I'm another INFJ married to an INTJ! Also identify with creative but rigid - I think that's absolutely an INFJ think too. Constantly tweaking systems, looking for the best way to do things, but resisting being too constrained by routine at the same time. I also have a lot of sensory sensitivities - not sure if those are related to personality or not, but I get overwhelmed by lots of noise or light - so kid wrangling can get challenging. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

INFJ here - married to an INTJ (and most of my good friends are INTJ, INFJ or INFP). I've noticed a higher than normal number of INFJ homeschoolers and attributed it to that types' intense devotion to idealism. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Classical Kids are frequent in my car for Music Appreciation: some of my kids love these and the others (mainly the older ones) just tolerate them. :) I think of them as a gentle, living book-oriented introduction to many of the major composers. I also really like the compilation CDs they've put together for each composer. https://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?subject=Music/17&category=Classical+Kids/5618 I linked to RR for the overview of everything, but it seems like everything is less expensive on Amazon (and can be downloaded as mp3 / sampled).

I will second the BeautyCounter sunscreen - I have a friend who sells it and although I hate MLM stuff in general, after borrowing her sunscreen at the pool I started buying it. Physical sunblock but doesn't turn everything white and chalky / gross. Worth checking out against your list. ETA: I am a pasty white redhead and I wear the cream sunscreen everyday under make up, and the stick is good for keeping in purse for reluctant kid faces. It will melt though in a hot car.

I have a kid with a mood disorder, I have it too. Counseling is usually the last thing anyone wants to do when they are struggling - a support person needs to be the scaffolding that gets the hurting person to help. Another thing to be really mindful of is that the therapist / patient relationship involves a lot of chemistry, so if there's not a good rapport, be willing to meet different people until there's a good match.

Plan to Eat is what I use - I subscribed when they run a sale around black friday where its half off, but now that I've been using it so heavily, I think I would pay full price. https://www.plantoeat.com/

:iagree: Absolutely... and I tell people this all the time. I am super popular, as you can imagine. :)

How is it going? I was looking at doing this with my dd9, because I talked to the folks at Online3g.com at the SENG conference this year and was very impressed with the teacher. She had already read all the book for LL7 and didn't want to reread them, so we were going to try LL8 in the spring. I would love to hear your experiences. She tends to be a serial book gobbler, so I'm wondering how this will work...

Seconding St. John's Wort & Passionflower in combination if you have anxiety issues, as passionflower is excellent for anxiety- and also that Gaia is an excellent brand - their liquid phyto capsules are very potent and are a good way to get the tincture quality of the herb without having to deal with a liquid (the dried powder herbs aren't as potent). Since herbs aren't regulated, you have to be careful with brands. You can get both on amazon, though Whole Foods also carries them (for more of course). St. Johns Wort Phyto Caps at Amazon Passion Flower at Amazon

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

Yes, it is a subtle semantic difference, but I think the connotation of "allowance" is more childish, as in "this is not really your money, but a portion that I see fit to give to you." It seems to point to a lack of input or control on the part of the OP, which I think was what what many of the posters here are reacting strong to, not so much the idea of living with a budget.

Well I feel like a weird one, because I make itemized lists all the time for my husband before I buy stuff. Not in a "please sir, may I buy this (scrape, scrape)?" but more in a "this is most important, it costs this much, this is why we need it, etc" I'm usually the one doing it because he never wants to buy anything. I have a list right now for Ikea stuff to get, stuff for house projects AND school stuff I need to buy (although for the school stuff he just told me he doesn't care, buy whatever (like "Oh please, make it stop"). The list is a tool for facilitating discussion, as he can see all the details laid out rationally (maybe this works for us since I have a hyper rational husband, and I am not a hyper rational person myself), so I can make my case more clearly, and it keeps us from fighting over money. It sounds like many of us here work within pre-agreed budgets with our spouses, but the idea of having an "allowance" is really what sticks in the craw. It would for me too.

So I did the Jillian Michaels Kettlebell workout on Amazon Prime this morning, remember looking at it and checking my steps, but then when I went to go take a shower found that I had lost my fitbit, it had fallen out of my clothes. So yes, that post was prophetic.... :sad: :nopity: :ohmy: But then my 9 year old found it at the end of the day! So tomorrow I am on!

I just saw this and dug out my fitbit that's been gathering some dust. Yay for some motivation. That thing kept falling out of my um, underclothing. I need to find a better system.

I also love the California Academy of Sciences Homeschool Day - you guys are much closer up there but we make the drive, its totally worth it - they do it twice a year, spring and fall: https://www.calacademy.org/homeschoolday/

Sorry for missing the one word, "independent" in the OP! Yikes! I was not trying to offend anyone!

Welcome to the area! We're farther south of you in the Monterey Bay area. I was neurotic about the same thing when we moved to CA a few years ago - the PSA filing time its kind of weird! Definitely look into the charter school options too - we do Ocean Grove - you get funds for curriculum and classes and it can work out really well. I didn't even know about that option until well after I was here most of year.

I appreciated this in particular because for a while a few years back it seemed like there was a trend where pastors and Christian speakers were constantly talking about how hot their wives were. I found this incredibly annoying for some reason. That's great that you find your wife attractive, but I found it grating to talk about it in that kind of forum. I guess it was just a personal thing on my part, because I noticed it all over and it didn't seem to bother most people. I used to listen to a lot of of sermons on podcasts especially when I was up late nursing and such. Maybe it was just the kinds of speakers I was listening to? Young emergent types? It was like the pastor hot wife wars.

I have totally BTDT. If possible, I would try to find a realtor who will work with you. I rented on my own via Craigslist several years ago completely going by pictures online, talking to the landlord on the phone and by email, etc. It worked out for us I think because the rental market where I was moving is very active with LOTS of military and I think it helped that my husband is a professor at the Navy school there, so sort of had some cred there with the locals. I did have to rent it 3 weeks in advance of us arriving though to make the timing work out, which kind of stunk. I think that might be what you might have to do too - most people will not hold a house for a tenant for more than a few weeks if they can rent it to someone else. In my mind, it was worth it to pay to secure the house and our peace of mind. You will probably have an easier time if you do go out there - I ran into a lot of opposition still with individual landlords and property management companies who wanted me to be there looking at the houses (this might be because CA has a particular clause that says that renters can renege on leases before move in even with a signed lease - maybe not a problem elsewhere?). Or it could have just been that we have four kids, I don't know. But in hind sight, I think it might have been easier with a realtor - I knew other faculty families who made similar moves who used them for rental searches with good results. But if you don't, a few things I did when doing it long distance: I used primarily Craigslist to find home listings. Most of the property management companies in my areas would cross list everything to CL anyway. Internet stalked everyone involved, including landlords and property management companies. You might want to rule out houses represented by management companies with truly dismal yelp ratings, for example. Looked at Citydata.com to figure out specific neighborhoods, and asked anyone I could find for tips on where to look - like where are the good schools? Even though I don't need them, those areas are usually where the nice areas to live are. Google Street View / Google Earth whenever an address or cross street is given! As far as the actual move, we did a Penske truck. My husband drove that and towed his car and I dove our other car. If we hadn't have had a house secured, we could have just driven it straight to a storage place and hired a few guys (you can find them through the Penske or UHaul sites or CL) to help unload it and stayed at a hotel until we found a house locally. It will really be OK! I just really wanted to have the house taken care of. Good luck!!!

Random, but one of my favorite basic makeup tutorials on the interwebs right now: http://www.maskcara.com/2012/10/05/mommy-makeup/

Just passing on what I was told. :) I have light coppery red hair and hazel green/brown eyes with very fair skin and lots of freckles. I had always worn brown mascara as per my teen magazines, until the make up ladies got a hold of me. They also got me wearing eye liner and shadow which I had always avoided before. But I'm sure its still a matter if personal taste. I think also the mascara texture makes a big difference because the thick clumpy kind makes the lashes look so big that they overwhelm delicate red head coloring. I like the blinc mascara for this, also almay has some thinner formulations. Anything that is plain and not "volumizing."

I am a super pale red head, yet have been told multiple times by make up artists to still wear regular black mascara even with a natural style look (I worked as a receptionist in a day spa / salon during college).. So don't be afraid of the black mascara, ye pale ones, if its hard to find brown. I think its more the texture to look for - you don't want it to be too clumpy or smudgy.

I second the blinc mascara - its a little pricey (about $20 on amazon), but it doesn't smudge or leave raccoon eyes and is extremely easy to remove.

Dad is Fat - Jim Gaffigan - more for the adults, but I would listen to it with my kids, I can't think of anything offensive in it, though I don't think they would get the humor. It has made me cry laughing though.

I clicked through the link at the top about the yoga pants controversy (huh?) and wow, I had no idea my yoga pants were considered so immodest. But on the other hand my husband tells me I should wear them (his ideal look would be "ready to go hiking at a moments notice"), so I guess that's sort of a patriarchal paradox.