You can do a dairy free gluten free pumpkin pie: https://minimalistbaker.com/vegan-gluten-free-pumpkin-pie/ I've only had it as dairy free before (with a regular vegan crust) but I don't think a gluten free crust would ruin it.

So she started school in early Oct. and does like it. Currently she's able to watch 10 minutes of the Lukeion class during her study hall. It's sort of kind of working and maybe we should just stay with Lukeion, try to soldier through the next semester with attending 10 minutes of class and watching the rest later, and then try to convince the high school next year to let her take it as an hour long study hall/elective? If Lukeion says no, we won't let you do that, does anyone know of an online asynchronous class that uses Wheelock that she could do for the second semester of Latin 2? (with an eye to going back to Lukeion for Latin 3)?

I almost always have a dream about the new baby before I have taken a pregnancy test (but after I've conceived). I think this makes sense scientifically even maybe -after all, my body knows it's pregnant and my brain probably is getting some signal or information about it. Once I dreamed that I was driving the car around, but instead of 3 kids in the backseat I had 4. The strangest one was this: I had a baby with me and I had climbed with it (her? not sure) to the top of a stadium, like a football stadium. But then when I was up there I realized I couldn't get down while holding her; the steps were like too steep or too slippery or too shallow or something. Anyway, it couldn't be done. I couldn't bring her down with me. I woke up. I miscarried that pregnancy at 10 weeks.

Nah, we figured we'd pay poor people crap wages to do that job for us instead of doing it ourselves as we have in the past. (by we I largely mean the middle class - of course the rich always had people to take care of kids and the elderly and the poor still do it themselves)

I buy Hanna Andersson used in lots on Ebay when I can find a lot that is pretty cheap. So sometimes you'll catch someone clearing out their 6-12 month sleepers or something and they'll have 3 of them in good condition for like $35 or so, shipped. (buy it now) I would never buy Hanna Andersson new, I just can't bear that much $ for something that is going to have blueberry stains in 2 days. OP, this might not be up your alley but what I like is upcycled cashmere longies (long pants) - usually they're made to fit sort of a range of sizes, so they'll have foldable cuffs, etc. They are super soft and fuzzy and warm.

Well, to be fair, a number of people on this board would not think twice if instead of rainbow flag the friend x had a confederate flag (esp in a non-southern state) and the kid you were talking to had been told to steer clear or be wary because people with confederate flags are racists (that is to say, bad in kid's lingo).

We use one of those ones that break the seal instead of cutting open the can. It's bright green; we got it on Amazon. The kids use it as a machine gun most days and it still works fine.

I like sony headphones, both the earbuds ($10 or so I think? Or maybe $15) and the basic over the ear headphones (used to be $20 at Walmart but I'm sure they're on Amazon too). We've tried many other brands and none of them hold up.

I'm sure you've looked for a Hebrew school in your area?

DH and I own and operate a small business from home; it's a full time job in the busy season and at least a part time job all year. I just put the kids in school last month. I could meet their educational needs, largely (certainly as well as public school does, anyway) but the social aspect was just not happening. It might work better if you have a built in social structure - if you go to church, or can find/make time for a co-op or something. For us, it was basically piecemeal - take DD13 to this event, DS10 to this sports practice, DD7 to this library story time, etc. I couldn't do it and keep up with the business and keep up with homeschooling. For a year we tried just dropping social stuff largely and focusing on getting school done and food on the table, but the only kid that worked for at all was the once with same-age kids in the neighborhood. That said, what we did for school when we did it (I had a 7th, 4th, and K-er last year) was outsource things I couldn't do well (Latin) and focus on skills for the rest. Reading/writing/math I insisted on daily (well, they love to read, so I just had to strew). Anything else I let them pursue as they wished. I bought TOPSCience kits and left them in the basement for rainy days. I bought nature journals and binoculars and encouraged Backyard Explorations. I bought DD13 (then 12) a Bio textbook and suggested she might want to work through some of it in preparation for 9th grade bio. I watched nature and history documentaries while I worked in the living room, and since it was the only screen in the house, they watched with me off and on. Do I think this would work for high school? Probably not. But I think it is okay for 7th, 4th, and K, separate of learning disabilities that make it harder.

I know, but I never had serious mood issues with periods back when I had a lot of periods (I've been pregnant or breastfeeding or both for something like 8 years, so I've had very few periods in the last decade). But it does make sense, I guess.

thank you for that, texasmom ? lavender, I hadn't considered the calories angle! I didn't replace it with another caloric drink but I also haven't noticed feeling hungry exactly. Maybe I'll track my calories for a couple of weeks and see where I am. I think that as I have started to feed the baby more calories (she's 6 months, so it's not like a huge number or anything) maybe I need fewer too? I am not sure.

I do get the soy free earth balance, because DH doesn't want the boys to have soy and that makes some sense to me. I also cook with either coconut or oat milk. Unfortunately pretty much all the fake milks except soy taste weird to me. Rice milk is kind of okay, and some of the nut-based creamers are good, but I just really like soy for some reason. Same with ice cream (although coconut milk ice cream, if you are okay with coconut flavor in all your ice cream flavors, is really tasty). bah

reading about this on the internet is frustrating - lots of contradictory info and hard to tell the truth from various interest groups We don't consume dairy, and I have been drinking a lot of soymilk. (the kids not so much if any at all). Like, maybe 5 cups a day? The plain unsweetened just soybeans+water variety. Then I stopped, because I ran out and the local store didn't have my preferred kind. That was about a week or two ago and I've been irritable since; it almost feels like a mild depression, which I've had before as post-partum and ante-partum, so I know what it feels like. I wonder if there is something in the soy that was causing elevated mood? On the other hand, I'm also probably lowish on vitamin D as I don't get outside much and it's getting later in the year, and I did also just start my period again after being pregnant +the first 6 months of breastfeeding. I dunno, just wondering if anyone has any info or a reputable source to read about whether soy has hormonal or mood effects.

I loooove washi tape. I buy it from various shops on Etsy. If she does mail a lot of cards, you could get her a custom return address stamp - they have some lovely ones on Etsy done with different designs, typography, etc.

That's a good idea, I bet I could do that. And yes, they'd love to draw or play cards! I don't want to ostracize them, though. I will ask them exactly how it works and see if there is anything I could get them to buy into as an alternative.

I have zero control except that they have to keep it at school. The school does block a lot of stuff of course but still lets them say, watch youtube videos (and there are a lot of technically not-obscene youtube videos that I still despise, etc.) I feel the same way about sibling closeness that you do. I didn't much like my sister growing up, and I still find her super annoying to live with for any period of time, but she's kind of all I've got in some ways and I appreciate her for that. And yes, squabbling is natural and has always been just part of life with a lot of little kids, but meanness is something else. Insulting the younger sibling, or a sort of outright unkind rejection (go AWAY! I don't want you ANYWHERE NEAR ME! etc.) with no provocation is something new and I don't like it. I correct it, of course, but it still happens, and there's also the absence of goodwill, which I can't force really and which is no longer there between them, largely. I am hoping it is mostly just adjustment stress.

Yep, they only do indoor recess if it's raining, but it's been raining for a week. DD7 says when they have indoor recess they get to play games on their laptops. They do have a gym, but I guess it's in use all day with classes? At least that's my theory. Of course she loves indoor recess, sigh. For the first few days they brought the laptops home with them- most kids do, as some schoolwork is on the computer. Their first instinct was to sit in their rooms with the lights off watching youtube videos for 4 hours after school. It was pretty crazy to witness! Even when restricted, they just wanted to go back to their rooms to use the laptop. Constantly. Finally DH said look, we chose not to have small electronics at home. If we'd wanted the kids to have individual computers, we would have bought them. Leave them at school; you can use the big computer for schoolwork when necessary (we found out that they can sign in to their school account from our computer). Even DD7 came home with a laptop!

I often find myself trying to research something my woo-radar says might be woo (retained reflexes? CBD? gentian violet? etc.) without much success, just because I can't parse the scientific lingo in abstracts well enough and I don't know who to trust. A website that provided that service that was actually good at it would be very useful.

Regarding the importance of their contribution to the household: if they didn't do the dishes and clean the floors and watch the little ones on occasion, what would we do? Well, DH and I would do it. We'd just work a little less at the business, sleep a little less, post on the forums a little less ? It's not a life or death situation if they just all got mono tomorrow and couldn't help out for a month or something. But, that said, their contribution is real and important. If I got sick for a few weeks DH could pick up the slack too, but that doesn't mean my work isn't needed when I can do it. Anyway, what worries me more than whining about chores is the unkindness toward siblings and the tendency to melt down when previously there would have been no drama. They want nothing to do with their younger siblings or with each other where previously they were happy to play together (most of the time). They snipe and say unkind things (when asked what something says by DD7, DD13 will say "learn to read!"; when DS5 wants to stomp around in the leaves outside with DS10, DS10 will tell him to go away unkindly, etc.) I dunno, they say they like school and they are willing to wake up at 6am every morning to go, but they don't seem as happy. But it's only been a few weeks, that's true. I wonder if part of it is the technology - at home, we have the one computer that they share and no small electronic devices - no smartphones or tablets or TVs or anything. At school they've been issued a laptop which they take around with them all day and use during indoor recess, study hall, break times, etc. In the past when we've stayed with my Mom, where they all have their own tablet and a nintendo and TV and computer and etc., I've noticed that they get much shorter tempered.

They do more work than some of their same-age peers, for sure - we have a large family with lots of little kids at the moment, I work from home, and we don't have hired cleaners or whatever. We do have a dishwasher ? Right now until Christmas is the busy season for our business, kind of live harvest time for farms, I guess. There are a lot of farm kids in this community, though, so I am pretty sure they aren't the hardest working preteens in the county. For the record (not that it matters, because I do think that in some scenarios and/or locations kids this age do more work and it isn't bad for them psychologically or physically), I do all the laundry separate of the putting away and I cook the main meal - we do sort of forage for the other two meals, a lot of PB sandwiches and apples and bags of frozen veg. and etc. They do the dishes, the sweeping, the mopping (of main areas, about 400 sq ft total), and some sort-of childcare - they play with/ keep an eye on the little ones for a couple of hours in the evening and come get me or DH (in a room adjacent to the main room) if someone needs something or wants to talk or whatever. I did just about zero as a kid growing up and DH did a lot more - in his family, kids did everything - the cooking, cleaning, laundry, yardwork, all of it. His mother was effectively a single mother and worked outside the home. It is true that the older kids didn't decide how many kids we would have, nor did they get to choose what kind of careers DH and I would have. I'm sure if the oldest could have chosen she'd wish to be an only child with super wealthy parents who also worked short hours. My second child would of course not want DD13 to have been an only, hah ? It's also true that we can't care for them in the way that upper-middle class kids are cared for. We are able to provide for them better than many families (we're married, so our household is stable; we make an income in the top 10% although it is spread much thinner than the average household; we are lucky not to have chronic health issues) but there are also ways in which we are very different from the average family - no one has their own bedroom, for instance. (we'd need an 8 bedroom house!) They knew all of this before they started school here, though. DD13 and DS10 have both been in school before ?

Personally I would feel the same way about laundry and chores if there were another way for the work to get done, but there just isn't really. I don't make them do chores to help them learn how or improve their character or whatever; they do them so I can work and afford to feed and clothe them. I didn't do chores growing up and I turned out okay ?

I wonder if some of the TOPScience modules would be a good base for a co op class at that age.

If he doesn't mind if his clothes are wrinkled, I think he's waaaaaay too old for you to care one way or another. I haven't folded a piece of laundry in years. We work from home and the kids wear jeans and knits. No one cares if anything is wrinkled. We're lucky to find things that are clean! Not only do I not care if someone leaves something in the dryer, I do it myself - I just take it out of the dryer, leave it in a pile on the laundry room floor (which is clean, it's not on the way to anywhere), and it gets put up when a child has a minute to do it. Well, that was the way when we had a washer/dryer. For right now, we've just moved and we're using the laundromat. At a laundromat it's generally accepted etiquette to remove someone's load if you need the dryer and put it on a nearby table or cart. It's not considered rude to leave your stuff and it's not considered rude to take it out and put it in a cart.

Sorry to post and run, our internet just up and died. You're right, it is just 2 weeks. I think it's so easy to see what is happening now and think that is going to be the way forever, but they'll figure it out. The chores are still getting done - I work from home and we have lots of littles, so there's really no way for them to not get done, or there would be no clean clothes and nothing to eat and no dishes to eat off of. I think it will help for me to remember to not get caught up in their emotion about it, though. It's just dishes, I'll sweep while you do them then let's have some banana bread and talk about how math class went today.