I don't have links either because they're mostly in my head, but we love soup! Sausage, butternut squash roasted and pureed, corn, and rice Chicken tortellini - a basic chicken noodle soup but with frozen tortellini noodles and basil and oregano and some cream and parmesan cheese Sausage zucchini tortellini - a very savory tomato based soup with beef broth and red wine - yum!!! Taco soup - black beans, ground beef, corn, lots of chili powder and cumin Cheesy ham and rice - wild rice, brown rice, chicken stock, diced ham, cheddar cheese Sausage, kale and potato Cheesy bacon and potato - lots and lots and lots of cheese! with some bacon thrown in for good measure lol

No good words to share but I will pray you beat it!

Speech and debate (NCFCA and there is another one but I can't remember the initials) has been one of the most rewarding things we've done in our homeschool. If I had known how time consuming it would be before we started, I never would have joined ? but once we started the kids were hooked. And it has given them so so so much poise and confidence and helped them with succinctly and effectively expressing their ideas both orally and in their writing. We don't do co ops and spend 4 days/week doing our own thing here at home, but the one day/week they spend at speech and debate club is time well spent.

We have our kids on Tracfone. We pay about $165 for the first year (includes an LG low-end smartphone) and afterwards about $100/year for service. Kids know to use wi-fi whenever possible and not use data unless they're lost and need google maps. Sometimes they use up all their texts before the year is up and pay $5 out of their own pockets to add more. For me, I use Cricket instead of Tracfone because I need the unlimited texts and calls and for $30/month I get 2GB of data which has always been plenty, even on vacation for 2 weeks using primarily data instead of wi-fi.

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Thank you!!!

Every time I type "return" ... like this ... ... it skips 2 lines. It takes up so much space! How can I make it only skip to the next line? Thanks!

This is our morning routine: Sing a hymn - read a poem or two - devotional - alternate between manners, art book, Story of the Orchestra

Visual Link Spanish is a great program. Not cheap, necessarily, but effective and easy to use.

IEW has an AP Language book and my DS used that along with a Cliff Notes book. He got a 4, so I think it prepared him well. He started off writing 1 essay/week, then worked slowly up to 2, 3, and then 4/week by the end of the year.

I was induced the first time because of low amniotic fluid at 39 weeks. They started me with Cytotek and said in 8 hours they'd give me some more and 8 hours after that they'd start pitocin. But none of that happened because he was born 6 hours later. 2nd time was not induced and labor was less than 2 hours start to finish and we barely made it to the hospital in time. 3rd one was induced at 39 weeks because of my last fast labor and it was March with a chance of big snow and I live 45 minutes from the hospital on bad country roads that sometimes don't get plowed very quickly. Again, Cytotek for a few hours then he broke my water when I was at a 1 and she was born less than 3 hours later. 4th one was an elective induction at 40 weeks because the Dr was on call that night and I was tired of being pregnant. No Cytayek this time, he just broke my water and she was born 4 hours later (after being stuck at a 5 for 2 of those hours). 5th one was induced at 40 weeks mostly out of habit I think ? Cytatek and a few hours later he broke my water when I was at a 2 and she was born an hour and a half later. That one was traumatic as I went from a 2 to a 5 literally while the nurse was checking me and there was a huge pain and a gush of fluid and her heart rate dropped and there were a dozen people in the room and I had to get on my knees with my butt in the air and my face in the pillow and I just prayed that Jesus would let my baby live. All was fine, she just reacted a bit to the big hurry my body always seems to be in during labor. Now that I'm pregnant with #6 it's going to be a different ballgame I think. My OB for all the other kids died a couple of years ago so I have a new Dr who doesn't know my history and quirks like he did. Since I'm 44 this time I'm wondering if what was said upthread about inducing older moms because of the increased risk of stillbirth will apply. If necessary I think I would prefer just a Cytotek induction vs them breaking my water this time. I don't know for sure that that would make it a little slower or less intense, but I wonder if it would. More like my 1st labor. I liked my natural labor the best, but I'm worried about a baby being born in the car. We seriously only made it with about 40 min to spare last time.

"Needs to be" ?

I know mine aren't "done" yet so I need to knock on wood here, but this has definitely been true for our 3 oldest so far (18, 16, 14 if you can't see my signature). 11-13 were the worst years and it's become progressively better since then. I was a horrible teen. A truly horrible, horrible, horrible teen. I was truly frightened that my kids would be teens like I was. I have no idea what made them different from me, but I suspect that at least a small part of it was my parents' insistence on rule following for (what I felt was) the sake of their reputations in the community and my focus instead as a parent on my relationship with my kids. And if it's any comfort, now that I'm an adult I like to think I am no longer very horrible ? and I actually have a very pleasant and mutually loving relationship with my parents. So even us horrible teens really do grow up and grow out of it!

I always told my kids (when they are looking at scrapbooks of times before they were conceived asking where they are) that "they were in God's mind". So yes He knew you and planned for you but you didn't really exist yet except for in His mind. I'm Christian but I have no idea if that's what my religion would teach or not ? I just didn't want them to think that they used to be angels. For some reason that misconception really bugs me lol

I tried these recommendations, followed the instructions carefully, spent a bunch of $$$ on shipping from the UK, and still couldn't find one that I don't hate. I was so hopeful too, reading that article, that I would finally find one I like that makes me look good. I finally gave up and bought some cheap sports bra type things that were the least uncomfortable. Not trying to pick on you at all, JIN MOUSA, I'm glad it worked for you!!! But not so much for me ?

This is a great perspective, I will have to remember this!

I can only do 2 outside of the house things a week during school hours without losing my mind and/or short-changing their education. One is always either speech and debate club (all of us in the fall) or drama club (all of us in the winter and spring). The other one kind of varies and includes things like Bible studies or dr appts or Food Pantry volunteering or whatever else comes up. Anything more than that and I don't function well either as a parent or as a teacher. Most of our evenings are spent at home working on our own projects, practicing piano, or just hanging out together. We have a vibrant social life with our church and our friends, so it's not like we're isolated at all. And once the kids can drive they get more involved in activities with friends and they get a job and whatever else and their evenings get more busy. But I really think the "typical" American schedule where kids have a scheduled activity going on every day (sometimes more than one!) gives a false impression that people who are involved in fewer activities are somehow not giving their kids enough stimulation. I actually think the opposite is true. Giving my kids more time at home to develop their own passions and interests on their own timetable instead of having them involved in a zillion activities at a young age has been a gift, although many people look at me like I have 2 heads when I tell them my kids don't do sports or scouts or what have you. We just hang out together. And they are none the worse for it at all.

These are a lot of the thoughts swirling around my head ... I will be 63 when he/she graduates from high school and oldest DS will be 37! DH's mom had 7 kids 19 years apart and the oldest and youngest are close now but that wasn't always the case. And I know the youngest always felt like she had 7 sets of parents instead of 1 set of parents and 6 sets of siblings ? She and I are actually pretty close and I hope to pick her brain about what it was like for her and what she would have changed as soon as we're ready to spill the beans to people in real life!

Update! I had an ultrasound today and at 8 weeks they saw the flutter of a heartbeat so we are cautiously optimistic it will stick! ❤

We do significantly less written output than WTM recommends. A one paragraph summary/evaluation of the books on her lit list (maybe 20 or so all year long) Spelling sentences/words IEW SWI-B ends up being about 5 paragraphs/week Once a week history summary They type every day but it's still keyboarding exercises in 6th grade, not much of their written output is typed.

My kids preferred Video Text to Chalkdust, although we are using Chalkdust for Precalc. It's worked well for both my mathy and non-mathy kids. I have disliked the disjointedness of Khan.

I found the Wordsmith series to be very self directed with my no nonsense writer. The first book in the series (Apprentice) would be appropriate for upper elementary and is fun.

I just had a section for "notes" on the transcript and said "Alg I and Alg II were taken prior to 9th grade and are not included in credits or GPA." Other notes listed where outside courses were taken.

That's true for us as well. We have a well and a garden and live far off the beaten path so It's nice to think we could stay at home with my bookshelves full ?

DSs and DH had problems too (Verizon) but mine was fine almost everywhere (AT&T). We are usually early birds, but making breakfast and getting all 5 kids fed and dressed usually meant we were some od those who were searching for parking ?There was only once it made us change our hiking plans though.