I liked it. My 13 Year old Ds who hadn’t watched it and wants to asked,”Is there a set of twins and one grows older and the other doesn’t?” I guess there’s a bit of predictability to it.

I started replacing my most used pots one at a time with All Clad as it went on sale. It's heavy, but I feel like it will last my life time.

My dd had a rash like that once after playing in grass about this time of year. Small bumps all over. Her face even swelled with the rash. We tried everything—Benadryl, steroids, and wound up with scabie medication. They went away after that but it could have also been that the whatever she had ran it’s course. Don’t know what it was.

Yes this- even when I called her, I had to make an effort to steer the conversation to how my foot was doing. I wanted her to know. She didn't ask right away and talked about everyone around her first. My mother-in-law called me today just to ask how I was doing. She has less people swirling around her though. It's just disappointing to know what you thought was accurate in your estimation of relationship is truth.

I get the canyon GF bread, freeze it, and I can just take out a slice or two when I need it.

She remembers multiple piano students and what they are learning, when they are coming, if they did their lessons, how many weeks they forgot to do their lessons, and when she has to teach piano at a school. She remembers when she has to play organ at various churches and details about how much they paid her last time and nuances about each church she plays at. She remembers details of when she has to be helping with nieces and nephews and minor details about grandchildren and what classes they are taking in school. What special formula the newest grandchild is taking and how long it’s taken my brother to paint his house. I know this because she tells me all this type of stuff on the phone. No, she just forgot me.

Storygirl, thank you for all the information! I am thinking that she will need medication. She is also constantly angry and feeling like we're trying to rush her constantly (yes - we are--45 minutes to get dressed is not going to fly around here). If medication changed her personality a bit and calmed her down, I would be fairly ecstatic. She is causing a constant firestorm in our house right now and wonders why no one in the family wants to interact with her. I am making notes and will ask about extended release and short acting. Right now, until I can talk to the doctor, I am dosing her with coffee and her teacher has agreed to let her draw during lectures in class as long as she knows she is listening. We are beyond trying to treat this naturally. I have been giving her supplements to support her brain for a few months and they work a little, but not enough to really help. We eat as healthy as a diet as we can and stay away from processed foods and extra sugars for the most part.

I broke down and called my mom. I made mention to her that I thought she would have called by now to see how I was doing. She admitted that she had completely forgotten about me. Sigh... she did say that she would make a better effort. We’ll see.

Last year about this same time in the school year, my dd developed hives all over her body. Benadryl didn’t touch them, steroids didn’t help them, and finally she wound up with scabie medication and they stopped. She is starting to get a rash and some hives developing again at about the same time last year. The pollen/allergy count is low right now and I’m wondering if it is stress? Anxiety about a new year (she goes to school). No, I can’t homeschool her. I feel like our family is completely drowning. Too many issues...

I have been talking for years with doctors who believe my dd has ADD. I’ve told them I would consider it when I noticed it interfering with school work (she’s in public school). Dd is noticing it and telling me how much trouble she’s having concentrating. I see it at home also. Her teacher is also noticing it and one of her degrees is in special education. She is going through puberty so I don’t know if that matters. I hate to put her on medication but there are so many indicators that she is definitely in the ADD range. She loses focus on everything. Today, eating breakfast, she was using her bacon to make circles on her plate knowing that we were running late because it took her 20 minutes just to get dressed (we were constantly yelling at her to get going). I’m constantly redirecting her. So, tell me about medication. Thanks!

Command strips

I know most people don’t get it. That doesn’t bug me so much. We can usually see the light bulbs go on in people’s head when they spend a day with us. I’m almost too competent. I have figured out things enough even with a broken foot so that I could exclusively handle things during the day (excepting the driving part) but have chosen this time to accept help offered to me because my DH feels more comfortable with me if I do and things take me twice as long to accomplish right now. I’m calling it a personal growth time to accept help and not be an island. i have tried encouraging various siblings to move away from the hub. The hub is expensive and taxes keep going up (Illinois). I hear every once in a while from siblings how they would love to live somewhere else (mostly when I show pictures on Facebook of where we now live) but maybe we were the only ones courageous enough to take a chance and do something wildly different? One sibling also knows if she moves away from the hub, she loses the family. They see it.

I put my last two in school this year after homeschooling for 13 years. My dd was a relationship issue. She’s a very intense person and I needed a separation between school and being a mom. With my Ds, he needed to be challenged more and get out of the cozy bubble he was creating for himself. I also lost the desire to homeschool and the desire to keep pushing my Ds to do more than the minimum. It was also exhasberated by having to fully take care of my disabled son. I’m happy I did this. My kids are in an excellent classical charter school where they’re learning things I consider important to an education. I’m not sure I would have been as peaceful if the school wasn’t so good. There is a learning curve with Ds, but I’m ok with it.

Yup-I did. But if you were a mom and you know your dd has a physically disabled child that she cares for exclusively, wouldn’t you be curious to know how she’s doing that? I’ve learned not to share negative things about my kids because it turns into gossip for my sisters. I know that because I hear the gossip about them.

I use it as a gargle because my dd's doctor said it's really harsh on the liver. My dd had a strep throat that would not go away after two rounds of antibiotics and a shot of penicillin so I had her gargle with it and spit it out. She didn't get an infection again although it looked like it was coming back. I had done the same when I had a strep infection that would not leave.

I probably will call her eventually...I guess I just wanted to know if she thought of me enough to give me a call. I guess a broken foot is not enough. I’m mourning a bit because I have told myself for years our relationship surely must be better than this, but it’s also confirming what I have thought. When we were figuring out where to move three years ago, we tried living as close as we could to the “hub” which was about an hour + away. We began to realize that even an hour away was not close enough and we still wouldn’t have the relationship those closest to the hub get. So we went for broke in a way and moved to a place where our family could thrive. And we have here. I guess I’m continuing to mourn that my perceptions are accurate. My youngest sister also felt like I do until she had kids and now has my moms attention because my mom want to be with her kids. Otherwise, she was out of the loop also.

Yes-I am the oldest daughter and the oldest child. I have a brother who was #4 in the mix. I became my dad’s right hand man since I was the oldest and most helpful and he was a do it all type guy around the house. So while I’m outside helping him fix cars, everyone else is with my mom. I was always the most competent less needy. I had my first child with multiple surgical issues his first year while my dad was dealing with cancer so I took care of myself and him alone with my husband. Yes-maybe it’s just too many kids to keep up with, but still—I broke my foot, I’m caring for my physically disabled son...wouldn’t she wonder how I’m doing that? Also, it’s hard to get a hold of her. She teaches piano at a school, has private piano lessons at her home and watches various niece and nephews during the week while attending their many sporting events at night. She’s just plain hard to get a hold of any more.

Been there done that over and over. I do things to show I’m thinking of them. I call them or initiate conversations. Never reciprocated. Sometimes I just get tired of being the one who is the keeper of the relationship.

I have talked to my family via letter, email, and in person about feeling basically family-less. They agreed to do better—nothing changed. We did live 700 miles closer at one point but even then, it was becoming clearly obvious that traveling with my disabled son was getting more and more difficult. After our last vacation, we are not traveling and staying more than a night. We moved to get away from harsh weather and reduce my dh’s commute by 75%. Thank you for being able to see through my eyes!

I have no idea if she calls them. She knows all about them because that’s how I get news about them.

I am 48 years old and I am still wanting my mom to show me she cares...I have 5 siblings. All live within an hour of my moms house that we’ll call “the family hub”. She babysits my nieces and nephews, goes to their basketball games, their plays, and give some piano lessons. My family gets together for birthdays and holidays—back to school parties—Fourth of July— etc. Due to quite a few circumstances having to do with social supports and cost of living for my disabled son, we cannot live near the family hub. We are living in a place that is very very good for my family. The thing is, I have no relationship with any of my family unless I initiate. I am finding that my mom is the same. I broke my foot a week ago, told my family by text, for a text back from my mom asking how it happened and nothing else. I’m waiting for her to initiate something -anything—-I knew she couldn’t/wouldn’t come to help me and have made my own arrangements for help. But to not even call to see how things are going? I’m not calling her. I really want to talk to her but feel hurt that there is no call of even asking how things are going. Not even a text...my mother in law called as soon as she heard. I feel like the black sheep who doesn’t know what she did to have no communication from my family. I moved away from the family hub. Maybe this is my punishment. It just hurts. I don’t know how to resolve who she is to my other siblings and who she is to me. Out of sight-out I’d mind?

Honestly, at this point, if a counselor suggested I spend more time with her, I’d start crying. She’s sucked everything from me and I’ve been faking love and affection for so long, I’m burnt out. It’s like hugging a cactus—eventually you just need to stop and heal. My husband and other kids also. Every interaction between my other sons and her is negative now.

And just in case you’re wondering if we are bad parents, all this deciding to do her own thing is new in the last six months. Consequences don’t seem to do anything anymore. She doesn’t care.

My Ds is displaying RAD like symptoms again at 11 (she did when we first adopted her for about 1 1/2 years) or she is having some hormonal surges. Either way, she has decided that she wants to do her own thing and not obey us half the time when she thinks her plan is better. Yesterday, we gave her a watch with an alarm so she knew when to come home from playing. She decided to ignore the alarm and came home an hour late. She’s just playing in the neighborhood where I could find her if I could. The thing is, I broke my right foot and can’t put weight on it for another two weeks at minimum (not can I drive for up to 12 weeks at this point). I can’t go looking for her. Every time we try to restrict her to keep her safe, all hell breaks loose and there’s screaming and slamming doors and her telling us how miserable she will make our lives. Yes, she needs counseling but this foot has caused a series of problems because of my physically disable son (yes we have some measure of help) but it puts enormous pressure/ extra workload on my husband. all that to say, my dd attends a school where they have after school care. We are considering it because I don’t have the mobility or energy to deal with her right now. What she needs we can’t give to her right now. Would this make her issues worse?

Annika. We never used it because our only girl is Chinese and DH felt Annika was too Scandinavian.