It is not tested for in all states. Most, but not all. My state has only been testing for 5 years. I have family in 4 other states, of those only one automatically tests as part of the newborn screening.

You may want to check out 100 Days of Real Food, there is a blog and Facebook page. While not strictly about avoiding MSG, she is about avoiding processed foods. She posts what her kids eat for lunch daily and also frequently posts what her family eats at meals. There are a couple weeks worth of menu ideas too. In general I think completely avoiding processed foods takes more time either in shopping or preparation, but it does eventually become second nature.

My kids love Sharks & Minnows. Card games: Slap Jack, War, Go Fish My favorite games from elementary school were Red Rover, Crack the Whip, Heads Up-7up.

Yes! If they are really bad use baking soda and vinegar, soak for a bit before scrubbing with a stainless pot scrubber. If they aren't too bad the pot scrubber works really well. Mine look brand new again.

Ours are paid for through property taxes. If you have a library card in your home county, you can also get a public library card in any other county you wish for no additional fee.

Our favorite is Black Bean and Corn Chili one night, then we have the leftovers as baked potato toppings for lunch the next day. It's not really a new item, but it doesn't feel like we are eating the exact same thing. I will often roast a chicken for supper one night, then use the leftovers for chicken chili or pesto mini-pizzas the next.

We've been reading "The Long Winter", my 4 year old wanted to know if we had enough kerosene for our lights. My kids use "actually" and "perhaps" in their every day conversations, I always get comments from others about it. Those are words I don't use often. My son kept saying "ahoy matie" when playing with a LEGO set today, I think it came from "Peter Pan" but I'm not sure.

It sounds like it went as well as it could, I'm glad you get to go on your retreat and I'm sorry for your loss. For your sake I'm glad you didn't have a lot of pain.

For what it's worth I didn't think the recovery from the d&c was bad at all, I felt tired from the anesthesia for the rest of the day, but I wasn't sore. I did take it easy for a couple of days, mostly because my husband made me. I also didn't do any real exercise for several days, I don't remember if that was a restriction though.

I naturally miscarried at home the first time, the process was fairly quick (only a few hours), but the most intense pain I've experienced in my entire life. I delivered a tiny fetus, with recognizable features. That was emotionally traumatizing to me as I was only expecting blood and some tissue. Recovery was similar to giving birth. My second miscarriage I bled heavily for about 4 days and then had a D&C and bled for another week or so. The recovery was much quicker and it didn't feel like it took as long for my body to heal. I felt that the pregnancy hormones disappeared more quickly the 2nd time as well. I had completely different grieving processes, I'm not sure is that was because of the d&c or because of being in a different stage of life. The first miscarriage occurred at 10 weeks, the second between 10 and 12 weeks, I was glad I had the d&c the second time. I think much like giving birth, every experience is different. I am sorry you are going through this.

Salted with vinegar.

Another idea, the mall doors open here a couple hours before the stores open. They allow mall walkers and also have a play area that you can use during those hours.

Riding toys in the garage. I send the kids up and down the stairs a lot too. We have a small slide that I'm getting ready to bring in for the 1 year old, I just have to figure out how to keep the bigger kids off of it. One of my friends lets her girls ride their scooters in the house. I don't think I have the patience for that, but if you do you may try it, her house is pretty small but they are able to ride laps around the kitchen table. When I was a kid we had a chin-up bar in our basement. Technically it was our dad's, but we had a lot of fun playing on it.

Yes, he is quite distractable, and his lessons are so short that I really don't have much time to read ahead during lesson time currently. I can see as he becomes more independent I'll be able to use that time more. Post-its are a great idea, I can't believe I haven't thought of that before.

We have skipped family gatherings when it wasn't convenient for our immediate family. After having kids we wanted to be home on holidays to be able to do our own thing and start our own traditions. We do go to as many extended family gatherings as possible, but if one of us has to work or it's our only day off in ages, we don't stress about it. ETA: I no longer work, but when I did if my only day off was Christmas Day, we didn't feel obligated to drive 2-3 hours each way just to spend a couple hours with family.

I had a history of ear infections that eventually required tubes. When my eldest got his first (and only) but extremely stubborn ear infection, we went straight to tubes. It took close to 2 months to clear that one infection. Our pediatrician suggested tubes, we were reluctant after one infection but talked to a good friend who is an ENT associated with a different hospital, he agreed that tubes were in order. Our son didn't have any problems after that and randomly his severe drooling problem cleared up as well. My other two haven't had a single ear infection. But, I do think in certain situations tubes can and will be done more quickly.

Yes, that is what I have been trying to do. Right now the only lesson I have to review is math and we do that first, everything else is straight forward. I'm probably overthinking, but I'm wondering more about how you handle it when you have a math lesson that requires manipulatives, a science experiment that needs to be set up, and a history lesson with a project. We aren't there yet, I'm just looking ahead and trying to grasp how to be prepared for the individual lessons. Reading ahead the afternoon before sounds like it would work well for me. I already have packed evenings and don't see being able to fit another responsibility in at night.

I understand yearly planning, setting goals for the year, etc. What I'm trying to figure out is the daily planning. I know a lot of people look ahead at the week to figure out what books, supplies, or copies they need. How do you prepare for individual lessons each day? This is my first year homeschooling, I have a 6 year old in kindergarten. We have just reached the stage where I have to actually teach him some subjects. For the most part we just do the next lesson and my son grasps new concepts fairly easily, the concepts are simple enough that I don't need to do a ton of planning. However, I can see that soon I will be needing to spend more time in advance. Right now we are using SM 1A, we are on number bonds to 10. He basically understands, but needs more practice, so I'm using a lot of the activities in the HIG. If I have to spend 5+ minutes reading and understanding how to do the particular activity right before we start, he begins to get distracted by other things. If I read all the lessons for the week on Sunday, I'm not going to remember the nuance of an activity by Thursday. I understand that part of what I'm asking is just part of my learning process, but I'm looking for ideas on how others approach individual lessons. So what do you do, read through all your lessons before you start for the day, the night before, everything for the week and quick skim immediately before the lesson?

My 5 year old had those at his last check-up, his dentist wasn't concerned since he would start losing his baby teeth soon, but did make a note to keep an eye on it. Since your son is so young, I'd get him checked when you can, but I think you can wait until you have dental insurance. Some kids just have teeth that are more prone to cavities, my brother had to have fillings in his baby teeth.

I tried to pm you but can't, possibly because I am on my phone. Feel free to message me if I can be of help, I'm not a nurse but have had 2 miscarriages.

I'm sorry.

Home Depot and Lowes have kid's building workshops on Saturdays that are free, that would be fun too.

I'm not sure what you want to spend but here are some dates I have taken my kids on ( over the course of a few years): Frozen yogurt shop Paint your own pottery studio Play at the children's theater Local symphony children's concert Ballet (in the park) Art festival in the park Movie Volleyball game at local college (you could do a soccer or baseball game too) Geocaching My kids really like doing a craft kit together too. Occasionally during rest time at our house I'll let one stay up and help me bake something or watch a movie with me on my bed. We haven't done this as a date, but my kids like getting to choose any park to go to in town, even the one that takes forever to get to. I do that every couple months as opposed to going to the regular park.