My niece is blind and has a guide dog. Her dog is SO well trained you would know he was working even if you didn't know my niece is blind. Her dog is trained to focus on only my niece and things in the immediate environment that would affect her. You could wave a juicy steak in front of her dog and he would have zero reaction. He is trained to curl up at her feet when she is sitting so as not to take up any extra room. When he is in harness he would never sniff another person, pay attention to a cat crossing in front of him, jump up, or bark. He will blatently ignore when people interact with him. He actually is trained to go to the bathroom on command based on when my niece can get him outside during her school day. He is absolutely amazing. I know not all service dogs are this well trained, but even my cousin's dog (service dog for severe epilepsy) is trained well enough to focus solely on my cousin while working in public. The dogs that are jumping, barking, or easily distracted make me wonder if they are legit service dogs. I LOVE dogs. Love them. I would have a house full if my husband didn't put the brakes on at two. As much as I adore my dogs, there are very few places I take them. There is something slightly disconcerting to see a purse dog in the baby seat of a grocery cart strolling through produce. And fascinating little bit of trivia I learned when my niece got her guide dog - there is only one place where a guide dog is legally NOT allowed to go...and that is an operating room. When she had surgery, her dog went as far as the operating room door and rejoined her in the recovery room. And he cried in the waiting room with my sister the whole time she was in surgery. :laugh:

Geraldine Lorraine Viola I know a young Shiphrah, but it strikes me as what I lovingly call "a nursing home name". LOVE Theodosia, but I imagine it will become popular because of the musical Hamilton.

They are THE WORST. I've had 3 hip surgeries in the last 22 months and been on crutches for much of that time. It isn't so much the not using the leg, it's having NO HANDS! Gah!!!! If anyone is going to be on crutches long term, invest in some like this. If I would have had to use the typical crutches all this time I think I would have cried daily. I also highly recommend an apron with pockets. ;) Hang in there! Hope this is a very temporary issue and you heal up quickly!

YES. We have been through that repeatedly with one particular grandparent... SO FRUSTRATING! It gets easier now that the kids are older, but I'm still slightly bitter.

This is ME! I have recently turned into "an angry rage monster" per my husband. I've had trouble with cramps, etc. before but the last few months it is mostly emotional. (And by "emotional" I mean "eat my own young"...) I do documentaries with the boys and assign stuff they don't need me for. I have learned to do whatever I can to get through it without making life miserable for everyone else. And I pray for menopause.

Sending prayers. :grouphug:

I think I need to add some "stuff" to DS13's school day. Here is what he does so far... Bible - devotions and a Bible reading plan with journaling Math - Math Mammoth History - We are studying the World Wars, this semester is WW I. I'm using "The World Wars" for a spine along with films, documentaries, and a chunk of note booking and project resources from TpT. Science - Focus On Astronomy LA - Writers in Residence and Basic Not Boring Grammar Handwriting - Classically Cursive Literature - books relating to our World Wars study. Just finished War Horse with a study guide. He does each of these every day, except Bible and handwriting which we alternate. I'm wondering if I should add "stuff" because he plows through what he needs to get done and it takes him maybe two hours. He does the work well enough - not wholehearted, but he is understanding it and completing it all pretty well. We definitely need to find something with more "meat" for astronomy. Focus On is fine, but just not challenging enough. I either need to supplement or I need to just bite the bullet and buy a whole new science curriculum. Right now he reads and answers questions each day and we've added documentaries here and there, but it doesn't feel like much. I am going to pick back up with The Art of Argument with him. I feel like I need to do more. I know he is learning, but he isn't going deeply into any of the subjects except maybe math (which he loves and does really well with). I wouldn't call him an enthusiastic learner, but he sees what needs done each day and he does it all well enough, and he is a fast worker. He plays basketball, volunteers in children's ministry at church, does youth group, cooks his Raddish each month, has a group of friends he hangs out with often. He is busy with other things. But school only taking a portion of the morning just feels...wrong. Should I add more "stuff"? What "stuff" might you add?

We have floated around with myyoungest DS when it comes to writing. He's done IEW, Apologia's Jump In, and this year he is working through Apologia's Writers In Residence. I have to say he is making the most progress with the WIR this year. Not sure exactly what has made it the most successful fit for him, but he plugs along without too much complaining (and that's a nice change!).

We have 3 kids - 19, 15, and 13. I was 29 and 31 when I had our two youngest, and we adopted our oldest when I was 38. In theory I would be the old lady who lived in the shoe. I would have a gazillion kids (and probably twice as many dogs). DH was D-O-N-E after our second baby was born which shocked me. It took several years for me to get over not having any more babies, but a few years later we ended up on the same page about older child adoption and grew our family that way. At 44 I have to say that as much as I would LOVE a baby, I think pregnancy and sleep deprivation would overwhelm me at this point. I know lots of other ladies my age who could do it with grace and energy, but sadly I am not that girl. Right now I can say we are done having children. We have a child who will never live totally independently and that is the major deciding factor.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately as well. In theory, I will be done homeschooling in 4 years if we HS our youngest all the way through. We will have college to pay for and DH and I agree that I will go back to work in some fashion when homeschooling ends - probably only part time though. Prior to children I worked in children's ministry, and while I loved it at the time, it isn't what I see myself returning to. I often think I'd like to work as a cashier at our local Publix or retail at a local department store part time. But then another part of me stares longingly at the community college right across the road and dreams of getting a degree in history and teaching part time at a homeschool co-op. In my wildest dreams I launch these kids then publish books of encouragement for young moms and turn that into a traveling speaking gig. Or I become a part time equipment manager for the NHL team I love. :lol:

We have done holidays on our own for years due to distance. It was a huge adjustment for me who grew up with tons of extended family around the holidays, but I have to tell you we really enjoy our quiet family holidays now. For Thanksgiving the kids help me make food and for Christmas we stay in our pajamas all day long and relax. It's kind of fun to come up with you family's very own unique traditions! My FIL has been able to join us for the last few years for Christmas. He is super easy to have around, and having him here makes it extra special for my kids.

Please don't quote because I may delete. Just need a cyber hug. DS15 attends a tutorial on Wednesdays for two classes. The tutorial is in an office building where they rent a wing of rooms for classes. I got an unexpected phone call from DS this afternoon saying that they were locked in their classrooms on the floor and there was someone in the building with a rifle. He said someone had already called 911, but I told him I would call them also. He asked me to please come down there and get him. I called 911 and rushed out of the house, with DS on the phone with me. He did a good job of staying calm and quiet, and by the time I got there, the police had been in and cleared the building...and it was an employee of another business who walked in with a crossbow. :confused1: They cancelled classes for the rest of the day and students were released early to their parents. I'm so grateful for the teachers who kept the kids safe and calm, the 911 operator who asked great questions and passed instructions to me for the kids, and the police who made sure there was no threat. My DS is still a little shaken. I think I am, too.

We have that service in our area at most of our grocery stores. I am not elderly, disabled, and I only have three kids, but I use it exclusively. It has changed my life. I detest grocery shopping. I would rather scrub toilets with my own toothbrush than grocery shop. It takes up too much time, too much energy, but is an eveil necessity. Now...it's not. I go online, make my grocery list, tell them when I'd like to pick it up, and I even pay online. I can tell them what items I will accept substitutions for or not. Bam. Grocery shopping done. I pull up to the store and some of the most cheerful wonderful people in the world load my groceries into my trunk and let me know if there were any problems. I have often told the employees that if the zombie apocolype happens, I will pick them up before my own husband and kids because I am so indebted to them. The only "issues" we've ever had was a substitution once in a very great while. And when they have needed to substitute, they also give us a larger size for the cheaper size price. (Well, and there was that one time I accidently clicked on the 5 pound vat of sour cream instead of the 16 ounce container...my bad. We had baked potatoes for WEEKS.). :laugh:

Oh. My. Gosh. :crying: I'd spend the afternoon listing my house for sale and buying another one. Hope your day gets better!!! :grouphug:

I just have to say that this puppy is so stinking cute it makes my ovaries ache. :001_tt1: We have two rescue dogs and that apparently is my husband's dog limit. (I would probably have an entire pack or two of dogs without my husband's input. Bless him.). He ended up agreeing to us helping with a rescue though, and we had one sweet three legged puppy for a week or so and then a litter of 4 puppies - I think they were 10 weeks old or so and Great Pyr/border collie mixes. Oh. My. Gosh. Beyond adorable and fun...but SO. MUCH. ENERGY. There were up and ready to go at 5:00 AM and cleaning up after four active puppies was a full time job (fortunately I had three kids to help!). Total heathens. We went through lots of puppy pads and chew toys while they were here. Unfortunately one of our dogs is terrified of other dogs and between that and some surgeries, a move, and my husband's dislike of chaos, we haven't fostered more. We are hoping to become involved in this rescue soon. (PSA...if you have Facebook, you really need to follow OFSDS! It will bring 247% more joy to your day!). As my husband says, we aren't puppy people so we will probably get involved in senior dog rescue.

The above is a preference. It isn't true across the board. I think that being chilly, uncomfortable, restricted in movement, and certainly being on display is how one person might feel in a short dress. I have a drop dead gorgeous petite 19 year old daughter who bought a short dress for a wedding recently, and she felt plenty warm, comfortable, able to dance (after eating a big wedding meal and cake), and nothing was displayed that was inappropriate. It WAS short, but it was not immodest. The girls I know who are wearing shorter dresses are comfortable in them because that has been the fashion for awhile and at their special events this is what they have worn and what others are wearing. ETA: My DD was not advertising anything. She was not inviting anything. She was not trying to send subtle or not subtle messages to any males who were in attendance. She was at a wedding looking pretty in a dress that may be shorter than one other people might not be comfortable in. ETA2: Because I cannot type!

We've had a slew of homecoming pictures on social media here as well, and most of the young ladies are wearing short dresses. They are VERY short dresses, some with lower necklines as well. I'll be honest, I just thought the girls looked formal and attractive. Did I notice how short the skirts were? Yes. But...I know many of these girls. I know their conservative mothers very well. I know several of them well enough to know that they are committed to purity until marriage. Nothing about how they are dressing makes me question that. This is the fashion right now. They are not advertising themselves as "low hanging fruit" intentionally, and honestly I think the idea that they are doing it unintentionally is a bit ridiculous. I also know several of the young men escorting these ladies, and while I can imagine they are chock full of typical teenage hormones, I also know that they are respectful and honorable and do not in any way take the length of a hemline as some sign or free pass or invitation for anything. I think a lot of the confusion is that some assumption that a short hemline or a low neckline confounds normal thinking and turns a rational (even hormonal) teenage boy or young man into someone ready to assault or harrass. As stated above, the issue with someone who harasses/assaults has nothing to do with clothing. Can't remember where I first saw this - quite possibly on this board! - but I thought it was a good visual challenge to the "she sent me a mixed message with her clothing" line of thinking. http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/stevens/ct-life-stevens-thursday-ku-what-were-you-wearing-0914-story.html ETA: Ah....never mind. I was being redundant saying the same thing over and over again. :laugh:

Our DS15 recently got his driver's permit as have several of his friends. The other day, I asked another mother if she could give my DS a ride to practice. DS told me today that his friend (with his driver's permit) drove them to practice. The mom rode along, of course. Practice is about 30 minutes away and they took a major four lane highway to get there. According to my son, the mom was yelling and correcting his friend and "freaking out" when they were on the highway. (Keep in mind, that is a 15 year old describing the situation.) This friend has had his permit for a few months. I know he has done a decent amount of driving, and he is a good kid who would take the responsibility seriously. But I was kind of surprised the mom would have her son drive with my son in the car and not ask me. I'm not angry or anything. It just struck me...odd. I won't let my son drive to practices when we are taking other teen friends along. Am I being weird? (A distinct possibility...)

...for a one-on-one language course? My sister is considering taking over German 2 for me. (She has Masters in German and taught at the college level.). Would involve coming up with weekly assignments and 1-2 hours of live Skyping a week. What would you pay for that if it weren't a family member? And what would you pay if it WERE? TIA.

I sang for the King of Sweden when I was little in a small children's chorus at our church. My favorite famous person I've met ever is Henry Winkler. He is one of the sweetest people I've ever met, and ladies - he smelled DIVINE. Heaven smells like The Fonz. I'm sure of it. My love of musicals has led me to meet several famous musical theater folks which has rendered me nearly verklempt. (I'm totally normal, but there are a few that bring out the total awkward in me...) I am a sports fan, so probably my favorite meet was several of the Nashville Predators. Super gracious and kind. Rode an elevator with Coach Popovich once. He was not super chatty, but he was on his way to coach a game, so I imagine he had other things on his mind besides chatting up some lady in an elevator. You'd think living in middle TN I would bump into all kinds of country music stars, but so far I've only run into Marty Stewart.

Practices in October are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. In November we go to practices or games every night but Wednesdays (when we have church). :crying:

I get that I should be able to figure this out...but I haven't yet. We homeschool our two boys (ages 15 and 13) while our DD (19) attends public school. The boys play basketball with a club team, and the season is starting up. The team has changed practice times and locations from last year, so we have a whole new ball of wax to work around and heck if I can figure out how to make this work. School for DD ends at 3:15. DS15 has practice from 4:00-6:00. DS13 has practice from 6:00-8:00. Practice is about 30-40 minutes from our house on a good traffic day. On Tuesdays DD has bowling from 6:30-8:15. Tuesdays are our "eat out" day now. On the other days - when the heck do we eat dinner???? I thought about doing dinner at lunch time with the boys. So say, make a meatloaf and eat that around noon and then they can do a protein snack during the other's practice for "dinner". Then DD and DH could reheat dinner at dinner time at home. The problem with this is 1. I will be using school time to make dinner. 2. One boy isn't super thrilled about eating a dinner sized meal at lunchtime. 3. Hard to get a crock pot meal done by noon. 4. DH seems to think this is a bad idea (but not sure why). Of course, we could do a late dinner when we get home from practice. DH is willing to do the cooking on days I take boys to practice. Problem with this is 1. We don't get home from practice until 8:45. So we've been eating dinner around 9:00 some nights. We have been doing a healthy eating plan recently and part of that is not eating after 8 PM. 2. DS13 gets heartburn when he eats that close to bedtime. Not pretty. 3. After practice both boys are hungry, but neither one wants to eat a bigger meal. I've thought about doing a super early dinner with the boys, but it would need to be before 2:45 (when we leave to get DD and with enough time for DS13 to digest before practice), but then what time do we do lunch??? I swear, I am a functioning adult. But for the life of me I can't figure out how to feed these folks the easiest and best way. Should we just scrap the idea of dinner? WWYD?

I have run into this in our homeschooling corner of the world as well, Rainbowmama. Just this week I had the "so and so doesn't have to do school work" conversation with my DS15, and I have to really think before I speak so I don't come off sounding snarky about someone else's homeschool plan. And it really isn't that I think I know what other families should be doing, but I feel like I have to be fairly defensive when my 15 year old criticizes the education plan I'm pouring myself into. :closedeyes: Thanks for this thread and the replies. It has been super helpful for me!

Homeschooling a sophomore and 7th grader. HITS: DS15's Geometry tutorial. We outsourced Algebra last year, and the teacher had some personal things going on so it was a little haphazard and unorganized. New teacher this year and DS is LOVING geometry. Mama is LOVING not teaching geometry. TeachersPayTeachers. DS13 wanted to study the World Wars this year for history and instead of re-creating the wheel I found TONS of AMAZING resources there. Also used TPT for German and literature. Math Mammoth for DS13. Apologia Writer's in Residence. DS13 is not a big fan of writing, but we have found Apologia writing to be great for him. Great break down of skills in manageable sizes with enough practice putting them all together. I ordered personalized planners from a vendor at our homeschool convention, and they have been AMAZING. I think I've done a better job utilizing them by planning 6 weeks at a time, and the boys like seeing specifically what they need to get done. There is something (for me and them!) about using a sturdy, personalized, organized planner! MISSES: German. I agree with a PP - why is it so difficult to find good German resources? I studied German in high school and took 4 semesters in college as well, but I want (and still need!) a good German text/spine. We won't discuss just how many resources I've ordered from Amazon :huh: ... this one is the best so far for review, but now I'm mostly relying on my sister (masters in Germanic Literature and Languages) to guide us. She has mentioned teaching German online for homeschoolers - anyone be interested? She was stingy sharing clothes when we were growing up, but she is a fabulous, fun teacher! Focus On Middle School Astronomy. It is designed for 5-8 grades, but is not very challenging. I will be looking to add some other astronomy resource next semester. Any astronomy suggestions (besides Apologia)? ON THE FENCE: Oak Meadow US History. I like pulling in different resources for DS15 to read, but we haven't fallen into a good routine with this. Love the curriculum. Just haven't found our groove yet.

Glad you went to the ER. They can quickly rule out brain bleed. I will say that in general ER doctors may not be up on the most recent concussion protocols, so be sure to follow up with your pediatrician ASAP. My DS and I both had concussions and went to ER for scans, but we received the older directions to wake during the night, etc. We both saw our regular Drs the next day and were given the more current instructions - sleep and brain rest and hydrate. Praying you get clear scans and your daughter heals up quickly!