Sure! Welcome :). I second the getting rid of as much as possible. The less you have, the less you have to move (and sort and organize). I agree, be ruthless.

Uuggg! Its not that cold. They should be able to dig immediately. The speculation is that the workers were driving up to the front door to unload stuff, which is right on top of the well line!! I'll find out more today. The renters fell through for the rental house, so more showings. Maybe this is a good thing, as if there's no water, we can't move! Good luck on your move today! I hope it goes as smoothly as possible :)

They tried to turn on the water at the house today and it doesn't work?! There is some speculation that a pipe from the well to the house is broken and will have to be dug up?! How long does this kind of thing take? We are supposed to move in in less than 2 weeks!

Yes. 10 was a hard year for DS. And for me too. Everything was a freaking power struggle! He still has his moments now at almost 13, but from 8.5 to 10 was really tough. I had to really work on myself to not get sucked into the power struggles. It was hard for me to realize that. The relationship between us over time is what I started focusing on rather than the daily nagging. If he didn't to X today, well then it would still be there tomorrow. 9 was our first year of year round schooling....

This. Or sometimes I call our pediatrician and talk to her about it.

DS started Alg 1 with Singapore. We hated it and ditched it pretty quickly, moving to AoPS. We've stuck with it for both Alg 1 and 2. He does the online classes.

Oh no! My then 3 year old locked himself and 1 year old brother in a bedroom a few years ago. DH actually busted down the door to get them out! We had to replace the door....

You don't have to get him to do that. You can put all your accounts and credit cards into mint.com. It simply views all the data and sorts it by category (you can get fancier if you want). You could make "cash for husband" it's own category. This is the program I use and it really helped me get a handle on where our money was going. Once you know this for a few months, you can figure out your minimum budget. For example, I prefer to spend 8-1100 for food for my family. If I have to, I can spend 4-600 and we won't die.

This is a really good question! I would like to know too.

I have done this before. I opened a savings account at a bank that was inconvenient to get to. I specifically asked for no ATM card and no online banking, only deposit slips. Every month or so I made a deposit. To get the money out, I had to physically walk into the bank and show my ID, which is inconvenient. I didn't do it very often.

This is exactly why I work! DH gets a taste of what staying home is like and is now much more helpful and understanding. About budgeting, this is how I do it. All our income goes into one account. Bills get paid from this account. Based on our minimum budget, I "get paid" to cover normal expenses (groceries, gas, etc.). I prefer to do this on a monthly basis, but that's just me. You may do better weekly. DH and I have separate accounts from the one our income goes into for this, but you could also use a cash envelope system. When this money is gone, it's gone. You have to wait until the next "payday" unless it's a real emergency. Expenses above and beyond normal expenses get a predetermined budget, and in some cases their own account (ie vacation fund). Any income earned above the minimum budget goes into savings to cover seasons of less income or emergencies that come up. I track all the accounts using mint.com. Seeing things nicely graphed and organized really helps me.

I would love to see it!

This is how we are using it. This as Intro to Chem (1 general chem credit) and then when DS has enough math, he'll do AP or DE Chem.

Following!

Not Connie, but you definitely do NOT need Alg 2 for this. If you do it WITH Alg 1 or pre-Alg at a minimum you would probably be fine.

It gets Chem done - it's pretty clear and to the point. There have been a couple confusing chapters and DS has used the khan academy chem videos when he doesn't get the Mr. Q explanation. The labs are all kitchen cooking labs, which DS gets a kick out of.

You're getting there! The landlord rented the house for April 1. That means no more showings! This week I'm going to pack the remaining things in the basement. Hopefully we will be able to start moving into the house this week! I really miss my house. I was going to hire out the move out cleaning, but I think we're just going to do it ourselves this time.

I think the only place you can really enjoy the hot, hot summer is while in a swimming pool.

Lololol! Thank you! How is it going at your end? I haven't gotten anything else packed, but we have survived 5 showings of the rental house. The best one was the one that started telling the landlord about how her pit bull clawed holes in the wall of their last house. As the color drained from his face, the landlord said " so you have a pit bull? There is a $500 pet deposit...." I have to give him credit for keeping his cool. What's wrong with people?!?! The flooring is going in at our house! When it's done we can start moving our stuff over. There's not much left I can pack. I do have a huge pile of stuff ready to go to the baby consignment store. I'm trying to talk DH into taking it this weekend. I need to shop for mattresses, a dining table and bar stools. Everything else can wait until we get moved in and decide exactly what we want.

Ok, I'm glad it's not just me! I get it, but I don't really at the same time. Yes, she takes risperdal with Trileptal. Risperdal brought the intensity of her tantrums down a few notches but the trileptal (seizure med) has been a miracle drug. It controls the perseveration which sets off the tantrums. Maybe I shouldn't ask why it works and just be thankful it does.

Wow! Where do you live?

She just had an appointment and her psychiatrist said that her perseveration is like the spark that ignite a full blown tantrum. And the repeated firing (the perseveration) in her brain functions like a seizure. He called them sub clinical seizures. She doesn't lose consciousness or anything and she remembers what happens during the episodes (so it's not a "real" seizure) and is always sorry after, but she really has no control over them. He said that's why the anti seizure mood stabilizers work for her: the perseveration/tantrum acts like a seizure. I'm trying to understand this but I don't quite get it.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to try some of these ideas to see if I can get some more sleep!

I've used the VB-MAPP before. The ABLLS is another choice. These are ABA assessments and they're not too bad to give as a parent (you would need some understanding of ABA terminology) and you can get them both on Amazon. My state had no problem with this. I've also used it as my "curriculum" before.

Thank you!