Ham Reheated rotisserie chicken (for those who don't eat pork, aka me) cranberry sauce mashed potatoes chicken gravy butternut squash (cubed, then boiled and slightly drained, so it's really moist, finished with a tablespoon of butter) green beans these rolls (because my kids think it's not Thanksgiving without them) pie -probably chocolate with shortbread crust, maybe a second one if I can figure out what would taste okay without cinnamon, eggs, strawberries, cherries, bananas, peanuts . . . maybe a rhubarb rasp/blackberry pie? This year, I'm putting the kids in charge of lunch/appetizers (usually pickles, olives, cheese, salami, crackers, etc). Even though it's a simpler menu than pre-pandemic years, it still feels like too many dishes for four people. Hopefully this will be the last holiday season with just the four of us.

Adventures in Fantasy got both my girls excited about writing, and they now consider themselves writers. IMO, that alone was worth the detour. As a side benefit, because they wanted their book to be good, they also got more invested in grammar and spelling. When it was time to write the actual chapters, my oldest started lugging around the thesaurus voluntarily. The downside is that the book is out of print, but you can find used copies. It's also committing to a year of just writing fiction. Even if you split it up over 2 years and alternate with another curriculum, it's still 36 weeks of writing time dedicated to writing a single story, a long story for the age group (my oldest wrote a story the length of a middle grades novel), but ultimately it's still just one story. On the plus side, before they were done, both of my girls were already plotting out multiple sequels to their books. I think writing a book makes a young person feel like they are equipped with the tools to tackle any writing assignment. While my oldest doesn't look forward to writing essays and research papers (how many people really do?), she feels more than capable. All the shorter assignments seem smaller in comparison, so they are not intimidating.

In the 80s, my parents line dried laundry, cloth diapered, had a veg garden and canned, washed dishes by hand, used a push (i.e. completely human powered) mower. My mom made all our clothes, and we were the only ones at our school with clothing that didn't have a label. I was the oldest cousin, so there were no hand-me-downs until I was adult sized. My mom cut our hair with scissors. We didn't own a tv. I think the only electricity we used was the fridge, oven, washer, and lights at night. It was as close to Amish living as you could get inside a big city. In all the places we lived, my parents never used HVAC. Even in Nebraska, in the late 90s, my father would just light a fire every morning during the winter. My mother (who finally owned an electric sewing machine) made us thermal pajamas, lined our skirts with flannel, and sewed heavy quilts. I was glad to share my bed with the family dog. We didn't own a hair dryer and the house only had one shower, so with six people in the house, it was hard to find a time to shower that wouldn't leave you freezing all night or go out in the cold with wet hair. I remember once leaving the house with wet hair in -20 degrees (Fahrenheit), and if I bent my waist length hair, the ice crystals would make it stick straight out horizontally. I never did that again! For my parents, it was at least 95% about saving money. Now that they are empty nesters, they are hobby beekeepers. I think on some level, they care about the environment, but for them, it's all wrapped up in their religion (i.e. being good stewards of the earth). My mother's parents had a farm with cows and chickens. At some point during my childhood, they moved and then owned a business growing and freeze drying flowers, especially roses. My grandfather was really into technology, and I have memories of him teaching me how to use DOS to play computer games. My father's parents had a chef and acreage in California (they donated everything to the church before my grandfather died) and I never saw any hint of environmental stewardship from them. My FIL and his father also worked in IT, so technology has always been a part of their households. I have taught my girls how to cook and bake from scratch, do basic sewing, gardening, wash dishes by hand, to reuse before recycling, etc. However, for the most part, we live in a high tech, high electric house. My husband works from home doing IT stuff, so we'll always be dependent on electricity, but we used 1,434 KWH last month and I would like to reduce that footprint. I don't think (with my health issues) that I am capable of living like my parents did, but I would like to live a lifestyle somewhere in the middle.

We just bought Covid Christmas ornaments for each of our kids (you can pick whether it says 2020 or 2021), and I love that it includes homeschooling: https://www.etsy.com/listing/887952134/commemorative-2021-holiday-ornament-just In addition to the Eject button, I also added a beach towel and a dragon scale zipper pouch (to hold first aid/emergency supplies) for the car kit. Hitchhiker's Guide towel: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AFV835S

My MIL's neighborhood is one that attracts way too many trick or treaters. 1,000+ pieces of candy does not last long. The kids come to the door 4-6 at a time, and as one group is leaving, another is coming, so they end up trampling most of the grass in the front yard. It's a constant stream to her door until all the candy is gone, usually about an hour. The kids don't linger because they know everyone will run out of candy in a short time, so you don't get to enjoy the outfits. The night is just a blur of hands reaching into the bowls. We haven't been able to participate in ToT for many years due to my daughter's airborne anaphylactic allergy to cinnamon. Too many people have cinnamon brooms or other scented decor on their front porch or through their open door. We can't even do trunk or treating because some people scent their cars with cinnamon. Our tradition now is to just buy candy for us and watch a fun movie at home.

Weird things I've bought on Etsy: For my crime show fan: https://www.etsy.com/listing/871106120/this-is-where-i-murder-vegetables-glass Caffeine molecule mug: https://www.etsy.com/listing/656862843/caffeine-molecule-coffee-mug I'm making a box of "pimp my ride" accessories for my teen who has been reluctant to drive: D&D decal: https://www.etsy.com/listing/931694526/dungeons-and-dragons-if-you-can-read Portal keychain: https://www.etsy.com/listing/889676294/campanion-cube-keychain-portal-inspired I will probably add one of those Eject cigarette lighters from last year's list. I am theoretically done with Christmas shopping, but I would not be averse to adding more to this box if I saw something she would love. I just want to make the car an enjoyable space for her, so she doesn't dread her driving lessons. Her birthday is a few days before Christmas, so I will put the box with the birthday stuff. My DH begged for this Star Wars paint by number set: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Y5R3M5R He worked for universities for over a decade, so we usually all had a 2-3 week break at Christmas and fell into the habit of doing more elaborate paint by number kits each holiday season. If we have a houseguest for the holidays, they also get a set. My (pig UFO) paint by number kit took one month to arrive: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Z384YG6 We also got the kids video game themed face masks, like this Stardew Valley one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0919M1348

We got this model about a year ago, and we've been really happy to have the hot water feature included in such a small footprint. My husband usually brews 1-2 cups of coffee at a time, but when it's not a pandemic, we have guests, so having more volume capacity is useful. https://www.target.com/p/cuisinart-coffee-plus-12-cup-programmable-coffee-maker-38-hot-water-system-stainless-chw-12p1/-/A-21398001#lnk=sametab I bought it at Target, but since it's out of stock there, here's the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-CHW-12-Programmable-Coffeemaker-Stainless/dp/B003KYSLMC?th=1 Looks like Lowes, Kohls, Williams Sonoma, and Walmart also have it in stock. Dimensions are: 10.25 x 9.5 x 14.3 inches

Even with the arrive by time feature, Google Maps claims those 20 blocks are a 10 minute drive. I don't think even an ambulance could do it in 10 minutes at 8am, since there are no additional lanes or shoulder for cars to make room.

I'd bring a map and ask for them to circle the general area that would be a 30 minute commute from the place of work (and also whatever would be a dealbreaking commute distance for your DH at which you would no longer consider a house). It can be hard to get a feel for commute times during a brief visit, and traffic in cities often change drastically during commute hours. Coworkers will have a better feel for this than your realtor, since they'll be more familiar with traffic around the workplace. My husband once worked at a place with a 75 minute commute, but the last 30 minutes was within 20 blocks of the parking garage. The employer next door had thousands of employees pass through security and it would always back up in the mornings throughout the neighborhood (which had roads with only one lane in each direction!).

I had many, many hypothyroid symptoms for over a decade. As an example, even if I had wanted to work outside the house, I couldn't because I had hypermenorrhagia at unpredictable times. Despite it interfering with my life so much, docs (PCPs and endocrinologists) refused to treat me until my TSH was "high enough". About 4 years ago, my TSH was finally recorded at just over 5 and my (new) PCP agreed to let me try levothyroxine. At that point, my energy levels were so low, even the thought of having to stand up made me cry. My point is that even with a barely out of range TSH, symptoms can be a lot worse than doctors would believe. Now that I am treated, I have more energy in my 40s than I did for all of my 30s and most of my 20s. I have not hemorrhaged in the last year, and finally feel like I could hold a job once my youngest has graduated. I recommend your daughter get a second opinion. If the doc is that dismissive of her symptoms, even if other bloodwork revealed a need for treatment, they wouldn't listen when dosage needed to be adjusted.

In my bullet journal, I have a page dedicated to foods I crave during the wrong season. All summer long, I write down oven dishes so when it finally gets cold, I remember what I wanted. It has been a looooong summer (almost 8 straight months of summer temperatures here), so I am really looking forward to making some of these dishes: enchiladas brunch with biscuits from scratch breaded chicken with french fries or tater tots, spinach and fruit smoothies chimichangas, rice, beans, salad chicken and eggplant parm, garlic bread, and a big salad baked chili and cornbread pizza bombs, salad shepherd's pie (or sometimes I make hand pies with shepherd's pie filling)

When you call a customer service number about an order, but because the order was in the spouse's name, they refuse to talk to you. (sarcasm font) Yes, Best Buy, I must be trying to screw up my husband's life by reporting that we received laser print toner (retailing over $215) instead of the big Christmas present we ordered for our teen (a podcast mic kit, about $100). Never mind the fact that when I called about this exact order on Friday, my husband verbally told them that I was authorized to discuss the problem... At least I got the customer service supervisor to say she would pass along my suggestion to management that once a person has been authorized to discuss a problem with a particular order, that authorization should cover ALL phone calls regarding that particular order. I can definitely see cases with divorces where you wouldn't want continuous authorization for the account, but most orders get resolved within two weeks, so having authorization last for the length of the particular order number should help in most situations. As an aside, all of our other business accounts are in my name to avoid situations like this, but this account predated our marriage. After this order is resolved, we will either stop buying from Best Buy or create a new account in my name. This is the second order in a row that they have screwed up, so I'm inclined toward the former choice. We'll see how my husband feels after he calls them tonight, lol.

I did the last of my birthday/Christmas ordering (one kid has a late December birthday) this weekend. I wanted to warn y'all that while most of the stuff will be arriving this week or next month or November, I do have one gift that already has an expected arrival date in December. Those shipping delays are going to be a doozy this year!

I tend to think of edgy as something different, but in a non-friendly, abrasive way. An object with a sharp edge can cut you. I had never used edgelord as a word before, but it sounded vaguely familiar, like maybe my teen used it in a story? My 16yo says trolls do what they do for their own entertainment. Edgelords might say things that sound similar to a troll, but essentially they do it to be the center of attention. They more frequently play the victim and don't own up to their own actions. Her description of her interaction with edgelords makes them sound like depressed narcissists.

When we did allergy testing, we had to push for non-standard foods to be tested. My youngest had daily hives for many, many months as a baby. The allergist could not figure out the problem. Skin tests would not work because she was already covered head to toe in hives. At the beginning, I remember the doc saying she was too young to take daily allergy meds. We spent more time at the allergist than the pediatrician that year. Eventually she was able to take allergy medicine, but the cause of the allergy was still not discovered until my youngest started eating table food, and had a really bad reaction to oatmeal with cinnamon that we realized that was the issue. Then we had the allergist make a customized skin test for cinnamon, and we were finally able to confirm it. I had been breastfeeding and consuming cinnamon daily for my insulin resistance, and apparently enough of it was in the breastmilk to trigger the allergy. We had another child with an allergy to rice. That was much easier to pinpoint because when we changed our diet to see if it was wheat/gluten, the reaction got much, much worse. The doctors did not believe it could be a rice allergy, but we just eliminated rice from her diet, and she never had another reaction. My point is that not all allergies are due to common allergens, and allergists might not even have a test for the item that is causing the reaction. Unfortunately, it could take months of guesswork, with changing the diet over and over again. Ultimately, my husband and I figured out the food allergies before the allergist. The skin tests were still worth doing though, as they did find some minor environmental allergies. If I had another child now, I would absolutely do a skin test with them as soon as they were old enough for the result to be reliable.

Pre-pandemic, my oldest was out of the door at 6:45am. Her bus ride was 45 minutes since we are only a couple blocks away from the district line. She would come in the door in the afternoon around 4pm. She's the kind of kid that only needs to be told something once to remember it, so brick and mortar school felt like a lot of busywork for her. She got most of her schoolwork done during school, so she rarely had homework, and the level of schoolwork, even at the honors level, was not challenging enough for her to need to study. Clubs met during the school day, and she didn't do sports. We did BSA that year, so on Tuesdays she only had an hour at home before we were eating dinner and then driving 30 minutes to get to the BSA meeting. By the time we got home, it was bedtime. Otherwise, her evenings/weekends were free. My oldest went from homeschooling to brick and mortar in 8th grade. I had also gone from homeschooling to public school in 8th grade, and I appreciated having the year to get used to the changes before grades went on my transcript. I'm an introvert, and this morning I just found an essay I'd written in high school that said I didn't talk to my classmates for the entire first semester I was in public school. I remember being shy, but specific memories have faded over the years. The first year of public school is hard, but also really rewarding. My daughter struggled with the early wakeup, having to work at a set pace, and the constant review. On the other hand, she enjoyed spending more time with peers, especially ones from different backgrounds. She also thanked me for the education I'd previously provided for her, as she was constantly appalled at all the things her classmates didn't already know. That year was the first time I'd been alone in a home. I grew up in a house of six people, so I never had the luxury of alone time. I didn't cry when my oldest left the first morning, but I did cry when my youngest got on the bus. I did a lot of baking, running errands, and volunteering that year while getting used to an empty house. We have food allergies in the family, so I had to pack lunches every day. I made a menu of 20 different lunches, and we'd rotate who got to pick the five different lunches off the menu for the week. I am not a morning person, so knowing what to prepare helped me get three lunches packed before 6:45am.

I know a lot of these ideas are for elementary kids, but I thought if looking at words doesn't help her, some of these ideas for kinesthetic or oral practice might be more beneficial than a workbook, and maybe you could tweak them to be more age appropriate. http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2012/10/75-fun-ways-to-practice-and-learn.html Another thing I do is to tell a story in a couple sentences that relates the meaning of the word to the part of the spelling that the student struggles with. If she needs to spell "spinach", I might talk about chomping down on a bowl of spinach, and the teeth making a "ch ch" sound. My daughter then remembers my words, and when she has to spell spinach, she'll remember that there is a "ch" somewhere in the word. You could always customize a word list for her based on the ones she's currently misspelling the most frequently. I write spelling words on index cards and file them by how many days in a row my student has spelled them correctly (like a daily spelling test). Once words are spelled correctly three days in a row, I let my kid tear up the index card. If you try to keep the number of index cards to ten or less and only add new cards on Mondays, it seems to be more beneficial for long term retention of the spelling. That's the method I've used with my kid who I suspect has dyslexia/dysgraphia, and she has shown a lot of progress with it since I started using it three years ago. Once the student knows the ideas of how to practice the words (and you could print out a list of ways to practice for her to reference), it takes less than ten minutes a day with the teacher.

Maybe call it Advanced Biology, with a deeper study of taxonomy (like a Bio 102 class in college). She could have a project to illustrate an example of each phylum. You could get a textbook for Veterinary Anatomy to study internal anatomy. If you live in an area with a lot of wildlife, you could call it a Field Study credit. She could research the species and write small reports each week. As a side note, if she is interested in scientific illustration, I think having more biological sciences makes sense on her transcript. In high school, I took Honors Biology, Honors Chemistry, AP Biology, Marine Biology, and Microbiology. I had no problems getting into college with a major in Biology.

My husband and I had the J&J vaccine in the spring. He had the alpha strain over a year before, and he had zero side effects from the vaccine. I had never had Covid (no symptoms anyway and there were no tests available at the time he got sick to check if I was just asymptomatic). With the vaccine, I had a few days of fever, sore arm, and swelling at the injection site. FWIW, I have that reaction every time I get a tetanus shot as well. I am hoping J&J will be available for kids (12 and up) around February, so both my kids can get it. If the Lambda variant heads near our area before then, I will probably get them a RNA vaccine so they have some protection, but I prefer the J&J for the length of immunity it provides.

I think it's a natural reaction to overpopulation, especially during a pandemic. Finding a place to get away from other humans is getting harder. It's not that people haven't lived densely before now, but even the suburbs are more dense, compared to a decade ago. The houses being built now around me (45 minutes from downtown) don't have lawns big enough to play in. Having a flower bed and a walking path around the new houses would be tight. A fire truck certainly couldn't get between the houses. My pandemic hobby has been to look at real estate listings with acreage. I've lived my whole life in cities or suburban subdivisions, but I've suddenly had the itch to go rural. With my husband working at home and kids schooling at home, and doing just weekly curbside pickup of groceries and everything else ordered online, I feel like I'm living the rural lifestyle without having the benefits of privacy or a walking trail.

I bought Adventures in Fantasy about 5-6 years ago from Rainbow Resource. It looks like it's out of print now, but if you can get your hands on an unmarked used copy, it is worth having. If I were to lose my personal copy in a move, I would definitely pay up to $50 to get another copy. I will say though, that it took me awhile to come up with a year-long schedule for using it as a writing curriculum. Here is the schedule I used with my oldest: https://westwoodhomeschool.wordpress.com/2016/07/31/sixth-grade-writing/ For my current seventh grader, we've been alternating Adventures in Fantasy with Writing Strands, so she's on a two year schedule to finish her novel. As far as psychology goes, I couldn't find anything on my daughter's reading level, so I'm letting her read sections from Caring For Your Baby and Young Child. She is mostly interested in how babies learn and their brains develop, so I'm hoping that this book will be all she wants until she takes psychology in high school. The other recommendation I got from the forum was to try babysitting books. We are quarantining still, so that seemed like it would be torture to read when she wouldn't be able to do any babysitting.

Last year, even in the clubs, interaction between students was discouraged. The whole school acted like they had recently been hit by a bullying lawsuit or something. Any time my daughter tried to engage with another student, the teacher would just disable the chat (and I'm talking about stuff as simple as "What video game are you into?", asked while waiting for the class to start, so it wasn't disruptive). They even removed all discussions from the class assignments. The lack of connection with other students made it feel even more like a factory. There were no in-person events (other than state testing) due to Covid, so meetups were impossible. The social isolation was worse because of the quarantine, and I'm still disappointed that the school didn't allow online interaction between students. Quarantine would have been a lot more endurable if she could have made some online friends. At her new school this year, they go out of their way to make student interaction happen, and she is already so much happier. For math, my daughter used Khan Academy whenever she didn't understand a lesson. If she still didn't get it, she went to the teacher's open office hours (3 or 4 times that year). They switched math texts twice during the year (they tried something new and then switched back because it was so awful), and that did not help anyone.

In regards to working ahead, they mostly care about your percentage progress in the courses. If your student doesn't meet the expected percentage progress for a couple weeks, expect emails and/or a phone call. On the other hand, if they work too far ahead, assignments may be dropped or heavily altered, so going more than a week ahead could be a waste of time. Otherwise, they don't care how your student schedules their week, as long as they make the weekly progress and have live contact with each teacher at least every other week.

My oldest attended a Connections Academy school last year for her sophomore year. She switched to a different online public school for this year. Connections Academy can work for a season, but I can't imagine a kid who could do it long-term and not lose their love of learning. It's heavily Pearson based, and it has a lot of the worst parts of the public school model. The high school teachers don't get to spend much time with individual students and frequently have too many students (my daughter was sometimes in classes with over 200 students, and those teachers had more than one class), so the grades are mostly quizzes and tests. Most lessons have a short 3-5 multiple choice question quiz, and those mini quizzes are weighted too heavily, IMHO. If you routinely miss a single question (like the analysis questions in literature, like there is only one "right" way to think about a piece of literature), it gets hard to keep an A in the class, regardless of how well you do on papers or tests. If they would have had time to grade a short answer quiz, you would be able to defend your answer, and the teacher would be able to give you credit. As it was, my kid walked away from the school with her first B in English, despite the teacher saying she was certain she would someday be reading my daughter's work in print. The student has to attend a one hour live class online for every subject. If you miss the live class, you can watch the recording (they frequently include assignment instructions, as well as discussing the week's topic). You have to have contact with a teacher at least every other week, so if you have a schedule conflict with a live class, expect to spend time at the teacher's online open office hours. My kid had two classes scheduled at the same time, so she did office hours with her marketing teacher to meet the contact requirements. If you want to do dual enrollment, the schedule is a little harder to work with, since most classes are year long (not sure if that varies state to state). One reason my daughter switched schools this year was to have semester-long classes, so she would have time for dual enrollment classes in the spring. If you're looking to avoid Covid, the school may still be required to have in-person standardized testing, depending on state laws. My daughter had to do 5 days of in-person testing in the spring. On the potentially positive side, the parent is a lot less involved. I read emails, checked to make sure my daughter actually did the work, and entered attendance. On a bad day, it maybe required an hour from me. So if you need a break from homeschooling, it can be a year of respite. They also have a lot of elective options, and my daughter said the business classes she took were really helpful (marketing, management, accounting). The PE was the best way I could imagine to do PE for a public school credit. She basically kept a log of physical activity, whatever she wanted to do, and took some knowledge tests about sports rules. I wish I had had that option when I went to high school.