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Monica_in_Switzerland

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Everything posted by Monica_in_Switzerland

  1. Just remember, if you use retinol (which is probably the closest thing to a miracle product on the market), sunscreen is no longer a thing you can forget occasionally. It is mandatory. Paula's Choice has some good products. Neutrogena sunscreens are by far my favorites. I won't wear any others consistently. My DH, on the other hand, is allergic to them. So you'll have to just try some out.
  2. My question is: Is there something bothering you about your skin that you'd like to change? It could help to know what you need from your skincare. If nothing is wrong, don't fix it!
  3. Dropping by to give a quick book review: Good To Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery This was a fun read, but much of it was investigative journalism narrative. It boils down to this: - Sleep is the single greatest factor in recovery. Get good sleep and plenty of it. - Hyponatremia is a more serious risk than dehydration. Drink to thirst only, do not force liquids. - Recovery techniques are all essentially placebos. Stretching, ice, heat, rolling, NSAIDs, massage, specialized food/shakes/supplements are all equally useless in producing real improvement in recovery. HOWEVER, the placebo effect is real and does marshal our own body's recovery systems to perform better. So pick your favorite one or two recovery rituals end enjoy them, but the effects of many recovery treatments are not cumulative. The placebo effect gives a boost, but not multiple boosts. There is only so far you can talk your boy into recovering at an increased rate. - As a general rule, exercise science is junk science. The studies are tiny, the measurements taken are often arbitrary and do not measure real effects, and almost all are funded my commercial investors who expect a certain outcome.
  4. Yes, there is definitely skiing around, but I'm not a skier. I think I came to winter sports a bit too old. My dh took me skiing twice when I first moved here, but any time I started moving faster than a slow walking pace, I would freak out and throw myself into the snow to stop. 😂 I wouldn't mind trying snowshoeing some time though...
  5. Hey, it's me! I'm making some good progress in physical therapy with my tendonitis, and I'm "allowed" to run again, but must take it easy. I was surprised and delighted to find my speed hasn't decreased. I was so worried about losing progress. Obviously my HR is a little more elevated at the same speeds though. And I'll need to work back up endurance-wise. For now, just sticking with 5k every 3 days or so. My PT is taking... what appear to be medieval era tools... and tearing apart fascia adhesions. It hurts, but it's a good hurt. 😆 He is great. I switched to him after a few appointments with one guy, then that guy decided I really should be seeing the sports guy at their clinic. The sports PT just looked at me for about 10 seconds, then said, "You clench your jaw. You chew on the left side. You have hip issues." It was pretty amazing. All accurate. In the mean time, I've been keeping up with IF from 1pm-7am and weight is slowly moving in the right direction after a long pause at Christmas. I've also added in some upper body work while my legs are out of the game. But I need to develop that into a routine instead of just random pushups when I remember.
  6. There is a range of severity for deviation... mine was pretty bad. I could only breathe through my nose if I was lying perfectly still in bed and concentrating on it. If I even rolled over or changed position, I'd have to open my mouth. Now, I can easily breathe through my nose and even ran 5k with my mouth shut about 3 months after the surgery just to see if I could. (Yes, slowly) I think the standard treatment is to attempt to treat with medication, but fix the septum if meds don't work. I was getting very concerned about needing antibiotics 2x or more a year, and occasionally my sinus infections were requiring multiple rounds of abx because they stubbornly wouldn't go away, so I decided to have surgery.
  7. You might have a case similar to mine. I started developing BPPV- benign periodic positional vertigo- in my mid-20s. I have to say, going to the ENT and having him literally grab me by the head and throw me around the exam table caused me to start laughing uncontrollably, which caused him to go into hysterics. Did I mention I was wearing these giant goggles to magnify my eye motions so he could check for signs of dizziness? It goes down as my by-far favorite ER visit EVER! Anyway, since then I've been able to self-treat the BPPV. In the mean time... My chronic allergies/stuffiness was getting more and more bothersome, and I was beginning to have multiple sinus infections each year requiring antibiotics. Went to an ENT, had CT scan... very deviated septum. I hesitated for nearly two years before finally agreeing to a septum repair surgery. BEST THING I EVER DID. I no longer snore. I'm no longer a mouth breather. I no longer get sinus infections. When I blow my nose... it actually works. I still have allergies, but they are a fraction of what they used to be. And while I had not connected it to the BPPV, I have not had an episode for a long, long time, so I'm willing to consider the septoplasty might have fixed that as well. Oh, he also did a turbinate reduction, whatever that is! Find a doctor you trust. Septoplasties seem to either get rave reviews or very negative reviews. My doc said about 70% of people feel better after a repair. He was very upfront and honest about it not being a miracle for everyone. That is part of why I waited so long. But for me, it was the right choice. If you do discover you have a deviated septum and end up doing a repair, first learn to use and love a neti pot. My doc said he'd never seen such an easy recovery. Basically, after he took the packing out, I used the neti pot 2-3x a day with sterilized saline solution. No nose blowing during recovery, but you can very gently breathe out through your nose to clear any remaining saline/gunk.
  8. I would check for habit tracker apps. I think those could work for you.
  9. Hear me out... New plans. I've been pre-reading, as well as reading about many of the books mentioned. I realized that there are enough actual survivor stories written for middle grades that I'd like to rely less on fiction. This came after pre-reading Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which was good, but certainly far less good than a true story. So now I'm pre-reading: Survivor's Club Boy on the Wooden Box ... both of which are actual memoirs. What Did You Do in the War, Sister? is also a possibility, it is a fictional retelling based on real letters and interviews. I'm keeping Escape from Warsaw for post-WWII unit. We'll also keep The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler, which is non-fiction and very good. For Pacific front, I've got: Sadako Sasaki and the 1000 paper cranes Code Talkers (fictional, but we've enjoyed all the Bruchac books we've read so far) Empire of the Sun I'll keep the two graphic novels, because my kids like them as introductions to topics. Off to pre-read now...
  10. I agree with everyone else, and with the friend's mom. If he's old enough to leave the house with it, he's old enough to take care of it. It's not like your dog dug through his bag and chewed it up or something....
  11. I would leave it off, but you might put something a bit more hidden, like "Shop Owner has been hand forging xyz since age 12" (or whatever). No need to add that this only makes 4 years. 😂
  12. I agree with everyone else. Work ahead of the student from a good text, like AOPS.
  13. Forged In Pheonix Fire Pheonix Feather Forge Pheonix Smithy The Blacksmith's Pehonix Pheonix Metalworks Iron Pheonix
  14. p.s. I suggest you work through the AOPS books yourself fas well. They don't have the same scope and sequence as other books, and they do have some truly challenging problems. You will probably be surprised at how much your own math understanding improves.
  15. I've only ever used the AOPS books, so can't compare to the class. I've been shocked with how well my kids did adapting to the wall-of-text style of the books. It is VERY intimidating at first. I think AOPS is an excellent character-builder, in addition to math curriculum. I do not directly teach the material. The book is written to the student. I simply have my kids work through it, and we check each exercise set together so that I have a feel for whether or not they are getting it. I am more in a coaching role, answering questions when they come up, giving additional explanation when they are confused by the text, etc. AOPS Pre-A for us (thus far, I'm on my second kid with it) is equal parts learning math and learning to learn independently. It really marks a passage into a different style of schooling in our home. It is the first subject I really shift into their middle-school hands, all while remaining available as a coach. My son needed about 80% assistance at the start of Pre-A. He is now in AOPS Geometry and I would say I help him 10% or less of the time, and the helps tend to be more along the lines of "Did you notice ..." or "What if you started by..." and then he's off and running. My dd, who has a different personality, really does not want my assistance. From the second I put AOPS Pre-A in her hands, she has only "allowed" me to help maybe 20% of the time. As a consequence, she is going slower. But since I'm using AOPS both for math and for shifting to independent learning habits, that's perfectly fine with me. Sorry to drift off-topic, I just wanted to explain how we are using AOPS.
  16. Although the books were perhaps meant as moral lessons when they were written, I have never read them that way, either as a child or an adult. They are an embellished snapshot of life on the frontier amongst still-strongly-puritanical Americans. It doesn't bother me to read them at all, it's just, "Oh, how curious that people lived that way once." The books that get our eyes rolling are the McGuffey Readers. I have not found a better set of graded readers that prepares children to read classics, but as we open them each day, my kids and I say, "I wonder what badly behaved child is going to die or kill someone by accident this time...😂" We just read the lesson about bats this week with one of my kids, and the little, vaguely accurate science lesson ends with a fable about a bat pretending to be alternately a bird and a mouse in order to escape from an owl and a cat. The fable ends with the line, "The meaning of this fable is that a person playing a double part may sometimes escape danger; but he is always, like the bat, a creature that is disgusting to everybody, and shunned by all." 🤣🤣🤣 We laughed ourselves silly with that one. And lest we fear the books are wholly devoid of educational fodder, by older dd suddenly said, "Oh! Like Snape!"
  17. I also use a lot of audio rewards, mostly audiobooks while doing chores. Another I enjoy is using a foam roller to roll out my legs. I also do headstands. Zentangle doodles are also very relaxing and meditative. And of course Hive breaks. 😄
  18. The Mouse that Roared is based on a book series and they are a really fun read! My oldest has read them, just good clean fun. Funny Fog of War story: My husband DRAGGED me to see this in the theater. He is a big history buff. I wasn't (but I'm evolving!!!) About a half an hour in, he was completely and deeply asleep. 😂 I found it quite interesting, personally. 🤣 I can remember watching a move as a child, which I think was called Ruskies or something like that. It was about American kids hiding an injured Russian spy or something... I'm very hazy on the details and need to do some research.
  19. Thank you! We did Breaking Stalin's Nose recently, and we give it a mixed review. 😄 We did Breaking Stalin's Nose, Between Shades of Gray, and The Wave together over two weeks. The Wave is a good one for middle school and the question, "How could people have stood by and let nazism/fascism/communism take over?" The other recommendations will go into the pile to research!
  20. Oh, I hadn't seen it was a trilogy. I moved Impossible Goodbyes and Giraffe to our Korean War unit, which made my WWII list look *slightly* less crazy. Also, I haven't seen it on any of your lists, but a couple weeks ago, I read Between Shades of Gray with my 6th and 9th graders, and it was incredibly well-done. It's probably better for 7th grade and up, but my 6th grader did fine with it, in fact I think she appreciated it more. It is a very moving story about the Soviet takeover of Lithuania, and a Lithuanian mother/daughter/son being sent to a labor camp in Siberia. There are references to prostitution/rape, but not in any graphic way. Even after Lithanians were allowed back home many years later, it was illegal for them to talk about their experiences in Siberia. So many people wrote secret accounts or made sketches, that were buried and unearthed only after the fall of the USSR. This book is a functional account of one such record/sketchbook. Do you have a list for the Cold War?
  21. I'm not sure we're all working toward the same goal of narrowing down my book choices... 😂 Year of Impossible Goodbyes has a sequel that covers Korean War, so that seems like a good pair. I will keep pondering Hiroshima. A shorter, younger book may be a good fit.
  22. @Lori D. @8filltheheart Amazon has pointed me to a book called The Last Cherry Blosom, a middle school read for Hiroshima. Either of you heard of it/read it?
  23. There are quite a few books that meet my criteria, but are science-specific rather than history specific, like the following. But many of them would do as crossovers between history and science as well. The Perfectionists Napoleon's Buttons The Disappearing Spoon Stuff Matters The Violinist's Thumb
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