I use e-banking only. I can't even remember the last time I needed to write a cheque. We don't even have a book of cheques at all right now. It's been years. We pay our bills online when they come in, and most of our bills are automatically debited (car payment and insurance and a couple other items where the amounts don't change). We will check it daily online and just make sure it's on the up and up but I can't imagine dealing with cheques all the time. I would go bonkers.

I also think having a laid back or understanding partner is really helpful on this front. My fella knows if he comes in and sees I've got the Crazy Eyes or if I text him that it's been a long day - he just picks up some takeout on the way home, or he'll make dinner when he gets home. He hasn't got any Stepford expectations of me, and knows that I chose to leave my full time job in order to homeschool the kids and be with them, so he'd never make me feel bad for not being Superwifey. We just aren't that kind of couple. I asked him once if he'd rather me handle more of the home stuff and he just gave me a weird look and said "well I'm not company, I live here too, I don't mind doing what needs doing". He also reminds me when I get to stressing about not doing enough, that he and I BOTH have jobs during the day - mine just happens to be at home. With two little tornadoes who eat like horses and keep me running most of the day. So he really doesn't expect me to do everything, and that helps me a lot.

I don't really "do it all". Schooling and time with the kids comes as first priority during the day, no doubt about that. Sure they spend a lot of time playing together, or doing their own things, but when they need me they get me and I would never put dusting or making beds ahead of that. But, maybe its because our place isn't super huge, but tidying up at the end of each day doesn't take that long and still leaves me plenty of time to have a cup of tea or something before starting dinner. We do school from after breakfast cleanup until maybe 2:30-3pm with a nice long break in there for lunch and lunch cleanup. When we're done for the day, I just whip through and pick up whatever odds and ends need picking up, I may do a quick whip with the vacuum or dust a room. But it maybe takes 45 mins - 1 hr. Then I have a tea and read or watch a tv show and then I start getting dinner on the go. We do the Big Deep Clean on the weekends, when my partner is home. So during the week is just maintaining some semblance of "tidy" and the deeper cleaning happens when there's another set of hands. We use our slow cooker a LOT, but I am still able to whip up a pretty decent dinner after a full day. I definitely don't feel like I 'do it all', but it really depends on what 'all' looks like for each person. I also feel like there's an element of being busy for busy's sake too. I look at some "Home Organizer" books and printables and such, and things on Pinterest, and I'm like "Who really pays bills for an hour every day? You wash your baseboards every day? dust every corner?" I dunno, sometimes I feel like I've either got it figured out, or am seriously missing some things on my to-do list lol.

My shy, anxious, gentle 9 yr old has started taking Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and it has been wonderful for him. He's gaining confidence, learning some self defense techniques (the academy he goes to uses a Bullyproof curriculum for their little kids where they learn BJJ techniques in the framework of self defense as opposed to aggressive fighting). He's less anxious in certain social situations because he knows in his mind that he can stop someone from bullying him (whether he could in actuality, after just a few months of classes, is another thing entirely). But he feels confident and he feels good about himself. They offer a homeschool class at the academy we go to, and it has been hands down the best money I have spent since starting homeschooling. Finding instructors your child feels comfortable with and can develop a good connection with, is pretty important I think. I would try out a few different styles and a few different academies/instructors. Go from there.

Kids: get up, brush teeth/hair, straighten their beds. If they want to stay in their pjs that's fine. Or they sometimes will change into comfy sweas and tshirts. My daughter sometimes will come out dressed as a princess Avenger Darth Vader to do her schoolwork lol. Me: get up, shower, blow out my hair, and if we aren't going anywhere I will put on sweats/yoga pants/pj pants and a tank. I am fine being in comfy clothing around the house but I can't function without a shower and a quick hairstyling. I live in a rental and pay for laundry - I can't even imagine if all of us dirtied an outfit every day even if we are just lazing around the house. That's a lotta unnecessary laundry lol.

My kids both were a little "jerky" at first but they got much smoother very quickly. We have loved the cursive lessons in LoE and the kids picked it up really quickly and have really developed beautiful penmanship. Now we are working on getting the same result in their printing. :)

Everyone else has already summed up most of my pet peeves. All I can add to it is two words: Comic. Sans. Seriously, it just looks so unprofessional and ridiculous. My kids and I tried with all our might to like RSO but we just couldn't. I couldn't get past the god awful font. Petty? Maybe. But hey we're listing pet peeves, no? ;)

Pam Laricchia has a fantastic email series that you can sign up for. You receive two emails per week to a total of 10 emails, and she helps you really dig in and see what unschooling is all about. By the end of the emails you will really come away with a good base of info and able to decide whether it's the right path for your family.

I would buy it. And then I would probably borrow it lol. I think it's a fun jacket. But we are a houseful of gamers and AC is a popular one here. I have a hoodie from AC on my wishlist for Xmas lol.

I just signed up this morning - choose the option for Gold Membership (1 free per month, $14.95) and then when you enter the promo code (HOLIDAY14) it will automatically change it to three months at the discounted price.

"Phewf! We worked pretty hard on these stairs, what do say we go hunt down a snack in the kitchen and get outdoors for some runaround time?! I could totally use a break!". I have said straight up to my youngest "hey if we are really struggling, lets take a break and hit it again another day". Nothing wrong with letting her learn how to recognize she needs to take a step back from whatever she is working on.

LOTR Foxfire Hackers GI Jane Blackhawk Down Over The Hedge Bad Boys 2 makes me laugh til I can't breathe. The Sherlock TV series The glades tv show. I suffer a back injury and it flares up once in a while making me bed ridden for weeks. I marathon the entire series every time my back goes out. There are others. These are the ones I can watch without ever feeling bored of them.

Nothing huge. It was a cameo animated appearance by Stan Lee as the father of Fred (was that his name? the skater kinda guy). Fred touched the photo of his parents after talking in a way that makes us realize his parents are dead and not on a trip like he said, and the portrait opened to a secret room with all kinds of superhero gear in it. Then "animated Stan Lee" walks into the secret room and says along the lines of "hello son, I guess we have a lot to talk about". It was anticlimactic, after waiting for what felt like an eternity for the credits to end haha.

We LOVED it! My daughter thought it looked cute. My son and my partner had to see it because, well, it's Marvel. So we went opening weekend, and it was SO good. I didn't go into it with any particular expectation, other than it looked cute. I thought some of the scenes with Baymax were brilliantly done - like the "drunken Baymax" scene. So funny. My 6 yr old daughter was fine with the more emotional scenes and themes. But my kids are fairly mature in their movie-watching, and generally know not to get too upset because as my 6 yo already knows - "it will all get made better before the movie is done". Not surprisingly, we were the only ones who stayed til the post-credit extra scene - most people there were with REALLY young kids, like preschooler ages, and they bolted after the movie was over. My son (9) said "Wait. Wait. It's Marvel. Just sit down ma, and finish your popcorn". LOL

This is the one the kids' dad got for the kids for Xmas except it was $89.99CDN and eligible for free shipping. That was a year ago though, clearly the price has jumped lol http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B00EDMFP4C/ref=mp_s_a_1_14?qid=1415308924&sr=8-14&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

My kids love the history ones! For my particular kids, they find the maths books and science books a bit above what they can understand right now. We have them all though - I love them! We got maths, history, and science in one big boxed set on Amazon.ca last Xmas.

I left my ex husband because we were both unhappy. He kept putting off counselling so I walked. We agreed that we were both miserable and decided to call it quits before it DID turn into one of us doing something that will damage the other - infidelity or abuse or whatever. We both walked away amicably and with very little residual damage. Both of us are infinitely happier now, the kids are better off. It was hard as a single mom. Very hard. But in the hardest moments it was still better than staying in an empty marriage. Ex and I haven't always stayed amicable. We had some rough spots in our co parenting. But we are on pretty good footing these days. He loves his kids, they love him, and he and I are each happily in new relationships now. My current partner and I have waded through some difficult trials in our relationship - not once has leaving him seemed like the right answer. New partner and I have worked through much more difficult issues than ex and I had ever gone through. Only you can know in your heart of hearts whether the relationship is worth it. As hard as life has been at times, it is still the very best choice I could have made.

There's a hair product brand here called Got2Be (I'm in Canada not sure if its available in the us). They have a Spike Glue product which has held my hair in most any situation. It really feels like glue so you have to work fast. Once it dries it sets pretty good.

I just learned how to knit! So far I can cast on, knit, purl, and cast off. Oh and I can do fringes for a scarf lol I finished a scarf for DS a couple days ago, and am now doing one for dd. scarves are easy - just rectangles. After this I may actually try to follow a pattern and do something else - I want something for me. A hat or maybe some fingerless gloves. I need a couple of mug cozies too. For now - I'm just plugging away at my scarf. Knitting is gonna be an obsessive hobby lol. Now I can finally go on Hyena Cart and buy pretty yarn! When I used to buy cloth diaper stuff on there I used to drool over yarn but didnt know how to knit.

We started this yr out doing the BYL K curric as well as the 2nd grade. My kids were doing both, together, only bc I thought the k stuff would be fun since they both haven't done any geography and they both are animal lovers. We dropped the K altogether - we are just reading through the books as we feel like it, and have decided to stick with the Gr 2 curric only. It's awesome!! Way more "put together" than the K curric. Both kids are completely engaged with everything we have done so far with second grade - I like that the daily tasks are light enough that we aren't slogging through it all day but we have time to go deeper with the things the kids really get excited about. Really don't care for the Kinder curric, and had some isses re: its not being completely secular - but so far 2nd Gr seems really well put together :)

The current one was "ok". Not the worlds biggest movie. The others were pretty good, the first one was awesome. We are huuuuge Transformers nerds here in my house. Like, shamefully huge lol. I have watched the animated shows since I was 4 yrs old or something, and always loved them. The movies were great fun for me. But really, lets be honest, you can't expect cinematic brilliance when you are watching a movie like transformers. You watch it for the action, maybe to reminisce about the original cartoons, and if you're my family you watch it to check out some upcoming car/truck models. As a bit of a confession, i would buy the road-ready replica of Ironhide. In a hot second. Lol

The Handmaids Tale has been my favourite book (well one of my faves) since I was in tenth grade and had to read it for a high school English class. It's unbelievable to me that someone would challenge or try to ban that novel. Also - Neverwhere?! Really. People are nuts. Such a good book. The idea of banning books is just...well it leaves me speechless and that does not happen often. Mind boggling to see some of the books people have challenged.

We live in Sudbury and I am not sure I agree that Science North is better but it's not much worse. I was so excited to go to a big city science center in Toronto and really, I didn't find it that great. We do Science North once a week so I may just be over science centres in general lol.

There's the new Ripleys Aquarium. I haven't been but my kids went with their biodad this summer and said it was amazing.

My kids LOVE the ROM. We spend a day there whenever we are in Toronto and they love it. You could do the cn tower. Kensington Market area is where we like to meander around, cool shops and eateries.