yes, he took the SSAT with accomodations. He's had a Psy-educational test done but it's 3yrs old... very out of date, but does show his IQ is fine. I'll xpost over at the LC boards, since it's seems like it would be okay. Thanks for everyone's imput already.

Thank you... but is either place appropriate for non-homeschooling issues and concerns?

Orthodox Christians fast from certain food throughout the year. This is always coupled with prayer and almsgiving. We also fast on Weds. and Fridays. Weds. to remember the day Christ was betrayed by Judas and Friday to commemorate the day He died on the cross. The longer fasts are in preparation for important Feast days - such as Christmas and Easter/Pascha. Those are the times we are most encouraged to add more prayer and almsgiving..so it's not just a diet. So with these back-ground information here it goes: 1. about 10years. 2. It varies - We have Four major fasting periods in the year: two fast periods are 40days long. One is 14 days long and the last is variable depending on when Pascha occurs (this year it is less than a week, I think) 3. Explained this above. 4. I still eat, I just don't eat quite as much and my diet is restricted (Orthodox fasts are vegan but not everyone can eat that strictly...it depends on your health and family needs). But I do try to add more periods of prayer and concentrate on more almsgiving. I rarely succeed at this. 5.Fasting is seen as a means to an end. The end is to be more Christ-like: to be more humble and loving towards all people. Believe it or not, fasting acts like a little spotlight shining on those areas that I/we need to work on. Areas where we miss the mark at being Christ-like. This is all done with the help of our priests as we are expected to go to confession during the fasting periods to work through some of the issues we're struggling with (confession in the EO church is not anything like what people see in Catholic confession on TV). I *hope* I'm slowly slogging towards that goal. It's always a struggle.. it's not easy. I'd rather look away at my own shortcomings, truth be told. I guess that's why the Church prescribes these times, because She knows we'd rather not face ourselves sometimes.

My youngest son is currently in a school specifically for kids with language based LD. Next year he goes into high school and we looked to transfer into a more traditional private high school for next year. However, that is not panning out. The most recent school we applied to (yes, I know it's late - I'm already beating myself up about that) is looking like they will not accept him. I talked with the admissions guy yesterday after some test scores came in and he made noises like "it's not your son, it's us... we want what's best for him." etc. etc. I took it to mean that they will most likely deny because his scores were not good (he's terrible at test taking). Also, because he goes to a special school I've talked over and over with the admissions officer about our expectations. We don't expect a more traditional school to provide all those accommodations nor do we think our son needs them. My son will be devastated if/when this happens. He really liked this school and it looked like such a good fit for him. So after going through this emotional process this spring with 2 different schools I'm emotionally worn out, but I'm also concerned that the current LD school is ham-stringing my son. They offer a lot of provisions and they have helped my son tremendously, but sometimes I feel like they hold him back due to the nature of the school. I really feel that my son can step it up a notch. He makes all A's in school and rarely stresses about homework (unlike last year)... but the schools we applied to don't look at potential, they look at data from the school and the SSAT test scores. They see what kind of school he goes to and his writing samples (which were horrible) and I think they are rightfully concerned. I don't know how to show them that my son can step up to the task and that we're willing to work with him to help make it happen (tutors, etc.). My dh wants me to continue looking at another couple private schools, but I am done. I can't bring it to the table anymore. I feel like a hamster running in the wheel.. we're clearly not getting anywhere with this route. Besides my son is emotionally tired of the rejection. I do not want to put him through the hoop jumping roller-coaster only to be rejected AGAIN. It's not fair to him either. However, ds doesn't' want to go back to the original school because most/all his friends are leaving. The school is very small and he's lonely at home too. Besides, those two schools were really the best options considering my son's learning style (he's not Prep-school material). There's a lot of prep-schools (or prep-school wanna-bees) in my county. In talking with one of the moms in the carpool she has an older daughter with some similar issues who goes to the local public school. She was just transferred in after years of being in private schools too. Anyway, this particular public school has a good reputation for helping kids with accommodations and LD. So my thought is to work with the public school and get my son into it for the fall. Talk with my son about his goal of getting into the 1st choice private school and working towards that goal with tutoring (if necessary) for 10th grade. It's a risk because I know that public schools can be a quagmire. But, I worry that keeping him at the current LD school is another risk because will only hold him back even more. Another piece of the puzzle is that my son has lots of anxiety associated with school and test taking. The current school is a very gentle environment and they don't do standardized-styled testing. Of course, the public school seems to be all about testing. So, for the sake of his emotional health, I could keep him in the LD school but they won't necessarily push him and he may wind up having to stay all 4 years.

I'll put it on my calendar. Thanks!

any of those weeks are good for me depending on the day.

cleaning always takes a back seat to just about anything at my house too. I hope you have a productive month to yourself and that the decision will be an obvious on - no matter which way you choose.

That's so wonderful. Congratulations

I'm assuming I can't pick Rivendell ;) Somewhere in the UK, Pacific northwest , or along the blueridge mountains.

Not computer games but for tablet or phone: Monument Valley, The Room, Blackthorn Castle, and the Lost Ship. The Room is the only one that is mildly scary, but mostly it's roll your eyes stuff. They are all pretty cheap via the Play Store for androids.

I'd also recommend going Friday if you can. I love Thursday services too, but it can be long. We don't do the foot washing but we have the Passion Gospels on Thursday evening.... it clocks in at more than 2 hours. I love it, but it can be a hard one of the uninitiated. Finding a parish that does it mostly/all in English is very helpful too. Hopefully PJ can guide you on that. Good luck! I wish more people would do what you're doing. Orthodox services are so very different than most every other Christian tradition, I think its great to come and see what it's all about. I wish I'd done it when I was younger.

Exactly. I live in a house that fits many of our criteria... but it is not the perfect neighborhood. We didn't figure that out until after we'd moved in..it definitely fit some of the "perfect neighborhood" checkpoints. Anyway, I'm so unhappy and my son is so lonely. I'm ready to move.

The MIddle with Patricia Heaton is pretty clean.

I live in the metro dc area... and I never bought my kids pjs. When they were little they wore "papa shirts", which were my dh's t-shirts that were huge, and very comfortable on them. I never batted an eye. I also shop at thrift stores - esp. when my kids were younger and going through clothes. We can afford pjs and new clothes from department stores, but that is not how we chose to spend our money. I've never been particularly concerned with what other people think - in fact, if I were asked I'd be prouder about shopping at a thrift store and embarrassed to shop at the super expensive stores downtown. Now I shop more at Kohls or Target because it's more convenient. But I still love making the outing to the thrift stores with my adult daughters. My kids have told me before that they thought we were poor growing up, but then realized that we took them all (I have 6 kids) to Italy for vacation. LOL. Priorities ;)

praying you find peace, the move is better than you anticipate, and that the house sells quickly.

We're in a similar boat. My dh told me who he plans to vote for a few weeks ago and I was completely shocked. We don't discuss politics much otherwise. I occasionally talk about the candidate I plan to vote for and I've encouraged him to watch a few speeches, but that was long ago and before he told me who he was planning to vote for. Part of this is because I strategically changed parties several months ago (before all this started happening) and he has remained in the same party for 30yrs. Our state holds closed elections and is basically hard leaning one way. The primary is really the important Presidential election in this state. We were also similar politically when we first married but that has changed over the years. I don't think it's totally unexpected. People change and they don't always go in the same directions - both politically and theologically, IMHO. I don't think we've voted for the same people in a very long time as I haven't voted for a major party candidate for President for several election cycles.

I'm sure they will. I sure do wish Jon Stewart was still on The Daily Show. That segment would be worth taping.

Yes, Australia is a wonderful island. Who wrote that drivel??? Clearly it wasn't a lawyer from Hollywood. Good grief.. They look dumber than doorposts. Am I hearing things or was Johnny trying to put on an English accent? Or was is Australian??? And he's bobbing his head around a little like Capt. Jack. Weird. I used to like him - but he's gotten creepier and creepier in the last 10yrs. Maybe he sold his soul to the devil when he was hired to play Captain Jack Sparrow, because he really hasn't been the same since. So who do you put your money on to be first to parody this "performance".

We live in a mix area... but lots of pits. Also, a lot of small dogs. My neighbor has something that looks like a mini-papillon - they have no kids. She's really cute - will look like a puppy forever... but man- she barks at anything that moves and is very aggressive. Our neighborhood has mostly small dogs like Maltese, Jack Russels, Bostons... with a few big ones thrown in - mostly labs and retrievers. We even have a very large Huskie in the condo's in our neighborhood. I feel very sorry for that dog. It gets far too hot here for a dog like that - and that thing looks like a Huskie- Bernese Mountain dog mix. It's that big and hairy. Not too many GSD (which I also LOVE). And not too Spaniels - which I also like. We have Coonhound mix ... everyone remarks at how beautiful he is. I think it's because we don't see very many of them around here.

Oh dear... I'm so sorry. That is a lot of frustration. To answer your question yes... I do feel like I've been in this circle of things not working out. Some have been self-inflicted (I talked about one on another thread - but there are more) and some have not been my own cause. But, I have felt lately that I don't trust myself to make decisions. The last few have been terrible mistakes that I still regret years later. And I feel like since then I've been in a funk and I can't get out of it. And like you, I *should* be happy - On paper (or from the outside) everything is fine... more than fine. I shouldn't feel like I total screw up that can't do anything right, but I do.

We're going to Lake Anne in VA for our whole family vacation. We're renting a house right on the lake and all the kids will be joining us at some time during that week. We're also hoping to go away for a weekend or two camping. I *love* Dolly Sods WV.. It's a wilderness area in/near Monogahela National Forest. Great hiking... primitive camping on the mountain, but lots of camping/cabin rentals closer to town. We're also hoping to try a new place called Nelson Sods which is south of Dolly Sods. They don't have camping in the Nelson wilderness area but some close by. 2 years ago we went to Western PA near Ohiopyle. There's Falling Water's there (aFrank Lloyd Wright designed home) as well as good camping and white water rafting. We loved it. Of course, none of these places fit your no-lyme criteria. Sadly, I don't think you'll find any place like that within easy driving distance of the East Coast.

thank you.

Its the wrong time of day for those things to pop in your head. Just wait until the middle of the night when you want to sleep, then your brain will be in overdrive with these memories.

The most recent one is that I didn't follow through and look closely at all the potential options for school for my son next year. My dh even told me to get several options, but I was convinced that one school was really the best option and didn't do more homework on this. I should have had this all done in early January. I had initially dismissed the school out of hand without looking a little more closely. When we finally found out the the school I had chosen for my son, the one I thought would take him without any troubles, in fact would not take him it was already the beginning of Mar. We were shocked and heart-broken. I'm thankful for a friend who said we really should look at this other school (it's a Friends school). It's now April and we don't know where he'll be and there's a chance he will not get into this particular school mainly because they're down to the last few available spaces and since my son has LD and needs accommodations..they'll probably choose an easier kid over my son. There may not be a space at his current school because we haven't committed (you have to commit to paying the full price at the time that you sign - so we aren't willing to do that - but it means they can't hold a space for him either).. All this delay and waiting is entirely my fault... We're currently waiting for him to take the private school standardized testing on Saturday. He has terrible test anxiety, and he's never taken a standardized test before, so I don't anticipate him doing well on it. We've been busily prepping him for the test. This is what keeps me up at night and has me stressing at 3am these days.

I'll confess that I *loved* culottes when I was a teen/young adult. Actually, one of my all time favorites pieces of clothing was a pair of corduroy culottes that were SO comfortable. It's been 25+ years since I wore them and I still think about those culottes. I'm not a fashionista either (obviously!! LOL) and I don't think about my clothes all that often. But, I was much thinner back then and didn't have the perpetual baby bump. I don't think I'd look so good in the pair you shared, Dawn.