I get pretty extreme reactions from people about my ink. Both arms are covered, pretty much plus a large chest tattoo and a tattoo that covers my left calf from the back of the knee to just above my Achilles. I'm glad my mom and family loves me anyway - if my own mom reacted the way this wackadoodle did, it would likely have been a game changer for our relationship. My almost 9 yr old knows if he wants one at 16 he can, but I will help him choose an artist and go through the drafting process with him. I would only be disappointed if he went without me! Ha.

I keep looking at GVS and then I keep not buying it because its pricey for getting something I'm not even sure what I'm actually getting. I'm tryin BYL this yr but still I keep trying to find reviews or people who are ACTUALLY using Global Village.

We are using BYL 2nd Grade this yr. we are also going to be using BraveWriter alongside. I think they will mesh well.

What a great thread, I've loved reading everyone's ideas. Well... mostly everyone's. I was born/raised Catholic, went to a old school Catholic school (in which there were still nuns who would not hesitate to give a lil whack with their yardstick across our hands), was very involved in our parish and community as a child/young teen. Then, I realized that for me, the bible really was just about as holy as any other book of fables or myths or fairy tales. Great to read, maybe you learn a thing or two, but not from god. I have had horrible experiences with other 'christians'. I can't really get behind some of the politics that seem to intertwine with christian faiths, and I just find myself thinking "wait... what?" a lot when I think about people following the bible as truth. It's as absurd to me, personally, as it would be to pick up my daughter's collection of Grimm's and turn that into some religious doctrine. I did a brief stint as an atheist, but then I realized that atheism for me, was just too far in the opposite swing of the spectrum. I do believe in something greater than us, and I do think there is something miraculous about life. I just can NOT believe in the divinity of the bible, nor in Jesus, and so right there I think that excludes me from any form of Christianity. I've really spent a lot of time seeking, and wondering, and digging in deep to find out what I do or don't believe. I lean heavily towards Buddhist thinking, but am finding my home as an Attender at a Quaker Meeting. So far, it's working out. Except for the fact that I can't attend regularly, as I don't have a Meeting in my hometown, I have to travel to go to one. Anyhow. I am absolutely and irrefutably NOT CHRISTIAN, and can't imagine ever in this life going back into any form of it. But that doesn't mean I don't believe in other ways.

17 Celsius here, and off and on rain/sun. It's cool but this is my ideal weather. Anywhere from 12-20C is just right for me. No idea what that translates to in F though.

We have an interesting dynamic here sometimes because my partner is not the biological parent of my kiddos. Nevertheless, he is 110% supportive of homeschooling. He listens to me talk about this or that curriculum that I am agonizing over, he happily funds things we need, he comes home and will make dinner or clean up or do laundry without the slightest annoyance. He's my shoulder when I'm feeling stressed or anxious or just plain ol' burnt out. He DEFINITELY defers to my judgment about what to teach them and when - that's all up to me, but he will give input and talk for hours about this or that if I happen to really need that from him. He's a great dad to the kids, and the most important job he does is to be our comic relief - he makes us laugh on those days when I'm about to chase down the yellow school bus, and he keeps my Type-A tendencies balanced with a heavy dose of calm. He's just plain awesome. I wouldn't be able to do this hs thing without him, that's for sure.

I'm looking at switching from LoE to RLTL but this keeps stopping me also when I've looked at the samples. This is the one area of the program where I feel like I may prefer how LoE works. I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees the strangeness in this.

I'm French-Canadian kinda French but we would say "les raisins". Le raisin would be the singular, so "the grape".

I was born in SK, raised in NL and moved to ON as a teen. I have a bit of a strange blend of accents :)

This is me also. I kind of say it "sehr-ip" or maybe "sair-ip". I have a blend of an east coast accent and Ontario. I can't find the best way to write it out phonetically. This is the best I can come up with. I've just said syrup out loud so many times, it's losing its meaning lol.

All of this is what we did too. I used a flat iron on my daughters hair also! The nits die with heat so I would comb comb comb every day and then blow dry her hair and straighten it with the flat iron. It was time intensive with her long hair. But it helped. My dd has thick hair but the actual strands are really fine so even the pricey metal comb would sometimes not be able to get the little nits off, her hair would just slide right through the comb.

The "womanly closet" stuff makes me and the hubs giggle a lot. In our place, my wardrobe takes up 1/4 of our closet, probably not even that much. The rest is allllll his. Same with dresser drawers.

I am obsessed with HGTV - House Hunters in particular. I'm watching an episode right now and realized my big peeve with this show is when single folks take a friend along --- Shut up, person who won't be payin the mortgage! I really feel like people who go on this show often have no idea of how demanding their "wish lists " are. If a property has 199/200 items on your wish list, DON'T FUSS ABOUT THE ONE IT DOESN'T HAVE. My partner and I yell often watching HGTV.

Happy Canada day. We are getting iffy weather here this evening so I don't think we will be going to our towns fireworks tonight. It's been nice having a little weekday holiday - hope you all have been enjoying it as well.

Same here. I don't use the auto shut off mostly because our gas prices are astronomical these days, so I haven't gone to "full" with my pickup truck in a month or more. At $1.50/litre I usually just put $40-50 in and say done. I have seen one overflow on someone else and just don't risk it. It's a mess.

In the region I live, a woman's first Moontime is celebrated as part of First Nations cultural practices and is not "weird", but sacred.

I'm a consultant for a couple of direct sales companies - but I don't do the home parties. I just can't, in good conscience, ply my wonderful friends into being hostesses. I signed on to both these places mainly to feed my own addictions (Usborne and a Canadian loose leaf tea product) at a discount. I've done a few school fundraisers and made some cash (enough to cover all of xmas shopping and a hige chunk of homeschool supplies) I try to avoid doing in-home parties. I hate them. But around here? It's BIG - I have friends who have "consultants" for everything. Books, candles, Avon, shakes, beauty products, cosmetics. Seems like every person I know is super into these stinkin home parties. I don't like being pressured and peddled - maybe because I do sell this kind of thing and know how it works, I dunno. I get at least 2 party invites per week. Super annoying. I particularly hate the health ones - it's like preying on people's insecurities or something. I sell books and tea, neither of which make any outrageous promises lol.

Level B in Foundations adds in high frequency words in almost each lesson, if I recall correctly. Maybe not every single lesson but pretty often.

My oldest from day one has always woken up with the sun. If he goes to bed at 8 he will wake up at the crack of dawn and if he goes to bed at 10, he is still up at the crack of dawn but is a BEAST to live with the next day. My kids are used to early bedtimes since back when I used to work, we were out of the house at 5:40 for daycare drop offs and work commutes. They were asleep by 7:30 back then. Now generally it's 8:30 to bed unless we are out late or something. If they go to bed late, I really find I miss my and dh's quiet evening time. He is in bed by 10:30 at the latest as he has an early wake up for work.

Our PS kids are still in school here also, until the 27th I think. I could use a good Back To School sale though, I need to stock up! lol

School clothing (plus indoor/outdoor shoes for each applicable season, for each kid), school supplies, lunch items (if your school is peanut-free, depending on how strict they are, you could be looking at buying lunch items you wouldn't normally keep in the house, that was our experience with public school). School fundraising drives, teacher gift pitch-ins, book sales/bake sales/etc. There will likely be MANY birthday party invites, and depending how many you go to you'll need to buy gifts for those (my kids had no less than one each per month it seemed). If you live where winter gear is necessary (we definitely do!) then look at needing double the gear for the season per kid. When mine were in PS, we EASILY went through 2-3 pairs of snowpants, gloves and mitts each winter. Not to mention all the lost mittens, hats, and scarves. There's probably more that I'm not thinking about. For us, mainly, the school fundraising drives KILLED us. Those add up fast.

If you can do those little ankle socks with a cute pair of keds or converse, I would. Otherwise I would do slip on flats. No socks.

I am pro-cardigan. I like a cute cardigan with a fitted t shirt and a pair of boot cut jeans with my skate shoes. Ahhh comfort. I dunno I'm a bit of a "grown up punk/metalhead" these days. Jeans, skate shoes, faded fitted concert tee, fitted cargo capris... Most of my wardrobe consists of things like that, and a few outfits I can wear to specific situations.

Two years ago give or take, I dealt with a serious back injury. Before that point, I was a size 2 - on my PMS/bloated days, I would throw on a size 4 pair of jeans. I was fit, active, 'thin', and felt great. I worked a very physically demanding job which kept me in excellent shape. Then I hurt my back. And since then, I have gained probably close to 40lbs - and no longer can go to the gym, or work a physical job, and some days I can barely manage to pick up a piece of clothing off the floor without irritating my back and being laid up for weeks in bed. You know what I miss? Not the size of my jeans, not how great I looked in a bikini - - I miss being active. I miss feeling strong and healthy. Going through this neverending issue with my back, has shown me what I REALLY value and what is really important to me. So slowly, I watch what I eat (since I can't do much more than a brisk walk to 'work out', I have to be careful what I eat) and I try to be as active as my body will allow. I want to be strong again, I don't give a rat's behind if I ever feel 'skinny' ever again. Part of it has been just feeling more comfortable in my skin as I've hit my mid-30s, part of it has been dealing with a health issue that has taken away much more from me than my skinniness.

I have not read all 18 pages, but my response is this: Yes I think about what I am "teaching" my kids - particularly when my young daughter asked me one day "mommy why do you put on makeup?" I replied that I just feel nicer when I'm a little done up. She looked at me for a moment - and said "so...when I'm a grow up I will has to wear makeup to be pretty too?" With the sweetest little face and innocent eyes, and immediately I made a conscious decision to no longer put MY insecurities into my beautiful little kids. They now see me going out everywhere without makeup or overly done up. Now, having said that - I also look weird if I go "frumpy". I'm covered in tattoos and have a short hair do that is bordering on a mohawk - so old sweats and a baggy shirt just make me look bizarre lol. I just can't get my head around teaching my daughter that one say she too will be "not pretty enough" if she doesn't live up to someone else's ideals about what is "put together". Nor do I want my son to think a woman is always beautiful and trendy and smokin hot. My kids love me and my son tells me I am the prettiest mom around, and I can't imagine the hurt I would feel if they judged me on my looks. That's just cold. And shallow.