Are you insinuating that the creation view is a theory in your #3?

Good morning! Today is deep clean day. Oldest ds and his gf are hosting a large group of friends to celebrate his birthday this evening. coffee violin clean the living areas shop for a shirt for ds14 (he has a competition tomorrow at Harvard and we've hit the sweet spot of last year's is too small and the one we bought this year is too big) help ds14 deep clean his bathroom set up for an early morning tomorrow: backpack, umbrella, warm jacket in the car leave. LOL We're making sure ds25 has the home to himself, so the other three of us are heading out for dinner and a movie, possibly a stop for dessert after.

I just want to say, closely examine the quality of the relationships and groups. Kids at this age are really pushing to not just socialize, but develop bonds based on working toward common goals together and produce some sort of result. It's not enough to be friendly, it's the developmentally appropriate need to find purpose together that develops a lot of their relationships. When other kids are complaining about school/talking about experiences, it's signalling a need to find that deeper common bond of relating to each other in her.

DS loves his Crocs. I really wanted to like the Sketchers slip ons, but if you have narrow heels you might not get the fit you want.

I think because it's a stroller, I'd hit it with an enzyme remover first, and then a stain remover.

This past time we went through, we used Hakim's Story of Science series along with Potentially Catastrophic Science as an activity spine.

Good morning! run to the store for cheesecake and get cashback clean the house 13000 steps violin run a few loads of laundry take oldest ds out to dinner Not a whole lot going on today. Classes start Monday and the rest of this week is filled with running around, so today is an off day.

Yeah...we found out more. He has been insinuating and straight out saying ds was trans for a while now, as he's grown his hair. Not in a "hey, that's cool" kind of way, but a misogynistic crude sort of way that not only negated who he was, but also any competent girl on the ice. And ds looks like the poster Victorian child with long cherubic ringlets and big eyes. DS is not trans. He just got tired of the homophobic/anti-trans rhetoric directed at him and snapped. I'm okay with focusing on the aspect of "team practice was disrupted and that was disrespectful to your coaches." and not giving empathy to the kid that he pummeled. I'd be glad to explain that to the other kid's parents, too. It explains why ds didn't ever want to wear his team jacket. That kid's parents paid for them all. But we're working on trust issues again and how to deal with big feelings and bad situations. Parent teacher conferences went well. Very speedy: "not living up to his potential, has a tendency to rush through his work, but is very bright, animated during discussions, and keeps himself out of the drama." (I nearly snorted at the last part) The rest? I definitely knew.

Good afternoon! I'm still processing the fact that my 14yo attempted to beat the tar out of his teammate during practice last night. The kid ran his mouth often, ds had enough of being the target. So.........*sigh* We're working out a plan today. It is an unusual situation, in which no one who was there is feeling sorry for the kid that ds laid on the ice. Up next: parent teacher conferences. Laundry is in the wash. Dinner is BLTs and leftovers.

I will get more info from dh later today. He buys them at the local bike/ski shop. I don't know what they taste like, lol, but I know ds will eat them when he is struggling. They look like regular ones, maybe smaller? About 3-4in diameter.

My purse is set up for sports: Lots of Kleenex (because of ds's nosebleeds) Powdered electrolyte packets Children's scissors Nail clippers a crochet hook wallet small coin purse with bandaids, neosporin, iodine packets small bottle of Motrin fruit sticks & protein stroopwaffle about 8 pencils, a black pen, a blue pen, and two dry erase markers

Oh, I think you misunderstood! I absolutely do not mean debate them! I mean things like, "This sounds important to you." And letting the conversation get carried a little more. "Where did you hear about this?" And letting them talk some more. You start to see motives and who is pushing them to solicit donations, and it gives you more of a chance to talk to your young neighbors, not at them. Going door to door is hard. Kindness isn't. You can absolutely respectfully decline anything you want, but it is worth it to see why they're out there in the first place.

I'm going with borderline inappropriate. A safe neighborhood, with an ambitious 10yo leading the direction is different than two kids being sent off meekly to wherever. This might be the older kid's idea. We get the occasional kid coming by. Usually a scout or kids looking for school donations. Most of the time I take a few minutes to talk it out with them and see what they know. Today we had our own weird solicitation. Dh and I were a little on edge by the black SUV that slowed its roll down our street and checked out our property clearly. That was followed by a white car 10 minutes later who hung a little bag on our front door. Inside was a pair of socks and a card from the local realtor, promising if we went with them we'd get rates that would "knock our socks off." Ha. Ha.Ha. Never mind we have no intention to sell. DS14 is thrilled he has a new pair of bbq grill covered socks, though.

We had this one: Catch And Release Trap. It works well. The bait is definitely important. Dark chocolate is a favorite, but add a dollop of peanut butter and they come running. I use it in my garage.

Grocery and box store done. I made the mistake of taking dh with me, lol. My $30 trip ballooned significantly. BUT, we did get an 18 pack of Kraft mac & cheese for $14. Oldest ds has that as one of his comfort foods and I can see a few boxes getting made this week with the uneven weather.

I hope not? 😂 It's usually about 26 weeks, but ds's team is currently undefeated and 1st place in the conference. There are four rounds of play off games scheduled, so it'll be another two weeks or so if they make it through the rounds. This year his new team wants to do a 'get to know you' ice session in the spring and a few summer skills, but they were vague on that front. We tend to sign him up for a one week session during the summer so we don't have any fall surprises (like gear not fitting, muscle lag...) but many of the kids his age go from the season, to a spring 3v3 league, to every day summer skills and weight training, then the pre-season camp and back to the season again. That is......exhausting. And we'd really like ds to not have to give up the rest of him in order to keep up. We like that he does scouts and volunteers and does gaming and all sorts of things. Hockey will end. He will grow out of it, or the division will narrow enough to push him out. We'd like him to still know who he is when that happens.

Good morning! Today is definitely going to be busy.. hit up the warehouse store. I have parent-teacher conferences tomorrow and figure they can all use more kleenex and pencils. It's allergy season. stop by the grocery store for oatmeal and dinner ...er, figure out dinner wash the sheets burn more yard waste violin 13,000 steps take ds to his science lesson this evening stop and get second dinner/pack it in the car before we go take ds to hockey practice (moved due to tryouts this week)

Any time a community is cut off from outside eyes, abuse has room to foster and grow. I think that's the dynamic we often see in boarding schools, yes, but also elite sports, religion, show biz, homeschooling....it's hard to find that independent oversight if those in charge make the rules and the rest of the outside community has no ability to act.

I took ds to the birthday party. One of the parents offered to take him home, so I consider that a win. It gave me a chance to burn some yard waste without a "helpful" teen who just wants to build the biggest fire he can. I also got my school room clean. Yay! I'm sorry about your ds, @ScoutTN. We've seen some of those friendships run through our house. It's never easy. I remind myself that most of us don't maintain our childhood friendships through adulthood and it's good to find those who are right for us at that time, but.........well, here is an anomaly. These folks' ancestors got off the ship in 1620 and became so intertwined with one another that it's common to see people who went to school together, grew up together, had kids around the same time, and put all their kids in the same activities. Generation after generation repeating a cycle. It's not something I'm used to and have no idea how to help ds think about long term when a friendship peters out because nobody ever leaves here.

Your day sounds more exciting than mine, @TravelingChris. Is it a local or professional version of Jesus Christ Superstar? I've had the opportunity to see some really well done local productions. And some interesting ones. 😆 My son's heavily Christian high school put on a very edited version of Grease. By the end I wasn't sure what I was watching anymore. Today: shower set things up for tomorrow swing by the store take ds to a bday party dinner: leftovers. DS will be fed at the party, which is awfully brave of the mom. A dozen teen boys with bottomless pits in lieu of stomachs..yikes. Disney trivia night at home

It's the tar and nicotine sticking to the clothes. If you want to salvage, put them in a soak with a lot of vinegar or Oxiclean to loosen it all up before washing, not the vinegar in the wash. I might add a bit of Dawn to it as well. Oldest ds struggled with some detergents. We'd have to soak, then wash, then wash with baking soda. I stopped going to thrift store for their clothes because it was just so much to do before he could wear them.

MEP, Miquon, and Gattegno. There's also CSMP if you have a color printer.

I'm sorry, @ScoutTN We've had those sort of dinners here and it's frustrating to put in the work, time, and overall energy to be stuck with leftovers for one.

Good morning! We woke up early to take ds to his last game of the regular season. They remain undefeated and will take the first place slot in the playoff bracket. Up next: do a quick marinade on the meat for dinner figure out if we're going to a birthday party tomorrow or not, and what to bring get ds to do his laundry work on a puzzle 10,000 steps type up notes

We had rules when ds first started staying home 1. No stove. Microwave is fine. 2. Phone has to be charged and ready to go. 3. Don't open the doors, even if it's your friends. We have an active neighborhood and ds has 4 he can go to in a moment's notice, so I know there's always back up if necessary.