Huggs *

Thanks to everyone for posting. I was hooked last week and tried it. I have to admit it's hard to cut out snacks. I still crave sweets but not having them around and knowing I can have something this weekend makes me stick with it. I've lost 2.5 pounds, no headaches (I use to get a lot while counting calories even though I ate several times a day) and I love that I don't have to count calories or figure out if a food is on an approved list I just get to enjoy eating a real plate of food. I walk in the afternoons with my kids or do light gym-type exercises (sit-ups, squats, jumping jacks, crunches) as a family. It's way easier to fit in my day since I can do it with my kids and they enjoy it. I feel more toned and am considering the shovel exercises I've read about on the forum...anyone tried? Do others exercise? I have to admit twice I had to have something extra at night ( I should say early morning) I went with something small and filling. Baby steps... Thanks again for all the suggestions and encouragement!

DS (13) Steampunk Professor-type or Darth Vader DD (12) Princess Leia with go-go type boots DS (4) Yoda For our HOA adult party my DH and I are dressing up as Ancient Romans.

I second, a cup of tea. I also have started chewing organic gum instead of having a mid-afternoon snack with my toddler.

Thanks for sharing, I've never heard of it but already I like it!

Marriage has it's ups and downs... How is your *tea* time? I know there is a lot more to marriage then that, but are you having regular intimate time together? Do you both enjoy it? Do you ever talk about your honeymoon or past times when you enjoyed being intimate. This may be crazy but consider having it every day, look at *tea* time as exercise. Sometimes rough patches make people stop wanting to be intimate, age and health can play a factor too but my DH and I have kept it up and it really helped us keep our marriage alive, so I urge you to consider and try it. We also started doing things more "together" like we use to when we were first married. Life gets busy but we started... Going to movies, talking at night together, even playing silly card games...think back and see what does your DH like to do with you/ or you like to do with him? I know you said he is a homebody and I totally get that, but what does he like to do at home? Can you do it with him? One way to rekindle love is to be lovers and friends! It'll take work from you and I know that's hard when you feel the work is only one sided but consider it an investment in your future and hopefully he'll respond positively to *tea* and being together. Just some food for thought...

I am been using it for about 3 weeks and I am right over $8.00. It does take time but not that much since I record all of our spending anyway on speedsheets. I am waiting until I hit $10 and then I'll redeem it. I find I already save a lot by shopping there ...this is just a little bonus.

We do checklists. It started as a suggestion from our ND years ago when my son was taking therapy for speech. I don't have a copy of the checklists we used back then (about 7 years ago) but currently we still use checklists for morning and night for my older kiddos. They get to do it in any order. When they were young I put the tasks in order to be completed. They are 13 (boy), 12 (girl). Here is a copy of their checklist for morning and night. Girl (12) Morning Make Bed, Put on Clothes, Deodorant, Style Hair, Put on Makeup (optional), Earrings/Jewelry (optional), Brush Teeth, Bring Water Down Girl (12) Night PJ’s on, Get Books, Get Water (if needed), Brush & Floss Teeth, Face Wash/Wipe, Brush Hair, Remove Makeup/Jewelry Boy (13) Morning Make Bed, Fix James Bed (our tot's bed), Put on Clothes, Deodorant Brush Teeth, Bring Water Down, Open Windows (the blinds), Bring Lib. Books Down Boy (13) Night PJ’s on, Get Books, Get Water (if needed) ,Brush & Floss Teeth Face Wash/Wipe, Close Blinds, Get Beds Ready We don't have a set time to get up and do them but they need to the checklist done for the morning before breakfast. It takes about 15 mins give or take. At night, I give at least 20 mins to complete their checklist. They get more time because do skin care and my daughter has to remove makeup. earrings, etc. For school, I've always done just a simple task-checklist with what is to be done that day. Typically written up on a whiteboard or printed out. This year, I've switched it up and we're doing periods of 45 mins and then having mini-breaks. It's working so far...I decided to switch up because we have consider co-op/hybrid schooling and most are scheduled as periods with breaks in between classes like public/pvt school. I want them to be prepared in case they want to join next year for high school. Another idea is setting rewards up, we have before, not all the time but when we change routines and modify the lists we normally have a period of rewards and it helps. All the way from earning money to game time.

It was taking me forever to think of a name so I just looked down and realized I was wearing a tshirt and yoga pants. So I put those together and added mama cause that is the name I answer most often.

I had a similar problem last year with my daughter. She was put with girls by age not grade. I didn't get a choice in the matter. I was even a leader and read all the materials in print and via the leader portal. They all say go by age and that's it; it was a frustrating policy and I tried to make it work. If I were you and someone informally said it was ok, I would go back to that person and see if they can talk to the leadership. In my case, I just assumed it was by grade and didn't realize it was by age until I had already agreed to be a leader. I wish I would have pulled my daughter out because in the end it wasn't a very positive experience. She knew girls in both classes 4-6 & 7-8/9-12 not best friends but well enough. She had similar mindset, maturity, interests and school work as the older girls in 7-8 which is what we school her as. But she was placed in the 4-6 grade group. A few girls didn't take it seriously, others were goofy and overall it was very loud. The leadership changed too so instead of jumping into working on the badges and service projects. They spent 2 months on a joining lapbook which was geared towards 1-3 graders. She stuck with it until Spring only because I was a leader. So I cation you to be careful if they don't stick by the informal approval of letting your daughter move up with her classmates she attends school with. If I had to do it over again I would have backed out of leadership and looked in toGirl Scouts, which we end of doing because they were ok with letting her enroll by grade.

Never. Its the one thing I love to do with my kids. The discussion and rabbit trails we've made together makes it worth while. My kids are 13, 12, and 3. The tot doesn't sit often with us but when he does he even adds things and enjoys the stories as much as he can. I have had a few times when my daughter (12) has wanted to read ahead for a while I allowed her but she didn't want to sit with us and my son (13) has done it to but tends to want to talk about the characters/plot is upsetting to my 12 year old. So a few years ago I made the decision that read -aloud books are together reading and can't be read alone or ahead. I only do this with the book we are currently reading aloud so they always have more to choose from. I do something allow them to ask me to read more and a lot of times I do. Instead of 1 chapter we'll read 2. One day we just keep reading and read the whole book. It was about 100 pages and we still talk about it.

Personally between 5-10 mins just depends on how much time I have for the shower. Occasionally, 15 mins but I use it more to settle my mind like somepeople do a bubble bath. For my kids we aim for 10 mins and use a timer. They set the timer at 8-9 mins and have 1-2 mins to finish up. My daughter likes showing every day and doesn't always wash her hair so she may just do a 5-6 min shower. They both (13 and 12) love showers so I try and be ok if they go over a bit. But 12 mins is the max. My tot we don't really time since a lot of his time is water play with the bath tub filled a bit, his cleaning time to soap and shower is about 2 mins.

My son sometimes gets on my husband's touchscreen and he loves it. He can play starfall with no help and can play around on the LEGO. Of course, my tot already knew how to use a touch screen because sometimes he plays on our kindle. It's really nice not having to deal with a mouse.

Please don't over moderate the Chat Board. I know some moderation is needed for any community and obviously posters and comments need to be civil. The chat board to me is all about posting threads that don't really go anywhere else, it's also a place that isn't just about homeschooling and parenting, it can be for everything else...a place to ask questions, get different opinions, and even vent which is what I LOVE about it. As others have already said, I love the forum, it's my go to place when I have a few minutes to myself. It's my first place for reviews and parenting tips. It's grown and I've grown with it and I hope it will be around forever. I even like the ads. They help remind me to check out all the different SWB sites and keep up with new products, articles, and ventures.

My suggestion is radical... but it's worked for us when my DH has had night or evening work. We switch our routine to match his more closer. I didn't make my kids go to bed early instead we became night owls, they wouldn't stay up all night but 10:30-midnight sometime in there they would go to bed. While my DH didn't sleep until noon like yours my kids routinely were not up until 9:30 or even 10am, which helped. This did push our lunch and dinner so I added snacks as needed. But in the end it worked for us.

Looks great, thanks for sharing. I saw that it's done by South Dakota Historical Society, hope its good.

I have a cup of black tea 99.9% of the time, first thing I drink in the morning. It's a routine that just makes the day start out great!

I am annoyed and frustrated too. Meat just keeps going up, so I've switched to less lean. I shop between two stores and have adjusted several meals because of cost. I tend to have to plan out my shopping more, which I don't always have time for otherwise I fall back on eating out.

I would love to make my own plans but it's soo hard when my DH is on call for the weekend. I prefer to have the weekends planned. Just knowing what to expect helps even if they are going to be a stay at home weekend. What is hard is the in and out of DH. My older kids want to spend time with him so they are constantly waiting around and my younger (3) becomes clingy. When I have made plans in the past it doesn't always work well with DH unless it's specific like removing wallpaper from the dining room or going out shopping... Now I just puttz around, I hate doing household chores but I tend to leave a couple so I have something to space my time with. Reading other replies I am thinking I need to create some place holders, some routines for the weekend that can work with DH if he is home but if not can still hold.

I've read the books but enjoyed the show. I have to agree with others that it was slow at first but I believe for a reason, giving background for the characters and building up to the Time Travel part. I am hooked. My DH watched the last 30 mins with me and he is too. So I can't watch it alone, it's now one of our "together" shows. I hope Starz releases them on the website or I can buy them off of Amazon one at a time to keep up.

We got a VHS player. Lots of older VHS are not available on DVD, others are but pricey. I don't buy VHS not even at yard sales so we only have a small handful left. Once they bit the dust, I will not likely replace.

When we transition my youngest to a Jr. Chair at the table, we used a plastic placemat. It defeintly kept the mess contained and was easy to clean up. We ended up having everyone use a plastic placemat. Then everyone could do their own or we could assign someone to clear/clean the table and the other do to dishes. It also protects our table from stains and heat marks.

Ikea has some feminine sets. Target has shabby chic, it goes on sale every now and then, it's very feminine.

We tried a scout-type group last year for my daughter (11) at the time. It was a new group. We knew a handful of girls before joining from another group we belong too. Being a new group we didn't think pairing off or cliques would exist. After joining we found out several girls were from a previous group located in another city and knew each other really well (they had been together for the past 3 years). The girls that knew each other really well started to pair off and my daughter got hurt a few times when girls wouldn't include her in their conversations. In the end, my daughter enjoyed some of the activites but she had hoped to make "true" friends and she ended up having girls that she knew at the meetings instead of any friends at all. The group changed several things this year and she decided to no go back. She also felt some girls were really compeitive in terms of what badges they were earning. It got to a point that the some girls would try and out-shine others, my daughter didn't like that and the leaders didn't know how to handle it. Favotism also occured by the leaders to certain girls which didn't help. I would say in any group, pairing off can occur and it's something to talk to your girls about ahead of time. I would also say about half way through it went from being a postive thing she did each week to something she didn't look foward to.. I wish I would have pulled her out...

I went to tea years ago and it's what keeps me ticking. I sometimes need a cup in the afternoon especially if I am at home. I use to have a cup at night but it kept me up for hours. I try and not have anything past dinner unless I need to stay up really, really late.