Wow, what a beautiful surprise! Happiest of Anniversaries, you guys! May the next 20 offer even more incredible memories to add to the list of things to love. ~Dy

I have three different appointments on Friday, and a substitute teacher lined up (aka - Dad's off this Friday! LOL) It's just impossible to pass up an opportunity to run errands sans children, really. This term, Wednesday afternoons are our Nature Study days, simply b/c the boys have piano in the early afternoon, then play rehearsal in the evening. Since we hadn't heard anything before, we just set our schedule so that we go into town and make a day of it. Are you free on Wed? Or how about Friday the 10th? We don't have anything scheduled that day.

Sounds interesting. I'd love to hear more, before deciding (where does the money come from, for instance?) Anyhow, nobody took us up on the offer, so we've just been going unofficially, meandering and filling our sketchbooks. We'll be doing a lot more of that, now that the weather has turned so absolutely spectacular! (I tend to think of summer as something to be endured - a price to pay for such a beautiful autumn, lol! Yes, I'm a wuss.) However, we're always up for something new and interesting. Just keep me posted! Dy

One-year-at-a-time is a great mindset to take, particularly the first year, as you iron out the wrinkles and find your groove. We're homeschooling three, with two littles in tow. This is our sixth year, and it's a wonderful lifestyle. I know you're a little far North of us, so you may not be interested or able, but I've been taking the kids on journaling outings on Wednesdays - either at the Wildlife Refuge or into Decatur. This last week, we spent a couple hours at Cook's Science Museum and then headed out for a picnic. If you're ever up for joining us, please feel free. I'll try to post more about when we're heading somewhere. :)

Hi Tabitha! It's good to see you here!

DH's 99.5yo grandmother is on her way! She's coming with two of "The Aunts" - the cool one (the incomparable Aunt B) and the wacky one (Aunt Linda of the christmas pants and big rose covered cowboy hat). They're touring the country in a motor home, and should be here tonight! We can hardly wait. We also have cousins coming from the other direction to meet up here. And possibly some friends of Aunt B's who may bring their camper out so they can visit with Gram, too. We're going to be able to feed people! And visit. And laugh. And enjoy the balcony. HOWEVER, they read my blog and I don't want them to know that I've been in panic clean mode ALL DAY LONG. So, I'll post it here. The upper meadow is mowed and looks so quaint. We've completely restructured the school room, moved three bookshelves, decluttered the kids' rooms (I warned them, they don't want Wacky Aunt Linda to go in there and clean it for them - they'll have cheap vanilla candle wax melted all over their underwear! Plus the added joy of knowing she touched their undies... :tongue_smilie:) The bathroom, the linens, the guestroom - all done. I told the boys that any and everything that could possibly be tripped over needs to go away. We're not having a broken hip on our watch, fellas! I shook out the couch cover (LOVING the denim, btw - I think I may just decorate my entire home in denim and accessorize as the mood hits). All that's left to go is washing the windows, mopping the floors, and sweeping the porch. Then I'm breaking out the Mandarin Orange Grapefruit Michelob! Yeah, baby, it's been a great day! And they're almost HHHEEEEEEEEEEEERE!!! DH is going to pick up goodies on his way home (for the guest room) - some Postum for Aunt Linda, some tea for Gram, and some strong wine for Aunt B. :D

than he could articulate his thoughts. So what I get when he's explaining something is a sort of mental shorthand that leaves me with absolutely no CLUE what he's talking about the first time through. So I want to know if he TRULY thinks in sentence fragments, using only internally-referenced pronouns, or if there's a filter in there somewhere that sorts it out before he says something.:001_huh: I could die happy knowing the answer to that.

The boys haven't done a lot of writing up to this point (8yo starting 3rd, and nearly-10yo starting 5th). At least on the part of the 5th grader, it wasn't a lack of ability, but it was like pulling teeth. I jokingly told DH, after getting one decent piece out of DS last year that I was applying for a DDS by claiming "experiential education credit" :tongue_smilie: DS8 just didn't grasp how, exactly, the process of writing progresses. (And I've always been an intuitive writer, with little formal training or background, so I was not doing a good job of explaining it to him - IW does make that easier for the instructor. Or, at least for *this* instructor.) I'd decided that writing would be my focus for this year. I liked what I read about CW, but when I compared the two programs, IW was the better choice for our family. They're very similar, but IW seemed to offer a bit more guidance for the instructor, and a bit more clarity without all the trappings. I liked that. I do also like the difference in price (won't lie to you, there!) So I printed out the example lesson for my Reluctant Writer (5th grader) - and he enjoyed it! (Shocker, and bonus points, all wrapped up in one!) I talked with the 3rd grader about it, showed him the examples, and he, too, was up for trying it. I couldn't find anything IW lacked - it met all the criteria I'd set for us to achieve our writing goals this year. Nor could I find anything that CW offered that would justify the additional cost for us, at this point. (Although it is still on the table for the future, perhaps.) We're just finishing week 2, and both boys have produced nice pieces with relatively little bloodshed. They "get" what they're doing. They have concrete examples to emulate. The process is gentle, thorough, and consistent. We've all been quite pleased, and I think they'll enjoy writing more as the year progresses. Here's a story from this week's work. DS8 did the vocabulary work and definitions, outlined the story, then re-worked and wrote the story in his own words. We sat down together to edit it, using the objectives set forth (plot outline, handwriting, vocab. usage, sentence structure, spell/cap/punct., story line). He knew going into it what was expected, and so he knew what to look for. About halfway through, he said, "I think I need to work on my spelling." (He's right - kid can't spell his way out of a bag at the moment.) But I liked that he wasn't discouraged by that - he saw that he'd done the rest of it quite well, saw what he needs to work on, and was able to call it. WOOHOO! He does his final re-write tomorrow morning, and he cannot WAIT to show DH tomorrow evening. That, alone, was worth it for me. HTH, Dy

There'll be no holding that child back once he's set his mind to doing something, eh? ;) Congratulations, and welcome to the world Sweet Baby Boy!!

That is SO exciting! Thank you for the update!

Seriously, it's not the baking, the laundry, or even the teaching that gets me. It's the constant, unending, streaming redirection. I'm pooped by lunch. So, if anything is going to get done, it needs to be done by lunch or odds are good that I'll fall asleep in the middle of it. So, where'd ya take the parents for dinner? ;) And the routine of teaching four? It'll come. It will. (I have to believe it will, and so, I am going to share my vision with you! LMK if it works, k?) Hey, when did you go off WF cooking? How are you all feeling? Dy

BEAUTIFUL! Oh, yay, little one! Welcome to the world - your arrival has been so eagerly awaited!! Kiss that baby! Dy

What I ask myself when considering legislation that may sound appealing is this: Would I want the government to have this much power if it was "the other guy" in power? In other words, just because the issue may be something I support privately, what we're talking about is the power we are willing to allocate to the government, be it municipal, state, or federal. Those positions are not static, and are filled by people representing varying ideals, with varying agendas, according to the results of each election. If somebody whose views on the issue were the opposite of mine were to push for this kind of power/funding/leeway to support his/her agenda, would I still willingly extend this same amount of power to support it? Generally, the answer is "no". (OK, actually, I can't think of a time I've ever thought, "sure, go for it!") Also, power corrupts. Even those with the purest intentions can and will fall prey to some form of temptation (either blatant, or bluffed - such as compromising on issues in order to receive benefits elsewhere, etc.) that would yield them incompetent to handle the amount of power we'd bestowed on their offices. And it's more difficult to lessen the power of government than it is to increase it, so effectively, we would be setting ourselves up for abuses of a powerful authority in many ways. Of course, many people assume they would be exhonerated of any danger, damage, or retribution in such a situation. They're seldom correct. With respect to the specific question at hand, legislating faith (and many of the trappings that surround it, such as blue laws, for example), no, I don't think it's wise to give that kind of power and authority over to the government. Just my .02

Sometimes, we forget that when someone crosses a boundary, we're completely in the right to respectfully, yet clearly, set that person straight. I wonder if we're sometimes a little timid about doing so. (OK, I know *I* am, particularly when it comes to family saying or doing doofy things that are offensive.) Well said, Joanne. Thank you. :)

I had some of it, already. You'll probably have more. Construction paper, scissors, glue... all pretty benign. Air-drying clay. (I plan to use the Sculpey we have leftover from other failed attempts at doing creative things. If that fails miserably, I'll be sure to post back about it, okay? :tongue_smilie:) You may not have an ebony pencil, or oil pastels. Watercolor pencils - are AWESOME! (I actually wish we'd had these a long time ago - not a wasted purchase, imho. Even if, for some reason, we dropped AP altogether - lovin' the watercolor pencils.) And, of course, watercolor paper (something with a good "tooth" - Needleroozer walked me through that - glad she did, 'cuz I never would have thought that there was any difference!) But no, in the K-3, Book 1, there doesn't seem to be anything too weird.

What is WP? I'm not sure if you would get overwhelmed. I pretty much get overwhelmed just thinking about doing any art-related activity. But we're still feeling comfortable with AP, so that's encouraging. I think it would be a fun, fantastic summertime course!! What a great idea! Dy

It sounds like he has access to a place to workout regularly. I doubt he needs the personal trainer (to the extent that you'd get your $$$'s worth out of an investment like that). If he's interested in learning more about nutrition, maybe ask people he knows and respects for recommendations on good books (or audio books) that you could pick up later. But not for a big event like this. ;) This would be our #2 recommendation. You definitely want to dust off the booKshelves and break out the nice encyclopedia action for this one to really have the Wow Factor. (say no more, say no more...) DH says, "If he works out nearly every day, that would nice to have. Particularly with fall coming on." We'd recommend having someone out to tell you exactly what it's going to take to get it *running* - not just wired up, but filled and usable right here, right now. kwim? This is the one DH and I would both recommend out of these four options. And again, with the booKshelves and all... very important, whichever you go with. So I guess I'll just shut up on that end. :tongue_smilie: Ah, these are fun, but these are birthday-fun, holiday-fun, hey-I-found-money-I'd-forgotten-about-fun, or even possibly, "Yes, all those books from Amazon did cost quite a bit, but LOOK what came for YOU!" fun. Probably not Anniversary-fun. Whatever you do, enjoy the celebration! 25 years is wonderful!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! Dy

(after the first major meltdown I had in the grocery, "I can't feed my kids ANYthing!") was to make a menu of sorts, listing everything we'd eaten in the last week (or gundeck the log - write what you can remember). Then I went through and marked the things that had what we needed to cut out (in our case, just wheat). I was surprised at how little, really, needed to go. That made the idea of avoidance and substitution seem do-able. (In your case, might not want to do that w/ breakfast first, since it sounds like a sticking point right now, and it could backfire and overwhelm you.) For breakfasts: * There's a Cream of Rice hot cereal that's really quite good, if your kids will do hot cereals. * Our kids really liked the Bob's Mighty Tasty GF hot cereal, but I've also heard others say they'd rather eat raw bamboo, so YMMV with that one. ;) * Fresh fruit, yogurt, and GF sausage patties - filling, nutririous, and GF! * Breakfast meats, potatoes & cheese... * Smoothies * Peanut butter and fruit * The GF breads probably won't cut it for sandwiches (but you'll get to the point where it's not a biggie to make it yourself, if you find you all *really* miss sandwiches that much), however, they do actually make nice french toast, eggs in a basket, and the Ener-G white rice bread toasts nicely for eating w/ peanut butter & honey, or butter and jam, etc. I think it's b/c they're so firm to begin with. * For a Very Special treat, try these "muffins". I still make these, even though we're no longer WF. WF/GF foods do/can cost more. But what you don't spend on fillers, junk, and snack foods will be a tremendous savings. Take it slowly, one thing at a time, and in no time at all, you'll be wondering what the fuss was all about. ;) Honest! And seeing your family healthy and feeling good - priceless. Dy

Did you cook the beans w/ any meat or animal fats? If so, dump 'em. If not, heat them up and eat 'em. In my experience, when beans do go bad, you can tell - if not when they're room temp or cold, definitely when they're warmed up. But beans cooked Thursday and left out should be fine on Friday. Obviously, this is purely anecdotal (but the question is whether we'd do it, right?) - but most of our bean-eating friends will make a pot and leave it on. the. stove. for four or five days. That heebes me out, even, but they eat it and are fine. We eat at their homes, and have never gotten sick from it. Here, though, at our house, two days is about my limit, and we do still try to remember to pack it away. The only way I'll toss it if left out overnight is if I didn't put the lid on. *shudder* The thought that a moth or something may have come to a gooey, beany demise and that there's a carcas lurking in there somewhere... just can't do it! :P

:) This thread cracks me up. If you're a sneaky hypocrite, then you're one of the most delightful ones I've ever met. Seriously, though, if you're not topping off the sippy cups w/ beer (which won't work, anyway, b/c the carbonation would make them spew out the little holes and leave foam all over the place), and popping in PG and above rated movies for the little ones to enjoy with their beverages, you're good. The other posts, about hiding things, really made me smile. It has never dawned on me to hide our liquor or movies or books. My lingerie, yes. But anything I'd do/read/watch on my front porch, I wouldn't think to hide. (Edit for clarification - front porch "if we lived in town" - we do have a little leeway here in the boonies, though.)

I'm Dy, and these are my answers. 1.) How many kids do you have and what are their ages? We have five - they are DSalmost-10, DS8, DSalmost-5, DD2.5, and DS4mos. (The kids insisted on the "almost" b/c it's NEXT MONTH, and that COUNTS - said with eyes wide is disbelief that I don't automatically assume that.) 2.) What is your favorite food? Oh, hands down, a thick, med-rare steak. I don't care what you serve with it, as long as it's a nice, thick steak. 3.) What is your favorite movie? Uhhh... that's a hard one to narrow down, but I'd have to say either The Boondock Saints or U-571, or maybe Enemy at the Gates. Pride and Prejudice... North and South... The Venture Brothers (wait, no, that's a TV show). Well, I'm flexible and easily amused. 4.) Coke, Pepsi or neither? I tend to be all-coffee, all the time. But if it's gotta be a soda, can I have a Cherry-Lemon Sun Drop? 5.) What is your favorite book? No way, no how could I narrow this down. Not gonna even try. 6.) What is your least favorite household job? Keeping the paper beast at bay. I swear, my kids sweat paper. It's everywhere. 7.) What is your favorite season? Fall. Glorious fall. Proof that I lived through summer and won't have to deal with it again for another year. WOOHOO! Come on, Autumn!! 8.) What is your favorite sport? Eating? That's a sport, right? Seriously, not a sports fan. But the three oldest boys play baseball, so I'll pick "watching my kids play" as my favorite sport to watch. But I'm still sticking with eating, if we're talking participation, here. 9.) What is your favorite holiday? It used to be Christmas, hands down. But I didn't marry a Holiday-Sort-of-Man, and the constant negotiating sucks the glee out of it. So perhaps the Fourth of July, where I read the Declaration of Independence aloud. And cry. Every time. Next year, I'm making the almost-10-yo read it, instead. ;) 10.) What is your least favorite store you have to shop in? Can't think of one, really. I don't like to shop, per se, so I really only hit stores out of necessity. I think the Krystal (yes, again with the food) just up the road from us has THE WORST customer service ever. So, yes, Krystal is my least favorite place to make a purchase.

You'll love them - her kids are adorable and she is just delightful. Have a wonderful time. And... well, just have a wonderful time! :)

But I tend to assume others actually finish the task at hand before taking off like a distracted puppy. Me? I'm mostly distracted puppy. :biggrinjester: Whatever you do, I hope you have an enjoyable Thursday! Dy

Ugh. OK, so why am I the only one in my family who doesn't think this is fun as a "group effort"??? DH, the boys, they're all fine with having someone over their shoulders giving unsolicited suggestions. Me? No. If you're playing, I will kindly go do something else. Or I'll sit and be encouraging without giving unwarranted advice. But when I'm playing, I'd really rather not it be a GroupThink thing. Yet, they. will. not. shut. up. Not even when I say, "You know, I didn't really ask for help." Or, perhaps, "Hey, why don't ya give me ten minutes like I gave you? Go play. Eat something. I dunno. Somewhere else." Nope, when I say that, they all scoot back about 18" and lob their ideas at me from a greater distance. Pfft. I hate being the lone weirdo in the house. (But the game is great fun - and all the kids, from 10 on down to 2, are able to come up with some very creative ideas and fun designs!) Thanks for the link!! Dy