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Amber in SJ

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Everything posted by Amber in SJ

  1. I gave advice, unsolicited advice no less, to my church’s Women’s Facebook group. There were so many panicked posts from moms whose kids were suddenly home. Because there was such a wide variety in school response from packets & assignments right away, to radio silence while the school district figures out distance learning to “nothing you do or don’t do will change your grade,”. The parents were freaking out. If I can alleviate some of that stress and anxiety, I am going to do it. I encouraged routines over schedules. I shared the myriad of websites that offer great educational resources that are open & go, like museums, aquariums, virtual tours of state parks, nature documentaries that have guided notes, worksheets or other I shared YouTube channels (CrashCourse I love you) and the study guides I have made to go with them. I recommended read-alouds, nature studies, journaling and poetry tea parties. I have recommended online resources for keeping up with foreign language skills. I told everyone to read Story of the World! These parents are getting a peep into homeschooling. Just a little narrow glimpse the way that babysitting as a teen gives you a little peek into parenting. Some of them might love it, some of them might hate it. I don’t care if they call themselves homeschoolers. I know the difference. Sharing what I know is my way of being helpful. I can’t sew masks or anything else useful, but I can try to alleviate some of the stress around at home education. Amber in SJ edited to add: I am posting from my iPad because one of my children is Zoom-ing a dance class. I am not responsible for all of that whacked out punctuation and sentence structure.
  2. No one is going anywhere here! I was running errands on March 16, when everyone got the notification that the shelter in place would start the next day. I had planned on going to the grocery store anyway so 20 minutes later I was in the middle of some lunacy, that I never want to see again. Since then we have had deliveries from Sprouts grocery, the imperfect produce weekly delivery, added some things to my Amazon subscribe and save and had normal prescription refills come in the mail. We are not going out. DH is pretty adamant. Dh has left the house only to take a daily bike ride or walk when the weather is cooperating. Dh’s asthma and chronic bronchitis put him in a higher risk category than most our age. Our 22 yo, who is also at high risk due to asthma, heart condition, Ehlers-Danlos & Fibromyalgia is also employed as a personal caregiver at a residence home so she is essential and still goes to work almost everyday. Last year Dh completed her tiny house in the backyard so she can effectively isolate herself from us. I check on her once a day through texting or calling her Alexa from my Alexa and I leave her groceries and dinner on her little door step and text her when it is there. If any of us were to get it it would be pretty difficult to isolate that person in our little house, but we’d do our best. If one of us had to go out it would be me. I am more likely to be able to focus and get done what needs to get done keeping in mind the safety protocols. Dh barely remembers his own food allergies/ sensitivities, much less anyone else’s. That combined with shortages and the inexperience with making substitutions on the fly means I’d end up with a few bags of weird stuff and a new roofing nail gun. That last thing has actually happened. Amber I SJ
  3. I started mine the summer I turned 13, and strangely enough all three of my girls did too. All three girls have taken after me with severe irritatibility and mood swings the day before, severe cramps and heavy flow for days 1 & 2 and then just enough to be annoying for 3-4 more days and regular as clockwork since the first one. Dd #1 wore teen pads for a year before trying tampons, Dd#2 started while we were camping at the beach with 15 other families from our church, and Dd #3 started the morning of our annual youth group water slide park extravaganza, so she went straight to tampons and never looked back. She is the one with the most severe cramps and regularly vomits from the pain on the first day. Not having my period was the best part of pregnancy and breastfeeding. Amber in SJ
  4. GI bought a thermometer because I don’t have one in the house & haven’t since I had babies. Of course you couldn’t find a cool one around here for love or money, so I just got a cheap digital one. The materials (cables & switch) to run a hardline for the internet out to the garage for Dh’s work. Some Easter toys for the kids next door because even though they are obnoxious little beasts, I am pretty sure it is their parents’ fault and now that they are home from school all day they could use some distractions. I looked over my food storage and bumped up buying a couple items to fill in some low spots. I remember from the last time we lived off the food storage there were some things I used more of than expected. We also have some relatively newly diagnosed food allergies & sensitivities so I stocked up on a couple speciality items. Sent a prime pantry pkg to my pregnant daughter in another state where shelves have been cleared by panicked shoppers. I woke up both snoozing sourdough starters. started some micro greens so I don’t have to run out for salad mix planted some green onions I had going in a glass on my kitchen window sill, and started the next group for next week. and finally I bought Animal Crossing. Usually the kids have to save up for their own games and they had 1/2 the cash for this one, but I went ahead and bought it because they play together and with their out of state sister and it is a nice way to keep them connected. edited to add: got extra of all my dds Rx including inhalers and an extra inhaler for Dh. A bottle of Tylenol for the kid who can’t take ibuprofen. Amber in SJ
  5. You all are about to be WTM Great Aunties! I know I took a bit of a board break when a particularly difficult time in my life coincided with a particularly contentious time on the boards, but I have practically raised my kids here and I am still homeschooling the last two. So I thought I’d announce.......... My oldest dd is due in July! And it is twin girls! So excited and a little bit scared for them. She lives in another state and the “shelter in place” is making me craaaaaazy. Anyway....feel free to be excited with me 🤪🥳 Amber in SJ
  6. I have the ModiBodi version and they have worked well. Amber in SJ
  7. Seriously, what is it about the end of the school year that makes parents think it would be so much "easier" to homeschool? Every year at this time, it seems like every homeschool group, social meet up, play group or online forum gets swamped with new people asking where they can find (and yes, this is an actual quote) "Free or extremely cheap, online, complete curriculum that requires no work from the parent" because she works 60+ hours/ week at her high powered corporate job that she can't give up because she is an example to young girls everywhere, or she is a social media influencer and her blog, Insta, and other social media sites need all her attention or her yoga/ pilates/cross-fit/ spartan race training lifestyle take up all of her time. I have actually met these three women in the last two of weeks at homeschool events and have been asked several variations of that question by many others. Not only does the curriculum need to be free or cheap, it needs to be challenging & creative because her child is gifted. It also needs to be self grading and produce completely official looking transcripts for the Ivies. And completely re-usable for the child she is currently thinking about adding to the family (there is a poll on her blog "Should Steve & Amy have another baby? Vote below") Don't worry that I am letting down polite homeschoolers everywhere by being unkind to the askers. I usually respond with something along the lines of: "Homeschooling generally takes a lot of work or a lot of money; and sometimes both." or "Homeschooling is not for everyone." OK, Phew. I feel better Amber in SJ
  8. Here is the situation: My youngest sister has 5 kids ranging from 11yo to 2 months (11, 8, 6, 3 and 2 months.) They live in another state. She is a strict CM homeschooler (No twaddle!) The kids are not allowed to watch TV or non-educational movies, no video games, or other screens are allowed (the opposite of me!) She homeschools in a very mom-intensive way. Unfortunately, her oldest is struggling with a major health issue and will be hospitalized for several months. Her dh is taking time off of work but he can only take so much. My dad who is a semi retired 73 year old is headed there to help take care of the three kids in the middle. His only experience with homeschooling is that all three of his adult daughters do it 🙂 I am trying to look at some resources that are pretty "open and go" for my dad to help finish off the school year. My final two homeschoolers are in high school so it has been a little while since I did pre-school or elementary. I am sure she is going to have to loosen up on her rules some for the kids to spend a major amount of time with my dad because he is a big "TV is the grandkid babysitter" guy. So gimme all you got, oh hive mind..... If you had to let a clueless but loving grandpa be in charge of your kids during an extended family crisis what would you give him to do? Thanks, Amber in SJ
  9. Here is the situation: My youngest sister has 5 kids ranging from 11yo to 2 months (11, 8, 6, 3 and 2 months.) They live in another state. She is a strict CM homeschooler (No twaddle!) The kids are not allowed to watch TV or non-educational movies, no video games, or other screens are allowed (the opposite of me!) She homeschools in a very mom-intensive way. Unfortunately, her oldest is struggling with a major health issue and will be hospitalized for several months. Her dh is taking time off of work but he can only take so much. My dad who is a semi retired 73 year old is headed there to help take care of the three kids in the middle. His only experience with homeschooling is that all three of his adult daughters do it 🙂 I am trying to look at some resources that are pretty "open and go" for my dad to help finish off the school year. My final two homeschoolers are in high school so it has been a little while since I did pre-school or elementary. I am sure she is going to have to loosen up on her rules some for the kids to spend a major amount of time with my dad because he is a big "TV is the grandkid babysitter" guy. So gimme all you got, oh hive mind..... If you had to let a clueless but loving grandpa be in charge of your kids during an extended family crisis what would you give him to do? Thanks, Amber in SJ
  10. I haven't read all of the replies here because just from the first page and the last it seems like things got derailed. Here is my experience with adult children living in the house. He does not have a curfew per se, but he is expected to have an understanding of common courtesy. If he gets out of class at 9:40 pm and decides he is going to go study or hang out it is only common courtesy to text mom or dad so no one thinks he is dead in a ditch. If he does not text me, I will text him asking if he is dead in a ditch. Maybe he & whomever he is hanging out with will get a good laugh at his uncool mom. I don't care. I am not treating him like a child. If Dh, who plays hockey late at night, didn't get home when I expected, he would get a text too. This is one of the consequences of living at home. If he wasn't living here I wouldn't know when to expect him home & therefore wouldn't worry. I go to bed at 10:30pm. If he gets home after 10:30pm he may not make an excessive amount of noise & wake up younger siblings, he may not cook food (but eating something like yogurt or a sandwich is OK,) he may not take a shower. Plans should have been made for the shower before the middle of the night. He may not watch TV, play video games, or listen to creepy podcasts without using headphones. Why do I have so many really specific examples? Because I have been through this more than once. Other than expecting to know when he would be home, all of these things are common courtesy things that he would be expected to think about if he lived with a roommate. You are not infantilizing him by expecting common courtesy. Each of these things were dealt with one at a time; "Hey! I had a hard time falling asleep last night after you came home at midnight and banged around the kitchen......In the future could you take off your shoes?" As for consequences....That is a tough one. I am more of a rewarder than a punisher. And the sad fact is 18-20 year olds are notoriously inconsiderate. Hang in there, I hope you find a good place of balance. Amber in SJ
  11. I do plan on cross-posting this to several other forums for max opportunities 🙂 I have to say that in my 16+ years of homeschooling, my one big fail has been high school foreign language. None of my children have been interested in learning the one and only foreign language in which I am barely fluent. I have not been able to afford the very expensive online classes available. This year my French loving 15yo tried an online course from Global Goose Languages and it has been awesome. The format is a weekly online class with textbook assignments as well as many other online assignments like Duolingo & making videos on FlipGrid. The teacher gives tests & grades everything, it is perfect for transcripts. I don't have to do anything which is great because I don't speak French! You can check it out here: https://www.globalgooselanguages.com The reason I am reviewing/ recommending the program now is the French Teacher has teamed up with a Spanish Teacher and a German Teacher to offer a "Language Sampler" where each teacher teaches 3 weekly lessons in his/ her language, but the class is in danger of being cancelled to lack of interest. If you click on classes available at the link above you will see the Language Sampler class. The cost is $85 for all nine weeks. If anyone thinks this is too much of an advertisement let me know and I will delete. It has just been such a success for us this year when we have consistently failed at foreign languages. I hope no one thinks this is spam because I get no benefit if others sign up and I have been on this forum for years (years, I tell you!) Have a great day, Amber in SJ
  12. I do plan on cross-posting this to several other forums for max opportunities 🙂 I have to say that in my 16+ years of homeschooling, my one big fail has been high school foreign language. None of my children have been interested in learning the one and only foreign language in which I am barely fluent. I have not been able to afford the very expensive online classes available. This year my French loving 15yo tried an online course from Global Goose Languages and it has been awesome. The format is a weekly online class with textbook assignments as well as many other online assignments like Duolingo & making videos on FlipGrid. The teacher gives tests & grades everything, it is perfect for transcripts. I don't have to do anything which is great because I don't speak French! You can check it out here: https://www.globalgooselanguages.com The reason I am reviewing/ recommending the program now is the French Teacher has teamed up with a Spanish Teacher and a German Teacher to offer a "Language Sampler" where each teacher teaches 3 weekly lessons in his/ her language, but the class is in danger of being cancelled to lack of interest. If you click on classes available at the link above you will see the Language Sampler class. The cost is $85 for all nine weeks. If someone feels like this is too much advertisement, let me know & I will delete I hope no one thinks this is spam because I get no benefit if others sign up and I have been on this forum for years (years, I tell you!) Have a great day, Amber in SJ
  13. I do plan on cross-posting this to several other forums for max opportunities 🙂 I have to say that in my 16+ years of homeschooling, my one big fail has been high school foreign language. None of my children have been interested in learning the one and only foreign language in which I am barely fluent. I have not been able to afford the very expensive online classes available. This year my French loving 15yo tried an online course from Global Goose Languages and it has been awesome. The format is a weekly online class with textbook assignments as well as many other online assignments like Duolingo & making videos on FlipGrid. The teacher gives tests & grades everything, it is perfect for transcripts. I don't have to do anything which is great because I don't speak French! You can check it out here: https://www.globalgooselanguages.com The reason I am reviewing/ recommending the program now is the French Teacher has teamed up with a Spanish Teacher and a German Teacher to offer a "Language Sampler" where each teacher teaches 3 weekly lessons in his/ her language, but the class is in danger of being cancelled to lack of interest. If you click on classes available at the link above you will see the Language Sampler class. The cost is $85 for all nine weeks. I hope no one thinks this is spam because I get no benefit if others sign up and I have been on this forum for years (years, I tell you!) Have a great day, Amber in SJ
  14. Poo-Pourri (I hear Wal-Mart has an equivalent), a pack of flushable wipes and/ or the cushiest TP you can find. It is silly & useful. Amber in SJ
  15. It took me forever to get used to and I still cringe when I brush the backs of my upper teeth. It took me a good 6 months to be able to go the whole 2 minutes. However...... Between the sonicare brush & the air flosser I no longer have the deep pockets that they have been worried about for years. My mom lost teeth to periodontal disease and I have struggled with the same thing for years. Needless to say all of the kids have them too 🙂 Amber in SJ
  16. I happen to be considered the "most granola" mom in my mom group at park day because of my cloth diapering & other frugal ways, but one day I had my title stripped from me, when another mom said she used generic instant pudding mix to make fudgesicles. That wasn't the shocking part. The shocker came when she told us she used the leftover milk from her kids' cereal bowls to make the pudding. I admit I gagged a little. I will collect shower water in a bucket to water my garden, I will ration toilet flushes, I will wash baggies, line dry laundry, pay for my groceries with my change or re-purpose leftovers like a mad fiend, but I will not save the last bit of scummy milk with cereal flakes in the kids' bowls. They just have to drink it. Amber in SJ
  17. I have 2 of these: https://www.amazon.com/Solutions-Progressive-GBK-8-Adjustable-Expandable/dp/B001BB2LMM/ref=sr_1_5?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1542349605&sr=1-5&keywords=bread+keeper If I bake more than 2 loaves at a time I freeze the "extras" Amber in SJ
  18. I second the photo calendar with the important dates filled in. One year, before the era of photo calendars, I got a calendar that had a the calendar part had a big pocket on the bottom that I think was meant to hold bills. One year after my aunt passed away I gave my uncle this calendar with all the dates filled in & in each pocket there was the appropriate card with an addressed, stamped envelope so all he had to do was write a note and put it in the mail. He really enjoyed that. One of my mom's favorite gifts (according to her) was the year we realized she needed a set of large print scriptures for church. She was really resisting the large print thing. She said it made her feel old. Well before her birthday, I bought her a set of large print scriptures and had her name put on the front. My kids went through and each one underlined his/ her favorite scripture and wrote a little note to Grammy in the margin about why he or she chose that one. Then I sent it to my farthest away sibling, he and his kids did the same and boxed it up and sent it to the next sibling and it traveled on & on until it had gone to all 5 of us and all of our kids had written in it or at least drawn a picture in it. The last place it went was to my sister's house in the same town where my parents lived. After they had marked their favorite scriptures, she wrapped it up and gave it to my mom for her birthday from all of us. She adored that present and when she passes, I took it home with me and found that she had also marked her favorites and after some of the little notes written to her she had responded with notes of her own. Amber in SJ
  19. I only have four, so I never consider us to be a big family but around here we are certainly outside the norm. I have had strangers at the park ask me if they all have the same Daddy. Maybe it is because of where I live but many of the comments I get are about how selfish I am because my "giant" family is using up more than our share of the planet's resources. So I would say, "I am not trying to overpopulate the planet. I am just trying to outnumber the idiots." My family was excited by each pregnancy announcement, and my in-laws kept their thoughts to themselves for the most part. Except when pregnancy announcement #4 coincided with our purchase of a newer/ larger vehicle and my MIL blurted out, "Oh my goodness! It isn't like a goldfish growing to fit a bigger bowl! You don't have to fill all the seats of that new car!" I did have one shocking comment that left me speechless. Years ago when #4 was a toddler, my youngest brother was getting married. I had never met his fiancee and the wedding was being held in another state in her home town. After the rehearsal dinner I was juggling the baby & watching all the kids who who were not a part of the wedding party when the pastor (a total stranger) came up to me, introduced himself and asked me which children were mine, so I pointed out my kids in the pile of cousins. He then asked me if I was planning on having more.....which I felt was awfully personal.....my surprise must have shown on my face because he rushed to explain his interest by saying, "Because you have perfect aryan children, so pure and lovely. We need more of them." And then he walked away. I have never been so shocked. For a split second I thought I must have imagined it, like maybe I had sunstroke or something, but my SIL was standing nearby with her kids and she said, "Did he just say that?" What would possess a person to say that to a stranger? Just because my children are blue-eyed blonds I must share his racist views? Congratulations on #4. The more the merrier I say :) Amber in SJ
  20. To be fair, this has been an ongoing problem for me for the past 28 years. I got married while in college, and I was the first in my family to go to and graduate from a four year university. I wanted that diploma to have the name I started with on it, so I didn't change it for the first few years. Once I graduated and went to work, it seemed like a hassle to change it, so I didn't. A couple years later when I became an at home mom, I figured it was time to change it so I would have the same last name as my kids. Unfortunately, Dh's last name is two words, so a hyphenation would have been awkward. I had already put my last name as one of the kids' middle names so I did that with my own. Now I had one first name, two middle names and a two word last name on my ID & SS card. This was fine until the last time (10 years ago) I had to renew my ID. When I got it in the mail it had my first name correct, but now I had three middle names including the first word of my last name and my last name was only the second word of my last name. The thought of returning to the DMV & fixing it was just too much, so I let it be. The only time it has been an issue is the rare occasion when I get on an airplane. And even then it really only matters that the name on the ticket matches the name on the ID, so Amber "second word of last name," has taken a few flights in the past 10 years. Interestingly, my FIL's wife has the same problem; her ID only has the second word of our shared, two word married name as her last name. The DMV refused to change it when she went in with her marriage certificate, because on her marriage certificate, someone made a mistake and took out the space so the last name is one word, which in their minds made it a completely different name. So there I was with a birth certificate that said one name, a bill that said another name (married name only,) a SS card that had all my names and an ID that had all the right names, but not in the right places. The moral of the story might be; if your spouse has a difficult last name, consider keeping your own :) Amber in SJ
  21. I didn't see it either which is why I dared to darken the DMV doors without all my ducks in a row. I don't have a passport, but I might get one now :) Amber in SJ
  22. I had a friend who delivered at home (accidentally) assisted by her 14yo ds who was on the phone with 9-1-1. She said she had a bit of an upset stomach, sat down on her (white) couch and 10 minutes later asked her ds to bring her the phone because she was going to call her dh. Her water broke while she was talking so she hung up on her dh, she called 9-1-1 and handed the phone to her ds. The baby arrived before the ambulance. I almost didn't make it with #3. I woke up at 3am at 36 weeks (after being on bed-rest with pre-term labor since week 20) feeling uncomfortable. Called the on-call doctor who "guaranteed" I wasn't in labor. He said I would only embarrass myself by going in & having to go home. It was about a 35 minute drive, so Dh hustled me out the door and my the time we got in through the emergency entrance I was in transition & everyone was yelling "Don't Push!" Dd arrived in the hall between the emergency room and the elevator, with me half- sitting on a gurney, a nurse kneeling on the gurney with me & the doctor, who said I wasn't in labor, running down the hall toward us. He apologized profusely. He said I was too calm and because I could talk, I clearly wasn't in enough pain to be in labor. Babies have their own time table. Congratulations, Auntie! Amber in SJ
  23. So my CA ID expired on my birthday at the beginning of July. CA is attempting to align its standards with TSA standards by 2020, so you can either renew the easy way & go in to the DMV with your old ID and get a new one that will not be TSA compliant by 2020, or you can renew the hard way and go in to the DMV with a stack of documents that ID you as you and get what is called a REAL CA ID. I decided to get a REAL CA ID, so I looked at the list and gathered my birth certificate, my SS card, a bill in my name that shows my current address (this was difficult,) my expires in 3 days old ID & off to the DMV I went. Apparently if you are a married woman you can not get a REAL CA ID without a certified copy of your marriage license even if you didn't change your last name. After 3 hours at the DMV I got to go home. At home I couldn't find a copy of my marriage license anywhere. Not in the fire safe with the other documents or the file cabinet with the copies. I went online to the website of the county recorder's office, I downloaded the official form, took it to a notary to be notarized (did you know your license is expired, Ma'am?) and sent it off with a check and a self-addressed stamped envelope. Three weeks later I received (in my self-addressed stamped envelope) a letter which explained that no record of my marriage or my having applied for a marriage license could be found in the year that I claimed to have been married. They would be keeping my payment because they tried. Because I indicated that I had been married in a different county, perhaps I should try that county. I went to a different website for a different county recorder's office, downloaded the form, took it to the notary who looked at me with suspicion. Why did I need another copy of a marriage license from a different county? Why am I trying to get multiple marriage licenses with an expired ID? Again with the self-addressed stamped envelope and check payment. 5 weeks later I received a call from that county because they also have no record of my marriage. The lovely person I spoke to is someone with whom I attended high school. She informed me that she looked in the month before and after the date I put on the form, but she just couldn't find it. She told me she found all 3 of my sister's (not sisters') marriage licenses, but not mine, which was so strange because she thinks that her cousin was at my wedding, or at least at the reception. She remembers that I got married to that boy I was dating in high school, right? The one on the football team? And am I still married to him? She asked me who was responsible for turning in the paperwork after I got married. I told her it was my mom. She told me I should ask her if she hand carried it to the recorder's office in the county where I got married or if she mailed it to the county where I was living at the time. I told her that would be difficult because my mom is deceased. She blessed my heart and let me know that the county would be keeping my check because the payment is for the search and by golly she had searched. I was at a loss. I started having dreams where my Dad called me to say, "So we finally moved the furniture out of the bedroom and you'll never guess what we found in a big white envelope behind your mom's nightstand!" Maybe I wasn't even married. Maybe these past 28 years of "married filing jointly" taxes have been a lie. What now? Should Dh & I have a re-commitment ceremony? I think I have seen this sitcom. Four months after my ID expired, I received a letter from the county I started with, saying a clerical error in the spelling of my married last name at the time of the search caused my record to not come up on the computer, but now it has been found and if I would like to submit another notarized form and payment I can get a copy. Maybe I will find a different notary..... Amber in SJ
  24. I made Dh do all the key turning because it was too gross for me. My advice would be to tell your daughter not to put anything in her mouth that isn't food.... You know when you buy buttons on a card, if they are buttons with a shank, they are held on the card with a little plastic piece that looks a bit like a bobby-pin. Well, I had bought buttons one day and somehow one of them came off the card but still had the little plastic piece dangling from the shank. The palette expander looks like a plastic/ resin butterfly with a wheel in the middle. The wheel has holes that you stick a skinny metal (think paper clip) thing into and turn for the expansion. So dd, then 10yo, for some reason popped this button into her mouth while sitting on the couch, watching TV. All of a sudden I hear this rapid clicking noise, because the plastic thingy has become stuck in the wheel and the button is dangling by the shank from the roof of dd's mouth and she can't seem to make her tongue leave it alone. Dh is on a business trip to Japan. I can't leave it there, I can't yank it out, dd is freaking out so much I can hardly see what is going on. I end up practically pinning her to the couch while her head hangs off the side, mouth open under the strongest light in the house. Somehow, I manage to get it all unhooked. Just don't do it. She used to feel the ache most in the space under her nose. Amber in SJ
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