Well, what kinds of books do you like?? I just finished A Game of Thrones (first book in series) and A Clash of Kings (second book in series) by George R.R. Martin and loved them; I've got the third one on reserve at my library but it's out and not due back til the 19th of this month. :P My favorite series ever, though, is the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon- that DOES have a romance storyline to it, but it's not what you would typically think of as "romance"- it's got history, humor, action, drama, romance, sex, great characters- everything I could possibly want all rolled into one lol.

I'm kind of undecided as to whether to put "I don't have one and don't want one" or "I don't have one but would like one." The truth is, I don't have one and don't need one... would I like one? I don't know. Really, I just think it would be fun to set one up and decorate it and so on. After that, I think the novelty would wear off pretty quickly haha.

I've never seen the video but I've heard the song and no, I don't think it is sexual at all. My 10 y/o likes the song and I have no problem with her listening to it.

I use Livejournal and like it well enough but can't really compare it to anything else. It's in my signature line if you want to see what it looks like.

I will be starting Kindergarten with my son in September. He will turn 6 in November.

:iagree:

Nope. I wouldn't want my kid at that age away from me for that long regardless, but especially around people who I don't know well (ie the "extended family") and especially at a place that I feel warrants extremely careful supervision (ie the ocean with all of its inherent dangers- and we are talking about a child who has never been there and isn't necessarily familiar with those dangers and what to do in event of undertow, being rolled by a big wave, etc). And with being distracted by the extended family etc, I wouldn't trust my friends to be able to provide that careful supervision. A weekend camping trip with friends of 16 years? Sure, probably. A 9 night ocean trip with the friends and who knows who else? Absolutely not.

Thanks for all the replies! I have looked into a bunch of these and I think I am going to try the Rachael Ray: Cooking Rocks! book first. It had a couple of recommendations here, it's got mostly very good reviews on Amazon, and I like that it's divided by age categories so that I can have some to do with my son (who is 5 1/2) from the "4-6" category, and some to do with my daughter (who is 10) from the "7-11" category, and it has a "12 and up" section, too, so it should grow at least a bit with my daughter. I think I will pick one day a week for each of them, where they can help choose and cook a meal this coming school year for Kindergarten and 6th grades. :)

This coming year I thought I'd add on at least one day a week of starting to teach my daughter to cook independently. We will get started in September and she'll be turning 11 in October. I want something that's pretty simple and basic- but with a 11 y/o in mind, not the kind of "simple" that is geared toward a much younger kid. Do you have any specific recommendations? My mother was never much of a cook and either am I lol- I cook pretty simply as it is, so I don't want things that are overly complicated or use a million ingredients half of which nobody ever heard of (by nobody, I mean nobody in my house haha)... but still simple, solid meals... know what I mean? Am I asking too much? :) Thanks for any recommendations!

I read it with my daughter last year when she was 9 and had no problems with it.

For the kids, you could set out bowls of strawberries, marshmallows and blueberries and let them make their own red, white and blue skewers on those wooden craft dowel things.

We do most work at the kitchen table but that hasn't necessitated us putting anything on the walls or bringing a book case in- we carry books and supplies in as needed.

Yes, I plan to try to do one for each school year for my homeschooling blog- and even then it might require quite a bit of editing or picking and choosing, because there's a maximum number of pages they can fit and I can be a bit wordy. :D The one I printed was for my first year of homeschooling and that was only a partial year since I'd pulled my daughter out of public school in the middle of a school year, and I was surprised by how many pages that ended up taking up. If you go to blurb.com they do have a price list which goes by what options you choose, how many pages your book ends up being, etc.

Instructional videos on something he's interested in? (Maybe drawing or a particular project or something for example). Doing some sort of woodworking or other type of project in the basement. Starting a blog or website and working on it. Writing a book or collection of short stories. Exchanging letters with a penpal. Making something he can sell online. Making use of various science or chemistry kits. Learning to cook/cook different types of meals. Volunteering or working indoors somewhere. Hmm...that's all I've got for now!

It varies for us...we're pretty relaxed and mainly go with the flow...I know we could NEVER follow a daily schedule, but like someone else said, I tend to have weekly lists of things we need to get done that week. Usually we are able to accomplish it, and if we don't, we accomplish the most important things on it and some of the others may get pushed back to the following week. Eventually, we either get them done, or I decide they weren't important enough to worry about, but it all works out pretty well for the most part. You might enjoy this: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/175611.html :)

I just did one with Blurb, too!

My 10 1/2 y/o and 5 1/2 y/o both really love that show, although of course my older child understands it better.

My daughter takes a judo class at the Y once a week. She does other things here and there throughout the year- a winter homeschool bowling league, swimming lessons in the summer, once a month homeschool PE classes at the Y over the school year, etc. She does plenty of running and playing and bike riding and climbing and so on in her free time when she's just playing, so I know she gets plenty of exercise. Sometimes we go for walks together, and sometimes she likes to take kid's exercise or dance videos out from the library and do them on her own for fun.

When I was a young girl, of maybe 9 or 10 or so, I remember finding out that my sister (who is 15 years older than me) had a different father and was therefore only my "half-sister." That was mind boggling to me. And a little upsetting. HALF-sister? Was that as good as a REAL sister? The next time I saw my sister, I said to her: "Is it true that you're only my half sister?" She just smiled and asked, "Well, which half of me don't you want?" I smiled, too, and I never thought of her that way again. :)

My doctor mentioned that they used to do some sort of dye test but no longer do because of how much it costs to do each one and that it was more cost effective to just give it X amount of time to heal or something like that. Thank you... I do appreciate the positive stories about conceiving after an ectopic pregnancy (yours and others on this thread). I hope that it works out that way for me! Yeah, I did google and found other people saying their doctors told them to wait 3 months because of he effects on the baby... I didn't see ANYBODY say they had to wait longer than that except for some people who said that they had to get TWO doses of the shot and that some of their doctors told them that they should wait six months to TTC. But I didn't see anyone saying more than 3 months right off the bat. My doctor did say something about giving the tubes time to fully heal and that if they aren't fully healed and you conceive again another ectopic could be more likely. But I don't know if I believe that that would be the case for me...I got the shot to end it at only 5 weeks of pregnancy. My HCG levels were only in the 600's. They did not see a visible mass in the tubes on ultrasound and were going more by the HCG levels. So I would THINK that if all goes smoothly and my levels drop down fairly quickly and I don't require any further intervention, that there should be no reason why I can't TTC again in three months. So if there are no further problems, I think I may just try again in October and see what happens. He said something about that there's usually a "false rise" right after getting the shot before it begins to dip down again and that's why they wait a week. He did say I should call if I started having any bad pains or anything. Maybe he's going by how early along I am and how low my levels were anyway, too, I'm not sure.... When I think about the fact that they only tested my HCG levels because I requested it, and if I hadn't, I wouldn't have even had my first appointment til 7/15, that's kind of scary. Who knows what might have happened between now and then or how much worse it would have felt if I'd gone there expecting to hear a heartbeat and got news like that instead. Me either. I think that was truly the most awful part. I held it together until I got into my car in the parking lot and then I just cried before I drove home. It seems really unnecessary just for a shot, and you would think the doctors and hospital staff would be more aware of how that could make someone feel. Well, anyway.... so far I am feeling okay physically. I had a little bit of crampiness at like 1 AM but it didn't get really bad and it passed. So far no other side effects or symptoms at all.... no nauseau, no bleeding (other than the same type of spotting I've had all along), no further cramping etc. Maybe that takes a little longer to come about? This is a hard situation all around but i am trying to come to terms with the fact that there's nothing I can do about it and that I can't just wile away the next several months focusing and obsessing on this and wishing the time away until I can try again--- I have kids at home now that I have to focus on and interact positively with and a life to live and I just have to live it and focus on the good things and try again when it's time to try again. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway. I'm working on it. Thanks to everyone who responded, all of you are appreciated... it's nice just knowing that there are other people out there who do sympathize, relate, hear you, and/or care, even if you never met them in person. :)

Got today's HCG levels back. They went from 410 last Monday, to 587 last Wednesday, to 589 last Friday, to 665 today. Because of the way they are rising, but rising slowly, they thought it quite likely the pregnancy is ectopic even though it was too early/levels too low to see anything for sure on ultrasound. They told me to go get the shot of methotrexate tonight which stops any further growth and will cause my body to reabsorb whatever is there. I just got back from the hospital/getting the shot. It was so devastating having to go to the maternity ward of all places to get it done. I walked in and saw a new baby being wheeled out of a room. They put me in a room where I could hear a nurse loudly counting as a woman in labor pushed which went on for several minutes and then a baby crying... ugh. This whole thing just sucks so much. Then they told me that once this is over I should wait 4-6 months to try again to give the tubes a chance to fully heal which is so disappointing, it's been five months of trying already, and now this, and then another 4-6 months of waiting to try, and then who knows how long it will take to conceive again once I DO try... I hoped I could try again sooner. I hate this. So, I've had the shot. Hopefully I won't have horrid side effects. I have to go to the lab in a week to test my HCG levels again and when they see where they're at then, they will tell me when I should go back to do it again. They have to monitor regularly til my levels go back down to 0. Sorry for starting yet another thread about my pregnancy saga, just seems like sometimes the updates get lost in the existing longer threads. Thanks again for everyone who has offered support and encouragement through this whole crappy situation.

Ugh, really? Now I don't know what to think. I asked the doctor today if there would be any side effects and she said no, not from a one time "use" of the medication. I had also asked her if I could start trying to conceive again when I got my next normal period and she said yes. ETA: I've been doing some googling, it said that abdominal cramps, bleeding, and nauseau and/or dizziness could be more common side effects. it said stuff like hair loss etc is much more rare, especially with one time use of the shot. I read that some doctors say it's okay to TTC again with the next cycle, while other doctors do say to wait three months because of the fact that it depletes your folic acid... Now I just don't know what to do, I feel really anxious right now. If the levels aren't dropping and it might be ectopic, I don't have a lot of choice...I need to try to stop the pregnancy ASAP so I don't end up with a ruptured tube or something! And the dr. feels that for someone who wants to TTC again after, the medication is less risk than surgery. But if the levels ARE dropping... I don't know what to do now. I thought to get the shot anyway and just get this over with ASAP but maybe I should just see if it happens naturally and let them keep checking my HCG etc and see if it drops down to zero and happens naturally? I am going to have to talk to them again or something, I want to go with whichever gives me the best shot of being able to safely TTC again as soon as possible... this situation sucks!

Hi, I haven't used OM3 yet (I've used 4, 5, and will be using 6 and K this fall) but I haven't really paid attention to it from that angle anyway since I am Jewish for one, and homeschool secularly for another). But I did just want to tell you that OM has really great customer service, and if you email them or call them and voice your questions and concerns, they will give you a friendly, honest response. :)

Like someone else said, it would depend. Does he only yell at my kid, or is his just a yelling style and everyone "gets it" now and then? When he yells, is he just yelling things like "pay more attention!" "You have to do it like this!" etc... or is he really belittling them and calling names or some such?