There is way more to consider than I could possibly post here, but I'll hit some main points for you to consider. My dad died at 91 with dementia; my mom was (and still is) with it and mentally capable, but she is 92 and physically frail and couldn't physically care for him near the end. With that background: 1. It can be hard to know which direction the dementia will take, because all dementias don't play out the same way. When we think of dementia, we automatically think of memory and cognitive loss. That was certainly the case with my dad to some degree, but it was the physical failure that overtook him and killed him, long before he was mentally gone. He had some cognitive impairment in personality, judgement, and attention span, but otherwise was fairly coherent and could have a decent conversation. But his legs failed, his ability to swallow failed, and his appetite failed. Be prepared for a different approach to care in each of these situations. 2. If the person lives long enough, it is very hard to survive without nursing home care; I've seen people do it, but for most it is not a realistic possibility. If you put your loved one in a nursing home for any reason, you must make sure you, a sibling, a spouse, a parent, a family representative of some type is there every, single day and paying close attention to what the staff is doing and how they are caring for your patient. In my personal experience with my dad and in my sister's general experience (she works in a nursing home as a front desk receptionist), the patient who has family around constantly, asking questions, closely participating and monitoring care gets the attention of the staff. At least one of us was there every day, and in addition, we hired an aide to sit with my dad when there were long stretches during the day when one of us couldn't be there. The aide's job was to wait on my dad and make sure he had care and company, and to make sure he was taken care of medically. My sister works in a nursing home with a great public rating and reputation, and she said that so many CNAs quit when the vax mandate came down that they are horribly understaffed. Patients have called the front desk begging to have their diaper changed, and have called the cops to get the CNAs to answer their call buttons. She said the CNAs close the door to the rooms of patients who ask for things when they don't want to listen to them cry or yell. I have no doubt this goes on everywhere. 3. If the family cannot pay for care, Medicaid will pick up the cost, but there will be some spend-down of assets necessary. This varies by state as to how much assets the surviving, non-ill spouse can keep, so check your state law. Generally, it includes a house, car, and some financial assets. My dad only lived for 4 days after being admitted to a nursing home and we chose to avoid that paperwork and pay cash for that partial week of care, so I don't know the entire process. Our local Office for the Aging helped advise us, and I recommend hooking up with them fast because they can give you advice quickly and usually have an elder-care attorney on staff. 4. The patient's doctor (or hospital if admitted to a nursing home from the hospital) refers the patient to a nursing home. Hospitals have a social worker on staff to answer your questions and facilitate the transfer into a nursing home. You might not (probably will not) have much choice of nursing homes because beds are scarce, but insist on a home close to you because, see point #2. 5. Get your legal paperwork in order before your mom's spouse declines any further. It will make things much easier if someone has power of attorney for him and medical decision-making powers set up in advance. Make sure your mom is co-owner on all assets (TOD) because when he passes this will make things much easier for her. In addition, make sure someone has power of attorney and medical decision-making power for your mom. That way, someone can help her when she is exhausted or overwhelmed. The Office for the Aging can help set you up with an elder-care attorney to do this, at low or no cost. 6. If possible, keep your patient at home as long as you can, and bring in a home health aide for respite care, if possible. If your mom's spouse is still physically capable of living at home, then a respite care person 1-2x/day might be enough. If your mom's spouse has trouble sleeping at night, a respite care person to sit may only need to be tasked with tending to the person at night so your mom can sleep. That respite care person can be a family member or paid aide, but later on in more advanced dementia, your mom will need someone more often. If your mom's spouse is more physically declining than mentally, life is tougher for her because he will fall, choke on food, become incontinent, etc... This type might need a nursing home sooner because their needs are not as predictable (i.e., you don't know when they are going to fall and then curse out their spouse for trying to help them up because personality changes are part of the disease process). You can get an aide through a professional organization, but will pay much more for it. We had aides we found through word-of-mouth and did not find them through a professional organization. The aides we had were known to us (family friends in the nursing field or recommended by family friends) and we were very happy with what they provided. 7. Even though his own kids don't seem that interested, ask for their help, physically and financially. Some people don't take action until the crisis is upon them and that may be the case here. Bring them up to speed and ask for firm commitments to his care and well-being. Get your and your mom's financial ducks in order first, and someone needs to obtain power of attorney before you ask them for anything. This is not to say you are being dishonest, or trying to hide things from them, or trying to rip them off, but you don't need otherwise-absent family members complicating your attempts to care for him. I had power of attorney for my dad and mom, and I sent brief financial summaries each month to my siblings to keep them in the financial loop and to be transparent about where money was going. Still, set it up first and notify them later. Sounds obnoxious, but it makes providing care and setting up a plan a lot easier if there are not too many cooks in the kitchen. Hope this helps you some. #2 and #5 Are super-critical, IMO.

No, I wouldn't. I'd just assume this kid was curious and fascinated.

History Odessey is top-notch n this category, I think.

Quality knives. A set of leftover containers and lids in various sizes. Quality wooden spoons. Hand mixer.

I used Miller-Levine a few years ago with DD; we did the traditional sequence, with Ecology at the end. Makes no sense to do Ecology at the beginning, when you have no concept of animal or plant biology. I also skipped all of the human anatomy at the last part of the book. IMO that is Human A+P and does not belong in a General Biology text.

Make it substantially cheaper to re-use something. For example, refills of coffee in a re-usable cup should be cheaper, bottled water should cost a pretty penny over water in a glass at a restaurant, and a grocery credit for re-usable bags at the supermarket.

My son felt Algebra II was instrumental to understanding precalculus.

Does anyone know of any resources for teaching Polish? I prefer print, but can work with electronic resources, as well. Ideally, the resources would have tests, worksheets, etc... I know of Duolingo, but I am looking for something that teaches the grammar and sentence structure, similar to Memoria Press' Latin or a traditional French textbook, etc...

I'm so sorry.

What is the best way to clean a painting that is heavily layered with grime that has built up over the years? The painting is oil on canvas, has no tears or rips, and is about 30 years old. It is in a wooden frame. I was getting quotes in the hundreds of dollars to do this, so I have to figure out how to do it myself because I can't afford that/

You can't force a relationship. Although I am only hearing your side of the story, it seems your DD has some serious problems that need the help of a professional; this you will not be able to fix. Tell your DD you cannot afford to send the boxes, but she is free to come pick them up at a mutually agreeable time (when your husband is home or a trusted friend is with you). Hang up the phone if she screams or verbally abuses you in any way. And then drop it. If she wants the boxes badly enough, she'' come get them.

Are you in NY. by any chance? I thought Gov. Hochul was supposed to send Guardsmen to nursing homes to alleviate the shortage, but the one my sister works in upstate has not seen any assistance yet.

My son applied for his first job that had a "Help Wanted" ad and got hired in 3 days. But he went in to the store and personally asked if they were hiring before he filled out the application. I was in a PetSmart with a "Now Hiring" sign in the window and I asked if they were hiring and they said "not right now, we're full, but we'll take your application". I think going into the specific store and asking is important to weed out wasting time with resume-collectors.

My sister works in an upstate NY nursing home and the lack of staff there is borderline neglectful (and this is considered a decent nursing home, reputation-wise). She said the staff shortages sky-rocketed to a critical state when the covid vaccine was required and they had a lot of CNAs and RNs just up and quit.

Most of the colleges my daughter looked at specifically required a credit in American history and a credit in world history for their social studies sequence.

All my chemistry stuff is packed away in the attic until I teach chemistry again, but I will say the review worksheet and teacher versions of such are a bit hard to find. I found them by regularly searching Amazon until a copy of each shoed up. This is the link for the review worksheets, which are currently on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/World-Chemistry-Teacher-Resources-Worksheets/dp/0618190643/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=zumdahl+chemistry+review+worksheets&qid=1638683769&sr=8-2

Well, regarding Thanksgiving, if you find the traditions offensive, just give thanks and call it done. It doesn't need a narrative at all, really.

Same here. I'll never go back to a regular mattress; that Temperpedic has been a godsend.

I used Zumdahl for both my kids, along with the publisher's exams, publisher's review worksheets, and the Zumdahl experimental guide. The combination of those components gave a very broad and thorough coverage of the chemistry, and I liked how they complemented each other and that their were teacher guides for each component. I really didn't like the home chemistry experiments at all. The Zumdahl labs have several lab exercises associated with each chapter, so you have a nice selection to choose from, and the experiments lend themselves to the longer, formal lab reports that I wanted my children to learn to write. I did not buy a lab kit for chemistry; I bought each component and assembled solutions and labs myself.

I did the same, and for the same reasons.

This has been a requirement of ASU for a long time for homeschoolers. Honestly, they aren't that special of a college; find another college that doesn't treat homeschoolers like second class cierzens.

We use a credit union and I guess I will call them and see if I can set up an account that is not linked to my other accounts.

The fees on an account where I only keep a few dollars to keep EBay happy are not worth it for the profit I'd make selling. I don't know too much about online banks and how they are, though. This is what I meant by an alternative solution.

There seemed to be no limits in EBay's TOS as to what they could deduct from my account. I am very uncomfortable with that and won't continue to sell if I can't find an alternate solution. I think I would just donate items or take a loss on another site if I can't come up with something else.

So EBay recently revised their policy so that sellers must provide their birthdate, last 4 of social security number, and a bank account routing number. EBay is not processing payments through PayPal anymore and is depositing payments directly in bank accounts. They are also asking for permission to deduct "all fees and charges" directly from my bank account. I am not comfortable giving EBay unfettered permission to access my bank account. Have any of you worked around this and if so how have you gone about it?