Praying!!!!! :grouphug:

I am in a season of my life where schooling is taking a hit. :( I need an option to keep my dc at home but do their school online. I looked at Time4Learning but I can't afford that. (I need it for 3 children and it would be $50/month.) Outside of using a K12/public school type of thing, are there any options that are free or super cheap to have a 7, 9, and 12 year old do online in lieu of books and workbooks while I struggle through these next few months or even the whole year? Please, I am open to any ideas, suggestions, hints, links, thoughts, opinions... I am really in a bad spot right now. If I could, I would send them to public school, but that really isn't an option. (Two with special needs and one who has nightmares about going to b&m school)

You might if you live in a neighborhood which strongly leans one way and the landlord puts a sign up that promotes the opposite. People have been known to egg cars, toilet paper the yard, or otherwise harass folks of differing opinions. If someone is going to egg my car, I want it to be over disagreement with my views, not someone else's. ;)

So, this happened to us a couple of years ago when we rented and now it has happened to someone else we know who rents and I am curious about the law, if there even is one. You rent your single family dwelling. The owner/landlord of the property puts a political sign in your front yard. Do you have the right to remove it? You are living there but they own it. So, legally, who would have the right to decide on political yard signage? For that matter, as a renter, are you allowed, legally, to post political signage in the yard? :lurk5:

Dh and I went to the Homecoming Football Game for my 10th and to the family picnic for my 20th. I am not generally hugely interested in going, but if I do go, I want to go with my best friend. (Dh, btw. ;) ) He and I are both very introverted and we never go to any part of any of his reunions, his choice. I don't know anyone from dh's high school at all, but I would definitely go with him if he were going and wanted me to go. He knew a lot of people from my high school even though he didn't attend. :lol:

(((((Nance))))) Every morning I wake up and think, "Am I still pregnant?" Then I think, "Is Nance still pregnant?" :grouphug:

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: I know. I am just freaking out!!!!! Thank you. (And I prefer cherry COKE... :lol: )

The one we bought is bigger and better construction, yes? Nicer building materials used, too. And they wanted us to pay for *that* house what we paid for this one!! :lol:

Well!! I never!!!!! :001_huh: Bwahahaha!!! Oh yes I did!!!! :lol:

I never bought a boy's Christening outfit from them, but I did buy 2 Christening gowns from them, one for each of my two youngest dds. http://www.onesmallchild.com/categories/Christening/Boys-Christening-Outfits/

I try to be a good Christian woman. I promise I do. I try not to be petty and/or vindictive and/or vengeful. BUT.... We were renters for 10 years with the same property management company. We rented one home for 5+ years and the other for 4+ years. We were *never* late with rent, kept the properties clean and neat and in good repair and kept up with yard work. You can count on one hand the number of times we called needing them to come out and take care of something. Dh generally handled whatever came up. In the 2nd home, we even got permission to upgrade the range and fridge at our own expense as the ones in there were between 15 & 20 years old! Long story short - the owner of the company told us in mid-February that the owners wanted to sell and offered us the house for about $15,000-$20,000 *over* market value with NO work done on it. :glare: Dh declined and we were out by the end of March. We left the range and fridge and tried multiple times to find out exactly what they wanted us to do. They ignored all attempts we made at correspondence. We left the house clean and in about as good of condition as when we bought it. Two weeks later they sent us a preliminary report showing we owed the $1000 deposit PLUS an additional $2750!! :001_huh: Dh wrote them with a line by line dispute of the bogus charges. We never received a reply. On June 1st, they put the house on the market for $280,000!!! :lol: You have GOT to be kidding me!!!! About 7 weeks later, it was dropped to $250,000. ::duh:: Still too high... :glare: And then we received a bill (3 months AFTER the preliminary report) for $775. Dh sent a check for $575 and refused to pay for garage and ceiling fan remotes that we left IN THE HOUSE!!! (We figured it was easier and more stress free to just send the money rather than fight. Mil was glad to pay it for us to get us finally 100% free of the whole mess. God bless her!!!!!) On September 1st, the house was put up for RENT!!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: Sorry, but that just made my day!!!! (See, bad Christian!!! :D )

My dh used to tell me all the time to go to B&N or Starbucks. :lol: It took me FOREVER to get it across to him that I don't want to leave the house, I want the KIDS to leave the house! :lol: He takes any number of them to whatever, whenever I want, mostly. He also lets me "vacay" in the bedroom and won't allow them admittance! :tongue_smilie:

I think the person who refused to accept the state ID was either ignorant or on a power trip. State IDs are very common and in my state, look *almost* identical to a driver's license. We get our dc a state ID at age 12. It just can't hurt (in our opinion) to have that ID. (Ds18 needed one when he was like 14 or something to ride a train. Plus, having one makes flying domestically easier, too. I'm not sure, do you need an ID to fly? Since my dc already have one, I don't know if we just showed them because we had them or if they were required. :confused: )

Wow, how incredibly accurate!!!! Thank you for putting actual words to all this craziness swirling around in my head!! :grouphug:

Ever since I posted the OP, I have faithfully read all the replies (on my phone) and thought of all the things I wanted to address but couldn't. Now I am finally on my laptop and have time and I can't think of one silly thing I wanted to say!!!! ::doh:: Thank you so much for the support and helping me not feel so alone. :grouphug: Man, it seriously STINKS all over that I am not alone in this issue. While I am glad I am not alone, I am NOT thrilled that I am not alone... Well, if I ever remember what I wanted to post, I will come back. :lol: In the meantime, I will just "keep on keepin' on!" ;) (My main concern are my dds12&16. The others have other issues that make friendships tricky anyway. But these two are extroverts and social with no other issues. They are so active on their soccer teams and in their Girl Scout troops that I am just sad that they can't seem to be included outside of these activities, kwim? And between them and all the groups, the girls fall along school lines - they all include a mix of schools and outside the activity itself, where all the girls get along just fine, they socialize with the other girls from their own school. Does that make sense? My dds aren't ostracized for being home schooled. I hope it didn't read like that. My dc just don't have a school with peeps. ;) )

Thank you all. :grouphug: I am so glad I posted. With not telling anyone IRL, I feel pretty "alone" in this for now, kwim? My progesterone levels were tested with the last two losses (before I lost them, obviously :tongue_smilie: ) and they were absolutely fine, solid, not borderline and growing normally. So I am not too worried about that this time and since my insurance doesn't cover the testing at all, I'm going to skip it. <no tomatoes please> I am religiously taking my medications, prenatal vitamins, extra folic acid, and baby aspirin. I really appreciate every single post, thought, idea, prayer, hug, verse, and so on. This is so much harder than I expected and I'm not sure how to proceed half the time. So yes, every last letter in this thread is how I will get through it. :grouphug:

:iagree: I like that breakdown!

:grouphug: Thank you. I think maybe I should hide under my pillow for a while... (maybe a few months!)

Thank you. :grouphug: I appreciate the understanding but am really sorry you are also experiencing this. :grouphug:

Well, I get that is happens with public school, too. But in *our* case, the dc who are all growing up together, hang out together based on with whom they attend school. And honestly, while I am absolutely sure it happens in ps, I think it is a lot more rare. I may homeschool, but dh and I (and our siblings) all grew up in public schools. ;) We are hardly ignorant of how they work. :tongue_smilie: Anyway, it isn't against the law (of this board anyway) is it to say everything isn't always rosy and perfect with homeschooling? Having had feet in both worlds (including my oldest being in ps for his first two years of school) I feel it is absolutely accurate in our community that if my dc attended the local public schools with their peers, they would have more friends and be included in more social activities. :( Support for homeschooling and homeschoolers should include being able to post about very real issues facing homeschoolers and what isn't as often an issue in the public school world without being told, "It happens in ps, too." It isn't very supportive but is extremely invalidating. :( I have seen and lived the difference in my life and in the early years of my oldest two dc's lives. ::sigh::

Cool! Our credit union is a "no cash" credit union. We have no tellers. ALL transactions go through the ATM machine so coins are a bust without a Coinstar! ;)

I know the first thing people ask when you say you are homeschooling is, "What about socialization? What about friends?" This is our 11th year. Our dc have attended the same church for 9 years - choir, Sunday School, Youth Group, VBS, etc. They have been in the same Scout troops their entire Scout careers, and have stayed on the same soccer (and at its time, baseball way back when) teams. Each of my dc has one, maybe two, friends. They are rarely ever invited to anything, from birthday parties to play dates. They are almost never included in anything. It hurts. I know they (the older 4) long to be part of a group of friends. I did all I knew how to do to ensure they wouldn't be left out and alone. But at the end of the day, the kids in their social groups "hang out" with the kids they see every day in class. I don't fault anyone for that. It is the reality of life in our community. But it still hurts my mama heart, kwim? My ds9 and dd7 are "bestest friends" with each other, lol. So I love that. My dd16 and dd12 are closer than they will admit, too. ;) I am grateful for siblings and sibling relationships. I still wish they had been able to have childhood friends, memories of growing up hanging out with friends, riding bikes, going to the playground, whatever. Just writing it all out to get it out of my head, kwim? I tend to feel weepy at night anyway... :ack2:

I hate birthday parties. :( They seem to bring nothing but drama and hurt feelings and ill will. :glare: I'm sorry your family is now in the midst of it all. :grouphug: (I used to try to do them for several years for my dc but now it is all family and close close friends who are the same as family. And I can count on one hand how many my dc have been invited to in their entire lives between all 6 of them. ::sigh:: To heck with all that madness. The corker was several years ago when my sweet oldest dd invited about a dozen "friends" to her party and we got maybe 6 RSVPs saying they couldn't come. We didn't hear from anyone else. My poor child sat and waited for anyone to show up and no one did. My heart broke in half that day and I swore we would never do that again. I am crying again over that just typing about it.)

Not nit-picking :grouphug: genuinely curious - what about those who craft while maintaining eye contact? I know crafters who barely look down. OTOH, I have an Aspie and a sweet dd with social anxiety, neither of whom will maintain (or give much if any) eye contact while conversing with you, even with me, and I am one of their favorite people! :lol: (Which is to say they are completely comfortable with me but still can't make or maintain that eye contact.)

I attended my grandfather's funeral in June. He was 97. There was quite an eclectic show of clothing. And age wasn't a factor. It isn't my hill to die on what *other* people wear. But for me, for my dh, for our dc, we will dress appropriately. We will behave in a respectful manner. That is *our* choice. I don't want anyone to attend or not attend based on their wardrobe. OTOH, I don't want anyone to make a spectacle of themselves (my mother anyone??? :glare: ) by wearing grossly inappropriate clothing. (My mother wore a gigantic fuchsia colored hat to my grandmother's funeral 10 years ago. I was horrified. Even worse was her complete melt down in the back of the church, echoing all over, because my aunt, my grandmother's daughter, wanted to walk my grandfather, her father, my grandmother's husband, to his seat. Good heavens, I wanted the floor to swallow me whole. :glare: ) Over all behavior counts way more than what is worn, IMO. Jeans and a t-shirt with a respectful demeanor and genuine love for the deceased and family is better than mourning attire and trying to grab the "spotlight" and make yourself the center of attention. (No, I have no hostile feelings on the topic... :tongue_smilie: )