Thats assuming sufficient insulation, this house doesn't really have any so the heat does not get held in. I know there is R19 in the sub floor between the first and 2nd story but I really really doubt there is any downstairs. The walls are freezing when you touch them and I know there is none in the floors, its carpet, padding, boards, freaking cold stone and pier foundation thing with 2 ft of dead space open to the night air. Thankfully the kitchen was redone several years ago and it was insulated so I hung thermal curtains in the doorway and its easily a 20deg difference between the kitchen and the hall. Most of the homes here are old and not well insulated. I want a place like my parents, can't remember its the entire house is R60 or R70, I just know its built to maintain 60F at -65F outside I think the chart said. Their house is always toasty warm, they paid a fortune though for that custom built place though:)

We only heat the rooms we use and not the entire house. No way could I heat this entire place:) I leave the oil heater on 50 since thats the lowest it will go to keep the pipes from freezing and turn it up to 62 in the morning while were down stairs. The temp drops rapidly as soon as you turn it off/back down. Gotta love 100+ year old drafty houses, can't wait to move! Unheated rooms drop into the upper 30's. Thankfully upstairs tends to stay around 58/60 at night if you heat it up to 70 with a space heater before bed which takes about an hour. Thats as low as my poor bones can handle.

I'm home anyway at this point since I have no car to get to work, I will likely not be returning more then 1-2 days a week due to dd13's issues.

I'm serious, dd7 missed the bus AGAIN and I'm seriously debating HS'ing her just based on finances alone, stuff we don't really tend to think about. So add to my list! Lost sleep, because I have to wake up at 4am to turn on the heat, we can't afford to run the heat all night and why should we when were toasty warm in bed? Adds to the Elec and oil heating bill because were up an additional 3-5 hours a day. On non school days I refuse to get up before 7am, more likely I'm going to sleep until 8 because I'm sleep deprived. Thats about $17mo in additional oil fuel and an extra $35 in Electric. Cost of gas to take dd7 to school because if I have a working car I take her. The bus comes at 6:40am and school does not even start until 8:10am. I value my sleep and that extra 2 hours is important, especially when I'm not getting to sleep until midnight or later most nights due to issues with dd13, thats 280 miles a month or $37 in gas for my car. School lunches, we qualify for the free lunch program but as my dd is gluten free the school refuses to feed her citing they can not safely feed a single GF child, nor can the school budget afford it. (yes I know they are required to, don't really feel like rocking the boat) Its a small school with about 100 kids K-12 and she's the only GF child. They cook from scratch at the school so there is flour every where, every day. They refuse to heat up a lunch I send and dd won't eat cold left overs, dd has no interest in soup in her thermos every day. So cost of a bagged GF lunch? Around $60-$100mo depending on what I send, usually a sandwich, fruit, protein snack and a carb plus a bottle of water, at the rate she loses them I just buy a case of bottled water every month. I don't want her drinking out of the germ fountain which brings me to my next thing. Illness! Unless the kid is very very very sick they want them there so they can share it seems. We are sick ALL THE TIME with crap she brings home. We've been sick more this school year with her attending the local B&M then we have been in the past 5 years COMBINED. Being sick usually means a Dr visit since both kids have asthma and it loves to flare. Illness brought home from school, average cost $10-40 mo for gas/Dr/cold meds So for us with just these costs alone were looking at $159-$229mo. I only bring home about $800mo plus we get food stamps. I didn't even calculate the extra cost of needing more clothes and heavier winter gear since she's outside a lot more. When I break it down like that we can't afford public school. The only benefit is its free daycare as she's a handful and my mother won't watch her while I'm at work and I need to focus on dd13 and her issues right now, dd7 is one of those kids who does stuff to get reactions out of people and dd13 performs every time:( What other hidden costs are there I'm probably not thinking about?

Her Dr is aware of the Melatonin, its actually needed for the first few years after dx with her blood disorder while the body heals since the body can't make its own due to methylation errors if I remember right. I'm slowly moving her to the full protocol, she fights so many pills and the omega 6 pills are huge, dd7 takes them without a problem but dd13 wont even try. I am sitting here in shock, its 9:24, I sent dd to bed 30 min ago with firm orders of lights out, no TV even if its just the screen saver and door cracked open, I only got token complaining, she's ASLEEP. We had a rough day and this afternoon was really hard with her, she made it quite clear she is leaving tomorrow. She got really mad when I'd had it with her attitude and disrespect because she's mad I won't give back her precious laptop so she can chat and took away the TV for the rest of the day, actually I shut off the wifi so she cant use the roku so same effect without the drama of removing the tv from her room. She was in a really foul mood this evening and I didn't want her alone in her room since I'm worried about her going out the window (can't nail it shut and she's strong enough to remove security locks) so I grabbed a DVD (The Princess Diaries) I picked up at the library and told her I was watching it and she was welcome to join me if she wanted and acted like I could care less if she did, just that it was an option (heaven forbid she think I wanted her to join me because she wouldn't out of spite). She joined me and it really helped improve her mood, she even took her pills without a fight after the movie and was happy to pick out another (Hotel for Dogs) to start, she even drank the Traditional Medicinals Nighty Night Tea I picked up without more then a token fuss. I will admit I gave her 7.5mg of Melatonin which is the most I have ever given her but I know 5mg won't knock her out. I should be able to get her up early enough to do the light therapy and hopefully get a decent day going in the morning and may we can get her cycle reset with several nights of this.

Thats part of the problem were having, you have to do it early enough in the morning and I can't get her up early enough because she's crashed out from being up late.

We went the drug route for a couple years and we never got her stabilized until we discovered she has a blood disorder and started treatment, the blood disorder caused Bipolar 1, ADHD & ODD, natural treatments are the only way to treat it since it causes major vitamin deficiencies which trigger the mental health issues. She tends to go off the deep end in the winter anyway but this winter is the worst we've had since starting treatment 3 years ago, the past 2 were actually pretty decent. I KNOW this can be treated naturally, just trying to figure it all out within our limited means. I think the fact that were near the Canadian border this year (lived in sunny So. Cal her whole life before that) is whats really set things off for SAD for her then combined with lack of sleep has sent her into a tail spin. My putting in a lot of hours at work also caused a lot of issues for her too I think but since my car is broke down I'm going to be home for several more weeks and hoping I can really limit my working at that point.

10mg? Thats very very high and would scare me but I'm getting desperate enough. She gets 5000IU D3 daily and I increase to 10-15k when illness come in the house, I do plan on making walking a regular thing for us, we both need the exercise. Thats going to be fun, been having a heck of a time getting her out of the house lately. No money and nearest walmart, or big box store is 45 miles away.

She's been on chelation for a couple years, she already takes zinc, b12, manganese ect. The high copper is caused by the blood disorder and the above are standard treatment for the disorder, she's down to 16% free copper which is really really close for the 15% target range so I doubt the copper is really causing an issue, it was something like 65% when we started.

Cant afford it, were in dire straights right now, especially with me not working because my car is broke and I can't fix it till I get my tax return. No such thing around here and its snowing. I had planned on walking but today thats not happening with dd7 home and icy roads, she insists on running (which stresses me out between her getting hit by a car or slipping on the ice and getting really hurt) instead of walking, plus she makes walking very unpleasant. Today is a bad day, especially with her home from school, I'm trying to get as calm as possible and prepared for doing school work with dd13 in a few minutes and she's doing everything possible to get my attention and not listening to me which is really beginning to tick me off.

I can do that, her methylation is messed up, her whole blood histamine is rock bottom which is part of the problem causing behavior issues/mental instability. Thankfully she's almost done with chelation for high copper. Slowly adding supps to correct methylation but she protests about the amount of pills so focusing on things like Nician which chills her out. Adding 1g 3x a day the past couple days has made a huge difference in her anger/irritability levels. Her regular Dr actually suggested adding it when I asked about putting her on a sedative for a couple of days because she was getting so aggressive (she was moving beyond threats and actually hitting/kicking) and I was at my breaking point and needed her to chill while we changed supp doses and they built up. Any suggestions on amount/time? I normally put 2 cups in the bath then she spends 1.5 hours or so in there, I don't let her take a bath to often because she ties up the bathroom and it uses all the hot water which takes several hours to heat back up. She is getting 400mg Mag in the mornings which really helped town down the sensory issues which were in over drive, sounds, any sounds were causing her to get mad and regular levels caused her to curl up and plug her ears. A week after that she was annoying ME with loud music lol. Its amazing how supps effect someone and how quickly. Once you take melatonin your supposed to stay in a dark or dimly lit room, light sends a signal to the brain to wake up and some people are really sensitive to it. I know ANY light will keep dd awake, she used to be fine in a dark room. I don't know why she's freaking out about it all of the sudden. Its a fight to get the TV off then she reads and then its a major fight to get her to put the book down and go to sleep. She's gotten addicted to the Warrior Cats books and doesn't like putting them down, its funny coming from a child who 3 months ago HATED reading, still does unless its those books.

She reads, I wish flipping the breaker would work. Power goes out enough here that its habit to go to the window and see which part of town is out. She knows all about the breaker switch lol, we blow the breakers quite a bit here too. Old house with crappy wiring can't handle a regular load.

Doesn't work, she fights it. She normally takes it since her body doesn't produce melatonin due to her blood disorder it but says it doesn't work which it doesn't because you have to go to bed/sleep as soon as you feel it hit or it doesn't work. She stays up and after an hour or 2 it wears off and she's wide awake all night. Normally I give her 2.5mg but I've given her up to 6mg and she still stays awake. I've got her off it the past 2 nights thinking she's built a tolerance to it since you do have to periodically cycle off it due to building tolerance issues.

She flights sleep like you wouldn't believe and its making everyone miserable. It means I don't get enough sleep and its causing me to over sleep despite setting several alarms from sheer exhaustion and that means meds are not taken early enough and it throws off the schedule and she doesn't get enough into her which makes her unpleasant to say the least. I can not function on 3-4 hours of sleep a night, dd7 missed the bus to school today because of this which means she's home today (I don't have a working car and the roads are covered in snow) which sets off dd13 because dd7 does everything she can to irritate her which isn't hard at all. I need to be able to spend 100% of my waking time dealing with dd13 which is why dd7 needs to be at school and go to the afterschool program so I have all day to work with dd13 which I need with her being mentally unstable and lack of sleep is a big part of her being unstable. Short of pharmaceuticals which will leave her hung over and she can't take antihistamine based ones anyway how do I get this kid to sleep? She actively fights sleep, I honestly think she doesn't recognize being sleepy. I can tell she's sleepy/tired yet she insists shes not. Its taken YEARS to get her to recognize hunger signals and she doesn't realize she's hungry until her BS drops and she's sweaty/clammy/dizzy and her stomach feels like its trying to eat itself. Yes, she has sensory issues. She's being tested for high functioning autism in a little over a week. dd13 is a flight risk so yes, I have to be awake if she is. She is very naive and immature (she's maybe 8, dd7 is often more mature then her) and we have reason to believe she arranged to be picked by a stranger online so yes, I will be awake as long as she is! She's been completely cut off from the online world outside of the roku 2 (they can't chat on that right?) but she will grab ANYTHING that can get online if she finds it and contact her "friends" which are encouraging this run away garbage and staying out of touch with reality. Lack of sleep does not contribute to a healthy mental state.

Wow, I can't imagine being in your position. Is she by chance ready to start duel enrollment at the local CC? You could start knocking out courses as part of high school outsourcing so she has less school years/cost to worry about at age 18.

No way, Tami Flu has some serious nasty side effects. High dose Vit D will knock the flu on its aft in a day, so will Ocillo:)

Looking at the sales ad and they list Russet New Crop Potatoes, 20 lbs for $4.98. Thats a separate listing from the regular 10lb bag of Russet potatoes. Does that just mean its from the latest crop? Google was not helpful.

My landlord is insisting I get the leaves raked up, as he wants the house in show condition. I did rake them up, I have 2 huge cottonwoods in the front yard that are a nightmare, after 3 days of rake and more leaves fall covering the ground I said screw it and waited till they all fell off. Unfortunately as soon as that happened it rained and snowed. Most of the snow has melted but the leaves are frozen. I have one of those plastic leaf rakes, do I just need a steel rake? My lease states I have to maintain the yard so yeah, I need to get it done. Any idea how to whack weeds when you don't have a weed whacker? We are in dire straights here which is why I called my LL to begin with, can't afford to pay the rent and my car is broken, I need what money we have to fix the car so I can get back to work, I've already missed 2 weeks:( LL said he's willing to waive the insane late fees (almost as much as my rent!) if I get it cleaned up.

Ive heard its already hit the torrent sites, not that we do that here....

I went through feeding issue hell with my oldest, we finally got the child to eat when we told her she was getting a g-tube and actually scheduled the procedure. When its impacting them that much its time for more radical steps such as feeding tubes. It by passes the sensory issues and gets nutrition into the child while your work on the oral issues. I know, you didn't ask for advice, just what worked for us. The kids eats pretty much everything I put in front of her these days:)

I can not do beans anymore which are a staple for us, my body is mistaking legumes as gluten and as a celiac thats a very bad thing. Removing them from my diet is medically necessary, I don't know how potatoes affect me. Heavens no! We can barely afford conventional meats.

I've had both an Ipad and a kindle fire, I'd go for another Ipad hands down just because of the sheer amount of apps available for homeschooling. Kindle is pretty limited unless you want to root it which voids your warranty to get to google play but it still doesn't have any where near the app choices apple does.

Trying to catch up on school work with dd13 and she hates reading school stuff so thought we'd try audio books:) I'm looking for some coloring pages to go with the audio for my VSL kiddo, thought she could color while we listen. Not having much luck but I also don't know who the characters are for the Hobbit beyond Frodo. Can you tell I'm not at all into TLOTR stuff? Any links? Thank you:)

So, I got to meet the actual owner today, I've been dealing with his father who lives about half an hour from here. It was a VERY different conversation from what I'd had with the father before. 1)They acted like they had no idea what I was taking about with the contract saying I needed that warranty/maintenance agreement. All I need to do is put oil in the tank and turn the thing on. Right.... that was so not how the convo went when discussing the agreement when I was signing it. 2) The wall heater thingy, "he didn't remember" telling me it was a fire hazard and not to use it. The thing works fine, just needs to be cleaned up from dust. grrr He had a totally different attitude/story with his son, the owner here.

Nearest grocery store is half hour away and were also carless until I get my tax return, I'll be lucky to get a ride into the city once a month so weekly shopping is out. Where in the world do you live that you can find chicken of any kind of 30 cents lb? Lowest I have seen in past couple years is 99 cents lb and thats a killer deal here. I picked up 10 chickens last time. I thought white potatoes are a huge no no, those go on sale for $1-2 for a 10lb bag every month or 2. Don't have an Aldi 's in this state and TJs is 1.5hrs away:( I miss TJ's... I can't digest rice at all, even with heavy duty prescription digestive enzymes I still can only eat a small amount, I also though they were not paleo:( They would benefit from the diet as well and making 2 different meals 3 times a day is killing me. I don't have a lot of energy or brain function most days so I need to keep it simple. No chickens but my moms got chickens, they started laying about 4-6 weeks ago and she's been a bit overwhelmed getting 3 doz eggs a day lol, she's called me twice in the past week begging me to take eggs because her fridge is full, I've still got 10 doz from last week! lol I have asked my parents if I can buy chicks with them for the next round of meat chickens as well as 2 pigs and some turkeys and maybe a lamb if they do decide to do them this year. Their home grown stuff tastes way better:) Its also cheaper even though I have to pay cash for feed and stuff. Thinking of using my tax return to pay for the entire cost to fill 2 freezers. They haven't made up their minds yet if they will take me up on it. At least with pigs I only have to pay for the 1st year, eat one/breed one and sell the weaner's to cover the cost of feed for the year for 2 pigs:) You can buy seeds and plants with food stamps, the problem is your stuck with what you can find at the grocery store or walmart, neither of which are local to me or carry seeds at this time of year. I wish plant nurserys took FS. The land lord came by today and they should have a better idea of whats going on by March, they still hope to sell the house but if not they doubt it will get torn down this year due to lack of funds and figure I have another year here if I want (trust me, the conversation with the actual owner vs his father who I have been dealing with was very different today). No idea what we will do. So, bottom line, we have a ton of eggs, what do we do with them? Were sick of eggs!