My DS2 had horrible sleep, he was still waking every 45 minutes at 3 years old. (I had a newborn at the time who slept better than he did!) I didn't notice any signs of apnea, and the ENT said his tonsils and adenoids were enlarged but we weren't sure if they were causing any infections. He did snore a lot but never had any infections. The ENT referred him for a sleep study at the sleep lab at aa nearby children's hospital. The sleep study showed he was having 1-2 apnea episodes every hour, I never noticed even though he had slept with me most of his life. We decided to go ahead and have his tonsils and adenoids removed, I felt like I was at the end of my rope with the sleep issues. His sleep issues did improve afterward.

I've gotten the "are they all yours" and "do they have the same father" comments so many times. Last month I was at a family funeral and saw a lot of extended family members (my grandmother's cousins, I think everyone in the county is related somehow) and ended up with a few more. The funeral was on the other side of the country so I flew there alone and my husband stayed with our kids. My brother is 11 years younger than I am, when I would take him around with me in high school a lot of people assumed he was my son. At the funeral we were standing in the receiving line, I'm now in my 40s and he is 30 and a foot taller than I am. He leaned over and whispered "you realize people think we're married, right?" I just laughed, but then the next lady came, I introduced myself, and she chatted for a minute and then said "and is this your husband?". It was just odd to go from having people assume he was my child to having people assume he was my husband. My father was standing on the other side of my brother and was talking with another distant cousin and he told her who my brother and I were, and that I was expecting my 7th. She glanced over at me and said "does she know?". :huh: Um, yes, not quite sure what to say about that. As if by now I didn't know what caused the sciatica and obviously expanded waistline.

Removing food dyes helped my child who has outbursts like this, but it still happens. I've taken him to seen a developmental pediatrician (whose favorite dx is ASD, so she wasn't that helpful) and more recently a child psychiatrist. We're still trying to figure out what's going on (DMDD? ODD?) but now at least I have hope, and I don't have that helpless "I've failed" feeling. If your ped won't give you a referral then I agree with the others, find another one. (((hugs))) It's hard. So hard.

I'm glad you're OK! I've only had to use mine one time (adult onset pine nut allergy). I was still dithering about if I really needed it, was my tongue really swelling, well I don't know I don't want to overreact... my (then 10 year old) DS1 recognized my symptoms, got the pen, watched a YouTube video on how to use it, and administered it to me then nagged me to go to the ER. All before DH was out of the bathroom.

My long labors were 2 hours. My shortest two were 24 minutes and less than 10 minutes. #6 was the <10 minute labor, DH didn't even make it out of the bathroom. He walked downstairs and I was holding the baby. She was 10 lb 4 oz, so not the biggest of the bunch but still a good size. It was kind of like stepping out in front of a freight train.

Guac, bacon, tomato, & cheese. Egg & kimchi (hey, it was a craving). Bacon, cheese, and more bacon. With mayo and mustard. Hold the bun, please (keto).

8 for us. Our local homeschool strings group has 8 as the minimum age, and that's what works best for us for music at this time.

I'm right handed but tend to eat, vacuum, and use my left hand for most things other than writing. I have essential tremor and it's mainly my right hand that is affected.

I did have mood swings with Mirena, but I have mood swings with the mini (progesterone-only) pill too. There's also Skyla, which is slightly smaller than Mirena and has a slightly lower hormone level. At least an IUD is easily removed if it doesn't work out. I was on Depo Provera for two years when I was 19 and gained 100 lbs and had horribly wicked mood swings. It was a terrible choice for me, and took a couple years after stopping it before my body recovered. Afterward I seemed to be more sensitive to side effects from hormonal birth control, when previously I had been on the pill for 5 years with no problems. Now I can only choose progesterone-based BC due to a history of blood clots and I won't try the implant, I'm not willing to risk Depo-like side effects. I'll give Mirena another try when the time comes, but not Depo or the implant.

Coffee, diet soda, tea - whatever helps me get the things done. Want pants on, bills paid, homeschool done, and appointments kept? Yes, caffeine.

"Luckily for him, I disagree." My 4 year old has ODD and has some fantastic meltdowns, resulting in my bodily carrying him out of libraries, meetings, and concerts while my other kids assist with my youngest and rounding up belongings. I've had one person blame his behavior on the fact that I homeschool his older siblings. :huh: Luckily I have a strong RBF, which keeps most comments at bay. Otherwise, a flat-faced look with "I'll give that any due consideration".

I would love to see some pics! Thanks for pointing this out, I hadn't been paying attention to current exhibits. I'm going to plan a field trip with my oldest two.

Oh wow, I'm going to be reading through this! DH retired about 4.5 years ago, but when he transferred his GI bill to the Post-911 GI bill, he couldn't transfer benefits to dependents without serving for another couple years. I'm hoping this changes this, because being able to use those benefits for our older 4 kids (younger 2 were born after he retired) would really be fantastic.

I use IEW SWI for writing and Saxon/Hake for grammar, it's been a good fit for us. Hake grammar with its emphasis on review has worked well for both my 12 year old DS1 and 10 year old DD1, they've shown good progress and retention. (Previously we've used FLL, Easy Grammar, a brief trial of Fix It grammar, and a Spectrum grammar workbook.) I just let them do the work right in the student book. We don't use Hake for writing, DS1 in particular has needed more scaffolding. IEW SWI has been a good choice for us.

I had a 4 year "starter marriage" (no joint property, no kids, no regrets with ending it) before I met DH. I told DS1 about a year ago, he was 11. We were talking about marriage and life choices while we were in the car and he said "so basically, don't get married when you're 20 years old and in college and don't know what you want yet". That was the perfect opening and I told him that yes, that was a good idea and I had done exactly that. He was surprised and curious, but didn't have a strong reaction about it. I haven't mentioned it to my other kids yet. It's not something I'm trying to hide, it just hasn't been relevant yet. I think my brother was an adult before his mom told him she had been married previously. Her ex (a repairman) happened to be the one out fixing the AC and after he left, she told my brother "That guy that just left? Yeah, we used to be married."

The Sequential Spelling DVD has been a good fit for my 12 year old DS1. It only takes a few minutes, is independent, he likes it and I'm happy with the results.

Thank you so much for this! One of my boys has SPD (and possibly ADHD) and is constantly walking into walls, tripping over his feet, bouncing off of doorframes. I told his occupational therapist that I'm dreading the day this child is on my auto insurance! I have ADD (inattentive), not diagnosed until I was 40. My driving as a teen was a nightmare, several accidents, ran into a gas pump (yes :leaving: ), totaled a car... it wasn't pretty.

I used TurboTax until a couple years ago when the price I needed for the version that helped with my Schedule C increased. I switched to H&R Block software when I filed my 2015 taxes and was happy with it, I used it again this year.

I would like to hear more about the sleep issues that some people voted for in the poll. For the past 9 months or so I've been waking up about 3 am and have been unable to get back to sleep. My youngest (2) is sleeping through the night, and I was excited to do the same! I've been noticing this as well, I never even considered it could be perimenopause related. My cycles have been a bit irregular, but my youngest is finally almost weaned and this is the first time I've been (almost) not nursing since my oldest was born, I'm not quite sure what to expect with my cycles now. They've been incredibly heavy, though. Diva cup & overnight pad overflowing after just an hour or two, bathroom that looks like a crime scene when I rush there in the morning, and difficulty leaving the house during the first couple days of my cycle. Not what I was looking forward to in my early 40s. I had a pregnancy loss and D&C in December and have been waiting for my cycle to return since then, I have no idea what's going on with my body now.

Mine will sing along with the Violent Femmes. My work here is done. :lol:

We have about 6" here and with some still falling. I canceled homeschool so the kids could go out and play, they're thrilled.

When I was in my early 20s, I was married (to XH), working as a nuclear engineer, and planned on never having kids. Ehhh, turns out I just didn't want them with XH. I started staying at home right before I got pregnant with my oldest, when we decided DH would stay in the military until retirement. I stumbled into homeschooling when DS1 missed the K cutoff by just a few days and never stopped. I'm not sure what my career plans will be once the caboose is done with school. I'll be in my late 50s then, and don't see going back into my previous career field. I'm way too out-of-date, and would need to most likely get a master's degree to get back into the field. I would love to write a novel one day, in my spare time. One day?

The title pretty much says it all, writing just isn't getting done (combination of things over the past few years - newborns, illness, hospitalizations, ICU stays, pregnancy losses, multiple therapy appts each week, etc.). My oldest son (12) loathes writing, I'm not sure if it's just his personality or I'm partially to blame for letting him do so much orally when we first started out. Yes, it's probably both. Getting him to write down the answer to a question or *gasp* write a paragraph is like pulling teeth, he would rather scrub the toilet. My oldest daughter (10) just hasn't had much practice, though she does write letters to her friends. We have IEW SWI-A, but it just hasn't been getting done. I'm not sure if I continue and try to get it done, or switch. I think DS1 could definitely use the scaffolding that IEW provides. He's getting a bit old for SWI-A now, but giving his antipathy to writing I think it may still be a good choice. I've been looking at the Bravewriter classes online, and trying to decide if outsourcing it would be better and if we can fit it in the budget. I'm not sure if it would be a good choice for DS1 since he's so reluctant, though I think it might be good for DD1. I feel like I'm floundering here, and could really use some advice! I feel like they really need a boot camp or something to get them up to speed, before I completely screw them up with it.

Standing in line with my (2 at the time) kids in the commissary. For those who are unfamiliar with them, there is usually one long queue for all the checkouts. I was finally near the front of the line, and noticed my newly-potty trained son kept grabbing himself. I asked several times if he needed to go potty, nope. Finally I realized he probably wasn't wearing underwear and that's why he was so... handsy. I asked quietly if he was wearing under pants and he promptly dropped his pants, lifted up his shirt and yelled "No, see! Just a penis and a butt!" Everyone behind me in line got quite the laugh out of it. A couple weeks ago in a big box store, walking through the ladies' underwear department, my 8 year old daughter exclaimed "Wow, they have SOOOO MANY boob covers! But we don't need those, Mommy, because you never wear one!" Yes, she's been told they're called bras, but apparently that didn't sick.

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