Thinking about taking time away and doing something a few times a week, this may or may not apply, but I find that it makes a huge difference on stuff like that if I make it a point to actually get myself and kids ready in the morning before the day "starts". Like, where we can slip on shoes and be out the door. I'm much more likely to get out to the library or something if we're just ready, as opposed to having to GET ready too. Saves time too, although it should be the same time either way. But somehow it never is.

Oh goodness, me too on the funerals. I've had to organize the memorial services and meals for the last six family members who have passed away. While our family does things much more simply than most, thankfully, it's still an ordeal I have to get through rather than any kind of closure or necessary thing. I've told my husband I understand if he needs to have a service, but if I die he has my blessing to simply take the kids on a picnic and watch my ashes float down the river to mark my passing.

This is a big part of it. I don't enjoy dealing with actual people in the best of times. I sure don't need it in the worst of times.

More to the point, re social media, I found that quitting facebook helped me a lot emotionally. I was absorbing way too much drama, even though I wasn't personally involved. I find that I have more mental/emotional energy to devote to people when a chunk of it isn't taken up with online drama.

This isn't in response to any particular comment, just general musings . . . Ya'll have hit on something that I find difficult to pin my feelings down on. Like Quill, one of my most difficult times has been the loss of a baby. I did, however, have a number of people who were willing to be supportive. The thing is, when I am going through something like that, I truly do not want to share it with anyone. It makes it WORSE for me to have to do so. It feels like an awful invasion of privacy. In addition, I am very empathetic and I absolutely don't need to be absorbing anyone else's grief and whatever of their own personal sorrows (that are inevitably shared in some misguided attempt to assure me they know exactly how I feel). It's enough for me to work through my own stuff without having to deal with their emotions as well. I appreciated meals for my husband, but in general preferred to process things alone. I do know that there were/are some people who were . . . offended? upset? that they weren't given more of a front seat in the whole thing. We were very private with everything about it. So I really struggle with the idea that I need to cultivate friendships for the inevitable hardships. I know logically that should be true, but I don't seem to actually want or need it in practice. It's kind of easier without having to deal with people. Someone mentioned not wanting to be an old lady with no one else but kids/grandkids . . . that sounds positively lovely to me. I'd move to the mountains and visit town twice yearly in a heartbeat if it were feasible. 😂 This all may just be due to extreme introversion? I don't know. I do know that it has been difficult to cultivate a desire for close friends, though I do make the effort for the kids. I would guess that my friends irl feel like we are a lot closer friends than I feel like we are, though. I can't think of anyone who truly knows me or the depths of my current hardships. Honestly, I don't know anyone irl who would even come close to understanding a lot of my stuff anyway. Anyway, just musings.

I, and/or my husband, have some of the same hangups. It's hard. I haven't solved everything by a longshot, and I think this will be something that will always be difficult for me, but two things so far I am certain of: Most people (and certainly, true friends) do not care if the house isn't perfect, including construction. If it's a long-term thing, as long as it's safe, I need to get over it. 🙂 While my grown-up introverted social needs may be met sufficiently through social media, my kids' needs aren't. So I need to pursue irl friendships, at least for them. That may mean that I develop friendships with people who wouldn't necessarily be my first choice. But it's worth it for my kids to have the relationship experience. That's all I've got so far. 😂

This is only a small part of it, but there are now squeeze bottles of sour cream available. They are more expensive, but I've found it to be worth the extra expense. So much easier for the kids to use, and no food mixed back in to the sour cream tub from spoons. Ugh. And the squeeze tubes are the no drip kind, so they're not messy. Easy to pop in and out of the fridge as needed.

Hmmm...Qustodio will show you their activity, so if you monitored it you could catch new sites and block them. That wouldn't prevent it entirely, though. You'd always be a step behind.

I don't look forward to those days. My kids are 6 and 8, and we've only recently allowed more than a tiny bit of screens, so they're not yet savvy. I'm not sure how you could block the video chats without also blocking the sites themselves.

I used Qustodio when I needed Android parental controls, and really liked it. I don't remember an option to specifically block video chats (though it may be there and I just don't remember) but it does the other things for sure. Maybe check it out.

I get this when I have sinus drainage, even if I don't actually feel the drainage. It usually clears up with otc sinus meds. Maybe this could be it?

Love Hot and Flashy. I have a Nuface, also bought during a sale. I got it specifically to try to lift my hooded eyes a bit (one side had started drooping quite low), which it does, but since I have it I use it all over my face too. I haven't noticed any change in these forehead wrinkles though. They are so deep that the small attachment doesn't glide over them easily, if that makes sense. I have to go slow or it just bumps over them.

This is exactly what I would like.

Good advice, thank you. There are a number of dr offices offering it in my area, just regular gp's and np's. I always think, how much experience can they have??? If I do it, I want someone who does it every day. I'm going to have to ask around, I don't think any of my friends have done it, but probably some acquaintances have.

Yes, having to do it regularly is one thing that's holding me back. I've read that for best results you want to do it early so that the deep wrinkles don't become more permanent (or something like that). And do small amounts to avoid the frozen look. I haven't done microneedling. I'm using rx strength Retin A, but have only been using it a few weeks so still working up to every day. I kind of feel weird even being concerned about it. It's not really like me. As I said, the lines around my eyes aren't bothersome--I actually kind of like them. But there's just something about these forehead lines that make me feel OLD. (I'm 43)

The lines around my eyes don't bother me, but those across my forehead are getting deeper and they do bother me. They make me look older in kind of a mean-looking way, not an 'I've spent a lot of time smiling' way. Anyone have experience, tips, etc. you'd be comfortable sharing?

I had them on for about a year, getting them filled every month. I LOVED the look. My real lashes are short and sparse, and I have hooded lids. Lashes long enough to curl over the lids made a huge difference. Even my husband noticed and liked them - it has to be striking for him to (1) notice and (2) express an opinion. 🙂 It burned quite a bit for the first few minutes, but was ok after that. What I didn't like was: the feeling of not being able to take my eye makeup off well (not a big deal bc I rarely wore it), the "holes" toward the end of the month (solveable by going more frequently), and the general all-the-time feeling of having something glued to your eyelashes. I would have had them on again, except that I haven't wanted to spend the money.

There is no animal control here. A loose animal that aggressive, that hung around more than a day or two, we would have shot. You definitely did all you could.

I'm so sorry for your loss, and glad she was able to be at home.

This really tripped me up with my kids, especially my daughter. She had known the letter sounds since they were little, picked them up through games, we played tons of games identifying sounds in words in which she did great, she could rhyme easily, etc. All the things you commonly read and hear about. But, though she could blend, she couldn't really read. My son also could do all the things, with slightly less facility than dd, except he also had trouble blending. They're both dyslexic. Phonemic awareness is much more than just knowing the sounds. And, Ktgrok, I'm finally putting that darn book in my cart. I keep putting it off, as I've spent too much on books lately, and then each mention of it makes me look again. 😁😂

😂😂😂

She may realize that she is behind, even without being in a class. I didn't know it, but a close friend of my dd's had asked her why she wasn't writing things well (she also has dysgraphia). The friend wasn't mean at all, just curious about something she noticed. The friend is almost two years older than dd, so I had thought that dd just assumed that friend was reading and writing better because she was older. And mostly that was true, but she had started to wonder. Anyway, when I told the kids about the dyslexia and dysgraphia, I explained it as a difference in how brains work. We have a handful of friends with dyslexia, so we talked about how their brains work with reading the same way as so-and-so. Before, we didn't know, so what we've been using to learn to read wasn't the best for how their brains work. But now that we know, we can use something better. Everyone has things that are easier and harder to learn; it will still be hard, but using the correct tool will make it easier.

I forgot to mention spelling . . . Dd is in Level 3 now, and I've seen a lot of improvement in spelling. She's always spelled phonetically, but would very often leave out vowels and/or skip sounds. It's improved a great deal. I think it's been due to the finger-spelling and vowel-tapping in Barton. She's forced to slow down and is able to hear vowel sounds more clearly.

I purchased mine new this year. I just looked at the Level 2 manual and it says copyright 2000, printed in 2014. So I don't think I'd worry about it being 10 years old. Is it all intact (all the tiles, dvds)? Unless it's a really good deal, I don't know that I would purchase all the levels at once. While at this moment I plan to continue through Barton, as mentioned above, you may find that you can do a few levels and then change to something less expensive and/or faster.

I used LOE with my kids, dd8 and ds 6. With dd I used A, B, and part of C and A, part of B with ds. When they were dx'd with dyslexia this summer, I switched to Barton, primarily because of advice I received here. I had already slowed down and adapted LOE as much as I could, and it wasn't working. In retrospect, it was a total slog. While LOE is explicit phonics, it is nowhere near as explicit and incremental as Barton. LOE moves much too quickly (it really picks up in C) and gives an amount of information that is too overwhelming. But it's not just the pace and increments. Barton is just TOTALLY different. I am so very glad I switched. I can already see a difference in both my kids, and I definitely do NOT think that continuing with LOE would have worked. Having the right tools for the job makes all the difference. I won't say that it's exactly easy now, but it's certainly no longer a slog and I am seeing consistent improvement, which I did not see with LOE. Both kids just hit a wall with LOE. Go ahead and do the screening on the Barton website. If she doesn't pass, it will give you more info. And if she does, then you'll know Barton is an option now and can decide.