Whoa that is a lot! I don't know if you want JAWM, are decompressing and regrouping, or want suggestions. From what you wrote, this is what I see, feel free to contemplate, disregard, anything: You love working at the theater. This is something that can recharge you, inspire you, show your kids a passion of yours. All good. A way to "fill your cup." Kids need to know you are someone else other than a "need provider" and also its good for them to learn independence for another family member to do something that brings them joy. You do that for them, let them rise to the challenge and do that for you. If you feel that enriched doing this, I would encourage you to explore how you can continue. Even if it means putting your kids in public. Also, if you enjoy the preschool, and bringing your preschooler with you, how would it be to seek full time? With the others are at public, this could be a possibility. Don't be so loyal to home educating that it destroys any quality of life you might have. It never speaks well of home educating to trash the mom in the process, it is supposed to be, for the most part, an enriching experience. Some family set ups are not that great for home educating, especially homes where the husband works a lot of hours, and the wife doesn't have a lot of support or help. That is what causes burnout for the mom. The airlines say "put on your oxygen mask first, then your childrens'" and that is very good advice. Your daughters need to see an empowered woman to model after, and you doing what you need to achieve that, whether or not that includes homeschooling.

There are great articles on this on heysigmund.com

In US: We just had an urgent matter that required surgery... I had to drive three times long distance in a week (don't want to discuss details, but its fine in the end). The wait where we live was 3-4 weeks to see a GP/Internal Med. doctor... and forget the specialist, and great pain was involved. Sooooo drive (and drive and drive) far away. My question would be, to Canada and UK: What about specialists? Can you go straight to one? Can you pick one that is well known in their specialty? Or are you "stuck" with whoever you might be sent to by the GP? Let's pretend its cancer... can you pick a medical center well known to treat what you have and with record of good outcomes? So I guess in summary, how much choice does the patient have in socialized medicine?

I vote no. It feeds it. You want to diffuse it. Go silent. No exceptions. If he brings it up, ask how his family are, or comment on the lovely day, or weather. If he still talks about it, say you don't discuss politics. He has decided his stance, any offering from you is a waste of oxygen. ADDING: Either delete his emails, or put in an UNREAD folder. Either way, scan to make sure other than those views are there... then delete without reading. No need to ruin your day.

I've had good luck with Turbo Tax making uneven estimated payments. You do have to coax it a bit... (Tax Act royally messed it up.) Use the self employed version, download or CD, its easier, with the forms function, (with online, you lose access for the last payment, although TT gave us the download to retrieve it). Its hard to explain, but you take your income so far in the year, and multiply it as if it is your annual income. For Jan-Mar, multiply by 4, Apr-May multiply Jan-May income by 2.5, rest, factor is 12 over how many months so far in year. Don't forget to subtract about what your Sch. C expenses are, or you will overpay. Go into the "pay estimated tax" portion of federal and state, plug the annual income in (changing each quarter), then take what is left owing for entire year, and divide what's left to figure what to pay that quarter. Keep track of payments, and feed your payments in. If you make more in a quarter, it will give a really high amount, don't use that, or you will overpay. I always get really close this way. You do have to fill out form 2210 to prevent a penalty, and make your percentages by annual income divided by each quarter, and then applying those percentages whenever you need to come up with quarterly amounts paid or owed.

Maybe this will be of interest to you: http://terrywahls.com/about/about-terry-wahls/

tinybuddha.com has good articles, and a facebook page as well

:grouphug: Does your insurance allow you to go straight to a specialist? Would you consider trying to get into Mayo? Its a bit of a drive... but its Mayo.

Southern Living has a lot of their recipes archived online on their website, try there.

I hope OP didn't leave here... I read her thread and was coming back to tell her that her "Mom mission statement" was one of the best I've ever read. Her daughters, and family, are fortunate to have her and I wish her the best.

I've heard of it both ways. But we don't charge ours. I've heard of some charging the rent, saving it up, and giving it to them when they move. The economy is not being friendly to our young adults, and I don't want to make it worse. I want my dc to be able to have a period of time where they can save money so they can have reserves to work with.

That helps a lot! Burning the dvds (and having them actually play) has scared me from carrying this out . I have the little box to play VHS to a macbook pro (older). I still need to get a 8mm camcorder from someone for those... but my technical skills are lacking... I can keep files on the computer, a hard drive, and/or flash drive, and would feel better to have a flash drive as back up. I've heard to use iMovie (eeks), are there options to "save files as" if so, what do I pick? Any links, help what to do when it lands in the computer would be greatly appreciated. Simple to me editing options would be even better. Adding: I've been stuck on dvd option because of needing to "upconvert" to HD viewing on flat screen tv. What will a flash do if viewed there?

Hi Laura, Is there any reason you can't carry on as before? Maybe she might join in at some point? Or at minimum, just observe. I'm not sure I'd change the whole dynamics of my family to follow her's (unless that is considered disrespectful). It might take her awhile to get used to having others around if she lived alone before and know how she wants to respond to it.

I've been told that's what the scented towels are for...

Hey Sparkly - Make sure you pee in the cup... years ago I thought I had prolapse... it was a bladder infection, evidently those feel much different after childbirth.... GL

Many many years ago, I had contacts with weights for astigmatism... it was difficult to keep them from moving when I blinked because evidently I have very strong upper lids. The eye doc found some larger contacts, but still, every time I blinked, the world went unfocused. I've been with regular glasses ever since. There might be better, more advanced ones out now... but in all honesty, I didn't like anything in my eyes. By the end of the day, my eyes were so irritated, they were red. So, no frames, but red eyes. Not my look.

I have a friend who painted their concrete slab floors, the entire house... it looks like expensive tile, so not just "rolled." They had a plumbing leak, just mopped it up.

We've stayed in Manassas and Falls Church, drove in from Manassas, used metro from Falls Church. My dad knew many that traveled there for govt work, they all stayed in Falls Church... and that was decades ago. He said DC was too expensive.

I bought some for dd to use in yoga class. But the packaging is gone. They were Hanes, 3-4 pack, black bikini (or hipster, not french cut), kind of "slick" so yoga pants didn't get caught on them. I got them at Target.

There is carpet on my stairs... it is smashed, but I like the cush.. I don't know if I would introduce a 3rd flooring all in same line of sight.. have you thought about buying new "steps" and staining it to match the laminate? That would get rid of the ledge at the corners, I don't like that either.

I called, they transferred me to a tech person, I gave my zip code. I already knew the sim one had too many dead spots, and I needed the other one (no sim). I gave a short list of flip phones I wanted, only one was w/o sim, and not available in local stores, so I it ordered online.

My old tracfone just broke as well, I got another flip phone from tracfone for $15 plus $5 shipping. My minutes transferred. I talked to a tech person at tracfone, they helped pick which type to get (its the one w/o a sim card, or something like that, I live in a smaller town). I pay about $100/year for about 1000 minutes and one year of service (I don't use it much).

First, you let your ds do your laundry? You are brave!! Here is what we do, maybe there are ideas you like. I still have adult kids here... we are starting to look more like a shared adult home, rather than adult/kids. Dd and I are laundry buddies, I need her clothes to make whole loads, and she is working hard at the local college, so I do hers with mine. I can see us switching back and forth when she graduates. Ds washes his own... but knows not to just start his loads without asking me if I am using the washer/dryer. If he works long stretches without a day off, I'll start or finish his for him, he works hard. I could get upset if clothes are out, or laundry behind (I do if it starts stinking), but I figure if each dc was in their own place, then they would be able to let clothes stay in washer/dryer, or sit out waiting for the next load. Since the appliances are shared, then everyone has to plan to finish in the same day, and make sure the clothes are out for the next person who needs it. Most of the time that does happen. Since dc were older when they learned how to do it, they do it exactly how I do, which makes me happy. I can't stand wrinkled clothes, wadded up jeans, stinking, wet, forgotten wet clothes in washer, etc. And they know to allow enough time to dry their clothes so they aren't up later than they wanted to be. We also have a very large drying rack (entire wall) in the laundry room to pull clothes out "hot and wet" to hang and dry so there is no need to iron them. That helps a lot.

You should be able to get the original for a pretty low cost at Target or WalMart if streaming doesn't have it.

I use pinterest.... how would it be different to use recipe storage?