I hit the heart reaction, because there was no ?

2yoDD put my car keys inside a cloth book about cars and shoved it under the couch. (I got an extra put/shove in there, lol) This was when I still had a job. I spent 2 hours looking over the house for them. Had to cancel work for the day (was a 4 hour shift, already missed 2...). Park of the problem was that since the keys were cushioned and hidden in the book, they didn't jingle or shine when I was originally checking underneath the couch. Upside was my house was extremely clean and now I make touching keys into a Big Teaching Point when kids are little. My now 1yoDD even knows that if keys are found they are brought immediately to mom, lol.

My first car was a 2000 Kia, my DH had a 1996 Buick LeSabre. We were the second owners on both so didn't has as much control with some of the issues they came with. Both broke down to the point of no return on the same Thanksgiving weekend of 2012. That was a hard pill to swallow, lol, so I don't blame you for wanting to deal with 2 car payments at once. We replaced the cars with a 2012 Prius C and a 2006 Dodge caravan. So, one new car and one used; we paid for the van outright. Both are still doing well. The van has 184k miles on it now, it's actually going in for a general checkup today but has been a trooper. The Prius has 65k on it and is currently in storage -- we are trying to see if we can handle being a 1 car family in this new area. Where we were before was too rural to work that well, but so far so good on just a 1-vehicle family. The plan is to keep both of these cars until we run them into the ground like the last ones -or- sell the Prius while it has a still a higher value but not replace it. But, basically, keep these two cars and only get a new(er) car when these are beyond the gates. I will say I have loved the Prius because as the new car it has not given us any trouble and minimal maintenance costs; we keep to the schedule in the owners manual religiously and know what expenses will cost at the next check up. The car payment was not fun though and on the whole we will not buy new again unless its a mega deal.

Sunday - Thursday I'd say 25 miles a day. Friday and Saturday 60 miles each. I have to fill up my 17gal tank in a van approximately once a week, sometimes I can go 9 days. Now that we live in the middle of town it's cut down on how far away we are from everything so a lot less driving time to get to each place. But, now my schedule/route doesn't match up nicely so there's a lot of backtracking and suboptimal pathing to get places.

We had a rough night, which ended in me waking up in a puddle of pee on the ground next to the baby (the pee-giver). I had mopped yesterday. So, little sleep, and then waking up to that: I need a nap, definitely, lol. Today's schedule is laundry, and now also includes mopping, and a full school day, and making ratatouille for dinner. Breakfast is almost ready, rolled oats. Lunch will be leftovers I think. Still nice and overcast today, looks like it's been sprinkling recently. So, at least the weather is nice!

Heya Scrap. Overcast and sprinkling here this morning, the two younger kids are out in the card just kind of sitting there lol, something they haven't been able to do this "late" in the morning for a while (9:30am). They are really enjoying the coolness. Though, the baby keeps hitting her legs so I think the bugs may be enjoying it too, lol. We aren't to Christmas level planning yet. Though, my mil never took down her Christmas decorations from last Christmas, so we are still ahead of the game, yay?!? lol But we have decided to do Peter Pan theme for Halloween this year and so are planning that out. The boys were originally going to go as the two brothers, but now the 5yo wants to be Peter Pan (the 7yo LOOKS like Peter Pan to me, so I kinda wish he'd be interested), so they have one more day to decide their characters. Daughter will be Wendy, baby is Tinkerbell. I love the idea of the optional gift exchange at an open house, I've never seen that but it sounds so much more fun and relaxed and welcoming! My parents always did "door gifts" for everyone who came to the house Christmas season. I like your idea of the cup with the packets, that would be very cute ?

Never had a microwave. Everything is reheated stove top. I store my leftovers in pots so it's an easy grab from the fridge and put onto the stove. Sometimes I add water but usually not. In the case where it's not already in a pot ready to heat, it's only a few steps to get it into a skillet.

Just came back to the laptop after the day, saw I never actually posted! Below was written by the optismistic morning me, lol : Morning Scrap! Favorite part of autumn: Truthfully I love the rain (raining this morning, yay) and I've never experienced a true fall, this is my favorite time of the year. Well, November when it actually starts to cool down it's my favorite, but man I love the rain today. October is mostly a "get through it" month for me. Figuring out costumes, my parents have their birthdays, and October just feels like there is so much to get done before the "real" holiday season begins in November, so I pack as much in as possible. Favorite holiday I think is Christmas, though I'm not looking forward to this one in particular because we're living with my mil and a lot of my favorite traditions are just going to get pushed out or encroached on. But, it will still be fun and it's a cozy time of year for us.

I remember one of my friends from college: her mom hated driving. Just, hated it period. So, if it wasn't on the calendar a week before, she didn't drive there, for any reason. She had a binder with her week's schedule, I think the kids wrote down what they needed on the calendar on the fridge, at the beginning of the week she transfered it to her binder, and that was what she worked off of. No adding anything after it was in her binder. She had 6 kids, she started this method with the first as a teen and was still putting into effect with the last when I met my friend, so it seemed to work for her. {{{hugs}}} about the rest of it

Yes* *This year we have limited storage space. Basically, everything has to fit into their backpacks and be under 7 lbs. So, we started off with a 1.5" binder for most of the write-light subjects and memory stuff and any handouts through different topics. Then they have separate really thin binders for history and science. So far this has been working. Eventually when the smaller binders fill up we'll be putting the overflow into the bigger binder (if there's room) or into a organizer accordian that fits on the small shelf we have.

Schedule: We're doing good with the schedule this year so far. This is the first time I'm writing out the lesson plan for the week and giving a copy to the kids so that they can see it and get out the right materials at the right time without having to ask me (though we're working on that last part still, lol). However, as for hard to stick to a schedule: I'm trying to build social media up for the business, and man I got to continue posting everyday but I'm just not a natural at the different platforms yet, so that's where my schedule struggle is right now ? Weekend: piano masterclass on Saturday, otherwise nothing out of the ordinary. My MIL is out of town so we are going to do a movie night with popcorn with the kids either Saturday or Sunday so that's going to be a fun thing, too.

{{{hugs}}}

I think I've talked about escaping so much it's hard to believe we're still here ?

Morning! Off to a better start than usual, so checking in before it gets too crazy ? I didn't do theater, but did musicals in high school. I did visual arts as well, and was president of the Nat'l Art Honor Society for the school. No sports, though. Now, I put all my effort into business stuff, which means marketing and coding. Kids used to do dance but transitioned to TKD. They also do piano and choirs. Wish we could go camping but too much to do right now. I know that places get pretty packed around here on holiday weekends with people trying to escape the heat. Hope you get to go camping!

Hi ? Finally got dinner going, pot roast in a crockpot. I said I needed to start dinner at 10am, finally got it started at 1:30, which is barely enough time for it to cook on high and be done on time! I'll tell everyone to eat their salad slowly I guess, lol. Today is a standard Monday, DD9 has piano and choir in the afternoon so I'll be running them around soon. Need to do some errands while she's in piano. Pretty quiet actually. This week is much the same. My MIL is leaving on Wednesday and coming back on Sunday, yay!, so I will be completely slack on housework until Sunday morning, lol. Sounds like heaven at the moment. And I can watch movies! and play music! And buy the kids pizza for dinner!! It's like a vacation without the expenses. ? My job is ramping up in stress right now; I love it and there's no one else to do it (home business) but the weight of possible failure is building up. Wish I just knew if it would all work out. But, ah well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

In my area, for 2 OBs, I was not given the option to induce early, at least not earlier than 39 weeks. With #3 he was looking pretty large so they said I could induce at 39 weeks if I wanted, but they would not induce any earlier unless it was a medical emergency. (We ended up going to week 42 with him, and I finally scheduled an induction for 7:30am on a Sunday. I went into labor at 5am and he was born at 7:20, so apparently he just needed to know there was a deadline, lol). One of the OBs actually did a big speech how they will not induce any earlier unless it's a medical reason, they have been asked too many times to induce early for convenience. But, they simply wouldn't unless it was for the baby/mother's medical needs.

When I was working and homeschooling, we made it so that the "heavy" homeschool days were the days I were home, including the "weekend". So, Friday, Saturday, Sunday I did full days with them, then Monday-Thursday I did a slightly different schedule (depending on my work hours). You may have more push against this with a kid that is accustomed to having weekends off, esp if he has friends he wants to see those days, but this may be something to consider. The time he's home without you maybe only have him work on his favorite subjects where he has more personal motivation. I agree with others that asking the sitter to at least check for completion/legibility shouldn't be too much. But the taking naps, not helping with lunch, etc, it sounds like this may not be the person to make that work with.

This (and you!) didn't fail in any means. You helped him study, and he probably learned at least two things: 1) an approach how to study (flashcards) 2) a lot of information about the specific topic So, homeschooling win! The test grade is an aside. As your son (and you) see how this class works you can tailor the studying approach to this specific class/teacher, but that doesn't mean that this attempt was a failure at all. The objective to Learn was achieved! (re: heliocopter mom with studying, perhaps try assigning he make his own study materials for the different subjects he's studying -- flashcards, Cornell method, whatever -- and turn in the materials as part of your homeschool. That way there is accountability and he is learning how to build a study regimen and find what materials work for him, but you aren't actively taking over the whole project and can guide him at set intervals (when he turns it in). )

Our wrench this week has been the fridge. It stopped working on Sunday, my DH called me while I was in the checkout with a week's worth of groceries, caught me just in time. Finally got someone in to fix it yesterday, after the "trusted" handyman just told my MIL to buy a new one since the one she has now is 5 yo and so not worth even looking at. Thankfully after a bit of work on my side I convinced her to at least get someone to look at it. It was a $300 repair but that's a ton better than a fully new fridge, and a lot faster too. Thankful that's finally been sorted out. My 9yo dd has been having sulks recently. On Tuesday, after a full hour of her pouting around and playing 20 questions about what's wrong I set the rule that she can either fix it or forget it. She opted for forget and was much happier afterwards. It worked this time but I know we are in early days and this glimpse of my future is scary, lol. Dinner is leftovers, yay!

{{hug }}

So our fridge stopped working yesterday. The repair guy my MIL likes to use just said that fridges don't last past 5 years and it would be too expensive to repair and she should just buy a new one. So, anyone have a brand or model that they have really liked? Works better? More room on the inside? Less parts to break? Has a water dispenser? (IDK about fridge dimensions, it looks pretty standard to me). Thanks for any guidance!

If you do sequential spelling, you could maybe cut each day in half if 25 sounds like too much. It doesn't have "official" repitition, but I've noticed that since it goes over similar words over a few days ( can, cans, canned) the core word is getting review. It also does homynyms at the same time or week, which could be good or bad for you, because it's good for my kids to see that these words have different meaning and are spelled differently, even though they sound the same.

Pretty sure New American Cursive was by stroke, not letter. I can't find any of the workbooks to check, but I vaguely remember that being the case. https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/penmanship/new-american-cursive-1/

I'm on week two of the Creek Edge Press Chemistry. It is very easy to flex up/down because it has the kids do their own research and discovery in books, encyclopedias, etc. It's a good match for notebooking. You do have to plan your own chemistry experiments, depending on you that may be a good thing or a bad thing (bad thing for me, lol, but I'm figuring it out). So far both the 2nd and 4th grader are happy with it and excited to be doing this more on their own. If you do for older kids probably just want to make sure they have more resources ? https://shop.creekedgepress.com/Chemistry-and-Great-Scientists-Task-Card-Set-PDF-CGpdf.htm It has 20 task cards (roughly 20 weeks, maybe you could spread some of the cards to take 2 weeks) of chemistry, then 10 cards on scientists (usually 2 scientists per card). (edit: number of cards)

I forgot a sketchook - a brand new, beautiful square sketchbook - in a plane onetime. I have been kicking myself for years, "What was I thinking??" How could I have forgotten it so easily? I am no longer going to feel bad about it, lol.