Our week is done! Check us out here.

Do you want to travel to different places or unpack your bags and stay in one place? Are you looking for warmer weather or just interesting things to see and do? I don't think it's realistic to think that five people can take a cruise for less than $2000 including travel expense to and from cruise. I would also think that unless you got dirt cheap plane tickets you'd need to drive. You may find amazing bargains and prove me wrong but sometimes you do get what you pay for. As for driving destinations: Gettysburg and Hershey, PA are in range. Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Richmond, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Virginia Beach, the Outer Banks, Atlanta, Charleston, S.C. There is so much good stuff in easy driving distance for you.

Any of the tours and building require a ticket. As a pp said, if you just want to go for a short bit don't buy a ticket. When are you going? Starting during traditional spring break times the activity in Williamsburg increases considerably. There are a lot more interpreters and presentations. Also, there are times when certain areas, sometimes entire streets, are closed to those without tickets. If you go to group sales, you can get discounted tickets for homeschoolers. Group sales is located to the right before you go down the steps to the visitors center and ticket sales area. Be aware that there is the option to rent colonial period costumes for kids. My kids wanted to do this so badly. The prices are truly outrageous.

Tough choice. I'd hate to have my dc miss an opportunity, but I'd also hate something, anything, happening to them. I think I'd let them go if we had a plan for every minute of every day and it was well communicated. They'd have to agree to stick to the plan. Dh would have to be available in case of an emergency. When dh was available the dc would be with him. There is so much to see in London. Most of it is easy and quick to get to by bus or metro. When possible, I'd choose the buses over metro when traveling in London. Cleaner and less crowded.

The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emory and The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre! by Carleen Madigan have been my favorite homesteading reads.

The only books I finished this week were our two read alouds: The Life and Poetry of W.B. Yeats and Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. On my own I'm reading The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman.

How exciting for you and your family! I can only imagine how thrilled you must be at the upcoming opportunity and how overwhelmed. Moving, any change really, is always difficult when you are going through it. You will get it all done. You do not have to do it all today. Focus on what's required now and make a list for what's next. You will get it all done. Prioritize and focus. What must be done to your current house? What would be nice to get done? Moving as much as you possibly can out of your current house or boxing it will be your best bet for keeping it all clean during showings. Just keep reminding yourselves of the goal and the end reward. As much as you possibly can, make it a family project.

I was having a difficult time with a stale smell from my front loading washer. I started using Nellie's All Natural Laundry Soda and I love it. The smell from my washer is gone and my clothes are clean, clean, clean.

I have a two drawer dishwasher and absolutely love it. For my family of six it's a perfect fit.

I posted it early but didn't get back here to share it until late. Better late than never. Here it is.

Here is my list so far: Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver* What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty* Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn The Merchant's Daughter by Melanie Dickerson Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque** The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine* Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother by Eve LaPlante Elsewhere: A Memoir by Richard Russo *recommended **highly recommended Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors. There are some of her sentences that I like to read over and over again. I didn't love the characters or the story, but I'm glad I read it. I loved the words. I'm reading this now. I can't decide if I am enjoying it.

I second the Redwall books. There are some great female characters, albeit animals, in those. E. Nesbit and Kate DiCamillo might be a good fit. My children have all enjoyed Roald Dahl at that age.

I recommend you get one that has front and back seats rather than side by side. They are easier to maneuver in tight spots and eliminate the problem of the toddler reaching the baby or a bigger baby grabbing the toddler's hair. Get one that you can put up and down easily. I used my Graco double for 10 years and loved it. IMO, if you are going to spend money on a purchase this is the place to do it.

More snow than school this week but it was a good one. Check it out here.

I used Lial BCM for my first two before beginning algebra with them. I plan to begin it with ds10 next year.

I check out the WTM recommendations first. If they are a good fit we go with it. If not we move to something else. The theory is more what I like than the exact curriculum recommendations. I'd say 50-75% of our curriculum was recommended in either this edition or the last edition of WTM.

When my husband needed open heart surgery (total shock!) this summer I called close family and friends and then posted updates on FB. It freed me up to concentrate on him. I relied on others to reach out to him and to me by phone, text or FB message. I was surprised at how many "liked' my updates but few responded with any kind of personal response. For someone dealing with a major medical event, saying it once is a blessing. However, by doing that you give up the comfort that one to one contact provides. Perhaps you could be the bigger person in this situation and make the effort to respond in a personal way. Your sil and bil might really appreciate the effort and you may be pleasantly surprised to find out how much it means.

Dd 8 does R&S 3 & Latina Christiana. She alternates WS2 with cursive copy work from Abeka several times a week. Currently she is reading through the Betsy-Tacy series. She reads a chapter aloud to me each day. She could read on her own but doesn't like to and I'm not sure I trust her to follow through yet.

How old is your dd?

I'm on the ball today because we are heading out of town when dd16 gets home from school. Here's our week and a little poetry from ds10.

I didn't. Thanks for telling me! I'll have to see if the crew liked her enough to listen to some more of her story.

I don't have a particular brand to recommend but I would like to recommend that you look at a double drawer dishwasher. Mine is a Kenmore Elite and it's fine but it's the style not the brand that I love. The configuration means I can put in a full meal of dishes, plus a snack and have a full load for one drawer while the next drawer is being filled. It's perfect for our family of six and doesn't leave half full loads sitting around for 24 hours + to get dry and crusty. It's an Energy Star so that's fine and it's quiet. It fits in a standard dishwasher size space. I can't recommend the double drawer configuration highly enough.

My take away from this book was that as a person I need to show love in a way that is meaningful to others. I can't just assume that my love is understood. I have to be sure to check for comprehension. I doubt that the five categories are all encompasing, but the idea that love can be shown in a lot of different ways was helpful. We listened to this a few weeks ago and all of us really enjoyed it. We kept waiting for her to sing though. Les Miserables is one of those books I was glad that I read after I finished it. Hugo's amazingly descriptive style drove me crazy sometimes. I really appreciated having read it when I saw the movie a few weeks ago. I understood the movie so much better because I knew the whole story. That's it exactly! My daughter and I felt the very same. I am so amazed at the number of books y'all read at the same time. I am a one at a time kind of woman.

Here's my list to date: Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother by Eve LaPlante Elsewhere: A Memoir by Richard Russo This week I finished All Quiet on the Western Front. I liked that SO much better than Red Badge of Courage! Clockwork Angel, Gone Girl and Clockwork Prince were totally for fun. I liked them all. This week I'm reading The Lace Reader: A Novel by Brunonia Barry for my February book club.

No school on birthdays at our house. Declaring school holidays is a perk of setting our calendar.