I can just make an appointment. I just wasn't sure which direction to go. And yes, so far I have found the dermatologist to be more helpful out of everyone. Also, we live in the middle of nowhere so none of these specialists are local. I'm also trying to find out which children's hospital system would be the best to get in to.

I'll ask about that next week as well. There are tests that still show as pending: Lupus Anticoagulant APTT, DRVTT Screen Ratio and Interpretation. Thank you everyone for all the input!

I see nothing listed as antibodies on her test and I'm not sure what ANA is? I'm so medically challenged. I will ask next week at the pediatrician's appointment. DD's thyroid showed as low last year, but when her tests were sent to 3 different endocrinologists they said she was fine. The ped had run some bloodwork then because DD was complaining about mild depression. If this is all related I will be so frustrated!

Update in first post.

Yes I do. It also allows me to go to their pages and see all their posts if I'm in the mood. So if I think I can eye-roll at a few of my cousins posts in order to see pics of their kids etc. I go ahead. And the best part is, they don't even know it! They can still see everything I post, which is a family picture a few times a year and a generic ask for people to buy popcorn from my son's scout troop once a year. People I'm close to just know that I don't really communicate through FB. If something really noteworthy is posted by extended family my sisters usually clue me in.

I have unfollowed everyone I am friends with on FB and am only using it as a way to see group events.

Loved this!

It is in both hands. The pediatrician kept asking about injuries and finally DD said "I think I would remember hurting all 8 fingers at the same time." Her thumbs don't seem to be swelling. The pediatrician ordered no tests. I was OK with that at first as she was calling the rheumatologist, but now I'm getting upset, especially as it's getting worse.

There is no discoloration and they have not felt tender to the touch. Just today she said she thinks they are kind of sore when she bends them. After talking to her more about it I think it's that they feel tight and more difficult to move since they're more swollen today.

We have soaked them a few times and she said they felt more comfortable and the experience was relaxing, but I did not see a noticeable difference in the swelling. It may have helped a little? The pediatrician did no tests. She thought we needed to see a rheumatologist and was going to call them to see if we should make an appointment or do blood work first. Apparently the rheumatologist did NOT think they were the right doctor and said neither, it didn't sound like their specialty. So then we were referred to a dermatologist to rule out any skin issues. Her fingers are slowly swelling like sausages, not just at the tip. It is not just on the top of her fingers but all the way around. She has had no injuries. She is on her period this week. The swelling began about 3 days before her period. Wouldn't this be all over and not just fingers though? Her toes are not the same way. After the second day I made sure to lower the amount of salt in all of our meals. Other than one snack of cheese and crackers this week, everything has been homemade and low-salt and the swelling is still increasing. And her fingers are always ice cold. That has not changed. There is no noticeable temperature difference anywhere on her hands.

UPDATE: Her fingers are still swollen, but seem to be holding where they are and not getting worse. Bloodwork was called in by the dermatologist, who was wonderful, but agreed that is was not a skin issue. He thinks we need an endocrinologist, not a rheumatologist, but also admitted that he really had no idea. He ordered every test he though might help out and literally said "We're going fishing for answers." The pediatrician is on vacation this week. 😞 Bloodwork is back and the following are flagged as low: Absolute Lymphocytes, Anion Gap, Aspartate Amino Transfer, Cholesterol/HDL ratio and Free Thyroxine. My pediatrician as a kid always told me that it's good to be medically boring. I feel like DD is not going to fit in that category. 😞 This started last Saturday and has been getting consistently worse each day. Very slowly, but a noticeable increase in swelling each day. It began very small in her fingernail bed. We went to the pediatrician on Tuesday morning. She decided to refer us to a dermatologist? DD has not complained about anything else. She doesn't have a fever, hasn't been sick, still has feeling in all her fingers, the skin does not have a rash, doesn't itch etc. We see the dermatologist tomorrow but I don't expect to get any answers there since she has no other skin irritating symptoms. Has anyone else had this happen? I'm becoming more and more concerned as it keeps increasing AND today it's finally to the point where she said that movement is somewhat uncomfortable due to the size of her fingers.

Thanks everyone. A couple of answers: We have 4 children. We live a little more than an hour from a decent sized city, 2 hours to larger ones. It's likely none of our children will stay in the area or all of them will. A lot of people leave, but a lot stay as well. Our town has actually increased it's population but about 1,000 people per year the last 5 years. Unless one of them wants to live in our home there is very little chance we would build something smaller. If DH is alive he will want to live on this farm until he needs a nursing home. We do currently have a full bathroom on the first floor that is handicap accessible from when DH's grandparents lived here. It's off the entry area we have from our side door that leads to the kitchen or the laundry room, then the bathroom. On the other side of the laundry room wall is the room I'm thinking of converting. I am hoping that it would be possible to turn the laundry/bath area into a full bath that could could be connected to the current tv room, as well as a half bath you would access from the entry area. I really don't care where the laundry gets access. We currently have first and second floor laundry hookups as well as hookups in our machine shed. We could move the full size units upstairs and put something smaller on the first floor if we need to. I have already though of making an upstairs bedroom a living space if we need to. What we call the office was technically DH's grandparent's bedroom. There is a full closet in there that we use for all our homeschool supplies. So it's really a 6 bedroom house. They built it in the early 70's and they had 9 children. It is small on living space but big on bedrooms and closets, which is what his grandma was desperate for when it was built. The staircase is also enclosed with a door which gives you the capability of closing off the upstairs entirely. This is how it always was when I knew his grandparents here. The HVAC is set up with 2 zones, so it's very easy and efficient to only use the first floor without wasting money heating and cooling the second floor. I had never thought of an elevator before. That makes me wonder about pricing out the options on both floors and seeing if one makes the most sense financially.

I just switched all my white plastic hangers to the velvety no-slip hangers. They are space saving, like the old wire hangers, and nothing falls off! AND my closet looks classier. I didn't buy anything special, it's a mix of the ones Sam's Club has right now - 50 for under $13 - and some I found on clearance at Home Goods. We needed hangers and I was going to just grab the cheap white plastic, but instead decided to splurge on ME and pass all my plastic ones along.

Or know someone who has? We do not have a master bedroom. I hate this about our house. It's a 2-story with 5 bedrooms upstairs and one very large bathroom. When we initially moved in our plan was to turn 2 bedrooms upstairs into a master suite. However, once we had possession of the house it became clearer and clearer that the renters who had been here had damaged things to such an extent that we ended up having to redo the kitchen and downstairs bathroom and put all new flooring on the first floor. That ended up taking our entire budget. So, here we are 5 years later and we're discussing plans for a possible master. Initially I thought we would stick with the original plan on the 2nd floor but knowing we probably won't begin this for 3 years or so I started wondering if it makes more sense to do something on the first floor. At the point of completion we'll only be about 45, but since this is our 'forever' home (family farmland) I want to be able to stay here as long as possible. On the first floor we have a kitchen and family room that are open to each other, a full bath and laundry room, a small entry and an office and a room we use as a den/tv room. The den is close to the laundry room, which is pretty large, as well the bathroom. I think we could reconfigure all of it into a master suite as well as putting a small guest half-bath as well as opening the family room to the office to have a nice large gathering space for all 4 kids and future partners and children. Due to the positioning of the rooms it's not really possible to make the den a bedroom and not open up the family room to the office. At the very least a door would have to be put in between the two rooms. DH is concerned that we'll really miss having 2 living spaces, especially when everyone is home. I agree it is nice to have the room with the tv as well as another room for talking. I think he has a valid point. I'm just not sure it's reason enough to not do it. I also think people could go upstairs to a bedroom or into our bedroom on those rare occasions. The only other way I see to get a first floor master is to add on a bathroom to the office, but that's on the other side of the house from the plumbing and I know that between the plumbing plus adding to our structure it would cost quite a bit more. Plus, our home is already about 2500 sq. ft. The idea of adding on to that is ridiculous to me. So all of that to ask has anyone regretting giving up living space to a bedroom and if so, why?

Lori D. thank you so much for giving such a detailed response! I had never even heard of Essentials in Writing and I think this combined with a simple grammar overview will solve our problem. She is solid in spelling and we have a great book list we've been working through together this year. Thank you again.

Yours are older than my oldest, but I was also struggling for something to do together as a family now that we're spread out from K-8th grade. Just the different sleep patterns alone were making morning time difficult. We started a mandatory one hour lunch together this year instead, at 1pm. We eat, sometimes do poetry, sometimes work on memorizing something, sometimes listen to an audio book. Between lunch and lunch clean-up it's only about 10-15 minutes together but it's really helped to add back the idea of our whole family learning something together.

I have a 7th grader who I need something more open and go to use with. I was looking this over and thought it might be better than the nothing that ends up happening more often than not lately and the PDF's are reasonably priced. Her reading and spelling are way above grade level and her writing is good, except for some grammatical errors she makes. The grammar questions on the placement quiz are where she lost all her points. I am concerned that if I place her in level 5 she'll revolt at some of the readings. Or would we be better off going with level 5 and focusing on the grammar, moving through it and level 6 more quickly?

My sister has the older Traverse (the one before the most recent redesign) and I have an Odyssey. The van has more room in the third row and more storage than her Traverse. I agree that unless you're getting a Suburban a 3rd row SUV is a step down from a van. All that said, my sister loves her Traverse. She has 3 kids, the oldest is only 11. They usually sit 3 across in the middle row and she keeps the 3rd row down for the extra storage, but likes having the option to use it for extra kids if needed. If you don't need the 3rd row for regular seating or juts for one child, I think it's a great choice.

We started with Pfaltzgraff's Cappuccino which I loved. However, the plates were very large and heavy. The time the kids became old enough to help with dishes coincided with us getting hardwood floors and quartz countertops. We began to see a lot of broken dishes. So then I switched to Corelle's Winter Frost. I just wanted something simple and found some sets on clearance at Walmart that only had 8 plates, 8 cereal bowls and 2 serving bowls. Perfect for us as we didn't need anything else. I also love how much less space it takes up in my cupboard. We have only had one plate break in the 6 years we've had them but it didn't just break, it SHATTERED. So that's something to be aware of.

We've had a Ninja for about 6 years. I had been leaning towards getting a Vitamix but wasn't sure we would use it enough. Someone on this forum recommended the Ninja as a stepping stone. We don't use it daily but it does get used at least 3 times a week.

My brother and SIL announced they're expecting again!!! They've had many fertility issues and this is their third round of IVF after 2 miscarriages. She's 20 weeks!!! I'm so prayerful that all goes well at this point and appreciate all prayers for them and their little one.

My sister and best friend were both on it for similar reasons. I think the worst thing they experienced with it were parents lecturing about how this didn't mean they could be promiscuous. 🙄

I think it depends a lot on where children live - do you need living space, sleeping space or both. We're not at this point yet but I have thought about it quite a bit lately due to my parents and aunts and uncles making those decisions currently. I have an aunt who has 2 children that live close to her. She downsized and her daughters take turns hosting holiday events. Another aunt and uncle, who have 6 children, are currently in the process of adding on a first floor master with handicap accessible bathroom and great room to their home. Their goal is to be able to stay in their home as long as possible AND to have their children and grandchildren comfortably gather for holidays. When they're all together it's 31 people. My parents recently remodeled their home to open up their kitchen to the dining room to make it nicer when we're all together. They also remodeled their first floor bathroom to make it handicap accessible. They had thought of finishing their basement to add more sleeping space when everyone is in town, but instead we all decided that adding more sleeping options in the 3 empty bedrooms made more sense. So instead of 3 rooms with one full size bed each, we added a few bunk beds with trundles. They're not the prettiest guest rooms, which sometimes bothers my mom, but the main goal is each room can hold a lot of people. Other than their children, they don't have any other overnight guests.

I'm still using the same drying rack my mom bought me when I went off to college. Oh, and DH's drying rack, which HIS mom purchased for him when he went off to college. They fold up and I store them under my couch.

Our washing machine was purchased in 1987 by my best friend's grandparents. They passed away the year DH and I bought our first home, and my friend's mom gifted it and the dryer to us as a housewarming gift, since no one else in their family could use it at the time. The dryer pooped out on us about a year ago but the washing machine will not quit. Every time it needs a repair I think I'll get a new one but DH manages to fix it up for under $20 and I can't justify the expense.