My ds married a lovely and sweet girl he had known since childhood and they now live about six hours away with a 3 year old ds and one year old dd. A beautiful family and I love my dil very much. They just left after a weekend visit and I felt uncomfortable with something she wanted me to do that was just not me. For my birthday, she wanted for us to go to Wal Mart with her dd and my dd who is a young single adult, pick out matching tops, and pose for a formal portrait at the studio at the store. This was sprung on me last minute as a surprise gift and I was urged to pick out my favorite top or dress I already had and then the girls would buy matching tops and a little dress for the baby girl at WalMart. Well, it's a lovely idea and it's something she and the women in her family do for fun and to celebrate family togetherness. My family is the opposite. The women in my family are camera phobic and we don't like to dress up just for pictures and we don't do each other's hair or nails or clothes while my dd's family does. So, I did not in the least want to do it but I wanted to make my dil happy so I went through with it but I'm afraid that I didn't fake it well enough or something. I never had a mil so I'm not sure how I should have handled it. Should I have maybe grumbled a bit to relieve my feelings and then gone through with it, said no and tried to find an alternative activity including an informal photo of us taken with my camera, or did what I did do? How would you have preferred for your mil to be if you wanted to do an activity that she wouldn't enjoy doing but not want to hurt your feelings? I think we do have a good relationship and we like to do things together like cook, bake, and walk around downtown.

The link is quite helpful, thanks! I'm in mid-Missouri.

What did your mother do with the bulb? Plant it or what? I'd like for mine to grow in the garden but how?

The bulbs bloomed beautifully during Christmastime and produced flowers a couple more times during January. But now there are only green shoots that are growing taller and taller. When will they bloom again? In the spring or not until next winter? They are in pots by the way. I'm thinking of cutting off the green shoots and storing the bulbs in a cool place but if they will bloom this spring, then I'd rather plant them outside now.

The reading programs you mentioned look quite good. I'm using Sing, Spell, Read, and Write now. He's still doing kindergarten work but he will start speech therapy this week which might help him with the sounds of the letters. I'll give the therapy a chance before I switch programs.

My six year old ds is hard of hearing and I'm deaf. I remember that my reading really took off in third grade when I used a series of phonic reader/workbook combo. I'd like to try finding the same thing for him as he's struggling with remembering what sounds go with which letters when he's not comfortable with hearing the spoken words. The series are in story form where you have to fill in the blanks within the words. And on the left side, you have the answer key that you cover with a cardboard strip. I think the series used to be called Sullivan readers but I cannot find it on the Internet. Can you help me locate this or can you recommend another phonics or reading program that's suited for hearing impaired children?

My 11th grader ds is also having a hard time with BJU English but I'm going to have him finish it because he scored a bit low on the PSAT due to his weaknesses in basic grammar. BJU has a good reputation for helping kids score high on standardized tests. So, what I'm doing is have him read the lesson and do the odd numbered exercises. Then I check his work. If he doesn't do well, I go over the work with him and then assign the even numbered exercises for more practice. I have the English for the Dummies for reference which helps. He's going pretty slowly which is ok.

Oops, I put my message in the subject line. Where did I go wrong?

Yes, several times in elementary school for talking and acting up in class. I was literally bored silly! I was threatened with paddling the last time I was sent so that cured me of misbehaving.