Garden of the gods is not too far off the highway. I've seen dogs there. The Air Force academy has tours-again, not too far from the highway. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's a big part of it all - losing "control". It's not a bad thing to lose control over every aspect of my children, but it's a change for sure. I no longer have control over what two of my children learn or who they learn from. It's trusting that God has lead me to this point and trusting that God is watching out for them. A different kind of trust. Part of the transition for me is finding "me" again.

We did it. I would do it again, but I would have a healthy budget for upgrades. I would also make sure the windows were of good quality. It seems like builders put really crappy windows in new homes to help with their profit.

I started this homeschool journey as an experiment. My ds was not eligible for public school so I thought I would try kindergarten out with him at home. By the time he was ready to go to kindergarten, he knew all of the kindergarten material and half of first grade, so I continued to homeschool. I lived in a small town and surrounded myself with people that were in it for the long haul. They continued amid many difficult struggles. They continued even when a whole year had passed without homeschooling at all. They continued even when multiple children had learning disabilities they couldn't address. They weren't religious about it, just determined. I ran co-ops, ran booths at homeschooling conventions, and helped to create a support group that is still running 10 years later. I was the quintessential homeschool mom. In a way, it became part of my identity. Enter, my daughter. She had RAD symptoms the first couple of years after we adopted her and while she and I have a good mother/daughter relationship, we have a horrible teacher/student relationship, so she is going to school. My 16 year old is going to full time community college per his choice and my inability to find face to face classes that would challenge him sufficiently. Now, I am considering the possibility of having my last homeschool holdout attend full time (which turns out to be part time due to the university style classes) at a different charter school next year. I have made changes this year that would lead us that direction. He needs people and is isolated. I feel like I "should" have been able to keep this up. But, I just can't. I know I can't. We have choices here - a lot of educational choices here and while I may not do this school thing forever, I have a feeling it is going to work well enough that this will be my new path. I know all the arguments against public school and feel like a sell-out. Where are my convictions?!?! I'm starting to feel very cynical about the path I took. I guess it has worked out OK for my kids. I do have a junior in high school with 9 college credits and a full time schedule there this year. My 7th grader is spending hours writing a novel (it's not all that good, but hours of writing is practice). My 4th grader actually knows 4th grade material despite having a really rough start in life. I've done well with them. But, it's a new season I guess. It's like I'm starting over.

If it's any consolation, when they turn 18 in Texas, the rules seem to change. When we considered moving there, we thought if we could make it 2 years (ds was 16), we would be ok. We thought about moving to Illinois to be near family. Even with a very healthy salary, between the outrageous taxes, the extra housing costs, and the extra expenses that ds has, we would be close to living paycheck to paycheck. It really stunk to realize that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a child that is obviously disabled. You spend 10 seconds with him and you know he's disabled. When dh and I were thinking of moving to a different state to get out of the arctic blast zone, we checked out Tennessee, Illinois, and Texas. All of those states did not have services available to him. They had huge waiting lists that ds would have never been able to get place on. Minnesota did have Medicaid services but it was county dependent upon how extensive they were. We had to pay a parental fee based on income to access the services, but considering they did do a cost breakdown at the end to make sure you weren't paying more into the system than getting out of the system.

I've done that---annoying really. My friend used to have a phone that had a keypad. Why don't they make those anymore?

Since my ds will be attending a larger school one day a week and have to co-ordinate rides with his brother, I am looking into getting a phone for him. We are with Verizon and they offer a watch that lets you call and receive calls for up to 10 people. I'm wondering if it's too babyish because he'll be 12. I am very hesitant to give him a smart phone mostly because he has had some trouble self-regulating with web based devices. There seems to be no middle ground. Either you get talk, text, and web access or you get a dumb phone that will only let you call people. I would just like talk and text. Can we get just that for him?

And not all states have Medicaid expansion where disabled children are covered. Actually, last time I looked, the majority of states do not help with disabled children. Families will purposely make sure they live in poverty so that their child can get medical care. I've heard too many horror stories that make our country look very cruel and heartless. My 18 year old is probably close to maximum supposed allowances at this point. He'll need lifelong care. If we don't do it, someone will have to regardless of lifetime allowances. It reminds me when the governor of MN started restricting the number of group homes allowed in the states. It made no sense. What were all those people who really need support supposed to do?

My ds will in all likelihood be going to school at least part time in 8th grade. They use Prentice Hall Algebra in 8th grade. Is it worth our time to have him complete Prentice Hall's Pre-Algebra? Usually I have done Saxon with my children and I have a ds who tested easily into College Algebra as a Sophomore and did very well with it.

My son got into the homeschool program through the charter school! And, when he hits 8th grade, it's a university model type charter school. He can take as few as two classes or as many as 5 depending upon how much we want to homeschool at that point. The even better part is that today I went to the park with some other homeschool moms with whom I have a group. I knew one of the boys was in the same program but didn't know which grade. Turns out, this other boy who my son was hanging out with is in the same class!! And they got along!!! And they live less than 15 minutes away! When he gets to the university model school, he has another friend possibility from this mom's group who he likes and gets along with well. The very nice thing about this particular homeschool program is that the kids in this program live within a reasonable amount of driving time. He can actually get together with other boys if he chooses and I don't have to even consider a 2 hour round trip drive. I can't even explain how well God has answered this prayer of mine.

So far, I'm two for two at that age with debating. Everything is a debate. It's called the dialectic stage. I like to call it the "AARRGGG! Will you just accept my reasoning?!?!" stage.

We don't let him play online because he got addicted quickly to the point where he was sleeping 2-3 hours a night for a couple of months due to getting around parental blocks with time limits. He really went the limit and even went through blood tests to find out why he was so sleepy all the time. He's sneaky. If he gets into a homeschool program through a charter school that has some openings, it may very well be the answer long term for 8th grade and beyond. He can take classes part time with other students - so basically a university model charter school. It fills his desire to not be in school all the time and our desire for him to be around a regular set of kids. Short term, we would still have to figure out, but long term, it would be great. We shall see.

Part of the problem is - my husband doesn't seem to think there is an issue. When I bring up that he doesn't have friends, dh says how he would call a bunch of friends in the summer and during the school year and no one could play. When I bring up ds seems depressed, he mentions how a lot of kids that age are depressed about something or other also. When I bring up how I'm concerned that he is starting not to even care if he talks to anyone in public, dh says "He's always been a little quirky". What he fails to see is that even during the summer, dh was constantly doing sport camps. He went to public school and did baseball and soccer year round. Ds has NO social opportunities right now other than the one day a week charter which starts in a couple of weeks. Our church doesn't offer Sunday School, the junior high youth group doesn't exist, and he has no interest in sports. He has NOTHING!

The biggest problem with the 3 day that I have is that while I would put him in for the social aspect of just being around people 3 days a week, the curriculum is very classical (Omnibus, art of argument, Latin, Classical Writing). I'm concerned that the curriculum itself would crush him a bit because while I think he "could" do it, I don't think he would enjoy it AT ALL. He's more of a mechanical/ imaginative kid. I am trying to talk to a live person (which seems to be very difficult for some weird reason) so that I can ask what their take is on the curriculum.

I've asked him what he wants. I've suggested going to school full time. He just doesn't want to spend the time all day in school. He'd rather just get stuff done and not have to be on someone else's schedule. He doesn't talk about the social aspect - he just doesn't want to have to be there all day. He's not hard to homeschool, but this coming school year, he will be my only homeschooler. His sister is going to the charter school and his 16 year old brother is going to the community college. It will be me, him, and his non-verbal oldest brother.

I am checking the local Facebook page. There is a lot of little kid stuff which drops as soon as the homeschoolers become teens - much like many other homeschool groups. He has no real friends that he even desires to have over. I've asked him if he wants neighborhood friends and he does. I just have no way to figure out where they are. I am checking to see if the local Charter school will let him participate in a robotics group. IMO, he really just needs to be around people a little more often. He's becoming a little strange in some ways and I don't want his adult life to be harder than it has to be.

We've lived here for just over two years. My 12 year old is attending a homeschool program once a week and has made some friends there. Many of his buddies live far away - like 30 miles far away. The church youth group is excellent for his 16 year old brother and has one boy in the junior high age group. I have an adult child in a wheelchair so it is not easy for me to run to a lot of activities. The issue is this. My 12 year old is very lonely. REALLY lonely. Most homeschool activities run during the day and I feel like that is the time when he needs to focus on his actual school subjects because of a lot of reasons that can't change at this point. We need after school activities and because he's not a sports guy, that becomes very limiting. I am considering putting him in the 3 days a week Christian/ homeschool program or even our nearby charter school only because of his loneliness. He does great with homeschooling otherwise and prefers it. He is very selective with friends and is a loner by nature which he doesn't mind too much overall, but I honestly think he's getting depressed. I have no idea what to do. It's actually becoming a problem. DH is a "non-decision" kind of guy. Usually what happens is that I make a decision and he just goes along with it. I've been begging him to help me figure this out and he basically says, "I don't know what to do either" and that's the end of it, leaving me with the decision basically. He's a good dad, he just gets overwhelmed with work stuff and doesn't think about issues at home too much.

We have 4 (1 adopted). EVERY time I was pregnant with the next baby, my first thought was, "What have we done?!?!" My second thought was sadness for the current youngest child to the point that I would apologize to them. "I'm sorry you're going to have a new little baby brother or sister! I'm sorry they are going to steal your time with me!" I felt in some ways like the unborn baby was going to steal me away from the current youngest child. I always felt sorry for them.

My sister also dealt with being overweight and having trouble dating. My DH explained her lack of dates like this--regardless of the woman's personality, men are visual people. Regardless of what women want men to be, they are still visual and are initially attracted to a woman based on the visual. In the case of my sister, she didn't have a large variety of men who she could get to know her -not just her outside and be attracted to the person she really is. So, she lost 75 lbs and at that point, started dating more as a result and is now married. So, no, weight should not matter, but unfortunately it can. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

$850 for almost 3 teen boys,a 10 year old girl, DH and I. It includes paper products. I go to Costco 2x a month and grocery for incidentals. We do not have a cow in the backyard to butcher, my husband doesn't hunt, and I have no garden because the climate where we live is harsh at times. Sometimes people look to the family of 10 that only spends $100 a week and spreads that pride everywhere and everyone asks how?!? Sometimes that same family has Hunters in the family, while raising cows, while raising chickens, while farming a 1 acre garden that they can and freeze. Also, I am gluten free which doesn't mean I try to substitute for gluten items, it just means I avoid them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good hair straightener will handle the poof regardless of what you get. I have semi-wavy hair and with a straightener, I have "Pantene" hair that moves nicely from side to side. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I missed that guy! Yup - that's the romantic interest! Have you ever said, "my children are crawling up the walls"? The owner takes that expression literally I guess.

They were staging the house! In the master bedroom was a wife talking to her husband while her romantic interest was trying to get out of the shower quickly. The guy sitting in the kitchen was the wife's daddy coming to shoot the interloper. Maybe all the mannequins are there as a real life story played out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But even if he's spreading lies about his ex-wife, he is still not supporting his current children. He's ignoring court orders--how can a woman even begin to feel safe and think he's a good catch?!? I have an acquaintance whose husband wanted someone less feisty and left her with seven children to raise. How can another woman even consider him a good fit?!? There's got to be that little voice that says, "what if he flakes out on me for an argument and leaves me also?" Even if you're a card carrying feminist, you should be able to see a dud and stay away. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk