I hated play (and still do) but I loved climbing trees when I was little. It was a good way to get away from the world and hide or read a book. Living in Phoenix as a kid, trees weren't exactly plentiful but my grandmother had a huge orange tree and a huge grapefruit tree that I loved to climb and hide in.

We are the only non-vaccinating family I know of in my neck of the woods. Our state has all 3 exemption types. I know there must be others who do not vaccinate but I don't go around asking others if they vaccinate or not because it doesn't matter to me what others chose to do with their families. So I can't really say with any confidence what fraction of the population are non-vaccinating like me or even anti-vaccinations. I guess any that are vehemently against vaccines around here just aren't that vocal about it or I've just gotten really good at tuning them out.

I'm sure the only reason we didn't hear them is because it is cold, wet and rainy for a few days. We always hear them on 4th of July and NYE when the weather isn't awful. They are mostly legal here as long as you are on your own property. Not unusual to hear them randomly leading up to and a few days after said holidays either. I'm sure we will hear a few this weekend when the weather is suppose to clear up.

Finding a psych around here who isn't a specialist in addiction is hard. I found one about 6 hours away but other stuff keeps trumping getting a diagnosis for something that just puts a name to something we already know.Then add to that the money to go do it, my bad experiences with psychs... sorry, I probably should have specified it is hard for me in my situation.

I don't have experience with Mirtazapine specifically but I do have a lot of experience with anti-depressants in general. I don't think I've seen an anti-depressant that doesn't mention weigh gain as a possible side effect sadly. But I've never had an antidepressant make me gain an unbelievable amount of weight. I am overweight but very little of it is due to anti-depressants. In my experience, anti-depressants just made the weight more stubborn to take off when I'm actually trying to lose weight rather than making me gain weight. FWIW, I think you are right though, a little weight gain is nothing in the grand scheme of things to being depressed. Hugs. I hope this need med helps you.

I was diagnosed with EDS this year. It explains so much about the oddities of my body. I have severe scoliosis, stretchy skin, flexible joints, joints that dislocate for no apparent reason, and more. I have the hypermobility type, no vascular involvement. My oldest son was suspect for Marfan's, he is a tall, skinny bean pole, stretch marks, uber flexible... but it was concluded he didn't meet all the criteria. I suspect he still has EDS just not Marfan's syndrome. I also have tons of high functioning autism markers but of course since I wasn't diagnosed as a child (I should have been but it's a long story) getting a diagnosis as an adult is hard. At least one of my children also shows signs of high functioning autism.

We live on a bit of acreage and while our plan was to at least create a hobby farm or homestead, I'm not sure dh and I going to be able to do that as we both have disabilities/medical issues. Still, this is likely to be our forever home. Right now, we share 7 acres with dh's grandma. We each have our own houses but on the same land that has been in dh's family for years. When grandma passes on, it will all be ours. We aren't in a subdivision or anything, we are completely rural. It has it's advantages and disadvantages but it is what it is for us. We don't maintain the entire property, just the area around the houses. Grandma does mow the field but we keep telling her just let it grow, it's a field, it will be fine lol. We have no intention of keeping the field mown once it is completely our responsibility. We would like to plant some fruit trees in it and/or put some goats out there to keep it "mown" lol We haven't fully decided yet. Well water is not as easy to maintain as city water. Doable, sure, but it does take more maintenance and time than city water. Going to town for this or that takes time. We do have chickens and yes, a chicken sitter is a thing. I have ours setup so that they are fine on their own for up to a weekend. This has the advantage of allowing us to travel for an overnight trip (because some things that most people take for granted are an overnight trip for us) and if we do need to be gone longer, a chicken sitter only needs to come over every other day or so to check on the chickens making their job a little easier. We are 15 minutes from a small town (5,000 people) and 90 minutes from any sizeable town (75,000 - over 100,000) with amenities like a fully stocked Walmart or Target. We have a mom and pop hardware store here but it's 90 minutes or more to go to Home Depot or Lowes if they don't have what we need. Sometimes ordering it and paying shipping and waiting for it is cheaper than a trip to the bigger towns if we aren't already going there for some other reason. The nearest large city, where the university hospital and children's hospital are, is over two hours away. The nearest metro with everything you could possibly want or need is 3 - 4 hours and in another state. Dh has health needs with his disability that require us to travel to the university hospital several times a year at least, sometimes a couple times a month. We call our local rinky dink hospital, "the band-aid station" because they are not set up for any kind of trauma or serious injury. A little over a year ago, ds was down with grandma helping her burn leaves. He wasn't paying attention and ran through the cinders and ashes left from the burn pile. He got cinders in his shoes and severely burned his feet. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as it looked and he didn't need skin grafting but still, the local hospital, aka the band-aid station, sent him by ambulance to the children's hospital 2.5 hours away (it only took us a little over an hour by ambulance but still) They considered life flighting him to children's but in the end it was determined that he had enough morphine running through him by then to make the trip by much less expensive ambulance ride. Another time I accidentally ran a filet knife completely through my hand. Our local hospital was ready to send me to the university hospital until they discovered by x-ray/MRI that I somehow miraculously missed all the nerves and tendons and such and wouldn't need surgery, just stitches on both sides of my hand. They can do surgery at this hospital and have a couple of general surgeons but anything beyond an emergency appendectomy to save your life will be sent out to a larger hospital. Also small rural hospitals also do not attract the most up to date and skilled doctors. Our PCP is 45 minutes away and part of a larger hospital system. She is wonderful and totally worth the 45 minute drive through the mountains to get to her but it is at least half a day gone to go see the doctor for anything. When we have to see the local doctors, in the ER or at urgent care, we always have to explain our chronic illnesses to them as all of us have conditions that are on the less common side. We often to have explain to them why we need a certain medication over another and refer them to call our PCP and check with her before prescribing something we are unsure of. Sometimes, even before Covid, it was better to just do a phone consult with the PCP rather than rehash things with the local doctors. Last but not least, ds has to have therapy every week right now for his eyes. We have to drive 90 minutes one way and 90 minutes back to take him to therapy. It is an all day affair for a 30 - 45 minute therapy session. Every. Week. It does afford me the opportunity to go shopping in the city every week for now but it does get old rather quick. I have to plan for school lite on therapy day because I have no other choice. There are no therapy places any closer to us or that will do in home therapy in our area. It makes our school spill into the weekend sometimes when we just can't get it all done. Once again, it is what it is and we just roll with it. All this said, we do like living where we do. It's beautiful, it's quiet, we have relative freedom to do whatever we want without having to get approval from other people. But it does come at a price. For us, it's worth it though. YMMV. ETA: Just wanted to second all the posts about internet, mice, bugs, re-iterate the driving to get anywhere... when it snows here, even just a couple of inches, forget leaving the house unless you have 4x4 and even then you have to be on the look out for those who don't have 4x4 don't know how to drive in the snow. Our little town, despite being in the mountains where we don't get a lot of snow but it isn't unusual to get a few inches every year, doesn't even own salt trucks much less snow plows.

ABeCeDarian readers are pretty good too. You can buy them for Kindle on Amazon for 99 cents each.

It could be that he just isn't developmentally ready to understand carrying and borrowing. He may just need more time for the idea to bounce around in his head before he is ready to understand and apply it. It is a very common developmental learning wall that young elementary kids get stuck at for a while until their brains are ready to comprehend. My youngest picks up math concepts quickly and easily but even he got stuck behind that developmental learning wall of carrying and borrowing. So we went sideways for a while. We explored multiplication for a while. We worked more on place value. We explored really really really big numbers like decillions and touched on decimals and fractions. And now, at a week away from 8 years old, he suddenly understands and can apply carrying and borrowing. We touched on it several times while we were going sideways just to keep it fresh in his mind but we didn't bog down on it or drill it every day until he got it. He just needed time to process and understand the concept. We really like MEP math here. Math Mammoth is really good too. I would say go ahead and use MEP since it is free and you can research the others in the mean time to see if you want to try them out or not.

Razors, aftershave, their favorite cologne? Hand tools, hot sauce, spare cords for their electronics, favorite snack foods... We don't drink but I got dh a set of shot glasses with characters from his favorite movie on them. We probably won't ever use them for alcohol serving but dh likes to collect things with his favorite movie characters on them. He wants to build a display case for them.

Nora Gaydos readers

Sorry I didn't update this sooner. I did talk to his therapist and we both agreed that until he is a bit further along with phonics, working on fluency is a moot point. So we have stopped Dynamic Reader for now. Thanks for all your help and encouragement. :-)

It may have changed as this was almost 20 years ago now but when my then-infant daughter had meningitis and was hospitalized in a civilian hospital for several days, Tricare paid the entire bill, both the ER visit and the hospitalization in the PICU. We didn't pay anything out of pocket. After we were out of the military, we also had an Aetna federal employees plan that paid for a hernia surgery and several ER visits, one that required a 24 hour stay, completely. No out of pocket costs. My current dh is disabled and on state insurance and required brain surgery a little over a year ago. We didn't have to pay anything out of pocket for it but it did take a lot of making sure all the bills were submitted correctly and to the correct department and all other kinds of headache inducing legwork to get it all squared away and paid for by his insurance. Dh's grandma is a mail carrier and has federal employee insurance and when I was helping her sort out the bills from her double knee replacement, the only thing she paid for out of pocket for was out patient rehabilitation. They would have 100% paid for in patient rehab but she had to pay a deductible on out patient rehab. And she refused to do in patient even though it would be paid for. It was weird. Maybe we are the exception, or we've just been lucky, but there is insurance out there that pays 100% for hospitalizations.

Did you know that Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a series? I didn't until recently. :-)

I experimented more when I was younger (in my twenties and early thirties). Now (mid-forties), I know what we like and what we don't and can mostly tell by looking at a recipe whether or not we will actually eat it or whether I have the energy to actually make it. For example, I've learned that our family doesn't care for recipes with lots of herbs, only 2 - 3 max or it gets overwhelming for us. And I no longer have the energy for meals that require lots of prep or standing at the stove. When I was younger, I would try a few new recipes every month. Now I know what my tried and true recipes are so I only try new recipes if one that looks really good comes along. Dh thinks I'm a good cook but I don't think it is from cooking the same things all the time. Trying new things or new methods of cooking tired and true recipes is what gave me the chance to learn new things and master them or at least be ok at them.

I see nothing wrong with buying the heirlooms from her.

I agree with everyone else, Nintendo products, on the whole, are more family friendly and less violent and mature than those made for any version of PS. While we don't have the PS5, it's because there aren't as many light hearted, fun games for PS systems as there are for Nintendo systems. Dh and I just did some cursory searches and it appears that Stardew Valley, which is very family friendly, will work on PS5. You would buy it in the PS store. There is also suppose to be a new Harvest Moon, the game Stardew Valley is inspired by, coming out for PS5.

Another benefit of taking a step back is the chance to build confidence. This is especially helpful in a subject that is difficult for your child. I would start your son at WWE level 1 (there is a reason it is called "level 1" and not "grade 1") and work at his pace.

My dh is red-green color blind and slightly blue-yellow color blind. He agrees with the others and your son's eye doctor that glasses aren't likely to help.

Depends on your definition of violent. Basically you are part of a group of people and one is the "imposter". The group has to figure out who the imposter is before he or she kills the entire group. It's not gory... I would say it is more of a puzzle game than a violent game. But there is intentional killing of other players as part of the game premise so if that bothers you, it might not be right for your family. There are lots of videos of Among Us on Youtube. You can watch some game play before you decide if you want.

A dollar tree mug, decorated with Sharpies (maybe personalized with their name?) a packet of fancy hot cocoa or two, a couple of candy canes and maybe some marshmallows or candy would be cheap. Scented markers, a sketch pad and a clipboard. A paperback chapter book and a special bookmark. A picture book. (any book really, it could be for them to read on their own or a classic for the parent to read aloud) Their very own tin of fudge or cookies or candy or some other edible. Their own wallet or coin purse There are tons of $5 - $15 craft kits or science kits at my local Walmart right now. I'm sure Michael's, Target, Hobby Lobby and other stores do too. A popcorn tub or Jiffy Pop, a couple of boxes of candy and a gift card for Amazon or Netflix to stream a movie for a family movie night A classic board game as a shared gift for both kids in each family and maybe a edible for each child. You can find classics like Candy Land or Sorry or Connect 4 for $5 - $10 this time of year. Ds (7 almost 8) is currently enamored with the oversized candy bars and hershey kisses in the seasonal section at the store.

We decided last minute over the weekend to have a turkey dinner so I bought the turkey Sunday and put it directly in the fridge. I usually make a lot of homemade stuff for Thanksgiving but I decided to easy button everything this year. Almost everything is store bought or instant. I'm cooking but we are doing it next door at dh's Grandma's house. Everything is packed up and ready to go down to grandma's house. I bought pies and rolls this morning. Gotta wash up the serving wear that only gets used at Thanksgiving and a couple of pans to take with us that will be used for dinner tonight. Gotta find my electric knife I was going to wing it since everything is fairly easy but a check list like I usually do probably isn't a bad idea I'm feeling a bit off today (low blood sugar) so not having to do much today has been nice

Oh, magic kits! I bet he'd like that! On the Zingo... he is still struggling to read BOB books. He is in vision therapy and looking into more testing to find out why he struggles so much with reading. He doesn't even score as kindergarten level on word recognition. Would Zingo really be below his level? Are there any other word games that might help a child that struggles with word recognition?

For various reasons, we haven't celebrated Christmas in years. But we are celebrating this year at ds's request. Normally I have a running list in my head but I am just drawing a blank. He is 7 going on 8. His birthday is the day after New Years. So we are looking for birthday gift ideas too. He wants a skateboard but we live in the country. On a dirt road. A quarter mile away from the black top. Where the speed limit is 45 miles an hour. The nearest skate park is 45 minutes away. We plan on getting him his first bike as his "from Santa" gift as a compromise. It will be a mountain bike so he can ride it on our property and on the dirt and gravel driveways. He is a gamer kid, loves video games of all kinds but I'm wanting to stay away from buying him more video games. Maybe some video game inspired toys? He has a lot of Minecraft Legos (and a lot of legos in general) and while he likes Mario, I'm not really keen on getting him the Mario lego sets. He loves science and science experiments. His current aspiration is to be a scientist when he grows up lol. We have lots of science kits though. I've thought about Snap Circuits but I'm not sure he is ready for that. He is not reading on his own yet, so while he is getting some books for Christmas (because it used to be a tradition of mine before we stopped celebrating Christmas) getting him some book series he can't yet read isn't likely to go over well. He likes board games and card games. We have Uno, Monopoly Jr, Sorry, Candy Land, Connect 4, Battleship and many others. I bought a cribbage board at the thrift store and he is still asking me to teach him how to play lol. I thought about getting him Zingo to help with his word recognition skills. But we have no other kids living at home with us or in the general area to invite over to play. So he would be playing against adults all the time... not sure if Zingo would be a good choice in our situation. Opinions? Other options? Just need a few more ideas for Christmas/birthday presents that aren't terribly pricey (trying to keep each one under $50ish) and aren't just floor fodder (If anyone gets him more Hot Wheels cars this year, I might scream lol) Speaking of Hot Wheels, what can we slip in his stocking that isn't Hot Wheels lol. Thanks in advance.

With my youngest we had to get everything again because he was a surprise. We got the most use out of a travel swing because it could go where he went. Spending the day at Grandma's? The swing could go with him. Spending a few days in a hotel? Swing came with us. I wish we had had a travel swing with my other kids and not the big baby swings. All my kids loved the baby swing though. YMMV.