Praying for you and your son!

I really, really liked CLE Reading. My kids hated it. We also used CLE for math and LA so it might have been an issue of workbook overload, but I do think the CLE stories were not particularly engaging, at least for my kids.

I'd choose somewhere with moderate weather. Four seasons are fine, just not a super long/cold/snowy winter. Having a disabled child, we'd also need somewhere with adequate supports for him. There are very few states that have the same or greater level of support as our current location, so there are not a lot of options. Possibly Colorado. I do like Colorado Springs. I'd also love a place with lots of outdoor activities - hiking, running, etc. - but also within easy driving/flying distance to our current location because of aging parents/college kids.

I have some from Old Navy that I bought a year ago. I wear them all.the.time. Let me see if they still have them ... https://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?pid=751121002&vid=1&searchText=powersoft capri leggings#pdp-page-content

At 11, I was playing two seasons a year of soccer along with one season of basketball. I was also getting a lot of time outside running around and riding bikes. I'd ride my bike for hours around town in the summer. Once I started middle school though, most of that activity stopped because I was too self-conscious to try out for the school teams, thinking I wasn't good enough. I did still ride my bike quite a bit in the summer to friends' houses, etc. It wasn't until college that I started getting more intentional activity - running, cycling, etc.

What do you consider excessive?

My kids have all been to funerals (my four grandparents and one of my husband's grandparents.) When they were young, we had a plan to take them to a quiet room in case they got noisy/restless. They have done fine, and I think it's important for them to see and connect with extended family members.

Costco is also worth it for us for the gas savings alone. We fill up almost exclusively there even though we live about 10 miles away from two different locations. I just plan to stop whenever I'm in the area. We also get a lot of household goods like toilet paper, toothpaste, paper towels, dish soap, laundry detergent, etc. We've also bought new tires there a few times. I actually don't really like going in the store because it is always insanely busy, but my DH likes to go so it's his thing. 🙂

Assuming you have been drinking coffee, could you switch to half-calf and then eventually decaf? Or is tea your warm beverage of choice?

I waited for the henna to be completely out of my hair before I tried the Madison Reed stuff. However, the shade from Madison Reed was WAY WAY too dark so I ended up using Color Oops to get rid of it. Will probably go back to henna (Henna Color Lab) in a few weeks since it's such a perfect match colorwise, and just use a different shower in our house that doesn't have grout.

I have red hair and have used a henna kit for a few years that is a perfect match color-wise but is a real hassle to use. It takes so long, is so messy and it stains the grout in my shower. I just tried Madison Reed and it was sooo much easier -- but the color is way off. I'm going to have to figure out how to make the henna work, I guess.

I know one person who believes that and they are also a flat earther.

I use LMNT although it's not inexpensive. It is great for working out in the heat, though! Might work for your DH.

I really loved Sonlight E. Not gonna talk you out of it. 😉

My last kid won't ever launch. He has profound developmental delays and we will take care of him as long as we can, and then we'll have to consider a group home or his older siblings will have to figure something out. Sometimes that makes me sad but other times I'm glad that we'll have him home. Our oldest just graduated from high school and I'm already having a hard time with the thought of him leaving, so it's a comfort to know at least one of our kids will always be here.

I have one kid who is medically complex and I will always take him to the ER at a local children's hospital because they know his medical history and if he needs to be admitted, that's where we would need to be. My other kids, I take them to the local urgent care/standalone ER for things like mild concussions and broken bones. It's unlikely that they would need to be admitted but they also have capabilities that surpass a typical clinic or even an urgent care. For example, my son recently had a displaced fracture and they sedated him briefly via IV to put it back in place. We were in an OR-type room with pretty high-end monitoring and even life-support equipment. For things like a sore throat or pinkeye when the regular clinic is closed, I'd head to urgent care which is often located in retail stores like Target or CVS, or in a separate section of the clinic we normally go.

I met John Elway at a work event. I have a picture with him and a football card signed by him. Ran into Regis Philbin at a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan while there for a work conference. As a kid, I met a few locally famous baseball and football players.

My son with Down syndrome isn't at all interested in dolls and my NT daughter is too old, but I would have totally bought this for her when she was younger. Love it.

That's basically what we used, too. We're Christian but had our own thing already for Bible so we didn't really use what they offered.

I love Sonlight. If I had been homeschooled as a child, it would have been perfect for me. I used bits and pieces of it for years with my kids, mainly the book lists and the preschool/kindergarten cores, and I also did one year of HBL E with two of my kids. I really liked it, but I modified things to meet their needs/interests. We didn't read all of the read-alouds and I sometimes gave them a choice of readers if they didn't like one. I also bought the hands-on history kit but they were not very interested in it.

My 13 yo daughter just asked me to bring her shorts for track because she forgot them. We live 15 minutes away from her school so that's automatically 1/2 hour of driving for me and I just drove past the exit an hour ago on my way home from a doctor's appointment. And it's actually cold out, and she's wearing sweats which are just fine for exercise. The team policy is to require pants unless it is 70 degrees or above, but apparently, I'm unreasonable for not bringing the shorts.

My sons would have been OK at that age but my daughter would not feel comfortable.

Drink lots of water!

Lord have mercy on us. Our country's adulation of guns is idolatry, preventing us from caring for and protecting people made in the image of God. He has to weep at how far we have fallen while we invoke his name.

I just saw this on the news. It's unbelievable that this keeps happening again and again and again. Many prayers for all involved.