Trying to figure out the best way to get back in the game slowly and gently. I am itchy to not be sedentary but also still breathless with some other lingering symptoms. (Still masking and isolating for a few more days after the rebound illness of this past week.)

I do find it believable. She has had a love of photography for a long time and has released photos she took herself in the past. It’s plausible to me that she edited, that she overestimated her skill level, and that the people around her didn’t push back about the release.

As I mentioned up thread, I come to this issue with a specific perspective as a foster mom. Just as you have experience with kids and relatives with speech issues, I have experience with severely traumatized foster kids. When I heard the little-child voice from a severely traumatized teenager, the sound quality hit me forcefully. Another poster mentioned having this experience as well. In my observation, that specific vocal quality comes out more strongly at some times than at others. It's not just the isolated voice-it's also the eyes and the facial expression and the body language. It's as obvious as the permanent, cringing slump in the person's shoulders. The times that I have observed this in the voice, it was absolutely unmistakable and absolutely heartbreaking. I just bring it up again because this is a both-and situation. It's possible for people to have quirky voices or mannerisms as you say. It's possible for subcultures to teach expected behaviors just as Tia Levings says in the link earlier. It's also possible for trauma to impact the voice.

This is completely true. As a foster parent, I have experience with teenagers who speak with a childish or baby voice who have lived through severe trauma. It's totally different from teenagers trying to act cute.

I gave my kids an Acme Adulting Kit. Just a box filled with things they need as adults, most symbolic or silly. Voting registration instructions A fish scale so you can weigh the truth A compass and a Bible so you can always find your way You get the idea.

I’m praying, Katy. I hope you all feel much better quickly.

Psych It's hilarious and ridiculous but also fun to figure out the crimes. Not graphic. Our teens loved it.

The "child" is a legal adult. Scarlett doesn't need to ask mommy's permission to give a gift to a legal adult. If your first point is true, then not actively interceding is supporting the abuse and control.

I struggle with the constant stiff/sore feelings as well. For me the game changer was gyrotonics. There's an overlap in the ideas between the two. Just an alternate you might enjoy.

I figure it's impossible to control bugs or dirt much when camping. Of course we do our best with zipping the doors shut promptly or not having shoes in the tent, etc. I am obsessive about keeping covered with a sheet even when it's too hot for a blanket. The sheet is my shield against all the things.

Push back or it becomes part of the new corporate culture.

My rebound symptoms are slightly better than the initial covid symptoms, but not much. The difference is the body ache. Last week the first several days of covid were absolute misery--just not able to do much more than sleep a lot and ache with classic cold symptoms, fever, cough, etc. This resurgence doesn't have the ache or the brain fog, but my classic cold symptoms (blowing my nose thousands of times, etc.) are pretty brutal. I have struggled with low iron in the past, but that hasn't been an issue in my 50s. But perhaps I'll down some blackstrap molasses to help boost the system any way I can. Believe me, there's no exercise happening here. I just don't feel up to it.

Aw, I’m so sorry. You’ve really been through a lot with this. Praying this goes well for you.

Paxlovid rebound. Today is day 10. I was better but breathless and weak. Then last night and this morning a big surge in classic cold symptoms. By the time I am done with this I will have lost more than two weeks to active illness because someone felt Covid is not a big deal and all this Covid paranoia is so overblown. (Those are their exact words.)

It’s a good plan but she’s not likely to even give you time to speak. Consider a note?

I did that combination and it was effective. I started off with just B6 and it helped quite a bit. I resisted trying Unisom but my nausea was so constant and all-encompassing I finally did take some. I had to use a pill splitter because Unisom is so strong, so I took less than half a pill. The combination helped. The other thing that is really helpful is an electric wristband. I don't know what they're officially called. Back then (my youngest baby is almost 23 now), I had to have a prescription for this. The wristband delivers very low electricity--you feel it as a faint buzz and it clears the nausea fog beautifully.

I took a slow walk down the lane. Breathless and tired. I hate this.

A dear friend and her dh lived in a van for a couple years and really loved it. She’s always been a neatnik and very minimalist so they did quite well. They loved the travel and the vanlife community. They didn’t like the Walmart parking lots as much. When the pandemic shut down a lot of the fun travel stuff they didn’t like the tiny van nearly so much—it felt like a lot of work and inconvenience without the reward. Another person who is dear to me tried living in an RV and hated it. She just couldn’t adjust to its being small and it felt temporary to her. When she started babysitting her grandson it felt way too small. She’s currently trying to rent it out through AirBnb.

Your 17yo might really have the right instinct. At his age, it's important to validate his control of his shaping-into-adulthood world, kwim? Perhaps encourage him to try both worlds--high school activities and grown-up activities. Can your 17yo take classes at a community college? Many upper classmen in high school do. My own dd really loved doing so. If there is a university nearby, he may be able to get involved with some campus activities. For example, a friend's son joined a campus Bible study group. He was not a student at the university, but this was not an official university club, so it was no big deal at all for him to be involved. He enjoyed the friends he met there. My other thought is to facilitate his connections in your previous home as much as humanly possible. It's a step I took to some extent with my daughter and wish I had done to a much greater degree than I did. For example, I did take my kids back to our previous home fairly frequently. However, if I had to do it again, I would likely have sent her back there to stay with friends for longer stretches on her own, not necessarily just when I or the family could all go.

I'm not much of a gardener myself, so I cannot comment on plants. I will say, though, that I wonder if you should consider a French drain?

Yes, I have seen this rampant, everywhere. People don't test anymore and any illness is assumed to be something else. It defies all logic and common sense.

If you have a firm job offer, take the job. Having a good job affects not just income now but income over the long term. You have to think in terms of decades and how your investment in career now affects you down the road. If you don't have a firm job offer, then do your best to nail one in place wherever possible, even if that means your dh has to live in that other state during the week and commute back home. That's a short-term investment that will hopefully yield the job without disrupting the whole family for something that's not yet a sure thing. For teens-- We moved when dd was 16yo and ds was 12yo. It was really, really hard on our 16yo. I will say, though, that she did make friends. Both of them did. They did end up with a good life after the move, more so our son than our daughter. In retrospect, I might have been more willing to travel back to our original home state more frequently for her sake. I also remember a high school friend whose family moved when she was going into her senior year of high school. Her parents rented a room for her with family friends so that she could finish her senior year with her friends. It was the right call to make.

@Laura Corin I am sorry for your continued pain. I pray that MRI comes through quickly. You’re doing so well to keep carefully moving while also taking the steps to get this figured out.

I do really appreciate your explaining their reasoning. (And I appreciate your validation.)

I have been in an utter daze of disbelief over this. I've been sick with covid all week. Really, hideously ill. I spent days rotating between bed and the chair next to the bed (though I did also enjoy two stints outside on the back deck wrapped in blankets). I do weight training and other exercise all the time. There is a pretty wooded lane outside my house--normally I whip off four times down and back without much thought. Yesterday and today I slow-walked down the lane ONCE and was winded and exhausted and took a nap. I am more myself today but weak as a baby and still have symptoms (sore throat and ears and lots of rhinitis). I cannot understand at all why the guidance has changed. The infectiousness and duration of illness have NOT changed, right? And isn't the CDC supposed to set guidance based on SCIENCE? Since when do scientists decide best practices based on what people feel like doing?!?!? I'm ranting, but I'm also seriously asking--is there something I am missing? Why on earth does this change make sense? Can someone play devil's advocate here and help me understand?