My daughter was born with a cleft lip/palate. As a result, she has a scar above her lip and her nose is slightly off center. Today, she learned that other girls had been talking about her saying how her face looked weird. Why is it that the pretty girls who could have it all are sometimes also the meanest?!?! The thing is--she learned it through gossip of her friend who overheard them. It wasn't said to dd personally. So, we had a long talk about how gossip does hurt and to be the friend to those who get made fun of. AND to never repeat something said negatively about another friend to that friend. In some ways, I'm glad it happened during the summer. She's going to school next year and this is my big concern for her - that other girls will make fun of the way she looks. Now I can't blame the public school setting - only the kids in that public school setting. The school actually has a reputation for being very proactive with bullying and mean girls so if my daughter made a fuss about being made fun of, something would get done about it. Also, it made me realize that I actually had the emotional energy to do be the mom she needed at the time. I wasn't trying to be her teacher also. She's always been tough to teach and I have had no tolerance for much more of her antics the rest of the day. Today, because I didn't get so frustrated trying to teach her, I had energy for her emotions and energy to be mom.

He should be wearing some sort of ear plugs anyway. My dad was a tool and die guy and his hearing by age 50 was horrible! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a purse that has slots for credit cards and a pocket for cash so I don't need a wallet. I have a checkbook (although I've never used it out in public...I guess it's out of there!), all the insurance cards and credit cards, gum, a pen, some cash, my phone, and readers. The readers are a new addition because I have finally gotten to the age that I can no longer read labels without them (Wahhhhh!). I have a small cross body purse.

180 neighbors and I once got a letter explaining how our yards weren't up to the standards and we better fix the problem or we would be fined. I had 5 weeds in my yard (yes, I counted). It had just stopped snowing 2 weeks before (we get late snow) and we were getting ready to get the fertilizer/weed kill on the lawn. There was A LOT of uproar on that one. Most people's yard were like mine with minimal weeds. Some were justified, but most were not.

To put it in perspective about the range of sizes with 15 year old boys...my son was almost 6" by 15 and 150 lbs. He had a friend who actually played football who was over 6" tall and around 170lbs. I've met plenty of teen boys that are your son's size but I've also met many who are very large man sized. My 12 year old is 5'6" and close to 110 lbs. There's no way I would put him on the field with my 16 year old (who is 6'2" and 170 lbs now) and expect them to compete on equal levels in football. Other sports, no problem. The chance of a head injury is very possible.

I always thought I would homeschool through the end of high school. I had reasons...But, I realized quickly that I cannot be an expert in every subject. I could barely keep up with one! I was already spread too thin and I could tell that ds was not getting his questions answered (because I had to read up on everything and try to figure it out enough to help him). So, I used online classes. Ds was in full time online classes this past year. Next year, he is doing dual enrollment full time. He will no longer be considered a homeschooler. I thought I would never do that! But, I've noticed he zones out in online classes (even when they're live) and forgets to hand in work because he's not in class consistently. I applaud homeschoolers who can successfully navigate high school without outside help. We were not able to do so.

Here is an article on some side effects of some antibiotics. https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/popular-antibiotics-may-carry-serious-side-effects/?_r=0

Some antibiotics can cause some long term issues with joints and nerve damage besides just having gut issues. I would google the antibiotic you used.

I am in charge of a small homeschool group just for mom's discussion. We are looking for a book recommendation that focuses on how to regain a sense of "self". How to have dreams and passions again. For me, I've lost who I am and what I am passionate about or even what I like to do with 12 years of homeschooling and really hard kid stuff. So, any books that would address that? We are a Christian group, but the book itself doesn't have to be Christian. Thanks!

Thank you for being able to express the very same reason my dd is going to school next year for 4th. I also had a child that would fight me about school work and I was able to work it out with him. Dd is a very different level of anger about stuff she doesn't understand and I have more stressors on my plate now so the homeschooling thing is affecting our relationship. She has only one mom and can have multiple teachers. I have decided with her that she just needs me to be her mom. She was going to a one day a week program and her teachers there loved her. She did so well working through hard stuff in a different setting. We shall see how this goes. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Last year we did do mathUsee with 1/2 lesson of Saxon 5/4 for spiral review. She did well with it. Then for 3 weeks I switched her over to the math she will be using in public school next year just to make sure that she had all the basics covered. Within that 3 weeks, she lost all of her subtraction facts that she knew well. It seems at times that her brain can only store so much math information. It's to the point that she can do a problem with success one minute and three minutes later have the same problem and have no clue how to do it. I'm looking into getting her evaluated. She has a mouth surgery coming up this month and surgeries always set her back a bit for some reason.

My daughter has serious issues with math. She is going to go to public school next year because of a lot of reasons so I am trying to get her caught up with things she didn't do with our math sequence (we did MathU See this year - just getting caught up with division and fractions). Math has ALWAYS been tough for her. In 3rd grade, I felt like we were making some progress finally after 3 years of frustration. Part of her problem is that she can understand something one week and completely forget how to do it the next. Completely. Like she's never seen a problem like that before. Eventually, she'll get it, but it's a three steps forward, two steps back progression. For example, she can do multiplication and division facts no problem right now. But she's completely forgotten all of her subtraction facts as a result. She had those down two months ago with no issues. Word problems that are a little more complex confuse her entirely. I've tried drawing pictures, using manipulatives, making it a little more simple, underlining what they want, circling what they have - everything. She has no clue how to approach these. She gets mad at me and I get ready to cry. She scored in the 4th percentile for math problems on her last standardized test. I think it's a little on the low side, but I'm not surprised it's on the lower end. I have no idea what to do. Part of me wants to give up and just let the public school deal with her. Homeschooling has affected our relationship negatively overall so I need to just be mom and not teacher for this child. Homeschooling has always been hard with her. It's drained me completely. Just standardized test results show her 3 grades ahead in reading and reading comprehension so I know it's not a blanket learning issue. She's very imaginative and interested in her world. She likes writing and knows how to spell decently. She loves art and is a decent drawer. I feel like I have failed her in math and the public school will think I failed her. I have done everything I can think of to help her and none of it was good enough.

I have a friend who has 9 children. She was verbally abused and yelled at in the library by someone who felt her family's carbon footprint was too big and that she should be ashamed that people like her were ruining the planet. In the small town I came from, it was not surprising but sad.

I am gluten sensitive - I also get joint pain if I have too much gluten. I could eat a donut once a week and not have issues.

I remember once I was dressing my 6 year old disabled son in the dressing room at the physical therapy place while my 4 year old was standing by. I was bending over while I was dressing him and a woman proclaimed how busy I must be. I stood up and she saw my very pregnant belly. Her eyes popped open. She asked,"What are you having?!?" I told her a boy. Her response? "Figures!" It made me feel like I was a victim of something--I have no idea of what. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My cousin was a pharmacist who worked weekends and holidays (she would get pay and a half for holidays). She earned around 70k just doing that and was able to stay home with her child. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am amazed at how many people get comments about "if your kids are adopted". My daughter is from China and I live in an area where there are a lot of bi-racial marriages and in general a more mixed population. I have come across more than once people who think she's my biological child. They ask and not assume she's adopted. I have red hair with freckles...granted, she doesn't look obviously Chinese and could even pass for Hispanic at a quick glance but still... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My youngest is going to a charter school next year so all I have left is my 7th grader since my junior is going to do dual enrollment next year. It is sad. All the fun curriculum is done. Even read aloud revival which I love to listen to really doesn't have much relevance anymore (yes, I still will read aloud to ds, but it's not as foundational anymore). Even if and when my dd does come back to homeschooling, she'll be closer to junior high. It's like a major life change has happened.

Getyourprettyon.com Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree with Leverage and white collar.

Foodmageddon...Dh may like that one. I can't even imagine 4 teen boys and 2 more aspiring teen boys...

I thought of you all when I had this conversation with DH this morning. "Where did those two bags of chips from Costco go?" "The kids ate them." "No, I mean the ones we just got a few days ago." "They're gone." "We had two huge bags...I think I ate one chip when I was giving some to J." (at this point, it still hasn't registered) "The.kids.ate.them." At this point, it goes "ding" in Dh's mind and he leaves for work grumbling about going to Costco himself so that he can actually have a fun snack every once in a while and hide the whole bag in his office where only he can reach them.

My DH has started hiding food that he wants to eat in the future. He's learned that if he waits, it's gone. He keeps wishing for a mini fridge for our bedroom so he has a chance for some of the food my children gobble down quickly. I go to Costco twice a month and the grocery store twice a month. If I get out of Costco with less than a $400 bill, I'm happy. I rarely buy "fun" stuff there-mostly just basic food. We have almost three teen boys and this little skinny dd who can pack it away. Right now she's eating left overs from a huge dinner I made. Leftovers that would have fed DH and me a good sized lunch. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Same for Colorado Springs. People here are buying houses in the lower price range sight unseen because houses will be on the market for two day with multiple offers. Moving here today, we would have been priced out of many markets and probably had to spend more than we were willing to spend. The field that I could see just down the road from me two years ago now has over 100 houses on it.

I live on the northeast side of Colorado Springs. From my experience the better hotels are on the north end ( I have no idea what is out there). BUT, that means a longer Uber ride if that's what you're looking at for transportation and not too close to Peterson. Colorado Springs is very sprawly. Most of the cool stuff to see and do is in the west of town closer to the mountains. Peterson is on the east side. I too would advise you get a tourist guide. Personally, I like taking people to Garden of the Gods and the zoo. Both are very interesting. Manitou is for the people who like to experience a little flash back to the 70s hippy lifestyle IMO. Little shops - cool little mountain town.