When I get together with my mom friends we often stay out late. Sometimes at a restaurant, and sometimes at one of our houses. We're quiet though. No disturbing the neighbors or the sleeping kids. :) Even though I'm old I'm still a night owl. :lol:

For a long time I thought that Kevin Bacon and Kiefer Sutherland were the same person. Actually I’m pretty terrible with actors in general. My dh has an encyclopedic knowledge of movies and actors and can’t handle my incompetence in this area. :p

Finding things that are exactly at eye-level as soon as one opens the cupboard, refrigerator, etc. Somehow nobody else in our house is capable of doing this. :huh:

I’m overweight! Woohoo! :D Down a bit more than 12 pounds in four weeks. I think my losses will probably slow down now, but I’n pretty happy with how it’s going.

In our area there are not enough professionals to deal with the number of kids who are on (or suspected of being on) the spectrum. There are wait lists for diagnoses, wait lists for therapies, and kids who need meds get a consult with a child psychiatrist and then are bumped back to their pediatrician or family doc for monitoring. I know from talking with other moms that there are a lot of primary care docs who feel unequipped to deal with complex kids, but who are having to pick up the slack while families wait for months for an appointment with a specialist. I sometimes hear people complain that primary care doctors are too quick to prescribe psychoactive meds for kids, but that has not been my experience, or the experience of the moms who I know. My ds was officially diagnosed with autism after a 60 minute appt., but that was after various evals and screenings with speech therapists and school and private psychologists. The diagnosing psychiatrist put together all of the pieces for the "permanent record." On the other hand, I talked with a mom who has a kiddo in the same social skills group as ds, and her child has been receiving therapies for five years without a firm diagnosis. I also know moms who do not want a diagnosis for their kids, and who receive services with a diagnosis of "anxiety disorder nos" or something else that is less stigmatizing than an autism diagnosis.

Despite the pint of froyo I ate Thursday night, I was down .8. :) Thrilled with that, tbh.

You could try Raku firing in a firepit in the backyard, if you’re feeling brave. :)

I like freestyle. Other versions of the program didn't do it for me, but I feel like this one is doable for the long term. I lost 8 lbs in the first two weeks, and am looking at probably holding steady this week--retaining water and cough *froyo* cough. The free foods steer me toward healthy basic meals, and the points allow for special meals and treats. I can eat when I am hungry, and I'm not getting the shaky hangry feeling I got on prior versions of ww--free protein must be making the difference.

:) In Sweden, it seemed that the secret ingredient to make anything "American" was corn. American pizza? Cover it with corn! American pasta? Cover it with corn! American sandwich? Throw some corn in it! We were a bit puzzled, but, hey, it's corn, so it was all good.

My kiddo who has dyscalculia enjoys Beast. We work a level or two down, we pick and choose which problems to do, and we do a bit of review every day so that he doesn’t lose skills. I don’t expect him to retain everything in BA, but the deep and thinky approach helps him to retain the basic concepts. Edited to add that I sit with him while he works on it, and we frequently discuss/brainstorm approaches to the problems. It’s definitely not an independent program for him.

When I hear homeschoolers cite school shootings as a reason for homeschooling I inwardly cringe and think that their child is more likely to be injured or killed in a car accident on the way to a homeschool coop or meetup than a ps student is to be the victim of a school shooting.

When we were looking for houses we rejected any that were too open. We love the house we found--the kitchen and family room are open to each other, but there is a separate living room and a dining room (now a homeschool room) that can be completely closed off. We looked at a ginormous house with an entirely open 1st floor. What do you even do with a gym-sized space? My childrens' already noisy voiced would echo all day and drive me around the bend. No thank you.

This is the same designer who did Ion. Which we have on the shelf and haven't played yet. We'll have to actually get it out and play it before we pull the trigger on the new game. :laugh:

I think it's a personality thing. The same gregarious, charismatic people who tend towards team sports would tend to be good networkers and successful in business.

I don't think I know any tiger parents. My social circle is small, and mostly made up of unschoolers, so I know lots of anti-tiger parents. :) Sometimes they boast about how late their kids learned to read. :lol:

Anyone else? I was counting on orchestra practice to save our homeschool day. While waiting in the parked car, after driving 35 minutes, I checked my email and realized that practice was cancelled. Doh! We drove back home and now the kids are playing outside. I'm trying to psych myself up to do something...anything....

We had to do this when our kitchen remodel turned into a leaks nightmare/whole house repipe/mold remediation. My kids thought it was wonderful--like camping. We washed dishes in the bathtub and learned about what a microwave was capable of. It wasn't gourmet cooking, but my kids thought microwave frozen ravioli was a great meal. :)

I don't know, there are an embarrassing number of famous aphorisms that have caused sudden "Aha!" moments for me in the last few years. Not very quick on the draw here. :lol:

Yes, common. Also familiar as the name of a book.

My kids did the sleep nursing thing too. I used to love it when my babies would smile and laugh in their sleep. So precious. :)

My grandparents took a trip to Scotland when I was a kid. They did lots of driving...and told me that "flipping the bird" is truly an international sign of driving annoyance. :)

Mystery Science Explode the Code These aren't the only ones that get done, but I consider them my "get-r-done" curriculums because they aren't my ideal, but the ones that actually get done instead of the ideal. :)

I used to have a dalek screaming “exterminate! exterminate!†but it started to bug me, so now I have The Final Countdown (G. O. B. ‘s theme music from Arrested Development).

While I enjoy being an independent homeschooler, some of my friends enjoy taking part in one of the "Alternative Learning Experience" (ALE) programs available in my state. The program pays for (secular) curriculum and the student checks in with a teacher on a regular basis. Legally they are public school students, but I meet lots of families who use ALEs and are active in the local homeschool community. I like that there are options.

I’d like to see the tiny house families a year later. Especially the families in Minnesota and South Dakota. Winter with three kids in 200 sq. Ft. Has got to be brutal.