Yep. One of those things that I saw years ago and my brain refuses to forget. I seem to recall that there were also places that would take your placenta and make other crafty things with it, but thankfully the details have not stayed with me on those. 🤣

No. I don't think I could get past the ick factor even if it were standard practice. I did try to donate mine with the second child. After I'd delivered and the placenta had been set aside, they told me they needed to draw blood an extra time. I'd said up front that I would do it IF they could get what they needed from the blood draw I was going to have done anyway. So I said no at that point. I felt bad about it, but I also felt like a pincushion already and didn't want yet another blood draw. And now I will share this link with you all, because no thread on this topic is complete without a placenta teddy bear link. (Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like.)

I had a very busy week and not much time to read! I'm just past the halfway point in the Machen book I'm reading (The Virgin Birth of Christ). I am pausing there to read some library books this week, plus another chapter in Flavel for the ladies' book study at church.

Thanks, @chocolate-chip chooky! Looking into those responses now. 🙂

My 7yo is interested in learning Russian. I was looking at Russian Step by Step, but since I don't know Russian myself, it's kind of hard to evaluate. 😉 Does anyone have experience with this curriculum, or anything else you'd recommend for a kid who wants to learn Russian? I will be learning alongside her, so we'll need something with audio and/or video to help with pronunciation. If she persists with her study of the language, I will look into finding a Russian speaker with whom she can converse, but that will not be a first step. For background, she has completed English grammar through FLL 4 and Latin almost through the end of Lively Latin's Big Book 1 (will have started BB2 before we start the Russian study). Thanks in advance! ☺️

Under the piano and behind middle child's nightstand are my real go-to places when something has vanished into thin air. (Although checking the refrigerator is still nice, because then I can get a snack to sustain me through the searching process. 😉 )

Have you checked in the refrigerator?

Hi all! I finished reading Black Beauty last week. Definitely not going to make my girls read it. I'll offer it as an option at some point, but I think they'd just find it depressing at this point. And I started reading J. Gresham Machen's The Virgin Birth of Christ. I've read a couple other books by Machen, but this one is far more academic in nature. Wasn't what I was expecting, lol! But I'm enjoying it very much. However, I will probably pause my reading on that one because I have a couple of library books to pre-read for the girls.

No, nope, no way, never, NO. This has been my stance since I was a child. When I was in high school I tried writing in my copy of Hamlet because everybody was like "writing in books for English class is good because you can take notes in the book." It felt wrong, and it was not helpful or useful to me to mark up the book. I still shudder at the thought of it. Never again. I was always irked by people who said you could tell the state of someone's spiritual life by looking at how marked-up and worn out their Bible was. Uh, no. I treat my Bible with respect, and its decent condition does not indicate a lack of use. Notes go elsewhere, not in the text itself. I have matured enough to recognize that it is helpful for some people, so I try not to judge. 😉 But the thought of writing in a book is just...no.

YES! You should see the sticky note I have of potential books for literature for next year (things I need to pre-read). I keep scribbling in more titles in smaller and smaller writing! 🤣

A semester spent on The Most Wonderful Writing Lessons Ever, followed by Writing & Rhetoric (we've done books 1-4 - we're about a week away from finishing book 4).

I finished John Bunyan's Prayer. It was...fine? I definitely learned things and was edified. The second work (the book is two works in one volume) is about coming boldly before the throne of grace, and I found the exposition very instructive; he presented a number of things in ways I hadn't thought about them before. However, the writing was particularly dense, and some sentences just really didn't parse well. And I say this as someone who has very much enjoyed reading works by other Puritans (Edwards, Owen, Flavel). I know I found Pilgrim's Progress much more readable than this (though of course that was narrative), so maybe if I read a different work of his I'd enjoy it more? Don't know, and I don't have any other Bunyan on my shelves at the moment, so it'll be a while before I attempt another of his works, if I ever do. Also, I've just realized that the first names of the Puritans I've read are John, Jonathan, John, and John. Anyway, setting Puritans aside for the moment: I started a re-read of Black Beauty as a pre-read for DD#1 (trying to select "school books" for next year for her). I think it may have to wait another year, if I end up having her read it at all. There's a lot of sad in that book. I'll finish Black Beauty, and then I'm not sure what I'll pick up next. Likely either another pre-read for DD or something by J. Gresham Machen.

We had a shooting at a yoga studio here back in November. Two women died. The shooter was motivated by "incel" ideology. It's sickening and scary.

Made some strikethroughs and updates (in red). I am in the middle of prepping for history (making my own "student pages" for Human Odyssey), science, and literature. Feeling slightly overwhelmed with it all at the moment, lol.

I finally finished Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings , woohoo! I particularly enjoyed reading what Luther had to say about the importance of classical languages, because it reminded me of discussions I've read on these boards. 🙂 Also last week, I read the young readers' edition of Hidden Figures as a pre-read for my girls. It fits beautifully with our studies in both history (last several chapters of SOTW 4) and science (astronomy, with a visit to the Kennedy Space Center planned), so I think I'll have them read it. Current read is a Puritan Paperback, John Bunyan on Prayer (actually two works in one volume).

Do you think something like this might help? "I have time for one question and one follow-up. Think carefully about what you want to ask, because after those, I'll expect you to just do what I'm instructing."

I'm still working my way through Martin Luther - only about 80 pages to go! I will be surprised if I don't finish it this week. 🙂 I did finish my devotional commentary, 2 Samuel: Out of Every Adversity, by Dale Ralph Davis. I started the next book in the series, also by Davis, 1 Kings: The Wisdom and the Folly. I thought about switching over to a New Testament book but decided to stick with this section of OT history to keep it all together in my mind a little better. The series, by the way, is Focus on the Bible Commentaries (not all titles are by the same author). Also still working on All Things Made New: John Flavel for the Christian Life, which is a one-chapter-a-month deal because I'm leading a book study on it at church. Need to spend some time with it this week!

Indirectly related to science - would he like Math with Bad Drawings?

May I offer an alternative? If you can get your hands on this edition of Fibonacci's Liber Abaci, I think your DD would find it more readable than Newton. Fibonacci wrote it to convince people in Europe that it was worth switching from Roman numerals to Arabic numerals. The math in it is very accessible (it starts with how to count!), but it's interesting to read if you understand the context. I was able to find it at the library of the local community college. Newton's Principia can be found as a free or very cheap ebook on Google Play Books or Amazon. I don't know about any simplified versions, but maybe someone else will!

I don't understand why this particular bit of information would be the cause of an increase in robocalls. It's saying that people can input a phone number into FB search and find the FB account associated with that number, right? It's not saying that FB is giving the numbers to anyone. Not that I would put that past FB (or any other company collecting such data), but it doesn't seem to be the issue in this case.

This is what I was going to suggest. When I was in high school, I traded student aide work for voice lessons for two years, and another year I traded babysitting for lessons. Yard work, peer tutoring for the instructor's kids, house cleaning...lots of possibilities if you can find someone willing to barter!

Hi all! I've never read any of Louise Penny's books. But she actually came to my city in November and debuted the most recent novel here. So there's my connection, lol. (I wouldn't be opposed to reading her books, but I don't have any on the TBR list, and the TBR list is my focus for this year. Well, that and books I have to pre-read for the kids.) I didn't have any finishes this past week. I am at the 70% mark on Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings (and remember that I started at almost the 50% mark, as I'd read the first near-half years ago). So it's possible I'll finish that this week...kind of depends. I'm also likely to finish this week the commentary I've been using for personal devotions (sip read), Dale Ralph Davis's 2 Samuel: Out of Every Adversity. I think it'll take me about 4 more days. Then I'll move on to the same author's commentary on 1 Kings.

I don't know about PeachyDoodle's location, but where I live, my local school system has my contact info because I'm registered as a homeschooler. It's possible that that info is considered public record - not the student's info (student records are confidential under state law), but my info as the parent who registered homeschooled kids. (I just searched and it looks like homeschoolers in NC are also required to send in a notice of intent, so their info would be in the school system's database.) If it's not public record, here's another possibility: As assistant superintendent, he/she has access to that info. Making it a project to benefit the school district justifies the decision to use the info to contact registered homeschoolers, even if the plan is also to use the project for doctoral research. Anyway, my response would depend on how the school district generally acts toward homeschoolers. If they're usually hostile, NOPE. But if that's not the case, I'd probably participate. I personally would love to have more research on homeschooling out there, so participating in such research makes sense.

When she was little, DD#1 assigned a favorite color and a favorite animal for each member of our family. Mine were purple and owl. My avatar is a quilled treble clef that I made a while ago.

Ours was direct deposited yesterday. We filed on 2/15 (using H&R Block's software, if that's relevant).