My MIL does this as well, and she hand-makes weird pizza with three kinds of meat in the sauce. I don't eat meat. I will pick meat (discretely!) off of things and eat them but I just can't do the meat sauce. This is always after an 11 hour drive to their house. If I were reading somebody else's post about this I would be thinking right now that my MIL doesn't want us to visit, but I swear it's not true! It's totally bizarre, as she is usually very accommodating and flexible. I've started bringing a lot of granola bars.

Loving this, thank you all. We're looking at rural but near the city. My career (unless I were to quit classical music) means we can't ever go truly off the map. Due to some weirdness with the Urban Growth Boundaries, the area we're considering is actually as close in driving minutes to my husband's work as our current place. I've been thinking pretty much along the lines of what many of you have said. It's nice to have the ideas fleshed out and more food for thought. We may wait another 6 months or year until our budget can get us a few more of our wishlist items. One would be walk/run/bike access, another would be slightly more (preferably wooded) acreage. The current best potential place has just 2 acres (fenced, some trees, not much in terms of maintenance) and seems it will almost always require a car.

We don't have friends in our vicinity. Our townhouse has 80 units and only two others have kids. The running thing is a big consideration for me, too. The current front-runner house is on a long driveway, but the main road is pretty busy and doesn't have much of a shoulder. Bicycle herds use it a lot, but I haven't tried going for a walk to test it out. It might be a deal breaker.

I have always wanted a bit of space outside a traditional neighborhood (like 1-5 acres). Lately that desire has become even stronger because I have the idea that our homeschool will be better for it. It would certainly be easier than having to pack up school in order to eat dinner in our current townhouse. I imagine keeping a few chickens, planting all sorts of things, building a fort shoulder to shoulder with the kids, sending them outside to play... Country homeschoolers: Is it worth the additional work, driving distance & expense? What do you like best about having a bit of acreage? What are other downsides?

I think discussing schedule expectations is really helpful. Some people want to sit around chatting, others are all about activities and getting out to see the area or do traditional things. The kids' schedules can be helpful to explain, too. If you have different expectations it's easier to meet in the middle and be accommodating with a quick chat at the beginning of the stay. Keeping tea, coffee and fruit around is always cozy. If it's a stay of more than a couple of days, I like to be sure to accept offers to help set the table or whatever so they feel connected and useful.

Mine like: paper mess creations: cutting paper to leave tiny shreds everywhere, using whole rolls of tape pokemon cards books ipod music listening time hand sewing making stuff like "God's eyes" out of sticks/yarn Yours might like finger weaving, crocheting, knitting Honestly, mine really value their free time. If they get in my hair or each others' too much in our afternoon "quiet time" then I start asking them to do chores. Very rarely (twice a month?) I give them free iPad game time or put in a movie.

Church Look at house for sale? Buy Thanksgiving ham Get out boys' Christmas decor Print new cello & piano hundreds chart Get new running plan in calendar Practice Run

Thanks! Believe it or not I have not made it over to her site before now. It looks very helpful, especially the videos.

We've got skip counting down pat. I feel my 8 yo in particular could just start memorizing them. The singing of songs is driving me a little batty anyway. For reference he's in Singapore Math book 3b and does well with the math and concepts, but likes to dawdle a bit and sometimes gets turned around in the skip counting songs though he eventually figures it out. I think knowing the facts straight up would give him more confidence. Should I do flash cards? Chanting? Randomly grill him? Please no more songs. Unless that's just what's done... (whimper)

So sorry. Prayers.

Sorry to hear about the diagnosis, Jean. Hopefully it means they know how to help and that you'll continue to feel better! Thanks again for the tackle-the-day-threads. I forget less with a semi-public forum.

School the boys Chinese family tutor (so clean off the coffee table first thing) Take 6 yo Christmas shopping because he is So! Excited!! Most expensive Grocery store/costco run in our history as a family Get a ham for Thanksgiving so I don't forget like last year Plan fun Saturday day trip (coast? mountains? gorge?)

I have no help for you but my 6 and 8 year olds just saw Midsummer this weekend and about died laughing at Thisbe & crew and all the ass/bottom jokes. I actually taught mine that the word means both donkey and is a "not-nice-word for tush". My kids are pretty into loyalty and might be convinced of the dad feeling embarrassed/betrayed... but honestly even in the full play I think it's a weird transition to such rage. FWIW, my 6 year old's favorite performance of mine in the last few years (and he's seen bunches of famous people including his hero John Williams) was a 3-actor adaptation of Romeo and Juliet with Prokofiev's score. I was shocked at that! We have since read the Lego Shakespeare version and large chunks of the real deal without stopping to explain much. He has not changed his mind. Your productions sound awesome. What a lucky group of kids!

So extremely glad it's Friday!!!! School the boys Chinese family tutor (so clean off the coffee table first thing) Take 6 yo Christmas shopping because he is So! Excited!! Grocery store/costco run Get a ham for Thanksgiving so I don't forget like last year Plan fun Saturday day trip (coast? mountains? gorge?)

We have controlled chaos. It's how my husband lives- you should see that man's side of our bedroom. Or rather, he is why I keep that door closed 24/7. It sounds like you have a bookshelf or drawers. You could teach her to keep an open shelf as your special display tidy shelf for special tidy things. (The rocks are in a pile or a line or something like that.) The other shelf has a curtain (or it's a drawer), so it can revert to chaos. Stuff cannot be spilling out of it, and in our house we have a day every other week or so when I give them 30 minutes on the timer and then come check that they are organized and haven't expanded beyond the capacity of the shelf. Full truth: my 6 year old rocks (punny!) at being organized. He enjoys taking everything out and putting it all back in a new tidy way (he is me). My 8 year old hates organizing and would live in a hoard if left to his own devices simply because he doesn't think it will ever be perfect and because he forms weird attachments to random crap (he is my husband, with his awesome-in-1980 stereo components we've moved 3 times but never used... sigh). These boys share a bedroom. Please don't give up- teach her to organize so her creative side will know how to make the most of whatever she has! She sounds awesome. I bet my boys would love to spend a day at the coast collecting detritus with her.

Gah! I am that weirdo who keeps calling at 3:30 on days you close at 3 and 5:45 on days... well you get the picture. Fingers crossed the sale continues until I get my West-coast act together. :laugh:

Holy cow, that's awful about the shooter. Sorry for your friend's traumatic experience, Amy. My list is almost the same today as we were derailed yesterday by a punky-feeling kid. School Make holiday plan for school work including ipod playlists: music, math & history. Add irregular verbs song. Done (Waiting for call back if they are taking new patients) Call surgeon re: pediatricians Piano lesson for 8 yo Get house tidy for weekend. WE HAVE NO WORK THIS WEEKEND! Sorry for shouting, but it's just too awesome to be normal about it. Find a cute photo pose for our family revolving around our new daughter for Christmas cards. Do NOT get lost in Pinterest whilst doing so. Man am I glad tomorrow is Friday. Now that we have a third grader, these weeks have ramped up and gotten real. Phew!

I'm not reading all the responses, but saw enough to say I think your decisions about limits on anything in your home are for you to make. To address the lying and knowing how to react there, I would highly recommend a book called Nurtureshock by Po Bronson because there is a chapter on some research about adolescent lying. When my kids reach that age I plan to reread it. There is probably a bunch more research available now that may also be helpful. I bet if you found that book on amazon and looked at related books you could find more about the science of child development and how parents can help kids navigate their tween/teen years.

I grew up in Fairbanks and that right there is why I became a musician. Heh. Also, I thought for a while I would be a figure skater (4 am lessons, take that, dad!). It was not easy, and I wasn't even a homeschooler, but with UAF and the athletic club and youth symphony/arctic chamber orchestra we made it work. What did I know, though, as a goofy kid without other options? :gnorsi: If you know Dawn Wohlgemuth Lindsay, you might pick her brain about options in Anchorage. She's got some awesome active boys. I believe they ski.

Happy birthday! Can I join in? I remember liking these threads when i was on the boards about a year ago. Mail newsletter for music academy (got it printed... ) Go to Costco (nope) Make holiday plan for school work including ipod playlists: music, math & history. Add irregular verbs song. (did plan, forgot playlists) Call surgeon re: pediatricians (nope) A day of many distractions and unexpectedly sick kiddo meant not much got done.

:grouphug: Sorry I don't have more to add.

This is awesome, thanks so much all! He is spending the night at Grandma's to work on a Christmas gift for me (!). He showed his first project (kind of looks like a tiny Totoro) at his homeschool group presentation today, too. After all the posts of kids working with a machine without any horrific scenes of gore (chain saws, ha!), I am thinking we might get him one of these for Christmas after all: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ITYM1BU/ref=twister_B00HYRDIXS?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 The book and project ideas will expand a lot with one of those, though I hope to still encourage hand sewing since we can bring it along anywhere.

I second this. We would have invited him to one of the ones my husband belongs to and told him about the "fly-ins" where a bunch of crazy people park our campers in a huge field for a weekend of flying. If people don't like it, they should just politely ask the kid to fly further away. No harm in letting him know it bothered you.