I agree with you on the body mod stuff. There is a line. What I think is ridiculous is the assertion (not your assertion Reya!) that a kid with long hair represents something "un-christian". Generally, I think the people who want their kids to be "above reproach" aren't worried about how the non Christian world will perceive their kids (and their kid's testimony). They seem to be more worried about how the Christian world will perceive them. As for the tattoo comment that I highlighted in Reya's post, I think the one caveat is that many people have tattoos as a permanent expression of a permanent emotion/reality, our salvation through Christ. That would be the case for my dh and I. I still believe in all things in their time, so my kids will have to wait till they're 18 if they want a tat. They can do whatever they want with their hair between now and then : )

This makes me think of how newspapers always seem to interview some random teenage boy everytime there is a breastfeeding in public uproar. The kid always says it's gross and shouldn't happen. I'm always left thinking, "what the H does a 17yo boy know about growing healthy babies?" Seriously, what the H does a med student, who has no life experience outside of his own little world know about raising healthy kids? Nada.

Writing Tales.

Have you seen this? We're doing human body this year, but I'm doing it with a 6th grader, and I think most of our books would be too mature. We're using SL science 5, which so far has had no christian content. It uses an Usborne book, which has great illustrations. I also found a couple of excellent DK books at Costco not too long ago. It has been such a fun subject.

That's one to remember. :lol::lol::lol: Were you able to keep a straight face?

That is REALLY funny. My dh once had to run into the store quick. His items were Miralax, fiber wafers and prune juice. We had a backed up kid. He realized once he got up to the checkout what they were going to think, so he called me and started talking about ds's constipation. He wanted to make sure everyone around him knew it wasn't for him. I'm on the other end of the phone asking, "Why are you calling me? I already told you why we need that stuff!"

A couple of years ago, I backed into our neighbor's sister's car, which was parked on my street. To my eye, the damage was non existent. I let her know, she took it to a shop, the estimate was $400. Our good friend owns a body shop. I asked her if he could look at the car. He did, and gave me an estimate of $250. He said the estimate she got was a good one. See, she had previously been hit and had the bumper replaced. The people who did the paint, used something cheap and the clear coat cracked when I hit her. I would have never noticed the crack if he hadn't pointed it out. His low estimate was only based on our "friend discount." I asked her if she would be willing to go to his shop, and she was not. She accepted a check from us for the $250 and called it a day. She was VERY kind to us, I think in large part because we're on very friendly terms with her sister. She DID NOT have to settle. Now we could have gone down the road that the previous repair was shotty, so it's not my fault that the clear coat cracked. Bottom line is I hit her car. Period. All that said to say this. You hit him. I don't think it matters if he was trying to be nice at first, and then wisely reconsidered. There may damage that you were not able to see because you don't know what you're looking for. This type of small body work adds up very fast. If you are worried about being scammed, have him present you more than one estimate. If you still think he's scamming you, send it over to the insurance company. What I do not think you have the right to do is to tell him to bug off. You hit him, you need to repair his car. Sorry if I'm being harsh, but I'm a little surprised by all of the replies here. I mean, my moral compass can be off compared to others (go check the late library book thread), but the thought of not paying for the repair would never occur to me. That's my 2 cents!

When my kids were really little, I did it when they weren't home. When we moved, it became a family affair. Now, even my youngest understands that we go through toys periodically and donate those that they don't play with. The 4 and 6yo are more reasonable about this than I would have ever thought possible. For your dd, I'd probably do it when she wasn't home. Slowly, so she doesn't notice. It works really well if you let their room get really dirty and they "clean" it for them. My kids never even noticed. If there was a toy that I wasn't sure about, I'd put it up in the garage for a few weeks before really chucking it.

This conversation is cracking me up. I love this board. I've always thought of it as a more severe form of Idiot. I think wanker would be more fun to say.

I grew up in a sorta functional immediate family, dysfunctional extended family situation. I married into a HIGHLY dysfunctional family, complete with every imaginable holiday drama. This would be my btdt approach. It may not be the "healthiest" in a talk things through, resolve all problems way, but for me, it is the healthiest choice. Pretend like it never happened. Call mom, ask what time the festivities start. Bring up nothing. Let her do all of the work, let dad gripe, let kids play. Leave it at that. That is what I would do. With our family, trying to resolve anything would open a can of worms so big and nasty, that I would avoid it at all costs. We choose to limit our time with our (screwed up members) family, without cutting out that part of our kids lives. As for the hurt of what your mom said, for that I have no advice, just (((((hugs)))) If she's anything like my MIL, she takes whatever feeling she has at that moment and applies it globally to her entire life. Sorry Colleen, I feel your pain.

Here's what I did. I took everything away. They were able to get one toy back each day, on the following conditions. 1) The first one was free. After that, if a toy was left out, it was taken back and they didn't get a new one out the next day. 2) They had to tell me which toy they wanted, without looking through them. There were SO MANY toys that they completely forgot about. After a few months, I chucked them. The end result was they got back the toys that they actually cared about, and those toys (for the most part) get put away.

I read about that this morning. It sounded more like one of Aesop's fables to me.

Every year, my dh and I take our youth group to New Orleans. We work with children, ranging from 5-12, who are growing up in some of the worst projects in our country. This summer we helped run their day camp. I'll tell you how they run it, because I think it may help you guys. Let me start off by saying that we see every imaginable behavior come out of these kids. They have a large amount of vollunteers, which sounds like may be a limitation. We had about 150 kids a day. For starters, the kids were broken down into age groups- 5-7, 8-9, 11-12. Everyday, the kids were picked up or brought in and they first had to register. This involved checking in at the table and getting a name tag. Name tags were different color packing tape for each age group. I was with the 5-7yos. The discipline process was as follows. If a child was getting out of hand, you put a check mark on their name tag. For some of the kids, it was especially effective to have them put the check mark. If they got 2 checks, they were sent to talk with "sweet Jill." Sweet Jill was one of the permanent staff members, she would sit down, talk with the child (or children, if they were fighting), she was known for her sweetness and ability to turn a child's behavior around. This was their way of heading off any further issues. 3 checks and the child went home for the day. Hitting of any kind would send you home for the week. Every single day they would start off the camp by going over the behavior rules. They would remind the kids that if they felt like they were having problems and that they were going to get mad, or hit, they could always ask to go see Jill. I was the adult leader, and I had 4 teens with me and about 25 kids. Every single time, I am shocked by some of the behavior I see come out of such young kids. These kids are often raising themselves. It's a different world. I gave out checks every day. The teens with me were hesitant at first, until they saw how the kids reacted to me. The ones I disciplined the most, were the ones that hung on my legs and just completely attached themselves to me. These kids WANT boundaries. They felt safe with me because I didn't allow them to get away with what they knew was bad behavior. Now, this is NOT a story about how I took misbehaving kids and turned them into angels in a week. There was still behavior problems at the end of the week. But even through that, relationships were built. The other part of the brilliance of this program was the activities. It was a 3 hour program. There was 3 stations- craft, bible, sports. The 3 age groups rotated through the 3 stations. There was a gathering at the beginning, with song, rules, and prayer. Then the rotation, then a regrouping at the end, where the kids went wild until the vans left. There was a constant progression. I'm just going to go through your post and highlight a few things that stood out to me. The ministry that we serve in NO is called Urban Impact. They may have some helpful info on their website. This sounds like a great ministry that you guys have going. I hope it blossoms! HTH,

Our local group is pretty perfect. No fees, weekly park days, monthly moms night out ( which I have yet to make it to), announcement of classes and field trips. If any given person organizes a field trip or finds a class, they spread the word, but there are no commitees or expectations for the group to produce activities. Example- there is a hs PE class that many of the members are part of, but it is not run by the group. It's run by several parents who took it upon themselves to start it and class openings are announced on the e-loop. It's kind of like small government. ETA- we were part of a different group in Florida, that had membership fees, parties, commitees, co-ops, the whole nine. That group was a lot less friendly and I think it was because all of the moms were stretched so thin. There was this great expectation to contribute and participate. It was just way too much.

Not an expert, but I think I can speak with experience about SL and MUS.

This is awesome, thanks!

That makes me smile. One of those things that can go under, "things homeschool moms do to make themselves crazy.". I coordinated my 2 youngest in SL cores/ WP all the way through HS and then figured out that ds is not a SL kid. Sigh.

I would keep them. I've done it before. If you return them, you're going to have to scrap all of your plans. It never even occurs to me to feel guilty about things that others feel bad about. I wonder what that says about me? :001_huh:

:lurk5:

:lurk5:

$800 / month family of 6, includes anything household related. We're in Ca, that alone jumped our bill up $150 when we moved here.

We've had a rough week. I know for my kids it has a lot to do with the time change and several late nights recently. After our umpteenth meltdown yesterday, I decided that all kids were going to bed one hour early. So what does dh do? He informs me last night that he needs a ride to the airport at 430am!!! I love him, but I could have strangled him. I'm sure the extra sleep will help, once they actually get it. Even though we gained an hour of sleep, for my kid's internal clocks, it was like going to bed an hour late, several nights in a row. I'll let you know if it helps!

Love, love, LOVE our clearplay. We got ours for Christmas last year and it's great. I don't think we've ever used it on an R film, but quite a few PG and PG 13s. The kids especially love watching superhero movies like Transformers, that they otherwise would not get to watch.

Do MILs count? If so, I'm definitely in trouble....

HSA's don't "expire." Flex accounts do. I have no idea where the money goes. Good question.