:grouphug::grouphug: She doesn't sound like a nice person. FWIW it sounds like SHE has more underlying unhappiness. I'm sorry she hurt you, I'd be very hurt too. Please walk away from this relationship. You are worth WAY more than this, sweetie. :grouphug::grouphug: **Idea for the CD: What about YOU picking out the best picture from the CD. Maybe even 2 or 3 and printing them and giving them to the step-daughter in a nice frame. Then the step daughter has what you wanted her to have without the step-mom or mom drama.**

I voted "other". When we are just starting with a babysitter, the parents usually drive both there and back. After they know us more and we trust each other more, the parents usually drop her off and the I drive her home.

You certainly have nothing to lose (since it sounds like they are cutting off benefits soon anyway) and it could work out.

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So is the purpose of the whole thing to "not sin"? Or to put it another way...it doesn't sound like it has much to do with knowing God as much as not sinning. Is this right? Thanks for your help - there are people I know IRL that don't understand my questions. I hope I'm not asking wrong.

So Christ died to be punished for sins. Now if you sin, you are not punished. Right? So then, how is it a sin if there is no punishment? Isn't it just another choice? Obviously, each person would want to make good choices to not injure themselves or others, but wouldn't it just be another choice since there are no eternal repercussions? How does this go along with knowing God? Are they related? Is the point just to be forgiven from sin? Or is it something else? Sorry if I'm using the wrong words. I'm not very familiar with the exact wording that is used. I hope my questions make sense.

I know there are many Christians on this board and I have a question for them. This is a genuine question that I don't wish to offend with. Why do you say that you "sin"? From what I know, in your teachings, Christ died for all sins. So even when you make a mistake, how is that a sin? Isn't that already gone? Isn't sin already gone from your life if you believe this? If not, what did Christ do exactly? Again, this is a genuine question and I don't want to come off as snarky or sarcastic. I am very curious about this belief.

I've never used this, but what about lighting a match, blowing it out and letting the smoke go into the bottle?

:iagree:

I am so excited and nervous right now. DH and I have been working for the last five years to arrange our life so that I can be with the kids during the day at the cafe. I am currently working FT at a corporate job and we HS in the evenings. It works and we can keep making it work, but it hasn't been our goal. So we've just been saving and waiting... We found a place to expand our cafe to today!! Everything can be in order very quickly (we already had the equipment by buying it used piece by piece in anticipation for this). Like in the next two weeks (!!). So that impacts us in that now I would run our original cafe with the kids (and they can HS during the daytime with me) and DH can run the second cafe (an existing place that is 15 minutes away). The original owner is 70 and owns several places and he wants to simplify where he is geographically. This place has more traffic and lower rent. This all just happened today. We just got the information yesterday afternoon. We saw the space, equipment, etc. We haven't signed anything yet, we are in the "thinking" phase and the interested parties are waiting for our final decision in the next couple of days. But in 10,000 ways this is what we have been waiting for! DH and I are just now trying to grasp what this means and what we do next. We are just trying to think through everything and sort it out. ..... This could really be it. I could really (just maybe) get to be with my family...

...when DH sends you an email at work and it's in Latin. :lol:

I was thinking about this recently. First of all, I have nothing *against* courting, but I did have some observations about it that I wanted to ask about. I sincerely hope that I am not being offensive as I understand each family must make the choices for their own family. If this is offensive, please let me know and I'll take this down. Here's what I wanted to discuss: Is it more advantageous to be one gender versus the other when it comes to courting? Here's where I am coming from in my thoughts: I read about the Duggers and the Maxwells (big families with a conservative approach to dating) and ONLY the older boys are married. The older girls, some in there 20's or early 30's are still at home. In real life, I grew up with many girls whose families believed this philosphy. So the boys went off, had successful courtships and married and (in my experience) the girls are all still at home and over 30. Some are employed, but most are "running the home" for mom and unemployed without any boyfriends or anything. What disturbs me is that these girls want to get married, but they aren't being courted. I am frustrated that their parent's ideas (and now the girls') are keeping those hopes from even happening. They will still have good life, but what about their hopes of marrying and having children? It seems that these hopes are genuine and I know I had the same hopes (so it is familiar to me). I only know what I've been exposed to growing up and what is portrayed in the media. For the record, I did not do this with DH. I'd left the church by then. What do you think?

I agree about the second bedroom. That makes a huge difference. To put it in perspective, we'd feel cramped if we were in twice the space with only one bathroom. That is the situation we were in previously. Who knew? :)

We have six people in a 1,003 square foot apartment. It works and it is much, much better than when we were in our house that was 2,000+ square feet. The house was old, drafty and wasted space and resources. We'll never go back. I'd say to do it.

I think it is still a crap shoot since our children are all different people from ourselves. I don't think it's true that "do this" equals "blessings". I think it's a great way to get people in the seats of a church, but it's not reality. But that's another post altogether.... I can instill values and the value of others in my children. I can work hard to do this, but it still their life experience. When they are younger, that is one thing because they are still maturing and have a more limited amount of choices. But we are talking about a 17 year old young man. I'm not saying he knows it all because we are all still maturing and learning about the world. Being controlling does not instill values. That is merely making decisions based on fears that the kid will mess up. Some of the best lessons I ever learned were from messing up and couldn't have come about by any other way.

:iagree: A list of bible verses means nothing to someone who doesn't believe in the bible. Even among Christians, there are those that haven't made the bible "God". God also gave us minds, empathy, compassion, common sense, and memories to use as tools. I was not allowed to make these decisions when I was a teenager. So I still did everything, but I just learned to be sneaky about it. I learned the same lessons, but had no one to talk to. It would have helped to have a trusted adult to process beginning my independent life. With my children now, I know I'd rather have them understand why something is not beneficial rather than just saying "no".

Language Arts is excellent. We've used the Science too - it's solid and good information. It's not set up the same way as the other subjects (sunrise). It still worked okay because the kids could do it independently and didn't mind workbooks. There are also several experiments that were easy to do. It's just not as pretty as the Math and LA.

What about CLE?

They must be homeschooled....:auto: I JOKE!! :lol:

:iagree: If he is having that much difficulty with 2 x 8, it is possible that he may not have his addition and subtraction facts through 20 down cold yet (subtraction will help with division). I'd suggest going back and working through add/sub facts and practicing skip counting. Don't worry, he'll get there. Sometimes it just takes another round to make it click.

I'd agree with Henry Huggins and Ribsy by Beverly Cleary. Also, there is a book sold by CLP called Rusty and Ryan. My son (who loved Trumpet of the Swan), rereads that book all the time and takes it with him everywhere. It's about a young boy and his dog.

:iagree: Me too.

:iagree:

Argh. I can't keep up. DH helps, but I still feel responsible when something isn't done. Actually, I think the only thing I get to is loading and running the dishwasher. DH does the laundry, all major cleaning is on the weekends and the kids do their part (beds, toys, etc). Since we HS at night, it is always "on" time at home: 1) come home, put things away (I am the one who is not good at this right now) 2) start schoolwork with the kids 3) they say they are hungry, so I find them a small snack before dinner (last night it was big bag of carrots -- they ate the whole bag and then didn't want dinner) 4) eat dinner (usually....) 5) squeak out about 15-20 minutes of playtime with the kids before they go to bed 6) bedtime, read a chapter of a book with the kids Twice this week, DH and I have worked out after the kids have gone to bed (we both want to do this). Then we watch an episode on Netflix (or three) until we go to bed / I fall asleep (whichever happens first). Things that bug me: 1. I feel bad when DH is looking for food - he never complains, but I feel like something should be ready. I make a week of potatoes, chicken, rice for him, but it's all gone now and I haven't made more. 2. I feel bad when the kids don't have a lot of playtime at home (although they play almost all day at the cafe). With HS'ing at night, this is just the reality though. 3. I hate feeling so tired. Sometimes I'm afraid I will never feel rested again. 4. I hate when my stupid dining room table (where we HS) is always covered. It's usually my stuff too. We are done with our schoolday and I'm already running off to get dinner / play / or bedtime with the kids. We are going to have a break in a couple weeks (6wks on, 1 wk off, schooling year-round). I never feel like I need it, but this time I do. I don't usually feel this disorganized, but this week I'm just so tired.

I know you all have oodles of wisdom and right now I'm at a bit of a loss. DH has had trouble sleeping for most of his life (and ALL of his adult life). He had surgery about 6 years ago for his sleep apnea. He also has migraines that are triggered by gluten and stress. We have eliminated the one, but can't entirely eliminate the other.:001_smile: The last six months, he can go to sleep and stay asleep just fine. But he always has been waking up with pain between his neck and the middle of his back. We've changed mattresses and his pillow (both are very firm). He's tried changing sleeping positions. None of these has provided relief. He says the pain begins when he wakes up and will start to go away by about the middle of the work day. I don't know what to try anymore! He was talking about going to the doctor for a sleep medicine, but I don't like that he'd then be on one for migraines and one for sleeping. If he needs it, fine. But if this is just a symptom of something else, I'd like to find the source. Any ideas of things to try? Or do I just get a giant cartoon mallet to help him sleep comfortably? (Totally kidding!) ;)