I think by week 7 you need to be increasing your carbs so you have energy to get through your workout. Get your nutrition guide out. I would NOT up my protein. Also, make sure you are getting enough rest. Go to bed early if you need to. Rest and fuel are critical for doing P90X.

In my opinion, it is just as bad to falsely accuse someone of bullying as it is to bully someone. Bullying is wrong. So is destroying someone's good reputation by saying things about them that are untrue. I've had my reputation stained by someone who twisted things around and mouthed off behind my back just because it made them feel good about themselves to put someone else down. In fact, I would venture that saying untrue things about someone just to get them in trouble is a form of bullying. Having to be nice to someone because you are afraid of what lie they will make up about you that you will have to defend yourself and your reputation against is NOT. FUN. It is wrong to bully someone. It is equally wrong (and just as damaging to someone's psyche) to falsely accuse someone of bullying.

I'm sorry, but women are not as strong as men, they do not run as fast as men, they are not as tall or as muscular as men. A woman is not a man. There are women who can carry heavier loads than SOME men, but you take an average man and average woman, the average man will carry a heavier load than a woman. So calling someone a "girl scout" because they can't carry a load up a hill without whining about it is not an insult to women. It's like telling someone they are a pickup because they cannot carry the load of a semi - it doesn't mean pickup trucks are bad - pickup trucks simply cannot do what a semi can do. That's all. It's not an insult to women to call someone who is whining a "girl scout." And while girl scouts may be tough, I doubt they run faster or carry heavier loads than the guys do. The two genders are equal but different. So getting your undies in a bundle over someone "using a girls/women as an insult" is about as productive as saying cars and pickups are equal when you need to haul your riding mower to the shop to be serviced. They are equal but different. Get over it. It sounds to me like the situation is being handled poorly. Bullying is a big issue these days, so if you do something simple and someone decides to use it to make you look like a "bully," they can hurt your reputation and cause you grief. Unfortunately our society believes the victim and assumes guilt rather than checking out the facts and going on what is actually known. If it's one person's word against another without any witnesses, there isn't much you can do, technically. If someone is really a bully, they'll do it in front of other people and then it can be dealt with. But someone should not be kicked out of scouting because of what someone else - with no witnesses - accused him of. Multiple "victims" might be a different story, but that is not the case here. I would make sure your son learned a lesson (people can be jerks, and life is not fair) but I wouldn't hesitate to let him do what he needed to do to join another group and finish up his Eagle. I'm sorry you have to go through this.

Sorry, no time to read all the posts ahead of me... Medieval literature has always been my demise. I however am doing year 7 of Ambleside Online which includes Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight. I did okay reading some of it, but still really struggled. Then I saw someone recommend this audio version from audible.com. It was fabulous! I listened to it in one sitting and was completely mesmerized. He actually reads through it twice - once in the "translated" English and then once in the original English, so it's only about 2.5 hours long. But he reads it in such a way that totally brings it to life in such a way that even the most medieval literature-challenged among us can understand and (gasp) enjoy. Tana

I always uploaded mine to Office Depot and never had any problem.

I work from home. Last year I was doing about 10 hours a week. This year I'm doing about 20. And I have a lot less time for myself. The money is definitely nice. I like what I do. I like doing things that people appreciate and being appreciated for my knowledge and advice. When I was a kid, my parents started a business when I was 10 and my sister was 8. By the time I was a teenager, we no longer went to a sitter but just went home every day after school. It was out job to practice our music lessons, clean the house (on Thursdays and Fridays - we had a list each of us was to do). And cook supper. I learned how to cook by my mom telling me over the phone what to make for supper and how to do it. We got home around 3:00 and they didn't get home until 6:30 or 7:00. We had plenty of time to read and do things we wanted to do even with having to complete our list of responsibilities. My parents were 25 minutes away. With that said, I didn't feel like my teenage years were stolen from me. My parents grew up on the farm, and kids were expected to do chores. I think learning how to clean and cook supper is life skills which all children need to know, so this would be a great opportunity for them to take some responsibility and contribute toward household responsibilities. They really ought to be doing these things anyway. So, I say DO NOT go out and hire someone to clean your house - not with children that old. My oldest is 8, and I will leave him in the house in charge of my 4 year old and toddler while I mow for an hour and a half. The 4-year-old will often come outside with me, and the toddler is really pretty easy. My oldest reads books or messes around and is in the same area as the toddler, and I come in for drink breaks from time to time. As I am working more this year, I have taught my two oldest children how to wash dishes and clean up the kitchen. At this point, they need an adult in the area but can work mostly on their own. I've also been teaching them how to do various cleaning tasks. And they fold their own clothes and put them away. So as my work load has increased, I've made it a point to turn more and more over to them. I am also working on making my oldest more independent in his studies, though right now I only spend about ten hours a week on school related activities with him. When I was in school, I was in a multi-grade classroom, and I was generally the only one in my grade. I did almost all of my work without someone telling me what to do or explaining the concepts to me. We do not use curriculum that is quite that independent, but in a couple years my oldest should be 80% on his own (when I start with the next one). I actually found it frustrating once I got to high school and college when I had to sit around and listen to lectures on stuff I could figure out myself if I sat down and looked at the materials. My current career is something which I am self-taught and have simply figured out myself and become well respected for my skills. So I see nothing wrong with kids doing at least a portion of their work on their own. So going back to work as you described may require some changes for your family, but I see no reason why it could not be done. I think kids have it easy these days and that they would get much further in life if we expected more of them. I know moms with eight kids (age 9 and younger) whose kids are far more responsible than mine are. I feel bad that mine don't do more.

DS has outgrown his old bike. So we need to get him another one. After searching garage sales today in town, I found a couple for $20 each and took the one the seemed in better condition to a used bicycle shop for repair because the brakes needed to be adjusted. The guy running the shop told me it was a piece of junk from Walmart. It was too heavy and the parts were low quality. He'll put better brakes on it for $15 or so, so I'm still out less than $40. DS does ride his bike a lot. The one we have is a 16" we got from amazon, but the chain comes off all the time so I hate it. I go on a 4 mile walk every day which my children accompany me on their bikes. There is one hill they complain about, and when I ride up it on my bike, I have to be in first or second gear. But the hill is only about a block long. The bike I took to the used bike shop for repair is a Mongoose and it is quite heavy. I can see how that might be an issue on "the hill." The used bike shop had a couple bikes in the $140 range. Or I could buy a new Trek for about $200. We have two boys who will be using whatever bike we get. The oldest just turned 8, and the next one is 3 years younger but small for his age. They both ride their bikes a lot outside every day. Our oldest attended a bike safety event at Cub Scouts (den meeting) and he could ride circles around all the other boys. The little brother has a 12" Schwinn I bought for $40 a couple years ago, and it's held up well. But the one we got from amazon which would be Walmart/Target quality has just made me mad too many times. Is it worth it to put down more $$ for a bike for a kid? How do you know what is a good value for your money? Do you buy new and bank on getting a good price out of it used? Theoretically we could get six years out of a bike if each boy rides it for 3 years. Advice?

I had a great relationship with my MIL when DH and I were dating. She didn't get along very well with SIL at the time, but I assumed it was because SIL was into shopping and going to concerts and I was more into the home arts (as was MIL). Then DH and I got married and had children. She lived in the same town as us and it was my idea that ds could spend an evening at her house every week. I mean, if I lived that close to my parents, I would see them every week and they would spend lots of time with the kids. But things only went downhill from there. Every parenting choice we made that was different than choices she had made was taken as a direct judgment on her mothering even though nothing could be further from the truth. It got to where dh refused to take ds to see her anymore because every time we picked him up we got a half hour lecture on all the things we were doing wrong (including everything we had done wrong but that was now water under the bridge such as when ds started eating solids). Then she moved 8 hours away, BIL divorced, and now MIL comes to visit (she divorced FIL when dh was in HS - she couldn't get along with her husband or her inlaws). She spends her time coming up with all these imaginary offenses everyone commits. On her first visit, I "didn't think she did anything right" so she spent two hours telling my husband every horrible thing about me that she could think of. My grandparents spent the winter with us (my mother's MIL and FIL) every year so I am accustomed to getting along with people who do things differently staying in your home. The only things I asked her to do differently were to not place a pan taken from a 450 degree oven directly on my 1950 countertop without a heating pad, and to not use dry dishwasher granules to handwash dishes. But she left early and didn't speak to me because I "treated her so horribly." I had gone out of my way to be gracious and make her feel welcome in our home - it wasn't like I was on the defensive and it was coming through more than I thought. The next visit she left us alone and tried to break up BIL and his girlfriend who was 6 months pregnant. Her last visit she stayed with us and I again tried to be gracious and make her feel welcome, though I was firm on needing to know exactly when she would be visiting and where she would be staying (with us or not) since we homeschool AND I work from home and having company greatly affects my ability to get things done so I needed to know what her plans were. As it was, we took time off to spend with her during the week and she came right AFTER a long holiday weekend when it would have been much easier to spend time with her. Anyway, about ten days after she left, she called DH while he was at a baseball game with the boys and spent an hour and twenty minutes telling him everything we've done wrong as parents (all the way back to when we gave our first child solids) and what a horrible wife and mother I am and on and on. At this point, DH doesn't want to speak to her ever again. He hates for it to be that way, but she just gets worse and worse every time we see her. She may not call CPS this time, but next time she might, and though we have friends who deal with CPS (PS teachers) and say we would have nothing to fear, everyone agrees that it's not worth risking. The kids love her as a grandmother, just as I loved her when I was dating DH. So it breaks our hearts that they can't see her, but I fear as they get older and become more independent she will turn against them too as she did against me (and her husband, whom she divorced). She now lives with her sister which means she doesn't sleep in her own bed or eat off her own dishes. Every job she's had has gotten outsourced and she refuses to learn any new skills. So I really don't see how she is in a position to be critical of us. But that's beside the point. As the mother of 3 children, including 2 boys, I know I will be a MIL someday. I fear that after having such a bad experience with my MIL, I will not know how to be a good MIL. I really want to be a good MIL, so I have poured over this thread with great interest. Thank you all for sharing.

That is just a starting position. As you learn to play different pieces, your hands move around the keyboard according to the piece. So hand position between those two methods isn't really an issue. Pick one you like (or both) and go with it.

They will have traditions that you will be included in and they will have traditions you won't be included. For instance, don't expect to be with them for EVERY Christmas. That's a privilege, not a right. It isn't fair to expect families to spend the day with both sides of the extended family. They will include you somehow in their traditions, but don't have expectations for how you will be included. Let them come up with their own traditions. And don't get hung up on traditions. We spend holidays with family, but we don't have traditions per se that have to be followed every year no matter what. We don't go see the 4th of July parade every year, but we have many years. Christmas has been different every year depending on what the options were. At one point, my family was too far away to visit at Christmas. Now they are closer, and dh happens to get a week off work over the holidays so that is when we drive to see them instead of spending time with local family. The fewer expectations you have, the more open you will be to embracing the things you do get to do with your kids.

I struggled with that myself. My reading comprehension scores were always low even though my overall percentile on standardized tests was 99th. I have found the methods from WWE with narration and such very helpful. I have been reading classics that I never "comprehended" when I was in school (including college). Now part of the story may be that I'm reading them for myself and don't have someone pointing out all the things to me that I missed. BUT, I do think I'm getting a lot more out of the books. I stop every page or two and narrate what I've read, just to myself. By doing this, I also retain a lot more of the readings. Currently I am going through the AO year 7 selections and am finding them fascinating and am so proud of myself (forgive me!) for reading and actually comprehending such works. I would have totally given up on them and bs'd my way through class when I was in school. I've recently re-read works I studied in school such as A Tale of Two Cities and this time I found it enjoyable and got what the story was. When I was in high school, I just listened to the discussion and picked up enough from that to be able to write decent papers about the "issues" the books covered. I just have the text for WWE, but the beginning where she describes her method (writing with ease, skill and then style) really helped me. I also recommend How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler, which I am currently reading. Reading things because you find them interesting and reading them and retaining what you've read are two completely different things. They are basic life skills that need to be learned, not just study skills for school. My ds is struggling with narration (grade 2) but he has always been behind verbally. He didn't meet "minimum standards" for speech at age 2. He loves books. We do read alouds and I'll ask him to tell me what the reading was about and if he says anything he'll recount a few random but specific details. A couple days later, though, I'll overhear him telling his little brother the stories in great detail. So while his narrations are terrible (which is why I'm really loving how WWE is helping us), he does understand the information. It just takes him a while to process it. So those are some ideas you may find helpful (or not). Good luck!

I get this at times, and my strategy is questions, questions, questions. If he does a math problem wrong, I look at it and say he did the ones correctly but not the tens - I ask him, "Does 8+5=14?" or some similar simple question that he knows the answer to. It makes him feel smart because he knows the answer, and by answering simple questions, he sees his own error. If it's sounding out a word and he uses the k sound for c when it should be the s sound, I ask him "What else can c say?" Basically, I just break it down into smaller and smaller steps until he sees the solution on his own. Anyone can eat an elephant a bite at a time. Sometimes pointing out an error can see like focusing on the elephant. But if you ask easy questions about simple parts, you can lead them to see their own error and correct it on their own accord. And again, they also feel smart when they know the answers to the little questions. And this is a life skill. I use this technique with myself many times when something isn't working. I start analyzing the parts one by one, and that way I discover what went wrong. I'm all about teaching life skills.

If it is Wells Fargo you're dealing with, I would run as far as I can as fast as I could. I banked at Wells Fargo about ten years ago, and even had a mortgage through them. When it came to my checking account, their only interest was collecting as many fees as they possibly could. I switched to a local bank, and have been a "model customer" ever since. Wells Fargo was completely unreasonable. My MIL had a CD with them and wanted to move it at the end of the time period and they wouldn't let her take the money even though the time was up without paying a penalty for withdrawing the funds. They probably don't see your daughter as a profitable customer and thus they are not interested in giving her a checking account. My parents banked with a local bank that was purchased by a big bank and they stuck with it. But when my sister and I got our first checking accounts, they were through the local credit union. It was a much more friendly place for teaching a kid how to handle money. I had my own checking account by the 9th grade (or earlier). I went to private school, and my parents made me write the check for my tuition every month. By the time I got to college, my tuition every month was $1500 (again, private school). So it wasn't just a $50 account I used to buy underwear with. I would NOT use freecreditreport.com as I've known lawyers that had difficulties cancelling their account with them, and if a lawyer can't cancel an account, what about the rest of us? I pull our credit report every year after I file our taxes. I would recommend pulling credit reports for all of your children on an annual basis to make sure they haven't been victims of credit theft. As for Wells Fargo, run as fast as you can.

Understood Betsy (AO year 2) is about a girl but boys love it. Dr. Dolittle was a hit. Along Came a Dog was another hit. Pagoo, Tree in the Trail - both of those were treasures. All AO year 2 selections (regular or free reads). We're not yet halfway through year 2 so I can't speak for some of the rest of the selections.

We do one section every day with the accompanying mapwork, encyclopedia pages, and books we were able to get from the library to go with the material. If we have a lot of library books that we just can't say no to, we take two days instead of one, but that happens only occasionally.

Get the hardback manual for WWE and use it to get up to speed with narrations and such. We're doing AO but have struggled with narrations, and the WWE manual has really helped me in that area. The book is graded with levels (vs grades) and teaches you the steps of learning so you can take your kid though the learning process at whatever speed works for them. An invaluable resource, IMO

I was reminded once again this morning that if you are a school group, you don't have to share with anyone else. Playground, sidewalk, museum - doesn't matter. You take over wherever it is that you are and everyone else can just wait. It doesn't matter if everyone else shares those same things with other people every day. You just tell them that you're a "school group" and apparently that excuses you from having any manners whatsoever. Am I the only one who finds this irritating? I get so tired of going to do things we enjoy doing on a regular basis only to find out it's been taken over by some "school group" that's essentially taken over the place for the day. Yes, those children should be able to enjoy these things, too, but that doesn't mean they have the right to take it over and exclude everyone else. They just don't seem to understand sharing something with people they don't know. Today it was the sidewalk at the park. It's extra wide, and we share it with other people every day - younger, older, faster, slower. But today there was a school group they and they took the whole sidewalk and acted like everyone else should just take the grass. If anyone else acted like that, it would be considered rude. But when we tried to go by them, they acted like we were being unreasonable and told us that they are a school group as though apparently that excuses their behavior. We weren't asking for the entire sidewalk - just enough for us to go by them single file while they continued to walk three-abreast. This time of year is great for trips to the zoo and such, but I hesitate because it is also the time of year that we've made such trips only to have to deal with all these school groups who are having their "fun day" or whatever. It's one thing to try and keep a group together - I understand that. But they just walk around as though they're the only ones there and everyone else can just move out of their way. They're just so rude, it just ruins the whole experience. Other people want to walk from exhibit to exhibit, too - you don't own the entire sidewalk. They just don't get it. They think that other people should just stand and wait for them to go by. And the adults say nothing. Kids out with their moms get regular instruction on waiting your turn, staying on your side so others can go by. But adults with the school groups seem totally oblivious to practicing good manners, especially to anyone outside of their group. Sorry, stepping off soapbox now...

In that case, I would finish it myself and see if it was worth sticking it out. It may just be one of those that is slow to get going. Or it could be a dud. Everyone has different tastes.

We failed at Right Start because it was so choppy and I couldn't tell if my ds was learning or not. I kept the abacus and switched to Math Mammoth. We haven't looked back. It costs a lot less (I print it out in B&W at Office Depot). The topics are arranged by chapter, so we can jump around as we please. For instance, we worked on time but he wasn't getting it so we came back to it a couple months later. She tells you what chapters must be done in order and which ones can be done randomly or when you need a break. I like having control like that rather than wandering aimlessly wondering what the point of the exercise is in Right Start. We've done MM for 2 years now and I'm getting ready to order the next year in a few weeks. We are very happy with MM.

I don't like being preached at so I simply read my children Bible stories. I want them to know all of the Bible stories by heart, just as I did when I was a child. When they reach the upper grades, I will have them read CS Lewis and other devotionals recommended on the Ambleside curriculum. I do not do Bible study curriculum where it puts together this train of thought and a moral for the story. I think the Bible speaks for itself. We did do catechism for ds when he was preparing for first communion, but other than that, I don't use material that tells me what the Bible teaches. I do the same for myself. I read the devotionals recommended by Ambleside or classic Christian books such as St. Augustine's confessions. Then I read the Bible through every year, about 3 chapters a day (I began that this year). That is what I will have my kids do once they are beyond the early years. We have a set of books that you often see in Dr's offices called The Bible Story by Arthur S Maxwell. There are ten books in the set and they simply tell the Bible stories. Just reading the stories as been such a blessing to me, which is what inspired me to read the entire Bible through this year. You don't have to have someone explaining some Biblical truth to you in order to receive a blessing from spending time with the Bible - just read the Bible for what it is and listen to what it says, and you will be amazed at what truths pop out at you. So that's my approach, for what it's worth.

We're doing Ambleside though we started WTM and SOTW first. I've kept doing SOTW and haven't picked up CHOW but we do the other Ambleside history stuff - An Island Story, etc. With SOTW we listen to the CD (so I don't have to worry about pronunciation) and then we read whatever books we are able to find at the library (usually about 75% of the suggestions) that look interesting to us. I think we are doing enough so I haven't looked into CHOW much as I have a tendency to do too much anyway.

Our house was built in 1950 and the tub doesn't feel like fiberglass to me so I'd say it's probably porcelain or something similar. When we moved in, there were awful water stains from the hard water and it was not smooth at all. At one point we had a realtor come through because we were thinking of selling and she recommended that we get it repainted. I don't remember what it's called exactly, but they literally paint it and it looks polished and smooth and brand new again. Much cheaper than a new tub.

Unfortunately, not everything everyone else does is going to make sense or seem reasonable. Your ds12 is having to learn this at an early age. Yes, it would be a blow to my gut, too. It isn't right. It isn't kind. The oldest would certainly make the other two easier. But people who don't live with your children on a daily basis don't necessarily "get" that. Your MIL isn't being kind. Not at all. But somehow you need to help your ds12 learn to ride the bumps in life and get beyond it. In spite of your feelings. Not necessarily easy for you. But family isn't necessarily easy to get on with. So hugs, sorry this is happening, but I think you're already on track to do the best you can with the situation you've been given. Hugs!

I developed eczema when I became a sahm and it got really bad on the palms of my hands - red, itchy, the skin was peeling, etc. The dr prescribed stuff to no avail so I just dealt with it. For years. Then out of the blue a chiropractor friend recommended acidophilis for dd's cradle cap. I decided to take it myself - just whatever I found at the local grocery store. No more eczema. I just take one a day when symptoms persist. I don't know if that will work for you, but it's worth a try. Very inexpensive and not painful at all.

He does fine in cub scouts with the routine stuff - the opening ceremony and such. It's when they hand out worksheets or do a craft project that the other kids seem to hear the instructions and do the assignment and ds is lost. That I think is a combination of the other kids doing that type of thing every day in school and ds being a right-brained learner. I came from a musical family and we practiced piano every day for a set amount of time. I wasn't expected to sit down at the piano and play. But that seems to be what is expected in sports. DH doesn't really work with ds much and yet thinks he should be able to know what is going on. I think it's lack of experience but since I didn't do sports and stand around playing catch or shooting baskets by the hour, I don't really know. I am so bad at catch myself that I hate to try to teach him, but maybe I just need to practice catching and throwing with him daily. I made dh tell me what all the drills were last night so I could practice them with ds. Am I wrong to say that our kids really haven't practiced ball so they shouldn't be expected to know what they're doing when he goes out on the field, especially after the other kids have all had practice twice already? I mean, dh didn't see what the other kids were like their first practice a couple weeks ago. With training for track and field day, dh takes the boys over to the track in town a couple of times and practices with them. Is that not enough? Are we expecting too much for putting in too little? Like I said, I came from a musical family where we practiced for 1/2 hour or more every day. Do people doing sports do that as well? Maybe not formally, but informally as part of play?