I took the photo on our farm during a storm.

Gosh, I'm so sorry for you! It sounds dreadful. I have a busy life, but yours sounds beyond that. I'm sure it can't keep up for an extended period of time without going crazy. If your husband doesn't want the children to drop activities, you need to put your foot down and get a cleaning service or something, or get him to do a certain percentage of the ferrying around. I'm sure if you can afford so many activities for the children, some of it can be spent on you! Also, when you said your older children don't help, I think that this may show that you need to be stronger about advocating for yourself. You MUST delegate responsibility to those that are able to help. It's in their best interests as well as yours. Good training for them, and it's amazing how when you stop allowing yourself to be used up in this manner, everyone picks up their game, too! It's within your power to do it, trust me! :) Also, a :grouphug: for you, as I'm sure you need it!

Definitely not soft, nor yet as crisp as some I've seen. I'd probably say heavy and firm. Just feels like old fashioned quality! I think I feel the same as you about the high thread count sheets! I like your wording! :)

Not sure if you can get them in the US, but I LOVE Actil First Line sheets. They are hotel quality, all cotton. I love how thick they are. I just got 2 pairs on a very good special last week, a king and queen set for $139 together.

As Rosie said, a light mattress covered with a canvas zip-up top (like a little tent/bed all in one) that young people especially use for camping out.

Please Enter And Concurrently Exit MPACAS

Well, not ultra poor, but our clothes were always hand-me-downs from other church families. I think my first new item of clothing was a sweater at age 16. That cost about $10, and it was my birthday present! My mum cooked from scratch, and we bought bulk items cheaply. My husband was raised with more, but still not wealthy. My parents now are quite wealthy, as they made a lot on the stock market after all their kids left home. They spend a reasonable amount on their grandkids which is nice. My husband's parents on the other hand, are having to go on the pension, and have little apart from their home and a little bit put aside.

I don't have a mum or mil Like that and that's why I determined to be a mum that my kids love being with. It's working so far and they are early twenties and late teens. All their friends and boyfriends also seem to love to hang out with me too which is really nice!

Wow, she must look amazing IRL! She looks SO young!! Like mid 20's or something!

This scam has been going around for at least five years in Australia. I know at least five people that have been sucked in by it. Most were older but one lady was barely sixty, which I don't class as old these days!! This particular lady was told that now that she had received the advice it would cost her a certain amount. She was annoyed but since it wasn't too much she agreed to pay it and gave her credit card details. After she hung up the phone she realized that it might have not been legit so she called the bank to put a stop on her card. They'd already withdrawn $900 if I remember correctly. The next day the same people called back and said that they needed her bank details again as they realized they took too much and needed to refund her!! Thankfully she didn't fall for it that time. She was kicking herself so hard for being sucked in by it.

I feel that my degrees of introversion goes in waves. I think life has a rhythm in many ways and this is just one of them. I'm not so sure that someone can change from introversion to extroversion or vice versa, but the degree of either is constantly changing. I can say that I'm much more confident now that I'm older, and certain situations don't cause me the stress they used to, but I'm still introverted, and being around a lot of people drains me rather than invigorates me, as it does my extroverted daughter.

Maybe not in your part of Australia, but we have plenty of potlucks here in country West Aust...always with church folk though. If it's outside our church group, it's usually just a BBQ.

Yes, and was doing so while in labor with my first baby. She was three days early and my husband and I decided to go out wood cutting. He saws and I split. Contractions started before we left but I thought they were Braxton Hicks. After a few hours they were about five mins apart but relatively painless. I'd just stop and lean on the axe during the contraction. When we got home I had a shower and went to my Dr who sent me straight to the hospital and baby was born 4hrs later!! Nowadays I'm so shocked that I was even able for that kind of thing!

Regarding the 'out there' aspect of EFT...it's not really when you understand a little of how it works. While I don't pretend to completely understand it, I've had it explained to me by my very practical, normal, Christian, male, 65-ish year old therapist, and it made a great deal of sense. I'll try to explain it the way I've learned to think of it.....a warning, though - I can get very longwinded!! To start at the cause of emotional disturbance... Basically, when a trauma (which can be something as simple as being told you can't have an icecream when you were a kid) happens, you have an emotional feeling about it (in the case of the icecream - anger, sadness, grief..whatever). Because you feel (or are told) that your emotional feelings are not appropriate to express, you box them up, and put them away in the dark recesses of your mind (or body - this is where the tight muscles can manifest). When another such incident, or even something that reminds you of the old incident, you again feel that you should not express the emotion, so you put another wrapping around the box that contains the emotion and put it away again. This also reinforces to the body/mind that it's right to keep that emotion hidden because it would cause hurt to bring it out. Safer to keep it hidden. You will get hurt if you bring it out. You don't want to get hurt, do you? Of course many traumas (mild or worse) happen in the course of someone's lifetime, and there will be different emotional responses surrounding them. If the person doesn't accept the emotion and express it at the time, it will become one of those hidden packages. Some people become conditioned (whether because of external pressure or internal) over time to hardly express many emotions at all, or only the ones they feel are acceptable. Of course all this is below our conscious ability to make these decisions. It happens on a subconscious level. So then the tension in your body (unknown to you, usually) because of these hidden packages of denied emotions unbalances the body and/or mind. This imbalance can manifest itself in many different ways, anxiety or depression in one person, stiff neck in another, whole body aches in another, terrible headaches, even illness like cancer. Also sometimes because the emotions are so deeply hidden and wrapped in many layers of protective wrapping, you may even feel you don't have that emotion. When I first went to EFT, my therapist asked if I had much anger. I (quite proudly) said, no, I don't. Many people comment that I am so placid. I rarely feel angry at my kids, or my husband. I might feel hurt, or even annoyed, but anger - no. Then I remembered and said, The only time I'm angry is in my dreams! I wake myself and my husband yelling and even punching, and have extreme anger. Even as I said it, and the therapist confirmed it that I most likely have a HUGE amount of anger hidden since a young child (due to ongoing abuse) and have hidden it so well I forgot I even had any anger, but the subconscious knows, and has to let the relief valve off every so often, and knows its safe to do so in dreams only. Now to get to the EFT part of it.....our subconscious mind/emotions are not easily accessible to us. It's like there's an 'almost' impenetrable layer between our conscious and subconscious minds. And that layer has certain filters from conditioned thinking. This means that we can only reach so far with counselling, CBT, positive thinking and the many other means that we can use to try to relieve emotional repression/oppression/depression on a conscious level. We've probably all tried to talk ourselves into feeling good about ourselves or whatever, and consciously we might, but our subconscious already feels bad about ourselves and can't accept that thought you are thinking, so while your conscious mind believes it, the subconscious still thinks you're bad and no-good, and sabotages any attempt to allow that positive thought to change negative patterns. Mantras are probably a little different if you can get into a meditative state, and your subconscious mind hears and accepts the positive thoughts you are repeating. So the points we tap on during EFT are like a little chinks in that energetic armour - (this is my own way of thinking of this, based on how my therapist explained), places that by tapping on them, allow us to override or get through the conditioned thought processes and gain access to the hidden thoughts/emotions. While tapping on these points you are saying/repeating the thoughts that you have (and these will often pop into your mind of their own accord while tapping, and you can often really feel a resonating agreement with them in a physical way. You might start tapping on how sad you felt when your husband talked to you in a certain way, but as you tap, you realize you actually feel mad, then FURIOUS, etc. When you say the right word your body kind of relaxes, as if feeling...YES, you finally get it! It makes you feel FURIOUS, not mildly sad! FINALLY!! Now I can relax and not get to work stashing the feeling away somewhere! Sometimes it takes a lot of tapping on certain issues to remove them layer by layer. You'll know when you've removed it finally because the memory of the incident will be there, but the emotion surrounding it will be gone. You'll remember in a matter of fact way, but not feel the least bit stirred up by it. From learning the importance of expressing our emotions rather than repressing them, I'm MUCH better at doing that. My husband and kids were at first a little shocked as I used to be such a mild person! If my husband bothers me, I fire right up, get mad, and get over it. If I'm hurt, I cry and say how hurt I am, and then we're all good again! I'm so much stronger because of it, and getting healthier in my mind and body. Hope this hasn't been too convoluted to understand, or contradicts other more learned opinions on how EFT works, but it's my understanding of it, anyway. :)

I couldn't see them either, but I know they're cute coz I've seen previous pictures. I'm sure they're even cuter now! I can't wait for grandbabies!! So sweet that you feel they make your life complete. You're a lucky lady, and your children and grandchildren are lucky to have you dote on them, too! :)

I apologize that the word 'rules' has rubbed some people the wrong way, or confused others. I put the quotation marks around the phrase to imply that it wasn't a set of hard and fast RULES that one must not stray from or else divorce is imminent! :) I also wouldn't advocate a great list of do's and don'ts that are surely going to change as time goes on...nor a layout of the way your lives together would go, come hell or high water! That's not even reasonable, and most people, even at a tender age realize that life has a disturbing ability to throw plans to the winds. I guess looking back on my own life I can see that it would have been far better if, before I was married, I had the foresight or understanding to voice some basic expectations. Basically I suppose I wish I was a stronger person, and respected myself more. The dominating traits that came out in my dh may have been lessened if I was specific about how I expected to be treated. I'm really glad that my daughters are starting off strong women...mostly because of how they've seen my marriage has been, and they don't want that for themselves. I have no doubt they'll be telling potential partners....if you ever do/say/act/make me feel like...a certain way, I will not be standing for it. And I think that is healthy for them. If they came from a long line of strong women who knew what they wanted I would say the 'rules' or expectations would hardly be necessary.

My 17yo daughter was saying if she got married she would be sure to set some 'ground rules' before marriage regarding expectations of each other. I think that she has come to this conclusion as a result of seeing my marriage and struggles. I wouldn't have even thought to do this before marriage. I had a fairytale view of how my marriage would be, after being brought up in a somewhat dysfunctional family. I thought things would just all fall into place. The reality has been reasonably far from that, and looking back, I think it would have been easier if I was mature enough to have formed some realistic expectations and had the confidence to voice them. So, did you and your spouse set any 'ground rules', or lay out expectations of the other? Do you think it's helped things to be easier that if you didn't?

I guess it might be true, but that video shown on the article was from the announcement of their last pregnancy that was Jubilee (i think?) who died in-utero.

I'm on my phone and I hate using it so I'll post a little more when I'm home in a few days, but short answer is no, you don't need to know the root cause. Basically you are working on emotions, and you can start tapping without even being aware of the emotion. It seems to make itself evident as you go along. For instance,you may think you were sad or disappointed about something but the real hidden and therefore more problematic emotion may be anger. Will post some more on Friday.

Yes, I imagine it would be. This is the one I use... http://www.continental.com.au/product/detail/253963/chicken-noodle

Every time I make my Pumpkin Soup recipe, my girls tell me it's the BEST in the world!! Here is the recipe if you want to try it....bear in mind I'm in Australia, so I hope all the ingredient names make sense to you, or are available to you. It makes a very big pot, which keeps in the fridge, and does a few meals over about 4 days. It doesn't freeze well, though, as the noodles go watery. I've bolded the ingredients. Curried Pumpkin Noodle Soup. 3 medium size butternut pumpkins (not sure if you call them squash?) Approx 5 medium size sweet potato (or about 1kg) 4 large onions Peel veges and chop roughly in large or small chunks (doesn't affect cooking time much). Place in large pot, and add water enough to barely cover the top of the veges. Bring to boil and cook for about 30-40 mins, until veges are soft. Meanwhile in a smaller pot, put about 1litre of water, with 5 sachets of dry chicken noodle soup mix, and a heaping Tablespoon of curry powder. Bring to boil, turn down heat and cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 mins. Turn off heat and let it sit. Using stick mixer or blender (stick mixer is much easier), puree the boiled veges. After pureed, add the chicken noodle soup/curry mix, as well as a 600ml container of cream. Mix together (not with stick mixer this time :-) until blended. Serve with crusty buttered bread.

I would text and explain that your neighbour told you that he (LL) had come up the other day when you were at the park. Apologize for not being there, but say that it might be better for him to call ahead because you have a few things on, but can be home if he gives you notice the day before. That buys you some time to get LL ready, too! :)

I agree that he perhaps would do better with a few more hours sleep, although that's not going to mean he'll no longer be weepy. If he was my child I would probably take him to a NAET practioner or Theta practioner, but I don't know how alternative minded you are. We've had great results with Theta for my daughter (19yo) who would freak out and get stressed about paying a bill. Both of them basically get to the emotional root of the problem and clear or change underlying false beliefs that cause the behaviour. For instance, to put it in a simple way, he may have at some very early stage felt stressed about something challenging, cried and felt better afterwards. Perhaps then a belief was set up in his mind that challenging things are stressful and the best solution is to cry. It's a false belief, as crying is not the best solution as we get older. The belief, whatever it is, can be uncovered and changed or cleared, and then he is able to more rationally think about a new and better way to deal with challenges. PM me if you're interested and have any questions. :)

Actually, not to be argumentative, but onset of menstruation is more linked to the appearance of p*bic hair than br*ast buds. Periods usually begin around 1.5-2yrs after body hair appears....regardless of how small or large br**sts are. In the case of the OP's DD, at about age 10.5 - 11.

I agree that you should, even for your own peace of mind, get the opinion of another doctor, and a few more diagnostic test. My cousin was told that she was not to worry, and far too young for any concern, and by the time she DID worry it was too late. Of course, I'm not saying this to scare you...there are many breast lumps that are not a problem, but just that it's foolish for any Dr to say that you're too young to have to worry about it. Hugs to you... :grouphug: