Jump to content

Menu

kentuckymom

Members
  • Posts

    691
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by kentuckymom

  1. My best friend from college actually lives with her boyfriend, his (now, but not when they started living together)ex-wife, her son from a former marriage, and the boyfriend and ex's daughter. I don't know how, but they make it work. The boyfriend and ex were separated but not divorced and still living together when my friend met him. They chose not to divorce because she had a good job with benefits and he was self employed. She didn't mind sharing her benefits with him and it made it less complicated for their daughter to get her benefits if they were still married. My friend was in an unhappy marriage when she met her now boyfriend and she moved in with the boyfriend shortly after her divorce. The (not yet)ex-wife was apparently totally okay with this. After a few months she got a job in California and moved there, leaving the daughter. My friend and her boyfriend decided they wanted a change too, so, yes, they moved to California and in with the (still not yet)ex-wife. That only lasted a few months because the boyfriend got a full time job with benefits back in Michigan and my friend, boyfriend, and his daughter moved back. She was still in the midst of a custody battle with her ex over their son, but eventually she got the right to have him for the school year so he moved in with them too. That lasted about about two years, then the ex-wife decided she wanted more of a hand in raising her daughter and asked if she could move in. They let her. My friend doesn't have a great relationship with her de facto stepdaughter, so she's happy to have the girl's mother in the house to help. Apparently a big reason the marriage ended is that the ex had little to no interest in the bedroom, so my friend has no fear that she'll entice the boyfriend into bed with her or anything like that. The situation seems utterly weird to me, but everyone involved seems pretty happy. So, yes, it can work for an amicably divorced couple to live together - in some weird cases even when a romantic partner is introduced into the equation.
  2. I just wanted to update in case anyone was curious. We're now into week 3 post diagnosis and we've mostly settled into our new normal. Kittygirl has been a real trooper. She says "ouch" occasionally, but she normally just offers up her finger or arm or leg willingly because she knows it's what we need to do now to keep her healthy. Her school has been amazing. In addition to the nurse, her teacher and another teacher have been trained to do everything and the aide has been trained to check her blood sugar. She has a whole file that travels with the class recording her blood sugar. All the staff who work with her have assured me that they'll take good care of her. I came in and read a book to the class that we got at our diabetes education class about a monkey named Coco (who is friends with Mickey Mouse) who is diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. DD and I demonstrated with her AG doll and and AG diabetes care kit that a friend gave her what she has to do to stay healthy. We assured the kids that they cannot catch diabetes from Kittygirl and that she did nothing to cause it. All kinds of people have been praying for us and offering us support. It still feels overwhelming at times and I wish this hadn't happened to us, but I'm not terrified and consumed with grief like I was two weeks ago.
  3. We like everything we've gotten from Primary dot com. It holds up as well as the Land's End stuff but it's cheaper. I agree that thrift stores are the best bet if you have good ones near you, however.
  4. I don't really have anything in common with the characters or storyline, and I love it.
  5. Thanks for the tips everyone! We came home last night. I've already had a freakout over her number at 2am, which just read HI, but I reminded myself that the nurse said one HI is not an emergency and made myself go back to sleep. She was down to 304 before breakfast so that made me feel better. My husband talked to the school nurse for half an hour this morning and he said it was really encouraging. We have a meeting scheduled next Tuesday to make an official plan, but DD can return to school before that with her necessary supplies and an unofficial plan. The nurse splits time between two schools, but she will always make a point to be there for Kittygirl's lunchtime, and she'll stay for the whole day her first day back (probably tomorrow). Because she has an IEP for speech already, the medical plan will just be added to that as opposed to her getting a 504 plan. I presume that at some point she'll graduate from speech and we'll have to transfer the diabetes plan to a 504. I only wish she could graduate from that. Thanks again for all the tips! I'm already making note of some of them and will make them part of my organizational plan. I am naturally a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl, so I'm going to have to learn a lot about organization really fast.
  6. Thanks again for the tips and encouragement, everyone. I may PM those of you who offered if I have more questions (and I'm sure I will). I also know two couples locally with kids who are diabetic and they've both offered advice and help, so it seems like I will have plenty of sources to turn to in the coming days.
  7. Thanks for the hugs and encouragement. We met a member of the endo team today. We got checked in too late yesterday to meet him, and he was very encouraging. He said that medically our daughter can be released at any time. If we feel educated enough to handle her at home by the end of today we can go, but they're happy to let us stay another day if we feel like we need it. I'm not the least bit nervous about the actual giving of shots. I've already given her one and it was super easy. I had to give myself a blood thinner every day when I was pregnant with her, so giving shots is old hat for me even though it's been six years. DH, however, has to look away whenever he gets a shot, so it will be a big adjustment for him. I'm nervous about figuring out carbs and insulin doses and messing her up once we're home, however. I'm also nervous about sending her back to school. I homeschool just one of my two kids, and this is the one who goes to school. Her school is wonderful and she's thriving, so I don't want to pull her out just because she now has a medical condition. The endo assured us that schools are well prepared for diabetics and there are sure to be others in her school, but the idea of handing her off to others for seven hours still scares me.
  8. I'm in the hospital right now with my 6 year old. She was officially diagnosed with type 1 diabetes about 12 hours ago. The good news is that we caught it before she got super sick. We brought her to our doctor's office's weekend walk in clinic yesterday after she'd spent a week peeing more and more often every day. After she was up five times between going to bed Saturday and and waking up Sunday we decided to go ahead and bring her in instead of waiting and making an appointment on Monday. We were hoping there was a simple solution like a UTI or constipation (her brother suffered from this for years, and it often caused exactly the same symptoms), but the possibility of diabetes was always in the back of our minds. When we went to the clinic yesterday they tested her sugar and it was off the charts. They sent us to the ER at Kentucky Children's Hospital, where the diabetes diagnosis was confirmed. They've done a great job, and her sugar is down to 200 as of the measurement an hour ago, which of course is still high but is a huge improvement. We're promised to be swamped with information today, but I'd love to hear some experiences and encouragement from the trenches. The doctor assured us yesterday that, despite the changes, our daughter can still live a pretty normal life, but it all feels overwhelming right now. Of course it doesn't help that I only got a few hours of sleep here in the hospital last night and I woke up a lot the night before because my daughter kept waking up.
  9. I shared my annual Valentine's Day reflection here before, so I figured I'd do it again. I hope you enjoy reading it! Valentine's Day, and it's time for my annual digital Valentine Homily. In case you're new to this or have forgotten, I'll give you a rundown of how this tradition came to be. If reading this is a longtime tradition for you and you don't want a trip down memory lane, you can skip to the next paragraph. About 20 years ago in a faraway land known as Albion College, I was a woefully single college junior anticipating observing Valentine's Day as Black [insert day here]. However, on Valentine's Day I had a change of heart. I decided to use the day to to celebrate the love of family, of friends, and especially of God. I sent out an email to some friends to that effect. I decided to do the same thing the following year, and a tradition was born. It has since evolved into an annual reflection on my faith and life, with some kind of tie-in to Valentine's Day. Now on to the Homily....... This Valentine's Day finds me reflecting on the life of my second father, my Swedish host father, who, as of last report, was in the hospital on the verge of death after a cerebral hemorrhage. I'll spare you the long reflection I already shared on Facebook, but the fact is that facing the imminent death of someone I love who has lived a long and full life has lead me first to reflect on his legacy and then on my own. Bruno loved his family and his community well, and he was loved well in return. The question I've been asking myself today is, what kind of legacy am I building? What I want to build is a legacy of love. I want to love my family well and love my community well. I want to love people who are like me and I want to love people who are different from me. Above all, I want to love Jesus well. Jesus has already done and is still doing everything I want to do. He loved us before we loved Him. He loved us enough to die on the cross for our sins and defeat death for us even before we were born. He calls us to love others sacrificially as well. So what does this have to do with you and with Valentine's Day? I myself have used this Valentine's Day to reflect on whether and how I am loving people well, and also how I am loved well. Often I fall short in one way or another. I lose patience with my kids and yell at them. I demonize people on the other side of issues I care about instead of trying to find out why they hold a position I think is so wrong and whether or not they might actually have something valuable to say (most of the time they do). From this Valentine's Day forward, with God's help, I want to do a better job of building a legacy of love. I wan to take the time to listen to my kids and care about what they care about, even if I'm tired and my first impression is that they care about incredibly ridiculous things. I want to express love to my husband the way he's programmed to receive it and not just in the ways it's easy for me to express it. I want to listen to people I disagree with and figure out if there are areas where we can find common ground. I want to care more about my local friends than I care about people on Facebook that I never see in person. I also want to remember that the fact that I am loved well can give me the strength to love others well and a model for loving others well. I'm married to an amazing man who puts up with all of my quirks and shows his love to me even when i'm being unlovable. I have two amazing kids who still love me after I've raised my voice for the tenth time that day. I have a family of origin and an extended family that I wish I could spend more time with because they're such incredible people. I know some of these things are true for many of you as well, though some of them aren't. Some of you are at a different stage in parenting because your kids are grown and out of the house. Some of you are single parents. Some of you aren't parents and wish you were, while others aren't parents and don't want to be. Some of you were raised by great parents while others of you don't even like think about the people who raised you. Some of you have a large circle of local friends while others feel lonely. Whatever stage you're in, however, whatever your background, I guarantee that there is someone who loves you well and someone you can love well. If you look back at your life and realize the legacy you're building is the one you want, that's great. Keep it up. Keep loving people well and being thankful for those who do the same for you. If you look at your life and realize you haven't loved the way you wish you had, it's not too late. Start today. Wherever your life has taken you and wherever it leads you in the future, I hope that the legacy you leave behind you is founded on love.
  10. I've been to court once and I've testified in court once (same time), as a character witness for a friend in a child custody case. I was extremely nervous, but even the former partner's lawyer treated me respectfully and it was not nearly as nerve-wracking as I thought it would be.
  11. It's not a true unity study, but my 6th grader and I are currently doing a little side study about the history of chocolate, at his request. I'm reading aloud CHOCOLATE: THE SWEET SCIENCE AND DARK SECRETS OF THE WORLD'S FAVORITE TREAT by Kay Frydenborg and he's reading alone CANDY BOMBER: THE STORY OF THE BERLIN AIRLIFT'S "CHOCOLATE PILOT" by Michael O. Tunnell The beginning of the first book is tying nicely into our world history survey because we've just reached the discovery of the Americas, which includes the discovery of cocoa beans. The second book ties into Squirrelboy's interest in WWII and Germany. There were quite a few other books about chocolate in our library, and I could easily see building a true unit study around the topic and learning some history, science, and economics in the process. You could get ahold of some cocoa beans and try to make your own chocolate. You could visit a chocolate factory (though it wouldn't be nearly as cool, or dangerous, and Willie Wonka's, I'm sure). The possibilities are many.
  12. Thanks for the evaluation. Since he's the only one home with me, I do have time to sit with him and help connect the dots if needed. It's helpful to know that it could be needed.
  13. Thanks for the feedback! My son tells lame jokes himself ALL.THE.TIME. so he might love that :). It will probably drive ME crazy, but sometimes Notgrass History drives me crazy and I put up with it because my son loves it and is learning a lot. I have to remind myself sometimes that this is his education, not mine.
  14. I'll put in another vote for Notgrass. I have mixed feelings about From Adam to Us, but my 6th grader loves it. Based on your previous posts, I think you'd be less likely to be annoyed by what I see as excess Bible references. If she hasn't had much government/civics you could do Uncle Sam and Me. It could be completely independent, especially for an 8th grader, but the text (at least the one we're using) is written in a really engaging style with lots of pictures.
  15. I actually preferred some of the other suggestions on my previous thread, but I showed samples to my son and his great preference was Visual Latin. He does tend to learn well through videos. I'm not a big fan of the ecclesiastical pronunciation idea (and apparently it's actually kind of a mix between that and classical, which is even worse), but I can live with it if that's the only problem and the course helps my son learn more Latin and be excited about it. Any want to share negative experiences of this program? Is it worth the money?
  16. Thanks for the tips so far! I think The Great Latin Adventure might be a good fit, but I'm definitely open to more suggestions. I think I've ruled out Latin Alive!, because moving fast is definitely not on the agenda. In answer to Hunter's question, my Latin knowledge is mediocre. I had four years in high school and loved it, but I graduated 23 years ago and haven't used it much since. It's been coming back to me as we've gone through GSWL, but I don't want a program that assumes I'm an awesome Latin teacher. I really wish my son wanted to learn Spanish, because I have an MA in that and many years of teaching experience. However, he absolutely refuses to try Spanish and I want him to learn a language he's excited about. Latin fits the bill in that respect. He's really enjoying it.
  17. We're using it this year for sixth grade, and my son absolutely loves it. I have mixed feelings about it. The first unit is very much YEC but at least they don't give specific dates. The second unit contains two lessons about the Flood and the tower of Babel. Since I view the flood story quite differently from the authors, I had to take some time to explain what I think and why I think it and what backs me up in both science and scripture. It moves to Egypt starting in lesson 7, so it's not too bad. Every lesson ends with a verse of scripture and a paragraph attempting to bring in a spiritual lesson. Sometimes they're well tied in, other times they feel like a huge stretch to me. All that said, if you're like me and you're Christian but just don't usually care for overly Christian material, this could work well for you, especially if it's with a group of kids and a teacher your son really likes. There's all kinds of interesting history I never learned, and I'm a history buff. It really does a great job of covering what was happening during the time period of each unit in several parts of the world. It doesn't just focus on Europe and the near east like some texts do. I'm also impressed with the fair treatment it's given so far to Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians. Yes, the authors point out some things they think are wrong, but they also talk about members of those churches as believers, which is more than some protestant texts I've seen do. Some protestant texts seem to think true believers almost disappeared starting sometime in the second century and didn't reemerge until the reformation.
  18. I've been doing Getting Started with Latin with my son this year. I think we're on track to finish it by the end of the month, and I'm trying to figure out where to go next. Some background: He's almost 12, in sixth grade, and this is our first year homeschooling. He's dyslexic and isn't great at memorizing things, though he can do it with a lot of work. He does read on grade level, though slowly. I've looked at Latin Alive!, but I'm afraid it might be too big a step up. Would Latin for Children be too babyish? Any other suggestions?
  19. I second the suggestion of Notgrass if you want to simplify history and have it be fairly independent. We're using from Adam to Us this year for 6th, and DS loves it. I don't love it like he does, but it's a solid curriculum and he's learning a lot. It just annoys me because it feels like sometimes the authors are trying to shoehorn a Christian lesson into a place where it doesn't really fit. That might not bother you. Notgrass would definitely be going in a different direction from TOG however. For middle school there's a world history survey (that's what we're doing), an American History course (America the Beautiful), and a Government and Civics course (Uncle Sam and Me). If you want to continue a history cycle you should look elsewhere.
  20. Thanks to those who recommended checking Etsy for clothes. I did that and found an adorable tsum tsum dress for Wellie Wishers. My daughter adores tsum tsums right now and has two different tsum tsum dresses. I plan to put the dress in her Easter basket, but it will be hard to wait that long. I know she'll be excited that Camille can coordinate with her.
  21. I wonder if it's true... that would be a cool addition.
  22. So, this is my first year homeschooling my son, who is almost 12 and in 6th grade. Most things are going well, but we've really been struggling with math, even after changing programs and trying to make adjustments. I had a friend who is a long time homeschooler and kind of a math expert work with him yesterday to determine his areas of strength and weakness. Among other things, she said that his understanding of fractions is very weak and recommended teaching fractions from the very beginning. So, if you had to start fractions over (or do them for the first time) with a 6th grader, what would you do?
  23. Yeah, sorry to say there are no boy Wellie Wishers. I do think it's a shame that discontinuing the twins eliminated their tiny collection of "American Boy dolls." My nephew asked for one after his sister got an 18 inch doll and he enjoyed joining in when my daughter and his sister played with their dolls right after my daughter got hers. I know they're called American Girl dolls, but it's still a shame that there are no boys available because there are indeed boys who like them and want a boy version. I've heard they'll custom-make a boy doll, but I can't confirm that, and anyway I'm sure the custom dolls are even more expensive than the mass produced dolls. I'm diverging from my thread purpose, though. I've had more time to look at and play with Camille today, and I still think she's a great doll. She makes a perfect little sister for an 18 inch doll.
  24. I don't, but there were a lot of little girls looking at them and playing in that section when we were in the AG store in the Mall of America in late December, so I would say they have a chance to be quite popular. I think AG's signature line is always going to be the historical dolls, but I actually really like that they created a line to fill the gap in between the bitty baby and the big dolls. If a 5-8 year old girl still wants to play with a bitty baby there's nothing stopping her, but the fact is that at that age many kids are outgrowing baby dolls and want something more like a friend doll. I do have to say I'm a little disappointed that they discontinued the Bitty Twins when they released this line. I always kind of wanted to get a set for DD, but DH insisted that they were too pricey for a doll for such a young child. I'm guessing, though, that they were a very small share of the market. It's like they were sort of step above Bitty Baby but not really. Wellie Wishers are now really an intermediate step.
×
×
  • Create New...