Way too many details missing to make a judgment call on something like that.

Be honest with her about how you feel. Even if it appears to fall on deaf ears now, that doesn't mean she didn't hear and it won't have impact on her later. Just support her by letting her know she is precious to you and if she needs anything, you'll be there for her. :grouphug:

Proof?

Going onto his property is trespassing. He could then call the police on you. This is not sound advice. Edited: Spelling

I'd let that one go and consider it charity. Perhaps this is an excuse to go to the garden center to find something you could replace it with.

Another idea with the citrus peels is to let them soak in white distilled vinegar for a month and then use it as a disinfectant/degreasing cleaner. Then you can send the peels down your garbage disposal (if you own one). For me, I put them in my outside composting bin (not my vermicomposter). You can read about that here. We consume a lot of citrus and I always have wonderful compost from my bin outside.

:grouphug: :crying:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/02/maternal-deaths-united-states/8602637/ "The United States is one of just eight countries in the world where deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth rose between 2003 and 2013, a new report says. That puts it in the company of countries such as Afghanistan, Belize and El Salvador." Not encouraging. From what I gather, the US actually has the worst outcome in developed nations and spends more money on healthcare than other first world nations. The nations with the lowest mortality rate have either a high homebirth rate and/or encourage mothers to freely choose their place of birth.

:grouphug:

:grouphug:

Deleted (Decided not to share this part of my past on a public forum.) :grouphug: to the OP.

No one in favor of paper wedding invitations is denying the fact things change. We are all simply stating our opinions just like you are. There isn't any reason to get upset over the matter.

Also, I was thinking about those dinner parties and I must say, it really must be who you are acquainted with because I've never been invited to a formal dinner party without a formal invitation through the mail. All informal parties in the past decade have been through electronic means, but every formal event was done via snail mail. Even those younger than me have done it like that.

I think you missed my point. I have received plenty of electronic invitations about legitimate gatherings. I was merely contrasting two extremes. One being a very informal but tacky invitation (if you ask me), while the other is a very legitimate invitation to a very formal event. My argument is in favor of a paper invitation for a wedding, because you'd never see someone invite you to a Pampered Chef party using very expensive paper. If you did send a paper invitation for any other event, such as the ones you mentioned, the type of paper you used would set the tone for the whole event. You can have an informal dinner party or a formal dinner party. Depending on how you send the invitation is going to tell me how much value you place on this dinner party. If I get fancy paper in the mail, I'm going to expect the dinner party is going to be a fancy one, not hosted at my local Chick-fil-A. See what I mean? I feel the same way about weddings. How you send the invitation is going to set the tone for the whole event. You are going to get a better response based on how to present yourself and how you choose to do follow-up. It's your wedding and your responsibility to plan it to the standards you expect from others. Perhaps I am basing this decision on someone I know who had a very informal wedding, but expected everyone else to make it a fairy tale for them. They put little effort into their wedding, but when others responded with the same effort, they were upset. I'm not down with that. That's just my $.02, which isn't worth a hoot. ;)

Saving paper? If you want to save some trees, you'll need to give up your daily consumption of toilet paper. Sending paper wedding invites might waste a small portion of one tree, but toilet paper wastes a staggering number of trees in your lifetime. Use a bidet if you want to save trees (and money) and send those wedding invites via snail mail. ;) I associate all evites with give-me-your-money "party" invites (e.g. Pampered Chef, Thirty-One, and so on). I think all those parties are tacky, but that's for another post. It'd be hard to take a wedding invite seriously because of that. ETA: Regardless of how the invitation was sent, I'd go to my loved ones wedding. I go to a wedding based on who is getting married and their relationship to me.

Dr. Carson is definitely an afterschooler thanks to his amazing mother. He wouldn't be who he is today without her instruction. Members of Congress have a lot to learn from her and her son. I'd like to see them write a book report on all his books. :laugh: For those who don't know, his mother made him write oodles of book reports growing up. She would "grade" them despite not being able to read, which is something Dr. Carson didn't learn about her until much later. She is an amazing woman who never let her limitations hold her sons back. As a result, both of her sons are very successful today. Have you read his autobiography? It's short and sweet, but with far more details than the movie. Without having read the book before watching the movie, I would have been completely unaware of so many important details the movie left out. The whole context of his life was entirely lost on the movie. I was disappointed.

Well, I'm still relatively new here, so no need to apologize! I'm the one who is still learning the ropes of this board and only recently figured out what "s/o" meant. :o That makes more sense now and I see what you're saying. I agree, we need to teach our boys the same lessons. With my past, this is a given in our household, but I know it generally isn't for other families.

Now why didn't I think of that? I clean my kids' toys in the dishwasher and never thought to use it for those things. Good idea!

Keep cleaning supplies in every room. You are more likely to clean and keep it that way if you can just do a quick cleaning with the supplies already in the room. Make it a habit to do target areas every day at least once and deep clean one room each month for a year round "spring cleaning". With all my kids, this is the only way I've been able to keep my house clean and it works extremely well for me.

I'm still not sure what this has to do with patriarchy and I feel uncomfortable saying that, because I'm truly not getting it. What am I missing? As one who has personal experience with how people respond to those of us who have been through it, I can say with confidence the blame-the-victim mentality is in every group imaginable.

What does that have to do with patriarchy? I'm not asking that in a judgmental way, but honestly asking.

I've own several high end vacuum's over the years, but about two years ago I purchased a Shark Navigator instead. I've been very impressed with it for the price I paid and will probably never buy another high end vacuum again. It works just as well, if not better, than several of the brands I've owned before that are considered the top-of-the-line for vacuum's. If you happen to get those Bed, Bath, and Beyond coupons in the mail, you could potentially get the Shark Navigator for a mere $160. That's what I did. I've also seen Costco sell them for $180, I think, or somewhere around that price. Hope that helps!

Before kids, yes, but after kids, no. I don't allow the dogs in beds for safety reasons. When the youngest child can physically pick up our heaviest dog, only then will I consider having dogs in the beds. Although, it has been so long since they have slept with us that I may never allow them to sleep with us again, but I will consider doggie beds in our room instead. Besides, one of my dogs is lucky to be alive after what he almost did to me in my bed years ago. I was peacefully sleeping until I felt one of my dogs coming up near my head. Within seconds, I hear a "bottom burp" (fart) and open my eyes to barely seeing his body taking position over my flippin' head to go poop!!!!!!!!!!! :ack2: I quickly roll over at the speed of light and my dog proceeds to make my pillow into his restroom. :sneaky2: True story and yes, they went out before we went to bed. That dog is only still alive because he found the diamond that fell out of my wedding ring one day. I figured he paid his keep after that. ;)

While I don't support patriarchy of the Doug Phillips kind, I sort of ignored this girl's complaint on the basis I felt she just had an agenda coming into this whole thing. I still feel she had an agenda. However, you make a good point here about the 60s and perhaps her agenda isn't as negative as I was previously viewing it. Maybe this situation was needed for all homeschooling groups to take notice and make some positive changes for the better in the future. That would be good to see. Thank you for making this point. I am still sorting through my thoughts on this issue, but your comment gave me food for thought and I appreciate that! :001_smile: I'd still like to hear the other side of the story and I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt until I do. However, at the very least they should refund the ticket money regardless of what the truth really is. I look at it this way. The adults in this situation need to be mindful of the lesson they are teaching this young woman, because if I'm correct, they are professing to be Christians. If we believe what Jesus says about being judged for every idle word spoken, then they need to be especially mindful of how the actions they take now is going to effect this young lady for the rest of her life. Will they be willing to be wronged, if they feel they are, in refunding the money in order to obey Jesus in giving others what they ask of you, so that His name is not defamed? Or will they hold onto their pride and risk God's judgment on them for potentially having led this young lady away from Him? Jesus said it is better to have a milestone hung around your neck and cast into the sea than to cause another to stumble. That should strike fear in the hearts of believers to be very careful how their words and actions affect others. I have to preach the above message to myself daily. I eat humblepie often. Ask my husband and kids.

HoppyTheToad, that is funny! I'm surprised my boys haven't figured out how to do that yet. The strange thing I saw today was the toilet overflowing, because my youngest boy had used practically a whole roll of TP to get the job done! :svengo: I can honestly say I have never seen a toilet overflow in my entire life, so I was a bit bewildered. Boys make life interesting, that's for sure. Hey, that's going on my wish list. :o I dehydrate a LOT of bananas for some yummy snacks I make my family and slicing them one-by-one is very tedious. That little gadget might actually be useful for a person like me. ;) I can cut hot dogs just fine without that weiner dog, though!