A popcorn bucket with a DVD or two, candy, drinks, a pass to the theater

YES! I am often envious of those who have found their "calling". I am a dreamer and a dabbler. I have so many interests, but nothing that just really drives me and gets me out of bed in the morning.

I wish I could eat and get skinny at the same time. Shallow, but true. Artistically, I wish I could play piano (I used to, but stopped. I'd love to take lessons again.) I wish I could draw/paint and do calligraphy. I would love to be proficient in French pastries and cake decorating, to make sugar and chocolate sculptures. I also wish I could sew.

She's wanting to switch them both because the 2nd grader is flying through her lessons as well; they both are really good at math and need something more challenging than Abeka - plus she isn't thrilled with the level of busy work Abeka has.

Thanks, ladies! I've given her the link to this thread, so keep the suggestions coming!

She would probably love free! :) I'll suggest it. Thank you!

Kirsten, would you suggest BA for a 5 year old? I figured it was more "mature" being geared for 3rd and up. So, maybe Singapore 2nd and some BA to challenge her thinking as well? I also suggested some Life of Fred as well, but she's not as good with reading yet.

My friend's dd is in kindergarten and is rather advanced in math. She was doing Abeka kinder math, but my friend as since stopped because it was not challenging in the least. She easily does her sister's 2nd grade math problems, often answering before her sister has a chance to do the problems. It understandably frustrates the older sibling, and my friend knows she needs something to challenge her kinder. (She just sent me a video of her youngest doing simple division, so she can easily do 2nd grade math.) My friend is considering Singapore math, but not sure if she should go ahead and do kinder or 1st grade since Singapore is so different than Abeka. Also, she can't decide if she should just switch curriculum for one child or both. If she switches for both and puts them both into the same math level, the older sister will be pretty upset. She's competitive and will almost shut down if her younger sister is on the same level as her. Any suggestions?

When I was on breathing treatments/inhalers, I became very weepy and emotional. It can certainly do it. Gotta love that albuterol.

Well, we just spent the last 2 hours moving things, getting the sump pump back to pumping out water, and shop-vaccing the rest of the water out. Unless the sump pump stops working again, we got all of standing water out. Off to bed we go and we'll deal with the aftermath tomorrow.

Also, do we get pie for points? Because I'll exchange points for pie. I need to do some emotional eating tonight and I REALLY want pie.

I just came for pie. Not sure what else is going on.

My friend replied with "At least the basement was standing several inches in puke!" So, there's a silver lining!

Just as I was sitting down to eat dinner, my daughter starts to cough, then gags, then does a spot on impersonation of Linda Blair in The Exorcist. Her gagging resulted in one LONG vomit session around the living room. That was great. She's fine now, but cleaning up puke at dinner wasn't on my list of things to do tonight. Then, just a few minutes ago, I went to wash my face for bed. The hot water never got hot. So, dh goes down to the basement and immediately says some not nice words. Our basement is standing in several inches of water. There goes the computer we were storing down there. All my books that I brought home from school. Our crib. Our Christmas tree and ornaments. Luggage. I know there are far worse things to happen to us. Plus, this should be covered by our insurance. Still, it's a pain in the butt to clean this up. It's been a long, crap week anyway and this is just taking the cake. Ok, whining over.

I'm not homeschooling yet, but I do teach 23 9-year-olds every day. :) I agree with texasmama. Reset. Today was horrible in my classroom. The kids needed to interact and talk and we were getting NOTHING done except for raising my stress and frustration level. So, instead of forcing it, I pulled out all of my Language Arts board games. They did board games for 40 minutes. Perfect reset. My mom (a private school administrator) had a student (3rd) absolutely refusing to do his work, causing a scene, etc. She gently spoke with him, got to the base problem (boredom) and gave him a couple Mini-M&Ms. She told him they were sweet pills and that they'd give him the energy and power to complete the work. That was his reset. Find a reset that works for you both - change it up. Do the work at the park, the library, on the porch, etc. Good luck!

I might be out. :scared: It's been known to happen far too often, unfortunately. Depending on the heat I use, I will use either olive oil or coconut oil. Coconut oil tolerates higher temperatures better. Plus, I've been reading more and more about how olive oils are being cut with cheaper oils, so they aren't pure or as healthy for us. My assumption (though very likely faulty) is that it's not as easy to counterfeit coconut oil, so I don't have to worry about accidentally buying something fake.

Since you are a "SparklyUnicorn", I was hoping you were a she. Still, you never know. :) Of course, since you only "think" you are....

Honestly, if the company was legit, I would ask them to look up my social to see if it had been used and go from there. If it wasn't the same social, then you know it's probably the email typo. However, I'd still keep a close watch on your credit report to make sure it's not a security breach.

What she (he?) said ^^ I use it when I saute veggies, when I need a bit of oil so my meats don't stick to the pans, when I need to replace vegetable oil in baking, etc.

Not really. But, I do like Mommypotamus.com, againstallgrain.com (more for recipes), mindbodygreen.com, etc A pp mentioned Nourishing Traditions. I've heard lots of great things about that as well.

Oh, I agree completely. But, "modern nutrition" has totally screwed over our thinking, so many still think that margarine is healthy...nasty nasty nasty! I remember thinking my dad was nuts when he wanted us to start eating real butter. Now, I can't imagine anything else.

I am all about real butter! I figured if I said that it's a "healthy" fat that I'd be yelled at! As for natural peanut butters, Night Elf, I use Smuckers Natural. Just salt and peanuts.

Healthy fats are monounsaturated/polyunsaturated fats. Things like nuts, avocados, olives, peanut butter (natural - avoid the kind with sugar!), salmon, olive oil, coconut oil, etc. **correct because I said "healthy fats" way too many times in my first sentence!

My mom was still have attacks and she was eating plain potatoes with a little bit of salt. Mine started acting up when I was pregnant and it didn't matter if I ate low fat or high fat. Ultimately, a stone got lodged in a duct and I developed one of the most severe cases of pancreatitis that my doctor had ever seen. Stayed in the hospital for 6 days week - 4 days to get the pancreatitis under control, then a day for the gall bladder surgery, then another day to have a stint put into the duct to make sure no other stones were stuck. Worst experience I've ever had. Apple Cider Vinegar is said to help as is the intake of olive oil. Soy products are not good though, so avoid those. You could also try ox bile pills. Those who have had their gallbladders removed sometimes use ox bile to aid in digestion. It would probably help the gallbladder as well.

Agreed on the estimation. I hate it and so do my students. I do like what/how I teach with enVision (of course, almost anything would have been an improvement over Everyday Math). So, knowing it's just a "sort of half-way implementation of Singapore math" makes me even more excited to be able to use Singapore math with my daughter later on.