have lost my mind. That said, I'm not sure I would be insulted or bothered by someone asking what something on their plate was but it's all in the delivery. "WHAT is this?!" is not polite. You can ask what something is in a manner that shows you are interested or you can ask the way that boy did and what he really might be saying is " This looks gross and I'm not eating it". I got the impression that his delivery in asking the question was the issue.

My 7 yr. old does this. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY! We all tell her to stop when we notice it and she does but it looks like she's walking with high heels. We just decided it was an odd habit and we're trying to make sure she breaks it. She also takes her feet out of the back of her shoe and walks with the back of it smooshed down until she ruins her shoes....drives me nuts.

My children (17,14,7,7) would have all eaten that meal, all probably liked it and it's pretty normal food at my house as well.I would safely venture a guess that my 2 older girls would have asked for your soup recipe. I buy and prepare a huge variety of foods and thats the reason for this, along with many discussions on how to behave at the dinner table. Would I have noticed and been annoyed at that boys behavior? Yes, as would my children have been, I'm sure. Would I have mentioned it to his mom? Naw, probably not. If he acts that way at someones house, he acts like that at home,too and his mom is probably aware of who and how he is. Would I want to know if it were my children? Absolutely! But we've gone over table manners to the point where it's a non-issue. They don't announce it if they don't like something. If they are asked, they may say something like "it's not my favorite" but they will not make an issue of it in any way...esp. at 12 yrs. old. We eat salad here- tons of it, almost daily. I also watch children during the day and a few weeks ago, I made a salad for me for lunch and one of the children looked at it and said "we don't eat leaves at my house". I just said "oh, ok". It just wasn't worth it to me. My kids smiled.