Bramble

Hmm. I can see why Loy would be sceered of Microwaves. Perhaps, once, he was all alone in the Chalet. Perhaps he had a top secret meeting(sex) so sent all the servants avay. Afterwards, being hungered, he decided to heat himself a hotdog. He didn't know about wrapping it in a paper towel,having never microwaved before, so it came out deformed. The sight struck FEAR(which had to be spiritual) into his manly heart, because it reminded him of something.

Don't forget how TWI averted the Y2K world changing near apocalypse disaster by having believers store gallons of water and canned food! Oh, and that complete home inventory was spiritually powerful, too. That way your leadership could check out the contents of your medicine chest! We were encouraged to stock pile antibiotics. Now, do you all have doctors that give out antibiotic perscriptions so you can just have them around for some future illness???

Vickles, I think you are on to something. Before '94 we had a thriving little fellowship in the middle of nowhere. Old way grads were driving many miles from a couple other small towns to come to our fellowship once a week.It was fun, we had lots of kids so we did a kiddie fellowship, too. We tried to bless people, it never occurred to Mr Bramble and I that we were supposed to be reproving people and root out weakness in their lives. We had to quit being the Fellowship leaders--we, gasp, had a mortgage, and we had some pressing medical bills(lack of believing.) We eventually sold our house and moved to the Limb city(where the word was 'hot.')Rent was higher than our mortgage payment, btw. And we got to clean the limb home and do their yard work! All the people that traveled to our fellowship were told to drive To The Limb, many more miles away, or move to the limb. Many, of course, dropped out of TWI. This was how the Household was 'strenghthened' in the nineties.

Why leave when things are so good now?? I know why--because there is no gaurantee it won't get bad again. It's not like they've made any doctrinal changes. It all depends on whatever leadership you have and how they behave. I wouldn't raise my children in such an unstable group, raise them to think TWI was all there is, only to have some crap leader stick it too them at some future time.

Also, mentally prepare yourself for all the fear cards that will be played by leadershi+ and family and friend innies. I know you know the drill--but it is still harsh and shocking when it comes from the mouth of some one you love and respect. You will not be spiritually punished for leaving TWI.

I don't want to contradict Allen, but I would suggest NOT leaving hints around if you live in an area with leadershi+ barbarians, unless you feel that drama will help. Keep your thoughts quiet and put on your Fellowship face until you are ready to go. I would suggest a phone call, kept brief, and let them know you will not discuss your choice with them, please leave you alone. Be aware that you might be trashed as spiritual dreck in your area(we certainly were.) If you have good friends, you might tell them at the same time, before leadershi+ gets the word out with their spin on it.

Chas, I homeschooled preschool with two of my kids. We didn't so much follow a curriculum, but I played ABC and 123 games, did lots of art projects and cooking. I was also on a pretty regular schedule--"It's story time now, let's put away toys." Schedules can be frustrating to a child who hasn't had to follow one too tightly--and schools are often tightly scheduled. One learned to read from a phonics game. In my area you want your beginning kindergartener to have good scissor skills, and to be able to hold a pencil correctly(hard to relearn.)It is good if they can read their own name. Any additional ABC or number knowledge will only help. Any self help skill will make the day easier for a little kindergartener--zipping, tying, etc. Remember, the ones who don't have to wait for teacher to zip their coats get the swings. Reading books to your kids is the best thing you can do. I often did themes- gardens, farms etc, and got books to read from the library, which is what we do in my preschool program. Our local library had a mom and tots story time followed by a simple craft once a week. We never missed that, it was fun.

I heard from an innie not too long ago, one who's had a foot half out the door for years, but still stays. Innie was all about how nice and sweet everything is...and I'm sure it is. I know the current folk innie goes to fellowship with, none of them were Nazis. Innie kind of hoped we would come back, now that everything is nice(even though we moved a thousand miles away and there are no TWI fellowships in this area.) I explained how I didn't think TWI was a safe place for my family--when you never know what kind of leadershi+ you'll get, and your protection against crap leaders is in who you know that has higher rank than crap leader...Something's not right there, Innie friend. Innie also was asking about off shoots--they have a leadership change coming this fall, and you know how those go--some people have to leave, because new leadership is after them, cleaning out the household. I suspect this innie might be out the door if the new leadershi+ gives them grief. I told innie what I knew, which isn't much. Innie really needs to get a computer! But I suspect I will hear from Innie again if things become not nice.

We had my dad in hospice for the last months of his life, also. He was terminal with COPD, which is very stressful in the end. He wasn't going to get better. He knew, and we knew, that it was likely to be his last winter, because of the amount of working lung tissue he had left. He caught a cold after Christmas and was gone by February. The staff where he was at was very caring, and he was able to have enough meds to make the last days easier, which may not have happened in a hospital setting. His death was not gruesome, as we had heard COPD deaths could be...He had morphine, which may well have shortened his life by a few days or a week--or perhaps it kept him alive longer since it eased his pain and stress levels.Who knows? He was lucid when awake until the last day. Family could visit at any hour,and could stay through the night if they wanted. My mom was able to stay in his room at night. The family spent the last hours with him, staff was not a significant presence other than to check meds etc. We planned to have my mom at hospice, by her request--she also had a terminal illness, but she died unexpectedly of a stroke. Both my parent were in their late seventies at the time of their deaths,and had been ill for a number of years.

Fwiw, the witchcraft practiced in Harry Potter is nothing like what is practiced in modern Wicca/Wichcraft/Pagan beliefs and religions. It is fantasy. Harry Potter is, culturally at least, a Christian(he celebrates Christmas, not Yule or Winter Solstice.) Common Wiccan beliefs like the Rede or Charge of the goddess etc, are not part of the Harry Potter universe. The covens and circles I'm familiar with won't even consider a member or even a space in a class to someone who is under eighteen--unless the parents give permission. One group requires a parent to sign a kid up for a class,(unlike TWI.) A note won't work. They are not recruiting kids and believe witnessing and persuading people to join your beliefs is wrong, that a person has to seek out their own beliefs. Really, Wiccans etc are not that scary,and once you get out of the highschool/college age group you don't find many goths. In my age range, most of the pagan types around here are raising families, paying mortagages and tend to dress for everyday like everyone else.

The butterbeer at the party we went to was cold root beer and butterscotch syrup--very sweet. The punch bowl was sitting on dry ice, too. We made it for a b day party out of cream soda and ice cream with butterscotch swirls--I liked that better.

We got ours at 12:01, following a Potter party with pizza, butterbeer and games. My oldest has already finished it, but there are two more ahead of me. I'm trying not to look at spoilers!! I started to read the other Potter thread, but right now I'm really swamped. Too tired for that thread.

Wow, I guess you were way smarter than I was. I didn't even know about the sexcapades until LCM resigned. We were SHOCKED. We left months before that because we couldn't stand the ugly micromanagement any longer. Um --we read POP a couple months after LCM resigned(We had to buy a computer first.) Peons like us, living out in the toolies, really did NOT have access to all the information.

Waterbuffalo One of the best things you can do for a succesful diet is to not ever get really hungry. Plan substantial snacks(six mini meals is a common diet plan), have an extra piece of fruit or veggies. Lots of times I will have an extra piece of fruit--maybe I will have gone over my fruit servings, but hey, a 100 calorie apple is so much better than the 500 calorie piece of cake!

One problem with the 'good' way corps in the nineties, is they might be good to you, and keep the local hounds off your back, while at the same time they were participating in grinding up some other believer who was no more evil than you were--just not their buddy from the 'old days'. When you need to have high muck a muck leadership as your friends to protect you against other leadership, well, something is very wrong there.

The people I knew on spiritual probation had to ABS and keep up the Tape adn Mag subscriptions.

I feel bad for anyone who's family was more abusive than TWI. For me, TWI lead to bondage. I suspect that one of the reasons my kids are so perfectionistic was their early years with Waybot mom(me.) We're helping them, we no longer hold those type of expectations or 'rod of correction' but then we're still figuring it out ourselves. All my kids are straight A students, and sometimes I wonder about that. Is it healthy? I hope so. I hope they are seeing the types of doors that open for them when they work hard, that they are seeing rewards for their work, that they are not driven by some type of fear. Because, quite honestly, fear motivation is what we taught them for many years. They go to an acclerated school,too,so are surrounded by kids that are very driven.They don't seem too stressed out. Still, I wonder if we made the best choice there. Years ago, when we were still in TWI, one of my kids had to see the nurse every afternoon for tums for the stomach. Kid was in an accelerated math group, and it was much harder. At the time, I couldn't figure it out. Now I understand the need to be perfect was upsetting this child, who made more mistakes in the accelerated class.Duh.

I do think V was better. Also think Independance Day was better. The plane crash--too 'plot point' to be believable. Didn't need to be in the movie a tall. At least not on his house! Then he gets the scoop from the reporters--and Ray still plans to go to Boston? Why? To dump off his annoying kids? (The ten year old was written like a five year old.)Because he still loves the ex? The whole logic of going to Boston was not believable due to lack of character motivation. Wouldn't you head away from a major population center, hole up in some cave in the woods with your Spam, if you were trying to survive? At least in the old movie the scientist hero had information to get to the military. And everyone around him making insane choices-- Robby, the ambulance driver, his daughter. What was that? Ray was the only one who was able to keep his head--well except the ex, her husband and the in laws, who managed to survive. They were even clean. Also--more people couldn't figure out how to fix a car? Don't they have parts stores on the east coast? I also thought there were too many too stupid to live people--the crowd that stood around the hole, and the police who weren't telling people to move back etc. Then there were all those people who ran up the hill like Robbie, to see the action, I guess. Maybe I've been around rednecks too long. I could just see my sis and her family loading up the campers and heading for some hideyhole in the Bob.With beer.

I agree. Too bad that TWI(2,anyway) tried very hard to make sure believer marriages did not have this soft place to land. Iron had to sharpen iron, perfection in everything was the standard, and all that, plus there was the weekly schedule for leadershi+ to scrutinize, to see if you were sceduling in your sex time. I can see how many marriages, coming out of that, would be wobbly and close to collapse. When we left, we were relieved of lots of pressure, because living the TWI way was not natural to us, so we gave each other needed breaks. But if one of us had loved that previous lifestyle(it would appeal to someone who wanted to control their spouse)it never would have worked.

Threat of death , illness or injury was a(probably still is) a very widespread doctrine. We heard it when people left, and heard it from the limb co-ord when we left. "What about your children? You'll be outside the protection of the household." It was also tied to Abundant Sharing. We were told by limb guy that we could continue our ABS for protection. Turns out, all we needed protection from was leadershi+.

Look up preschool teacher sites. They will have tons of activities. Matching, sorting, counting, puzzles, patterns, sequencing, reading, singing, poems,fingerplays, wordplays, blocks, manipulatives,texture--all have cognitive benefits. You should be able to get some early childhood /preschool /emergent/developmental (words you might use to search)curriculum books at the library or university library, too. I'm lead teacher and curriculum director of a developmental preschool, so that's what I do all day.

Rascal--I hear you! I work full time 3/4 of the year, but in summer I drop to part time. A couple of years ago I noticed that my part time days were leaving no time at all for me--the more I was home, the more my family got lazy! Even hubby was doing yuck stuff that I had to clean up. So I got tough. Clothes not in the laundry? So sorry, guess you have no clean socks, honey. Living room messy? Sorry, kids, no tv/computer time for you, because you trashed the living room. Bedroom is chaos? Oops, too bad about that sleep over/pool party/ movie night, you're grounded. For a week we had salad from a bag and fix your own sandwiches for dinner. Four people in my house are larger and stronger than I am-- I don't think I need to be the one hauling all the trash! My mother always had a tidy house, but she was never the servant. We hopped to it as kids. I decided to be more like my mom. Now I have an absorbing hobby that I hope to make into a home based business one day. I find if I state my goals and post them(I need to have thus and such finished by this date) my husband and kids are quite supportive. You have to be demanding and firm. Plus, you're teaching your daughters not to be doormats, and your sons not to expect a doormat.

We saw people change. We saw people we knew in the early eighties who held leadership positions in the nineties---and they were far more arrogant and used anger to get what they wanted. Kind of reminds me about what happens in a preschool if a teacher has favorite. The favorite child(usually very cute, well behaved, well dressed) gets all kinds of attention and priveledges etc. They begin to expect them. Then, one Ms Wonder Teacher is gone, and I get to sub that class--and I expect Favored Child to follow all the same procedures and rules as the rest of the preschool. Now we have a problem. Now Favored Child has to get back into the behavior we expect. Now I have to have a chat with Wonder Teacher. Something like that happened to these folks, something that convinced them they were on a higher, more important plane of existence. Maybe they felt they took all that crap during Corps training, so now they deserve to be the big Dog.

I know the changes I've made in my life the past few years were not made with the idea of what would my spouse think? What would he want me to do? They were personal changes. 9whta would hubby think/do) in TWI days, and I still think like that much of the time, mostly about day to day matters. I consider my thought life, beliefs, interests, all mine. I feel I can get involved in hobbies etc--with in reason, of course. I can't(nor do I want to) spend tons of time and money that the family needs. 'My way or the Highway' wouldn't get me to comply, now. And we had so much of that attitude in TWI, hubby is sick to death of it too.

I went to a dietician, and follow a 1600 (most days) calorie balanced diet(low sodium.) It is pretty heavy on veggies and fruits,light on fats and meat.Whole grains, very little refined stuff.So many fruits serving per day, so many grain etc. I haven't lost weight quickly but am often pleasantly surprised when I get on the scale. My husband follows a diabetic type of low carb diet, with lots of veggies, and fruits only with a meal that has protein, very few starchy carbs. His blood sugar has been excellent while on it. I was ill this winter and lost 10 pounds in little over a week. That left me with big bags under the eyes--even though I felt better I didn't look it!