I've actually often thought about this. I was raised in a church that taught sanctification and really emphasized purity of life (not just s**ual but all kinds of moral and ethical purity) and I do believe it protected me from a lot. I don't seem to feel the same remorse or have the hang-ups that some who were raised similarly to me have. I have a marriage of 24 years that has been better than a lot I've seen and one which I think we both are still very glad to be in. (In other words--my religious upbringing didn't hamper my marriage in any way.) Anyway--YES. I understand this completely.

I have a pair of Oofos flip flops and I hate to say that I hate them. (They're 🤑 for flip flops!). I feel like they're SOOOO cushiony that my feet just kind of slide all over the place--like there's a small mountain underneath them and they're constantly trying to hang on for dear life. I love my Gizeh Birks.

I'm on my second dose and I'm not too sure about it. 😬

I just finished the middle grade novel Front Desk by Kelly Yang. It reminded me thematically a little of Because of Winn Dixie but without a dog. I really enjoyed it and hope to read the sequels!

We're doing one at the library where I work. We'll have a bounce house and an ice cream truck outside, but inside we plan to have face painting, balloon animals (we are hiring someone to do this), a duck pond (pick up a duck for a prize), go fishing (fishing poles with clothes pins "cast" over a curtain behind which someone pins a prize to clothes pin and tugs on the line), a lawn dart game from Amazon (Dino darts, I believe), and maybe one more thing I can't remember. Our prizes are mostly snacks and candy that can be bought at Sam's club.

Thanks again to everyone who has responded! I appreciate it so much! I have to say that the worst part of this has been the mental aspect--I've been markedly depressed. Just knowing the depression could have a physical (as in, not just in my brain, which I know IS physical--hopefully YKWIM) component has made me feel better mentally. DH went to our local health food and supplement store today and picked up a box of ten NaturesPlus Hema-Plex slow release tablets. Has anyone eveh used this? https://www.amazon.com/NaturesPlus-Hema-Plex-Iron-Slow-Release-High-Potency/dp/B08ZJX3D88/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=LETAN2T04HFY&keywords=hema+plex+extended&qid=1686705305&sprefix=hema+plex+extended%2Caps%2C117&sr=8-5

My personal must-sees are the New York Public Library (main branch where the museum exhibits are), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Broadway shows.

As someone on the other end of a very similar journey, kudos to you, mom, for running this gauntlet with and for your child!

This makes me so happy! Well done, mom!

Another question--did/does the iron supplement cause constipation? How did you handle that? (My only experience with iron supplementation is during pregnancy, and I ended up just taking prenatal vitamins due to the effect of iron on GI tract.)

Thank you all! How did you all determine the best supplement for yourself? Trial and error?

Thank you, @Harriet Vane.

This is what is always so confusing to me. The doctor acts like it's no big deal, but I have felt like I'm on my last leg for weeks now. It has to either be worse than the doctor thinks it is, I must be super sensitive, or something else must be wrong, too.

Interesting. I've been toying with WFPB (which really for me has been more just meat avoidance than truly "whole foods"), so I wonder if this could be true for me, also.

I'm pretty happy in my little place in AL despite all the stuff I'd change if I could. A real bonus here has always been cost of living, which isn't nothing.

Thanks! How do you know you need heme iron? (Heme = animal products, correct?)

It seems that this poem linked here (at the beginning of the blog post, which I haven't read) might be appropriate: https://anthonywilsonpoetry.com/2013/08/28/lifesaving-poems-alden-nowlans-this-is-what-i-wanted-to-sign-off-with/

Sounds sweet! Might be a perfect beach read for me for an upcoming trip!

I had bloodwork done last week and will see my doc later this week. She is recommending a "gentle iron" supplement but I want to be sure I'm not missing something in light of recent threads . I haven't actually spoken with my doc yet; her recommendation was via phone (voice mail) so I've had no discussion with her. Here are my numbers that were tagged low by the lab: Hemoglobin 11.0 MCH 24.9 MCHC 31.4 Vitamin D, 25-hydroxy 25.3 Ferritin 8 WBC 3.3 Those of you with BTDT advice, is there a particular ______ (type, brand, formulation of supplement) I should be looking for?

Teach us your ways!!

What is the challenge for your Future Self?

Same. I wish I had entered a profession that made adequately compensated part-time work a viable choice. I considered speech-language pathology after my master's degree, but it wasn't something I could get locally or without a life upheaval. I know it's something that is in high demand locally, and something that would be much more flexible (& adequately compensated) than anything I can do now. I guess you could say that the majority of my "what ifs" are job/career related.

Not the Red Cross, but our local blood bank sends text alerts and offers similar incentives. I guess I mostly ignore (the texts or promised gifts have never made me hurry down to the donation center and hook up to the bag!) but I can see your point.

I agree! And as someone who recently extricated herself from the classroom due to the overwhelming time/energy demands of the job, might I add that it can be 30 multiplied as many as 7 times for a high school teacher. 😩 To be a teacher who is responsive to students' actual academic needs requires so much more research, intuition, knowledge, and work than could ever be done in one hour (or less!) of planning in one day, in addition to all the other tasks required. As much as I believe in public education and recognize the need for it, I hate what it has become.

This is why I think standards-based report cards are so much more useful than grades-based, but I don't know if a single school in my area that still uses them exclusively because parents could never fully grasp it and would still look at them as grades. I think schools just got tired of fighting that fight. (My ds's elementary school does use standards based for reading.)