As his advocate, you need to push her to come up with an alternative plan for his recovery. He has already proven he will not behave as doctor-directed and allow his care for his health in your home. He cannot come to your home because he won't listen to the doctor's orders. I think, to be blunt, you just need to lay down the law. "My Dad, coming home with me is not an option." Take that off the table. These are serious medical conditions and highly infectious. And you are dealing with an elderly person who won't listen to what is prescribed.

I was a banker/loan officer before being a SAHM. My advice is to stay in the home and not do a home equity product. Also, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT go into a new business until you have solid footing on the ground financially. You have no guarantee of a new business's success and if it does not fair well, then no bank will lend to you if you do not have sufficient income to give as evidence as an ability to pay back a loan/line of credit. Hold steady to what you are doing now and keep that main source of income for as long as possible. Do you have a car loan? If you do, then either sell that car and buy a cheap but safe used one for the short term and put the money from the car sale toward the consumer debt. Or, if you own your car(s) and they are nicer/newer, then sell them and buy a reliable, but older car like a Toyota or Honda fro the short term. Put the sale proceeds toward the consumer debt. Call your CC companies and talk to them about lowering your rate of interest. You might be surprised what they can and will do to keep your business. Also, I rarely advise this, but if your credit is still decent and you do not have a problem with reckless spending on credit cards, find a 0% offer for 12 or 18 months and do a balance transfer to it. Then, pay off that balance while accruing no interest. Lastly, CANCEL cable, gym memberships, and stop doing any unnecessary spending for extras. One other thing, many businesses are hiring. Why not get a job for a few hours each evening and on weekends? Sure. It is extra time and not with the family, but you have to ask yourself what you want most - time now with family or freedom from debt and time in the future worry-free?

Guilt? Nope. Don't listen to that voice. Seriously. You are not a medical professional that your dad needs at this stage of his life. Your training is beyond this level of care. Having these conversations with his doctors and care givers is helping him a long in these difficult times. Don't think of this as, "What I am doing TO dad." Think of it as, "What I am doing FOR dad." And, you can still be active in his life with time and visits. Those will hopefully enable conversations and nice moments together when someone else is dealing with his bathing, toileting and skin care. You will still be involved and an advocate for him.

He's been there before, I think. It seems like he does it to build good-will between the two nations, which isn't horrible. But I think it is weird Kim J. likes him and vice versa. What troubles me is the allegiance and willingness to travel to a nation that wants to wipe us off the face of the planet...

You will likely get heavily penalized and taxed on any withdrawals on the 401(k) prior to your retirement age. IF you must pull money out, then do so out of the non-retirement assets. Regarding the market and volatility, yes a large correction is HIGHLY likely. It's not so much politically related as it is just the unsustainability of so much in the American economy that has been building over the past decade/years AKA bubbles. If you want to try and protect some of your assets for a troubled economy, you can look into precious metals investing such as gold and/or silver as both rise when stocks plummet. But they are also highly volatile so some people do not like that. That said, gold has risen 400+% in the past decade. You also may wish to rethink stocks that involve consumer goods and go more into utilities. Consumer spending tanks when the economy tanks. Depending on how desirable your neighborhood is, if you want to move, I would advise doing the bare minimum on home improvements if you want to sell. Look at and read about easy ways to update and clean your home before spending a load of money on updates. Returns on investments are best for kitchen and bath projects. But you will still likely only recoup only 90% or less on those updates when you sell. Look at homes online that have sold in your 5 mile radius in the past 6 months. What did they have that you don't? How long were they listed? Make your project list based off those facts rather than nebulous ideas of home renos.

My mom and dad just went through a few years of this with mom's dad. He too was a veteran. And, he was totally committed to staying out of the nursing home and/or facilities. My mom is a retired RN and it soon got too much for her physically (to lift him) and emotionally as well. You need to remember that getting your dad help...IS loving him and honoring him. AND, there is absolutely nothing wrong with saying, "Dad, the care you need is beyond my knowledge and ability." It sounds like it is time to look into all the other options PPs have noted. Regarding switching doctors, why don't you get the support of his current doctors and have them help you advise your father on moving along to VA dcotors/care, etc.? At some point, I do just think you have to lay down the ground rules. You are no good to anybody, including your father, in an upset and worn out state.

I agree with you. My sister was a great dancer, and she has a BA in fine arts from a prestigious university. But, when graduation time came, she had no job and was always the 2nd best at auditions for professional dance companies. She never got hired. So she waited tables for 7 years. I watched her struggle. Waiting tables is a good job and she made okay money, but she never had nice things and she had to work all the time to make ends meet and never even had time to dance, even for fun! Then, she went back and had to do school all over again and now has a masters in OT and a great, a family-sustaining job. I think your sentiments about nursing and being with animals as a passion/volunteerism make total sense. Doing what you love is SO important, but it can be done as a hobby or pastime and still give that paycheck of the heart, leaving the monetary paycheck for a career that has some sustainability.

If it is recreational reading, perhaps the Hardy Boys? I ditto Hatchet.

A step-ladder. I would try Amazon and only buy stuff with 4 or more stars. Craigslist. Or, travel to a larger city and check out the Goodwills there. I would Craigslist hard items like tables and chairs, and bed frames. But I would buy new mattresses, bedding, and upholstered furniture (try Hayneedle.com, wayfair.com, jossandmain.com, overstock.com). Many deals on kitchen items at places like Costco.

Was the mutual fund inside a retirement account? If so, then what type of IRA? If not a retirement account and just a separate investment, then they may be able to tax you on the full "income" you earned by de-investing that money. It sounds like they may be taxing you a Capital Gains Tax.

I am 34 now with 4 kids under 7. I was in a "serious" relationships in high school, from around 16, that continued into college with one really fantastic guy. I never married him, though. We grew apart. And that is what often happens to "young love." It is real love, but it is bounded by the necessary confines of the parents' home and rules, as well as the distance and the mobility of the two young people in the relationship. My mom really trivialized my relationship with this guy. She also intensely impeded it. She made it seem like it was fake because I was young. Not only did that hurt me emotionally, but it caused me to want to get away from her and not allow her into the deeper parts of my life. It took YEARS to get back a relationship with my mom that I felt was mutually helpful and beneficial and built on mutual respect. OP, it sounds like you have a nice relationship with this young man and I urge you to continue that and to speak highly of him (as you deem appropriate) to your daughter. However, I would also delicately encourage her every so often to understand that she and/or he may change and grow out of this relationship over the next few years as one or both of them spread their wings. In terms of faith, I didn't quite understand whether or not you said your daughter is a Christian and the boyfriend is not. But, my $0.02 is that marriage is work (good work) and it requires a lot of time and effort at its base. Stats show us the high divorce numbers both inside and outside the church. We just cannot argue with those numbers. My question would be, why make marriage potentially harder by coming at it from two different religious perspectives? Religion is more than what you do on a holy day or how you decorate your home. It often (not always) informs how you give money, how you discipline and/or educate your kids, how you view major things like debt, saving, and spending money, and it may even affect how spare time is spent, or what is considered "appropriate" TV, movies, and video games. Those could be potentially fatal issues in a marriage if not properly handled. Clearly, here, many people have navigated that really well - being of different faiths and still married. But, I wager that for people who hold very strong faiths (or none) in any direction, and are living those out daily and are truly orthodox, then being of one same religion is of the utmost importance to the success of their marriage.

Both my maternal grandparents, and one of my aunts, who died young, were cremated. They are all interred together in a regular cemetery, at a plot, inside a stone bench. Their names and dates are on the front and a Scripture verse is on the back of it. They each have special urns. One thing of note is to consider how large of an urn you buy...and if it fits in the allotted space. We almost couldn't get Grandpa's remains into the bench due to the cumulative sizes of the three urns in the space together. They had memorial services a few weeks after their cremations were each done so no viewings. And, we had meals afterward.

I ditto Sanibel in FL. If cost is an issue, then you can stay in a less pricey place on the mainland (find one with a free breakfast) using a Priceline deal, and then drive onto the island via a bridge each day. There is a cost per vehicle to use the bridge. But once on the island, you can picnic or try a local restaurant. Also, there are places to rent beach chairs, umbrellas and/or bikes. Or, if you want to stay on the island, then go in the off-season and get a place that has a kitchen so you can cook your own meals.

Sorry. This is a post about hemorrhoids. So if you don't want to read more, I will understand. I am interested in hearing peoples' experiences with medical intervention when all the OTC methods do not work. Without too much detail, I have two thrombosed problems after 4 kiddos. It's been a year since they flared up, but the past week has been unbearable with pain - like 7-8 on the pain scale. I've done the high fiber diet with water, tucks, Prep-H, suppositories, bathing, and a prescription strength cream for pain. I have iced myself repeatedly. I lay on my side as much as I can. Anyway, this afternoon I have an appointment with a colon/rectal doctor to see about getting them treated. Likely lanced or I don't know what she will suggest. Any feedback on this? Warnings? Successes? I am hoping with so many women who have given birth on here, likely somebody has some advice to share. Thanks. I'm feeling sheepish asking because, this is such a yucky, taboo topic...

Try Linda the Bra Lady online. I have had some luck there.

You can indeed appeal them. But whether or not you should is another matter. If you ask them to look more closely into your property, they may assert it's been undervalued and, in fact, increase the value even more when they re-assess, which would mean more in taxes. Taxes tend to increase every year anyways - it's just the way it is. We have owned a home in KY and then another in MN and we just moved last summer to our current place, also in MN. Every year, regardless of state or city, the property taxes have increased. It is not something that can really be changed...it likely has more to do with communities' needs and desires increasing the municipalities needing to get more revenue to pay for the stuff people want. So if people want/expect less...theoretically taxes on property would go down. But...that never seems to happen...people always want more. But, the best thing to do (if you have a mortgage) is to pay extra toward your principle loan amount. This cuts time off the loan term and saves you tens of thousands in interest costs over the life of the loan. I was a banker/loan officer before being a SAHMama. Even making a 13th mortgage payment each year can wipe off years and interest paid. There are free online calculators you can use to determine just how much you can save on interest. All financial institutions can set-up your payment structure (leaving everything else the same) to draw out that 13th payment each year automatically. Or, they can increase your principle paid each month to an amount you select and your mortgage payment increases by whatever you choose.

How is ANY reference in public to a women's vagina at all appropriate? Wow. How did you respond to him? I probably would've said, "Nope. Amazon Prime."

I have what's called hyper calcification on one of my top front teeth. Basically, it's a spot that is really, really white and doesn't blend into the color of my other teeth. I've never been bothered by it - it isn't very large and it's white and teeth are white sooooo, why fuss? And it has no negative affect or danger to my teeth or health. One time when we lived in KY at our dentist, I was laying in the exam chair and the dentist struck up a conversation with the hygienist, in the same room as me, about a "friend" she had who has hyper calcification and how she opted to get it fixed. Then the dentist in front of me, proceeded to lament how she couldn't understand why anybody didn't want to get it fixed. It was obvious it was a "fake" conversation to get me to ask about fixing ($$$ to her) my tooth extra-whiteness. It annoyed me. It was highly rude and unprofessional. We ended up finding a new dentist after that. Anyway, if she has just looked at me and said, "That's hyper calcification on your tooth in front. If it bothers you in any way, I would be able to get rid of it and make that area blend with your other teeth." That would be a professional observing me and providing a way to fix it instead of making me feel like an invisible fish in a fish bowl.

I just joined here today, so I hope I can still chime in. I see grammar like I see music. Learning the notes and scales as small components of a full measure and then of a full musical piece make for a well-grounded and well-rounded musician. Of course, it is tedious. But, I actually think that tedium can be a benefit to kids these days - hard work for the sake of hard work in music, grammar, or writing cursive, for example, mold the mind and make it stronger. So maybe the overall goal is not to learn how to diagram a sentence, but instead the goal is to become a stronger thinker and learner - and writer. Another way to look at it is with art. So many of the masters we love today first received instruction from their teachers in technique, and other seemingly elementary basics, etc.. Once they learned the rules, they could break them. Music and grammar are like this too. I think the best musicians, artists, and writers fall into this category of knowing and understanding the "rules" very well, but making things their own (breaking the rules) once they have mastered the fundamentals. We're a young h-s family. We are just wrapping up our first year of Shurley Grammar with our 7-year-old. We do not follow every lesson to a T because it is a lot. But, I have enjoyed this work because it has taught him sentence structure. For example, a sentence must have a Noun, Verb, Subject, make complete sense, have a capital letter, and an end mark. He had to learn about each of those components. Now, he knows how a complete sentence looks and sounds when he reads or writes. The lessons also taught the beginnings of writing expository paragraphs, friendly letters, and thank you notes. So far, I am a fan of separate grammar instruction.

Hello, I am new here (just joined less than an hour ago), but I wanted to suggest that your family member go online and do a search for home school groups in her area. Perhaps some have contact information and/or websites. Once she finds a few, she could contact them and see if they have any "membership requirements" in term of religious belief. Some home school groups just meet socially (one I belong to meets once per month for moms-only and we talk and eat...and it's marvelous.), but still do talk about school stuff and education. DH actually found it for me when he searched for home school groups in our area - it was mentioned on someone's blog - very much a fluke that we found it. Good luck!

Hello, I just found this forum today and decided to join without even lurking for a bit. We are in our second year of home schooling. Our eldest is 7. We also have kiddos who are 5 1/2, 3 1/2, and 9 months. Currently, we use Veritas as well as Classical Conversations. We enjoy both, and so far, are having a hard time deciding between the two. But because everyone is so young, we do not intend to choose one over the other just yet. My husband travels a lot for work - so I really appreciate community, both the in-person kind and this Internet kind. I look forward to popping around this forum. Thanks!