I didn't like salad until I went to college. A few years ago, I figured out that I don't like my mom's salads because she puts a ton of raw yellow onions in them.

They were talking about this on my local radio station today. The hosts said that Johnson ran on a platform being a Christian opposed to gay marriage, yet the women he donated sperm to were lesbian couples. They also said he claimed he did it because his (twice Miss America contestant) wife couldn't have any kids with him and he wanted biological kids. He also supposedly wants his family to move to New Zealand so he can be around these kids. Yuck! What a hypocrite. And then there's the possibility that he could wind up providing child support for some of these kids.

Which do you regret more, the things you did or the things you didn't do (such as opportunities not taken)?

One more thing to consider is that if you have an RN, later on you could go to grad school and become a nurse practitioner. Some states allow them to prescribe drugs, and unlike a physician assistant, they usually don't need to be under the supervision of an MD. Nurses can't be outsourced, while medical billing probably could be fairly easily. It also sounds like a good career for working part-time. Many careers don't do this very easily.

As far as I know, a certified nurse midwife gets an RN and then attends midwifery training. A doula is a non-medical support person that helps comfort and encourage a woman in labor. Many midwives become doulas first. If this interests you, you could become a doula, do that while on the waitlist for nursing school, get an RN, and then get the midwife training. Many hospitals and birth centers employ CNMs for women who prefer a midwife over an OB. Some states also allow CNMs to do home births. Maybe you could add some paramedic or EMT training in there, too. That would be good experience for an application to nursing school.

I have a friend that got married right after high school. She didn't go to college and I don't even know if she's ever had a job. Her youngest will graduate high school soon. I doubt she will try to get a job (because her church discourages it), but even if she does, I don't know what she'd put on her resume. She has no work experience for at least 23 years, no volunteering in at least the last ten years, and not really any hobbies. I asked her recently what things she's been waiting to do until all the kids grow up. She said, "Nothing. All I ever wanted to do is be a mommy." Unfortunately, her family really, really needs the money. Her husband is in his 50s working in a very physically demanding job. His body won't last forever, and he has few prospects of getting a desk job. They have no assets, no retirement, no house, no savings, and frequent medical bills. Their church, friends, and family have helped a lot over the years, paying for doctor visits, surgeries, several cars, and even housing. Still, they can never get ahead and probably never will. The only way I see this changing is if she gets a career somehow. All this is to say you never know how life will turn out. It's better to have a backup career or college degree and not need it, than to need it and not have one (assuming no large debts for college).

How long is the RN program? Near me, an RN program takes two years, plus about two semesters of pre-reqs to be admitted. If an LPN takes almost as long, it seems like just getting the RN would be a better choice. (Here you need to get your CNA first to apply for nursing school.) I'm not in the medical field, but it seems like from what I've come across, numbers of years of schooling keeps going up. If that's true, an LPN might be a big disadvantage. You mentioned working with moms and babies. What about becoming a certified nurse midwife? You could start by becoming a doula, which would give you plenty of chances to job shadow.

In case anybody thinks my method was cruel, I'd like to add that I had tried a gradual weaning, which just resulted in him crying if I tried to cut even one nursing session. Distraction, cuddling, reading, and snacks didn't work. Also, I didn't want to lie to him and say the milk was all gone or broken. I understand why people do this, but it is not something I felt comfortable with.

When I needed to wean my two year old for medical reasons, I wanted to gradually decrease nursing, but he would just cry and cry. I had tried a few times over a few months with no luck. He insisted on nursing every three hours during the day, although he didn't nurse at night. I finally painted my n*pples with some really, really nasty tasting herbal drops. When he tried to nurse the next time, he hesitated when he tasted the stuff, but tried anyway. Then I dripped some white vinegar down my chest into his mouth. The combination convinced him the milk was yucky. He pulled off, told me it was yucky, and didn't want to try the other side. Over the next few days, he asked a few times, but each time stopped and remembered that the milk was yucky. I had really wanted to wean him gradually, and didn't really expect this method to result in him quitting cold turkey. I was very, very sad for about 4-5 days, but surprisingly, he was much happier. Since he had decided himself he didn't want the milk anymore, he didn't have a demanding attitude about nursing anymore. He was much more pleasant and also much easier to put to bed. He suddenly developed the ability to be put to sleep by me walking around with him for a few minutes, rather than needing to be nursed. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend this for a baby, but since your child is over two, keep it in the back of your mind if the more gradual approach doesn't seem to work. (You could try using that stuff they paint on kids fingers to keep them from sucking their thumb.)

My 5 year old does copywork, but no dictation yet, so I may be off base here... Is it possible that getting the words down right uses up all his concentration, leaving little left for neatness? If so, maybe you can have him take the dictation, and then always plan to have him rewrite it in careful handwriting.

Good idea. I will go do that right now. As far as my kids playing with neighborhood kids, will that go better once the sun stops setting so early? I never lived in a neighborhood with kids before. Unfortunately, the three families with kids we've met all having both parents working, so even when the kids aren't in school, they are still gone all day.

I think the problem is that if people don't make time for finding and making friends when life is good, then when life gets rough, there is nobody there to support you. Maybe this is one reason for high rates of depression and/or loneliness? A few years ago I had a very few rough months health wise where I was unable to care for myself or my son. Pretty much everyone I knew, friends included, was too busy to even send a card. This is something that is hard not to get bitter about.

So what do we do about this? I wonder if I should start a homeschooling playdate meetup group.The local HSing meetup group has lots of activities, but nobody in my family really gets to know people this way. I'm an introvert, so just seeing people occasionally at activities where i'm distracted by trying to keep the 2 year old from wandering off doesn't give me much chance to really get to know people. I need longer blocks of time.

The thing is, we invited the first family over in early October and got this reply. Then the second said the same thing in early November. A third was actually able to come until they got sick. The fourth family had to temporarily move because of mold issues in their apartment. That is understandable.

We used to invite others over every week, but then weren't able to because I had health problems for a few years. Now that I'm feeling better, our friends are too busy. Maybe we need to meet more people.

Someone on the antidepressants thread suggested that lack of community may play a role in the apparently high levels of depression in women. My dh and I have tried to invite friends over for dinner in the last two months and we had several families tell us they were too busy until January! This is crazy! The homeschooling families we know are too busy to get together and the neighbors with kids in school are also busy. How are we supposed to have community if everyone is always rushing around everywhere? We moved into a neighborhood with kids a few months ago, and even though the weather has been great for the last week, all the kids are inside or not at home. My homeschooling friends are all busy during the day and I guess all the moms in this neighborhood work. How are families supposed to build and maintain friendships with others if they can only get together for maybe 10-20 hours per year? There must be a lot of lonely people out there...

Rochester Institute of Technology has an entire college called National Technical Institute for the Deaf. They offer interpreting programs. There are plenty of chances to practice with over 1000 deaf students at RIT.

My DH had a co-worker a few years ago that went through ATI as a kid and then worked for them after. They encourage young adults to work for them and then way underpay them for their skills. I believe this man had a young lady he was interested in, but ATI discourages anything that might lead their almost slaves-er, employees, away from them. This man is now probably 33 or so and I doubt he will ever get married. (Honestly, he's really kind of a jerk and I don't know who would be interested in that.) Anyway, another co-worker would play Christian rock music like Jars of Clay and the first man had a really, really hard time being around it. He intellectually knew that there's nothing sinful about a "rock beat," but years of ATI legalism left him unable to be around it without feeling extremely uncomfortable. I don't even want to know what other baggage he probably has from ATI.

Have you tried a no-grain or paleo type diet? It might help with the digestive issues.

Parasites Hyperthyroidism I had hyperthyroidism and lost 15 lbs in about three weeks, without trying. My doctor and I wanted to avoid all the traditional treatments, so she gave me a series of vitamin C IVs. It worked. ETA: My hyperthyroidism was probably either post-partum (had a 6 month old) or caused by taking too much Lugol's iodine.

Clark Howard's website should answer questions about phones and debit cards.

If you have a garden or otherwise plan to dehydrate a lot, buy a 9 tray Excalibur. I bought a refurb model directly from the company to save money. I highly recommend dehyrdrated strawberries, pineapple, and homemade beef jerkey.

Pamela's brand chocolate cake mix is amazing. It is the best cake I've ever had. My DH, who eats gluten, also said it was very, very good.

We had to replace our 1997 diesel Passat. It wasn't worth fixing, but we were still able to sell it for $1500 to a man who wanted the engine. When we were researching a replacement, I noticed that VW had several models on the "worst used cars to own" list put out by Consumer Reports. I assume (but didn't verify) that the listed cars were the gas versions. Our TDI got about 40mpg, my dad's gets 50, and we have friends with 4 TDIs. I would consider buying a TDI again, but not a gas VW.

Oops, one of the commenters pointed out that it was originally an article from the Huffington Post.