I had to stop reading the recounting of the details. It is horrifying to me that such a swamp of a family system leads with a banner of "homeschooling." May God have mercy on those children.

...to all the above. Should such a thing happen, I hope plenty of your and others' ideas come out and work well. Yuck.

I agree, Kay. I don't understand the hoops CA requires, esp in light of many other states' very open requirements. Of course, then there's PA and etc. ;) I don't know, I guess. It's just sort of yanked me back to when my folks were hsing me and my brothers and it would have been completely illegal except that my dad kept his teaching cert. up to date. It reminds me of the ever so slight feel of paranoia to certain outings.... And we weren't insurrectionists or anything. :D Also, while I totally get that there are people who need the kind of supervision this ruling implies is necessary, it bothers me that the conversation to follow this will be full of red herrings and not address the fundamental constitutional right of parents to make choices for their children. Lets face it: the vast majority of parents who pull their kids out to teach at home are letting themselves in for no end of hard work. Who does this? People who are interested in subverting their children's opportunities? Hardly. Maybe it'll all work out or maybe CA homeschoolers need to rise up and make themselves heard. The implied challenge to freedoms makes me twitchy. "...the juvenile court has authority to limit a parent’s control over a dependent child, including a parent’s right to make educational decisions for a child..." :eek:

So my best start the day meal is peanut butter on whole grain toast with a banana. Eggs and veggie "meat" aren't bad either. Nirvana = a cup of hot 1% milk with a spoonful of instant decaf for my midmorning "snack." If you're close to a TJ's you should try their nonfat Greek style blueberry yogurt: 150g serving, 120 cal, 16g total carbs, 13g protein. And actually YUMMY. :D

Saxon (not every little detail) and Developmental Math (concepts and extra, specific drill).

And to your family too. I'm glad things are moving ahead. Somehow, the dread involved in waiting can just eat a person alive. I bet the hospital has web access available through patient liaison people (sometimes Social Workers take care of this). So you know, you can keep family in the loop. And maybe us too. ;) We'll be praying here.

Too bad that mama is her kid's worst enemy, huh? Hugs to you and your punkin.

You and both families are in my thoughts and prayers today.

I'm close on your heels, Cathy. Also identifying with another poster (Maria?) who said that she's grateful for it but hates it. My kids would be hurting w/out state coverage. Meds alone are nearly $500/mo. in this household and I know that's low compared to some families' needs. Yikes. The original question? We had three of our kids with help, knowing that our taxes would contribute to the base on a far greater scale than we were using (kwim?). I don't know that it's actually going ot work out that way, but I've personally been paying taxes for nearly 25 yrs, so I kind of pat myself on the head a little when it seems so overwhelming and awful. Sigh. I think when you're a student all bets are off. If you can do it without "help" yay for you. But that won't be true for most families. If God's leading or earning potential are directing you, go for it, sucking it up as much as humanly possible as you go and being grateful for what you've got and giving back when you're done and you can. But I don't think it makes for a good plan. Oopsies happen though -- three of my five were pleasant surprises, two of those with perfectly adequate bc. (See me throwing up my hands? ;) )

Yup. This is true. Having said that, I'm afraid I'll probably never have most of you over :) because it's fairly chaotic here. (cringe) But things move along. It's important that kids know how to work as well as how to learn so we do that, even though it's hard and certainly not perfect. But we all like a cleaner space, right? Some people just move at different speeds in different areas. Some people have bigger challenges than others. Do you have itty-bitty ones? A particular thing going on in your family that prohibits you from getting things done as you'd like? Or has it become a habit to not see things out of order until they're desperately so? I think the latter can sort of program one's brain and one day we wake up and think, "How the heck did this happen?" I feel bad when things are a mess. Sadly, it's an inescapable part of this season of life: There's only one of me, I have little "entropy machines" perhaps beyond what some may be experiencing :o and there are only so many hours in the day. (I'm posting this at 2:11am!) So for now, I pick the stuff I can do, gladly accept help from whomever's walking by or passing through, keep coming up with crazy ideas to keep us all interested in being organized and tidy, and just do the next thing. Somehow, it'll all be okay. Hugs to you, OP.

Let's hear it for the tired brownie eaters of the world!!!!!;) Now I'm going to go find some chocolate.....

Me too. Balance, attention, consistency. And yet, doing this alone with five kids, on with special needs, how else would it look? Sometimes things have to be shuffled. Sometimes fires must be put out. Then we edge back toward center and pick it up again. It's all good. :D

We do sealants (and fluoride -- soft teeth with lots of cavities run in my family). So far, zero cavities in my kids except for contact spots in between baby molars in a kiddo whose mouth was too small at the time, but has since grown nicely -- thus, no more impossible to floss spots. Sealants would have saved me a gazillion cavities in my molars. Improvement in oral health is linked to dramatically better long-term heart health (and more). I have had a funky mitral valve thing (esp when pregnant). I don't know that the two are linked, but I do wonder from time to time. HTH :D (had to add that smiley for the giant teeth!)

The softness of the pencils is what leads to the smudging. He needs a fixative -- hairspray in a can would do it. Or he could switch to harder pencils, but then the ability to smudge when it's desired goes away. HTH.

Wierd thing -- this week I've thought about you and your pink lines several times and wondered when we'd be hearing from you. :D I'll just go staple my lips shut now... ;) Have you told the kids yet or are you waiting?

And for you. Last round of presidential elections, I hauled my kids (then 9,7,4,2) about 1/2 hr away from here to hear a candidate (who shall remain nameless :D). While there, we talked about so much having to do with the upcoming election. How primaries work, what we would be studying that week as a result of the questions coming up, what we thought of the warm-up guy up front (very cool). Teachers standing nearby asked if I was a homeschool mom. I beamed back. We had a great conversation about education and resources. It. was. awesome. The weirdest part was the adamant and rude folks. I couldn't believe that people holding signs about family values would talk like that in front of a mom towing kids. Maybe it was the adrenaline of the moment. Shrug. Anyway, back to topic: Peek, that is so very cool. Give him a high five from here. :)

Or we would be if I could figure out why it won't load at all. I just keep getting the message that Media Player can't play it. We had no trouble on the old machine. Which, I hear, has been resurrected. So if it comes home functional, maybe we'll just go back to that with XP or whatever it was. This frustrates me no end! I need things to work, at least by the third try. I do not have this kind of time!!! (Tiny rowr.) P.S. Thanks, Peek.

:D I saw Adam Arkin at the airport once. We were on the same flight, but I was busy with the hubby and kids. Actually, now that I think about it, there were often celebs on those flights -- Ontario, CA to Seattle and back again. I wondered then if they didn't fly out of that airport to avoid the crush at LAX. You know all those black, cello-shaped cello cases? Our family was good friends with the family that designed and made them. (Weird story there.) If you look closely at them, you'll see a big raised "W" on the backside of the cases, for the family's last name. I have a six degrees thing going on through our church with Bill Gates. ;)

I'm not here as much as I used to be and figured that somehow I'd missed an announcement about a new name or something. :p

Am I nuts? Am I doing something wrong? GAH!!!!! :mad:

And we're wondering -- how about a tilted uterus/cervix? Would these work for that, perhaps depending on the severity of the angle?

I'd be interested as well.

a book rec: The ADD Answer. He's not anti-meds but like other options better when they'll work. There's lots to know, the book was helpful for me.

I do something similar with a gluten-y pretend meat thing and veggies. The coconut milk and PB make this fantastic peanut sauce. I don't know why, but the way it cooks together is just heavenly. So I thought the combo might work in a crock pot with some stock for moisture. If you do try it, please post what you think 'cause now my eyes are rolling back in my head thinking about the peanut sauce. ;)

Hugs and prayers to you all...