Ok, I’m almost 39 weeks pregnant and I’m not a very happy camper. My kids are sick so they’re spending a lot of time watching movies and napping. I haven’t been feeling great and my blood pressure is starting to rise so I’ve been told to stay inside and off my feet and hydrate. Help distract me! I’m bored and sitting here wondering when I’m going to go in to labor is making me nuts. I have zero patience! So, any fun books I could download to my kindle? Any great websites or blogs to dive into? Any fun new show on amazon prime or Netflix? Or maybe a new movie? A YouTube channel? Or maybe shiny new curriculum that I should check out? I need some ideas to pass the time while I sit here on my exercise ball eating pineapple.

I think that’s the hotel near Hamilton Town Center which is a cute outdoor mall with lots of restaurants.

Take d-mannose pills. Those are high powered cranberry pills. They do help with a UTI. And drink tons of water But I would still get checked out if it’s not better soon. I’m getting over one myself and those pills really helped.

It sounds like you’ll be right by me! I live north of Indy. Where will you stay in Noblesville?

Yes. I’m so thankful he listens to me even if the pregnant brain makes me a little over the top emotional. The kids were helping paint and got paint on my shorts (one of only a few pairs that still fit) and he knew I was going to cry. He started yelling over to me, “I’ll run and get you a few more pairs of shorts!” Sweet guy! He knows that I’m so done with this pregnancy and that even the maternity stuff is not comfortable anymore. So the few things that fit without bothering me are important!

Well, hubby was supposed to have help for the deck but it’s not working out as expected. So he decided that he would do the lower deck by himself. It will take longer and I hate that it’s so much work for him, but I’ll know it was done well. I’m so glad he listened to me and got it all figured out. We’ve already outlined a plan for the lower deck and he’s started tearing out old boards. The kids have helped him paint so hopefully it won’t take too much longer. But I’d rather him work slowly and us be happy with the result. So I’ll live with the mess for a while longer. At least it’s outdoors and the inside of the house is not a mess. And in the meantime two other kids have gone down with whatever virus the other two had. Ugh! This is terrible timing!

Some suits are cut really high. I don’t get it. Our team suit is high cut and is also very skimpy across the back with thin straps (and very little support). I refuse to buy the team suit. Thankfully the coach is fine with whatever my kids wear as long as they wear the team cap. We have a small team and it’s more laid back than other larger club teams. I have found a kneeskin suit to be our best option. And certain brands of suit (such as dolfin) seem to have suits with a more modest cut. We’ve been sticking with those and haven’t had an issue. Before we do removal (because ouch!!!) I was going to start with trimming. I was hoping that would be enough when the time comes. The suits bother me too. Some of the boys wear speedos but most wear jammers (which look like bicycle shorts). It bugs me that they have more modest options than the girls. That’s why we bought a kneeskin suit because it is shorts on the bottom and a more supportive top with better coverage.

This site lists a lot of fun places and has a calendar of events. https://indywithkids.com/ You’ve been given a lot of great suggestions. The zoo is nice and the museums in the downtown area are too. The Children’s Museum is our favorite. They just opened a new outdoor sports complex and my kids really enjoy that. Conner Prairie is a bit north but it’s worth the drive. We love going there. There’s also an Amish community called Shipshewana. I haven’t been there but our friends enjoyed touring it. https://visitshipshewana.org/ There are a lot of things to do here that don’t involve the speedway. We’re not racing fans so I avoid all things related to the speedway. Lol!

Here’s the deck now (with another coat of paint going on soon). And ignore the weird glare as I took the pic through the glass door. Also, the right side did not have the slats in this picture so I’m aware it isn’t finished. But I’m happy with the progress. The bottom half of the deck is next! It has a completely different set-up as there is seating around two sides of it. But I’m excited to see how it turns out.

I’m listening in as we’re right there as well. My dd’s suits aren’t high cut enough that we’ve had a problem but I know well soon need to figure this out as well. My dd has started wearing a kneeskin at the meets. She feels more comfortable in those anyway.

Didn’t Notgrass just come out with American history for younger ones? It looked colorful. I’ve been using America’s Story from Master Books this year. But there are 3 of them. We can get through 2 books a year.

Time and cost isn’t a huge factor. I’d rather it be done right and I’d rather it feel safe. And yes, I agree. The wide open space is too wide and tempting. I have a small dog and a toddler. It just makes me nervous. And I feel the 3 rails looks unfinished or something. It just doesn’t look right.

So our deck is being redone. It will have white railings and a stained floor. I was anticipating there to be 4 horizontal railings on all sides. There are currently 3. I don’t think this is safe and secure enough with small children and a large two story deck. I want the rails to be like the ones in the first picture (but white obviously). The second picture shows the current railings. What do you think? Update: Thanks for all the thoughts. I shared my concerns with my hubby and we discussed vertical railings. He agreed with me that it would be best. So he stayed home from work and now I have vertical slats on my deck. It looks amazing. I’ve had two sick kids and I’m 38 weeks pregnant and I’ve felt overwhelmed with the deck stuff. So I’m thankful that my hubby took care of it all. I truly feel like I can’t even think about it anymore or make any rational decisions. I guess being 9 months pregnant is really mesding with me (not to mention the heat!) Now the lower deck is being redone. So glad there is progress and it won’t be much longer until I have a new deck

Yes. This is not just communions or even having a meal together. This is junk food served every Sunday. And these churches are from a couple different denominations that we visited. The church we attend now does not usually serve food in the children’s Sunday school and doesn’t usually give out candy. So I do appreciate that I don’t have to deal with that. But it frustrates me because I do try to teach healthy eating to my kids and the church undermines that in a huge way. (Which is not to say my kids don’t get dessert at times or get candy on occasion, it’s just that I try to model healthy snacks and healthy eating with moderation on the sweet stuff). I’m seeing it at so many churches that it made me wonder why it’s a part of church culture at some churches. And when it began. When did church become synonymous with donuts? We wont be participating in VBS because it’s right around my due date and we’ll have family in town and I can’t handle more chaos. But I guess maybe I should send my kids with their own snack all the time. Or maybe let everyone know that my kids don’t need a snack for the one hour that they’ll be attending an event. I’m not sure.

I don’t know if this has been discussed before but I wondered what everyone thought about the amount of junk food in churches today. We moved to a new state a few years ago and got to play musical churches as we visited half the churches in the area. I was so annoyed at the amount of junk food at every church we visited. My kids were given a handful of candy for getting the right answer in Sunday school or for being able to recite a verse. Donuts or danishes were everywhere and all the adult classes were filled with unhealthy food. In one church they served cupcakes and cookies to the kids during Sunday school - this was weekly and not on special occasions. Now I got the list of requested VBS snacks at the church we now attend (which has less food than most). It’s chocolate ding dongs and m&ms and sherbet cups and gummy worms. There’s not a single healthy snack on the list. I’m just floored. I guess I’m hyper sensitive to it because my kids have food allergies and can’t have that stuff anyway so it makes me doubly frustrated to have to navigate unsafe and unhealthy food at every turn. I don’t understand why junk food is so ingrained in churches. It seems like other community events have an awareness of health and allergies and often serve healthier snacks. Have you found this in your area? Has anyone ever successfully talked with staff about the issue? It just seems like the church is promoting gluttony and unhealthy living and I feel it’s not biblical. I have not found a single church that did not serve quite a bit of very unhealthy sweets on a weekly basis. I’m just feeling discouraged by this mindset and wondering if there’s anything I can do to help make a change.

Me too. My kids love putting Ouchie on their mosquito bites. It really does help with the itch. And I like having some for me when I have a headache. Lavender and peppermint are really soothing.

Amen! Gross! ?

I was going to use the Master Books curriculum that you mentioned. But this book list looked interesting to add: https://www.homeschoolingdownunder.com/homeschooling-book-list-index/british-empire-books/ were doing the American history this year so I haven’t started planning our British history year.

I don’t feel that the humidity is very bad here. But I moved from the Houston area where the air is like soup from the humidity. So I actually think it’s nice here! The COL is low and there’s very little traffic compared to what I experienced in TX. I love the 4 seasons!

I vote dark blue as well. Our door was dark blue and it looked great with our exterior. And nope, there’s no blue inside my house - it’s all greens and browns and earth tones. Still the door was pretty and no one cared that the interior had no blue. Now my door is charcoal gray because our house was just repainted a blue/green aqua color. Our neighborhood is known for brightly colored houses. It’s so fun! But definitely paint that door! It needs a new color. We used a Sherwin Williams exterior paint. It should last a long time.

What are you doing to refresh and recharge this summer? Do you have any plans for self education? How will you be motivated and inspired for a new homeschool year? Books, workshops, podcasts, audiobooks.....

Yes. There are several other places to order high quality oils and you don't need to be a member. I order from Rocky Mountain Oils and have been happy with the quality. Others have listed several good oil companies as well. And I say this as someone who signed up years ago because I do love to diffuse oils...but I did regret it. Lol!

Can you make a little NICU care package for mom? Water bottles healthy snacks chapstick magazines or short encouraging books My son was in the NICU very briefly and I was always starving and needing healthy things to eat while I sat with him.

I throw it in with the soup. But I often cook a large amount of chicken in the crockpot and dice it and freeze it so I have cooked chicken to put in soups.

My 4th trader is using book 1 this summer to make sure he’s solid in basic arithmetic. https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/040619 My daughter used Book 2 last year after 5th grade to make sure she was comfortable with fractions, decimals, and percents. This summer she’s using the prealgebra book since she’ll be doing prealgebra this fall. Those are the 3 I’ve used so far. They have simple and straightforward instructions and then problem sets. The problem sets are not terribly difficult but they did help my children feel more confident with the various concepts and they were able to tackle more challenging problems when we reached them in our math books because they were confident with the basics.