I'm also 43 and while I tend to ignore out of whack symptoms, whenever I've mentioned them to my gyn, they have been quick to start a work up and not dismiss as quickly as I do. And lo and behold, they find stuff going on. First time it was polyps, and now it is a "thickened" endometrium, for which I'm now awaiting a second US. Track closely so you can tell them exactly what's going on, if you do to call, or decide to wait.

At my age, I've finally figured out use it or lose it is no joke. My muscles practically evaporate when I don't exercise, so that is what motivates me.

Chess - it can be as competitive or recreational as you want it to be. He can play kids or grown-ups up any age. Our co-op has a chess club and the kids surprised a lot of parents by loving it. It's the class that fills up quickest.

I would read up on everything about this person that is of public record and see if he has a pattern (does he befriend/woo his victims, is it a random attack on strangers) and educate my kids on his motives and tactics. Give them permission to use any means necessary to elude or escape him. Alarms on your windows or get a dog and have it sleep in their room. My worst fear is that he is sitting inside watching porn all day and then acts opportunistically with the first kid he sees. Maybe that is not his modus operandi ....sorry to sound so alarmist.... but count yourself fortunate that you know about him and can be vigilant.

No advice per se, but I will commiserate with you. My 8yo has remembering proper punctuation and capitalization, won't line up his sentences on the left side of the page, and spelling is not great. I am using the same programs you are, but I am going to stay the course and work on fundamentals. I do think it will come in time, but it will be labor intensive. I'm not sure switching programs will correct these particular issues. I'd be the first to sign up if there were such a thing, but for us, it's going to be practice, practice, practice. Sigh.

I told my husband a while back if I am spending my day homeschooling the kids, then he needs to take charge of the sports .... mainly taking them to practice. That has worked for us. I get a little peace when they're all out of the house which some days I desperately need. The games on the weekends are a family affair. For the first time we have signed up for a summer swim league. I am dying a little bit on the inside thinking about all the driving and early mornings. Summer is my break from all the extracurriculars so I may be hard to live with. If it wasn't a safety issue, I would not do it.

I had a colleague in a hospital I worked out who was involved in CT surgery as a nurse specialist. We would see very active and otherwise healthy older (not 98) patients who everyone thought would be great surgical candidates because of their relative health. Families and often surgeons would be shocked if they didn't do well post op. But...my nurse friend always said, as soon as you start messing with them and cutting on them, they DO show their age. A healthy 80 year old is not the same as an 80 yr old recovering from a major illness, operation, whatever. If I remember right, the medical stress tests involves medicines that can be damaging to the kidneys. 98 yr old kidneys shouldn't take an insult like that, IMO. I would leave well enough alone.

The local SPCA sells generic versions of the medicines. That's probably what I'll do. The last 2 times I've ordered online, they have come from foreign countries but I could not tell that when I ordered. The frontline didn't work - not sure if it was a resistance issue, which I've heard is a problem, or if I just got a bum product.

Camelias. Not sure if you're a bit too far north though.

For me to do it, I would prefer a time after noon, but $80/month would be too much. I would pay that for a high school math class or something I truly have to outsource, but I don't put SOTW in that category. I might pay 40/mo for one child. I don't think 4 kids per class is too many at all.

Bring gum. My son's ears always hurt with the pressure changes.

OK. I went to the App Store on the ipod, searched, found it and installed it. Thanks. Finally on there!! This is our own and only apple device, so there's one account. Plus I'm new to it all. I don't get why it seemed to require such a back-door approach when plugging into my computer should've worked. Oh the frustration that caused me!

I started the day trying to get a purchased Chess app on my son's ipod. 3 hours later I am nothing but frustrated!!! First the basics...it's an ipod touch iOS 6 and I have a PC (Windows 7). The gist of the problem is that the product is in iTunes but I can't manually (connected to computer) or over WiFi sync it from the computer onto the ipod. I am stuck in a loop like this: This computer is not authorized....go to store and authorize - which I do. Then it says this computer is already authorized. OK. Attempt sync again, and once more I see: this computer is not authorized. Loops starts over. Additionally, in settings on the ipod, the sync over WiFi button is grayed out and won't even let me do it that way. I have tried all the little tips and tricks I have found online on the support pages and those "fixes" don't fix anything. Am I missing something obvious???

What % of that would you get back as a tutor? Is it enough to pay yourself back? How much would you spend on curriculum/normal HS expenses anyway? I have always been attracted to CC but have never taken the plunge since I don't like the pay-everything-up-front approach. If you *know* it's a good fit for you, your kids, your lifestyle and your goals....that's one thing. If there's any doubt, then it's a gamble.

AAS - I don't even bother with undoing any of the cards. Keeping them in sheet form in a folder works better for me. I've got enough to keep up with as it is! You have to make it work for you.

I prefer to have the whole year printed and put in a 3 ring binder. I can take out what he needs to work on and put in on a clipboard and he knows what needs to be done for the day.

Yep....agree with your point for sure.

I am more skeptical of a Hollywood-ized version of anything Christian. Even if the book were biblical (I'm not saying it is), by the time Hollywood got done with it, it wouldn't be. Maybe one of these days I will be pleasantly surprised.

Good idea. Thanks. I know I am supposed to help with spelling, but when it is a word like "beautifully" then my dictation of that is now in his head. It IS two hard things at once (and far surpasses what I would ever expect him to know how to spell). Yet we're supposed to help with spelling. Just feels like a catch 22.

Following...same here...in AAS 2/2nd grade.... I see other kids my son's age spelling far better than he is using different programs...just wondering if it all evens out in the end.

I just did the WWE2 end mastery eval with my son and it didn't go well. He's doing fine with summarizing and copying...but the dictation...well, that's another story. Once the sentences gets long, with several words he doesn't know how to spell (and heaven forbid you add in more than a period for punctuation), then he gets overwhelmed. If he's trying to figure out how to spell a word, he forgets the sentence. If he's trying to remember where the comma goes, he forgets something else. The short simple sentences are OK. We about halfway through AAS 2 so that's where his spelling is. So I am debating where to go from here. I'm thinking reinforcing/repeating the last third or so of WWE2 but any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I think that may be in my future. I would just like to rule out if it is something in my house or an outside exposure to something unusual. Very difficult to try to narrow down.

Great job! What is more important - internal motivation or external? When you make goals for yourself, do you "go big" and for that 80 lb mark, or have smaller ones and build on it? How often do you weigh yourself? How did doctors acknowledge the weight issue -- were they hard on you or even bother to bring it up?

My son is turning out to be allergic to things and I don't know how to narrow it down....first it was penicillin...then unknown environmental allergies (takes cetirizine and Flonase) and now he has this random skin rash for the second time. The first time (2 mos ago) I took him in thinking it was strep, but he was negative and given a an oral steroid. That took care of it and all was well until today and I can see it starting up again. It's blotchy and itchy and red, not raised or pimply. No other systemic symptoms. No changes at all to diet. I haven't changed detergents or soaps or anything like that. I would consider the sun as a possibility but that doesn't explain the first one. Any ideas? I want to get him checked out, but I don't think they'd tell me anything useful at an early stage.

My kids are young and my goal is to not get mistaken for their grandma. I do color my greys with a demi-permanent DIY color from Sally's. I exercise. I use Rx Retin-A. I've used Aldara. The latter two are related to 3-so-far skin cancers on my face, but both help with signs of sun related aging. My biggest issue is bags under my eyes that are getting more pronounced. I wish I could do something about that but it's genetic. I see groupons often for cosmetic procedures, like chemical peels and lasers. It's tempting.