I sympathize, I do! I've been coming to terms with the fact that I can't do everything to the standard I want. Life is a series of trade-offs, and I have to choose priorities. I would love a clean and tidy home, but I love homeschooling and other things more, so I have to let go of that a little bit. The other day I was reading a book by and for teenagers that encouraged going after big goals (Do Hard Things is often recommended here). I liked their slogan: "All effort--even failed effort--builds muscle." Metaphorical muscle, that is, but I really appreciate that idea right now. I'll never reach perfection in this life, but consistent effort towards my goals makes me stronger and gets me closer than giving up would--and it's OK that I don't reach my ideal.

A couple of things: purposefully continuing in sin--choosing sin--is different than the sins we all commit every day because we are fallen human beings and we can't help making mistakes. Choosing to sin in order to 'help' someone (by continuing to live together) is not actually helping them, from a Christian perspective. This is a really tough situation and you all have my sympathy, but at the same time, a person looking for salvation cannot also continue to choose to live in a sinful way and expect to be able to overlook that. It's the whole serving God and mammon thing. If someone was purposefully choosing to habitually engage in other sorts of sin (honesty, anger, etc.) it would be the same. So I don't think it's inconsistent of the pastor to say something. I don't know much about the Baptist faith--I'm not even a Protestant--and I wouldn't want to tell anyone not to come to church any more. But there you go.

I only have MOTC and have found it very helpful and worth the money.

I have two girls. The older one likes Legos just fine, but will mostly pick other things. The younger one loves Legos, especially Star Wars Legos, and plays with them daily.

I just want to chime in to encourage you to go to the library. There is tons of great stuff out there, I promise. I have a daughter just like yours, only she's 9 now. I've managed to keep her in reading material so far, thanks to the library... :001_smile:

Once upon a time, many home sewing machines were run by twirling a knob on the side! They were more portable than the foot pedal models, which needed a table and a belt. So, you're doing it old-school. Or something. :001_smile: Sorry about your yucky experience, though. :glare:

I agree--go to a doctor! :grouphug:I'm so sorry you're dealing with this. My vent for the day is very minor: my FIL just sent me a friend request on facebook. I don't wanna have my FIL as my FB friend!! I have fun on FB with my college friends who all live far away. He will comment on my posts and post things and he's so hard to be in the same room with! It's not his fault--mostly--that he's annoying as all get-out, but I still don't wanna be his friend. And I'm going to have to. Sigh. Is there a resignation smilie?

I dislike the Trans-Siberian Orchestra! Also, this is going to be about the 6th week in 2 months that the children's program at church consists of me and one other person running it, instead of the 5 people that we theoretically have. I hope there's someone to play the piano today--a couple of weeks ago I was getting a couple of the kids to take turns. I don't really mind, except that I never get to go on any trips like everyone else is doing! And also my good friend is moving and I'm very sad about that (she is one of the 5).

I've got it! Maybe on the publication date we should start a thread with all the links? It's not actually my blog; it's my friend's that I guest blog on sometimes. :) I'm excited about reading it!

Today: green Jello salad, the 50's kind Hoosier Pie (pecan with chocolate) Tomorrow: rolls I have it easy!

We have really liked ours. It's very convenient and easy to use, and my kids do use it to make silly little movies. In fact that's what they've spent the last hour doing...

Dontcha love that "approved minority" thing? Oh, I don't mean you. I know you're not like all those other [insert stereotyped minority here] people. But the rest of them....

We are almost out of the woods now, but my husband was pretty much unemployed from January-beginning of October. He had been running a software startup and it was going fine until everything tanked; then all our clients disappeared and we couldn't get new ones. We didn't get unemployment money, so we had no income. Over the summer, I looked into options so that we could keep homeschooling even though I couldn't afford books, and we ended up doing something I never thought we would do--we joined a charter school that gives us money for materials. It has turned out to be a huge blessing, and the school has very few requirements, so I still get to do just what I want to do. My husband did get a job, so now we are working on getting out of this hole we are in. It happened just in time; we came very close to losing the house.

This is very interesting, because I am really quite ignorant of things like this. I, too, have been reading Vyckie's blog for the past couple of days. I have gotten the Vision Forum catalog in the past--I'm not sure why, I've never ordered from them. I've looked through it enough to know that their beliefs are quite dissimilar to mine (they'd probably call me a Satan-worshiper, actually), but I don't have a good handle on specific beliefs. For example I really have no idea what "Christian Reconstructionists (Dominion Theology/Theonomy)" means. Conservative Protestants always seem to come up with 5 more beliefs I've never heard of every time I think I've got some idea of what's going on. So I have no clue why Vision Forum would be terrifying and would appreciate an explanation if someone wouldn't mind providing one.

My neighbor, who is a teacher, seems to feel that I am a "good" homeschooler, but all those other homeschoolers are mostly dangerously uneducated. Which makes me feel vaguely like the token minority. My SIL has mellowed out a lot about the idea and is now supportive. At first she thought I was deranged. (Well, possibly I am, but not about homeschooling....)

Coyote's skulls are very slim, not round like that. I don't know what the heck it could be though.

Well, we certainly agree there. All I'm saying is that screaming and insults--from anyone at all--are not conducive to rational discourse. I must disagree with you there--were WWI and WWII about religion?-- but that is a discussion for another thread.

Evidently so do the creationists. All that name-calling and yelling is sure adding up to a respectful and constructive dialogue, isn't it?

So, it's OK to wallow in the mud if everyone else is doing it too? No need to rise above and keep the high ground here. OK, gotcha.

While Coyne is far less abrasive than Dawkins, I did have problems with his book. The parts explaining evolution are great; the parts where he tries to discuss religious faith are, to my mind, ham-handed and unhelpful. He certainly thinks that all religious people (whether or not they accept evolution) are gullible idiots. It seems to me that making that attitude obvious is not a good way to win religious people over to your side. I cannot say enough how much I agree with this. Name-calling and yelling is counter-productive from both sides. (--dangermom, religious person who has no problem with evolution whatsoever)

That's fine and all, but see--LDS folks believe that too. Mormons believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Trying to 'save a Mormon girl' is going to confuse her quite a bit. ("You need to become a Christian!" "Uh, I am a Christian." "No you're not." "Huh?") I realize that many people don't agree with us, and we do have many differing beliefs (that's why we aren't Methodists)--but we are Christians. Respectfully and openly sharing religious beliefs and talking about them is great. Aggressively trying to destroy someone's faith is not. Missionary work is not about trying to forcibly change someone. I do think it might be a good idea to have him study other faiths by attending services and speaking with members--not to change his faith, but to help him see that there are good people everywhere, doing their best to follow God's teachings. I take my kids to other churches when I can and we all enjoy it--that's how I was raised too.

Another tactile thing is a texture quilt--just largish squares of differently-textured fabrics sewn up into a throw the right size for putting over your lap. It's not necessarily very beautiful, but they're very popular for elderly folks who want things to touch.

My brother's wife is Korean, and their oldest daughter still looks exactly like him, just with different coloring. Younger daughter looks just like Mom. I have no mini-me--oldest girl looks like my mom with some of her dad's features, and younger girl is more of a mishmash. She has my hair though, only redder.

Oh, I KNOW. It drives me crazy that if I eat the last one, I have eaten all of them.

Oh, that's a bummer. But I wouldn't change anything--maybe they'll learn not to snoop next time when they realize how disappointing it is to know about your presents.