If it was ME, I would go. I couldn't be without my husband/home alone for a month, and I wouldn't want my kids to be without their dad for an entire month. That's a long time! I would find things to do to keep occupied. I'd bring things along, we'd go out on walks and ask around at the library and visitor center and other similar places what there is to do around there and find other things to do to keep busy with, we'd explore and make an adventure of it and seeing a new place. I might even see if there was a local homeschool/meetup group that wouldn't mind a tag along temporarily. Maybe there are people from this board in that area you can meet! Who knows! Will there be times of boredom? Sure, but aren't there at home, too? But either way, we wouldn't be home alone/lonely/wishing we'd gone/missing daddy, husband etc. for that long. But that's just my preference (and besides, I'm a big baby and don't like sleeping alone at night, I get creeped out if my tattoo artist husband works late and can't even imagine how military wives handle deployments lol). I would not try to convince my husband not to go, though. The money sounds good, he wants to go, and like others have said, if this is good for his job and with the economy the way it is, it is probably for the best that he doesn't say no!

Congrats on the year's worth of cheese! Good luck with the rest of your goal! :) Congrats on your loss so far! And LMAO!!!! :lol::lol::lol: I will spare you, myself, and the elephant that picture, I promise. Maybe I'll pose with an air conditioner when I lost 55 lbs instead lol. If I can manage to hold one up without killing myself. The microwave was bad enough. :glare:

Stick it out. You can take care of them just as well there- more easily than you can in the car on such a long ride...and you might still get a couple of days of vacation out of it if the others recover as quickly as your oldest seemed to! Sorry the first few days are going so poorly, hope they all feel better very soon and that you guys don't get sick!

I wish that was all I had gained over a period of years! That isn't so bad! Just don't let it turn into an elephant's penis or an Irish setter or something and you'll be alright! :D That's amazing!! Congrats!!!! Congrats on the loss so far! Not sure what weight loss plan you're going with but I find cutting out virtually all carbs to be very effective for me! Congrats on the missing leg! (LOL) That's fantastic! Thank you and congrats on your accomplishments, too! Thank you. :) I'm pretty much always the one behind the camera...I normally hate having pictures taken of myself, I hate the way I come out in almost all of them and being self-conscious about my weight doesn't help, but the microwave thing was too fun to pass up! Congrats on the Bald Eagle and good luck with your future goals! Feel free to come join us in the weight loss challenge social group if you'd like! It's a great group! Did you lose 77 lbs?? That's amazing! Congrats!! Yeah! I've always loved that part of the show! Congrats on your loss so far! You can do it! :) haha yes I am looking forward to being able to say I've lost an elephant's penis as well. Congrats on the 15 lbs so far though! That's a great start! Thank you! You are off to a great start! Good luck with the rest of your weight loss goals! haha! Hopefully none! :lol: LOL congrats on losing your brain, good luck with the leg! Congrats on the donuts! Keep on going! Thank you very much, and thank you to everyone else for the kind feedback! :)

How Much Weight Have You Lost? 1 pound = a Guinea Pig 1.5 pounds = a dozen Krispy Kreme glazed donuts 2 pounds = a rack of baby back ribs 3 pounds = an average human brain 4 pounds = an ostrich egg 5 pounds = a Chihuahua 6 pounds = a human skin 7.5 pounds = an average newborn 8 pounds = a human head 10 pounds= chemical additives an American consumes each year 11 pounds = an average housecat 12 pounds = a Bald Eagle 15 pounds = 10 dozen large eggs 16 pounds = a sperm whale's brain 20 pounds = an automobile tire 23 pounds = amount of pizza an average American eats in a year 24 pounds = a 3-gallon tub of super premium ice cream 25 pounds = an average 2 year old 30 pounds = amount of cheese an average American eats in a year 33 pounds = a cinder block 36 pounds = a mid-size microwave 40 pounds = a 5-gallon bottle of water or an average human leg 44 pounds = an elephant's heart 50 pounds = a small bale of hay 55 pounds = a 5000 BTU air conditioner 60 pounds = an elephant's penis 66 pounds = fats and oils an average American eats in a year 70 pounds = an Irish Setter 77 pounds = a gold brick 80 pounds = the World's Largest Ball of Tape 90 pounds = a newborn calf 100 pounds = a 2 month old horse 111 pounds = red meat an average American eats in a year 117 pounds = an average fashion model 118 pounds = the complete Encyclopedia Britannica 120 pounds = amount of trash you throw away in a month 130 pounds = a newborn giraffe 138 pounds = potatoes an average American eats in a year 140 pounds = refined sugar an average American eats in a year 144 pounds = an average adult woman 150 pounds = the complete Oxford English Dictionary 187 pounds = an average adult man 200 pounds = 2 Bloodhounds 235 pounds = Arnold Schwarzenegger 300 pounds = an average football lineman 400 pounds = a Welsh pony (I'm happy to have lost the microwave, but I'm aiming for the elephant's penis, at least).

I'm down 36 lbs as of this morning...the equivalent of a mid-sized microwave. :D So I had my husband take this picture. (And that thing was HEAVY)!! Quite a bit more to lose still, of course. But here's a fun "during" pic for you all.

I think you'd still be justified in a day off if you wanted one! :) hope you feel better by tomorrow!

I had never even heard of them until this friend told me about them but I LOVE how the gifts are sustainable, and they give one of the animals to another family so they keep on giving, and I love how they provide training with it, I think that's awesome. I told my husband that would make a great gift. I don't really need anything personally, we're already going out for a fun night out to our favorite Japanese Hibachi restaurant with five other couples on Valentine's night. The kids are getting the chocolate since I'm on a diet (down 36 lbs as of this morning, in fact)! :001_smile:

You mean because you bought it used? No, they will not charge you. It will just take a few minutes over the phone, they're very nice about it. Can't help on number 2 other than to point you to the threads where lots of people have said their kids have gone on to do great in high school level math/testing with TT. We're still just at 6th grade over here, though. Good luck!

I agree that if you wanted the night to end early, the best thing to do was to tell them at the time of extending the invitation so they knew ahead of time and it would have prevented any awkwardness like this. Otherwise when the question came up you could have just laughed and said, "Actually, yeah, we usually go to bed right around now, but we can hang out for another half hour. Next time we'll have to start the evening a bit earlier so we can spend more time together!" (Assuming you wanted to spend more time with them; otherwise leave that last part off). When we get together with our friends for dinner and hanging out for the evening we often hang out til 10 or 11 or so, 9 would seem pretty early for us!

For him to donate a flock of chicks or a honeybee hive through Heifer International: There's simply no better way to show your love this Valentine's Day than with a unique and meaningful gift from Heifer. Ask your sweetheart to "bee mine" this year with the gift of honeybees, or consider chicks instead of chocolates for a loved one. With these and other fun animals, Heifer gifts are a loving way to capture the caring spirit of Valentine's Day. Think Outside the Heart Shaped Box this Year by Giving a Life Changing Gift through Heifer! http://www.heifer.org/alt-gift/valentines/?msource=POVDB120001&utm_source=Press_Release&utm_medium=Press_Release&utm_content=Valentine&utm_campaign=VDay_2012 This organization's mission statement is: By giving families a hand-up, not just a hand-out, we empower them to turn lives of hunger and poverty into self-reliance and hope. With gifts of livestock and training,Heifer projects help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways. We refer to the animals as "living loans" because in exchange for their livestock and training, families agree to give one of its animal's offspring to another family in need. It's called Passing on the Gift – a cornerstone of our mission that creates an ever-expanding network of hope and peace. He said he would do so. So I thought that was pretty cool. :) Friends of ours use this organization all the time and told us about it.

:lol::lol::lol:

:lol::lol::lol: That is HILARIOUS. I liked Jack a tad bit better, myself, but I miss all of Lost! Pout. And, no, I'm not offended by the Ryan Gosling homeschool thing.

That's claimed to be false on Snopes. http://www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/carseat.asp

I really love Oak Meadow. We did 5th last year and enjoyed it. You don't HAVE to stick with those specific book suggestions...you can re-read them if you want to, but you can also find books that are similar. Oak Meadow assigns books that are like living books based on the social studies material you are covering. You'll read a short lesson in social studies, then they'll assign a book that also pertains to that material most of the time, and then there will be some sort of writing assignment based on it (and they will give a choice of interesting writing assignment topics). I'm sure most of the time you can find a substitute/similar book that still pertains to the topic/material if you don't want to read the same book again! For that matter, OM has really good customer service and if you call or email them to talk to them, they might even be willing to make specific suggestions for you, or in some cases the syllabus lists extra reading ideas and you could go with one of those books instead. If you want more info on OM, I've got tons of info on it on my blog (see link in signature). Day to day life entries in the main blog- we're doing OMK and OM6 this year in a relaxed manner with some supplementing and lots of outings and field trips and such, and other info in the sidebar to the left. In the sidebar I've got a detailed Oak Meadow review, and under "Schedule Samples" there's one for 5th grade showing what a sample week of fifth grade was like, and at the bottom of that there's a link that brings you to the first entry of our fifth grade year if you're interested in seeing more of those day-to-day activities.

I have to tell you, my husband did just that for me last Valentine's Day! Nope, I'm not kidding. I've got one named after me...well, my blog! Its name is "Home's Cool!" I wonder how the little guy's doing! In my husband's defense, we were leaving for a two plus week Florida vacation (driving) and spending a lot of money on that (we drove down, did Universal Studios, visited family, had a fantastic time) so I did not want any sort of expensive Valentine's Day present...(not that I needed an expensive gift anyway!) and there was also no sense in him buying me something like flowers right before we left... So, I got a certificate letting me know a roach was named after me. It was pretty funny, and it was definitely unique!

I think that: 1) It depends on the comments that go along with it. If the guys were being all lewd: "I'd like to do that!"...um, yeah, no. We don't say stuff like that. 2) It depends on the pictures themselves. We post relatively innocuous pictures of men in kilts from movie scenes or whatever, but if they were posting virtual porn that would be another story. 3) It depends on the intent. I think of what we do as silly fun but with good clean intent, just kind of playing around. We're not really doing it in a sexual fantasy kind of way. Then again, my husband's a tattoo artist and body piercer and he puts his hands on other women sometimes for a living and I imagine some of them are quite pretty and scantily dressed depending on where the tattoo is going (although I do have a rule that says if it can't be covered by a bathing suit, you cannot tattoo or pierce it). :P He also buys industry-related magazines that shows tattooed men and women and plenty of the women in those tattoo magazines, while not porno magazines by any means, are VERY scantily clad. I homeschool and care for my kids and look at Gerard and Russell in a kilt once in a while on a message board. I'm sure he wouldn't...nay, couldn't... begrudge me that. :lol:

We usually start our curriculum around Labor Day and finish it around the middle to end of May sometime. For Portfolio and reporting purposes here in PA, everything we do from July 1st to June 30th each year counts as a 'school year'/school grade though.

:party:

In signature. Relaxed/eclectic secular homeschooling and parenting. Kind of day to day life with photos, and the sidebar has some informational/resource type stuff as well.

LOL. Well, it would sorta kinda be like a chef saying, "A meal's gotta be mighty good for me to eat that many calories," right? It IS funny coming from somebody who lives around books all day but like Jean said, who would want to read a long BORING book? :D Nance, who just recently bought a used copy of Ahab's Wife at a library book sale but hasn't read it yet.

Here's some pictures from when we went to The Turkey Hill Experience. We had fun there...there are interactive exhibits, stuff about the history of Turkey Hill ice cream, and they give you free ice cream and drink samples, too! :D http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/258699.html This is an entry with pictures from when we went to the National Watch & Clock Museum, which is pretty much right next to the Turkey Hill Experience. They had some really neat clocks of all different shapes and sizes and a couple of interactive exhibits too when we went for a homeschool day program. http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/253929.html Here are some pictures from Amish Farm & House (though it was in the spring; not sure what it would be like in winter). They walk you through the house and show you the rooms, the furniture, the clothing and so on, and outside we saw some of the farm animals and stuff. http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/97214.html And here are some pictures from Hands on House. I find it good for younger kids especially. http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/26112.html Here are some from Ephrata Cloister, but this was a hands on summer program they had, so not sure what they offer in the winter months...probably just a tour, though their grounds are beautiful and the buildings are pretty cool, and they tell you some really interesting facts about the people who lived there and their lifestyle. http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/19650.html A place I haven't made it to yet but want to is the Wolf Sanctuary of PA, in Lititz. Also in Lititz are the Sturgis Pretzel Factory and the Wilbur Chocolate Co. Hershey isn't too far from Lancaster and you can go to Hershey Chocolate World and do all sorts of cool things especially for "Chocolate Covered February"- see their website for all the things you can do there now in addition to the free tour ride. And they have all sorts of free chocolate samples, and the really cute 3D show, too.

You could try doing an interest-based approach for a while. Try asking her what she wants to learn about and then focus on that. Try to do it in interesting ways, I don't mean "You have to read every library book there is and then write a report on it." Try to keep it interesting/engaging. See how that goes for a while. Let her pick a topic and see what sorts of books, movies, field trips, hands on activities, games, discussions, projects and crafts and extra curricular activities/classes and so on you can do around it that she's interested in, if there's anyone knowledgeable she can talk to in person, and then ask her what else she wants to learn about next. Kind of interest-based/unit study, I guess, but without making it too rigid and controlled and "you have to"- more trying to engage her.

We've got a really great Weight Loss support social group going, feel free to come join us! We talk and encourage each other, and also do different exercise "challenges" and so on. Come check it out! http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/group.php?groupid=129

:grouphug: I hope that good things end up coming of it and that you end up happy where you are!