I am not sure when middle age starts. But I know that more than a few people just in this last year in their 30's to mid 40's have died suddenly. Heart attack, aneurism, accidents, suicide. I just had in January a friend, age 39 die in his sleep from a massive heart attack and then the next day my cousins son, age 24 killed himself. I had to pick which funeral to go to because they were 22 hours apart in distance. We also know several people with cancer, one who just shot himself last week instead of "slowly fading" as he said. I am not liking this time of life much. My kids range from 18 to 7 and I am starting to get paranoid.

:grouphug:prayed for you. May the God of all understanding comfort you this weekend.

Get a book. Go to a museum, beach, puddle of water. Call a field trip day and go look at a tree. Tell the boys they are practicing being husbands today and they must tell you every 30 minutes how ravishingly beautiful you are. Then bake cookies and eat them with tea. Alone. In your room or somewhere no one can come in while you watch a mystery or romance.

I am so thankful with you and happy for your family!

Just because they are teachers does not mean they are objective. She may not like homeschooling for a personal reason. She may think it puts a spotlight on the public schools failures and resents it as an alternative. She may resent that your kids are well prepared for the material but not robotic in the way the school kids are who have been trained since preschool to sit at a desk for 6 hours, line up when told, go to the bathroom when told, speak when told, walk when told, play when told, eat when told, work when told, you get my meaning. Homeschoolers are independent and have their own mind. It will take a while for your kids to be indoctrinated into the robotic atmosphere and fit in. And the fact that they aren't blithering idiots who can barely add probably frustrates her. They are independent thinkers who have been well educated. Public schools frown on that.

:iagree: Tell the teacher you consider this bullying and do it in front of the Principal. The reason I pulled my son out in 1st grade was because of a teacher like this. Horrible woman, I hope she has warts.

I haven't done anything yet as it hasn't happened again. I am wondering if it was an ocular migraine. I have a call into my doctor. And I am trying to call an eye doctor. I hesitate because we each have a 600.00 deductible and the eye doctor requires payment up front. I just don't have the money to go. I will say that my left eye seems to be weaker in the vision area today. I called my girlfriend who has symptoms of Marphan Syndrome, she had a detached retina last year and her 13 year old had one last month. It is a symptom of their syndrome. She asked me alot of questions and said it didn't sound like either her or her son's symptoms when their retinas detached. With the pressure that was in my head at the same time I have a feeling it is neurological. I have loud ringing in my ears too. As soon as I can get someone to see me I will post back. Thank you all so much.

I LOVE Alton Brown!

Ok, last night I was sitting at dinner and out of the corner of my eye I saw a bright flash of light. Of course no one else saw it. I get migraines and the occasional ocular ones that are painless but I go blind in spots with bright flashing jagged spots. They last about 20 minutes and occur about 2 times a year. This was not that. I figured I was getting ready to have a migraine so I went and took a shower but nothing happened and I continued on my night. Well, a few minutes ago, I go to bend down to wipe up around the stove and out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a dark figure to my left. Like someone walking by in the dining room in which the lights were out. I jerked to my left and looked and nothing was there. Oh well, I ignored it and continued to wipe up the floor listening to my ds18 tell me about his day but then all of the sudden it was like the room lit up. Like someone turned up the lights and it got brighter. I stood up and asked my son what just happened. He said he didn't see anything. So, what happened?

I love everything bagels and any other. If you make homemade bagels and they are great please give me the recipe. Thank YOU!:001_smile:

I take demerol with phenergan at night so that I can sleep and demerol with zophran during the day so that I can function. I always use an ice pack. I have tied them onto my head before to get through a day. I live in sunglasses and carry a trash can to puke in. But if I had to pick one, it would be the ice pack that saves me. I can't take triptan either because of Mitral valve prolaspe. I actually had a nuerologist tell me one time that the incident of cardiovascualar deaths were low, like 10 to 20% on triptans and that was a safe percentage. Uh....yeah....like I am not always the one who is in the low percents for any bad thing to happen. No way am I taking a chance. So, I am eating organic and I take hormonal balancing herbs from Radiantwonder.com I have gone from 12 a month to about 4 or 5. and the intensity has lessened from a 24-72 hour period to about a 12 to 24. I take superfertility 2 and 4 (hey, I can dream can't I? you should pray for me to conceive!). Seriously, they work great and I have almost zero hot flashes anymore and I started having them at 31 or so. Appalling.:glare:

So, does this mean we don't have to do school Thursday. I mean I am always up for skipping school. Maybe we can play "Armegeddon - dig your own well" kinda stuff. Or wait.....I know, go to a museum! No one bombs museums!!:D

You are right. Sometimes it just isn't.:grouphug::grouphug:

My son's college tuition is 27,000 a year. Our income due to imports has been slashed to 1/5 of what it was 10 years ago. We live in Georgia. Hope scholarships don't cross the border. 2 days before we were to deliver him to his campus the college called and said they had 1000 unexpected applications to the University this year and they were moving 500 to the online program. We were part of the online. The tuition was 3,800. He received max Pell grant, an outside scholarship and we had to "pony" up 800.00. This semester, he received 24,000 in inhouse and out side scholarships. At the last minute he decided to stay online another semester, get a job, make an organic raised garden and get chickens. With another scholarship for being on Dean's List we won't have to pay anything. When he goes on campus he will have saved about 5,000. We will make payments on the rest. He will do work study. My point is: My son understands the necessity of a degree in todays world. He knows that we are not financially well off and it doesn't look so great for the future. He took the bull by the horns and made some grown up decisions and didn't act like a spoiled brat demanding that Mommy and Daddy foot the bill. He has always understood the value of a dollar because we have never hidden finances from him. Our daughters understand it too. They are already at age 10 and 7 planning their colleges. They know how important the SATs are, their school work. We talk allllll the time. The future should be realistic to your kids so that they are not afraid of it and feel like they can do something about it. Never let the future stop you from doing great things now. Having children, is a great thing.

We know that most of the time, if we go ahead and have one without the full support of our dh, (I mean he hasn't had a vasectomy has he?) he will love the baby and not walk out on you. What is it that keeps us from doing it anyway? We wouldn't want someone to make us have another one if we were very opposed to it. So we don't want to do it to them. But then you have the sticky problem of knowing that it is just a hurdle they need to get through and will appreciate it later. Most of the time. Marriage is suppose to be a partnership and we really should have discussed this kid thing before getting married. And someone should have told us, like with a test or something, that we would want to continue having children because ours are so great and we love being Mommies. So there should have been an out in the agreement clause of number of kiddies. But most of us didn't have this very detailed discussion. But marriage is supposed to be a living breathing thing, with compromise, lovingly understanding the other. Make him make a list of why he doesn't want another child. Tell him honestly that this is something that makes you cry every month that Aunt Flo comes. Tell him that your heart is breaking, it is a biological thing and that you wish you had known what a wonderful life you would be giving children and this world needs millions of kids brought up in a wonderful, loving home to counterbalance the millions who aren't and may take over the world....ok so I am getting carried away. But seriously, I don't think that men understand the depth of the longing a woman has form children. It is bone deep. It goes beyond our own reasoning. We yearn, ache and clench our teeth every time someone says "oh yeah, we are having another little bean!". Men have to be told how much this means to you and how much it will mean in the future. As in bitterness towards him, if it will cause it and you have to really look at yourself and see if it will. He has to understand how much this means to you. Quickly before you are too old to do anything about it. And tell him that you have to decide between yourselves, whose desires are going to be fulfilled. And why. This may not apply to you, but I have seen bitterness towards this issue, after many years destroy the marriage. And in 90% of the cases, the men regretted not having another or more children. Yes there are some who say that it is better they didn't. They were usually divorced. And the women always say they didn't let the man know just how much it means to her. So, how much does it mean to you?

It may be impossible to get him to quit eating it. But, that said, you can serve meat for dinner, give him a piece but make the kids ask for it, and serve 4 to 5 veggies so that the meat is a side item. Don't say anything and wait for his taste buds to change to desire healthy things.

One of the first things veteran homeschoolers in the homeschool group here tell the new homeschoolers is this: 1.The first year is hard. Because you have not done this before and you really are programmed that you have to have a.b.c.d. done everyday, all day until 3:00. 2. You don't have to have a.b.c.d. done every day until you have YOUR own a.b.c.d. and that comes with time. When I pulled my son out, the school gave me the rest of his years work. We just did that the first month or so and then I got confident and started looking at curriculum. 3. Do the basics right now. Math, English, spelling, simple science, read books about historical events or people. Start at the beginning. 4. Plan a trip to the next curriculum fair you can find. So that you can see what is out there. 5. Take a breath, go to a museum. Take a picnic lunch. ask your kids what they think homeschooling should look like. Listen. 6. Tell her she can do this. Every day, or every other day!:D

Does he say absolutely no? I am thinking he is not adverse to another child if you are not actively trying to prevent. I mean, he does understand how this happens right? I hope you get a BFP this month, then I can live vicariously through you.:D

I wish I didn't agree but :iagree:. My MIL always and I mean ALWAYS gets sick everytime someone in the family does. And it ALways lasts 1 or 2 days longer, was more severe, harder to get over because she is older...yada yada. But this is always after she calls them, brings them a treat, makes sure they are ok. So, she loves them but doesn't want to be left out of the sympathy/attention. It is an attention thing and it can be so automatic that they don't see it for what it is. Its like when your 6yr old says I'm thirsty and the 4yr old says Me Too. Well he wasn't thirsty a minute ago but when big brother says it he decides he is because he doesn't want the big brother to get all the good koolaid. Your dh can still be a good husband and father and be immature and jealous of the attention the kids get from you. Men naturally have a tendency to want the wives attention first. They want you to love the kids and put them above everything else...except them.

I did Abeka, Learning Language Arts through Literature, Writing Strands, and a sundry of other things all during my son's years in elementary through high school, but in the end my favorite and the most thorough in my mind are First Language Lessons all through elementary then Abeka through middle school - the whole language arts set. IMO I like Writing strands because it is incremental and not complicated. IEW was too involved for me. I haven't tried Susan Wise Bauers writing program but I bet it is great. We tried Writing tales for my dd10 last year but it was such a bad year for us in every way that we didn't get much done. I might try it again before I sell it. I liked that it used classic literature as copy work. We don't like copywork. Just FYI, my son has made dean' list at Liberty University Fall semester and made no less than a 98 on any of his essays. So something must have worked.

Love them!

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." Albert Einstein My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me out of school. (Margaret Mead) Nescit vox missa reverti (A word that has been spoken, cannot be taken back.) - Horace "You WILL carry out God's purpose. But it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John." CS Lewis And Finally: Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam? Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for. -JRR Toilken

I have one of these as my facebook status right now! and I copied dozens of them to a document and am going to change my status daily with them!!:001_smile:

the online one. Ok sorry, I know you are serious. No, I am curious but I know that mine was really high young and with each year of drug use (there were 3) I dropped by 20 points. I am glad that I was tested because I use that in my talks with teens. Ok I am digressing. Who does IQ test anymore? Do Public Schools?

My dd10 inherited social phobia from her dad. She turns red and starts to shake a little and can't talk very well when faced with crowds. This started I am thinking from birth as she screamed for 3 years unless she was in my arms. She still sleeps with me. BUT... She is constantly testing herself now. She will take a deep breath and speak in front of a class at Co-Op, she walks by herself into crowds where as before I would have to walk with her, hold her hand and watch for the signal to leave. Which while she was 4-7 came almost every time. Early in our marriage, my dh told me about this. I was the first person he ever told this to he was 28 at the time. We went to a pyschiatrist because he wanted to cure it. The Dr was great and gave us some things to do but he stressed that I needed to do these things with him by his side until he felt strong enough to do them. We started by going to the grocery store. I always wondered why he always said that was women's work. And he never went anywhere that he had not been going to since he was a kid. Then we graduated to the mall, movies etc. Seriously, we never did those things the first 7 years of my marriage. I thought it was just because he was a redneck and wanted to stay around his house and few friends house. Now, he will go out to eat by himself, go to stores, meetings all kinds of things. If he is tired it is harder and sometimes in the morning it is really difficult for him. But he tries now. Since I had been through that with him I recognized it early by my dd10's facial expressions and I read her body language since she was little. I knew it was the same thing so I stuck by her, I calmly told her that I understood her feelings and I never made her go through with anything that she felt she couldn't handle. I kept her secret and didn't tell anyone what she was going through except her very very special best friend who at a young age, like 5, would see my daughter get that look on her face and would go stand by her, take her hand and just quietly stand there until my daughter was better. I use to cry when I saw this little girl love my daughter like that. Her mom would too. But her Mom is special like that too. What I guess I am saying is that you need to be your daughters safety zone. You have to let her know that you understand and you are on her side and will stand by her when it happens, holding her hand or her, You will walk out of the situation until she calms down and that she is not a freak that sometimes people are sensitive like that. and tell her that in time she will be able to do things that she is anxious about now. But in her own time. By verbalizing all this to her you are reinforcing her control over herself and in time she will want to conquer these fears. By not trivializing her feelings you help her get past the need to get you to understand and with your strength, quiet assurance that you are there for her every time to help her through it she will gain strength and then one day she will tell you to stay while she walks through a situation by herself, in control and taking control. The first time my daughter told me she would walk by herself into a crowded room floored me. But I was so proud and she was so proud of herself too. Now she is constantly testing herself but she knows I am not going to push her, I will just support her or walk out with her. This is our story, I hope it helps.