Jump to content

Menu

sparrow

Registered
  • Posts

    4,825
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by sparrow

  1. My son has experienced this since he was an infant.  It took until he was about 13 to discover he has dermatographic urticaria. As an infant and toddler, it would typically happen when he was tired. As he got older, it could happen at any time, but we started noticing he'd get a welty hive on his back when doing school work at the dining room table. I was looking for an environmental reason causing it in that area of the house. After years of doctors being stumped and giving him Benadryl, I stumbled on an article about "skin writing". It changed everything! The welts at the dining room table? Caused by the pressure of the wooden chair on his back.....though it can spread to other parts of his body after the initial reaction.

    He takes a Zyrtec tablet daily and now he no longer gets welts/hives. It may be something to look into.

    • Like 2
  2. Could it be a sty? They can be painful before you see swelling. They can also cause redness.  A warm compress would help,  but make sure not to put on the other eye, in case it is pink eye. It would still need to be watched carefully. Dh had a sty that became infected and went into cellulitis. Doctors don't mess around with orbital cellulitis due to the proximity to the brain.

  3. Having just had to replace a dead fridge in February, I can offer some helpful information.  Almost all refrigerators are made by the same few companies. Here is a list of who makes what:

     

    http://www.appliance411.com/purchase/make.shtml

     

    In our experience, Lowe's had the best prices and will price match. We ultimately ended up buying a Whirlpool at Lowe's. The same fridge, under the Kenmore name at Sears, was $250 more. 

     

    You can check the serial numbers on Kenmore models to see who actually made it:

     

    http://www.appliance411.com/purchase/sears.shtml

     

    Hope this helps!

    • Like 3
  4. The acne.org products worked here. We tried multiple OTC cleansers and creams, zinc, home remedies (acv, milk of magnesia, essential oils, etc.) and my kid was a trooper through all of it.  I wish we would have tried acne.org sooner.  

    We've also found dairy to cause flare-ups, so he pretty much avoids it, except on pizza  :001_smile: .

    • Like 1
  5. When I was a teen, our dilute tortoise shell mama kitty had a litter with a completely Siamese looking kitten and a white kitten with blue eyes, that was deaf, with a random male tabby in the neighborhood. Yes, she was later spayed. 

    • Like 1
  6. DD-music (piano, violin, guitar) and art (drawing and digital)

     

    DS-Civil Air Patrol and scouts

     

    Ds just joined CAP this year and it is the perfect fit we had been searching for. I wish we would have found it sooner.  Some scout troops are very active. His was/is not and will likely dissolve this summer. It is sad, because ds put a lot of time and work into scouts, but his scout master is stepping down, no one is stepping up, and they are not actively looking to merge interested scouts with another troop. It would also be awkward for 16 yos to start over with an established troop. His CAP squadron is AMAZING. Super active and right up ds' alley. I can see him remaining active in CAP as an adult, unless he ends up in the military. He's actually flying gliders today :) 

  7. My daughter started having anxiety about death at 9 years old as well.  Typically, it would happen at night. I'd hear her just sobbing in her room.  Through MUCH  talking, reassuring, and, I know this is somewhat controversial, and I'm not a true convert myself, essential oils, we've moved past this issue.  Whether EOs really work, or it works as a placebo, I don't know, but her anxious feelings subsided dramatically once she was able to roll something on her wrist. It felt a little like spraying air freshener under the bed and in the closets to kill the monsters.  Whatever it was, giving her a little rollerball of some sort of peppermint and/or lavender mix empowered her. She is still my worrier, but she is able to move on more quickly as she's matured.

    • Like 2
  8. It honestly depends on your usage.  

     

    Do you need/want data?

    Do you need/want a smartphone?

    How many minutes do you need?

    How much texting do you do?

     

    Are you looking for a plan too or just the phone?

     

    Personally, for what I use, Republic Wireless makes the most sense.  You can buy the Moto E or Moto X (X is more expensive) on eBay used.  You must get the one configured for Republic Wireless though.

     

    $10/mo if you want unlimited talk/text and only wifi data.  If you need data, it is more.  It used to be $25/mo but I am not sure what the plan is now.

     

    Moto E with Tracfone (triple minutes) is a better deal if you don't use your phone a ton.  Mine is mostly used to get texts from kids needing to be picked up :)  A one year card is $99, 400 minutes (1200 minutes if you make sure to find a lifetime triple minute phone) talk, text, AND data. I mostly use wifi, but if I need to check something when I'm out without wifi, it uses a trivial amount of data. 

     

    Once Tracfone added smartphones and data, it made the most sense to go with them. I'm paying less than $9/month. I was paying that with my dumbphone, so I decided it was worth the piece of mind to have weather, etc. and upgraded.

     

     

     

    • Like 1
  9. My dh has cut out OTC meds in favor of baking soda and water. At first, he was taking it often, but now the baking soda seems to have reduced and balanced the acid production and he takes it twice a day, at most. He mixes about a 1/2 tsp of baking soda in a few ounces of water. 

  10. Timely topic! I just contacted 2 CAP Composite Squadrons that are within 45 minutes of us. One won't work currently, due to a scheduling conflict, but we may visit a meeting at the other one tomorrow night.

     

    We are looking into it because it is quite possible ds's Boy Scout troop may dissolve after June. He could move to another troop, but I thought we'd see what CAP was about. 

     

    Looking forward to reading what others share.

  11. CA,

     

    You are welcome. I also want to add this. It's a good idea to teach the 5-paragraph paper in junior high and use that format to write many, many short papers across the curriculum, Sit with your student and model/work though the process as long as necessary. Some students need lots of practice developing a thesis, writing intros and conclusions, paraphrasing, transitions, etc. etc. -- all the skills needed to write a paper with outside sources. Turning out a polished, 2-3 page, college-level paper in a week is a hustle when the student has exams in other classes and possibly other papers.

     

    1togo

     

    Thank you for the bolded. We have had an absolutely abysmal couple of weeks in the writing department around here. The same paper has been turned in 3 times without listening/reading instructions. Tomorrow, I will be modeling how to tear apart the reading selection and writing it myself because we're not getting anywhere the traditional way. Oh, paraphrasing and transitions. Why must you be so hard for some kids?

    • Like 2
  12. Sparrow,

    Thank you for sharing this link. I think I will be using it next year with my daughter.

     

     

    Thank you for this resource. We are dropping Notgrass and using this instead!

     

     

    We started using it last week and I am very impressed with it. I'm glad you found it useful!

     

     

    This is produced by the Bill of Rights Institute, which provides a variety of educator resources.

     

    http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/educate/educator-resources/

     

     

    I started poking around there, too. A wealth of information and I'm surprised I hadn't stumbled upon it before!

×
×
  • Create New...