Mine is pretty un-creative also. When I joined the board, I had 7 kids. I now have 9 but haven't bothered to change it.

Take a look at this. We use this at our church for the kids. http://www.resourcewell.org/children-ministry/curriculum

I have been taking two walks each day. In the morning with my kids and in the evening with my dog. That will usually get my 10,000 steps. In between, if I'm doing nothing, I will march in place. My kids think I'm nuts. But it works. Right now I'm in 7th. So, whoever is in 6th, can you please take a break? You're killing me!

I love this challenge! My butt is no longer one with the couch! I'm in the west so I get the opportunity to knock a few of you down a peg or two after most everyone is done for the night. Not that I'm competitive or anything :001_smile:

As usual Jen, you are awesome! I was considering MFW ECC for my younger crowd in 2015-16, but this may work out better. Thank you!

I joined. I better get moving!

I'm so sorry Jean. My heart breaks for you and your family. Praying for peace and strength for all of you. :grouphug:

PVC bow and arrow http://www.skiptomylou.org/2012/07/24/diy-pvc-bow-and-arrow/

Whats the name of the group? I'll join!

Oh, you are most definitely not alone. I was on the phone this evening and my son brought me the metal rod from the bathroom towel rack. When I asked what happened, I got 7 kids with big innocent eyes saying ,"it wasn't me". So I go upstairs to fix the towel rack and notice that the toy room is messy again. (They just cleaned it this morning). They start bickering. I walk in there to deal with that and notice that the closet door is broken. It's been separated from the frame. Now, that closet only has one door because they did the exact same thing to the other door and I had to remove it. At this point I'm starting to lose my patience. I turn around and spot the remote to the DVD player. The back of the remote had been removed and lost, as were the batteries. All the kids went to be early tonight. And that was just one hour out of one day. All the other hours and days are very similar. Sigh.

Happy birthday Jean! (I'm whispering , so I can keep your secret) I hope you have an amazingly awesome day!

Thank you everyone. His appointment is Wednesday to get the ball rolling but I'm going to cancel it. There is a very well respected Ortho nearby and I'll see what he has to say. It sounds like $5,400 might be a little high for my area. Or maybe ds's mouth is just that much of a mess! *sigh* My next younger one has several teeth that are actually sideways in her mouth. I may have to go get a job to help pay for these kids' teeth! Crazy.

Thanks everyone. One more question. When I go for a second opinion, do I tell them that I'm looking for a second or that I just want him evaluated?

Hmmm. I'm starting to second guess myself on that. I need to check on that. If it did, that would put the price in a more normal range. But, boy is the normal range high!

My almost 11 year old son was evaluated for Ortho. The price tag was staggering! Here's what was recommended - Top and bottom palate expanders. His jaw is most definitely not very rounded. It appears more pointy at the front of his mouth. There is not enough room in his mouth for all the teeth he is supposed to have. I can see in the x-rays that several of his adult teeth are trapped in his jaw with no way to come in. Those expanders would also serve to move several of his teeth back an entire tooth space. Apparently he lost some teeth and the adults one didn't come in in a timely manner. The existing teeth moved into the empty space. The price came in at $5400! That is just for the expanders. Dentist seems to think that another set of expanders might be necessary since the screws only move a few mm. For those, she will only charge the lab fees. Then after all that, he will need braces. Is this in the normal price range? We want to get a second opinion but if we do, will we have to pay the $180 for the diagnostics again? I'm confused, shocked and discouraged because we have 7 younger kids - only one with straight teeth. Please walk me through this terrible and mysterious world of orthodontia!

What a great testimony! I often find that when I am obedient when I really don't want to, God gives me the greatest blessing! I am so glad you had a good time and the health issues were held at bay for the duration. :hurray:

Nope. I kept it for a few years then donated it. I figured I would never have a need for it again and it was taking up space. I'm not a real sentimental person.

Tomorrow, we start our first 2 read alouds. For the younger set, I'll read Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims. For the older kids, I'll be reading Amos Fortune, Free Man. Hopefully this year I can see the books through. My kids aren't big on listening (or reading) books, and after about a week they start complaining that I am infringing on play time.

Today was a very restful day. We had a wonderful time of worship at church. Then all the kids, except the 5 year old, went to a friends house. So we spent the afternoon with dd playing Hi-ho Cherry-o, then "skating" at Home Depot (we run across the floor then slide) while dh was chatting with the worker. Then we took dd to Dairy Queen for ice cream. When we got home we watched Dora the Explorer. Dd has dubbed this to be The Best Day EVER! :thumbup: All the kids are home now and dh is getting take out for us. I don't have to cook, so that makes me agree with dd that this is the Best Day EVER! What makes it even better is that we are having a rare summer storm and temps went from 104 down to mid 80's. I love everything about rain. Rain makes me ridiculously happy! Possibly because I only get to see it maybe 3 times a year. Scrapbookbuzz, I'm so sorry that your day didn't go well. I think you should go eat a cupcake!

We are doing MFW Exploration to 1850 this year. I've done two other MFW years a while ago. For history, we usually read out of 2 books. Once there were 3. The core history book is Story of the World. We read that first. The other one or two just add a little more meat to the subject. In the back of the TM, there are lists of books that are recommended to go along with the subject being studied. I request them from the library and thats what the kids read during their independent reading time (usually 30 minutes per day) Science is usually only 1 book. There is a second book that gives short paragraphs on the different types of animals with beautiful pictures. That is scheduled a couple times per week. I just hand that to the kids and let them look through it themselves. Later on this year, we will study Botany. Then it will be just the one book Bible study is only 1 book. I haven't found it awkward at all or inconvenient at all. The kids seem to enjoy the shorter readings from a few different books. I think it has fooled the kids into thinking it's going faster! HTH!

I keep our Letter of Intent to the school district in there as well.

We must live near one another. We have a baseball party today. Not looking forward to it. I just want to stay in my nice cool house.

I actually saw someone doing this at a recent 5k we ran! She was probably a 60 something year old woman just dancing down the street! She appeared to be having a lot of fun. I didn't know it was a "real" type of exercise though. I just thought she was slightly off!

My son is a lot like this, especially the mouth part. He talks all.the.time. When he doesn't have anything to say, he just makes random noises. He has no filter, so whatever comes into his head, comes right out of his mouth. Often, it's hurtful. Even after I point it out he sometimes doesn't understand what he did. He's 8, almost 9. Anyway, he was diagnosed with SPD (sensory processing disorder) recently. It explained so much!

Well that makes perfect sense! Lol! My Monday is half over and I've done nothing except a few loads of laundry. Still have a couple more to go. My eldest is coming over later and we're going to go pick out some fabric and make a baby blanket for her baby (she's 4 months pregnant) Three of my kids have their piano recital tonight at 6, so that gets me out of making dinner. Yay! I really should mop something or declutter something. I have lots of chores to choose from. Hmmm, Maybe I'll decide what to do after I check my eyes for light leaks!