the blood test isnt the same as the saliva test. When you order the saliva test from the site, they send you the form to send to your insurance company to try to get reimbursement. Or, if you have a flex account, this qualifies as a medical expense if you use your flex account. The tests are a lot cheaper than blood tests anyway, so most people just pay for them out of pocket instead of going to a doctor as any natural doc would charge a lot more just for the visit. Initially, you would only need to test the sex hormones-but if you had the money, you could test adrenal and thyroid as well through that company too. HTH.

my insurance covered the saliva test, but I had to submit the requisition form to them. But they wont cover the progesterone since it doesnt need a script.

you must read the book: "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About: Premenopause: Balance Your Hormones and Your Life from Thirty to Fifty" by John R. Lee and then this book: Feeling Fat, Fuzzy, or Frazzled?: A 3-Step Program to: Restore Thyroid, Adrenal, and Reproductive Balance, Beat Hormone Havoc, and Feel Better Fast! by Richard Shames and Karilee Shames Then, you can have saliva testing done through this site for a cheaper price: www.canaryclub.org The test comes to your home and you do it (at a certain time of your cycle) and send it back in the prepaid envelope and then they send the results back to you. More than likely, you need progesterone, not estrogen (especially if you are getting your period every month). Also, PMS is usually lack of progesterone-along with sore breasts, cramping, and lower pain tolerance(headache, backache, etc.) But I would test first before going on it-and it needs to be saliva, not blood. Saliva measures the amount of hormone that is currently available. In blood, it is bound to other things so it may not be accessible to be used. Progestrone can be bought online at places like www.iherb.com, or instore at Vitamin Shoppe. The books that I mentioned will list certain brands to use as you want a potent one. A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon since more people are turning to bioidenticals now. I hope that this info helps you. I myself have had messed up hormones after childbirth and have needed them periodically to get everything in balance. I still use Progesterone. I use this one in particular-and it doesnt have parabens in it either (if that matters to you). Paraben-Free Pro-Gest® 2 oz. http://www.emerita.com/index.cfm/category/4/perimenopause.cfm

I love mashed potatoes and will eat them with just about anything. Chicken teriyaki, marsala, salmon, etc. Anything with a sauce is good. Good luck!

This is our second year doing it. I am following the schedule that is on the Themes to Remember site. We read the bio on Monday and then listed to the music. Then we listen to it a couple of times each day until dd knows the song and can recognize the artist and title by the song "without the words". I periodically quiz her on artists that she has previously learned to make sure that she doesnt forget it. She has seen that a lot of the songs are on TV, in commercials, even played in stores that we are in. I highly recommend the program.

I have rescued 2 dogs now through the animal shelter and they have both been amazing. They are mixed, they were already house trained, and so loveable. You get to be in a room with them at the shelter with your children, so you can see how they act up front. I walked the isles of the shelter and watched the dogs to see how they were acting. I didnt want a dog that barked like nuts-so since most of them were at the time, I was able to narrow it down a lot. I also didnt want a very withdrawn dog (since that can be a sign of abuse-but dont count them out-they just might be depressed from being there). I cant even imagine taking on a puppy. Its so much work. Just make sure that if you go the shelter route, try to get a dog that they have info on, since you definately dont want abused. My first dog was 2 years old(lab/chow mix), and my second who I have now which is a australian shepard mix (who came home with me 1 year before I had my daughter) was 1 year 7 months old. I trained both of them on my own with videos and books. But as I said before both were house trained before I got them. Good luck. HTH.

oh, and since they have lids, they can stack, so you can keep them anywhere. They are pretty flat...maybe 2.5-3 inches high? But very wide to hold lots of stuff.:001_smile:

I bought these plastic bins with covers that lock on the sides from Walmart(the tops are blue). I bought one for paper, one for stickers, and one for collage stuff. The rule is, she can take down a bin and even take stuff out of it to find what she wants, but when she is done, she needs to put everything back in and lock it. It has worked great and there is no more paper everywhere. I took little stickers and labeled each box so that she knows what is in what. HTH

I LOVE MUS for Math, AAS for spelling and GWG for grammar, and I am using this life science: http://www.eequalsmcq.com/ I also am using SOTW for history. Hope that this helps you.

I am in this same boat, so I am subscribing to this thread. Thanks for asking the question. :bigear:

Alexander Caulder comes to mind. He does really cool mobile type things and sculpture out of wire. You could sculpt with the pipe cleaners and discuss form and shape. Google Caulder's Circus to get inspiration. There are a ton of elementary books on this subject as well. He was one of my favorite artists when I was an art teacher. :) HTH

You should do read alouds forever....well not forever per se, but they are great for bonding as well as building stronger vocabulary and imagination. Have fun and enjoy it!

:w00t: I better come up with a backup plan. I wonder why they changed it?

oh-and I keep them in a big manilla folder when I am working on them so that I dont have pieces everywhere. :)

I saw this awesome thing on a blog....use duck tape or masking tape along the left side of the lapbook to "extend" the edge - put one piece of tape along the whole side on the front and 1 piece of along the whole back side so that the tape touches and is no longer sticky. Then you can 3 hole punch it and put it in a binder and you havent punched holes through the lapbook itself. I have to keep a portfolio where I am, so they all stay in the binder, but you can make a special binder specifically for lapbooks that they can then pull off of the shelf and look at whenever they want. HTH!

Those are beautiful. I am in the planning stages of making one of my own. I would love to know how you made the cone itself. Is it 1 piece of posterboard folded into a cone? Thanks for sharing!

My daughter played it for 2 hours straight after we gave it to her. It is an awesome program.

oh-and I bought Home Learning Year by Year by Rupp last year.

3rd edition of WTM

I live in FL and I am probably going to go against what everyone said. The sun is the only thing that can make vitamin D in your body and most of us are low in it. I try to let my daughter get 15 minutes of unprotected sun per day. I make sure that it is never in the afternoon though, but she had swimming from 8:30 to 9am and I didnt put it on her. But I did put it on her afterward if we were staying in the sun longer. She never burned during that time, but her skin isnt really sensitive either. But if her lessons were longer than 30 minutes or if I found her getting too dark, then I would maybe do it every couple of days with her. But I think that you also got great advice about the UV index since that is what is damaging to the skin.

I also will be supplementing with Challenging Word Problems. Then when she gets even older, I plan on also supplementing with Life of Fred.

I live in FL and you cannot test your own kids. A certified teacher needs to administer it. Luckily, Im a certified teacher, so technically I could test my own dd. Just make sure that you check your local state laws.

do you have any aquaflor? Its a very soothing cream. And do you have any lightweight pants that you can wear in the meantime while it is healing? You are correct that it hurts from the friction and you have irritated the skin. I hope that you feel better very quickly!

these are really cool. I took the test for myself and I am 25% left brained and 75% right brained. I guess art was a good field for me to be in. :) Thanks so much for sharing the link. My daughter would love these when she is a bit older.

I just cancelled my RR order and ordered 3-5 from her. Now I only need book 6. Ugh!