If you get LVT or LVP, get a distressed look so the scratches look like they are supposed to be there.

We had the Grease soundtrack on 8 track

Wow! I thought renting a car and purchasing alcohol were the only things 18 year old adults couldn't do that other adults can do. Do the shelters realize that there are countless responsible PARENTS under age 21??? Gee whiz! I hope the Staten Island cat is a great match. Craigslist would be my 2nd option.

Thank you! Even though I don't post often, you are all free to gently correct any of my comma errors in the future. 😉 I still have a long way fo go refining other areas of grammar. Thankfully, I am learning right along with my kids.

Our grammar program teaches to add a comma after a city/state and month/day/year combo mid-sentence regardless of a comma needing to be in the place for a different rule. This is new to me! I feel cheated out of a proper punctuation education. Our grammar book would teach this: Incorrect: June 1, 2000 is my birthday. Correct: June 1, 2000, is my birthday Incorrect: The weather in Chicago, Illinois is often windy. Correct: The weather in Chicago, Illinois, is often windy. I consulted 2 retired school teachers on this. They taught elementary-middle school grades. They say our grammar book is incorrect. According to them, a comma is only needed after a complete date or city/state combo if a comma would be placed there for another reason (such as occurring before a conjunction or after a prepositional phrase.). I casually asked a homeschool senior what she was taught. She was taught the same as the retired teachers. I asked which grammar program she used, but she does not remember which program taught her the rules for commas, Google search tells me the grammar book is correct, but my above incorrect examples are common enough that the correct way appears incorrect to most people. Are there conflicting sources about this? Is the rule outdated? Is it common knowledge among most upper level instructors? ETA: Edited several times for grammatical errors, lol. I am certain there are still errors. 😉

Shepher'd pie frozen into small glass Pyrex dishes. Make the mashed potatoes on the top with olive oil and broth (or rice milk) instead of butter and milk. We use apple juice or milk subs (usually rice milk or almond milk) in pancake or muffin recipes. Does she have a decent sized fridge? If so, a bag of prewashed lettuce, a goat cheese log, some nuts of choice, and cooked chopped chicken on hand makes it easy to put a hearty salad together. I would encourage her to keep apples, oranges, and bananas on hand for snacks to eat with a handful of walnuts or almonds. Some dairy intolerant people I know tolerate hard cheeses like sharp cheddar cheese better than the softer cheeses. If she really craves cheese on something, I would advise she switch to sharp cheddar cheese for that once in a while dairy splurge.

We got the popular one from Costoc that has a sale pretty regularly. Maybe Novafoam??? We liked it and held out getting a new mattress a couple years past the time we should have.

Play scrabble, go on walks or hikes, rent a Redbox DVD, attend a free library or nature program, browse at a used book/CD store, and/or have a picnic for "date" time with your spouse. Shop Goodwill on half price day. If you drink alcohol, enjoy it at home after the kids go to bed instead of buying drinks at the restaurant. Take a packed lunch and large water bottle to zoos, theme parks, and any entertainment attraction. I promise that the $8 hot dog, chips, and drink combo isn't worth $8. Make popcorn from scratch. Kernels are cheap. Try to swap out childcare with another family instead of paying for a sitter or daycare if possible. I know this isn't a good plan If work schedules need accommodated with the childcare, but it is a good plan for date nights, mental health days, and MD appointments. Freeze leftovers in single serve containers as a quick meal for anyone in the house to grab when heading to work for the day and other lunch options failed due to limited time or a bare pantry. Buy all the school supplies you need for the year in July or August. Paint rooms yourself, but splurge on good painter's tape. If you are going to stay at a hotel, $10/night extra for a hot, filling breakfast is worth it for a family of 4+. Get the pets' rabies shots through whatever community program offers a rabies clinic instead of through the private vet. Ours used to be free, but now $10/year. Unfortunately, it wasn't until our 2nd child came along and we really had to pinch pennies that I started implemting the above things. Oh, the money we could have saved!

If you serve this everyday, and your husband is like mine, he will be very motivated to get the kitchen done ASAP.

Do you have a local homeschool FB page or yahoo group where you could post what you have and ask if someone knows anyone in a tight financial situation that could use the materials? Or if you have to report to an umbrella school, I would ask the staff there if they know of a family that needs curricula,

I don't get required grade reporting unless the purpose is to let someone on the outside decide if something needs to change based on the grade. I don't even get reporting grades to colleges based on GPA from homeschools or B&M schools unless the college has some knowledge of the expectations for each grade from the B&M school or homeschool. Except for test scores published by some established curriculum or test writers, teacher grades are subjective. One mom can consider a traditional aerobic workout an hour/day an A in high school PE while another mom can require completion of a triathlon as an A grade for high school PE. In my high school PE, I just had to "dress out" each day and pretend to be somewhat interested in the coach's instructions to get an A in high school PE. Even then, I could skip "dressing out" (do they even use that term in high school PE anymore???) and sit on the bench with other slackers 5 times and still get an A. I made nearly straight A's in a low performing school's honor's program and didn't know half of what B students knew from other schools. I can see grades for homeschoolers being more variable. Yes, you can choose to back grades up by tests scores, but still what does the grade matter? If one assigns a C in most classes to a student who gets a 30 something on the ACT, how does that differ from a mom who assigned an A in most classes to a student who gets a 30 something on the ACT? The only difference is some colleges give scholarships for high GPAs, but how can that be fair unless the college has some certain measurable standard of what was required to obtain an A in each class and the college is sure the prior homeschool or B&M school met that standard. We have to report grades to our umbrella school, but even the lady who keeps records said no one would investigate a grade unless I was assigning failing grades and wanted to grade promote. Even long before high school....As a homeschooler, what does it matter to anybody if my 8yo gets a C or A reported on the required semester report card??? The other thing I don't get is asking "What would Charlotte do?" (I don't see this here, but do on some CM forums). I get that Charlotte Mason was a fine educator, left behind wonderful educational advice in her writings, and her methods are quite popular among today's homeschoolers. I even use some of her methods. The last thing I care about if I am dropping one of her book choices, don't want to sit with my kids and knit 2 hours every afternoon, or study auto mechanics instead of Impressionist Art is if Charlotte (who lived over a hundred years ago on another continent in a different culture) would approve. Even here, with several SWB followers, I don't see posts that say, "Would SWB approve if we don't follow the 4 year history cycle?"

The Thai told me while there that they have 3 seasons...hot, hotter, and hottest. I forget when their rainy season is, but try to schedule going sometime not in the rainy season. I was only at the Bangkok airport, but stayed in the Chaing Mai and northern village areas for 2 months. Beautiful and loved it. The Thai are very hospitable. I liked the Chaing Mai zoo. Hopefully unneeded advice, but as an aside: If you were to get very sick (hopefully you won't), the main hospital in Chaing Mai is one of the best in that area of the world. Missionaries from my precvious very large church travelled from other Asian countries to that hospital if at all possible when needing medical care beyond simple MD visits. A lady in our group got sick in a rural area of Thailand, got misdiagnosed at a small rural medical facility outside Chaing Mai, and got sicker. We got her to Chaing Mai hospital and she got fabulous care there and was better after a couple days in that hospital. The bill was cheap.

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I always considered report cards as communication from the teacher to the parent about how well or not well the student is doing in each subject. If I am the teacher, I KNOW how well or not well my child is doing in each subject so report cards are useless in our situation. High school may be different since colleges want to see grades for each credit, but I will reevaluate then as to rather I call it a report card and hand it to my child/student as such. I do have to assign grades for each subject with our twice/year attendance report for our umbrella school. At this time, I just kind of wing it for a grade. A's for subjects they show great effort and progress, B's for subjects that they give good effort but aren't giving it their all or an area they struggle but try hard, and I don't allow mediocre or sloppy effort that would receive C's or D's. We work at stuff at their pace, not at state standards' or common core's pace. They do not know I send the grades in twice/year. As they are getting older, they do like a letter grade on their math worksheets or spelling dictation exercises. We celebrate each A, rework any assignments that don't get an A and celebrate we have the opportunity to do that. 🙂

Forgot to mention, ,,,,,if you don't want your phone to ring when you are not right with your phone, you can go to settings and place your phone on "Do Not Disturb." This is a simple thing. If your phone is in locked position, it will not ring and you can check the missed calls after entering your password when you are ready to check for missed calls.

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You could fix roast and veggies in the crockpot that morning. Serve with a side salad and GF garlic/cheddar/herb drop biscuits. I use Pamela's pancake mix, some water, some canola oil, garlic powder, basil, salt, and cheddar cheese. Sorry I don't know specific amounts of water and oil. I just wing it until I get the right consistency. Baked apple halves with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon for dessert. Another option is a loaded potato bar with options of leftover ham or chili as the main protein toppings.

Glad I am not alone. I got my dd the late 80s white-bodied Kirsten in great condition off eBay. Not knowing I was planning to give it to her last Christmas, she saw an Our Generation doll at Target she loved and put at the top of her Christmas list. I casually showed her and oohed and aahed over Kirsten online when we were doll browsing. She liked Kirsten okay, but she still kept the OG doll on her Christmas list. Since I already had the expensive doll, and her main Christmas wish was the cheaper doll, I gave her both last Christmas. She likes Kirsten, but she adores the OG doll she picked. So when we "play" dolls together, I play with Kirsten and she plays with the OG one, lol. I think getting her Kirsten was my passive-aggressive way of getting a doll to play with for myself. She will likely pass down her dolls to me when she outgrows them. FYI, at this website you can download the dress patterns for the 4 original AG dolls for free. I am not good at sewing, but have made Kirsten's basic dress, apron, and bonnet. http://www.agplaythings.com/

Curious, which doll did you get? Asked by someone who is 40+ and wants a doll for Christmas......

I haven't looked at the website or deal, but you likely could use the 40% or 50% coupon that comes with each week's ad and buy just one for the amount off as the coupon. If you have a store close by, you can download the coupon to your smartphone and have it scanned at checkout. Buying just one doll should allow for the coupon deal. Buying 2 items would be full price for the greater cost item and 1/2 price for the lower or equal cost item. PSA: if you have a teacher's ID card, Michael's gives a teacher discount (maybe 10% or 15%) off regular priced items (but not in addition to other discounts). For other inexpensive q8" dolls, my dd loves her Target Our Generation dolls more than her AG doll. I have gotten her 2 OG dolls 2 Christmases in a row on sale. The ones I get are the ones that come with an extra outfit, extra pair of shoes, accessories, and a book. When on sale, it is actually cheaper to buy the doll with the extras in the package than buy the outfits and accessory packages separately without the doll,

1. Romaine lettuce leaves to wrap around the lunch meat. Sliced apples, baby carrots, and celery sticks with a peanut butter and honey mix dipping sauce. Lay's type chips 2. Chef salad (diced ham or turkey, boiled eggs, diced tomatoes, shredded carrots, sliced cucumbers) with simple homemade dressing (such as EVOO, balsamic vinegar, honey, garlic powder, basil). If you have GF bread, you can easily make GF croutons by cubing the bread, mixing in olive oil and seasonings, and bake a short time.

Some repeats, but my favorites: Diary, cool writing pens, stretch gloves, wallet, watch, comfy or wacky socks, jewelry, CD, movie tickets, magazine subscription, Spirograph, herbed tea bags and honey, gum, paperback book, hair ties, electric toothbrush, special Christmas ornament, mini calendar book, lotion, fruit leather, fun knit hat (they had some emoji ones at our Walmart today), key chain, mini flashlights, jacks, iTunes or other applicable gift card.

My kids like throwing a stuffed animal back and forth for math fact drills. I give the equation and throw it to them, they give the answer and throw it back. They also like getting a sticker on their graded quizzes and tests.

Bumping this to see if anybody else has reviews of this for homeschool enrichment or academic courses. I am thinking of trying it for art, beginning Latin and/or Spanish, health, and any other odd and end subjects I don't get to regularly.