Oh! I did get that one. I forgot to include that. i really enjoyed it, which made me wonder what else might be out there that people enjoyed. I trust the WTM hive recommendations more than Google.

I’m feeling a little down but I think it’s a lot of watching my husband get promotions and such while I worked part time for most of the last ten years while tending to special needs kids. I’m working full time now to pay off some debt and now it’s starting to really bother me that he was able to do a lot while I made dinner. I think it’s mostly midlife stuff, looking at my life and trying to figure out what I’m going to do at 40. And how I got here. And if I made the right choices along the way. Any memoirs? Fiction books? Maybe even a self help or two, but I think i just want to know I’m not the only one vs practical ideas(because really, I’m being kind of silly about it). I think 40 is just hitting me hard. I’ve accomplished exactly nothing I thought I would. But I do have three pretty awesome kids. 🙂

I guess I’ve never really talked about it on this forum, because I really am pro-homeschooling, but the homeschooling groups were the absolute least welcoming to my autistic, anxious child. I watched other children with disabilities be loved and welcomed, but because his seemed mental and behavioral in nature we were very clearly unwelcome. Despite me being a 1:1 for him. He is in a public school program now that is usually warm, welcoming and loving. All three of my children have found their tribes in public school(though one is struggling in her new school; she had a great experience in PS before we moved) and I am sure your children will as well.

16 staff in the ER I’m most familiar with are out with Covid. Several are very sick and have been in and out of the ER as patients needing fluid and 2 are hospitalized. The scary part is that the hospital boosted everyone eligible in early December, so it’s likely that all 16 were boosted as most got their first vaccines a year ago. As the numbers are exploding here, even in the triple vaxxed popularion, the assumption is that it’s Omnicron.

I have a child who has shown a strong preference for being a female since he could talk. If he tells me as a teenager that he’s trans, I will support him in any way possible. On the other hand, my college boyfriend decided at 39 that he is a she. And I do support her, but there was never ever any signs of gender dysphoria and I have known him since he was 12. And we almost got married; I knew him very well. However, she has an enormous amount of hatred for the fundamentalist Christian way she was brought up and has spent her entire adult life doing anything and everything that would shock and upset her parents. She’s been able to get hormones, top surgery scheduled, and legally change her name since coming out in July. Never any therapy, which for her I think would have been a better place to start. I don’t think this is an either/or and I want to listen to trans voices. There are people who legimitately are not what their bodies look like. And there are people who are influenced by social contagion or another desire. What I am really concerned about is my masc lesbian friends, because suddenly the desire for no gender constraints has somehow morphed into girls are/do/look like this and boys are/do/look like this. I don’t understand how we got there.

They are still attempting to contact trace here but it’s taking weeks, and by then people would be out of quarantine anyway. It’s just too many sick people and there’s not even close to enough contact tracers. We’re over 20% positivity rate and even at the worst in 2020 and 2021, we never went about 6%.

Yes I just sent it to you. 🙂. It’s about treating children in mental health emergencies.

No, I am taking the winter months off. I’m scheduled for the NC state conference, Wisconsin state, Initial assessment in Lake Placid, and I’m waiting to hear back from the fall slew of conferences. I’m a moron and decided now while we’re running 20 calls in 24 hours was a fantastic time to study for and test for my FP-C, so I’m working on that the next two months. That test is brutal.

I have actually been invited to speak at 5 EMS conferences nationally this upcoming year on interacting with autistic patients. It is really, really important(as you know) that first responders know how best to treat a patient who has autism. my autistic child wound up in handcuffs at school last year. After that incident, I made it my mission to train our local law enforcement, EMS and fire departments on autism and that has suddenly bloomed into National speaking and writing engagements. Mom is not always going to be able to show up when my son is in crisis, but I hope and pray that I have trained the people who do.

thank you for all the kind words! I really appreciate them. 🙂 Also if anyone wants to take the info in the article and stalk me go ahead, but I promise I’m really boring.

I’m going to Disney again in February. My sister will probably PCS out of Florida by summer, so I’m taking my youngest and doing Disney while she’s still there. Lake Placid and North Carolina in April to speak at EMS conferences. I’m on my way to NYC right now but that’s taking a patient there in an ambulance so I don’t think it counts. I’m not really holding my breath about the conferences, because I fully expect another Covid variant and surge in the spring.

As a teenager, I used to have picnics on Catherine Beecher’s(sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe and famed educator and feminist in her own right) grave. Not because of any particular sentimentalism towards her, but because it’s a nice section of flat area in that cemetery. Mark Twain’s grave isn’t far away, but I never hung out there because it’s a weirdly designed family plot and no good place to eat sandwiches. I love cemeteries though and find them fascinating. I always wonder what interesting stories never got told.

This is why I stopped working on social work and became a paramedic. I worked at a court ordered rehab facility and then at a juvenile detention place. The catering to demands was ridiculous at both places. Teens wanted to be there because they got more stuff than at home. I did hear people telling the parents to buy whatever the teens wanted, as absolutely ridiculous as it sounds. I am not suggesting a return to hard labor or anything like that, but it was all felt like it was telling the kids they were victims and nothing was actually their fault. I understand trauma but there was no teaching responsibility. So I left the career I spent five years building. Escalate this higher, but don’t be surprised if his belief that nothing is his fault is being reinforced. Once he’s 18, you’re probably going to have to let him hit bottom and focus on your other children. I know that is harsh. I will be praying for you.

After losing all my cards and then throwing my back out, which meant I spent a lot of time lying flat, I’m pleased to say everyone should be getting their after Christmas but before Lent cards this week! Moonhawk, Cuddly, Tiger and Kitty Kat are getting their own card from my 9-year-old and her stuffed dog, Husker.

I’ve used 1-800-contacts for years. I get the printed prescription from my doctor, upload it and i get my contacts in two or three days. The price isn’t much different but my eye doctors often takes 3 weeks to get my contacts in.

I have ancestors who fought in the Civil War(all Union, I assume, as that part of my family has lived in the northeast literally since my g-g-x A lot grandfather Love Brewster stepped off the Mayflower). Never once has it occurred to me to write them a card in support of the Union cause. People leave all kinds of things in cemeteries here; toys, beer, letters wrapped in plastic, stuffed animals. So it would probably be acceptable, but the whole idea of placing a card like that is just weird to me.

They can inform people, but are not required to by the CDC because a classroom contact isn’t considered a close contact. We moved to this district in August and I haven’t met anyone; so I’m not part of the gossip chain. I don’t expect I’ll know if anyone tests positive unless my kids know somehow. There’s a 55% vaccination rate in the county and I don’t expect it to go higher. The people who want to be vaccinated are vaccinated. And there’s a lot of distrust now and I don’t see a lot of people getting boosters. I know everyone wanted the schools open. I think they shut down prematurely here in March 2020 and now when we really need to, there is no political will. I have a coworker married to an administrator in the school district and he said the district is ready to go 100% virtual at a moments notice, but so far their requests have been denied by the state.

This has been the policy at most wedding facilities in my area the last six months. Masks or proof of vaccination/negative test. Obviously it’s based on no longer accurate information.

As far as the wedding, your FIL’s new wife was probably just following the guidelines. For a long time, the belief, which was backed by data, was that vaccinated people were so unlikely to catch Covid that it wasn’t worth testing them. A lot of workplaces and schools still have that policy; test to stay if not vaccinated. Omnicron has spread much faster than policies can catch up.

My kids brought this home today: So they will not be notified if another child in the classroom has been diagnosed with Covid unless they spent more than 15 minutes within 3 feet and either child was not wearing a mask correctly. But that’s only for in school, the guidance completely changes for out of school contacts. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/K-12-infographic.html I expect a lot of kids who caught it over break started back to school today either pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic and are blissfully spread Covid throughout the building. I know I am pessimistic, but I find the whole thing ridiculous. We have a variant that escapes natural and vaccinated immunity; you’d think the CDC and state school guidance could catch up. I don’t blame the local school superintendent; they’re following what NYS is telling them they have to do.

Yes, my kids get breakfast, mid morning snack and lunch. Two eat in their classrooms where the kids are supposed to be spaced six feet apart and my youngest eats in the gym where kids are spaced too. Snacks are in classroom. I don’t think six feet apart really matters anymore to be honest, because it travels through the air. My kids are vaccinated and are likely to be asymptomatic or mild if they catch it, but we need to really avoid it for the next month. But I think it’s probably inevitable.

This isn’t political. I am generally apolitical. But I am so annoyed with my state(NY). Locally we are at an 18.11% positivity rate. Only 55% of the population is vaccinated though honestly we are seeing breakthrough cases right and left. Until now, I haven’t really done much social distancing or worrying, but I am now on high dose steroids for anti-rejection of a corneal transplant and have an appointment in late January with a specialist. I have EDS and brittle cornea disease and have changed two diopters in one eye in four months. That’s a problem, and I really need to be seen. If I catch Covid or one of my family members in the house gets Covid, that appointment gets rescheduled and I wait another six months. My annoyance is the state is so adamant about keeping kids in schools. Yes, it’s 100% masked, but my three coworkers who just caught it are people who always mask and mask well too. Kids don’t wear masks properly. One of my children could tolerate a better mask, but both my boys have severe sensory issues and it’s been a lot of work just to tolerate a cloth mask. As a paramedic, I know and accept the work risk and do what I can to lessen it, but my kids are going to school in Covid soup land. The vaccination rate for kids is rather low here and I’m to the point it doesn’t matter as far as infection goes. I know this is all petty, but I’m annoyed that everything shut down when our rates were super low and now there is no political will or favor to close schools(or anything else, but I’m honestly less concerned about walking through a store and we only eat out at one gluten free restaurant and as a friend owns it, we text to see how busy they are before going). School is really our biggest exposure risk.

I couldn’t sleep at all the first time I had Covid, but that was because breathing was so difficult. The second time I had Covid I slept 20 plus hours straight for a few days.

If you’re sick enough that you need fluids in an ER and don’t have family, please call an ambulance. It’s not overkill. If you’re throwing up/having diarrhea for days, can’t keep any fluids down and are lethargic and dizzy, an ambulance is reasonable. Plus we can start an IV and fluids before you even get to the ER.

I now know 4 cowormers with Covid at the moment. 3 are vaccinated and boostered, 1 is double vaccinated. All have had Covid within the last 12 months. It sounds like an nasty flu as far as symptoms. One needed to go to the ER for IV fluids. I feel like there’s no immunity at all against actually catching the infection, and multiple people out sick and quarantining is wrecking our staffing.