Audible books aren't limited to the library. I would get a membership at audible.com (you can buy a year's worth of books in one hit if you want). We love our audible membership, and you don't have to worry about scratched CDs or getting things back to the library.

I would change the clocks AND change your schedule. I'd make DST the norm since it takes the majority of the year, and then go to bed an hour later in the winter time. Unless you have comittments outside the home that are time sensitive, I don't see why you couldn't operate that way.

I had eczema and taking acidophilus pills from the health food store cleared it up. I've heard it can be from allergies and perhaps the bacteria in yogurt was something I needed. I, too, had tried EVERYTHING the doctors tried to give me. It was all over the palms of my hands - my skin was peeling constantly because of the little bubbles. Not fun.

I'm a fan of Wordpress. If people have a Blogger blog, it is a pain in the --- to comment, and most of the time I simply don't comment because it is so awkward and you have to go through all these hoops and then sometimes it still crashes. I hate that. So I like Wordpress because I want people to be able to comment on my blog without going to a lot of trouble.

King Arthur flour is my go-to site for bread recipes. I would recommend starting there. Once you've gotten the hang of it, you can find other recipes on the web and experiment with them. I also have Bernard Clayton's Book of Breads and have learned lots from that book.

It's kind of like studying history in school. It matters today ONLY in terms of understanding why things are the way they are. You can live without knowing any history and function perfectly fine, but life is so much the richer and you understand things better when you come to humps in the road if you know a little bit of history. If you life in the US, you celebrate all sorts of holidays that pay tribute to historical events - the founding of our country (4th of July), those who fought for our country (Memorial Day), the founding fathers (President's Day), etc. So it isn't quite so shocking as you might think.

:iagree:That pretty much sums up most conversations about HSLDA on this board. Regardless, I think we do have to give credit where credit is due to the organizations that helped bring homeschooling into the norm, as it is more so today. I also think that HSLDA is ONE approach to bringing that type of change about. I think Focus on the Family was different in the 80's and then it became more political in it's approach until finally Dr. Dobson left and Focus on the Family continues in its path of political involvement. There is a place for HSLDA just as there is a place for Planned Parenthood. I don't agree with Planned Parenthood nor would I knowingly give them a dime of my money even though they do lots of "good" things other than abortions. I think those that want to dislike HSLDA have similar opinions (or that is the benefit of the doubt I give them). HSLDA is ONE approach to ensuring rights for homeschoolers. Not everyone wants to do the under-the-radar approach. Many homeschoolers follow curriculum and have a formal approach to schooling, which is the easiest to defend in court and thus strongly promoted by HSLDA (aka for obvious practical reasons). Other approaches such as unschooling aren't as easy to defend in court but work very well for some families. There is certainly a place for HSLDA. Their approach may not always work, but their approach and the work they have done has certainly contributed to the homeschooling freedoms we enjoy today. I think it is only right to allow credit where credit is due. And I appreciate the OP's reminding us of this.

Oh, no bother. i just saw you weren't getting a response and figured that was probably why. If you want to talk curriculum, there are hoards of people wanting to do just that over on the curriculum board. Have fun!

Post on the curriculum boards and you may get more of a response. I come to this board to NOT think about curriculum, and I doubt I am the only one.

We did a cover crop of alfalfa in ours. Then I actually went to Square Foot Gardening, and I have grass clippings between the boxes. I have eight boxes and it is much less work than when I was trying to garden the entire thing yet the production is much better.

Nay. It is extremely basic. I have used Quicken since at least 2002, and there was no way I could 1) move my data over much less 2) have it actually work in that program. Complete waste of money. I think their online version (which is extremely basic, from what I've seen) exceeds the benefits of the Mac version. It's been over a year since I looked at it, but that was what I found.

I would go out and look at some of the houses on the market near your home. That will give you a good idea whether people in your area are doing big upgrades to sell or if they are selling as is, as well as the difference in price ranges between the two. I bought a house that was much in need of basic repairs. It was basic stuff - exterior paint, stove didn't work very well, etc. but still, it wasn't perfect when I bought it but it was perfectly functional. There are people out there who are interested in those types of houses. I sold it about 2 years later for close to 20% more than I paid for it after doing a bunch of basic work (new floor in the kitchen, paint the exterior, clean up the basement, etc. I definitely wouldn't pay $11K to have someone paint it. Most roofs are good for 20 years, so why put a new one on unless it needs it. Yes, it is an old roof, but the increase in the value of your home with a new roof vs old be more than the cost of the new roof? I've seen houses sell with a front stoop that was in need of repair. They might have sold the house for more had they repaired the stoop, but wouldn't they have gotten their money back from repairing the stoop? I don't know. As for the bathroom, that is the one thing I would probably fix. A bathroom that has tile issues just contributes to the ewww factor. I would do the basic repairs and make sure what wasn't repaired or replaced was very clean. And I would fix the oopsies in the paint job. But other than that, unless you want to sell fast or get more money out of your house to put in a new house, I would just leave it at that. And I would go with a different realtor. That realtor doesn't sound like a good match for the house you are trying to sell. Who knows what negative comments she would be saying about it to other realtors...

No. Just tell them you are there to pick it up and they'll bring it out to you.

I would alternate the speed work with walking. I am training for a half-marathon at the beginning of May. Normally during the warm months I walk 30 miles a week - 4 a day with 6 one day on the weekend. I do my daily walks in about an hour, so brisk walk. My current goal is to add running so I can go faster. I finished my first half marathon last fall in 3:08, mostly walking but some running. I wasn't used to running so it made me sore. So my plan is to do running like he says in his beginner's running guide (the site referenced already) three days a week, weather permitting. That will at least get my body accustomed to running so I can run parts of the half-marathon and not be overly sore. The distance work is NOT replaced by the sprinting. The distance work is once a week (on the weekend or when you have more time). The sprinting is for speed, which would be running vs walking or walking faster or running faster (as per your situation).

I remember it irritating me too that they thought my baptism in a Protestant church was invalid because it was done - once - by immersion and I wasn't dunked three times. Seriously! They have their little rules about things and can get their undies quite in a bundle over them. That aside, I have much enjoyed becoming and being a Catholic otherwise so I consider those irritations minor in retrospect. As for whether your family will join you, that is a larger aspect altogether which I have no input on at the moment.

I actually use premie prefolds. I fold them in thirds the long way on light days and in half twice (quarters) the short way on heavy days. Works great, and they're about $1.25 a pop and very soft. Indian prefolds - size premie.

My kids are 8, 5 and 2, so I'm working with the two oldest ones, and I have homeschooled with a toddler and a baby. I would suggest working with one child at a time and teaching the others to play together in the mean time. My oldest plays with the 2-year-old while I school my middle child, and then the younger two play together while I work with the oldest. When I first started and our school day was very short, we just used nap time. But once nap time became less dependable, we started first thing in the morning when everyone was fresh and cheerful. I would say my kids have grown in their relationships with each other by getting to play without one sibling. It offers the middle kid a chance to be the "oldest" for a while, and then the oldest gets some one-on-one time with the baby, where he mostly ignores her otherwise. Yes, it's a three ring circus. Keeping lessons short and learning how to continue without a perfectly quiet environment are tricks of the trade. Sometimes my voice gets tired from talking over the baby's chatter, but I send the two I'm not working with to their bedroom or the basement and we continue on. Trim back to the essentials - reading, writing, and math - and get a handle on things and then you can add everything else back in. I've had to do serious trimming of our schedule, but my kids are still thriving academically. School shouldn't be overwhelming. It's better to do a few things successfully than to feel guilty about having left something out every day. Hang in there!

Okay, we homeschool (and all of my lesson plans are on my computer) AND I work 10-20 hours a week on my computer doing technical editing. So my computer is a rather critical tool for me to be able to operate. I have been having intermittent charging problems. I've had the computer repaired once but the problems occurred again. I was just told that they are sending it back to me without having done any repairs after having it for a week because they cannot replicate the problem and thus don't know what to fix (apparently there is no chance that the parts they replaced last time were somehow defective). So I told them I would be selling my computer on ebay and purchasing something more dependable. My husbands computer is older than mine and does not have the most recent versions of all the software, thus I can use his for the internet but I don't have my files so my ability to work/do school is hampered. The repair guy told me that I should own two computers with similar capabilities so that if one goes down, I have another one. For the record I do back up my computer regularly (at least weekly) - it's just that I cannot use any of the files using our second computer since it is older. Now tell me, seriously, is it reasonable for me to own two $1000+ computers just because one might fail? I have a backup. I can go for two or three days if I have to without a computer. It's like saying you need two $40K cars for a single person just because one might have a flat tire and you could then use the other one. Do I really need two expensive computers exactly alike so that I can have one with charging issues and not have a cow when they refuse to fix it? Oh, and when I took it in a week ago (for the THIRD time regarding this same issue), I took my children with me, ages 8, 5 and 2 and stood in line at their store for 2.5 hours because my computer was dead and I had no way to get on the internet to make an appointment. If I was making up this whole issue and trying to get them to fix a phantom issue, do you really think I would have spent 2.5 hours standing in line with three young children? Personally, for me to go through that, it has to be a pretty serious issue, but maybe other people think standing in line that long with young children is a walk in the park. Am I nuts?

Is it reasonable to go to someone who's cut your hair for years and ask them to "do the same thing you did last time" and get something close to what you got last time? I had long hair for years (after having it short for many, many years) and "last time" I got it cut to shoulder length (cut off enough to donate to Locks of Love). It was layered for about an inch at the bottom so the top layer turned under and the bottom layer flipped out. It was really cute and I really liked it. So this time I go back and ask for "the same thing." She does the layering at the bottom just like she did last time. But then, she takes the thinning shears and gives me essentially 4 inches of layering. Layering gives my hair body, so essentially my hair is now this big bush around my head. I mean, it's layered up to the tops of my ears whereas before it was only layered for an inch at the very bottom. The top doesn't turn under like it did (because it doesn't have enough weight at the bottom to do it uniformly) and as a whole it doesn't consistently curl under or flip out. It's one big mess to deal with. It's like no style at all. I don't like it. Is it reasonable to be able to expect a hairdresser to look at your hair when you sit down in the chair and figure out what was done before and cut off whatever length you agree to and not add all sorts of other things to it? Or am I just crazy? I'm not a hairdresser so I can't necessarily tell someone in technical terms what was done to make it lay like it did. I know there is always some adjustment after you get it cut because the hair is shorter and it takes a couple days to settle in. But it's been a month since I got this cut and I still hate it. Every day. Is it actually possible, if you like one haircut you get, to go back and get basically the same cut again? Or am I just expecting way too much?

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one not comfortable with three children under the age of 8 in a hotel room. That just scares me, and I think it's unreasonable not to let a family of 5 stay in one room, especially when one child is in a crib or pack-n-play. We would be traveling to rural Nebraska where there is one hotel within 100 miles, so not fancy hotels or anything (though not necessarily cheap either since they have no competition). DH says he's stayed in some pretty hole-in-the-wall places, even though they were big chains. I just would like to see different parts of the state.

We have a family of 5 with kids ages 8, 5 and 2. Hotels, in my experience, don't let you book more than 4 people to a room. We would probably be staying in budget hotels, not five-star hotels at a resort or something. So explain the logistics of this to me: You get a second room - do you put the children in a room by themselves? What if your kids need you during the night? What if there is a fire? Usually they have those credit-card like things for keys and it takes me at least 4 tries to get them to work. If there was a fire, they would deactivate the system and I would be locked out. An 8-year-old isn't necessarily mature enough to get the other two out. Say you go with your husband to a work-related event and there is an evening event you could attend. If the children are all sleeping, do you go to the evening event with him? You aren't any more aware of what's going on with them than you would be if you were in the room next door, and if you're in the same room with them, the lights are out so you're sitting alone in the dark (fun!). How old do children need to be in order to be left alone in a hotel room? My husband travels at times for work, and his company, of course, pays for his room, so it would be nice if we could go along because we would only have to pay for one room and we could see sights in different parts of the state. It's just the logistics of the hotel room with 5 people that I'm not able to figure out. Thanks!

Our ds was way behind in speech - missed the milestone of 50 word vocabulary and 2 word sentences by age 2 (he had only said about ten words). A friend of my parents who was a speech therapist saw him one evening and strongly recommended speech therapy, occupational therapy AND physical therapy for him. We held out and said that he was just a thinker, not one to jabber. He understood us perfectly so we knew it wasn't a hearing problem. We mentioned it to our physician who said of his thirteen(!) kids, the oldest was the last to speak and they couldn't understand him until he was four, but of all his children, he thinks that boy is the most intelligent (probably because he listens a lot). So we did nothing. By the time ds reached school age, he was still the quiet child, but his vocabulary was fine, he reads well, and quite frankly, there are times when he won't shut up and we wish he was the quiet child we once had. I have benefited from therapy during high school and college, but I learned a lot of thinking skills with that which I think have helped me stay away from therapy since (I've learned how to nip my depression in the bud before it takes me down). So I am not anti-therapy. But I do very much agree that in our society it is way over-prescribed. I mean, take autism, which is another thing people were suspicious of in ds, but I had a friend with an autistic child and what we were dealing with didn't even register on the scale against what she was dealing with. DH and I went through the "symptoms" of autism that we found in various places online, and we could not think of a single family member (immediate and extended family) who didn't have at least a couple of the characteristics mentioned. Autism is taking normal things to an extreme, and none of our family members take those things to an extreme, but they still had "symptoms" of autism just as ds did. I still don't think ds has autism, though I have another friend whose seemingly normal child was in special ed for autism and all sorts of things they had managed to diagnose. In today's society, I think if you do something that someone else finds a bit irritating or "not normal," you can find not only a diagnosis for it but a therapist who would be happy to treat you for it as well. I have had a great experience with the small bit of therapy I have had, but I think as a general rule our society goes way overboard in our need for and use of therapists. Either that or we're all just losing our minds...

I'm training for a half-marathon at the beginning of May. But I won't be doing much to get read for another month or two. During the warm months I walk 30 miles a week, so the half-marathon is just one big long walk for me. It's fun, though. I did my first last fall and now am doing a bigger one this spring.

I feel your pain. I am one who also hates exercise and has struggled with it for years. In fact, the only time I liked it was when I was pregnant and wasn't "allowed" to do any of the stuff like running or other things I felt guilty for not wanting to do. I just walked for an hour every day. And quite honestly, that is what I do now. We live in a small town. My two older children ride their bikes, and the toddler rides in the stroller. I've done this with both older children in the stroller, one older child on the bike and one in the stroller, then one older one on the bike and two in the stroller. They ride their bikes ahead of me and wait at each corner (no more than a block away from me at any time). And I keep walking with the stroller. When I first started out, I did about 5000 steps in an hour. Now I do over 8000. I lost weight and feel and look much better. It's good for the kids to get out and ride their bikes and be outdoors. My oldest was best at bicycle riding when they did that as an evening theme for Cub Scouts - he has a lot of experience! My kids can sometimes drive me crazy, but when we walk, they know the rules and it is an hour where they generally do not pester or annoy me. I listen to audiobooks while I walk. On the weekend, I get to go by myself because dh is home. In fact, we have a trail about ten miles from our house that I love to hike by myself. There are lots of other people out there with me so it is safe. So my recommendation is to take the kids with you. For us, it is "health class" or PE or whatever. It totally helps me keep my sanity and I get all those other benefits as well. So consider how that might work for you.

I grew up in FL but went to college in Washington State. I only came home for Christmas and summer break. Thanksgiving and spring break, I either stayed at school or found someone to go home with. I really liked the school I went to so for me it was definitely worth it. When I graduated, I moved to Maryland, then to Nebraska where I am now. My parents just retired and moved to Kentucky so they are now within driving distance. When I grew up, our family was in SD and OK so we always had to fly to see them. Our grandparents came to see us once a year and we went to see them once a year. Both visits were generally NOT around the holidays. That's just how things were. So to me it wasn't a big deal, but I can understand to some it might be. I should add, because of the added expense of travel and such, I didn't have a vehicle until my senior year of college. My sister went to a college that was closer (8 hour drive) and had a vehicle her freshman year so she could travel back and forth.