My son had something similar a few years ago - it turned out to be mild CO poisoning due to low level exposure. Your reply post that said you've been staying in is why I'm posting a reply - do you have gas/LP or other fuel based hot water heaters? Gas stove? Gas fireplace (even if not in use, but pilot light on)? Gas furnace powering central A/C? Our CO levels were not enough to set off the CO alarms we had, but were enough to make DS sick - vomiting for no apparent reason, tired & sleepy when it wasn't like him, and it would come and go with no rhyme or reason - and the throwing up would come on with little to no warning! Just something to consider - it's highly unlikely, but does happen - we had it happen! Do you have any pets? Pets sometimes have similar symptoms because they too are smaller - so they're sometimes a good first warning if it's CO and effecting your kids before it would effect adults.

Carrageenan is sometimes used as a thickener in milk replacements like almond milk, soy milk, etc. - it can cause diarrhea - check the ingredients on the brand you're using.

It's a tough call and really depends on the kid and what they're doing. If it wasn't something dangerous, I might try talking to the kid first, reminding them of why the behavior is unacceptable and why, as they're maturing it's important to do the next right thing even though that's not always the easiest thing to do and maybe sprinkle in a touch of guilt that their parents would be disappointed if they learned about the behavior - this gives the teen a chance to improve of their own will and think about why what they're doing isn't the right thing - which if they do then make the changes, then you'll want to praise that too. You might also want to go with natural consequences of bad behavior and reinforce that through your teens (I'm assuming you're seeing this behavior because of their interaction with the teen who isn't behaving as they should?) - as in, when someone continues to behave badly, we disengage from them because we do not want to condone that behavior type approach? As I said, it really depends on the kid and the circumstance - if addressing the issue with the teen doesn't resolve it, then perhaps having a conversation with the parent - with the teen present - might be the next step?

How did you figure out how to have a place for everything when things change year to year? A few months ago, I realized I'd reached a point where if I didn't organize it all, I'd totally be driving myself crazy trying to contain it all in some semblance of use. We had stuff everywhere - books, supplies, in progress work - it had to be contained! To do that, I decided we'd dedicate one room to be the place where we keep everything and that the stuff could migrate as we used it, but at least we'd have a home for everything. After considering options, I decided on the dining room since it's fairly large, central to the house on the main floor, and we use it infrequently for eating. How to organize it was the next step - and while things change year to year, the subjects pretty much stay the same, so I decided to organize by subject within the room. So I started by using my foyer to collect and sort everything we have....by subject, all into piles to be sorted within each subject once I had it all together. How much is too much? It's so easy to get wrapped up in a save-everything-mode because I can use it all for homeschool or preschool (tot trays to keep my younger ones busy). When I started to organize, the first thing was to get everything together by topic/subject - didn't matter what the grade level was, if it was phonics, it all went in the phonics pile, if it was math, it went into the math pile. From there, each subject was then sorted out by sub-category (if applicable) and grade level. Anything we'd already used and were finished with, I looked at and decided if it was worth keeping for baby-DS - if not, it was tossed into the donate pile. I wound up with a bunch of piles - toss, keep for later, use this year, keep for next year, years beyond....for each subject. Doing that gave me a visual of what I would need for storage/shelving to get it all organized. How do you figure out what bins, drawer units, shelving units to buy? I measured each pile of books to get an estimate of shelf space we needed if we were going to do this in the dining room. I knew my office wasn't an option since my shelves in there were already packed tight and I needed more there too! For bins and baskets - once I'd sorted everything I could see what would logically be kept in a basket or bin rather than on a shelf. I decided to use a storage cabinet in my office for things we'll not use yet and shelved those in there by subject. For things we'll likely use later, with baby-DS, I packed that all up and sent it downstairs into storage, labeled by subject and things in each box so I can grab and go when I need it in the future. How do you buy all the beautiful shelving units without going broke? For me, I found what I wanted and waited - I kept the shelves I'd found online that I thought would look good with our existing dining room furniture and waited and waited. I knew what I wanted to spend and knew Amazon prices fluctuate, sometimes wildly....and waiting paid off - one day I checked my cart and there was the little message, the shelves I wanted had decreased in price, to a price within my budget, so I made my purchase. How do you find time to keep your homeschool room clean? I'm SO cramped for time I'd hate to waste valuable school time on cleaning but at the same time I cannot work in a mess and I'm thinking it's the same for the kids so I do keep it somewhat tidy it just looks junky. Ongoing, daily, putting it away or live with the consequences that it'll take more time to do later when it's out of control.

Since DH gets paid once a month (12 checks, not 13) and I do all the finances, we've always done 'pocket money' as part of the budget - DH gets paid, gives me his check, I deposit it, take out cash for each of us and that's what we each have to do whatever with throughout the month....the rest is in the bank and used to pay bills, invest, move to savings, etc. This works well for us since neither of us will dip into the bank account as the month moves along and I'm paying out from it. Some things do come out of the bank account (via the debit cards), like gas in the cars, but that's budgeted in, so I expect a certain amount to be spent - but with each taking pocket money when DH is paid, I don't have to worry about surprises hitting the bank account that I'm managing everything from.

Ahh, see that's just rude then.

They're downsizing both the french fries and the apples, eliminating the dipping caramel for the apples - thus, this is a nice, neat, PC way to actually provide less for your money than before, while trumpeting how wonderful they are for looking out for the health of kids and getting some of their sharpest critics to now say 'look what they're doing, it's a step in the right direction!' to quell their criticism and turn it around to positive, free press!

McD's fries were great long ago - when they were cooked in beef tallow!

Maybe it depends on location? The one I've gone to has said I need to buy something to buy a toy - DS will eat the apples (sans dip, he doesn't like that either), so I get the apples or a milk (if he wants that instead). We haven't done that in a while though, I think he's outgrowing the toys they offer?

Well, I don't think it reflects on homeschooling overall what one, or two, or even dozens of other homeschoolers do in their day. So that's part of the poll reply. But, for a 10+ year old, I would think one would need to average more time than two hours a day to get everything done? I haven't gotten there yet, but we're pretty relaxed and do more hours than that on average when I count everything I can count (and do for the hours requirements in my state) - it's not all direct lessons and instruction/bookwork, but it's more than two hours. If I could get it all in and DS learn well in less time, I'm :bigear: to learn how to do it!

I answered other because there is no definition of what the two hours consists of - is it two hours of seat work and lessons, with additional things done that aren't specifically bookwork or instruction (ie. independent reading, watching videos/DVD/documentaries, engaging in activities related to lessons outside the home)? My guy is going to be 7 next month and we average about 2-hours a day for lessons and such, but then do a lot of other things that are educational but aren't lesson intense or book work specifically, so our hours are more than that each day for educational-learning, but only about 2-hours of very specific instruction time and work.

We don't eat fast food for the same reason - allergies. Even if they weren't an issue, DS hates potatoes, so he wouldn't eat fries even if I wanted him to (which I don't), he doesn't like burgers much and the chicken nuggets, he won't touch those either, thinks they smell weird (good thing too since he can't have 'em anyway).....but, we have done the drive-thru for the apples and a "happy meal toy" since he doesn't like the food, but does want the toys now and then and you have to buy something to buy the toy!

The new child's french fry portion will be 1.1 ounces, down from 2.4 ounces previously, and equal to about 100 calories. McDonald's currently offers apple slices with caramel dipping sauce as a Happy Meal side. The new apple portion size is 1.2 ounces, compared with 3.1 ounces previously, and has no added sugar or accompanying dipping sauces. The new Happy Meals will have about 20 percent fewer calories than today's most popular Happy Meal, executives said. As a result, the new Happy Meals will be under 600 calories. Prices will not change as a result of the new composition, and toys will continue to be included in every Happy Meal, said Jan Field, McDonald's U.S.A. president. So, in one fell swoop, McDonald's got themselves good publicity, positive commentary from their sharpest critics (ie. CSPI) and did it in a way they get to shave their costs to increase profits (eliminate cost of caramel dip, downsize both fries and apples so combined it's less than either was before, smaller fry bag costs less, and less ketchup to hand out too). Pretty darn good strategy if you ask me!

You may not like my answer - but, if one doesn't ask if you're willing to accept a lower price, they won't know if you'd accept it....if you accept it, they got a great deal, if you say no, they'll likely pay more, but wanted to see if you'd accept less first.

:iagree: This was my thought too - have you asked her? Her answer may be your clue to helping her overcome the fear!

When it comes to money, I am in the camp of those who think it's important to allow poor decisions now while they're young, so I do let DS use his money for purchases I don't necessarily think are a good idea. That said, when he is looking to buy something, we will talk about the value of something and why it is or isn't a good value for the money - but ultimately, it is DS's decision whether to use his money to buy it or not. As he's getting older, he's definitely more careful with his money now than he was when he was five and I think part of that is due to his being able to buy some utter cr%p only to realize afterward it wasn't a good deal.

Have you looked at some of the higher end stores? If you find something you like, often you can find it online on sale - it's hard to know if you haven't seen it in person though! I've gotten bedding from a bunch of different places over the years and some of the best selection I've liked was at Dillard's (their sales can be great if you're patient to wait).....Kohl's isn't bad either (and is especially good if you can hold off until it's on sale and there is a 30% off coupon code + $10 kohl's bucks back for every $50 you spend - that's like the trifecta of good deals!)

Our little surprise arrived in January, so he's six months old now - the first few months was pretty easy, just do lessons while he slept....now it's a little bit of this and that - high chair with toys while we do lessons, exersaucer while we do lessons, sitting next to us on floor while we're reading, playing on floor while we're doing things, doing stuff while he naps, and until recently, the bumbo chair was great to keep him with us as he could sit and play and watch! I have no clue what I'm going to do once he really starts crawling - he's got the moves underway, but still pretty limited in his ability to get anywhere!

We usually start around 9:30 AM....do an hour or so, break until afternoon, so another hour, sometimes two....then in the evening do some more after dinner if DS is up for it. We don't do everything in one long stretch, but break it up throughout the day, usually into two shorter stretches, sometimes three.

Believe it or not, pork is very high in choline...so's beef and chicken!

We often do our reading/phonics in the evening, after dinner - DS for some reason is better able to focus on that in the evening moreso than in the morning or afternoon - go figure? It definitely helps that DH can watch the baby while I concentrate on working with DS too!

Actually, for a Walmart price match, you don't need the ad in hand....Walmart policy maintains they have access to competitor ads, so if you're asked for the ad (which is rare), you ask them to use their computer to bring up TRU's ad and they'll do it and price match on that if they already don't know the ad is running.

July 24--30....Toys R Us just started the BOGO on Crayola

With my first baby, I had zero hair loss....so after our second in January, I sort of expected the same, no hair loss - except this time, boy I sometimes think I'm going bald, I'm losing that much hair! I'm not really, but it seems like it's just coming out by the handful, daily, all the time! The hair loss started about a month ago, so about five months post-partum, and is just starting to seem like it's slowing down a bit.

We were faced with a similar dilemma a few years ago - after already spending about $1500 on repairs only months before, we again faced a $3500+ estimate on my car. We opted to trade it and buy a new *used* car for me instead of paying for the repair. The logic was that $3500 paid to repair = $300 a month to pay off the credit card we'd put it on for a year, so instead of paying $300 a month toward the credit card with the car still likely to be a sponge on wheels in the future, we'd get a new car and use the money toward the loan payment, which turned out to be less per month, so we paid more (the $300) and had that car loan paid off in 1/2 the time we originally took the loan out for.