Welp, DS got to campus on Tuesday, got tested, got to his room in a senior house with three other pre-med/biology majors, got a negative result today, aaand one of the three housemates got a positive. So that housemate is in the infirmary hotel, DS and the other two are quarantined at the house for two weeks, will start online classes on Monday and have food delivered from the dining hall. Positive housemate is completely asymptomatic and feels very badly about being the positive one. I sent DS with a plethora of immune boosters, enough to share with his other housemates. There's apparently 6 positives out of about 2000 kids on-campus, which isn't as bad as it could be. Sighing.

DS senior is heading back 8/24 to mostly in-person classes, living in an on-campus house with three housemates (separate rooms) who are all biology/pre-med so are being very careful as is DS. I feel quite good about the campus preparedness - they've de-densified by creating a year-round academic year and moved second and third years to a mix of fall, spring, and summer semesters. All students will have a single room. Everyone goes home for Thanksgiving and stays home for reading period and finals online. Everyone will get tested when they arrive, then quarantine in their rooms until they get results. There will be some continued testing, though not as robust as they originally planned. There's a hotel owned by the college that will be the infirmary/isolation for sick kids. All this said, he and I both expect classes to quickly move to all online when the virus hits. He's been nominated to be on the board that will decide discipline for protocol breaks. The students have all signed an honor code agreement to not break protocol which includes no gatherings, masks outside of dorm rooms, daily temp taking, and distancing. Orientation is all online. Move-in is assigned for a particular day with a half hour increment to arrive and unload. I'll check back in as the fall progresses. I hold him and your college students in the light as we traverse this bit of our time.

Ugh, my daughter in Switzerland reports that they've gone from about 7 cases (early June or so, after the first big wave and shutdown) then slowly up and up to 274 today following the reopening of almost everything. On the plus side, Geneva has mandated masks for University students in the fall. I sent her some pretty masks early in the summer and she's been slowly relearning how to be outside. She puts me on facetime and "we" walk around the old town or to a shop. Very few people are wearing them on the street, but I keep telling her what a fashion and health trend she's starting! There are lots of masks for sale in all the shops, just not on people's faces yet.

I do what Katy does then whip the solid part you scoop out of the can, it does lighten up into whipped topping after a couple minutes on high speed. Yes to topping for pie!

I've never had fb and homeschooled all four all the way through with the youngest 15, oldest is 31. Like Ellie, since before personal computing! What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't yearn for. I lurked here for years before joining but am an introvert anyway, so I get nourished and feel like I have a social life just by reading other's posts. I know that's a little weird! Lori D nails it above, as per usual! I feel like I walk in a different reality than everyone I know who has fb. It's true that I never know about stuff that's happening whether for my kids or my peers, but I can't give up my attachment to this reality. FOMO might be an issue when you first give it up 🙂

Great news, thanks for the update!

@popmom, great news. I truly love the nightshades in all flavors, I just know that if I eat some I'll ache for a few days, and that I have to remember this and not be too crabby to my family. The tea is the worst offender for me. I hope your relief will last!

Yeah, I drank SO MUCH chai. I miss it still!

And one more - it was way worse from lifting that leg.

I will say that first I thought it was appendicitis, but that was an easy one to rule out.

I'm so sorry you're experiencing this. I had what sounds very similar. I will tell you the details below, but am not saying this is definitely what you have, just that your situation sounds really familiar. It started about two years ago, age 53, post-menopause. At first it only happened at night, laying down, a slight feeling of discomfort in the area of my right ovary, sometimes into the groin. I ignored it for a while, then started getting worried and saw an OB/GYN as I was worried about the ovary - I was an egg donor years ago for my sister and they tell you the drugs are not great for the ovaries. She did an ultrasound and pap, nothing unusual. I ignored it for another 6 months, as it got worse and worse. It became a deep ache in my right kidney area, shooting through to the front and then down to the groin. A PA friend said inflamed SI joint if it goes from back to front, which made sense as I am pretty prone to joint pain from inflammation, primarily from nightshades. So I was more careful with my nightshade intake but it didn't fade altogether. Finally I went to my family doc, which I almost never do. She found blood in my urine but no other symptoms of kidney infection, so sent me for a CT scan. This made me really anxious, but it also showed nothing out of the ordinary. Then I poked around on the internet and found articles about a thing called interstitial cystitis, and saw that one of the triggers is black tea. I had quit coffee a year before and was drinking really large amounts of Blue Lotus Chai, which I absolutely love. So I quit, and lo and behold, it was gone in three days. My occasional cup of bitter hot chocolate also flares it, so I avoid that too. I'm back to coffee, and it doesn't flare it. The doc did not diagnose me as I couldn't afford to go back, and in fact am still paying for the CT scan! But the symptoms fit, and were totally gone once I quit the triggering substances. I still avoid nightshades, as I sometimes can feel where it wants to flare up from those as well, but summer tomatoes are such a temptation. I hope you are able to find relief soon!

Ah how long ago was March 30th! World History this summer, truly using Crash Course with the question sets. Not a lot of higher level thinking here, but was actually the only compromise we could achieve. Sigh. I know she will one day "discover" World History and drink it up, as long as I am not the one telling her to! She loved her three years of this as a younger student but it was because some other, cooler, more chill mom taught it. Still the same for English, Algebra 2, Honors Chem Undecided: Language: German 2 or Japanese 1 or both - we had a Japanese friend of DS shelter-in-place with us for three months this spring and DD fell in love with the language and alphabet. Elective: AP Psychology or a not-yet defined philosophy class Extra-curriculars: do these even exist now?? Please somebody tell me there is an amazing new version of interactive, distanced musical theater being rolled out that's free, incorporates anti-racist activism, and involves 75 of her closest friends!!!

Thank you, I am tending this way as well.

My computer is very slow and I'm having a hard time wading through Lori D's amazing lists - could somebody please send a link to ideas for high school/college/online philosophy classes? Thank you very much!

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Cross-posted from the "lunch" thread - not really sure why I love the food threads - ideas, yes, but mostly cuz it's brain comfort food.

Thanks for the heads-up, ladies, and thanks for reading it so I don't have to. I've been homeschooling for almost 30 years and I just want to make it through these last three years with the love, motivation, and devotion to excellence I have always tried to express in this, my chosen "career." Please, Farrar, somebody, create that new advocacy group. I will be your support staff.

This morning's April surprise! I'm always happy for snow, sun-loving dh not so much.

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Dh and I are happily introverting - the two zooms I did were so draining I thought I was getting sick, but no - I was restored after a long walk in the woods alone. My extrovert dd is craving more and more online chatting with her friends. She reports that her school friends are not liking their zoom classrooms, which she thinks is sort of funny because she really likes her two online classes (as the only "real" homeschooler.) Having said this, I do find myself more online with this Board - finding connection in the group that is closest to my heart's work.

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I too have been reading and occasionally liking bits of this post for months. The resonance for me here is that this is a group of (mostly) women who research, collaborate, and plan to the degree that I do and I don't have people like you in real life. I'm grateful. I was visiting my sister in February then came home to start stocking up - my dh finally noticed after a couple of weeks! @Garga I just agreed to be the guardian for two of my honorary kids in case their (widower) dad passes away. It opened up those questions for me too, since my dd15 has three majority-aged siblings to assume her care but my dh and I would be it for these girls.

I'm so sorry to hear this. Yes to calling schools for a reconsideration, it can't hurt to ask. The frozen feeling is awful. Maybe take it a few months at a time, let the possible tuition increases be something you think about a little later in this process.

English with the same amazing tutor as this year. Mr. D Algebra 2 Blue Tent honors chem German 2 format undecided. We originally thought she would spend time with her sister in Switzerland, doing classes online and learning German at a language school there - now seems unrealistic. World History - except she may start this now since all her extracurriculars are cancelled and she has waaayyy too much free time on her hands! Eclectic approach as she claims to hate history but actually loves everything she ever learns about it. I think this is more about not wanting to learn from me. I've asked her to come up with a plan that meets my standards and lets her self-direct. To be continued... Elective of her choice at the local LAC, possibilities include psychology, movement training, or a writing seminar in Spring semester. If social distancing is no longer operative, her extras will be handworks assistant teacher, water-quality and arsenic monitoring with a local lab, show choir and theater at the local high school. If social distancing is still operative, extras will be...umm...something else?