Are you taking care of yourself? How is your vitamin d? He has a medical disability or needs to hire help with his business? Some men are terribly oblivious and need to be told straight we are awesome but have limits. You might need to be realistic about this. They could be so valuable you flex the academics. Most people I know with many kids do some streamlining. Some of what you’ve described is organization and you need to allow YOURSELF the grace to grow and learn and mess up. You may need to grow at pushing back against unrealistic expectations from yourself or others. Do you say NO to yourself or others? How do you decide those limits? I would check your d and take some walks in the fresh air. I would pick two things to say no to and see if it eases things a bit. My motto these days is question the accepted. I just find it so easy to go along and accept burdens of how things are, even simple things, and I have to stop and say what if it didn’t have to be tgat way? How could it be? So what if your dh hired someone? What if you added a 2nd dishwasher? What if you took a midwinter break from schooling? What if you did a semester of audiobooks and journaling with tech? What if you dropped all extracurrics for a semester? What if you spent the whole summer doing one or two subjects you feel you neglect and called it writing camp or art camp or whatever? Give yourself permission to do something nonpermanent but radical. Answer permanent (or harder to change) questions in April /May when the sun comes back and life is better.

My dd, who loved history and was an avid reader, LOVED the BJU7 World Studies. Yes do it with the videos if you can. She watched maybe ¼ of it with a visiting missionary friend and we went back and ordered it to finish .

Wws1 does what you said you wanted so that will be fine. If it irks you there’s a brief workbook Paragraph Writing Made Easy you could do first. Yes you should skip levels in grammar.

Size matters. If you’re going with a very LARGE board you need thick not to warp . Medium wood like a 10” square at 1” thick won’t warp and isn’t so heavy. That’s probably Boos also. I’ve never had bamboos warp but mine are all medium and small. im seeing the silicone for under $30 on amazon btw.

Bamboo—everyday things, I have several medium and a couple small, always my top choice large wood Boos block-when I need LARGE silicone-when I want to chop and pour onions , grate carrots, etc. it’s maybe ¼” thick and bends ikea cheap thin plastic boards- grating things I want to pour Raw meat I usually do on bamboo because of the tight grain and good washing. My thick silicone can go in the dishwasher so sometimes I use that, especially with say frozen bacon where I don’t want my knife slipping. The research seems to bop back and forth for raw meat boards lol. if I only were going to have ONE, probably the thick silicone so it can go in the dishwasher. Easy on the knives, easy to wash, heat resistant, a winner. I have that and my bamboo out everyday.

Yeah look up quercitin if he tolerates methyl’s. Might be enough for him to tolerate some d even.

On the reflux is it possible his stomach is pushing up or he gained some weight? There’s a way to lower the stomach (Google, very gentle, not surgery , you lie down and super gently push). How is his digestion? My doc warned me turmeric is hard on the kidneys do like you say it’s not a blank check with no issues. Poor boy gets it coming and going!

When you say he’s mixed on COMT and MTHFR, is he homozygous for the MTHFR ? Or maybe heterozygous but hitting more SNPs? Your connector there with d and 5HTP is both drop methyl’s. So if you want to get up the d and he doesn’t tolerate dropping methyl’s you add methyl’s . If indeed he tolerates methyl’s then you might look at quercitin. Will help the allergies and is a methyl donor . He might also do well on Sam-e but be careful as that’s a really high methyl donor. Sam-e is mood not allergies. low methyl’s and high histamine correlate so figuring out if that’s the problem would be helpful. Did you say he tolerated a methyl b vitamin well? btw you’d have to be wicked careful trying San-e or 5HTP etc on top of an SSRI because you can end up with serotonin syndrome. Probably wouldn’t do that. It’s more just an observation about alternates maybe. and that’s just the most simple connection on d and 5HTP, the methyl’s. After tgat it’s complicated stuff. Like my ds is heterozygous for a snp and when I tried the supplement for it things went out of balance and he was scary. The low methyl’s symptoms are usually fatigue , brain fog, malaise, not so much elevation and irritability. People are complex, whew!

The big leap is when you call the pain of sensory fibro and open those treatment options. Does he take 5HTP? There are some studies on it helping fibro mildly and it might fit well with his COMT. Are his d levels good? I agree you need doc help but it’s like you have to figure out what you need to get it. Labs might turn up actionable things.

Exactly with the COMT defect he may become more elevated, irritable, manic, on high methyl meds or foods. Probably not a workable everyday plan. alfalfa would be for allergies. it’s just something to try but it works well for people in my circles. the on would be c and methyl’s so again bad plan with COMT issues. Have you looked into turmeric? Has data an antihistamine effect. I use triple strength from vitamin shoppe . you’re lucky he’s tolerating the SSRI . LDN is a methyl donor too so you may need to add niacin to tolerate it. Just see what happens but I’m mixed for methylation and need niacin to tolerate LDN . Maybe keep it really really low. It’s AMAZING but it may take some finessing like that.

Also the half life can be short like hydroxyzine. Benadryl use is connected to Alzheimer’s so great for brief not ideal for constant. Natures Way Alfa-max is one I’ve used. I don’t need it all the time now with bedroom hygiene, turmeric etc but could be worth trying. He may taste the green ness through the capsule if he’s very sensitive so maybe take it with the orange juice alfalfa can affect clotting but other than that pretty chill.

If he drinks orange juice how does he feel? If he gets more irritable or headachy then assume COMT and don’t do that. But if he tolerates it it would get up c and methyl’s which may help. And these things that help 20-30% will add up. So like for me vitamin c plus turmeric plus obsessively clean bedroom, each piece adding up, none too hard. I don’t know why we don’t talk SSRI and LDN for sensory more. You can treat the pain of sensory overwhelm like fibromyalgia

Alfalfa juice concentrate might work with less side effects . It can be hard to find but it’s sold in capsules. Not just the grass but the concentrate Turmeric also has a mild antihistamine effect. It’s enough to keep me off inhalers most of the time.

Benadryl, hydroxyzine etc are methyl donors do be careful. What are yo in connecting with histamine and sensory? Of you’re just saying the symptoms overwhelming him? The sedation may be worse. Have you tried vitamin c? Removing particularly high histamine foods like pork? Removing environmental or major food triggers? Is his MTHFR treated? I don’t totally understand it bug MTHFR and high histamine can go together. Have you considered an SSRI or LDN to make his sensory experience more manageable ? Interoception work to help him identify and self advocate?

Yup that’s where we’re at. We’ve been using hookless curtains that are so easy and have snap off panels to wash. They have modesty panels and ventilation . I think the design is coming together and I appreciate all the feedback!

I think that’s how it may end up. With the ability for three to function tolerably at once.

Its a good question. I think for this situation the one room is better at this point. But its good thinking!

How important is shower privacy to you in that set up? We’re debating whether we go walls and curtain (privacy) or glass. The builder wants glass but it’s so not practical for this. Too much cleaning. Is glass counterproductive anyway? I think the builder is in master vs shared family bath mindset.

That would be me. 😂 Just don’t know if I want to go to three mercy.

Ok this is exactly the feedback I needed . I’m going to ply my brain on the double sinks and the adequate counter space. I think for this setting open shelving for personal clutter will be adequate vs medicine cabinet. Yeah not going accessible for this. If people do not think a commode room without a sink is gross, then a double sink and regaining the floor space from the commode room would be better. I just thought maybe a commode room with no sink was gross. Never had one honestly .

I think you’re onto something there which is why I was questioning my original thought. To brush using the sink in the commode room they need their stuff and there’s definitely not room for that. Well it would need a full cab and space and would be clunky.

You’re right that brushing your teeth in a commode room is gross. The double sinks would be better for that . Reality is toothbrushing occurs more than once a month gross hands. Just weighing it in my mind

Oh my you are SO right. So then IF there were still room for double sinks outside the commode room would you vote that too or prefer counter space ?

Well I thought I meant either way. Two sinks total. I hadn’t really pondered three sinks. So if it’s two sinks total where are you?

People who are happy live longer. (I’m making that up 😂)