My daughter is 9.5, entering logic stage. She has loved the Percy Jackson series and I don't think she's having any trouble distinguishing between that and her faith. I didn't allow her to read HP for quite some time for the same reasons you have, Chris, but then she read Lord of the Rings, which I had not thought to forbid. :glare: I think 50% of it went right over her head, but after that I didn't see much point in disallowing HP. She has not been bothered. I have only allowed the first HP movie, though, since movies are so much more intense.

Are they set-in sleeves? Doll patterns usually have you sew the sleeve to the bodice and then sew up the side seams/sleeves to make it easier. I haven't checked these patterns for that. But if that's the problem, you can just leave the side seams until last.

I am halfway through a bunch of books! So my official title of the week is Lessons from Little Rock by Terrence Roberts, who was one of the Little Rock Nine--it is really good and I would especially recommend it for any teenager studying segregation, because it is short and to the point but very hard to put down. Here's my blog post. I'm reading: The Holy Sinner, by Thomas Mann Sky Coyote, by Kage Baker (SF fans, read her stuff! Sadly, she died just yesterday.) The Soloist, Steve Lopez A-Z of Sewing I don't even know what else :)

Sure, a few guys I went to HS with, and one I dated for a while. I don't think I say much to them. We share most of our college friends. I think a good rule is to keep any communication on a public level--if you're not PMing a guy, you don't have much of a chance to flirt. Well I did carry on a fairly long correspondence with one guy from college. All about homeschooling and the joys of Latin. Given that our mutual reaction when I saw that he's now married was "What girl did he manage to convince to marry him?!?, I don't think my husband is worried. (He is a lovely guy, but you wouldn't want to live with him.)

To be blunt, you are the acting head of the household, despite how much you might like for it to be otherwise. You're supporting the family, you're running the family and raising the children--if he is not contributing, why does he get a vote in how the family runs? I would have to say that if he isn't doing anything to help the family, he doesn't get to a voice in family decisions.

I'm stumped. Stayfree has plain white on the adhesive strip thingys. What does "Remember the Crown" even mean??

In EE's case, I think the part where she was dying had a lot to do with it. In that kind of situation you're focused on creating as much stability as possible for your kids, and trying to get them prepared for when you're gone. OTOH, she's still not dead, so seems like she got tired of that and said forget it, I'm gonna boot him. I can understand her actions in that case, but I don't know if he had a record of cheating. I can see staying because you don't want to destroy what's been built. But on the whole, I'd be kicking his butt to the curb and demanding the house and a lot of alimony! Unless God told me otherwise. But he'd have to tell me pretty loudly.

My school district introduced Everyday Math this year, and so I will not be sending my kids to PS until high school, if they do go. Yes, I have my kids draw pictures, and of course I want them to understand the math they're doing. But as far as I can tell EM is very good at confusing children and denying understanding, unless you have a really amazing mathy-person as a teacher, which of course most teachers aren't. Our program works very well for us, and I'm happy to see my daughters' progress and understanding.

No, I don't have any severe allergies. My 9yo does; she's allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, and legumes. Happily, it is not currently life-threatening, but as we know, peanut allergies can escalate--so we do carry an EpiPen and so on. All this is to say that I did discover an odd little statistical anomaly recently. We only know one other child with such severe allergies ourselves--it's not common--but at one point in college I shared a house with 3 other women. Out of the four, three of us have children with peanut allergies. Which is so weird. OTOH, I had a lot of roommates, and that was just one chapter. I think the rise in allergies is partly better diagnosis, and partly a real rise in allergies. My personal inclination is to investigate the toxins we've been pouring into the environment for 100 years or so with no real idea of what they will do.

Apparently panic attacks aren't necessarily related to panic or fear. They're your nervous system going into overload or something, but they don't have to have a particular reason--sometimes they just happen, or are triggered by benign circumstances. So "panic" is kind of an unfortunate name for them, really. Not that I'm a doctor or know anything about it. But that's what I've read.

What is a good 'love and logic' style consequence for lying? Consider it a relatively small lie--one of those cases where the fact of the lie is much worse than the actual thing that was lied about.

I would say that Heyer was a better writer than your other 3 you list. She did a lot of research, and her Regency characters always talk in authentic slang and such, it's really a lot of fun to read.:001_smile: I wish I had found your treasure trove, our library has hardly any of her books!

With my first pregnancy, it was obvious at the first ultrasound that there was something very wrong. We were given the option to abort immediately or wait and see what happened. Within a week I was pretty sure the baby was gone, and another US a week or so after that confirmed it. I had to have a D&E, but I know he was gone, and waiting longer would have probably made me very ill from infection. They offered me counseling with other folks who had aborted Down's Syndrome babies, someone at the office thought I'd done it too. :sad:

To me, 4 is the minimum to be considered large. 5 is more like it.

He was on board from the first--better education, lack of the horrible school environment, all-around a good idea. It was pretty funny, I was waffling for a long time about whether or not I really wanted to do it (I did, but I was scared!) and he wouldn't give his opinion because he didn't want me to feel pushed into it.:001_smile:

Yeah, my guess was fleas. :D

Here's my post for week 4: Airborn. I've got some other posts up too for other reading challenges. I did too much blogging today!

That's so interesting. I've always felt that a shaved head is really lovely and feminine. I guess I'm weird, but most of the time when I see a woman with a shaved head, I'm envious and think it's beautiful. (I'd do it, but you have to have the right kind of skull, and I don't. Sigh.)

I'm mostly enjoying the wet, since we really need it. (Actually, I grew up on the central coast, and I can't remember ever NOT needing rain.) I am missing my usual long morning walk--it's mostly been too rainy.

NGA, can you tell me more about Composition in the Classical Tradition? I looked at Amazon but I'd like your opinion and some detail.

Lucky. My library has hardly any of them.

Ooh, that sounds good. On to the reading list with it!

I'll get everything posted today, but right now I'm reading a new book of essays by Chinue Achebe, called "The education of a British-protected child." I'm really enjoying it and will have to put more Achebe on my to-read list. It's years since I read Things Fall Apart and I've never read anything else.

That would be particularly welcome just now. In a little bit I'm going to go pick up a 10yo boy we're hosting for two days while his parents are out of town. He's a sweet boy but has some ADD issues and I don't really know him well enough to be comfortable doing this. Being alone instead... I'd take myself out to lunch with a friend, and sew all afternoon, and maybe even go buy a new bra! You know, really live it up! :D

Dang, if I'd known about the Sacramento thing I would have figured out how to go tonight, if only for the fun of a trip and the interest of doing something new. Now I'm all tied up and can't go.