My husband ONLY does teeth and it drives me crazy. Luckily, the four kids are noisy enough to keep me from hearing it most days now. I can see me cracking in 40 years, just the two of us at the dinner table. I was actually afraid to open this thread for fear that it's more common/appropriate to use teeth. I'd hate to live in that world.

We make our own laundry detergent and other household cleaners, and we tried a few difference recipes for dishwasher detergent. None of them worked very well, so it's back to ordering cases on Amazon. Caveats: we have very hard water and a not-so-great machine in our rental. Still, we had significant mineral deposits on our glasses (annoying but not deal breaker) and loads weren't getting clean with one wash (THAT'S the deal breaker.) The recipes were all kind of fussy, too: some used Borax, others didn't (and there's some dispute about the healthfulness of using Borax, especially for things that will certainly come in contact with food). Most called for citric acid, which you could get in the canning supply section (pricey!), or called for unsweetened powdered lemonade mix as another source of citric acid. We had to mix in very small batches, as they'd seize up into a big brick of detergent. In the end, it wasn't cheaper OR more convenient, and probably not any healthier for us or the environment.

It's my biggest fear. We have the potential for such a virtuous cycle: home is awesome, school is awesome, family is awesome. And then the potential for a vicious cycle is so scary... Good luck. At 13, I would have disliked almost everything.

We've been eating a lot of quiche for lunch lately. It's super easy, especially if you do a crustless quiche.

And we find that Schleich is better than Safari in terms of quality, although I think even Schleich have been feeling "cheaper" to me lately. The new sea animal line, especially.

We were out $200 when my then four-year-old insisted she dropped a foam ball in her ear. She was so hysterical I thought for sure she had. Of course, she hadn't. I'll take the kids to the doctor if there is something the doctor can do: remove foam balls, for instance :). If were stable at home and there's nothing a doc could do other than check vitals and offer support riding out a bug, I'll skip a doctor's visit. I might be more willing to visit if we didn't arrive with all 4 kids at every visit. That gets old, fast.

I always wish people would post the free paper offers more, so I'm off to be the change I want to see in the world ;) http://www.staples.com/coupons/ Expires 1/18

From my day as a sub, how about this one: Angleke. It's Angelique.

I'm going to eat the whole thing and get skinny, right? Right?

I'd play a lot of dice games at this point. There are lots of variations (the website Lets Play Math comes to mind). We began playing a lot of the card game 21 at this point, too.

When I taught, I loved economics and calculus together. It's fun to see the lightbulbs turn on when kids realize an application for calculus, and what these marginal curves in economics really mean.

We have one (or two) too. I'm trying to be very calm about it, but it FREAKS ME OUT. I'm mostly afraid I'll see one scamper across the floor and it will startle me. I hate surprises. Luckily, this mouse seems to enjoy leaving droppings in interesting places, but hasn't caused any damage. Yet. We used to live in the woods in PA, and I was always very afraid of mice there, because of the deer ticks. I've not had very much luck with snap traps, but I probably do them wrong. Good luck!

I read a post on here a while ago about great ways to secretly teach your kids, and someone had mentioned using placemats at the table. I think this is a brilliant idea that my kids would love, but I'm not loving the options of the ones I'm seeing. Melissa and Doug have several, but they seem kind of busy, and also kind of expensive for the numbers that I'd like to have. (Moderation is not my strong suit :) ). Are there sources of placemats that you've loved? Have you made your own and had them laminated at a copy shop? Were they durable enough? Did dry erase type crayons wipe off of them easily?

Yep! Mine too. I kind of like it, but it does get to be exhausting on the eyes at times :) I'm actually happier when the outfits are so outrageous that they could have only dressed themselves; it's the ones that are borderline matching that makes me think, "I wonder if someone thinks *I* picked this out." Then, I remind myself to get out of high school. My 3YO had been dressing himself for a while, and whatever he puts on his body (weather-appropriate) is OK with me. It's almost always backward. Yesterday was the first day he realized it, thanks to the double mirrors in his sister's dance class.

I think it deserves its own mention: modeling beeswax. It's different enough from playdough for it to be fun, needs patience to warm up and be pliable, and is just so pleasant to work with.

I think I just want confirmation that it's OK to be a free-for-all. Their Legos are the same way, so why shouldn't the Playmobil? We're probably later to the Playmobil game that we could have been. I really love watching the scenarios they make up. Fun stuff!

This might seem like a silly question, but: If you have Playmobil, do your kids keep the sets separate? Do they keep the pieces built? (For example, a cart or a stroller.) We received a few sets for Christmas, and are very well played with, but in the kids' own, inventive ways. I'm a little afraid that they'll want to rebuild the sets to the pictures on the boxes (long gone, by the way) at some point, and that seems kind of impossible now.

My dad generally is OK with our homeschool decision, but will often ask how my oldest son (and only my oldest son...talk about favoritism) "will be one of the boys." I think he means one of the "cool" kids. When he starts in on this line, I often rush off to change a diaper :) The comment that has stuck with me the longest is "what if you mess them up?" It's a valid fear, I guess... I get a lot of "don't they need friends their own age?" Because that's NOT a modern invention, right?

My mother passed away about 5 years ago, and it's always really hard at family events (we only go to the big ones because we live several states away) because my sisters are eager to get into "Mom worship" and I just can't join in. I don't think I had a particularly great mother. I don't think I had an average mother. I think I had an adequate mother, a woman whose first vocation was a dozen things other than caring for small children. But since my mother is no longer here, I can't voice my frustrations with anyone other than my poor husband - my sisters aren't interested in a real conversation about this. I do think this attitude is a reaction to the "Pinterest" mom attitude that I observe among some friends. No, my kids will never have intricately themed birthday parties or crafty cupcakes, but I'll read to them for a few hours every day. I might even change out of my pajamas to do it :)

At my son's baptism: the baby's crying, we're all in front of the congregation, and my son shouts in his helpful 3-year-old way "Mama the baby wants your milk, can you take your bra off so he can drink it?" And wouldn't you know it, I'd sprung a leak in the midst of the cries, so there I am with a bright red face and two big ol' wet spots on my chest. Ahh...I'm glad we moved. I never could quite face the (very, very old and conservative) priest after that one.

Ours isn't, but then again the leaders spent at least half of every meeting talking about all of the events/activities for the rest of the year. It really drives me crazy. Plus, they describe our record books over and over, but in that vague way people speak where they know too much about something and don't know how to parse their knowledge down to the essentials, so they omit key facts while giving you superfluous ones. Luckily, my kiddos are still in Primary and aren't that vested. We're happy to go sew a few times a month :)

Sometimes, they really can't help but answer. My daughter does it without even realizing. As she's getting older, though, she's developing more self-regulation that's helping her to let her younger brother take his turn.

I think I might be in a minority, but I think working on facts once a good grasp of the process at hand is beneficial for the kids, especially as they move through conceptual math. It takes all of the emphasis off of something they *should* know already and moves it to something they *are learning.* We try to do some drill ever day. My kids can pick the "fun" way (games) or the "quick" way (running through lists). For my son, it makes a BIIIG difference in attitude when approaching new math subjects.

Congrats! I've done it with three kiddos. It's how I weaned three kiddos :) One returned to nursing after the babe was born, so we did have an extended period of tandem nursing. You can do it! Just make sure you have lots of good self-care going on: hydration, good food, good rest. At some point, for me, it became very painful, around the start of the 3rd trimester. There's a real decline in milk at that point, which I attribute to the increase in sucking/pulling. Not fun! Given the increase in nipple sensitivity, I'd try to help that latch...ouch!

Oh, I have such sympathy for this mom here. I've been in that place, and I can only imagine how much harder it is when my kids are pre-teens.