It's a good thing I live next to a public library with free wireless, because as of Wednesday morning I have no phone, cable TV or internet access except for my cell and the wireless from the public library. The city was working on the utilities and cut through the cable line. The cable company says they can't repair it without replacing ALL our cable lines, as we have older lines from when the house was built 40 years ago. They won't replace those without me paying upfront - to the tune of $200. Which I don't have right now :glare: We JUST managed to get the amount needed to keep our house off the foreclosure sale list on the 3rd. Would it be totally wrong of me to send the city the bill and ask to be reimbursed? After all - they dug without having the cable lines marked.

fwiw, the $10 fee is a suggestion. I pay $1 a year, which is the lowest. I'd pay more if I could, but the funds just aren't there.

We have a Wildflower bingo that is fun - I'm not sure where to buy it new though as I got it used.

We plan on it, but using BSA badge requirements to complete GS badges :D ANd I second the Lone Scout program - FYI they have it for Girl Scouts too - it's normally called either Independently registered Girl Scout or a Juliette depending on your council.

We are a fully no-vax family. For us it was a combination of things - I had a severe reaction to the DPT as a child. I found out as an adult that most likely it was from one of many "hot lots" going around in the 1980's. My family also has a family history of not doing well after shots, and I was already questioning when I got pregnant with dd. I was 90% sure when she was born, and then the hospital bullied me into giving her the HepB at 3 days old. Within a few hours she went from being a quiet calm baby to screaming bloody murder most of the day from colitis. You could visibly see her little tummy contract the cramps were so strong. Turned out she is allergic to oats {even through mamamilk} - and the HepB contains yeast grown on - you guess it - oats. Her colitis didn't improve until she was nearly 4. I'll never know for certain that the vaccine caused her stomach issues, but the fact that she hadn't had anything else but my milk and hadn't reacted prior to that makes me mighty suspicious that the vaccine did in fact cause it. I can say that hanging out at the mothering forums gave me a lot of info too.

This. I mastered the art of nursing while eating with one hand when dd was little :D She didn't have more than tastes of solid foods until she was nearly 2 because of food allergies and her refusing them.

Nope. Tell her it could be worse - dd will be studying Arabic and Spanish in 4th!

We really like the Science and Living in God's World series - they are reprints of textbooks from the early 1950's. They read like a storybook an are so gentle but really teach a lot.

No idea, but my dd does the exact same thing. She is PAINFULLY shy and has ASD.

I'm curious - what parts of the US have these mythical charter schools that give funds for materials? I've never seen any around here, and I'm jealous :glare: :D

Hmm...I don't think we've ever had her night vision checked. I do know that she is EXTREMELY light sensitive - we took her for an eye exam at about a year old and the Doctor was worried as her eyes were so light sensitive. She is supposed to wear sunglasses all the time when out in the sun, but trying to get her to do so is an exercise in futility. ETA: What dose of melatonin would you recommend? I am not at all familiar with it, but at this point I'm willing to try almost anything. We've been using benedryl but it has lost effectiveness for a sleep aid {but it does improve her allergies}.

We've tried for over 2 years to change her sleep schedule and it hasn't worked yet. She comes by being a night owl honestly - we all are. I'd be thrilled with her heading to be around midnight when the rest of us do :D The ONLY way I've even been able to get her to sleep earlier than that is to give her a full day of something new and mentally stimulating {like going to a children's museum, science fair, field trip, etc}, and it's just not practical to do that on a daily basis. FWIW she has suspected ASD as well.

Answers in Bold I haven't tried the Hylands. We used to use a stuff called Humphrey's teething liquid when she was a baby / toddler and it worked WONDERS on her when she was over stimulated or tired to help her calm down and get her to sleep. But I haven't been able to find it in a long time. It would work, except that once I'm asleep I'm out for several hours if not the entire night. Since I have to be up at certain times for medications it's just not an option.

I do the sausage with a microwave, but normally I eat breakfast around 9-10 am. But Ramadan is coming in a month which is why I need breakfast ideas. I'll be eating around 5am and I don't want to wake the family if possible. My mom sleeps in the living room {she has to sleep in a recliner} so anything in the kitchen is out - I would wake her. She already has trouble sleeping so I don't want to wake her. It needs to be able to hold from around 11pm until around 5am. I might have a small lunch bag with a cold pack, but that's it. It needs to be very nutritious and enough to hold me until about 8pm at night. Bonus if it is high water content as well. I might be able to use my little bullet blender to make protein shakes, but I'm not sure if it's too noisy or not.

Bump - anyone?

DD hasn't been sleeping well in her room, and it's affecting the rest of the family. She naturally is a night owl, staying up until 4-5 am and then sleeping until noon-1pm or later, and while I'd love to change that I can deal with it. However she has started a thing of she won't sleep in her room - she says it is scary. This started about the time we deep cleaned her room so there is a lot more space in there now and the floor is now bare fwiw. She is fine if I let her fall asleep elsewhere and then move her to her bed, but she wants to fall asleep either on me or grandma which doesn't work well for either of us. Any ideas? Mama needs her sleep too!

We do, but it doesn't have everything KWIM? It tends to be mostly religious based programs which isn't us. I rarely buy anything there because 1. I can find it cheaper used online, and 2. very little fits our family views. However they have an EXCELLENT used book room with rock bottom prices :D and a far better selection. I go there at least once a month.

We looked into this a little when the possibility of getting my niece and nephew came up. If it's not through foster care, they may still qualify for help. I know here at least there is a special TANF program for relatives caring for children to keep them out of the system. They may qualify for medicaid for the children in question or possibly the entire family. Some states consider the kids from these cases to be a case of their own so they then qualify for TANF, Food Stamps, WIC, Medicaid, etc.

My weekend was pretty good - did a little grocery shopping, a little cleaning and got some extra rest. I'm about to go cook something for dinner and have a bowl of ice cream for dessert. We didn't celebrate Father's Day as there is no one here to celebrate it with. My father passed away in August, and dd's biological father isn't in the picture at all. I never was into super heroes - I preferred Little House.

No idea, as I never learned. I can say though that if your child persists in not being able to swallow a pill, it can be a sign of an internal goiter.

:grouphug: It's my first Father's day without my dad too.

:iagree: Personally the way I look at it is, if they were good enough to produce some of the great scientists and mathematicians of today, surely they are good enough for kids now. I can see not using vintage for high school level or college, but for elementary it is much more important that they understand the general concept and develop a love of science than knowing all the small details. In the last 50 years the number of students per pursuing higher science has declined greatly, and I have to wonder if some of these newer, drier fact filled textbooks aren't to blame. ETA: And wouldn't the textbooks used in 1st and 2nd be outdated materials by the time a student graduates from high school 12 years later anyways?

If you have a Bass Pro Shops near you, they are offering Fishing and Rifle Shooting Merit Badge Workshops as a part of their Summer Camp series.

I don't mind excersizing, but it doesn't like me :D I have an unknown auto-immune condition that affects my tendons and joints, and even a short walk can be enough to put me in bed for several days recovering. If I have to walk any distance I use my power wheelchair if possible. I was doing Curves which I liked and wasn't too bad on my joints, but I had to stop as we couldn't afford the membership.

I use a lot of vintage science books in the early years - I find them to be better written than much of the modern ones IMO.