Spring! The calendar says it is here! God’s perfectly ordered world of seasons show it is breaking through. Birds dance merrily across my balcony, peering in my windows and twittering about. My roses have shoots, hydrangeas are beginning to brighten up, plants beginning to show leaves.

What else comes in spring? The 2nd annual series of SPRING CLEANSES! Yes, it is that time again at the Prudent Wife, to delve into the world of spring cleanses and detoxes. I am beginning this cycle gently, with the Flushy Slushy recipe that a friend shared with me near the end of the cleanses last year. The recipe is super simple, economical and uses fresh ingredients most of us have on hand already. It is a whole food juice cleanse whipped up in the Vita-Mix, very gentle. Tasty!

Infertility patients should consider a cleanse. After cleansing for a month last summer, I was miraculously pregnant. If you check with your physician first, the Flushy Slushy is something that can be done during the two week wait (please check). For women trying to conceive, it is a little harder to do a detox or cleanse, and caution must be used. You do not want to flood the baby with toxins! Since we are still trying to get pregnant, I do the whole juice during the luteal phase (ovulation to end, the infamous and never ending two week wait) using only gentle things that would be healthy to consume during pregnancy. When my cycle starts - I can pursue more aggressive things!

Bon appetit!

You are cordially invited to one of the most charming, hospitable & popular garden shows on the East Coast! http://www.gardenfaire.net/

Millionaire on $11 an hour 1:24

Paul Navone donated millions to two New Jersey schools on $11 an hour. How’d he do it? This is an amazing video!!

From CNN Money

Whether the country is officially in recession is determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private nonprofit research organization. The group considers several economic indicators, as well as the severity and duration of a downturn.

The NBER says the most recent recession lasted from March 2001 until November 2001 and that the economy has been in “expansion” since then.

The group typically does not declare a recession for anywhere from 6 to 18 months after its arrival.

On Friday, the NBER’s president, Harvard University economist Martin Feldstein, said we are in a recession, though it was not an official NBER declaration.

NEXT: Economic Growth: Slumping

I am doing a quick survey to see WHERE your homeschool graduates have GONE to college! Informal, for personal information on a project I am working on that will help all homeschoolers with college options! It will be posted on my blog.  I really want to know exactly WHICH options homeschooled kids are choosing! Please, please cut and paste and forward this on to all of your homeschool friends who have graduated kids! If you have graduated several kids, just answer per kid, if you would be so kind!

If your kids have graduated and gone to college could you please send me a quick email lisa@theprudentwife.com and answer the following questions:

College options while in high school

• Did you pursue dual enrollment options (Jr. and Sr. year in high school – enrolling in college courses that counted double for high school credit?)
  • If so, how many?
• Did your child take CLEP tests?

College After Homeschool Graduation

• Did your child attend Junior College/Community College?

·         Private?

·         Public?

• Did your child pursue Distance Learning?
• Did your child attend a State School (UCLA, UT,)?
• Did your child attend a private college or university?
• Did your child attend a Christian college of university?

Cost Questions

• Was cost a big factor in undergrad education?
• Did you encourage your child to attend college debt free?

Any other information you would like to include would be most appreciated! We thank you for participating in this INFORMAL survey that I will happily publish! This will greatly help ALL homeschoolers!

By Jerome Idaszak, Associate Editor, The Kiplinger Letter

We’re forecasting a mild, short contraction ending well before the year is out. With housing and lending industries hurting, factory production and retail sales falling, employment shrinking and consumer incomes slowing, there’s no question that a recession is under way. But relief is already in sight.

Another article talking about the reality that our American consumption is driving our economy into the ground. you have got to read this phenomenal article

by MICHAEL SCHUMAN/HONG KONG

For years, Americans have reveled in profligate, load-up-the-back- of-the-SUV-at-Target excess, much of it paid for by credit cards, home equity or other loans. The binge has produced some supposedly healthy economic growth and provided everyone lots of nice stuff. But now debt collectors from around the world are knocking. That’s why today’s turmoil in U.S. financial markets will end in a massive transfer of wealth from America to the rest of the globe.

There is, simply put, no way out of this situation for America. If you don’t believe me, perhaps you’ll believe Warren Buffett. The Sage of Omaha predicted this very scenario in 2003 in an article in Fortune. He tells the story of two fictional islands, Thriftville and Squanderville. In Squanderville, the residents live beyond their means by importing from Thriftville in return for IOUs. Eventually, Thriftville converts this debt into Squanderville assets until Thriftville owns all of Squanderville. America, Buffett warned, was facing the same fate. “Our trade deficit has greatly worsened, to the point that our country’s ‘net worth,’ so to speak, is now being transferred abroad at an alarming rate,” Buffett wrote.

Americans, meet Squanderville.

Oh my! How is this for news.

By Malcolm Ritter

NEW YORK (AP) - Having a big belly in your 40s can boost your risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia decades later, a new study suggests.

Court of Appeal Grants Petition for Re-hearing (From HSLDA)

On March 25, the California Court of Appeal granted a motion for rehearing in the ‘In re Rachel L.’ case–the controversial decision which purported to ban all homeschooling in that state unless the parents held a teaching license qualifying them to teach in public schools.

The automatic effect of granting this motion is that the prior opinion is vacated and is no longer binding on any one, including the parties in the case.

The Court of Appeal has solicited a number of public school establishment organizations to submit amicus briefs including the California Superintendent of Public Instruction, California Department of Education, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and three California teacher unions.  The court also granted permission to Sunland Christian School to file an amicus brief.  The order also indicates that it will consider amicus applications from other groups.

Home School Legal Defense Association will seek permission to file such an amicus brief and will coordinate efforts with a number of organizations interesting in filing briefs to support the right of parents to homeschool their children in California.

“This is a great first step,” said Michael Farris, chairman of HSLDA.  “We are very glad that this case will be reheard and that this opinion has been vacated, but there is no guarantee as to what the ultimate outcome will be.  This case remains our top priority,” he added.

Coming Together in California

HSLDA is pleased to announce that all the major California-based homeschool organizations have come together in order to better serve California homeschool families. The statement below outlines our position on the recent court ruling and explains the goal we are all working towards.

Joint Statement Regarding Homeschooling in California

The following organizations, California Homeschool Network, Christian Home Educators Association of California, Private and Home Educators of California and HomeSchool Association of California, represent the major California-based organizations working on a statewide basis to support private homeschooling. They, together with the Home School Legal Defense Association, which also works in California to support private homeschooling and which has members in California, jointly issue the following statement:

1. We are united in the goal of protecting the right of parents to teach their children privately at home without additional governmental interference.

2. We believe that children deserve to learn in the environment that best meets their individual needs. We support the right of parents to direct their children’s education including, if they desire, teaching their children privately at home apart from any public school program and without a teaching credential.

3. We believe that the opinion rendered by the Second District Court of Appeals in the case titled In re Rachel L on February 28, 2008 is excessively broad in its scope and incorrectly states the law as applied to home education in California.

4. We believe that the interpretation of California law, as understood by our organizations and by the California Department of Education prior to the issuance of this decision, is correct, that the interests of both the State of California in ensuring that children are educated adequately and of parents in directing their children’s education are well met by this prior interpretation of law, and that no change in California law regarding the teaching of children privately at home is needed.

For further information, please contact these organizations as follows: