This is one of those things that I wouldn't have believed until I saw the proof, but my husband's almost-daily migraines went away when he stopped consuming citrus. Crazy, but wonderful!

I've been trying an 8-hour-eating window, 11:30-7:30. It has been tricky because I get up at 5:45 and have always "needed" breakfast every day. I don't drink tea or coffee, so I just drink a lot of water until about 9:00 in the morning. At that point, I start feeling nauseous and HUNGRY. Even though it doesn't always sound appetizing, sipping a little chicken broth (I guess it should be bone broth, but I haven't managed to make any yet!) gets rid of the nausea right away and makes it possible for me to keep going. I don't think I could do intermittent fasting without that little bit of chicken broth.

Yes! This times 1000! I thought that I would always homeschool my kids. I also thought that it would get easier "when the baby got older" and then "when the toddler got older" until he was a preschooler and it was still really rough! I would encourage you to look at all of the school options that you have and see what choices you have that you may not be aware of. I never would've known until I really did a lot of searching that there are A TON of schools near me to choose from. Traditional public schools, yes, but also many free charters and other "choice schools" that are public schools based on certain philosophies rather than neighborhood boundaries.. We took the leap and enrolled one of our kids into a Montessori charter this year, and it has been wonderful. The school does so much that I couldn't manage to fit into my day, and the social aspects have been so important for my little girl. All of my kids will be going to school next year, and I am feeling so happy and relieved. I guess that I was experiencing more homeschooling burnout than I realized... I may homeschool again in the future-- I'm certainly not opposed to the idea, and I'm willing to do whatever is best for my kids. But I am very grateful that we tried the going-to-school thing this year. It was a good change.

Acellus is another decent option.

My teen DS has some anxiety over math. Probably due to ADHD and dysgraphia mostly, because he is really not bad with the concepts. He dreads math, gets anxious, does anything he can to postpone it, will get teary-eyed and cry about it-- almost every day. It has been hard for me to know what he can and can't control emotionally, and I don't want to be mean about it. However, I also know that sometimes I tend to underestimate what he is capable of. This has helped us: If he can do his math daily (we use CLE Algebra) without tears and drama, great! I am available to help him, of course, but he needs to try to learn it, not just give up. If he gets teary-eyed and emotional, then we pack up the math and I drop him off at a local tutoring center. The people at the tutoring center are nice, so this isn't really a terrible threat. But he is an introvert and would rather be home, so he doesn't really want to go to tutoring. I have been very surprised how often he can "pull himself together" when I tell him to get his shoes because we are going to the tutoring center: "If I can't teach this math to you, then we need to get the help of someone who can." YMMV-- my son doesn't get angry, just sad and frustrated. And we're lucky enough to have a free tutoring center through our homeschool charter. But maybe you could find a center that would be willing to work with you guys on a drop-in basis...

CLE Algebra. I am loving it, and DS is doing well with it.

I'm also weighing options for my DS's freshman year next year. I had thought that a local twice-weekly academic homeschool academy was going to be a good idea, but the more that I think about it, the more that I don't think it will be the best option. We have done a lot of homeschool classes in the past, and no friendships have ever been forged. Like you mentioned, when kids are picked up right after class, there isn't much opportunity to really get to know each other. Also, homeschooling is hard! There are definite perks, but some of those get lost when you have to deal with homeschool academy class teachers and busywork and schedules, etc. And usually there are not a ton of different options for each class time slot, so the subject and level of work are usually not ideal for each student. So you lose control, and time, but still have to do the real work of homeschooling. I don't know. I'm beginning to think that I either want to enroll him in school OR just teach the subjects myself with some online classes. The "middle ground" homeschool academy seems like it might just have too many cons.

We bought a foreclosure using an FHA loan a few years ago. FHA does have some restrictions, but it is surprising what the inspectors really look at. Our house was built in the 1950s and has a lot of issues--- I'm still trying to decide if it was a good deal or not. :closedeyes: Anyway, the two things that stopped the FHA loan from going through initially were a bad roof and a fallen-down fence in the backyard. The bank that owned the house paid for both of those to be fixed, so that worked out well. But there are still a lot of things wrong that FHA didn't care about at all...

We do this all the time--- just mix frozen apple juice concentrate with 3 cans of sparkling water from the sodastream. We love it! It is not quite as good as Martinelli's, but pretty close. (I think that the frozen concentrate dulls the "sparkling" effect just a little bit.)

After doing a bit of research, we ended up going with Healthy Paws. It made the most sense for us, but we haven't had to submit any claims yet-- so we will see how it goes in the future!

In case it is helpful information, we recently acquired a Golden Retriever puppy, and we pay $35 per month for pet insurance for him-- with all the health problems that may occur down the road, it seems worth it to us. The insurance doesn't cover preventative care (immunizations, neuter, dental cleaning), only problems.

That's a great idea! Maybe then I would actually look forward to the dishes...

Well, darn! I'm glad that I'm not alone :laugh:, but I was hoping that someone would have some wonderful idea to increase my willpower somehow. I have been pondering the idea of putting the current novel into my husband's car before he leaves for work each day. That would help with the daytime at least! Maybe I could promise myself a guilt-free reading period before bed if I work really hard during the day.

I love to read! Whenever I have a little free time, reading is always my first choice activity. Unfortunately, I have a hard time pacing myself once I begin an enjoyable novel. Sometimes it is because I am having a stressful day and want to escape into the book, and sometimes it is because I just really want to know what's going to happen! I've tried giving myself a "30-minute lunch break "and limiting reading to that time only, but invariably I will find myself picking up the book again while the kids are having a "little break" in the afternoon that then turns into an hour or so. And again at night, once everyone is in bed, I'm tired and just want to read (which wouldn't be a problem except that I am ignoring the dirty dishes and ungraded math assignments, which affects the next day.) At times I've just had to eliminate novels from my life because I don't seem to have the willpower to read responsibly. However, that seems sad to me and takes away one of my joys. Am I the only one? Has anyone come up with a good system that works well for balancing your reading life and real life?

It is funny how many people have that misconception. "The stomach flu" should be called something else, I think! I was one who never saw the need for the vaccine until we all got the flu 4 years ago. It was terrible. Really awful, and the ill effects lasted for months. The only one who didn't get it was the baby, because he had a flu shot along with his regular immunizations. We didn't have a stomach-virus-type component to it. However, the coughing was so severe and prolonged that we were actually vomiting from the intensity of the coughing jags! We get the flu shot now!