My mom had one of these people in her life at one point, she is very naive and trusting and kind, so this person took full advantage. It actually got to the point that whenever my mom would move she would follow her! She followed her from CA to MT back to CA and then to IA! She robbed her blind and was the cause of much grief and stress in my mom's life. Not saying that will happen to you, but you really should set some absolute boundaries asap because people like this will take advantage at every single opportunity they have. :grouphug: ETA: This woman is now dying from cancer in IA and my mom in her standard naivete actually wants to go visit her, my dad tried talking me into helping get a plane ticket for my mom for her birthday. I told my dad h*ll no, and likened it to helping her go back to an abuser. It has always been an abusive relationship but my mom is too kind and trusting to see her for what she is.

Yep... I've been lurking here since November, and only made my first actual post like a month ago. I always have things I want to say but I tend to refrain if someone has already said something similar or if I think it'll be taken wrong.

We just let ds ride without a booster on his 10th birthday. He probably would have passed the 5 point test sooner and we had made exceptions a few times, but we kept him in for our cars. DD is 8 and she is still in a hbb but she won't always sit properly either, so I refuse to move her.

Yep, I have it too, inherited from my mother. I was accused by an old co-worker of "mean-muggin" everyone before I knew it had a name. It served me well when I was a military instructor though, my students were scared! :laugh:

I felt all sorts of "off" with many of the symptoms you listed and had blood work done to find out it was just a pretty severe B12 deficiency with a super easy fix. I felt better within days and now just take a supplement. I can definitely tell when I haven't taken it. Hope you figure it out and it's easily manageable. :grouphug:

We are in week 3 but we schooled on and off through the summer so we're technically at week 7. So far our hits are: Intellego Unit Study on Ancient Rome, we are using this in conjunction with SOTW and have been completely immersed Shurley English (it's not the kids' favorite thing to do but I really feel like they are getting a lot out of it) GSWL Kingfisher Geography/notebooking Not sure about: Singapore Math (I don't love how teacher intensive it is, and the kids don't love it either, but I really WANT to love it) WWE3 (it's a little dry) Misses: Time4Learning (before I decided to block schedule science and history were overwhelming, so we signed up and I really wasn't impressed)

Yeah, we've only been in Hawaii for 8 months and I'm really a season person, but I do enjoy having nice enough weather to get out pretty much any time we want. We were in GA/SC a couple years ago and there are definitely days you can't just hang out outside, so humid! We don't usually allow electronics until after dinner AND baths with occasional exceptions, that seems to work fairly well for us. I think dd behavior problems the first week had to do with dh leaving for a month the weekend before we started.

This is our third week, but we schooled on and off through the summer. The first week was miserable with dd having full on meltdowns almost every single day, but last week and this week have been very pleasant, we seem to have worked out a good schedule and the kids are really enjoying the new unit study approach to history (and later science as we will be block scheduling) as opposed to just plodding along through SOTW 1. We are finishing at a reasonable time every day and most days we even have coffee/tea/cocoa and breakfast on our lanai and just hang out and enjoy each other before we start our day. I am loving this. I have not enjoyed my kids' company so much in a long time, they are fighting and less and are currently upstairs making a fort in ds room to sleep in tonight. :001_wub:

My kids are motivated by playing outside, screen time and staying up late, so we have a behavior chart with 7 colors, they start every day in the middle and they can move up or down based on their behavior, for the 6th & 7th colors they get 15 & 30 minutes extra privileges, for going to the bottom they get them taken away from their base amount, with the very lowest meaning they are completely grounded. It's based on forgiveness in the sense that they can always move back up provided they don't move all the way to the bottom. If they stay at middle or above at least 4 times in the week they can have a sleep over that weekend, if they get to the top at least 4 times they can get an icee over the weekend. It seems to really help my daughter who has some behavior issues, my son goes along with it but rarely moves down because he's just an easy, mellow kid. For reading, we've just started book adventure, my daughter doesn't like reading so I'm hoping this will motivate her, and if she completes 4 books at/above grade level and takes the test she can get an ice cream. We'll see how that goes. :)

I have two siblings and we fought all the time and as adults we are all the best of friends. My kids are about the same age difference as yours and they also fight a good bit, but they play together and help each other too. It's just a byproduct of living in close quarters and having to share things. I encourage them to be kind and speak kindly and help by showing them how they can/should respond in certain situations, but honestly sometimes they get in a snit and they are just awful to each other, we use a behavior chart and they get punished when it gets out of hand. I think having siblings is one of the first relationships that children have to learn to be a part of that doesn't come instinctively and it takes a lot of work. Humans are innately selfish and that can really show through in sibling relationships.

Lol, it's selfish but I have it all planned out and I really don't want to wait another 3 years. :laugh: It seems like I just go back and forth all the time on this, which probably means I should have one more or just let nature take its course, I'm not even ovulating yet. Then there are days when the olders fight all day long and I want to make dh an appointment immediately! The thing is, and I know this, I love babies... I would have a hundred if they stayed that way. I do want the little guy to have a playmate though, I have siblings and they are my best friends now and were great playmates when we were little, dh is an only and doesn't see the importance of having one close in age. Every time I have myself nearly talked into another I think about pregnancy though and it nearly gags me. This is so hard, glad I don't have to make the decision today.

Yeah, that would do it for me too! Goodness. :grouphug: There are definitely days that the idea of another makes me shudder, not the birth but the pregnancy, I hate it. I've gained like 65+ pounds with each one (although I lost it all plus some very quickly this time around). I also think about the advantages of not having any more as far as being able to do more stuff, homeschooling one less. I would say that most days I feel done but today I was looking at his baby pictures and now I'm like what's one more? Lol.

I do cleaning products as needed, but have had a terrible time keeping up on the food. I tried using Once a Month Mom back in February and it was like 2 1/2 days straight of cooking and just way too much work. I definitely need a better method. Bread is the only thing I keep up on pretty well, because I have a bread maker and my part of it takes about 5 minutes.

See I agree with you I think those reasons suck, except for travel, we are military and stationed very far from family right now and more people equals more money every time we want to go home. I'm worried that I'll regret not having another one, and I know it's highly unlikely that I'll regret having another. BUT there are days when I feel our family is complete too. Ugh, its so hard.

1. Hawaii 2. Pink 3. Butter chicken or almost any Indian dish Food was hard! I love all the food!

I'm having a terrible time deciding if we're "done" having babies. I'm 33 years old, with an amazing husband who is okay with having one more or not having one more. I have a 10 and 8 year old from a previous marriage but their dad has little to no part in their life, and we have a 6 month old baby. I don't want to have any more after I'm 35 so the time is soon if it is to be. To be honest there are a few things that are holding me back, but I just love babies so much. Cons: I hate being pregnant, I have foot, back and hip problems, I really want to get a half sleeve soon (which is not recommended while pregnant or nursing), I love traveling and adding one more person makes it that much harder. Pros: A baby! So tell me, how did you come to the conclusion you came to in regard to family size? I am not religious so that doesn't apply to me but I would love to hear stories of how one knew. If we decide we are done dh will be getting a vasectomy.

I'm pretty new here but I'll jump in. I spend about an hour every weekend putting together an agenda for each kid, with the days across the top and a checklist of each thing they need to complete down each day. I have a general idea where I'd like to be at the end of the year, ie finish grammar or whatever. For history and science we are block scheduling and doing unit studies, so when we finish Ancient Rome in 3 weeks, we'll start on a science one and I'll look it over and plan the length of time and go from there. I know that anything super strict or requiring a lot of planning and organizing won't work for me, so I don't even bother, as long as we are progressing at a rate I consider acceptable than that is good enough.

I buy Lavazza from Amazon, it's from Italy and makes the most amazing cappuccinos I drink every day, it's like going back on my honeymoon every time. :)