I love to read but I really need help with suggestions. I need a less heavy selection - i.e. non-classics. Classics require a chunk of time to get into the story line that I just don't have. I'm interested in fiction, biographies, historical books... I just don't want a lot of swearing (because it stays in my head) or sex. My favorite books are Christy by Catherine Marshall and Gone with the Wind. I've read both of those several times. Help me!

My 14 year old will give me a hug in the morning sometimes. He's 5 inches taller than me so the arm pit is much closer to my nose. I just grin and bear it because how many 14 year old boys still hug their mother? Whew! He really smells bad though. Thankfully, girls have become of some interest to him so his grooming has gotten much better. I knew it would catch up.

Good thing I'm too cheap to pay the extra to e-file with the state. For the first time ever, I had to pay taxes to our state. $13, but still...

Yes -- it is very thought but very good. Wh also greatly enjoyed the Narnia class also.

Mr Grey for propositional logic and apologetics. My son has developed a love of "more than a carpenter" through this class. He's also spending lots of time memorizing logic formulas because he wants to do well.

We had someone who looked at our home on a cloudy day. She didn't like our main family room because "natural light is important to her and the family room is too dark" and the main light in the room at that time was lightbulbs. Sorry- I can't make the sun shine 24/7. We also had one who didn't like the fact that we have a true basement- not walkout which can be clearly seen from the pictures online! Why even come if you know that's an issue for you? We've had a lot of lookies not buyies.

We have had ours listed for three weeks. Dh is on the road with all of his personal stuff to start his job on Monday 1000 miles away. We are still here either waiting for the house to sell or waiting for me to go crazy as a single parent. There's been a lot of traffic. We're in the premiere neighborhood with the cheapest house in the whole place. A house behind us is listed for $200k above ours so we aren't in competition with them. Dh will be looking at homes to buy on Saturday. We thought we would live here forever.

Why not tile? I'm only asking is because we're moving soon and we will most likely need to change the flooring due to my sons wheelchair. I've seen tile that looks like hardwood flooring. I know it's colder, but it seems like it would hold up better than hardwood. I'm not in love with hardwood either due to wheelchair marks.

I've talked ad naseum to the social worker (who has been very helpful). As I explain I'm trying my hardest to keep everything above board, she mentions stuff like, "Well by the time we get into the system to make changes to your husband's salary, you will most likely be out of state". I have documentation that shows I tried if they ever contest all this. My husband doesn't technically have a permanent address there either so I guess he's still a resident in our state? What about workers who work remotely for a month sporadically? We also have an income for two months that would put us way over the income requirements, but would drop down to dismal levels after those two months are up. Like seasonal workers who may have really good incomes in the spring/summer and then not as much in the fall/winter. They don't have any way of processing these types of erratic incomes. Even when I tried to plug in everything on the marketplace website for our state (which has been "live" for over a year), they were having processing errors. I kept thinking the processing error was happening and then boom! I get an email announcing I was successful - after it told me I was not. We really want to get out of this system but may have to deal with it another year. The reason I am trying so hard to keep above board with all this is that I have a friend who was authorized to get SSI disability for her daughter. A couple of years into getting payments, the government decided that they were wrong and her family really didn't qualify. So, they are fining her to get back all the money they paid. Yup! She is working with a lawyer. This is really messed up.

This is my Public service announcement. If you are on a state sponsored medical insurance plan, don't try to move from state to state. Especially after the 15th of the month. If you do this, you will be 1 1/2 months or more without medical insurance because once you leave the state, you are automatically taken off their insurance plan and it takes up to 1 1/2 months or more to get on the new state plan (if that is the path you want to take). If you are in a temporary housing situation such as a hotel waiting for a new rental month to start up or waiting for a home purchase to close, then you really don't exist in any state and are even more so in the black hole because you are neither here nor there. So, even if you have every intention of playing by the rules, there are those instances that you fall into a black hole and there is nothing you can do about it. We did find that we can join one of those Christian medical share plans to get us through the black hole months as long as we don't try to access care for two of our kid's pre-existing conditions. Oh and then other fun! Our state's computer system can't make changes! So a change in income or just the fact that my husband is moving from the state and we will follow in the next month or two might mean that we have to reapply all over again. If I had known how screwed up this all was, I wouldn't have gone this route! But trying to get insurance through our state's exchange automatically put us on this route. Lots of exciting times here! Beth

Is it expected that a child will have the biological key memorized? Parts of it? (such as the bacterium section)? Or is that just something they should know how to use? Beth

Not free, but I am loving Potter's school. By their junior year in MN, they can just enroll full time PSEO if they are academically ready. I know Northwestern accepts online student.

Sleeps until noon, mows the lawn when needed, mows other people's lawns when they're on vacation, bikes to our small town downtown area and buys sugar, hangs out with friends at night because their parents can afford to send them to activities all day long.

I was horrible at it also. This may be radical, but the only way I successfully do it is if it is included in the overall curriculum plan. I tried for years to get it on my own schedule with my hodgepodge of curriculum I had. I bought HOD. It has scripture memory integrated into the curriculum plan. For some reason, if I have a plan already written out, it keeps me weirdly accountable. I'm flakey like that. By the way, I didn't just buy HOD so I could get integrated scripture memory work. It was an extra bonus that it did have that.

My 9 year old son at the time had what I thought to be the flu. No big deal. The next morning he woke with severe abdominal pain. His fever went from normal to 104 (with aspirin) in less than 3 hours. He had elevated white blood cell counts. Turns out, the thing burst the day before (he claims he didn't feel a lot of pain) and had infected his entire abdominal cavity. The only reason I thought appendicitis was because my dh had his out the year before and we knew what little tricks to do to find out if that was the problem. Fun times...

Any suggestions for moving companies? Both storage unit type moving companies that you can pack and the big burley guys moving everything into a truck type moving companies. TIA!

I have a child in a wheelchair and we need the handicapped stall as it is the only stall available that works for us. If someone is in it, I really don't mind. I just wait and don't give anyone a stink eye. Sometimes in life, you just have to wait like everyone else. Now, if someone is in a handicapped parking space and they don't have the little tab, I will give the stink eye because that is a way bigger deal.

We struggled with this very situation also. DH was needing a new job and we considered moving closer to my large extended family (who we get along with). Currently, we live 350 miles away. The problem? Dh would have to continue to commute long distances- thus not seeing his immediate family as much. He would have to work more hours to afford a dumpy home - thus not seeing his family as much. It would put some serious financial stress on us thus making our family life worse. Our current situation is such that he was commuting long distances (an hour, which I know a lot of people do, but it was stressing our family) and he just recently got a new job. The job will be 1000 miles away from my extended family. Why did we do this? For the health and well being of our immediate family. The cost of living is lower, the weather is better, and dh's commute will be 10-15 minutes. Yes, I love my extended family and would LOVE to be closer to them physically, but we need to consider first our immediate family situation.

My husband, who has been looking for a job for over two years, has a job in a state 1000 miles away. We don't have a ton of extra cash for expensive housing for dh and I and the kids really don't want to be away from him for more than a month (which is too long already). I'm also hesitant leaving a home during the very cold part of winter where a broken furnace can lead to thousand of dollars repairing broken pipes due to freezing. How do we do this?!?!? We would need a 3 bedroom apartment at least. Renting a home doesn't work for wheelchair accessibility and we would wreck their walls and door frames with it anyway. Beth

I did wind up doing Apologia. I got the notebook also. I know that many think it handicaps a child who is in high school level work, but I have found it to be an excellent teaching tool. It even teaches them Cornell note taking skills and goes into the dissection labs very well. We have a microscope and I have most of the lab supplies already (which is what really sealed the deal for me - I had 90% of the lab supplies). I ordered the test and solutions manual and was happy to discover that they also have quarter semester tests included.

I started taking an adrenal formula because I have thyroid issues (nodules) and thought my body was telling me something. Add to my wonky thyroid was stress which was sending me literally over the edge to the point I was crying all the time. People were telling me to take anti-depressants, put my youngest in school, all sorts of advice on the sinking ship I had going on in me. And the women helping me deal with the severe emotions did not mention my age even though most of them are over 50. Maybe they think I'm younger? Why didn't they say anything? Even the possibility? The adrenal formula has helped - so has sunshine (although that means it's really cold around here). I'm feeling at peace more often than not. I've noticed I need to always take my multi with iron otherwise I have such muscle weakness the last half of my cycle I can barely climb stairs. With iron - no problem. I have noticed that I get more claustrophobic in crowds and feel the need to get out of the place quickly. Also, I always thought irregular cycles meant infrequent. Mine have been around 24 days of late. One month, I got it twice. Fun times :glare: So, maybe I should just chalk up the severe emotional turbulence I feel sometimes to fluctuating hormone levels instead of true depression. There are weeks where I get weepy and weeks where I'm at peace with even our stressful circumstances.

I'm still pretty regular, but this last month when I ovulated, I felt like I had the flu- body aches, chills, but no fever. It then progressed into nausea for a day which is now filtering out into just really bloated/ gassy. I also have the emotional ups and downs and can't seem to handle stress as well. Last month had me on the edge of screaming like a toddler. I tell my husband that it would be best to leave me alone for a day or two because I'm on the edge sometimes. Can I get some feedback about what happens to others during this time? I'm 44.

I grew up in a church where I learned to think of God as this angry Father only wanting to spew His wrath. I thought Jesus came mostly to save us from His father. Yup- totally wrong. It took more than a few years to rethink that. God won't leave you. I have had hard things happen to me, like most people. the biggest was the birth of my very disabled son, the latest was my husband losing his job. I crashed hard both times. God is still in control. I read a book that really helped me get out of my funk--- "One Thousand Gifts". The big take away from that book for me was thankfulness. Yes, He does work all things out for my good--- some of those I may not see this side of heaven. I've learned to be OK with that.

In that place where all the lost things go...you know, the new box of pencils you bought but can't find a single pencil now, the "other" sock, the tv remote, the car keys, and unfortunately, my husband's electric razor. Anyone seen that? Good thing we have the teen boy spare around here.

Or, you can live in Minnesota. They won't actually say anything to you if they're angry, they'll just seethe inside. :glare: