It really depends to me when they were married. I think couples with giant age differences are strange when one of them is young and the other an adult. (18 and 35 or 21 and 41, etc,). On the other hand, I have no problems with a 65 and an 85. By the time people are older, their apparant age can be extremely different from their actual age.

We loaned money to my brother when he lost a job in a recession. We felt blessed that my dh has a recession proof job. It was not money we needed, it was from a mutual fund that we would later use to buy a house. It took him some time to pay us back but he did. We would not have sued. But then we knew that the only reason he was having problems was due to the then ecomonic situation. He found a job and paid us back within three years. We will be willing to do this again if needed during this recession. I would not lend money to anyone with me needed the money in the future. The only money I would lend is investments or discretaniory spending. No money that I knew I would need in the future.

I will pray for you. I am similarly struggling with this with my 12yo daughter. I know that SAD is a major factor here since we moved up here on Dec. 19th from Florida and went from sunny relatively long days in winter to cloudy very short days here.

We have mostly done full year but we are doing some semester classes including in science. For ninth grade, dd did marine science for one semester and later on she will complete her one semester criminalistics course. Her other science courses will be regular one year courses- chemistry, biology and physics.

Well I am about six years from being a SAHW (my youngest will then be in college). I am easing back into it slowly. I hope to soon be able to do more since I really want next year for my youngest to be much more independent. She is my slowest to become so. (12 and a sixth grader) Anyway, I would go to doctor appointments without worries, I would shop and do errands in daytime, I would volunteer , I would go to more meetings like book clubs, gardening, military spouses, etc. I would probably attend a women's Bible study. I will simply live my life with more calm and less haste.

My 15 yo dd who is a tenth grader finished her first cc course last semester. She really enjoyed it, learned a lot, and wants to do more courses. We moved to VA due to the military so she can't do a course this semester but she is looking forward to continuing in fall when she is 16. Good luck for your son.

I am not so sure why I am so anxious about finding new doctors in this area. I have done this many times- sometimes with physician referrals, sometimes not. But I am paralyzed here. I need so many doctors and this area is so intimidating to me. There are hundreds of doctors to choose from. I am tryig to read reviews and keep coming up with horror stories. If anyone has recommendations, I would love to hear. I need internal medicine, pediatrician, orthopedist (for my adolescent daughters), neurologist (for my teenager), Rheumatologist (for me), Gynecologist (for me), opthalmologist (for me). I have good health insurance and I don't have to go to anyone in particular but I need pediatrician who deals with ADHD, a rheumatologist who is familiar with less common diseases, and an internal medicine doctor who can tolerate complicated cases. Many doctors can't or won't. Many have their own weird agendas like everyone has Lyme disease or no one is ADHD. My dh understands nothing about my fears. The thing is I grew up here and had bad experiences here with doctors both with myself and my mother and sister.

We are a military family and don't get to choose where we live except in very minor circumstances. So far, many places that I thought wouldn't be good have turned out terrific and one place I thought would be great had turned out no so good for us with homeschooling and some other things. Since it is inevitable that I will move and since some of the places have some rather negative aspects, I choose to mostly ignore the negative and focus on the positive. I just moved here to Northern Virginia. My dh found me a great house in a great neighborhood. I choose to focus on that- not the horrible traffic situation, not the lousy condition of stores that I was accustomed to being much nicer, not the fact that I feel like a foreigner in my own country here near the Nation's Capital. I am also focusing on the fact that there are scores of museums and parks here to visit for free or very low cost. There are tons of performances many of which are free or very low cost. There are ingredients available here in stores that I could never get in the other areas I lived in. Movies come out here that never made it to areas I lived in previously. Yes, it is much more expensive but my huisband gets more money here too. We make it a habit to visit attractions in each area and so, for example , when my daughter took a Florida history class at her co-op- she had visited more places in Florida in her slightly less than 2 years in Florida than the other kids had visited in their 8-13 years.

I was 26 with my first and 33 (one month from 34) with my youngest. I had chronic illnesses that didn't become evident until I was between my first and second. I developed a form of arthritis but I felt great during my pregnancies. I also developed adult onset asthma with my second. With my third, I had a few more risk factors so I ws more closely monitored but I never had bed rest or anything like that. The deliveries were fairly normal but long (the first two had to have the placenta removed by the doctor). My children were all light weight which was probably due to my underlying condition and my asthma. (They were 6,8; 6,11, and 6,4 and they were all full-term).

Praying for Alyssa here.

My daughters had to share a room in three houses from the time they were almost 4 and the other six months old to the time when the oldest was 12 and the younger was 9.5. I am so glad that they don't have to share anymore. They don't have similar personalities nor similar sleeping patterns or cleaning habits. I had to share a room with my sister from the time she was born and I was three to the time I left for college (18.5). I hated it since again we had different personalities and different cleaning preferences. I didn't even consider having them share rooms at this point. Fortunately we have moved into a large house and it is so much more peaceful. My two daughters and at opposite ends of the house and don't bother each other.

Hi all, I just moved here. Or I should say I moved back here. I lived in Annadale from 1979 to 1981 but haven't lived here since. I am living outside the beltway now. It is a very big change for us and it will take a while to get used to this here. Now for writing a curriculum description.

Oh and I have to change my name. I am no longer Christina in Space Coast but I haven't come up with a good name. I am in very cold to me northern Virginia.

So we are so called moved into our new house. Of course, four out of five of us don't have a bed for tonight since the movers lost our bed hardware to put our beds up. We also can't find our lamps and most rooms in this house don't have overhead lights. I can't get the temperature right in this house. I put it at 72 and it was blazing hot. I lowered it to 70 and we are all cold. We live in the woods and there are deer in my yard (no, I don't like deer, they eat gardens and I am a gardener by heart). It took my son an hour to get us coffee since the traffic is so horrendous. Yesterday, when my dh and son went to get some of our stuff out of the storage facility, they passed three accidents on local roads involving police and ambulances. Dh tells me this is normal around here. Dd got freaked out this morning by the scores of illegals hanging around everywhere like paint stores (expected) and Wendys and McDonalds (not expected) looking for work. Since they stremed of the public buses, she has given up any ideas about taking the bus anywhere by herself. Christmas- what about it? I don't know where most of my things are, there are too many boxes everywhere to get a tree, I have to be unpacking so who has time to shop, I have to go buy some of us warm clothing so who has time to shop for gifts. I haven't baked anything this holiday season and I love to bake. I have no book to read and I love to read but couldn't get to a library today and who knows about tomorrow? I could go on and on but that would be boring. As dh asked a while ago, I am complaining to you all so he won't have to hear it. He knows I am dreadfully unhappy and mifddle aged women on their first day of that time of month don't like being in uncomfortable places.

We do St. Nicholas Day (with a small present and candy in the shoe) and Christmas.

I was very sad when I heard the news. Prayers for your community.

I honestly think it is personality more than spacing. With my children, my oldest and younest are most similar. They are 7.5 years apart. In the middle is my daughter who is not like the other two at all. She isn't close to the other two as well. She usually gets along okay with the other two but not close.

I wasn't sure how to vote. We have multi-colored lights. We have some shiny balls. We also have many ornaments that were bought on our travels or at fairs. We also have some homemade ornaments. It isn't a theme tree at all. It is eclectic like our homeschooling life and our life in general.

I have been doing tai chi and I am a Christian. I use it to help my arthritis. I don't know anything spiritual about it at all. Yes, someone may do it for some religious reasons but I am trying to prevent further falls and the resultant breaks. I do that so I don't become a burden and can still help do Christian works. Simple stretching has nothing to do with yoga or tai chi. I think your motivation and your particular practice is what is key.

Well my children did know about God before they heard the myths since they heard about God from birth and we didn't hit myths until they were older. But before they heard Greek myths, they heard Indian myths and African Myths like Anansi the Spider. I read to them all kinds of children's picture books and none of my three had any problems distinguishing what we believe and stories we read in a book. They also had no problems understanding that movies are not reality. Although I have never heard of anyone adopting ancient Greek religion, I have heard of people adopting their versions of ancient Greek and ancient Celtic religions. I think that the important word in 'their versions' since they adopt strange religions that don't have that much known about them (or at least they don't know much about them) and adapt the practices in their lives.

I was just about to post that request as well. It is such a horrible situation. That film of the police van comandeered by the terrorists shooting at people on the street is just so frightening. Then to hear that they are also terrorists in a hospital for women and children. What a sad night.

For us, homeschooling groups are quite important. It is usually where my kids find friends. Since we move every few years we don't have the luxury of having local friends. Occasionally they will find a friend in some other activity like church youth group or karate. However, homeschooling groups have been our best avenue for this. I find friendly interactions, if not true firends, to be absolutely essential to us. At this last location, my middle had problems making a friend. I hope this changes at our new location. However, she still really liked group activities like beach day, science fair, not back to school breakfast, and things like that. I think it may not be that essential if you live in one place. Then you can make more friendships for more different avenues. We are moving and can expect to be at our new location a maximum of two years. That isn;t much time for friendships to develop. I hope to find friends for all three of us in Northern Virginia (Annandale)

We have been in the military for 22 years. My husband was recruited from NJ where his family lives. He is AF. After 22 years, he will live within a easy day's drive from his dad. Mostly we have been almost a thousand to thousands of miles away. Where you get stationed has a lot to do with your specialty. In the Air Force, it seems if you have a specialty which is needed at lots of bases, you often get stationed near your home at first. My dh went through training with an accountant who joined the AF to see the world. He had been working in ID. His first station was Mountain Home, ID. We know it was the smae for many others. My dh is a physicist so they are not needed at every base so we have limited places we get stationed.

None of us in our family like pumpkin pie. None of us like sweet potatoes. None of us like mayonnaise. We have absolutely no problems with pumpkin bread or soemthing like that. But we aren't big squash fans here.

We are a military family and are also familiar with DOD civilian policy. As military, we always get a housing allowance no matter where we live if we don't live in base housing. Overseas, we do get a COLA. We also get a moving in allowance to account for things like certain fixtures not being standard in certain countries and also to help pay for transformers for the electric differences. Military families get one visit back to the United States every four years. They pay for the flights, you pay for your lodging. We caqn also take advantage of Space A flights. Schooling costs depend on whether you are near a DOD school or not. If not, you get a large allowance for school but it has to be secular material. Your allowance can also be used to supplement the education to encompass what would have been available at school - group art lessons, gym lessons, music lessons. DOD is similar but with more generous travel allowances ( I believe it is a home visit every two years). Both active duty and civilian get transportatiion paid for your college student once a year roundtrip. SO you end up paying for one trip yourself and they pay for one. You need to find other arrangements for short breaks like Thanksgiving or spring break. I also knew contracter families and they seemed to get better moving deals but worse deals with COLA. The super important thing about COLA is to make sure it changes very frequently like every month. The lack of frequent changes really hurt certain workers when the Euro kept going up and up while we were living there. Other important financial considerations are whether you get exemptions from local taxes (European taxes tend to be enormously higher than ours), whether you get allowances or subsidized gasoline costs (their taxes make gas at least double the price of ours, and in some countries it is quadruple), and what kind of housing your housing allowance will get you. WIth the military either active or civilian, they make sure you are getting something akin to your rank or position though in a given country, it may not be anything equivalent to what you get in the US.