:iagree:Good post.

What a lovely couple!!! Congratulations!

Still nothing this morning. It breaks my heart.:(

Yummy thread!!!! These are some great new ideas to try. My husband likes to turn his nose up at sweet things in his salad: the poor man is so unsophisticated!;) But I will try again because he does love a spinach salad with a sweet/tangy dressing. For my kids it's all about the dressing. They will eat almost anything in their salad if it has the right dressing. I focus on Spring greens/spinach because of the health benefits, mushrooms, tomato, etc. But they LOVE Cesar dressing. I don't go to the trouble of making it homemade but found a great all natural one they love. Thanks for the thread! In the heat of summer we do eat a lot of salads like this with some sliced grilled chicken, or some grilled salmon, or even a dollop of egg salad or tuna salad on top and call dinner done.

Nice article. Leigh Bortin's book looks very good.

Yep. I didn't really even know what a SAHM was, never put much thought into it. My mom and all my friends mothers worked full time. But as soon as I got that baby in my arms...:001_huh:. By then it was too late, we had expenses and debt such that I couldn't stay home until my oldest was 6 or so. It's unfortunate and one of the reasons why I want to make sure she knows she just might want to be a mama with babies who stays home with them! I wonder if she saw the op's husband scrubbing the floor on his hands and knees what her thoughts would be. Does she have a clue that true liberation is in having a partner that you work together with to get these things done? In my home I scrub the floors because my dh is out at work, but there is still a partnership there. I also do it because he's not particularly good at cleaning the kitchen. :tongue_smilie: Has a bit of a "good enough" attitude that's NOT good enough for my kitchen! But he doesn't have this attitude because he wants to get out of doing it. This girl just doesn't know what a marriage partnership looks like.

But, and this is a dumb question, how do your kids like sitting there and watching these videos on the computer? I'm not talking about just the interactive Spanish program. I just wonder how my kids will crowd around the computer screen to watch a video.:confused: And no, I can't stream it to my tv. Anyone have a problem with this not being ideal either?

He did a great CD a while ago on the Greek Myths that my kids LOVED! They didn't get too into the Shakespeare one, mostly I think the story was confusing when in and out of the car, but they liked Greek Myths, and one called "Tell Me a Story". I was glad to find they like his voice so I can move on to downloading some for the future. I have picked up the ones we have tried at the library.

Thanks for pulling this up Ann!!!! I will have the Abecedarian group, so I am most concerned with games that the little ones can do. Our state director is most familiar with tutoring the littles so she was a wealth of information at my Practicum! She mentioned breaking up the day with times when they sit in a circle around you for certain things like tin whistle (they might have to put the whistle on the floor behind them to keep from messing with it during the lesson). Breaking up the day with lots of movement and songs for this age group. DO not have them do notebooks or try to write too much. So marching to songs, and jumping jacks, games with hopscotch or duck-duck-goose, etc. There are some of those games in the thread that Ann just linked to above. I heard a great idea where you use a Twister game. You will pick the colors for each subject, like yellow for history, green for latin, etc. Then get a silly little plastic frog or something and toss it on the game mat. Where ever it lands you ask a question. The first person to raise their hand to answer and gets it right gets a ticket or a popcicle stick or something. Then you could have a prize for the winner. Or give them a special sticker or something. For geography they mentioned a great idea... blow up the current map and laminate it, one for each child. Then give them some playdo and have them make playdo snakes and trace the outline of the current map. Then take away the map and make the outline on the table. The only thing I don't have a grasp on is how you'd have enough time to do this. Might have to do it on a day when you'd know you'd have enough moms to help. More ideas for ABC's???:bigear:

I'm tall and overweight. The way I'm proportioned, I think I look fatter in skirts. DH could care less either way. I do wear them to church occasionally but I still prefer pants for how they fit my shape. Plus I have to wear Birkenstocks 99% of the time because of PF in my left foot. Skirts look just "okay" IMO casually with Birks, but not for church. Pants often hide better the comfortable shoes I have to wear. Gosh, I sound like a frump!:glare::confused:

:confused: Giving you a bump. I have never heard of this.

You might just want to transition to drinking less milk. It's not really a necessity, as it were, even for kids. I am buying organic now too and I limit us to one 8oz glass a day. I actually don't drink milk at all, just 1/2 1/2 or soy creamer for my coffee. DH is the problem. He could drink milk, especially chocolate :glare:, by the gallon per day. But since he's lactose intolerant I have to get Lactaid or Soy Milk for him. I can buy organic Soy milk, but I don't really want him drinking that quantity of soy milk and it's outrageously expensive, so I stick to the Lactaid mostly. I wish he'd quit altogether!

OH! I will pray! :grouphug:

Bonnie, I'm certainly no expert, but it seems you have answered your own question. LCC and SL take two very different approaches. LCC wants you to value Latin, Math and Writing above all else. (I add in Bible) So I use literature and history and science and Spanish as the extras that round out our day after those things are done. (Actually I technically call writing "LA" so I can incorporate all grammar and writing together - and we read lots every day too) If you are doing a SL core, there is simply too much to do. Your focus with SL is on the centrality of history to your day, and LCC doesn't look at it that way. Not saying at all what is the best way, but if you love the way SL does lit and history, then it doesn't sound to me like LCC is the right fit. You are not going to be able to give the SL stuff the second banana treatment that they would have in a true LCC day. Just my $.02.:)

Nursing. Physical therapy. Graphic design (but it doesn't pay much...just doesn't require an advanced degree).

Seriously...you have a 5 year old! You don't need to do anything in addition other than phonics, math, some handwriting, and reading lots of books. I wouldn't do a single thing else. Just enjoy!!! I've got one going into 5th grade and can tell you the pressures, don't put it on yourself or your little ones at 5. Just have a good time with it. There's going to be plenty on the timeline cards to read more if you want to.

Thanks for the ideas. I'm off to do some checking. The quick glance I made at Medi-Share said things like "we don't pay for conditions related to a sinful lifestyle" or something like that. Now I'm a believer, and I guess I can see how they would take that stance but it seems very subjective as to what they pay for. I am overweight. I eat about the same calories as my daughter and weigh A LOT more than her, would I be considered "a glutton":confused:. Not sure I want to get into all that. I guess there is no such thing as the perfect healthcare situation. I'd like to just stop paying monthly and go out-of-pocket on our reg doc visits, but it's these once in a while emergencies like the ER visit or a car accident that can be devastating financially. I'd never go without that kind of coverage. Not sure there is an easy answer... Thanks for the tips!

I don't know what to search for, so if this has been discussed, please link. I am so mad right now. :cursing:My husband and I pay $460/mo for health insurance for me and the 2 kids. DH is on his own with his work. We are not on their plan because to add me and the kids it would be over $775/mo. So we kept what we had. I have a $5000 deductible. My understanding at the time we purchased this insurance was that the deductible was for major medical hospitalizations etc. But we do not seem to be covered for the simplest of things. I recently had to take my son to the ER for the first time ever for an asthma/croup episode. I was panicking a bit as a mom, my little boy can't breathe. So I take him to the ER where he is helped with steroids. (My experience with the wait time at an almost empty Children's Medical Center ER and the other people that were there is a topic for another thread:glare:). I just got a bill for over $1000 for this ER visit. At the time I took him he had started to feel better with the cold a/c in the car, and I was second guessing a little, but I figured we had good insurance and I should go ahead and go. This was not a frivolous decision and it was the first ER visit EVER with my children in almost 10 years. He also had to have bloodwork last December to track his growth, and that wasn't covered. Over $400 in lab costs. As it is, it seems the only thing that would be covered is any major catastrophe over the deductible. And we do have our doctor office visits covered, but we have a $40 copay. We only go to the doctor a couple of times a year. I am just SO frustrated that we are paying over $5520 a year in insurance premiums but still have our emergency fund wiped out by a simple visit to the ER. There has to be a better way!!!! Is there something else we can do? Aren't there some kind of groups you can join where you pool your monthly premiums, but they are less, or something? Seems like I heard about this but I tried to Google and got so many different links on health insurance it was overwhelming. I thought maybe you all would know of something that would be a better alternative for us. TIA!

:iagree: :iagree:Randy Alcorn's book is life changing! Truly a superb book that might change the way you view the afterlife.

They could be coming from the drains of seldom used sinks or bathtubs, or even in your laundry room. I'd check those spots too. Otherwise it could be that they are under your house. Are you sure there's no standing water under your house or very near by? Sorry! That's a yucky problem. I had a friend who would find them every time she'd turn on the water in her kids bathroom tub. She wound up having to keep some pesticide there so that when they were done with baths she could spray to make sure they didn't breed in there in between uses.

What did you wind up getting? Did you go to Total Relief?

:grouphug: and prayers for you and those you are ministering to. I hope this gets the media coverage that the disaster in Haiti got and you will get some aid!

I loved DP!!! I wish they would come out with a step-by-step guide. Of course, it's all there in the book, but I'd like a bit more hand holding. I was just this morning thinking about literature for my dd (going into 5th) and want to do more of this. A great place to start is just with the books they have in DP (some of which we have not read yet) and by the time we are done with 3 or 4 of them I should have a good idea of how to do it with any book. Thanks for the reminder!

I may have posted in the other thread, but what helped me was Birkenstocks. I don't think it's the arch support so much as the metatarsil (sp?) support that they have. It's the reason that no other shoe seems to help me. And I hate it because Birks are not so cute. I mean they are fine for around the house and trips to the grocery store, but when I need to dress up it's always a big compromise for me...risk a flare up by wearing cute shoes, or keep my feet comfy and wear the Birks? :confused: I don't like Dansko's because they are too cloggy and round-toed. It's a challenge. Ellie, there is a great store at Anderson Mill and 183 called Total Relief Footwear . They helped me a great deal. I already had my Birks, but they helped me find some good orthotics for my tennies. They are big retailers for Z-coil shoes but those are not right for PF. They are great for back and knee pain but I didn't think they did anything for PF. But these guys do have great orthotics they can help with and really good customer service. They are very knowledgeable. InStep at Gateway Shopping Center by Whole Foods (Arboretum area) is also good but they don't stock the orthotics, just a big retailer of Birks and Dansko among others. As evidenced by this post, I am a proponent of a good shoe. Losing weight is great but if I can't walk I can't lose much weight. I needed help NOW and Birks were the only thing that helped me. I still never ever go barefoot. HTH!

Imp, I want to thank you so much for sharing. I knew you had an injury and I knew you had pain, but I had no idea what you are going through. I am so sorry, and I will pray for God's hand of comfort on you and that you will have some peace sometimes. I think you are AWESOME to keep homeschooling! Just...:grouphug: