Traffic can be very heavy around New York City, due to sheer volume, but I find Boston traffic to be crazier. You say you have some medical issues. Given that, I am doubling down on advising that you stick with the plan to use your own car rather than public transportation for a brief trip.

With your time frame, I would totally drive in, park nearby, and use the time for sightseeing. Dh and I did a tour of the library last year. I enjoyed it, and was disappointed that the Rose Room was closed for renovations, but it is open now.

So I am looking at the drawing. Which area is the pantry outside the kitchen that you want to reach? The first thing that occurs to me is that the area around the microwave could be tweaked to include pantry cabinets instead of the full counter extending all around the room. The second thought is that the frig could move over near the microwave, if you want to turn that top wall into a pantry leading to the hall and utility area. It looks like all the natural light will come from other rooms. What does it open up to?

I had something similar happen many years back. It was dramatic, with blood, but the doctor I saw was pretty calm, and said that is typical with injuries to the front of the face. They said to rest, take tylenol, and ice the area. I hope you feel better soon.

Are there any colleges in your area? In our area, there are many college-based outreach programs designed for high school students, which are offered after school, on weekends, or over the summer. Most of the local museums and the zoo and aquarium also offer programs for high school students. Participation is a usually mix of public, private, and home school students.

No, I would not sign up for that, in the circumstances you describe. I would focus on finding other opportunities for your daughter: Academics that are a better fit, or some sort of work (paid or volunteer) that gets her out in the community.

I have helped 2 different kids learn math facts. With one of them, they had blank tables that they filled out (by skip counting) each Monday, and they highlighted patterns that popped out at them. They were then able to use the table they created during math that week. It didn't take them many weeks of that before most of the math facts were memorized. The other kid was several years older, and I was helping as a favor because they just couldn't remember them, and their teacher and parents were frustrated. With that kid, we focused on what I think the schools now call landmark numbers, because they shut down when they tried to memorize everything. Specifically, we broke it down and just memorized facts for doubling numbers, squaring numbers, and multiplying numbers by 10. From there, he worked out if he needed to add or subtract to get to the product he was looking for. It was enough to get him more comfortable, speed up his computation a bit, and then he gradually learned the rest on his own time.

:grouphug: :seeya:

Our homeschool was pretty arts-focused for ages 9-10, and dc is back at a public charter for middle school. They are applying to a performing arts high school, and another high school with an IB art program. If they don't get into either of those, I think we will be back to homeschooling for high school. We did academic subjects in the morning, and took advantage of after-school and weekend classes for various arts. Most weeks, that included 10-15 hours of dance classes, 5 hours of art classes (divided between lecture and studio courses at a museum, and classes with a working artist), and 1 hour of music lessons (for which they practiced at home about 3 times per week). I also designed our own course on the development of landscape architecture and the rise of public parks, plus a bit of intro to museum studies. While in public school, dc keeps up with dance, but we had to drop music and outside art classes during the year. Dc plans to do 2-3 weeks of art camp and 1-2 weeks of dance camp this summer. (edited to add: once homework is done, dc spends at least 15 hours a week drawing at home, either on paper or using a drawing program on the computer.) If we end up doing high school via homeschooling, we will be relying on a lot of outside classes again, and I expect the schedule to look mostly like it did at ages 9-10, but probably double the art classes. It will be trickier though, since dc will probably enroll in some cc classes for academic stuff. I think I will mostly be coordinating the schedule spreadsheet, but I expect that I would design a few more classes like before. I would also try to fit in more travel to places like NYC and DC once we exhaust local resources (of which we have many, thankfully). Editing to add: I forgot about theatre! That was one thing we specifically looked for in a middle school. Dc did the musical and then the Shakespeare group, and would like to continue with that. There are several local theatre programs they can do in high school if they don't get into the performing arts school. So the weekly schedule would probably be 7-10 hours of dance class, 7-10 hours of art class, and 3-4 hours of theatre group, plus a bit of drill time at home. Music probably stays dropped. Editing once more, to talk more about academics. Dc is extremely driven, and is an advanced/accelerated learner, and actually asked to homeschool in order to be able to move ahead more quickly in math/science/languages/writing/etc. The arts interest was already there, but not the reason to homeschool. Homeschooling allowed more time to pack it all in. If dc goes to the arts high school, they will need to rely on dual enrollment or get creative for math after 10th grade.

I generally don't use the various *g terms, but I do use the term "high IQ" with dc's school. I don't think trying to distinguish between levels of giftedness would be useful in that setting. If I have used the terms here, it was based on the Hoagies chart and WISC testing. Dc could be classified at different levels based on testing done at 2 different ages. At age 6, they were borderline eg/pg. During last year's test, dc got angry at a question and walked out. They eventually returned, and correctly completed the remaining questions on that subtest, but those answers were not scored since time was already over. The overall score was still borderline hg/eg. Probably more relevant was the self-esteem score that day: 1%ile, as in, not possible to score lower. So, more than focusing on classification categories, it was important to look at their individual situation.

My favorite burger toppings are: Blue cheese Lettuce Tomato Caramelized onions Avocado Bacon Mayo I sometimes (rarely) do more of a meatloaf burger: egg/bread crumb/pork/beef/minced veggies if I am making them. Dh just likes salt and pepper in the meat.

If you are relying on the books, and not the online classes, don't forget that you still have access to lots of free online videos on the aops website.

I voted for giving the stroller at the shower. Since I worry about things like this too, I thought that perhaps giving an expensive gift might be seen as "showing somebody else up," if there are people there who think that way. But, with the shower next week, if someone else was counting on getting them that big gift, it would have been purchased already. Mostly though, I think the parents-to-be will be thrilled. So, bring the stroller, and after the baby is born, you will have an opportunity to give them your little handmade gender-specific gift.

Ugh. Hope you feel better soon!

Dh enters some sort of time warp when it comes to cleaning up in the kitchen. What takes me 15-20 minutes takes him 1-2 hours, and he does an awful job.

I wouldn't go for that. I would feel too creeped out by having that many people "hanging out" in the house, especially if I did not know them, unless it was a bigger social occasion, and my dh was there too, along with others. Maybe the dad doesn't feel comfortable with his wife and child going to a stranger's house. I know one family where the dad is super protective of his daughter. She goes to public school, but other than that she is very restricted. He needs to approve everywhere else she goes. I set things up for our kids with the mom, but then the dad inserts himself at the last minute, dictating terms. One example, I wanted to take the kids (ages 10/11 at the time) to a movie, and at the last minute, he would only ok it if they went to the movie theater closest to their house, which is almost 10 miles from us. The thing is, I was getting the kids after school, on the other side of town, so in order to comply with his demand, I had to spend an extra 45 minutes driving at rush hour. Another time, the girls were supposed to sleep over with another friend, and the dad showed up at the house at 10pm and said he needed to bring his daughter home because the cat missed her. It is always something, but it is clearly about him.

I didn't vote, since I can't predict how someone else would do. I felt like sharing my own story though: I attended an experimental school for junior high, where students were allowed to set their own academic goals, and specific classes were optional. I spent almost all of 7th grade skipping math, choosing to read novels and do jigsaw puzzles instead of going to math. In the last few weeks of the school year, I did all of the math homework and got the highest score on the year end exam, much to the annoyance of the math teacher. Note that I had a strong grounding in basic math prior to attending the school, so a normal paced math class was boring to me. My motivation for doing the work at the end was that I needed the math credit to sign up for Pre-algebra the following year.

There is nothing like a history of ants, mice, and rats invading the kitchen to motivate me to stay tidy!

I worked as a "medical record analyst" for a while. More than half of the patients had a mental health diagnosis in their charts at some point.

You might find a support group helpful. This is a link to DBSA, the Depression & Bipolar Support Alliance. I linked to the page that talks about support for friends and family: http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=help_support_helpers

Not squeaky clean, but acceptable by my standards. That includes: Dishes etc in the dishwasher Hand-washed items washed, left to air dry Food put away in cabinets, closed bins, frig, etc. Counters and stovetop wiped down Empty the little sink strainer into the trash Take out the trash if needed Make sure kitchen trash lid is locked It is always a mess again when I walk in the next morning, since dh is a disaster.

That's one reason I still hang out here, even with dc back in public school. I can plan, but cannot predict, how things will be in a month.

I am sorry about your kitty. It is so hard when they reach that stage.

The only dates I eat are either in a date jam, or in my chicken and dates slow-cooked dinner.

I have always wanted a white kitchen, but my BIL, who is a general contractor, always says "Don't do it!" He says they start to look bad almost immediately. I was still determined to get them, because I love the look too. Then he gave us a full set of barely used honey maple cabinets, so I didn't get to buy white. I suspect that if the cabinet surface is very glossy, it will be easier to keep white, but haven't been able to test my theory. Edited for grammar