I would be cautious about the dish soap. We have new carpet that something spilled on this week. When I looked at the care pages on how to clean it they said to use dish soap that did not have 3 specific ingredients or I might end up bleaching that section of carpet. I ended up using something else because I couldn't find an ingredient list on my dish soap. When we had a larger area of carpet that needed to be cleaned upstairs, we rented a carpet cleaner from the local grocery store and it worked great.

First of all :grouphug: to you and your family. You have been through a lot and the way you were treated by that congregation was horrible. I can understand how you got to where you are now, but remember that can change and may pp's have given you lots of ideas on how to start that process. My question was after reading most of your story, would it make more sense financially for you to go back to work and have dh be the sahd? You mentioned how you had started the residency. I don't know anything about that and what or if it pays, but it sounded like something you were interested in. Is that something that could be revisited? If not, is there something else you are qualified for or interested in doing? Maybe it's a good time to make a switch. Dh would be facing the day to day challenges with your daughter, which will be challenging but he may have more energy for them at this point since he hasn't been the primary one dealing with them for the past couple of years. You will have other challenges with a new job but they will be different from the day to day challenges you have been working with as well. Maybe it would energize both of you to pursue different paths.

Congratulations! :)

I wouldn't switch if it was working for my family. I might try to get more details from my friend to find out what the problems were for her and then see if I think they could be problems for me as well. Your kids are different and your teaching style will most likely be different from hers so you may not encounter the same problems. I also don't necessarily think that grade 5 is the automatic time to make the switch. That's still grammar school in my book, so if I were going to consider changing a curriculum that was working, I would most likely do it when moving into middle school or high school. You may feel differently however, based on what you see within your family. Do you feel that your children are moving over into the logic stage? If they are, what makes you believe that BJU is not a "serious" math program? I've never used it so I don't know. These are some of the questions I would ask myself before I would stop using a program that was working. I say this as a mom who has a son who has really struggled in math. Looking back, I think I abandoned one curriculum that could have worked for us because I listened to some negative reviews about it. We ended up switching a couple more times after that which is not something I would recommend if you can help it.

I wouldn't. It's 4 days past the sell by date and ground beef turns quickly. I have a friend who went ahead and used some hamburger because she said it smelled fine, but within a few hours the entire family was sick. I'd ask myself what's more important, to not waste the meat or to not be sick over the long weekend?

Last year my then 12yo did about 5 hours of work daily. He had: Pre-algebra History Geography Literature Writing Grammar Science Logic Vocabulary Spelling Bible He also did art and music weekly.

Glad he's been found and is getting some help.

:grouphug: :grouphug:

:grouphug: :grouphug:

Excited for all of you! :grouphug:

:grouphug: :grouphug:

I love summer. I love it when it starts to warm up and everyone is out in their yards. But after a few days of heat in a row, I'm over it :tongue_smilie:. We had a cooler day yesterday after several warm ones in a row and I was soooooo happy. I got tons of stuff done and could open the curtains without feeling like it was going to bake the house (no ac here). I also love it when the rain starts to come and we start wearing sweaters again. My dh thinks I'm nuts too.

I love my mini-van which is funny because when I was younger I swore I would never drive one. After we had our third, we test drove one just because the guy at the dealership suggested one, and I fell in love with it. I can't compare driving it to an SUV because I've never driven one. I do know that the gas mileage is better in a mini-van. Some models come with AWD which may be helpful in the snow. I agree with a prior poster that you should go out and test drive a couple. Get a feel for them and the SUV and then tell your hubby exactly why you prefer one over the other.

My in-laws have a freezer and don't think they could manage without it. Also, when dh and I bought our first house the prior owner left his upright freezer for us. I loved having that thing and it was just the two of us.

I absolutely love Golden Winter Soup.

It would be for me but that's just because we're having some beautiful summer weather right now. But I say, do what you want!

I started trying to follow Paleo after being inspired by Justamouse's post on a different thread. She mentioned a 3:00 slump and I had those daily. I would be so tired and really need a cup of coffee. About an hour later I would really need some kind of carbs....chips, crackers, anything crunchy like that. So I subscribed to Mark's Daily Apple and started eliminating carbs. I'm not hard core and I should probably eliminate more but I've cut out all bread, rice, pasta, and cereal. I've lost about 6 pounds in the past month and would really like to lose 5-10 more. Plus, all my afternoon cravings and exhaustion went away. When dinner time comes around I'm ready to go make something rather than just wanting to sit on the couch and order out!

I would go ahead and start, especially if I already had all the plans done. Hope your husband has a smooth recovery.

I would be unhappy about the camp situation but I think the bigger question here is what about the rest of the year? Will she be interacting with your daughter on a regular basis? I think the opportunity to have a major influence on your daughter at camp is minimal, but if she is with dd weekly that's another story. It sounds like this woman, and possibly the youth pastor, have no problem overstepping their bounds. I would seriously consider changing churches over something like this.

I didn't start grammar with my kids until they were older and it's worked out fine for us. As other posters have said you can go over nouns and verbs, etc. informally as the need arises rather than doing a full-blown grammar course. The one challenge, I should point out, could arise if there is testing required in your state. We are required to test beginning in 3rd grade here. You can do a one-on-one assessment or a standardized test. When choosing the standardized test route in the younger years, my kids would look a little "low" on the language mechanics portion of the test. This was the section that covered grammar topics that have been typically covered in PS by that grade level. But I knew this going in, so I didn't let it freak me out. I wanted to mention it in case the same could apply to your situation.

We ease in the first week simply because our co-op hasn't started yet. We do all the subjects that I do at home. If we didn't participate in co-op I would jump in full force from the start.

We're starting Tuesday. PS doesn't start until Wednesday but we do a once a week co-op so I usually schedule 4 days of work at home. Starting on Tuesday lets me work my normal schedule.

If you're hoping for a renter, I don't think it's as necessary to move back. You would want to ask yourself, "Is it worth it to haul my family back, purchase/rent furniture, etc. in order to avoid paying $300 a month vacant-home insurance?" Remember, you are already paying some homeowners premium. Is it $300 add'l for the change in coverage or should you be calculating the difference? If you're hoping to sell, I would see it make more sense to move back as they say people are more likely to buy an occupied house vs. an empty one. I think it would be tough to be a long-distance landlord and you mention you don't really want to be one. Based on that, it may definitely be worth it to move, but you would have to accept the fact that you may be there indefinitely. I still think you would need to think about whether or not this is just temporary. If nothing changes by December, you would need to have thought through, "Well at that point we'll just ______________ ." At least that is how I would need to look at it.

So do you have other plans once that happens? I mean, are you thinking you'll live there until this event occurs but once she retires you're moving on to xyz? I'm guessing my decision on what to do might be different if this is a short-term solution vs. a long-term one.

YES! I've been wondering what happened to their filters that's allowing it to get through.