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jenamiles

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Everything posted by jenamiles

  1. Water kefir grains don't always grow. If after 36 hours the sugar water tastes fermented, they are still doing their thing. I've put mine in a fridge for several weeks and still been okay.
  2. I have had two Jawbone Ups in the last 14 months (one was a replacement for the first one) and the new one is now dead as well. I am getting ready to buy a new device and it will not be an Up. I am looking at the Fitbit Charge HR or the Misfit Shine. I like the HR for the app data and the heart rate info. I like the misfit because it's a little cheaper and can be worn anywhere on your body. Plus it's waterproof.
  3. I just bought Biblioplan (the all digital version) for my 3rd and 9th grader. I bought both Ancients and Early Modern because I'm still not sure which I want to cover. (While we should start with Ancients, we are travelling the East Coast this next year which means our travels ALL tie in to Early Modern and just think it would be cool to do it at the same time.) I tried TOG and was overwhelmed 2 years ago. We did MFW this last year and we didn't like it. While I loved the idea of it, my kids found it fairly boring and it turned in to just checking the boxes. I really want something that has some flexibility in choices but is also laid out. Biblioplan seems to be the perfect balance between the two. As far as planning goes, I spent last night (maybe 2 hours) planning out half the year and figuring what books to buy when. Now that that is done, I don't think it will require much more planning on my part than MFW was. As an added bonus, this year I would have had to buy 2 different programs for my kids which would have cost me about $650 from MFW. Total for Biblioplan was about $350 and we can do almost everything together. I can also plug in the right level of literature/writing expectations each year so I have flexibility in what time period we cover. VS MFW where once you get to High School you really have to do everything in the right order. Lastly, because we live in our RV and travel, the fact that the majority of Biblioplan is digital is a huge bonus.
  4. I just wanted to day thank you for all that responded. I spent yesterday reading with him. Of his book list this year, eagle of the ninth was closest to his interests so it is the first one we are doing. This read is the pre-read thru the whole book before he comes back and focuses on one section at a time. We had a great hour or two reading the first chapter. Here is what we did: first, I preread the chapter and realized part of his issue might be the heavy roman military terminology. We spent about 40 minutes learning how the roman military was formed and wwriting out a structure and important vocabulary. Second, we read out loud rotating paragraphs. Third, we stopped frequently to recap and discuss any questionable vocabulary and meaning through context. All in all, it was extremely productive and he was much more focused. Even said he enjoyed it. I finished the book last night to prep for the rest of it assuming we'll move from paired reading to checking in and discussing each chapter. So for each chapter I have pre-read vocab to know. (He hated that I kept stopping to make sure he understood a word and told me he'd stop me if he didn't know. However most books today are much more fluffy and while he has an exceptional vocabulary there were a lot of words not used in everyday or fluff books. Needless to say I still felt the need to verify understanding.) Anyway, the great thing is I do know he's capable and interested. However, the bad thing is that I'm having to do a lot of prep work and subsequent hand holding on a task I feel an 8th grader should be able to do. I have to remember that public school just didn't prepare him to read and think critically. Hopefully, if I invest the time in 1 or 2 books, he'll be on his way to doing it himself. And his ADD definitely impacts his ability to focus on the task at hand. However, I have no intention of medicating him. He can learn how to focus using intentionally taught strategies. We just have to start from scratch at this point. I am very against meds unless absolutely necessary. I remember coming off meds in high school with no coping skills and really struggled. I don't want it to be a crutch that masks the problem and then makes it amplified down the road. His psych and ed testing came back above average or exceptional across the board except in writing and math facts (neither of which surprised me since they require focus). I really feel this is a will issue more than a skill issue; however, I do believe some of it is foundational skills like outlining and summarizing.
  5. I have an issue and I'm trying to figure out how to address it. I have a 13 year old son. He is extremely bright and has both a college level vocabulary and reading level. His developmental testing came back stellar with no surprises. He has diagnosed ADD - meaning he struggles to focus, is easily distracted by noise and movement, hyperfocuses, rushes, doesn't pay attention to detail. He can read a book a day, sometimes more, when he is picking the series and/or it's in his interest area. However, when I assign a book for literature, he can barely read two paragraphs and tell me what it is about. He has been able to cope this far but we've upped the academic level significantly this year to ensure he's being challenged. If I am 100% engaged with what he is doing, he has no problems with comprehension and narration. If I assign him, let's say a chapter in a book, to come back and summarize it, he literally can't do it. I've had him read just a few paragraphs and try to tell me about them and it is like once he moves to the next page the slate in his brain is wiped clean. He came home last year and we had a very light year, primarily trying to make learning interesting versus forced. I don't regret that decision at all. Both the kids are now ready for a real work load and have told me they are all in. It's evident he's never done narration in school. His last year in school (6th grade) he went from A's the year before to D's and he did not complete a single reading comprehension exam. (He did switch schools as part of a move and the new school was much more challenging.) Teacher said he was highly distracted, couldn't focus on reading/answering questions, didn't pay attention to details - across all classes. Long story short... how do you help a kid who is clearly capable of performing a task; however, can't seem to actually do it? Specifically, how do you work with a middle schooler on reading comprehension of academic work/low interest reading? Thanks
  6. I'm in this place right now. The environment at my work has gone downhill since deciding to homeschool my children. While I still put in way more hours than I should, my boss believes I am no longer committed to my job and have chosen family over work. My husband and I have been having pretty serious discussions about it if makes sense for me to stay. I could go back to freelancing (what I did before I took this role) and work less and make more. I'm frozen right now to because I know what this situation holds. I don't know what jumping ship holds. While I believe it could be good, it's still an unknown. I'd recommend a career counselor like the person above said. I'm a very logical thinker so I made a list of pros and cons with my husband of each one. Then together we put together a deadline. Either my work environment gets better by "this date" or I leave. Or if by "this other date" we have this amount in savings I can leave. (Part of that savings is budgeting for what it would take to relaunch my freelance business.) Ultimately, your husband has to want to be doing the career he'd be moving in to. If he doesn't want to go to school, it will be torture for everyone. What options have you guys considered if he does the business and it doesn't take off? Is there a fall back plan or a "by this date" we need to do something else in order to be financially stable?
  7. We just started Life of Fred as a supplement and here is the advise I got. Start at Apples no matter what grade they are in. They'll move through the first few books quickly but will be building a foundation for the later books. My second grader started apples last week and completed 4 chapters and loved it.
  8. For those who are curious, I sent an email to my boss and his response was basically to back pedal on all of his "requirements". I have had a crazy employer before, to the point where I filed a complaint with the local labor board after I left which resulted in major changes in the office a few years ago (I left and never regretted it), so I am a big believer in CYA and paperwork trail. I emailed him late last night and said, Per our conversation today, while my performance has been acceptable, there are concerns of my perceived availability and commitment to the team. In regards to the request to enroll my children back in school, I can not do so until next fall. However, I have arranged for my children to be homeschooled by another mother during the day for the remainder of the year, even though this is technically illegal per our state homeschool rules. In regards to moving to "state name" as a condition of my continued employment in January of 15, we can not answer that question today. We are willing to consider the option if my husband would be able to find a position; however, we can not afford to live there on my income alone. This answer will need to wait. His response came back today: First of all, I definitely don't want you to be doing something that's illegal with regards to your kids education. That's not something that's advisable. Secondly, I think you misunderstood our last conversation. You are not required to move here to continue your employment. That's not what the conversation was about. (Even though it was clearly stated that we needed to show our commitment to the ministry as a family and moving there was how we would show that commitment. I asked for clarification on this in our call several times and he kept dancing around this wording which is why I specifically included it in the email. Telling me I need to move there to show commitment and it's a requirement for continued employment is the same thing even if it's not worded the same.) He'd like us to meet next week while I'm in town to "make sure we are both on the same page". I have already put some feelers out and will be re-launching my consulting business. We are very close to being debt free and if I can push this for a few more months, we should be there. I love what I do and would bend over backwards to make this work; however, there are a few very specific things I won't bend on. Both of which happen to be homeschooling in this area and moving to the location.
  9. I won't win if I go toe to toe with her. She has been around the church her entire life and has a lot of clout. I just found someone who can take my kids and school them with her similar aged kids on Tues/Wed which are my meeting days and I can go to the local co-work center those two days. That will at least give the appearance of complying. Since he's put down an ultimatum, I'll tell him that I've made arrangements for my kids during the day without providing any details and leave it at that. He doesn't need to know if we plan on moving there in a year or not. If I have to give him some answer, I'll say we are considering it and leave it at that. In the meantime, I'll be working on other opportunities. Grr! I love my job - like absolutely LOVE it. I just want to be able to do it. Thanks ladies for the advice.
  10. Ohh, and our intention is to move into our RV and travel after the retirement is finalized next January. Between now and then, I can build back up my consulting business that I stopped when I took this position 3 years ago. I made a lot more and had a lot more flexibility. This really is only a temporary issue. I just needed the income as part of the "be debt free by Jan 15" plan.
  11. I too believe it is completely unprofessional and is his attempt to avoid addressing the work conflict that has been occurring for over a year. I will be in town next week and have asked for a meeting with his boss to discuss the issue. A little more on why they know about my situation - I work for a church. We are constantly asked to share about and include our families in our jobs. Every week, the first 30 minutes of our team meeting is "personal conversation time" to share what is going on in our lives. When the situation first happened that caused me to homeschool, I shared with my boss and asked for some time off to take care of the short-term emergency while I came up with a long term solution. That one conversation back in March is what started this whole thing. After that conversation he basically told me I had to share the transition with my co-workers and then I had a co-worker call me the next week so she could tell me that I needed to quit because I couldn't be committed to the ministry if I was with my kids because there was no way she could do both. It's gone downhill since then, and honestly she and the people she leads are the biggest issue I'm having in getting the information I need to do my job on the team. I have had numerous convos with him about this and he refuses to handle it blaming it on me being unavailable. I'm the only one in the team chat 50% of the time (we have an online chat room for the team to connect since everyone has a one day a week telecommute day on different days) and I make a point of responding to all emails within 15 minutes (seriously) and I've never not answered my phone. After the conversation in March, I stopped sharing anything about my personal life of any real interest. It was obvious the only reason any one actually cared was so that they could catalog it and judge me on it later. Now when I get called out for not sharing, I mainly talk about the weather here compared to there. It's good to see you guys are pretty much echoing my mom's sentiments. Say what you need to say and no more. I'll be escalating the issue next week while I'm there. If the big boss can tell me that as a whole all remote employees are being asked to move to town, that is one thing, but that is supposedly not the case. We'll see where it goes from here. Thanks guys.
  12. I work full-time from home for a non-profit 3 states away. Over the last year, the people who work remotely have slowly been moving to work onsite. There hasn't been an outright "you must move to keep your position" but it's been the general feeling. The last 18 months of my job have been unfulfilling to say the least. There are some major communication issues on the team and a general misunderstanding about my role that my boss will do nothing to correct. (Read, I'm a full-time employee, very motivated, but only have about 10 hours of actual work and no one on the team will include me in projects because they don't feel it's in my scope.) When we started homeschooling, it made it worse. Essentially, no one wanted to call me (not that they would anyway but that became the excuse) for fear that they might interrupt me, even though I've said numerous times that work comes first during the day and my kids are pretty much self-directed learners so they are doing their own thing. I have completed every assignment given to me and asked for more. I have told my boss it is essential that a contract project be completed for me to even do my job that has sat on the back burners for over 13 months now and doesn't look like it will get done anytime soon. This month, my husband made the decision to retire from the military in the next year. We had no plans to move to the location. At this point, I have no connection with my team and do not believe uprooting my family to work in a role that is this dysfunctional already will solve the communication problem. I also know that if we move there, I'll have to change all of the plans we had - homeschooling, traveling, husband's future employment - for a very likely short lived job. Fast forward to today. I was supposed to get my review today in my one-on-one with my boss. Instead, I was told that my boss doesn't feel my family is committed to the ministry I work at because we've picked family over the ministry. (IE - we are homeschooling and not moving there once husband retires). He tells me that I'm a very valuable part of the team and that he really wants to see me continue and to do all the tasks I've asked him to empower me to do (meaning he has to escalate the issue to management but won't). He then proceeds to tell me that we have to make a decision and let him know next week on whether or not I will put my kids back in school so I can focus on my job (which he already says I meet every objective it's just a perception) and whether or not we will move there once we officially retire. Here is my dilemma. I will not put my kids back in school here. The schools are not good where we are. We also don't want to move there without my husband having a job lined up just because my work wants us to. My salary is not enough to support us in the city where we'd be expected to move. That said, I can't afford to just say no to my boss and walk away next week. My mom thinks I should just lie to him and tell him I'm putting the kids back in school then find a way to have them or me out of the house when I'm on conf calls. I do have an option for a tutor on my "high work days" and could "appear like my kids are in school". She also thinks I should do the same with the move. Tell him we are considering the possibility of moving there and my husband will look for a job. Basically, placate him until we can't anymore. I don't like lying to my employer but I also think this is ridiculous. If I am doing my job, why do I need to be there and who is he to dictate what I do in my time, especially when there are other remote employees. While I'm in town next week I plan to talk to his boss about this whole thing. My husband has said he'll agree to whatever I decide... no comment. What would you do?!?!??
  13. I am a full-time work from home data analyst. I can't work in 10 minute increments, it just doesn't work that way. It is tough! That is about the best thing I can say. I wake up early and put in a few hours before the kids wake up, then I work here and there as I can throughout the day, filling in whatever hours are left on Friday or over the weekend. On weeks that I have a lot of work that I need to get done, I'll let the kids do whatever they want and knock out work. Then on slow weeks I'll push them to get caught up or get ahead where I can. It's a lot of give and take and realizing that you can't do everything at 100%. Do what you can. Use curriculum that is open and go or that the kids can do most of themselves. Let school happen naturally and during odd times. I structure the basics and figure the rest will get done over the duration. We school over the summer to make up for the down days where I absolutely have to get work done. If your spouse is open to helping, have them pick up one or two subjects that could be taught evenings or weekends (mine refuses to participate in anything related to school). Ohh, and I don't do a lot of spiral and "fluff" curriculum. I pick curriculum aimed at mastery and as few lessons as possible while going deep. Like my kids do BraveWriter vs IEW or Writing with Skill/Ease because Bravewriter is more flexible for the long haul. I use Analytical Grammar vs. a daily grammar program because it's a do it once and be done program. I use Story of the World because I can do the bare minimum and read aloud during breakfast or add in as I have time with activities from the activity guide. I use Teaching Textbooks because the computer does it with them. We do whatever they feel like for science - magic school bus, mythbusters, a book about chemistry ... whatever interests them once a week. I went through a phase of trying a bunch of curriculums that I thought would be perfect and realized that flexible was better than perfect.
  14. Most sports do not stream live. This is a consideration. We never found a good option for regular season football (pro and college) and Nascar. If someone has found a good option, I'd love to hear it. My husband would just go to a friends or the sports bar if there was a game he wanted to watch.
  15. Here is my two cents. Take it for what it is worth ;) If you create a minecraft server on your local network to allow people to play in different locations, you have to open up a port and make the IP address known to the world. Someone who knows what they are doing could exploit that and be on your network doing nefarious things without you knowing. I have allowed our son to create a minecraft server but it is only accessible from our house - meaning you have to be logged on to our network to see it. Essentially, the kids are sitting next to each other to play. If your son is wanting to play with people in different locations, you are better off getting him access to a server. There are a few homeschool groups that have minecraft servers that he can just play on. That is a lot less work on your end and a lot safer.
  16. I love this poll. I just bought my first pair of Buckle jeans this week. (Well, 3 of them.) My last round of jean purchases from 3 years ago are finally end of life and my curvy proportions sent me there for replacements after trying on jeans at what feels like hundreds of stores. All I wear are jeans and tshirts. Typically, the ones I get from work for free but when not in one of those I'm in a classic white, gray, or black nice t-shirt. I have very long, very curly, very thick hair so it's up about 98% of the time in whatever is simple. (I'm actually debating putting it in dreadlocks because I have to spend so much time on it.) Rarely wear makeup and drive a huge SUV. I have no idea if that is "typical". Around here, in CO, most homeschool moms I meet are more crunchy than I consider myself to be; however, not by much anymore.
  17. If it is coming from around the water heater, a call to a plumber may not be a bad idea. Plumbers tend to work on both water and gas lines so they could troubleshoot both.
  18. We are tackling our entire house right now. In 7 weeks, we are moving from our 2100 sq ft house to our 360 foot RV full time. I am selling off almost everything. I started trying to do it myself but after my first bad experience (and only experience), I am now paying someone to sell it for me. It works great because the clutter gets picked up once a week so I'm able to really make progress, not piles. We still have a long way to go, but from the posts above, it may be something to consider if you have stuff that is sellable but are just donating it so you can get it out.
  19. The only place that I've found my size that I can walk in and buy is at Dillards . I am a 32DD and the smaller band sizes are next to impossible to find in larger cups. Prices are reasonable and you can order online. I'm with another poster. I only own two daily wear bras and rotate and then one sports bra. Good luck!
  20. The Incline is great to do but if you aren't in really good shape or acclimated to the high altitude, it will be very hard. We've done it as a family a few times, we live here, and it's hard. If you choose to do it, there is a half-way point that you can exit at. Focus on the Family has a free area to walk through with a bookstore, an ice cream shop, a huge slide, and some other things. The Air Force Academy chapel is beautiful and worth it. They have Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Jewish, and at least one more worship area (I can't remember what that one is) between the upstairs and downstairs areas. It was amazing! More touristy, so may have done them but the Cheyenne Zoo, Cave of the Winds, downtown Manitou Springs (great mom and pop pizza place), Olympic Training Center, and Garden of the Gods. There are also tons of parks around if you like to just go outside and enjoy. There are some farmer's markets and active farms down by Pueblo. There is a Dinosaur meseum (not great but there) in Woodland Park. I'm sure there is more but those are all the ones we've done and enjoyed.
  21. I'm behind and I'm totally okay with it! The church I work for is reading two plans together in the month of January. One is a 21 day fast plan that goes with our fast that started on the 6th. The other is a Reading God's Word together. It's a 12 part series of 28 days each. I haven't even looked at the fast plan and I'm only on day 3 of the other one. With that said, I've totally changed the way both my family and I do bible study this year. As a family we sit down and read the Reading God's Word together right after dinner 3-5 times a week depending on nightly activities. It takes us about an hour to get through 3 chapters but we are really enjoying it. First time we've ever read the Bible together and the kids didn't act like we were slowly killing them. We are all taking turns, acting out the spoken parts, and pausing to go on tangents based on what we are reading. Personally, I'm taking an hour a day and doing one chapter in that hour. I have made myself some bible study templates that I fill out. They are Character, Chapter, Topic, and Location forms. Each chapter I read through, I fill out the chapter form, then fill out one character form per person encountered in the chapter (or add to the existing character form), fill out any Topic info that I found, and then fill out a Location or add to a location form. At this point, I may get through 10 books this year but I'll really know them and I'll have my notes to look through in the future. I'm okay with being behind because there is so much other stuff going on in our life right now that I had to set my expectations lower than I'd like at the start of the year. Christmas week our nephew passed away, New Year's week my husband announced that he was retiring (5 years earlier than planned), that same week my teenage daughter told me she was choosing to stay at her dad's and not return from her Christmas visit, the next week we made the decision to move out of our house in two months and purge then store everything and live in our 5th wheel to prepare for retirement. Needless to say, with everything going on, I'm struggling to stay on top of work and school let alone anything else.
  22. I don't have anything constructive to add; however, for fun I thought I'd let you know you aren't alone. My husband actually unfriended his ex-girlfriend after being married to me for over 10 years. She called him the next day to find out what she did wrong...umm, nothing. We have just both moved on with our lives and perhaps our spouses may not appreciate our continued FB friendship. (Yes, he used me as the scapegoat even though I could have cared less.) Those of us who use facebook for keeping in touch with close (active) friends and family will eventually hurt the feelings of someone who is a friend collector. It's okay to keep your wall pared down and okay for them to get hurt. I work in an online very connected social media world and have come to recognize that I can ignore people's requests or say.. you are a nice person but my wall is only for people I know actively IRL and my family so don't take it personally.
  23. jenamiles

    thanks

    I have lots of second hand experience. I have a cousin on death row who has gone through 2 appeals, a second (unrelated) trial, and all the family dynamics with that. He's the only other person in my generation on my mom's side so it's been very close to home for many years and has impacted all of the family dynamics. I'm amazed at what he has privileges for on death row and the money my aunt gives him to pay for everything. I also worked a women's prison ministry for 7 years as a chaplain and have supported many sisters, mothers, daughters and wives as their family member has gone through the incarceration process. If you want to get connected with a "support group" of women who know what you are going through, I'd be happy to help you connect with one in your area. The ministry was Kairos Outside. They have an inside organization called Kairos. The URL is http://kpmifoundation.org/index.php if you want to just see if they are in your area. You don't have to be a Christian to use their resources but you do have to be prepared for the organization being Christian and talking about God.
  24. klmama, It won't take me very long to sand it. It's actually this table that I built. --> http://jenamiles.com/our-new-craftdiningschool-table/ It's still unfinished so I an just take my hand sander to it. Just still irks me. With everything else going on - a short notice move into our RV, sorting and storing a household of furniture in 7 weeks, a hubby gone 4 of those 7 and me gone 1 of those 7 - I just am ticked I have to take the time to do that so it doesn't sink further into the wood and not come out at all.
  25. Don't get me started on freecyle or the online yard sale sites. I recently listed some stuff and had someone come over to pick up a few items. She showed up with her kids who ran all over the house and picked up everything that wasn't tied down (never once told them to settle down as I'm trying to grab things away from them and telling them to go sit over there or play with this item for a few mintues), went through and picked out about 20 things that I was selling for about $10 each and then offered me $10 for all of it because that is all she brought with her. As she left, i noticed that her youngest had drawn all over my new dining room table on the side 18" from where she was sitting. (I told my husband the kids were some of the worst behaved kids I'd ever met and they were probably a distraction tactic so she could pocket as much stuff as possible.) I mean seriously. I told my husband this is why i don't do yard sales of any kind and we'd be taking everything else to sell through a second party who could charge me any amount of commission they wished. So, instead of selling anything I now have to sand my table down to get the marker off! Grrr!!!
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