Navy is classic. It's fine!

I'm not exactly a job seeker, but I'm keeping an eye out for postings that would interest me, now that my neediest kid is graduating from high school, and my youngest two will be fairly self-sufficient seniors next year. I just sent my resume yesterday for a part-time position at one of the libraries that I frequent. My skill set and work experience match the job posting, and the hours they need to fill would be almost perfect for me. We shall see what happens. If I don't get an offer, I will keep my eye out for other opportunities in a low key way.

Love it!

We haven't used Strattera here, though we've used many others. I will echo what some others have said -- that it can take trying several different medications and dosages before finding one that works. We tried FIVE different kinds for DS in the first months before finding one that worked well without many side effects, and now he takes a sixth kind. So your experience with having to try several is not uncommon. We do use a psychiatric nurse practitioner for both of my kids on ADHD meds (two different nurses), and I recommend that.

Welcome to the WTM boards! I wanted to invite you to also post over on the Learning Challenges board with questions. We did the opposite and put our kids in school after homeschooling, so my son with ADHD and other developmental issues, including autism and NVLD, started going to school in fifth grade. He's graduating in a few weeks. It's been a long and difficult road. I'm going to echo what others have said -- teach the child you have, instead of trying to teach a program or philosophy, because the goal is for him to learn and grow. As you work with him in homeschooling, you will discover more things about his learning style and will be able to adapt to help him. Over time, while homeschooling my four kids, I had to change a lot about my approach, in order to meet my kids' needs, and that was hard for me, because I was invested in trying to make my philosophy work for my kids, and when it didn't, it was frustrating, and I had to reconfigure my approach. Read widely about homeschooling, of course! But commit to finding the best resources for your child, instead of the resources that someone else has chosen for generic children. My one DS has disabilities in the areas of math and reading comprehension, so parts of your post rang bells for me. If you would like more specific advice about methods that other WTM boardies have used to help their kids with similar issues, you can read through past threads on the Learning Challenges board, and you are welcome to post questions of your own there about recommended curricula, accommodations, and what people have learned about disabilities. Another possible source of information for you can be his school records, especially if he has an IEP, as well as any testing that you've had done privately. Sometimes there are clues or information in the evaluation scores that can give you ideas about how to proceed with teaching him.

I'm sorry you haven't gotten any responses yet. We don't have this company in our area, so I am no help. You can search on employment sites, like Glassdoor to see what employees have to say about the company, which may give you some insight.

Wow, this is such a problem! I was just filling ADHD meds at our pharmacy today, and fortunately I was able to, though the tech told me that they've had a lot of trouble getting in their supplies. The nurse practitioner mentioned it today, too. For some things, we use Express Scripts, a mail-order pharmacy. Surprisingly, they will fill 90 days of ADHD medications for us, when local pharmacies are only able to fill 30 days at a time. Our insurance prefers that we use Express Scripts. Perhaps it's not available to everyone, but I thought I would mention it. I really don't have many creative suggestions. The fact that they are group classes makes it trickier. Can you think of any hands-on tasks that they could help with? Getting out instruments, passing out sheet music, arranging chairs, etc.? Maybe add a stretch break in the middle of the class, where you all sing a song and move a bit. I used to do this with my own kids when they were little, using The Wiggles' "Shake Your Sillies Out." That particular song would only work for young kids, of course. You have likely thought of all of these things yourself.

I would do roasted broccoli.

DH wears transition glasses, but I don't like how long they stay dark when he comes inside, so I haven't tried them for myself. I have worn clip on sunglasses previously and now use a wraparound style. Both work fine for me. I liked the clip ons, because they take up very little room, but that also made them easy to lose track of. I rarely lose track of my wraparound sunglasses. My main reason for posting, though, is to say that when DH got new glasses this year, they told him he could now get transition lenses that would darken in the car, so they do exist. They don't get as dark as they do when he is outside, though.

We had one elderly cat with kidney disease. Another with diabetes. And now we have a young cat with urinary tract disease (very unusual -- we have an appointment with a specialist). Diabetes -- cat will be extremely thirsty and will therefore urinate a lot. Common if cat is overweight. We had to give our cat insulin shots twice (I think) daily. He spend several periods of time (overnight) at the vet for them to get his dosage correct when first diagnosed. After about a year, we put him down, because he stopped using his box, and we were putting our house on the market, and he obviously felt terrible whenever we weren't home to give him his shots on time. Kidney disease -- We had to add water to her food to increase her liquid intake. We kept her for about a year after diagnosis and decided not to give her any special treatment, because she was already 15. The vet recommended injecting water under her skin twice a week at $20 per time, and we decided not to do that. When Kitty stopped eating, we took her back in, and she had lost three pounds. She started as a 7 pound cat, so that was extreme, and we hadn't realized. The vet said she was likely in a lot of pain 100% of the time. We took her home to say good bye and then had her euthenized a few days later. If I had to do that over again, I would have put her down at the first diagnosis, but it was our first experience with kidney disease, and I didn't know. I'm sorry that we let her suffer. She was affectionate until the end, so we didn't realize the pain she was in. UTI -- our cat has a unique condition, so may not apply. But symptoms include straining to urinate but producing little. Sometimes he will huddle by the litter box but not go in. He avoids the litter box and pees elsewhere. He likes to do this in empty laundry baskets, so we have an easy way to collect samples for him. Sometimes he would pee a lot, just because it had built up, I think. He licks himself down there a lot. When he has an infection (he gets repeat infections), he sometimes will hunch himself up and growl, and we can tell he is in pain. Our cat sometimes produces bloody urine, because he has struvites (stones in his urine that injure him inside). Kidney disease can be diagnosed through blood testing. At our vet, it is a "senior" blood screening and costs more -- maybe $170. I will be honest. With your 20 year old kitty, I would be prepared to tell the vet that it's time to let her go. We had to do this with our diabetic cat, and it was hard to not have THEM be the ones to say it was time. I felt like I was betraying my cat, even though I knew it was the right thing. It's easier (though not easy, of course) for the vet to encourage the decision. I think you could say that -- "It would help me to know that you support a decision that this is the end."

DH helped DD do her taxes this weekend. He said if you go to www.irs.gov there is a list of free online tax preparation services.

I wonder if you could shorten the next visit. Just eat and leave. Why stay for a movie that no one wants to watch? You could tell her ahead of time that you are not planning to stay after dinner is over. I'm sure she would not like it, but maybe it would eliminate many of the irritating interactions.

I also think a cardigan is a better choice. The option with the cross-over tied front is adorable but definitely looks girly to me. I would make a 12 month size for the fall. That way, it can be used through the entire winter, whereas a 6-9 month size will be outgrown quickly.

DD17 has been working for about 18 months. And she has had five part time jobs! That's the kind of thing I expected to see in your thread. Instead, it seems like your son is trying to find something that he would like to pursue for the longer haul but hasn't found it yet. I think that's not so unusual. He would probably benefit from some career counseling and job-matching inventories. Perhaps his previous vocational school could direct him to a source for career counseling. Where we used to live, people could get it free at one of our library branches. Colleges usually offer it. I know that he has not been to college. Maybe he needs to pursue some further vocational training, since culinary didn't work out for him. He might be able to meet with someone at your local community college to explore what options might appeal to him there.

The first season was fun! Our teens didn't watch it with us, and it was over a year ago, so I don't remember details. There was a LOT of sexual innuendo in the dialogue and song lyrics, and the comedy relies heavily on relationship tension. Nothing overtly explicit that I remember, but very suggestive. It will depend on your family culture what you think about this for a young teen. It may have been iffy for my kids at age 13, but we were more conservative about that thing (for example, we waited until they were older to watch Iron Man, due to Tony Stark's hypersexuality, even though we watched all of the other Marvel movies with them at that age).

I have one just like it in my cupboard that was my mom's! My dad has other sizes that he still uses, but he had no use for the large one, so I inherited it. I forget to use it, because it's not with my 9x13 dishes.

One thing that may be helpful is for her to know that Asperger's is not a diagnosis that is given any more. Instead, the diagnosis is Austism Spectrum Disorder. If she researches Asperger's, she will be getting older information. Some older books will still have good things in them, of course, but the most updated information about diagnostic criteria will not use the term Asperger's. There is a wide range of types of materials out there. If she wants to understand more about how a diagnosis is made, she can easily research that on the internet by reading about DSM5 autism spectrum disorder criteria. DSM5 is the official description of conditions that practitioners use for diagnoses. She can also ask the evaluators what testing tools they use and research those ahead of time, so she knows both what to expect and whether the person she is working with is using the best diagnostic tools. My son, for example, was given a screener called the GARS by one neuropsychologist, and that ruled out ASD for him based on the way that we as parents answered a questionnaire. It was not the best tool. Years later, we met with a psychologist who specializes in autism, and she ran the ADOS, which is considered the gold standard, and he easily met the criteria that way. So some evaluations are better than others. Our story is not unique. There are others on the boards here who had to go through multiple evaluations to get the correct diagnoses. It may also be helpful for the mom to know that with complicated kids, evaluations are not always "one and done." Over time, as the child progresses developmentally, more things are likely to show up that need investigation. We, for example, have had many psych, speech, OT, and school IEP evaluations over the years.

Yes. I often ask for cookbooks for gifts, and I do use them while cooking sometimes.

My person with autism is not my spouse, and I don't have a book recommendation. But I'm seeing inflexible thinking in your example. Getting stuck on one way of thinking, or stuck on talking about it. I think some with autism do talk on and on about the same thing, past the point of helpfulness or interest of the other person. My person does have an anger issue, as well, and will ask the same questions over and over, hoping to get a different answer. He's not processing his thoughts in the way that you describe, but he does get stuck in his thoughts. I'm not sure whether you can help the other person with this, unless they are willing to work on it themselves. My person is not willing to work on things, unfortunately. But some people are! So that does vary.

We buy a lot of packaged snacks there -- because lots of teens here! The microwave popcorn has increased in price but is still a good deal, compared with brand names from the grocery store (not quite as good, but we go through a lot of popcorn, so it's worth it). When things go on sale, I stock up. I haven't seen dog treats mentioned yet. Also, we order contact lenses through Costco, and it's cheaper than other options. Some prescriptions have been cheaper, as well.

That interaction would frustrate me, too. But I'll admit that I am also afraid of bleach. DH is a great partner, and I admit that it's not unusual for me to ask him to do something that I don't want to do -- usually phone calls, because I have phone anxiety. And killing spiders!

Ohio doesn't have any requirements related to umbrella schools. Homeschoolers generally don't have to report any grades, but I agree that kids in public school have to maintain a certain GPA for sports, so it's a good idea to be prepared to have to document the GPA.

The only proof of address required for homeschool notification is the home address listed on the forms.

Oh, since you are moving into the school district, I would suggest turning in your homeschool notification form to the new distict's superintendent as soon as possible. If you aren't moving until the end of July, I would just go ahead and prepare it and drop it off at the superintendent's office on your first day (or as close to it as you can) of residence. If you will own your new home before your move-in day, I would send it in before you move. Because they won't let a student who isn't registered somehow play on a high school team, so you need to take care of that as soon as you can.

In our district, official fall practice starts on August 1. Optional summer practice goes on all summer for cross country, which is DS's sport. It really is optional, though highly encouraged. The cross country coach sends out home workouts for those who cannot make the summer practice. Our school has a computerized system called Final Forms that students enroll in and then get messages about things like submitting physicals. Some coaches use that to send out practice schedules, and some coaches use other methods -- email or apps. I think in your situation, I would call the school, tell them you will be moving in to the district, and ask what need to be done to register for the sport, so that you can start receiving the information over the summer. They may say that you need to register as a student first, and you can explain that you are homeschoolers. Our school has a general office secretary who may be able to answer questions, but there is also an athletic secretary. I believe the sports physical need to be turned in before practices begin, or they won't allow the student to practice. The forms are good for one year, so you could go ahead and have your current doctor fill that out before you move. At our school, you can send in the physical form electronically.