Faithe- I weaned myself off of coffee a few weeks ago. The difference it has made in my energy level is absolutely amazing. I LOVE my coffee and I am not even tempted to have a sip anymore because of how much better I feel. As a fellow Hashimoto's/CF? sufferer, I say DO IT! The withdrawal was tough. My fatigue was even worse than usual. It is worth it!!! I would plan on being out of commission for a week, though. ETA: I limited myself to one cup a day and went cold turkey from there. By day 3 or 4 I was so miserable that I had a cup. I didn't touch it again and it was smooth sailing after that.

She is probably trying to tell you that they aren't interested without a confrontation. I have a neighbor who overwhelms me (similar situation but dramatically escalated) and this is sort of how I deal with her. I tried setting boundaries, politely declining, avoiding her, addressing the situation directly...she just didn't quit. Now I have to be somewhat cold to get space. I would just say that you should just move on :).

We just got home from watching it. I have never seen the Bond movies so I'm not sure about that reference, but I definately didn't take the name to be a play on a curse word. I also didn't read the reviews before we went but I agree with the pp who mentioned Big Oil. It was so over the top that I actually said out loud "Are you kidding me?!". :glare:

Agreeing you should have her thyroid checked...

Me too :( I clicked on a link from that thread this morning expecting the Cliff's Notes and got more than I bargained for :( I have felt upset and sick all day. Brain Pollution--that's a good description.

I hate that I read the article linked a few pages ago. I read two pages and I am so upset. The details...my babies are that age... please edit and post a warning.

Wow. I am seriously surprised at how many people are offended by little boys being in the womens' restroom. My little boy is 5 and he is still a little boy--not some pervert trying to peek at middle aged women through bathroom stalls :tongue_smilie:. I am a conservative Christian and we teach our little ones about modesty and privacy at home. To make someone feel like a pervert for bringing her 6 y/o son into the restroom with her is outrageous. To encourage your children to humilitate another family for doing so is outrageous. Perhaps people should find fewer things to be offended about... This is stranger than the time a lady from church asked me if I minded if she changed her 4 month old daughter's diaper in front of my 4 month old son, and then proceeded to ask me about the status of his foreskin :001_huh::lol: To the OP--When our girls were that age my husband would take them in with him if there was no other option. He always waited until the restroom was empty, but he obviously had no control if someone walked in after him. Usually, though, men can hear the little ones in the restroom with daddy and take care to be discreet. We have a 7y/o girl, 5y/o boy, and a 3y/o girl that we send together into the womens restroom now.

I didn't realize until baby #4 that I had ppd with my last three children. I didn't realize it was ppd--I thought I was just an awful mom/wife who couldn't handle anything. I loathed myself and beat myself constantly. I was tired, grumpy, and unable to do even basic things on a daily basis. I really just thought it was me. They always tell you that ppd involves you wanting to hurt the baby or being angry with the baby. I didn't and wasn't so PPD never occurred to me. I blamed it on myself and my thyroid. I didn't even leave the house for most of that year. A friend had ppd and her symptoms were more classic. On my own I start feeling myself again once baby is 15-18 months old. I wasted so long feeling that way! I wish I had talked to someone. I wish someone had seen it and helped me! Definately talk to dh and your doctor!

You missed the part that the POLICE didn't serve the warrant. The Office of the Inspector General, a branch of the Department of Education, served the warrant. I think I read they kept him there for something like 6 hours!

For your HOD perusing pleasure http://http://ourfamilyforhisglory.blogspot.com/2011/06/answering-your-many-homeschooling-with.html This mama's kids are little (she just finished LHFHG) but I thought it might be helpful to anyone researching HOD. It's a lovely blog.:)

That's what I got our of your previous post, anyways :D

Probably at the end of the summer. We're going on a looooonnnggg holiday :D. I have toyed with the idea of starting earlier so we can do co-op 1 day a week but I really want to be consistent when I do start. The sun and sand will be entirely too tempting...no matter how much we are looking forward to starting!!!! :tongue_smilie: I'll be glad when we get to Preparing for the 4-day schedule. DD is thrilled with my choice (Bigger). She keeps sneaking the books--I find them hidden in her room! I'm actually thinking about selling MFW K and getting LHFHG for ds k. And doesn't dd (almost 4) need LHTH?! :lol:

:iagree: One of the things that makes HOD so unique is that it isn't just a collection of resources. So many skills are integrated among the different subjects! You might be working on x skill in history and if you swap it for something else you are missing out on an important part of the program! The content subjects are really tools to work on bigger skills and heart/discipleship. What about MFW? Not sure what grade you're looking at but I think MFW schedules SOTW at some point.

In our last state we had a civilian doctor that was absolutely WONDERFUL. He was pro-vax but he respected parents' rights to make the decision and set the schedule and actually enjoyed talking through it with us. The kids are now seen by a military service center (I think they are contracted civilians for the most part, not sure). Anyways, we HAVE to vax on their schedule. Period. They will not allow you to do one but opt out of another shot on the same day, no spreading them out...NOTHING. I was told that it was because it would be a scheduling nightmare and would necessitate too many extra visits. I was told that I would have to take my child to the local health department (ick) if I wanted to selectively vax. I missed a well baby visit or two because of things that came up at the last minute and they insisted on catching him up at his last visit. So.many.shots. Everything in me screamed NO. They were really reassuring--'I've worked here for 5 years and I've never seen anyone who had a problem. CDC says we can load em up! They just want to protect your child.' The last lady finally gave me so much crap that I said "NO, they aren't primarily concerned with my child's health. This is socialized medicine (military) and it is about $$$$". :glare:Truly, it was an extraordinary number of vaccinations on the same day. They could have kept him on a delayed schedule! I'm skipping the next appt. I refuse to be strongarmed into a decision that I am not comfortable with. I have a friend who is pro-vax but wants to space it out and she isn't getting her baby vaccinated at all because of it. It's really frustrating. I love doctors in general, though :) They diagnosed ds with a testicle that hadn't descended. It ended up being no big deal because it came down when he turned 1, but my nephew had the same issue and his never descended. He had to have it surgically removed because of cancer risks later in life. I hope you find a ped who will work with you! It might be a pain, but at least your have options!

I looked for a program that used many of the resources I wanted to use anyways (or gave me the freedom to substitute within reason). I tend to schedule too much work when I piece it myself and there is a lot of redundancy between subjects. Also, I find that I don't really know how much to expect from my oldest. When I was looking through our HOD guide it was like a lightbulb went on. I love that they have taken the things I wanted to use and put them together in such an efficient way. I love that they teach me how to teach things like how to move dd toward independence and what a proper notebooking page looks like. I feel like I'm getting the wisdom of a seasoned educator built into my day and not just a package of books.

Huh. So the US Department of Education now had weapons and police powers. :confused::confused: I guess calling it a "semi-independent branch" of the DOE is supposed to make us feel better. They are now saying that it wasn't over student loans as reported. But the DOE served the warrant and is fielding press inquiries, so it isn't like the raid was for terrorism or meth. Ick. Ick Ick Ick. http://http://www.news10.net/news/article/141108/2/Questions-surround-feds-raid-of-Stockton-home U.S. Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton confirmed for News10 Wednesday morning federal agents with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), not local S.W.A.T., served the search warrant. Hamilton would not say specifically why the raid took place except that it was part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Hamilton said the search was not related to student loans in default as reported in the local media. OIG is a semi-independent branch of the education department that executes warrants for criminal offenses such as student aid fraud, embezzlement of federal aid and bribery, according to Hamilton. The agency serves 30 to 35 search warrants a year. Search Warrant: http://www.news10.net/news/pdf/Ed-dept-Wright-warrant-060711.pdf

Me too ;)

My sense of propriety would never have allowed me to accept payment for that!

Why did you pay her for meeting your kids? I put that on the same level as a job interview. Who expects to get paid for going to a job interview (or three?). I think you're too nice :tongue_smilie:.

It is just as lovely in person :tongue_smilie:

I finally committed, too :) I found that when I was putting things together myself I was dropping many of the skills that I so want to work on with my kids. Consistent narration, dictation, interacting with the material instead of just consuming it, lovely penmanship...those were so easily overlooked in the frenzy of "do this so we can get to that". I know some people can make it work beautifully, but I bombed :D. I tend to schedule too much work, too little fun, and then end up burnt out and dropping half of it. Plus I hate planning. I like organizing before the school year starts, but weekly planning just isn't happening around here. I will say, though, that I am only attracted to all-in-ones that have skills integrated.

Oh no :( I was hoping a looonnng summer vacation in the sunshine would help me! I feel like I'm only half living sometimes. I'm only 29! :( Thank you for the encouragement. Thank you! Adding them to the list...

I have bought and sold several items on this board. The feedback under my profile has disappeared! What happened?

I don't have time to read through all of your info right now, so I'm sorry if you mentioned this already. Dark circles were one of the main symptoms of my underactive thyroid. They were quite dark in the year before I was diagnosed, when I was showing lots of hypo symptoms but my bloodwork was coming back normal. I was eventually diagnosed with Hashimoto's. I think I remember you saying that you keep an eye on your thyroid (was that you???), but I just thought I would mention it in case you have any other symptoms. I wish I was brave enough to post before and after pictures! I don't have a trace of those dark circles now that I am medicated :D.

Also, you might propose that dh pay for these visits out of his monthly fun money. OR You could budget $200/mo for the visits and he gets $80/mo fun money :D In your case I would budget for worse-case scenario. I would budget based on his draw and perhaps take a VERY small amount out of savings to last until the next commission check. There would be no dinners out, no trips, NOTHING until that next commission check came in. If I had a large savings, then I would budget monthly based on an average of our monthly income at that time of the year. It really sounds like dh needs to get more involved in the daily finances. He probably isn't unreasonable and he seems like a nice guy. He likely just needs to really GET the difficulties of budgeting in your situation.