Sorry, just reread your post & saw that DE may not count much for admission in 12th grade. Call the school admission office to see how they treat homeschoolers. For example, the school our ds is interested in heavily weighs SAT/ACT test scores for admission.

Does RIT require DE from homeschoolers?

Hugs! It is hard to know the right thing to do. As long as your son has solid math skills & science in high school, then he will be fine for a STEM major. Not every kid is ready for DE in high school. Homeschooling allows for teaching classes when a child is developmentally ready. I suggest you look @ schools your son is interested in attending. What is required for admission? Work back from there to get what he needs. FWIW, Dh is an industrial & systems engineering prof @ a private school. He regularly interviews students for scholarships. They don't all do DE. I also encourage you to look at what would be best for your family as a whole next year, not just for your son. There is always the following year for DE also.

It is interesting that 2 of you have mentioned low carb. I will have to look into that. Low carb might be tough. I like my breads, pastas, and whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. :)

Thanks for the continued ideas! I've ordered a bp monitor. A nurse just told me that staying hydrated could help. I'm not good about that when out and about. Tomorrow will be 1 wk on my medicine. So far no side effects.

Thank you again for all the good info! I think I should watch my bp more on my own & log it as someone mentioned. Today the machine at Walmart said I was 113/76 and I haven't been on medication for 24 hrs yet. So something is going on that I don't have a handle on yet and I didn't know to communicate to my doc. I figured after being a certain level in Nov & Dec and then yesterday being high that meds were the only answer. Since diet & exercise are good my doc didn't think that the small changes left to make would help enough. Sure I can eliminate some salt but it wouldn't be enough to get me down to a safe bp level. My cholesterol is good at this point. I'll look into the Dash diet that a pp mentioned among other things. I haven't done much in the way of alternative treatments and so will have to look into Coq10. Lots to learn that is for sure!

Maybe I should edit to add I do exercise. Thank you for the advice so far. Keep it coming. MysteryJen I think hit the nail on the head for me. But I will discuss things with my doc when I go back in a month. A pp is right that I am in charge of my health. The doc did say diet wouldn't help be much based on what it is now.

How do you do it and what type of health care professional do you see? I keep reading about lavender being good for high blood pressure but obviously don't want want to self treat. After about 6 months for prehypertension, my blood pressure is now a little high. Yesterday, the doc put me on doxazosin, no other options or discussion yesterday. It was 150/89 while before it was around 132/85. Prior to 6 months ago it was low & good. FWIW, I'm 47 & eat fairly healthy but probably could find ways to cut salt & increase veggies & fruit a bit while having meat & carbs. I am on no other meds but have a history of paternal grandparents with stroke and my mom has high blood pressure. I probably just hit the genetics lottery. So how do you treat your high blood pressure?

We are happy here. DS thought this test was tougher than last year's. He is right at the cut off for NM qualifying scores (208). Thanks StephanieZ for the links. We'll have the check out the process. That was not on my radar.

Thanks for the suggestions so far! Keep them coming! We are open to driving a not so direct route back. But we won't go so far out of the way to hit up places such as Montana. :)

An option if you are willing to wait to find the right thing is to buy cabinets used that would fit your kitchen. We did this in our old house and changed the layout a bit. While the cabinets weren't new, they were in excellent condition. Habitat for Humanity has "Re-Stores" where you might find kitchen cabinets. Look at Craigs List. New IKEA cabinets are supposedly good and not as costly as others if you don't want used. If you do used, measure two or 3 times to make sure everything fits. Others here have also offered good ideas. I would hope you could get new cabinets without going custom. Home Depot & Lowes I think still offer layouts/quotes for free. They use to offer upper cabinets that go to the ceiling but they probably won't match your existing ones. Blessings as you search and plan for a new home & kitchen!

Suggestions for factory tours are also welcome.

State park ideas would also be welcome, preferably with good shower facilities. :)

We are thinking of visiting the Grand Canyon this coming summer. Stops on the way there will be St. Louis & western KS to see sights and friends. DH does not want to make the 3 day drive straight back to NE Indiana. So what National Parks or cheap sights are on the way back? What are some don't miss things to do? We will be camping. We like nature and historical places and don't have to do the touristy things as we'll do that in St. L. Thank you!

I'm looking for a gooseneck floor lamp that has the natural daylight. Any brand recommendations? Are the cheaper versions as good as Ott, Verilux, etc? Do the LED's give the same type of daylight? I'm rural, shopping online so it's hard to compare. This light will be used in a basement area for DD who likes to paint, draw, and generally be crafty. Thanks!

For those who are not required to take driver's ed or it's optional, consider reading the book Crash Proof Your Kids by Timothy C. Smith. It was quite helpful in guiding us to teach ds how to drive. It laid out a teaching plan. It mentioned things we know or have as habit that we didn't think to tell ds. The book also has pointers to adapt lessons for kids with different learning styles. DH, who did most of the teaching, especially liked the lesson called "Protect Your Bubble" which taught situational awareness. BTW, in Indiana, driver's ed is not required. I don't know if one receives a discount on insurance or not for taking driver's ed. We felt it was expensive for what was actually received.

Thanks for all the great ideas! I'm feeling inspired to try some different things with beef!

Thanks for the great ideas so far! If I do a soup or stew type meal, what are some ideas to complete the meal? DH will probably want more than a salad and some sort of bread on the side. He & ds hearty eaters. :) We typically eat a meat, side, veggie, bread, & sometimes salad or cut raw veggies.

We have freezer beef & need some inspiration on how to fix. DH is tired of bbq beef and pot roast. So what can I do these tougher cuts of meat? What can I do to make them taste different? DD is not big on mexican or burn your tongue flavor other than tacos. I use our ground beef for tacos. Links to recipes are welcome. Thanks!

A couple years ago my dad had a torn meniscus. He could walk & do stairs pain free but not run/exercise without pain. The doc wanted to do surgery but my dad held off. A year of no running/exercise except walking healed things up. My dad is back to running. My guess would be not all tears are created equal. I don't know if all tears will heal on their own but it could be worth a shot. edited to correct misspelling

We are currently using MFW and will do US1 this year. Previously we used AHL & WHL and Lord willing will finish up with MFW. While not all the way through it yet, I would say it is college prep. Yes, Bible can be a lot of reading. I really LOVE how Bible, History, & Eng are woven together. That being said, Notgrass is an easier read but the literature, I think, you will find more challenging. Think of a boy reading Pride & Prejudice. :) I felt I could have had more hand holding on teaching some compositions skills but we are weak in that area. I have gotten some outside help with grading & input. I've tweaked a little to fit our family's needs (writing assignments I put in some more lit analysis with WHL). When you look at what they have to read, amount to read, write, and think about, I think it's college prep. Not everything has to be a difficult read. My son likes working independently and then we get together to talk about what he's done. We will do some dual enrollment this year mostly with math. Next year will be math and science. DS wants to attend a Big Ten school and the school looks more at DE and test scores for admittance. I looked at TOG a long time ago and couldn't wrap my brain around it. It just looked like it would be a lot on me to make things happen. If you do Notgrass, what would you do for Eng/Lit? (you don't need to answer me: it's just food for thought) With MFW, it's all there. HTH.

Maybe what I am really looking forward is some sort of perpetual calendar??? Do they exist on paper where you can format yourself by putting birthdays to carry forward each year? I did find one for excel but it looks complicated to me: http://www.vertex42.com/calendars/perpetual-calendar.html. Any more thoughts?

We had the same experience as Wooly but used an attorney to look over all the paper work. We were in a seller's market, knew going prices, & were in a very desirable neighborhood. If you don't have those things, than get a realtor. The hardest part for me whether I sell by owner or use a realtor is keeping the house show ready with kids and homeschooling.

I'm starting to keep a bullet journal as mentioned on other threads here but I haven't waded though all the info. I'm looking for a monthly calendar to print on paper that would have certain events like birthdays and certain recurring tasks that I wouldn't have to re-write or type each year. I'm frustrated currently with trying to modify Outlook 2010. Ideally I would like an 8 1/2 x 11 size landscape orientation grid with a box (no lines for writing items) for the each day of the month. Once those recurring events are typed in, I would just print a new calendar each year and then hand write anything else I care to add. I don't have a smart phone. I am not the most tech savy. I see online plenty of calendars to print off but no way of storing those birthdays & recurring tasks. Any suggestions? ETA: punctuation

I admit I have mixed feelings about trying a chiro for my son. Several relatives like their chiro's for the "bad back", however they go every month. That doesn't sound like healing to me. But asking here helps one get info in order to make a good decision. I appreciate the conversation and hearing both sides.