My last blood test showed low vit D so I supplement that. I also take a multi-vit and fish oil capsules. Not sure if any of it helps. I wouldn't say I can tell a difference since I started taking them. Here's a great tip on the fish oil - put the capsules in the freezer. One of the main complaints is having fish flavored burps when using this supplement. Freezing them works for me.

The way I eat now is LCHF (low carb high fat). The best website to learn about it is Diet Doctor, a physician from Sweden. Essentially, no to sugar or grains or any high carb foods, yes to butter and coconut oil and above ground vegetables and meat/fish/chicken. Primal (see Mark's Daily Apple) is pretty similar as well.

Update - Used white electrical tape for the white trim on the jacket. Worked so great that we used black electrical tape to put a symbol on another part of the costume and red electrical tape to trim the boots. Used hem-bond to shorten the pants. *whew* Lots of work got done today. I'm just glad that DH is helping younger DD build her, even more elaborate, costume. Not sure if these links will be allowed but here is what older DD is going for: http://www.absoluteanime.com/fullmetal_alchemist/ed.jpg And younger DD: http://www.fullmetal-alchemist.com/char-alphonse.php

Yes, but it is because I completely changed the way I eat. This resulted in effortless weight loss which helped so many other things (stopped snoring so I sleep better, easier and more enjoyable to move around, stopped being hot all the time, etc.)

Excellent ideas, all. I like the idea of combining some of them: homemade pumpkin bread with a selection of teas or homemade cookies and a bowl of fruit. That way, if someone couldn't consume one item, the other would probably be ok. I'll bounce them off DD and see what she wants to do. We've already discussed writing a nice personal letter for the main volunteer coordinator.

Toss everything except what you or your DD may enjoy looking at later. For us, that means math sheets definitely get tossed but a creative writing piece gets kept. Anything bulky or 3-D gets photographed and then tossed. No legal requirement to keep anything.

DD18 just stopped volunteering at our local library branch, an activity that she has done since she was 14. Her new college schedule is taking more time and she was having trouble squeezing in her usual library time. She would like to thank the librarians with a small gift for everything they do and show her appreciation for their friendship since she has been volunteering there. Ideas? I'm thinking something consumable because no one needs more bric-a-brac. Something that all the library staff could share. Immediately thought of a basket of cookies or candies but not knowing of any potential dietary preferences makes it hard to be sure it would appreciated.

The FAFSA for the 2016-2017 school year will be available starting January 1, 2016. It would use your tax information from 2015. So, the timing sounds like it would work well for you since your 2015 income will be lower than 2014. The sooner the better for filling out and submitting the form once it is available so most of us use estimated tax information and then later update it once we have officially done our taxes. Keep in mind that I've seen something recently that President Obama is trying to make it easier to complete the FAFSA earlier by allowing (requiring?) the previous tax year to be used, starting with the 2017-2018 FAFSA. . .so 2015 info would be used for the 2017-2018 FAFSA and would be available starting October 2016. It's causing a little confusion because it seems like 2015 info would be used two years in a row. I'll try to link to the article on NPR. http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/09/14/440283994/obama-makes-college-aid-application-earlier-and-easier Edited to add: If you have started the FAFSA already you are using the wrong form. No harm done but you will have to start over with the 2016-2017 form in January.

I don't think one side of Pearson knows what the other side is doing. Their own description on their "Why Pearson Homeschool Curriculum?" webpage states: "Digital and online components let you take advantage of children’s natural affinity with technology to accelerate learning..." http://www.pearsonhomeschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PS14Ot

You are a gem, Lori. Thanks for the input on Pratchett and high school lit.

This is a revelation to me. I never thought of this as a possibility. Of course it makes perfect sense now and I will be passing it along to DD. It will come in handy when she needs to find an advisor at a university. Thanks!

Yikes! That was certainly uncalled for. I bet the advisor wouldn't have reacted at all if your DD had said that a friend had helped her pick out her classes. I appreciate hearing that advisors can also simply be incorrect with their information. DD plans to meet with a representative of the university she wants to transfer to and will be verifying the requirements, etc. If she learns anything that differs, she can take that info back to the advisor to help them better plan going forward.

I'd love to know as well. We used LLoLOTR for my eldest DD to great success. Younger DD is not interested in reading LOTR an asked for a similar program based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. As far as I can tell, there is no such beast.

We've had a similar experience after using MUS all the way through. It worked great for us as evidenced by how DD has done in college courses since. I've seen these same discussions over the weakness of high school level MUS for several years. *shrug* Everyone has their own opinion. :grouphug:

DD's academic advisor at her CC seems light years better than the one I had back in my university days. She met with him back in April to discuss her academic plans and register for courses for this fall. She took in an information sheet that I helped her put together that showed what she had completed during dual enrollment and our attempt at plotting out the rest of the courses that she would need to take over 4 semesters before transferring to a university. He quickly showed her that she could actually cut back on what she planned to take and finish in 3 semesters instead of 4 using a transfer agreement that was set up between the schools. He also helped schedule her courses for the fall semester during the hours she likes best. DD met with him again last week, because he just wanted to check in with her on how her new courses were going. They talked about her courses and the clubs that she has joined, etc. Finally, he told her that now, when unprepared students come in to see him, he waves DD's info sheet at them as an example of what they should bring to meet with him. :laugh: My advisor, back in the day, was tough to track down and mostly just gave a short grunt of acknowledgement as he signed off on my proposed list of courses.

We are another family that doesn't use debit cards. DD just recently got her first credit card at 18. It is a joint card with me since she has no independent income. We wanted her to have one so that she could buy her textbooks, etc. without DH or me having to tag along to the college bookstore as well as a way for her to start building a credit score. She has always been very frugal with money so we weren't worried about her running up a balance.

:iagree: We started with The Great Doctor based on a recommendation from these boards and thoroughly enjoyed it. We are now watching Gu Family Book (very good) and Boys Over Flowers (not sure yet). You have to be ok with reading subtitles though.

:iagree: The creator and instructor for OYAN definitely uses a Christian worldview. It sounds like this would be a no-go for you based on your description of your needs. We prefer secular materials but are willing to use ones with a religious bent if it is a great program. We enjoyed OYAN.

We are doing something very similar here: Violin - weekly lesson plus daily practice Mandolin - weekly lesson plus daily practice Twice weekly lectures (using Discovering Music) Jam sessions with multiple people (organized by her music instructor - great fun) IMHO, making music is output. :laugh:

Glad to hear my DDs have some company! Mine are 15 and 18.

Great ideas! Thanks, everyone. I think we may try out some of the ones that are easy to remove (duct tape, craft tape) first and then move to the others if we don't like how it looks. I never even thought of duct tape.

I was confused at first with this too but it is possible to follow both rules if you take them literally by wearing leggings with a shirt long enough to cover ones bottom and then tucking it in. It doesn't say that the shirt must COVER the bottom, only that it must be long enough to be able to cover the bottom.

First, a small whine because I naively thought that kids would age out of wanting to make costumes. Instead, with my two DDs at least, the concepts just become more elaborate. We spent the afternoon rummaging through thrift stores to find pieces that would work for DD's planned character costume. We had a lot of luck and found most of what she wanted. One piece is a short black jacket. We'll need to add a narrow white trim around the edges. I picked up 1/2" single-fold bias tape but am having second thoughts about trying to sew it on. The edges of the jacket are already thick from the jacket construction and it will be a huge pain to sew through so close to these edges (so that 1/4" of white shows on the outside). Any ideas? Since it is a costume and will likely only be worn a few times and won't have to hold up through washing, etc, could we get away with fabric glue to hold the bias on? What about using fusible bias tape - would this hold if we just ironed it on? None of us are talented seamstresses so any easy "cheat" ideas are welcome. Thank you!

Oh! We won't be using this site then. Thank you for clarifying. The Real ACT book has some practice exams in it for folks looking for a legitimate source. We'll just stick with that.

Thank you for sharing this. DD is just starting with the Real ACT (red book) exams for practice. I wasn't aware there were additional tests available online. Very helpful!