So much of this is in the eye of the beholder. I have no qualms with chocolate crosses. Chocolate crufixes would trouble me, but crosses... eh.... As for the rest of the stuff. I don't mind the t-shirts too much, there are some that, imo, send mixed (at best) messages, but most of them just seem like a Christian answer to the secular 'funny' shirts. Mints and things just seem really trivial. Some of the fluffier reading and toys for kids, I like those. I'm trying to get on the right path, but I love to read. I'm starting to crave fiction, adventure, etc. I was looking at the Left Behind series and those sorts of books so I wouldn't feel like I was just filling my head with junk. I'm reading the KF History Encyclopedia, for goodness' sake, I need something to read! All together, for most of those things they're just different things for different people. Some people like to wear jewelry and look a little 'in' or updated. For them, as the books are for me, it's a way to do something that gives you personal joy and not feel so bad for it (like it's just a waste). That my opinion, of course ;)

Dh started off agreeing, simply because he leaves the kids in my hands. As long as they are NOT starting cults (so says dh) then he figures I know what I'm doing... Now, it's because HIS son is learning Greek, HIS son is learning Latin, HIS son has a better grasp on world history than most adults, HIS son is learning how to learn. :lol: It gives me the warm fuzzies knowing that he's okay with homeschooling (now) because he really truly believes our ds is better off.

So glad we're not the only ones that slept in today :)

LOL, last year about this time there was a thread on here about where we'd failed as hsing parents. It pretty much revolved around our kids not knowing who Hendrix or the Beatles were. I ended up buying some new cds for in the car (who needs to know Chopin?)kidding, I'm kidding, we've reverted back to classical, but we do pump up the oldies every once in awhile, including but not limited to Stone Temple Pilots, the Beejees, and Janis Joplin.

Well, if we were using today as an example then.... The alarm went off at 6:30, as usual.... We woke up around 8 (oops!), I helped dh find all his stuff, made coffee while he hopped across the living room trying to get dressed and talk to his boss at the same time. Made breakfast (ala cereal bowl) at 8:30 (once I'd shoved dh out the door). School started at 9. We've moved our review days to Monday (so I can make sure ds is "keeping" the information over the weekend). We started with the review for Lesson 3 in Latina Christiana I. I ended up deducting three points for spelling errors (97%). Greek did not go as well :( Ds decided to have fun with his lines so when I went to check the test I couldn't tell if he connected the right letter with the right symbol with the right sound... (86%) From there we reviewed multiplication... ach. (88%) Finally we hit spelling (96%) and reviewed "The Land of Nod" (100%). Then we broke... for lunch... coffee... and a much needed reprieve. After lunch: -Reading, John Chapman the Story of Johnny Appleseed -Writing, oral narration for the section covered above. -Handwriting, screaming angst and an overrall dislike for cursive. -Grammar, ah adjectives, FLL3 lesson 13; ds found out I forgot to write an entire exercise (we don't have the workbook), this lightened his mood :glare: -History, Tang Dynasty (STOW 2 Chaper 8), map work, globe work, atlas work... discussion compare and contrast to Islamic Empire and Roman Empire. Woohoo :) -Music, ala Music Theory for Beginners, Usborne (note this book reads like stereo instructions, it took me all weekend to decifer the first and second page, thus those two pages will be our "music theory" for this week)... Ds thinks music should be heard and not read, he is not amused by the staff, notes, Mommy's little FACE trick or octaves, but did like drawing the clef. Then, I retreated to the front porch to ponder the intracies of life. Oh and little ds did sing the alphabet a few times, we counted some things and discussed puzzles (his new passion). His schooling is... uh... well... the hope is there that one day we will cover G in OPGtTR.

Totally out of loop here. Is Nirvana on there?:lol:

My sister said much the same thing :p Didn't watch the VMAs, didn't care, lol. There's my opinion of the whole shebang :lol:

As far as narrations goes, have you tried letting your dc read the passage? It may be that she's having problems listening, but could retain it if she could either follow along or read it herself. FLL 3 is much more difficult (imo), we started in August and it's not the cake walk FLL2 was :p At the beginning of the book, it does say to make the lessons take two days, if you're going beyond an hour (I think it's an hour...). Have you tried that? Maybe your dc just needs it stretched out a little? What is it, in FLL 3, that is the problem, or is it just that there's more to cover, more to do?

I think you'd have to assign a grade. If you're dcs have never done grammar work, then start with FLL 1, if they've had some experience, but you aren't too sure where to put them (and they're older 3/5th grade ages), then (imo) I'd go with FLL 3, I'm learning things in that book at the same time I teach them to ds :) Whatever level you do for grammar, use the same level in Writing with Ease (if only because the material matches up). Spelling.... I'd go with grade/age level, if only because I'm starting to think spelling is a horrendous waste of time. But then, I don't like spelling :)

Ds is able to move ahead at his own pace. We're a grade ahead in Math, for instance. The grammar and writing we do is MUCH more vigorous. While we're technically at grade level for those (ala WTM), he's far ahead of his peers. Reading... he's reading greats like Chaucer, there is no comparison to the flim-flam he was reading in school. He's also getting Greek and Latin (classes that are not offered, even at the high school level, here). World history (something he'd only have learned one year at the local ps) is another great thing we have that they don't. All around, once we add in mind benders, his education at home is well beyond comparison to the local ps. You know you're doing good when your facilitator asks you how in the world you manage to do it :)

I think it MUST be her circle of friends (birds of a feather, iykwIm). For what it's worth, most of our friends are in their first marraiges. I know three people that are divorced (but never remarried). We have one friend that is in his second marraige (it's his wife's first). My brother's in his second marraige (his wife's first). My gramma is the most "experienced" person I know where marraige is concerned, she has been married and divorced twice. I think it's more in who you know. :)

No speedos or thongs :p

It is illegal for citizen money (tax dollars) to be spent on anything covering abortion. Of course, in the bill in DC they conveniently forgot that. They're willing to cover or help cover ins. costs for people using companies that would cover abortion. IOW, they'd pay for coverage for someone with a company that covers abortion. Just so you know. :)

:iagree: Wow, you really nailed that.

I think some kids can make homeschooling difficult to impossible, if they want to go to ps. It's not that they aren't suited to it, it's that they don't want to. IOW, if something happened and you and your family ended up in the middle of nowhere with no way to go to ps, then you could homeschool, because your kids would not have a choice. Having the option, and preferring to ps, there's not much, imo, point in trying to force them to homeschool. The know the option and want it.

I know exactly what you mean. Plenty of people wear crosses, but most of them wear them roughly the size of a shield. While I'm all for putting on the armor of righteousness, I don't think that blinging it out is what God was going for ;) If you're wearing a cross that could blind someone miles away then, imo, it's immodest.

:grouphug: You really are a swell momma :) Continue to set a good example to them. :grouphug:

First at 16, my second (and first sort of somewhat plannedish) at 20.

:w00t: I want to forward this to everyone I've ever had email contact with. I want this to make the rounds and end up BACK in my email in six months. This was wonderful, clever, entertaining AND you got your point across without, imo, one single drop of smarm!?!:thumbup: :hurray:That is a 10 out of 10.

I completely understand where you are coming from. My only modification is... I always ask myself how would I feel if my great-grandmother (she died when I was 15) could see me. Lol, as far as dress codes went, she wrote the book. She wore pants once in her entire life... and her husband had a fit :lol: It's hard to say how I feel knowing I could wear a garbage bag and be as attractive as I am in my 'nice' capris and t-shirt (cuz that's ma dress up clothes).

Isn't this bill just supposed to make insurance affordable for everyone? What does that have to do with either forcing people to get medical care or to lead healthy lives? I've noticed that the two get very intertwined, but I think it's important to make a distinction. Pass all the insurance stuff you want, but when it comes to health care, leave that in the hands of the individual. I don't say doctor, simply because, some people don't want to be patients. I think it stretches far beyond any reach the Constitution allows the government to have when you start including personal health and actual health care into the equation. If the insurance companies want to put out something like what was mentioned by pps, incentives for example, that is fine. Asking the government to start monitering or legislating personal health, though... that's too far, imo.

:iagree:

Baby b is always running away, little d loves his Daddy :) I don't know why they worked so well, but my dss remembered them. ETA, because little b "runs away" from big B (Bb) and little d looks at big D (Dd). Thought I might want to clarify, I mean we all know I'm a couple marbles short, but I didn't want to leave TOO much room for more speculating on my mental stability ;)

Yeah, I've never heard of breast milk stagnating on a sidewalk. And it doesn't smell nearly as bad. It has much less actual impact on other people than urinating does. IOW, unless you really can't resist gaping or have some sort of mental/physical illness/infirmity that makes breasts set you off, it doesn't effect you the way stepping in or around a steaming stream would.