Colorado Springs has a lot within driving distance. We are basically at the base of the Rocky Mountains. There are tons of trails to hike/bike, rock climbing outfitters who can help you rock climb in the Garden of the Gods, white water rafting within a shorter drive, a popular cave, and a trail that leads you to the top of pikes peak. They used to have a cog train that went to the top of pikes peak, but that is closed and they now have shuttle service. We've lived here three years and have yet to hike all the trails that are close to us. The Vale area has a bike trail that goes alongside a river. Estes park is close to Rocky Mountain National park which has tons of hiking. Really, there are very few places you can go wrong in Colorado (except the Durango area -- like pp above mentioned - fires. It's been really dry here lately).

I live in Colorado Springs. Mostly dry here. If it's any encouragement, at least at this point, the city maintains a three year supply in reservoirs for the city so even though we had a dry winter and now a dry summer, we still have no water restrictions (don't know if that's a positive or negative...). It is fairly conservative here for the most part and even with the weird marijuana laws Colorado citizens thought were a good thing at the time, you can only buy it medicinally in Colorado Springs. We are growing very quickly. An average house is probably going to be around the $300,000 - $350,000 with very decent property taxes. The weather is great unless you like things green and lush.

My son is in the severely disabled category. As in, he has about 10 words or phrases he can use. "Stay home", "Daddy home", and Mama are his main words. Every time he went to school in the past two years, he proclaimed loudly that he wanted to "STAY HOME". When it was time to look into day programs, he had three choices. One was horrible - 10 to 1 client to staff ratio for a group of disabled adults most of whom needed feeding and toileting. Another was a pretty good distance away and the third that we actually liked that was closer to home was not taking "medical" clients at the time of which my son is. I'm not sure we can access any of these programs now anyway. I will be talking to his social worker in a couple of weeks so we'll see what options he has. I'm not an extrovert so it's not a big deal that I'm at home a lot. Yes, I've had all my vitamin levels taken and my thyroid checked with the advanced thyroid panel - I am amazingly healthy. I think that if I could sleep on a regular basis and get someone to help me figure out "me" again, I could deal with the rest of my life. My kids aren't awful.

DS 17 doesn't want to change his older brother's diapers. I get that. When he turns 18, he can actually get paid to watch his brother, but I told him he would have to learn how to diaper change. We shall see. DS is a great 17 year old for the most part and I do understand his reluctance. He can totally take care of him otherwise. I did notice that when ds17 was gone at camp for two weeks, it did tone down the atmosphere of the house a bit. I know sending everyone to school won't totally solve the issues I have going on inside of me, but it will give me a little freedom in that I'm not totally responsible for everyone's education and I will have a "team" in a way. Sending my ds 13 to school will cause another sort of issues (he was just diagnosed with mild autism -- can we all see a bigger picture of what's happening with me?) in that I will have to make sure he's getting the supports he needs, but I won't have to be the only one pulling him through school. I've been taking some Saturdays and getting away for the whole day and it has helped a little, but I'm still living in the muck during the week. DH is great and will give me the breaks I need, but I have started realizing that I need so much more and I don't even know what that is.

Couldn't do it - it would literally crush my heart. I know that will have to happen someday because my body gives out, but honestly, it would crush me.

I don't disagree. Dh and I have talked about it. The timing is not great during the summer as I usually have at least two children (my oldest and my youngest) trailing after me. I call it my kid circus train. My oldest is pretty chill during appointments and my gym time and the youngest gets her netflix fix so she's good. It's just carting around people and not getting a moment to think because dd talks constantly. My ds who is 17 can usually watch my oldest for about two hours so I can get some stuff done such as doctor appointments. He works during the summer now and his job schedule is pretty sporadic so I can't count on him in advance. I usually am still taking the youngest with me for very good reasons I can't discuss. And still - after three years in a new location, are trying to find people to help and figure out the screwy system for someone to watch my oldest. He's not 24/7 nursing care which disqualifies him from one system for more than a two hour shift, but still needs that type of care randomly during the non nursing shift which disqualifies him from another system. The state professionalized the system so it doesn't work for more than a one to two hour window of time as far as we can tell. It's just easier to take him with me everywhere. My friend, as part of her supports for the full time ministry she is in, was able to talk several times with a life coach who helped her figure out how to balance her life better. It sounded heavenly. I do need that. Part of the reason my two youngest are going to school full time is that I just didn't have anything left in me to continue. AND, we found a school where the education they will hopefully receive is almost exactly what I would have done if I had the energy to do so. So, I am making changes (like joining a gym and excercising which I enjoy) slowly but I agree, I most likely need someone to help me find "me" again. Most days, I just want to sit on my back deck all day and let the children have the house.

I "know" this is a homeschool forum and we are all around our kids a lot. But do you enjoy it? I haven't thought about this for a while. Today, while I was at my gym, I was noticing another woman's boys just being boys - arguing about something or other. No big deal- brothers being brothers. I asked her if she was happy when school started up again as I saw them arguing. She said, "I LOVE summer vacation because I can be with them all the time." I was happy for her but it struck me that I don't have that same reaction at all. I don't enjoy my children for the most part. My husband is even noticing this and has in some ways taken up the slack by being super dad and making sure the kids are having great times with a parent. I will also be public school mom next fall as all my children will be attending school somewhere besides home. I just have nothing left to make sure either of the two youngest get a decent education. Yes, it would probably be in both of their best interest to homeschool them, but I've got nothing left. I told my small homeschool group the other night to make sure they're taking care of themselves and their own souls because I didn't. Since my oldest son was born, I have given and given and have completely lost "me" to the point I don't even know what emotions I'm having. I want to make this better for at least their sake. They deserve a mother who cherishes them. I'm it. How does one even fix this?

I would skip baseball entirely. In my mind, a graduation trumps anything else but extreme illness. You should make the day special for your son and that includes the whole family. We are a family first and everything else second.

So, I've had severe problems sleeping for over 10 years. I have tried everything natural. I am now trying progesterone at night since my levels were pretty tanked overall. It's helped with the daytime jitters I was feeling (I felt like i was drinking tons of caffeine every day even though I don't), but I've discovered that night time, my anxiety is in full bloom and I don't sleep because of it. I'll wake up with anxiety to the point I have to practice deep breathing to try and calm myself down. There is nothing that I'm thinking about - I usually have worship songs going through my head. Anyway, I was given Clonazepan (in the valium family) to sleep -0.5 mg. It worked great for two months. I slept through the night for the most part which hasn't happened in years. Then can time for a refill and my doctor doesn't want to continue it in reality. I understand - it is addictive in nature. I've tried lowering the dose to wean myself off of it and it just doesn't do the trick. I am a redhead and have found medication is synthesized by my body very quickly. I'm not one to insist that a doctor give me a control substance for life, but is there a different alternative?

I flew United in February. I don't even know if I could have gotten luggage made for under the seat into the space. It was SOOOO tight! The seats were SOOO close together. I am not one to feel claustrophobic, but I did on this flight. I could not bend down to get to my purse under the seat. I had to move it with my legs from under the seat in front of me and then contort myself just to reach it on the floor. I'm not sure a small suitcase would even be able to be wedged in the space just because the seats were so close. I would just pay for the carryon personally. I hate flying anyway, but this particular flight was miserable. I couldn't even cross my legs and I'm a thinner person who's 5'6".

I have an even greater power. I am able to make a lost thing magically appear right before their eyes in the exact place they are currently looking for it.

I thought it was worth it if you have a small garden plot. BUT, it depends what you put in it. My main things that I wanted from my garden were cherry tomatoes and basil. We LOVE cherry tomatoes but they are so expensive in the store. Also, I would plant a bunch of basil plants and make homemade pesto which is also pretty costly to buy. I didn't start a garden in my new location - Colorado. Between the late snows, the altitude, the intense sun, and the random hail, it is so not worth it.

My son knew it was wrong and was having a struggle getting away from it. I think he felt like he could handle things on his own (he's very much independent and always has been). He wrote research papers on it for school and knew all the reasons why he shouldn't. He didn't understand the addictive nature of it (even though he researched this very thing) and still wanted the internet/gaming part of his computer enough that he was unwilling to talk to us about it. Once we found out about it, we did shut everything down completely. His dopamine response is screwed up and needs some time to readjust. I have a friend whose family was very badly affected by porn addiction and she applauds me for shutting down the internet. If she could do it again and knew about it, she would have done the same.

I knocked him off the computer and am now monitoring everything. I don't let him access the router and if he does need to use his computer, he does it in a public space with me around. I will log him onto the router, hide the password, and "forget network" to make sure he can't log back on. We had to talk to the neighbors into password protecting their open guest network since that was able to be accessed also. His phone has no data and we signed up with a special program with the network provider to only give his phone access to what we say it can have. In addition, I have a windows parental monitoring program that only allows certain websites even if he is outside of the home (ie at school) accessing his computer. It is the most annoying part of my life. Part of how this is working is that ds wants to be monitored so he can't access stuff. He never realized the extent I would go to but is ok with it. At this point, the 13 year old will have even less access to technology than his 17 year old brother. No, I'm not sure how to help them guard their computer time when they leave our home, but at least I can try to help with their developing brain pathways.

We use every dollar. The caveat is that dh doesn't always look at it before he spends. I'm usually reminding him that "yes, buying xyz would be nice, but have you seen the budget for that lately?" I also would hate the envelope system. When I'm out doing errands, I'm usually dropping large amounts of money since I don't get out much. $400 at Costco is not an envelope friendly system kwim?

I have a GE 27 cu ft French door fridge with no water dispenser. It’s huge, the lighting is great and I can do my grocery shopping at Costco with no thought to “can I fit all this in the fridge”. It does have an internal ice maker in the freezer but we didn’t hook it up. Love the space.

Is your adopted child a lot younger emotionally than their age? We have a 11 year old girl adopted at 2 1/2 years old. It seems that she started her emotional development when we adopted her. She is dealing with a lot of social school issues right now. I keep trying to help her navigate these situations better and she just doesn't seem to get it. My husband can give her a lot more grace because he considers her to be an emotional nine year old and her responses are more in line with that age. She does play better with children two years or more younger than herself. And no, I can't and won't homeschool her. I've completely burnt out on homeschooling and the wide range of needs each of my children have (two kids with special needs - one minor - one severe - my dd who is emotionally intense). I just need to focus on raising these children to adulthood and can't go beyond that.

I know about Singapore and lack of review also. I actually used it and abandoned it with two of my kids only because they were constantly forgetting concepts previously learned. We're see if this new school actually does group according to math levels. I think it will be a quick road to help her remember stuff, but honestly, having a kid in a public school that's well rated helps me understand completely why the United States is so far behind other countries academically.

My daughter has done really poorly remembering anything from the common core math she was given. They introduced a topic, did it for a week, and then NEVER returned to it again in any sort of review. They had them doing a game called prodigy which was supposed to help with mental math, but my daughter has never progressed with it at all. She's in fourth grade and adding 10 to any number is a mystery to her. I'm thinking of just doing Saxon math with her all summer so she can actually remember what she "learned" during the school year. She is going to a new school next year that uses Singapore and actually groups kids according to math level so I think she'll finally be in a better place. I really want to review spelling and teach her how to type because she was expected to know how to type for tests at the school but they don't actually teach it. Her spelling was never checked in her daily writing and since homeschooling the previous year, I've seen her abilities decrease dramatically since attending this particular public school. I think though we'll focus on math since she feels stupid in math and she's really not and typing games online. She is moving schools. This charter school that proclaims how wonderful the education the students are receiving is basically unable to see it's own deficiencies.

I think you're doing a wise thing by not selling the house. We live in Colorado Springs and the house prices here are insane also. I'm not sure that this bubble is going to burst any time soon. Rentals even here are being rented sight unseen because if you see a home rental, it's gone within the hour. Apartment rentals are getting close to house rental prices simply because of supply and demand. We're starting to get a lot of Denver's population because of the expensive housing which of course is driving up our prices. In three years, we've probably gained $60-$75K in value. We would have been priced out of this market if we had moved now instead of three years ago. You may even be able to get more than you're thinking for rent?

I have been having severe insomnia and in addition to my adrenal glands functioning at a lethargic level, my progesterone levels are pretty tanked. The doctor has suggested a natural bio-identical progesterone cream. She said as an added bonus, if I never stopped taking it daily, I could eventually never have a period again. Are there dangers to this? Would it negatively affect bone health? I'm 48 and no where near to menopause and have no desire for more children, so I would be thrilled obviously. So, anyone know research about this out there? Thanks!

I became a legal guardian of my son for under $100. I paid for paperwork hints and tips and free help from th ARC in my state. I am in charge of my son’s money through SSI. Without me being his guardian, there are doctors and state agencies who won’t talk to me.

New question. I started having insomnia related problems after the birth of my third child. Before that I was a “sensitive†sleeper, but I could sleep. The modules showed up 7 years later (where I noticed them—they were probably there before that). Is it possible to have hypothyroid with more hyperthyroid symptoms? My doctor is wanting to do a sleep study to figure out why I’m having trouble. I also don’t eat gluten because it makes me have muscle inflammation. Related? Should I be looking at a full thyroid workup for a more likely explanation of my insomnia? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So, with the thyroid, I don't have any of the symptoms of hypothyroid. I'm a fairly thin/average weight and feel hyperthyroid if anything. I'm colder during the day (but it's winter) and usually run pretty hot at night. I have restless legs - this morning as I was just laying there, I felt small muscles in my calves twitching. I feel like my adrenals are pretty shot. I have been watching the nodules for around 6 years now. They have not grown, but haven't shrunk either. My main issue is sleep and has been for a very long time - even before the nodules. My levels have stayed pretty much the same over the years. I think once I can get another appointment with my regular doctor, I'll insist upon further thyroid tests.

So, if I have low t4 and t3, is that hypo or hyper? What symptoms would those levels bring? I’m not in thyroid medication but my thyroid is not completely healthy either? Pooling? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk