Do you have hard water? I never liked how nasty shower curtains get, but the flip side is a lot of hard to get off hard water stains. Also, if your shower is not all that big, I would opt for the shower door regardless. No one likes wrestling with a shower curtain sticking in the shower.

He does. I just know if I have to depend upon an additional layer of chaos in order to even make a gym time, I won't do it. I did hire my 18 year old to do respite for me, and it works OK, but even that is not perfect. I know myself too well. Taking him with me is just easier.

Last time I checked with the Y, they said they couldn’t have his wheelchair in the class because of space issues. He’s 19 and childcare won’t take him either. I may call again...the ones near me seem to have a ton of aquatic classes and not much else. I loathe pools.

I did find one near my home. Smaller gym and they don't have the room for my son to sit and are afraid of liability. I may just have to talk to the trainers at CrossFit. They are pretty good about adapting exercises and making sure you're doing them correctly. The Peloton bike is something I would do but the expense!!!

I started CrossFit a year ago. It was a default join in a way since they were they only place that could/would accommodate my disabled child in the class with me. My son will sit in his wheelchair and if anything just dance to the music they play. I am feeling my age. I am easily the oldest in the class every time. It seems like a young person's sport. Yes, I'm getting stronger and my endurance is decent, but I miss Saturday classes in particular because they pair people up to split the workout and I never want to give my partner more than their fair share. I just can't do what someone 20 years younger than me is capable of. I fell off a bar five days ago mostly because I was just getting back into it after breaking my foot and my grip was weak. I'm not quite sure what to do. I do like group classes but every place I call has their space maximized and cannot allow my son to be with me. If I had to make sure someone was able to watch him every time I wanted to work out, I'm not sure I would make the extra effort it would require. Bringing him with me is actually less work. I looked into those Peloton bikes, but it's a $2200 bike PLUS a $39 monthly fee. Yes, I'm paying more than $39 a month for my gym membership, but the price of the bike? Ouch! I don't just want to take walks. I need some external motivation. I'm not even sure I would stick with exercise equipment at home. I'm a little competitive...

Thank you! This is a wonderful site! I know that if I go slow, my family adapts better to things. I'm going to start with the milk kefir and sourdough bread. Both of those are like little pets that you need to feed all the time. I also got a sample pack of some prebiotic tea she recommended since that is really easy to implement. I have two kids and myself with suspected gut issues that need correcting. I did try some fermented lemon juice and I think I turned it slightly alcoholic...I drink it and it makes me feel a little woozy. I will stick to milk kefir for now.

I am trying to figure out simple ways we can help get some fermented foods into our diet. Im trying different things and know it has to taste good otherwise my kids won’t eat it. Fermented pickles are a “no” for example. I am also getting rid of refined sugar around here, but that’s an easy fix to me. I’m going to play around with kefir and real sour dough bread, but I’m wondering about raw cheese. It seems like it does have some beneficial qualities and in our state, it is legal to sell (raw milk-you can’t unless you “buy” a cow share). The question- is it safe? The healthy proponents argue yes and anything dealing with the government says no. What says the hive?

I am looking for ways to add more fermented foods and pro-biotic drinks into our household. Which is easier to make and which is easier to flavor? If my son had anything resembling flavored "fizzy water", he would be thrilled. I bought some root beer flavored Kombucha at the store and loved it. So, which is easier and which is easier to flavor? Thanks!

I am looking to track my sleep. I don't really care about my fitness levels since what I do for exercise may/may not register on a fitbit device for example. Any suggestions?

I had the oven lock on me and go to self cleaning when I had a batch of bread in it. I was able to have it fixed, but it had been wired wrong in the factory and the main controller was almost fried so it didn't last too much longer than that. My mom also had the same problem when she was cooking a chicken. The thing was charcoal by the time she found out the oven was behaving badly.

I get that for sure—I was trying to remember what bad combinations there were also today. I used comet with bleach and then couldn’t remember if bleach and vinegar were bad so I skipped the vinegar. I have the cheapy builder basic dishwasher so the inside is this rubbery plastic stuff. The dishwasher does the job ok (not great-but better than having to hand wash everything), but if I have to go in there with bleach and comet and scouring pads every month, that will be the end of cheapy dishwasher for me.

This is what I’m battling against. It’s gross.

Is there a dishwasher that remains clean? I just cleaned my dishwasher with Comet bleach to get the gross out. And it is gross. It doesn't have a food disposal thing on the bottom and despite me telling my boys to get all the junk off the dishes, they never get all of it. That's not the biggest problem though. There is just a lot of nasty and gross slimy stuff all over the dishwasher in the cracks and this icky deposit all over the walls. My previous home's dishwasher would get gunk in the cracks, but never on every surface. How do I keep this from happening? Will a stainless steel dishwasher keep the ick out? Is it my water? I do use Cascade advanced power since those little pods never seemed to dissolve properly.

Honestly, any bank/ investment company that calls itself Robinhood already sets off all sorts of red flags in my brain just because of the name. Whoever thought that was a good idea? So, if I get beyond a certain amount of money, they will steal it from me and give it to those whose bank accounts are in the lower percentages? Sounds horrible.

I just found Call the Midwife in Netflix. I hadn’t seen the latest season so I’m in my happy place. I agree about Mink and Psych.

Thankfully, I do have a therapist that has a 15 year old with RAD. An hour with her goes fast though. I’m trying to peel back some layers during the week so I can get the most out of my hour.

My DH and I tried a “time in” yesterday because they worked when she was little. She would eventually calm down and allow herself to be snuggled after a lot of trying to hurt me. Let’s just say it didn’t work. She fought us and tried to bit, kick, and punch us. She never calmed down.

Just for definition’s sake. A rage is different than a child not regulating their emotions. I will see her start one and suggest calmly she go to her room for 15 minutes and draw or read until she calms down a bit so we can have a normal conversation about it after she calms down. By the time I notice a rage is on the horizon, she has given in to it. What follows is three hours or so of her yelling and screaming at me. There is nothing I can do to calm her down. If I don’t intervene and try to get her somewhere else, she will look at me like she wants to kill me. Usually, she will yell and scream outside of her door because going into her room would mean actually obeying me which is the opposite of her desire for control. Yesterday involved her trying to bite me and punch me. She’s 11. The whole house is affected by this behavior. I have three very calm biological boys also. I took her to therapy to help her identify what emotions are a big deal and what aren’t. It also came with suggestions of how to calm down. I tried-she didn’t. She didn’t care to work through the program. Yes, I have a hardness toward my daughter. She has stolen peace from my house and replaced it with a child who rages and tells me she wishes I never adopted her and wishes she could live by herself away from me. Add that type of attitude her whole time she’s spent in our house (9 years) and you have a mom whose emotions are fried. She can be sweet one moment and even a whole week but I know that sooner or later, she’ll shift. The last shift came out of nowhere and totally unexpected. I guess she had had enough closeness. Ask any mom who has a child with RAD. It’s not pretty. I now understand my adopted friend’s mom who seemed mean and unloving. She was probably a nice woman at one point pushed to the edge.

I am wondering about triangulation with a RAD kid. At this point, my daughter will have a rage (this is way worse than a temper tantrum) with her yelling mostly at me and refusing to get by herself instead choosing to make sure I know she's angry. Mostly, they start over something very small. For the past four days, she has been raging off and on about us telling her she couldn't bring a certain toy to school. My husband gets these rages also, but not as intense. His solution is to give her grace. I am unable since I have been the one to deal with these for the past nine years and I'm tired. After the rage is done, he will go and read her a book, play a game with her, or even think of someplace special he can take her. He feels like she needs love and love and grace will conquer this (although his patience is starting to run pretty thin also). In the meantime, I am the mean mommy all.the.time. I have told him that unknowingly, she is pitting him against me. He doesn't feel that way. I feel like she should pay for a lock for her brother's door since she is stealing his stuff, my dh feels like we should just take care of that. Grace and love - why make her more angry at us than she already is? Guess who checks her backpack for things she shouldn't bring to school or stuff from her brothers room? Me. Guess who enforces her having to stay close to the home when she's like this? Me. Guess who allows her to play with friends because it will help her be less angry? DH. Guess who lets her bring the contraband toy to school because he doesn't want a rage before school even though I specifically told her no? DH. So, the question is - Is she triangulating us or am I crazy?

I would check progesterone/testosterone levels. When I had mine checked a while back, they were completely tanked. For me, I was feeling hyper all the time and agitated. They have really calmed my system down. For me, I'm taking 125mg sublingual per day. Progesterone cream couldn't get me up to those levels. I'm also in the periously close to 50 stage also.

Hunky dory has escaped my mouth at times...As in, That plan sounds hunky dory to me!”

My son had a child in his 3rd grade class whose name was Abcde. Her parents were immigrants so I’m not sure how much that had to do with it. This girl would be 19 today. It was a weird name and this poor girl has to endure a lifetime of correcting people. I thought she was the only one.

What is the best way to learn/ start with CAD? My son is interested. I would like him to be able to play around with free stuff before we actually purchase anything.

This is what I thought too. I usually took 1/2 of the pill and slept OK. Last night, I took a whole pill and I slept two hours. Nothing is working...

They have some funky flavored candy canes. My dd actually wants mac and cheese candy canes. I knew someone who got a very very large pair of grandma underpants (no offense meant to the actual grandmas on the board!). $10 worth of pennies?