:lol:

You have enough 'Yes' answers to definitely warrant a testing for Celiac. The funny thing with Celiac is that any of these symptoms can show up, but not all. Or some symptoms can be the opposite of what is 'normal' for Celiac. Before our diagnosis, I was the one with an AMAZING appetite. I could put away more food than a grown man and it never showed :tongue_smilie: My kids were never small, just the opposite. They never were emaciated with diarrhea---the old school 'warning symptoms'. Now pretty much any anomaly in health or metabolism can warrant a testing.

:iagree::iagree: My brothers and I were spanked---and are healthy functioning adults. Our kids were spanked when needed----and are not scarred whatsoever. They see that kids who aren't spanked or otherwise disciplined properly are awful brats to be around. That there is even a debate about 'spanking' is ridiculous. It is not beating or abuse when used properly.

:iagree: We see it all the time in our ONE grocery store. We live in the poorest county in our state, which is also VERY remote with a 3 month growing season. EVERYTHING has to be shipped in. Add shipping to that----food is outrageous. We just spent $190 at the store for our family of 4 on JUST fruits, veggies and eggs---no meat. You look at the less healthy, obese people using their SNAP card and see how far just $100 goes for sugar laden, chemical additive laden grain foods. It will buy you twice as much. Why? Govt subsidized grains!!

Yep---eat those 10-12 servings of grains a day, limit your meats and fats and hence, the explosion of obesity! Add to that the zillions of additives and other products made from those subsidized grains grown in ridiculous abundance---and avoiding grains/carbs becomes a full time job. :glare:

Get rid of High Fructose Corn Syrup and have Govt quit subsidizing grains and calling them 'healthy' foods. Grains, and everything made from them, are fattening. More so than any other foods that are traditionally blamed for causing obesity, such as dairy or meat fats.

Have you seen a naturopath that specializes in food allergies? I HIGHLY recommend it! And I totally understand the expense----we have MANY off limits foods too---pretty much EVERYTHING that comes from a package or jar---meaning we cook every.single.meal ourselves from scratch! You could very well be dealing with candida issues which can most definitely cause your body to go haywire and reject that amount of foods you listed. In fact, a family here went through exactly what you are and dealt with their candida and those awful, restricting food issues almost all resolved. They are still gluten free----but can eat those foods that were making them sick. I think if you can scrape some $$ together to see a natural specialist, it will be worth it. ALL that special diet cooking is exhausting :001_huh:

Well, now you 'know' 4 more---my entire family! ;) I disagree with the vegetarian advice though. I was vegetarian for my teen years and never felt weaker and more awful! Eating meat makes me feel very strong and healthy. We did raw in desperation to get healthy 2 years ago and found it just wasn't enough concentrated food to get us through a day---plus it was prohibitively expensive in our remote location. I highly advocate Grain Free as the healthiest and safest option for going gluten free. There is a site called True Gluten Free that advocates this also, as almost ALL grains and anything that is processed or in a package contains trace glutens. Removing anything from a package 99% of the time---we ARE human you know :tongue_smilie:---has improved the health of my family by leaps and bounds!!!! Something MANY Celiac's don't know is that ZERO amount of gluten is safe for us and way too many packaged and labeled Gluten Free foods still contain enough gluten to get you sick. I should know----I spent about 3 years into my GF diet VERY, VERY sick with glutening symptoms and totally confused because I was eating 'gluten free'. AFter desperately searching the internet to see if there were others like me out there suspecting that their GF foods really weren't, I DID find out I wasn't crazy. We removed almost every single thing that comes out of a package---including ALL jar spices, herbs, Chex, Tinkyada pasta, Bob's stuff and believe it or not---grain fed meats----and are finally healthy most of the time. The FDA is working on getting a Gluten Free labeling standard finalized, but it is taking a lot of time because they are basically trying to placate the food manufacturers because if they are required to be 100% Gluten Free, they might not be able to comply and therefore would lose HUGE market share of the GF Cash Cow. When you see a package that says 'Gluten Free', it actually has no meaning besides what that particular food manufacturer says. The actual ingredients could be GF, but the final product could be manufactured or packaged on the same lines as gluten containing foods. Certified Gluten Free on a labe actually has meaning---that it tests at or below 5ppm. But according to many experts, it IS possible to get 0ppm gluten and test for 0ppm also. There is NO safe daily or weekly amount of Gluten if you have Celiac. Period. Concentrating on eggs, cheese, 'clean' meats, potatoes and other tubers and lots of fruits and veggies is THE safest GF route. Adding in the breads and other pretty much packaged, processed GF garbage should only make up a small portion of a healthy GF diet.

:iagree::iagree: Our dd is graduating in a few weeks---at 19---and she just told me today how NOW she knows that we were right in not letting her graduate last year because was much too immature!!! It is NOT the end of the world!!! And that said---our ds will also graduate at 19 (or perhaps a few weeks shy of his 19th like he requested). But I personally think it's a better age for the reasons stated above. AND---please, please do NOT compare what 'you' are doing to what 'everyone else' is doing and then conclude you are a failure because your schedule looks different! If you don't feel like you can teach high school---then by all means outsource! Especially if your dd is doing better in so many ways schooling at home ;)

Yes. Especially if you go through all the questions for the Lit and History portions.

:iagree: I would contact HSLDA for help. I think it's ridiculous. :glare:

I feel your pain---our son is a slim too. Sears is where we find his pants. Period. But for the rest, I will say that WalMart (yes, I USED to hate it too) has the best prices. Hands down. We dropped a fortune at the sale racks in the mall and at Target----and then hit WalMart for tights for dd and WOW---I was furious that we hadn't stopped there first. Great quality and great prices! Of course this is in Montana and I have honestly NEVER seen such clean, well maintained and well stocked Targets or Walmarts.

We're starting back up on our full schedule Monday. DS has been doing some reading and math since the end of May though. Only 1 to homeschool this year too ;)

It's funny, because when we first started homeschooling it was really a year at a time plan. As the years went on, many people dropped out of homeschooling, especially once the IDEA program came to town and made it just so complicated for too many moms. We have made it through one graduate, but really only because we had that ONE other family who schooled alongside us. She graduated a year before our dd, and it was REALLY hard! I wavered between guilt, exhaustion and just wanting to give up. What has made the decision easy to continue now, especially with ds, is just how BAD the local school is. I mean really, really bad in every way you can imagine :glare:

:iagree: WE ARE!! Homeschooling high school that is. A few families here too---but not many. I think high school is MORE important than the little kid years for just a multitude of reasons---and you CAN do it at home! You don't have to do CC, obtain a BA or PHd during high school---you can give a solid, college prep high school base at home. So many resources out there too----online, DVD etc. I have 2 wonderful IRL friends who did 100% homeschooling through graduation that I still keep in touch with ( but obviously not as regularly) which is nice. But my main support is online--because everyone else has either thrown in the towel or lost confidence. I think the subtle undermining of homeschooling as the 'best' choice all the way through high school confidence has been very successful and it makes me really sad, because even though high school is undeniably challenging to implement at home---the results are worth every challenging, lonely, exhausting, sometimes boring days ;)

I have heard about this! Isn't it sickening to think of ALL the diapers Americans throw away, using them all the way until the kids are even 4-5 :001_huh: My SIL has twin girls and they wore pull up diapers well into 5 because they never felt wet with those things.

Yes---I have this flaw of making snap judgements based on first impressions and appearances. :001_huh: I'm much more of a 'natural' woman, so I really can't even imagine trying to make friends with someone like this unless they initiated the friendship and we had lots of other, different things in common----I would feel judged by someone who is always 'made-up' when in reality, I see a lot of that stuff as not only toxic, but fake and smelly :001_huh: I only say that because I have had friends who are kind of like that, and they seem to need to suggest I should do 'this or that'---and I find that annoying. I'm not really one to talk though---my dd is one of those who ALWAYS has to 'put her face on' to leave the house. I have never spent as much time in my ENTIRE life doing makeup, hair, etc. as she has in just the last few years :lol:

Awesome! Our son wanted to sit on the big toilet at 18 months---no little potty for this guy---and I was SO bummed!! :tongue_smilie: We only have 2, and he was the last baby and I was cloth diapering and really loving it and fully expected him to be in diapers for about 3 years. He was fully trained at 2, pretty much by his own doing, but probably could have been earlier if mom was willing :lol:

Nothing actually. I know waaay too many people 'annoyed' by this or that on FB---and I just don't understand why. Why stay on if everything annoys you :confused: My brother and his wife are ALWAYS complaining about annoying things on FB---and I find that more annoying than what he complains about. I LIKE the variety of posting styles of everyone on my friend list. Perhaps my life is just a bit boring though----because I enjoy even whiny and political posts :tongue_smilie:

:iagree: We don't have ANY left. All have chosen public school with the exception of the only friend who actually homeschooled all the way to graduation. It just seems that for whatever reason, the confidence to continue for many moms is waning. Or maybe it's just a season...but whatever the reason it really is a bummer :001_huh:

Wow! Great article----and from my 7-year involvement in Melaleuca...100% true. This quote: "Another twenty percent stay in longer, often with devastating consequences. “They went to the conferences, they drank the Kool-Aid, they did everything they were told to do and they never earned a thing,” he says. Instead, they lose money and lots of it. But that’s not all. Victims of MLMs too often also lose their self-esteem, their friends, and sometimes even their marriages. “There’s this enormous wake of failure and a sense of loss,” Fitzpatrick says. “They tell you it’s a wonderful program. Anybody can do it. If you don’t succeed, it’s your own fault. All of this is to cover over the deceptions.” IS my experience (except for the losing marriage part)!! :glare: I spent all those years working so hard to build this business that would allow us to be set financially with our 'Residual Income' from our downlines. And when it didn't happen----yes---I felt like an incompetent loser. And we were 'Network Marketers', NOT part of an MLM...:001_huh:

If you want to learn a quick difference in ingredient listings here are a few products you can look up to see what 100% natural looks like: Keys Soap, Dr. Bronners, Vermont Soap Company, Aubrey Organics. They have ingredient listings right on their sites. Natural makeup: Real Purity, 100% Pure, the Naturally Dahling website has an extensive listing too. For REALLY natural personal care products that are also Gluten free: Tropical Traditions!! And none of these companies make you buy something every month :D

:iagree: I did Melaleuca for years and had to learn the HARD way not to trust company information! The products are NOT safer, NOT cheaper and I NEVER made even close to the amount of $$ and time I put into my business. I bought all the training products, used ALL the products, went to Convention etc. etc. I worked it very hard, fully believing that I just had to implement the many talking points and techniques and I would have a Residual Income check just like the bigwig speakers. The biggest check I ever got was maybe $200, but I spent over $250 every month and people learned to avoid us because we were such nuts for Melaleuca and their 'better, cheaper' products......:glare: YOU must do independent research of ANY claims they make---from their products being natural and having no harmful ingredients to all their supplements being Gluten Free. And the reason MLMs are so popular for these companies is because you do a lot of work for FREE for them! Marketing, advertising etc. is on your dime while they make millions and millions. I was approached recently by someone after a Celiac Support Group metting about Arbonne and their 'Gluten Free' supplements. She was telling me how much she loved the products, how good she felt etc. She gave me a bunch of samples (which I know SHE bought herself) and a catalog. WOW!!!! VERY expensive. I was shocked actually at just how much it would cost for my family to use these vitamins and supplements. I have avoided her since :glare: It's not her fault----but I was appalled at the cost of Arbonne. Eating healthy and using my Vitamix more often is cheaper. AND I can get ALL of those fancy products in 100% natural form for cheaper too :001_huh: Sorry---I personally think all the MLM companies are the same: They know how to turn a massive profit for themselves by throwing a few $$bones to their 'marketing' team.

Since I have a 16yo son who wears 32" waist and 36" length (still needing a belt) I can totally sympathize!!! We have to get his pants online since the stores are filled simply with short and stout sizes :glare: Have you checked Sears? They were the ONLY store that had his size when he was a 28" waist and 32" length. It's frustrating, though, that boys clothes are sold by exact measurements and girls are those nebulous 'sizes' making it harder to decide if they will fit.

:iagree::iagree: