No, because my children are older and even though my state is having a higher rate of cases this year (the health dept calls it an epidemic, but I think they're a little hyped up, personally), we haven't heard of any cases in our circle of friends. We do what we can to stay healthy: eat good, fresh, whole foods, get lots of fresh air, exercise and sleep. We wash our hands often and I've taught my kids to back away from someone who is coughing without covering. I know the early symptoms of the various illnesses, such as pertussis and measles, that we are technically more vulnerable to developing. For example, because the rate of infection is higher than usual for our state, I was watching closely when several of us had colds about a week ago...thankfully we all recovered very quickly. But I was ready to make a trip to the doctor if we had any sign that the cold was more than a cold.

Ours is 23%, but we are a big family with a small-ish income. I could probably trim it down a bit, but we like to eat healthy, fresh food, and that costs more. :shrug:

This: 4. If it weren't for help from dh and dc, our house would be a pit. I am finally, thankfully, to the stage where my oldest dc do their chores with a level of competence that is helpful in a meaningful way. I haven't washed dishes in months, except if someone is sick or gone. :) But I still loath housework. Like many others, it's the way it is so temporary...and I feel the same way about cooking. I spend 40 minutes or more preparing a meal that is eaten is less than 15 minutes. :(. I've tried many times to make housework my worship, to look on it as a sacrifice joyfully given, to count the ways I am thankful that I have a house to work in...but deep down, my attitude is still stuck in a pit of poutiness that if any of my dc showed, they'd be sorry, lol. Training my dc to do their chores well has helped. Decluttering and organizing have helped. Sucking it up and just getting it done helps a teeny bit. :) We used to have someone come clean every 2 weeks, but we can't afford it anymore. :( We gave up our cleaning lady for music lessons.

If the baby was still very much a newborn...i.e. still in the sleep, eat, sleep, eat stage and was breastfeed, and I felt that going to the wedding was important...i.e. family or very close friends, I would take the baby, carrying it in a sling (so no big baby carseat carrier thing) and sit in the back so I could slip out if needed. I view babies under about 12 weeks as an extension of myself...where I go, so goes the baby. In fact, when our youngest was just 4 weeks old, we took him to my dh's company holiday party. We did mention to his boss before hand that bringing the baby was the only way we'd be able to attend. The baby was a huge hit and I could barely get my hands on him all night...except when he was hungry, lol. Anyway, that's what I would do. :)

My oldest dd (almost 13) is very musical. She plays both the piano and the flute very well. She is also very artistic and her plans for her future go back and forth between being in an orchestra or a photographer or a fiction writer. :) She is not interested in math/science AT ALL. So, while she will of course, keep studying math and science, they are not our focus. To answer your questions: 1. She has a gift/talent/passion for music...all our dc who are older than 6 take piano and the other older dc take a second instrument as well, but only oldest dd practices daily without being reminded and will often play for hours "just for fun". 2. It's been about 2 years (since she was about 10) since we noticed her talent and drive for music and photography. 3. We are starting to think about how her academics are going to look as we move into high school (she'll be in 8th grade this fall). This is one of the big reasons we homeschool...that we can make high school very custom tailored to each child and their interests and talents. She will still do the basics for high school, but just what she would need to get into a good music program at college. Probably not calculus or physics, :). We are still trying to figure out the details. 4. Money: yes, we spend more on her than the other dc...in fact, she is currently at a 2 week long orchestra day camp which costs about $500. We bought a upgraded flute ($800) this past year. If she continues with piano, she will outgrow our teacher this year and need to move onto the program run by our local piano "guru" that is twice as much per month for lessons. We are, to be blunt, a low-income level family, but we get help for some things from grandparents and just skimp in other areas to pay for music lessons for everyone. 5. We think music is more important than vacations, expensive cars, electronic gadgets, etc. :) We don't play organized sports, we buy most of our clothing at goodwill, we live in a small house, drive older cars, etc. No college funds, teeny tiny retirement fund. This is the life we want: me at home, homeschooling, emphasis on music and academics. HTH! I got interrupted about 10 times, so I hope what I said makes sense. :)

As the mom of a curvy 12 yo dd :) I'd echo the advice to pick simple shoes and jewelry and hairstyle. :)

I voted "wife" because I do the day to day stuff, plus the taxes. But really, I'm the bookkeeper and dh is the CFO. He is the one who makes the money and has the 51% vote to my 49%...but we are almost always on the same page anyway. :) But not always. For example, we are moving to a new house and need a fridge. I was thinking to get a used one from craigslist because it would cost less (this is for a garage fridge) and I wanted to buy some other stuff for the house (pricey curtains for the living room). Dh said no, he would rather we buy a inexpensive but still brand new fridge and get less expensive curtains. It's not often we disagree like this, but I've found that dh is almost always right in the long run, so now I'm looking for cheaper curtains. :)

I was an exchange student to Sweden (through the same group ASSE mentioned above). It was a wonderful experience. I did "lose" a year of school here...I didn't know the language at all and my first term marks were dismal. I contacted my guidance counselor and he agreed to let me be AWL (absent with leave, lol) for the year and when I got back, we only counted credits in classes that I did well in, so my gpa wasn't totally screwed up. I went when I was 17. It was a life-changing year and I've never regretted delaying graduation a year to go. I learned a new language, a new culture, traveled in Europe and made friends I'm still in touch with over 20 years later. As far as what level she goes into over there, it would be up to the school. I took some general placement type tests and actually ended up with my age group, even though schools in Sweden are generally considered to be ahead of US schools...I guess my honors classes here paid off. :) Bigger questions for me, as a mom, would be does she know any French? and is she emotionally mature enough to be away from every familiar thing for an entire year?

I shower whenever I can, depending on what else is going on. And I only shower every other day...so I guess I'm washing off two days, lol.

Homeschooling is very common here, and there are sooo many groups and co-ops, you'll have plenty of choices. And people are very warm and welcoming. The Seattle Freeze idiocy is about dating, like others said. You'll make friends right away, I'm sure. Check out the The Seattle Children's Theatre for your dd. :)

According to my mother, I was being conceived. ;) My dad traveled for work in those days and the weekend of the moon landing was the only time he was home that month. I was born the following April.

I can count on two hands the number of books I've read aloud to a child who can already read...even with pre-readers, I rarely read aloud. And guess what? My 4 oldest dc are all voracious readers...I have to sometimes pry them out of books to do chores, schoolwork, sleep, etc. :) So I in no way feel like I've broken some homeschool commandment "thou shalt read aloud each day" with my dc. Not every thing works for every family. YMMV :) We do listen to audio books once in a while, especially in the evenings.

OP, if your dh got a job at the airport, I would look for housing along the new commuter train line. I'm not super familiar with it, because I live across the Sound, but I do know that one of the lines goes to the airport. Otherwise, traffic here is a nightmare and the areas around the airport are not the most desirable parts of town. West Seattle is lovely, but mostly smaller houses on tiny lots and very expensive because of the lovely views. FTR, we live an hour away from dh's job, just to have a home in a quiet and affordable area. We live in Kitsap County, dh works in Kent and he has a 50 min drive (w/o traffic because he starts super early) and has to cross a toll bridge, too. If he comes home during traffic, it's about 75 minutes.

By law, you do have to do something annually: either test or assessment. But you don't have to turn in the results to anyone. Some of my friends have gone to testing every other year :wink wink:.

I said generally once a day. The main LR/DR area gets vacuumed once a day, unless the dc have popcorn for snack, then it gets done again. The kitchen gets swept twice, usually, but it is the entrance point for our house, so stuff gets tracked in constantly. And my pet peeve for house cleaning is the floors...I can handle a certain amount of clutter, if the floors are clean. :)

None of mine actually nap anymore, but nap time was always done by 3pm. We like to eat dinner around 6 and then bedtime starts at 7 or 7:30 for those who still nap...so if they slept past 3, then it would mess up the rest of the day. If they didn't get up and have a snack around 3, then they weren't hungry at dinner. If they slept past 3, then they wouldn't be tired enough for bedtime.

I'd get it checked. It's probably nothing...but...a friend of a friend of mine just passed away from cancer that was found very late in the game only because of a lump next to her spine. Please understand, I'm not trying to frighten you, but the peace of mind of knowing it's just fat or whatever and not cancer is worth a trip to the doctor, imo.

My dd started last summer, right around her 12th bday. She asked, I bought her a razor and explained the mechanics of it and she was good to go. I did suggest that below the knee was enough and that during the winter, it wouldn't be worth the bother. She did her underarms once, but didn't like the itchy-ness as it was growing back and since we don't allow our dd to wear tank tops or sleeveless tops, no-one notices that she doesn't shave there.

:)

Well, I'm 42 as of last week and I'm expecting a baby in November. I had my first when I was 30. Dh and I will welcome any child we are blessed with and I'm praying this little bean makes it. I've had 3 miscarriages since our youngest was born, but the first two were most likely related to a huge uterine fibroid I had removed last year. I then had another miscarriage...age related? Who knows...the exact same week I miscarried last fall, a young friend (mid-20's) miscarried, too. The way I look at it is that the risk of miscarriage is worth the potential value of a baby-in-arms at the end. I also post frequently on a forum for big families, with plenty of moms who have/are having babies in their 40's, so I don't feel alone. :) In fact, if I am able to carry to term this time, dh and I will very hopeful to have one last baby in a year or two.

My 8 yo goes to bed at 8:30, but reads for awhile. How long depends on how much he likes the book he's reading. :) But all my dc, even the almost 13 yo, are in bed by 9 pm. I'm an introvert, and I need a couple of hours at the end of the day to recharge and regroup. Dh goes to bed super early because he gets up at 3 am for work. So once the dc are in bed, the house is quiet and I can do my thing. We all get up between 7 and 8 am.

laundry basket

I would definitely switch. Everything you mentioned seemed like a big positive. Are there any downsides to switching?

I buy roaster, salted name brand almonds at walmart for approx. $7/lb. I tried the WM brand for less, but didn't like the taste.

We started avoiding artificial food dyes on a hunch they were causing the extreme behaviors of our youngest dd. I won't go into details, just trust me, it was frustrating for all of us. Anyway, we went cold-turkey, the whole family and what an amazing change. Within a few days, I had a whole new dd. Even my other children, but especially our oldest son, also had better behavior: calmer, more patient, sleeping better. There are food colors in more things than you think. Yogurt, cake mixes, even stuff from the bakery. Why does strawberry jam need red 40? Read labels carefully. We had eliminated most processed food already, but got rid of the last few things. It is easy to find non-artificial color stuff in the natural food section of our grocery or on Amazon. Candy is the hardest, my dc eat a lot of chocolate, rather than things like skittles, m&m's, suckers, gum, etc. But again, we do find things like this online. It has been totally worth it and I think it's really a simple thing to try to see if your dc are affected. You'll probably see a change within a few days.