:grouphug: I'm sorry.

There's actually an article about how to increase your chances of having twins... who knew! http://multiples.about.com/od/funfacts/tp/howtohavetwins.htm I have twin brothers (they're fraternal twins) and funnily enough, one of those brothers and my SIL then proceeded to have twins, too! So he IS a twin, and he fathered twins! I have to admit, all I could think was "better him than me!" ONE newborn and ONE toddler was exhausting enough at each of those stages!

You would THINK. However, in THIS particular Jewish household, my daughter, Alexa, who was not originally homeschooled, went to preschool, Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade and most of 3rd grade at public school. And around here, there is almost nobody else who is Jewish. The town decorates for Christmas. The employees of stores all wear Santa hats and wish you a "Merry Christmas." They'd ask "Are you excited for Santa to come?" WEEKS in advance. They'd ask, "What did Santa bring you?" for WEEKS afterward. The kids all believe in Santa and talk about him in school- -and my daughter would come home asking "Why doesn't Santa come to our house?" And sighing "I wish Santa would come to our house." And I'd explain that we don't celebrate Christmas, and that we celebrate Hanukkah instead and that Santa doesn't come to Jewish households but that there are other cool things that we do instead and so on and so forth. But that just isn't good enough for a little kid who is feeling like the only one who doesn't get a visit from Santa. I literally dreaded the Christmas season because of it. I wanted to tell her "There's no such thing as Santa! He's make believe!! So don't worry about it!" right from the beginning to save HER the feelings of upset. But I didn't trust her at those early ages to not go and repeat it to all her classmates, even if I told her not to. I was afraid that a "my mom said there's no such thing as Santa!" would slip out. And it was already bad enough that my daughter was the only Jewish kid in the class- the last thing I needed her to be was the Jewish kid who ruined Santa for everyone else. I mean how long would THAT have followed her around for, right?! So finally when she was about 7 and in 2nd grade I told her the truth (I couldn't take one more "I wish Santa came to our house!"). I told her he's make believe, but that a lot of kids still believed in him, and that if she told them he was make believe, they probably would not like her very much for that, so that she should just keep her mouth closed about it. That was the earliest age I felt she would be able to do that. So- I voted age 7. LOL. (As for my son who does not and will not go to public school, I'm not going through that again. He'll be 5 in a few days and he doesn't even have a concept of Santa right now. But if it's brought up/he asks, I'll be telling him the truth- Santa is make believe, just for fun). ETA: My daughter does still believe in The Tooth Fairy, though! I think she's getting suspicious by now- she's asked a couple of times "Is the Tooth Fairy really real?!" and we just smile and say "Well what do YOU think?" She doesn't really press the issue because she likes getting money under her pillow :D

I live near Yuengling and get to smell that nasty yeasty smell of beer brewing sometimes. Maybe I should move closer to Hershey. I'd rather smell chocolate. LOL. All the restaurants I go to are non-smoking, though.

The way he's using it, it would be "the man was ecstatic." He could have used: "the man was IN ecstasy." As in, "the man was in [a state of] ecstasy." But not "the man was ecstasy."

And somewhere out there, there are two teenaged boys (or are they no longer teens?) who would answer this thread with: "Faced some lady who pointed a gun at me because I was walking on her property!" :lol: I'm not sure if I can think if anything truly "courageous." Perhaps it was when I was 17. I was pregnant. For the second time. The first was at 16, and my mother had made me have an abortion. I didn't learn my lesson apparently and was pregnant again about a year or so later. And once again my mother told me I had to have an abortion. But that time, I said no. She said if I wouldn't do it, she would kick me out, that if I was old enough to decide to have a baby, I was old enough to support and take care of myself. So I opened the yellow pages to that "Abortion" section again... because when I'd been standing over her shoulder, I'd seen an ad there that was basically a pro-life agency that was offering "alternatives" to abortion. I spent the next two nights sleeping once at a friend's house and once in my then-boyfriend's car (he lived at home with his parents, who didn't like me, and who certainly weren't going to volunteer to let me stay at THEIR house). And I called that place and made an appointment, went there, and agreed to let them get me set up in a group home for pregnant and parenting teens. And I gave up all my "freedom" to go live in that group home, following all of their rules, so I'd have a place to live. Oh, and I was a high school drop out. So I also used that time to get my GED and to finally get my learner's permit to drive. I ended up deciding the rules were too stifling for me and I left there. Went through some struggles, for sure, trying to get a job with no skills and renting a room in one of my manager's houses and making enough money between my telemarketing job and my boyfriend's unskilled labor job to pay said rent and so on. Had my baby (who is now almost 19 years old) when I was 18. Made up with "Grandma" who offered to let me and baby move back into her house rather than the truly crappy basement apartment we were then living in. Took her up on that offer- temporarily. And when said baby was four months old, like the day after I turned 19, I decided I REALLY needed to do something to better my life- and hers. Sitting home with a baby all day watching Jerry Springer was getting boring. I didn't want to get a job at McDonald's or something, which was probably all an 18/19 year old high school drop out with no job skills could do (and who would watch the baby while I got a job anyway? I'd never get one with enough money to pay for daycare or whatever). So I called that group home up again and begged to be allowed to come back. Which might have been the second most courageous thing I'd eve done. :) I returned and used the full one year of that program to its fullest extent- free childcare while I started and finished my first year of a two year business college, a roof over my head, parenting classes, and so on. Got my driver's license. Followed every one of their rules and did what I had to do. Went from there into another one year program where they set you up in your own apartment at no cost and have a caseworker come visit you weekly to work on goals and becoming independent and so on. Finished my second year of college while I was there. Graduated with a 3.95 average and an AOS degree. Got my first car. Left there and got a pretty good job as an administrative assistant. Closed out my social services/welfare case very soon afterward. I'll always be grateful those programs were available to me when I needed them. It was hard for a while, there. That first child had developmental delays and mental retardation and my whole life revolved around various early intervention programs, raising her, school/work, etc. And then, although I'd married her father at age 21 after college, I split up with him about two years later by age 23, and lived as a single mom for a couple of years, until I moved in with hubby number two (and proceeded to have two more children with him)... So, yeah, my life has revolved around my kids since I was 18 years old and it was not always easy, but I am glad I stood my ground to my mother that time way back when (although I do sometimes wonder how things might have been different if I'd said no the first time I was pregnant and she wanted me to terminate it)!

That's great! :)

I put "other" because I just looked at the "punctuation" section in the back of my daughter's 5th grade Oak Meadow syllabus to see if it specifically addressed that, and it mentions using commas to separate words in a series but doesn't specifically address whether there should be one right before that final "and." It might have in earlier grades but this is the only grade level I currently have available for this syllabus. So I can't say. With that said, I learned that I should NOT put a comma before that "and," as you did, and so that's what I tell my daughter when it comes up in her writing.

My husband told me it was. :P

Me either! I'd never in a million years imagine that there would be a 7th grader out there who still believed in Santa!

:iagree: Maybe it's normal. Maybe it's not. My oldest daughter was delayed like that and had continued developmental delays and so on her whole life (even with early intervention, speech therapy, OT, PT, etc). My younger two kids talked much earlier than that/had a much bigger vocabulary at that age. I know that doesn't mean it's NOT normal- kids develop at different rates, and already a few people here have said that late talking was normal for their kids. So maybe it is. But I would want to have it checked out. I'd bring it up at the 18 month appointment and by that point if nothing changed I think I would be calling for an early intervention assessment. It won't do any harm and you might find out it's totally unnecessary, or only necessary for a short period of time, but it's free, and it can't hurt! And if there IS an issue, it might help.

Hm. I honestly can't think of anything right now. But about the camping thing- we go- and get cabins. No sleeping in tents or on the ground or on an air mattress or anything like that. We rent camping abins- with heat, air conditioning, electricity and so on lol. Then we get to enjoy the campground and its amenities and facilities, we get to experience cooking out and roasting marshmallows and sleeping away from home and all of that- but with minimal discomfort. :D

My youngest is going to turn 5 this weekend. Then I've got one who just turned 10 last month, and one who will turn 19 after the holidays. While there IS a lot to be said for kids who are old enough to (mostly) "listen," help out, take care of many of their needs independently, being able to pack more lightly when we leave the house and multiple other things... ...and while I AM already 37 years old... ...I don't know if I'll EVER stop semi-longing for "just one more baby." I love babies. And I kinda MISS the baby stage. Hubby on the other hand says no. He's done. It must be so nice and so much easier knowing that you have a basically limitless amount of time in which to father all the children you could possibly want. Whereas a woman has a limited window of opportunity in which she CAN become pregnant, and then the choice is lost to her forever. Sigh.

I direct them to two sites. One is A to Z Home's Cool- The other is askpauline.com. The first has all different information including a "Beginning To Homeschool" section that talks about where to start, what homeschooling is, why people homeschool, different styles of homeschooling and so on. It's a very good "general info" type of site. The second is specific to Pennsylvania, where I live, and is fantastic about covering all the legalities- the laws, the portfolios, the affidavits, the evaluations, examples of the various logs and objectives and summaries, and so on and so forth. It was an immense help to me when I first started homeschooling, and I still consult it from time to time now.

Not generally speaking (it would be Thanksgiving/Hanukkah for us), but a couple of years ago we did make a "suntanned turkey" much to everyone's amusement :D When we baked it, we put an aluminium foil "bikini" on it so that when it's done and you take the "bikini" off, it has tan lines. We dressed it up some with a tiny piece of clean towel over one wing, a shot glass tucked underneath the other with a paper umbrella under it, and we found a little mini travel shampoo bottle that we wrapped with a label that said "Sun Tan Oil." Everyone got a kick out of it :D

My kids will occasionally use a backpack if we're going somewhere with a science/nature atmosphere where those types of things might come in handy. It usually includes binoculars, a magnifying glass, a sketchpad and colored pencils.

:grouphug:

Yes. Probably not younger than age 17- but at age 17? Yes. I think it would be an amazing experience and would teach her so much. And if that's what she wants to do- well, she's old enough by now to know! She seems to be quite mature and she seems to be taking her life in wonderful directions- so you've done a good job :) Now you have to let go a bit more!

Ooh, those sound good. Bumping for more!

We kept it pretty simple when we did it last year. We used the site http://www.makingmusicfun.net which is free and went on the "Meet The Composer" section. We then read the mini bio for a different composer each week, and listened to samples of that composer's music right on Youtube. I'm sure you could follow up with further info found online if you wanted but you really don't have to spend a penny or leave your house to do it, which was nice :D

holiday cookie recipe? My homeschool group is doing a "holiday party" with a cookie exchange. Last year, I found this recipe online, my husband and I made them, and everyone in my house LOVED THEM, as did our next door neighbors, and our nearby relative and friends. They were a huge hit. We'll probably make them again this year, but I'm open to seeing other peoples' favorites to see if anything else jumps out at me! :) Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies Ingredients 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 cup softened butter 1 cup sugar 1 egg 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla 1 (10 ounce) jar maraschino cherries* 1 (6 ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk *Note: I think we ended up running out for a second jar last year, so I'd get two jars of the cherries! Preparation: Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl, set aside. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar on low speed until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, beat until well blended. Gradually add in the flour mixture and blend well until smooth. Shape into 1 inch balls by rolling a small amount of dough between the palms of your hands. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Using thumb, press down center of ball, making an indentation. Drain cherries, reserving the juice. Place a cherry in the center of each cookie. For frosting: In a small saucepan, combine chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk. Heat over low heat until chocolate is melted. Add 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon reserved cherry juice and stir. Spoon about 1 teaspoon frosting over each cherry, spreading to cover cherry. If frosting gets too thick, add a little more cherry juice.* Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Makes 48 cookies. (*NOTE: I think we ended up spearing the cherries with toothpicks and then dipping them into the "frosting" to coat them, and then placing them into the center of the cookie (rather than placing them first and then "spooning frosting" over them. I think that's easier!) Anyway, these were SO delicious. Anyone else want to share a favorite cookie recipe?

I don't know, I almost never have overdue library fees (I think it's happened like twice ever and then only by a day, with one book). I've been known to jot down on my personal desk calendar (which I check first thing every single day) the date when library books are due back (I usually write it in for a day before so I have that extra day to play with if it sneaks up on me). Then I make sure I go. And if I really can't or don't want to go, I go online and renew the books. Then I write the new date down. I don't take out more books at any given visit than I think can reasonably be read in that amount of time. And while I do let my daughter bring A (as in one at a time) library book up to her room to read in bed, if she was having problems with losing said library book, then I would no longer let her do that and she'd have to read from it in the main living area and when she was done, return it to the designated spot for library books. (We do have a designated spot for library books). She'd have to read non-library books in bed instead if that were a problem.

You're not being unreasonable. She's being thoughtless. It's already a very long ride. I would not want to add ANY more time to it than need be... and you're right that everything takes longer with kids as it is. You should not have to squeeze another person (and her dog?!) into your vehicle, take that person (and her dog?!) to YOUR mother's house- your mother who has limited space, cats, and limited time with YOU), have that person sharing YOUR hotel room with your spouse and children, infringing on your carefully laid vacation plans, OR giving you an attitude. Especially when your husband isn't any more interested in said plan than you are. Heck no! Stay firm. :) Write an email, it's easier. "I'm sorry. It's just not feasible for us at this time for many reasons to change our plans to the extent you are asking. We're on a strict time line with the needs of three kids to worry about, we have limited room in our vehicle, we cannot invite somebody else, especially somebody with a dog, to my mother's small house full of cats, and we do not want to try to squeeze somebody else into a hotel room with us, etc. I'm sorry this upsets you, but (dh) and I are in agreement that we need to stick to our original plans this time around. I'm sure you understand. Hopefully we'll see you in the summer. Talk to you later." End of story!

6 or 7 hours per week, or 6 or 7 hours per DAY?

Yep. Morning comes too soon! :D