We have the same blender that Mrs Mungo posted & use it regularly for smoothies. It works great! I was hesitant to use it initially because it had some not-so-great reviews on Amazon (I considered exchanging it for the Pulse), however, we've had no problems with it whatsoever.

Most of my suggestions have already been mentioned, but I thought I'd go ahead and give them anyway since this is something I'm actively working on at the moment: 1) Invest in a chest freezer and buy meat in bulk from local farmers several times a year - utilize every part of the animal (this is a new challenge for me, but I'm finding there are many good books on the subject). Also, only serve meat a few times per week (we have it 3-4 times usually). 2) We're renting this year, so cannot garden either. That said, I'm currently strategically planning a container garden for a few things that we can grow (mostly herbs, some veggies). 3) To compensate for #2, we're joining a CSA this year & will utilize the farmer's markets as much as possible - buying only what is in season is always cheaper. 4) Look into local buying clubs. We belong to Azure Standard, but also the woman who runs our herdshare has a buying club that we belong to. Through the club, we've been able to get great deals on large bulk amounts of things like raw honey, organic vanilla beans, seasonal produce, etc. 5) Learn to can & can/preserve as much seasonal produce as possible to last throughout the year. "The Householder's Guide to the Universe" has some useful charts to help you plan this & a few other good bits of info, but overall, the book probably isn't worth owning (see if the library has it?). 6) Make as much as possible from scratch - yes it takes more time, but is ultimately much cheaper and healthier than buying ready made. I'm making our own bread, pasta, yogurt, and will be branching out into cheesemaking this week. I've also started to make our own laundry detergent, household cleaners, soaps, lotions, lip balms, shampoos, etc.

I think Amazon's gone mad - I just tried searching for alarm clocks & had the same result (you get slightly better results if you search electronics & then alarm clocks, but it's still not normal). I know their search was working a few hours ago, but appears to be having issues now.

Thanks to everyone who responded, I clearly have a lot to think over. elegantlion ~ My move was from Kansas to Oregon, so yes, long-distance, but he seems to have adjusted (though he hates the OR weather). My DH is his step-father and unfortunately is working out of state at the moment, so I'm completely on my own with this. His bio father is an unmotivated bum, which leaves me with the fear that he'll grow into his father. calicokat ~ His currency is his computer, or Japanese lessons. I've tried taking his computer away and that does nothing to motivate him. In fact, he's been without it for awhile again now & is still sitting in front of the grammar lesson (yesterday's) that I gave him this morning! He wants Japanese lessons but I refuse to pay that kind of money until I see him making more of an effort with his other school work. Also, Japanese is HARD to learn (eldest DS is taking it in high school) & I'm not sure he can handle it at the moment since it requires a lot of focus & discipline. The threat of public school doesn't phase him in the least, even though he doesn't want to go. I've considered some type of nutritional deficiency and am exploring that now. I've also thought about unschooling, but I really only believe that works for a self-motivated student, and that he is not. He did so little work during the entire first half of the year, I really thought that would be enough of a "break" for him & he'd be ready to get back into it now, but no. Also, it doesn't really seem fair to his sister (whom I'm also homeschooling) that he does so little compared to her. RoughCollie ~ I'm SO glad things have improved for your son, but goodness, how stressful! How long did it take for him to decide to change?

Okay, I've given this situation a lot of time and have tried everything under the sun. NOTHING is working, so I've decided it's time to ask the hive for help because I'm beyond desperate. How would you handle a 13 y.o. student who simply will NOT do his work? To give some background, he was in PS up until about 3 years ago; he has always been a good, highly motivated student. Something began to change last year & at the time, I assumed it was just a phase he was going through. However, he has not snapped out of it. I've allowed him to pursue subjects of interest to him, I've tried making it more like "PS" (at his request), I've enrolled him in co-op classes, I've tried taking things away from him (sometimes literally everything except his bed and clothes), I've tried rewarding him for getting work done...all to no avail. At this point, he understands that he is failing the 7th grade and he does NOT care. We've had long talks about his future - he used to want to be a biophysicist, now he says he'll be fine working just about anywhere - even Taco Bell. In my heart I can't believe that he'd be okay with that, but he doesn't seem to think that what he's doing now will impact his future. It's made homeschooling a total nightmare for me because every day is one big long battle. Gone are my nice little schedules and the fun extras that he & his sister used to have. She's so far ahead of him this year it's not even funny (and she's a grade beneath him!). I would LOVE to put him in public school except that I no longer feel I have that option. Over the summer we moved into an excellent school district. My 2 PS boys are struggling really really badly here - they were SO unprepared for the level and amount of work this school district has. Also, I really don't think that even PS would change his attitude. No, I know it wouldn't. I truly don't know what else to do. He's not depressed or anything like that, he just has zero motivation. He will literally spend an entire day on one single assignment and not get anything done. It's just mind boggling. Help please!

We used to buy GT's Organic Raw Kombucha, though it's made by the same company (the citrus is pretty good). I will say that Kombucha is an acquired taste and I'm not sure that I love it (the kids do NOT!), but I'm trying to. I'm also trying to make my own right now, but doing it the slow way by growing the scoby first. I'm not sure I'll be able to make my own Kombucha more palatable, but I'm going to try!

We got ours at Paper Scissors Stone (Waldorf supplies) - it is 22" x 32" & was $18.50. We've had it for years and have been very happy with it (I also have a few of the smaller lapboard size).

We pay $80 for our entire house (around 2300 SF) to be cleaned every other week and it takes our cleaning lady about 3-3 1/2 hours.

Here's the link to the main page (for life science anyway): http://www.delta-education.com/siangallery.aspx?subjectID=7&subID=5&menuID=66 - when you click on "View Details" by a kit, you'll see the different price options, starting at $39.

I would agree with Michelle 100%. There is less pigment in the cheaper or student grade art materials and student grade paint brushes are horrible (have you noticed how much they "shed" and how utterly frustrating that is?!).

We have the same 2 tall Ikea Trofast towers. I have the bins labelled by subject. Some subjects we rotate, for example, art and geography are on alternate days - those subjects share a bin. All of the shared books go on the top shelf. Next to the towers I have two clipboards hanging up - one for each child. On the clipboards I keep their daily schedule (alternatively, you could hang the clipboards directly on the side of the Trofast towers - I used those 3M adhesive hooks). For each assignment, they check their clipboard and then find the work in that subject's bin (or grab the necessary books from the top shelf). Every bin does not get used every day. It's a simple system but seems to work pretty well.

Ours is up, we went apple picking. :-)

Ours is up also, it's been another rough week...

Oh no, you're not the only one, my boys are the same way (which is why 2 are now back in PS). Every single assignment is a battle and it gets really, really old.

This was our first week back and it unfortunately started with a fire in our new house.