So ... you're looking to give your plants 10-12 hours of sunlight ... or fluorescent light or LED light ... per day. I keep my plants blooming with a combination of window light and fluorescent light. You can use cheap desk-lamps with CFL or LED bulbs. The light source (and/or window) should be no more than 1 foot away from your plants. P.S. To start a new thread, select the appropriate discussion category (in this case, African Violets) and start a new question/comment ... Desk-lamp CFL bulb

GG, that's an amazing picture! I'm happy that I've managed to hold off buying any new hoyas in the past month... I need to grow the ones I have well: I try to remind myself quality, not quantity! But that's easy to forget because I definitely do have a long wish list. But then again, I really don't have much room left for new hoyas. Especially when winter comes round again, I have no idea where to put all of these plants! And of course, little hoyas do eventually become big hoyas! I've also been busy gardening outdoors, so that is another distraction. Brad, speaking of gardening outdoors, (and off topic), I discovered milkweed growing in my yard in several spots! After learning about your butterfly garden, I thought of you and decided to let the milkweed flourish there (even while weeding all around it). But I've yet to see any butterflies. When do they emerge from their cocoons? that's all for now! I am still lurking around here, even though I'm more quiet these days than I was in the spring ;)

Melanie: I'm a lurker, but need to comment because we have several things in common! Our name is similar - I get called Melanie more often than Melody...and I have lung issues, too. The lungs are the real reason for my response...this is sooo miserable, isn't it? I had been using my inhaler numerous times per day, without much relief until I started taking Mucinex, too! Go get some Mucinex because it might really help you...at least I hope it does. I bought some from Walmart that specifically says it helps with chest congestion. Hope you feel better!

I think it is possible the SD does indeed keep caught in the middle of Mom and SM. I also don't think she 'lied' or told a half truth. At the time the discussion first took place, SD had not yet made plans for the summer break with Mom...after reading some of your previous threads, I can't help but notice there has been long standing feud over exact days/visits. The SD was wrong in that she committed and did not follow through on what she agreed to. The mother is wrong for pressuring her daughter to take 'a summer job committment' seriously and making a big ta-do over a day or day (something that this mother though has been known to repeatedly do). And you are wrong with withholding your relationship with the SD in a temper tossing hurt feeling mode. The girl really is stuck between the two 'moms'. One screaming 'be an adult' one minute while treating her as the 'child' the next. The other one still playing the same old games of rearranging schedules no matter who it affects in an all out path of having her daughter 'at home' as many days as possible (while still treating daughter as a yung child/early teen). In an attempt to keep somewhat harmony between the SD's 'moms' daughter ends up being indecisive, nonresponsibile and still kept very much the child while being told to act the adult. If I were the girl, I'd be tempted to remain where I attend school. Maybe visit for a a short spell with each side and work my summer at a job that would enable me to have something more than 'babysitting' for references. Because you are disappointed and your feelings are hurt you intend to punish the SD. You'll just after 15 yrs of being mommy #2 you'll just suddenly begin being 'her fathers wife'. And you'll label a 'test' to see if the relationship can withstand the 'test'. The first time SD expresed her newly found 'adult views' aka opinions (example, daughter's eating habits) you took a personal offense to it and again you're feelings are hurt and deny the SD who you say you want to start acting/thinking like an adult for her effort in doing so. The SD can't win here. Send LS to the daycare as now planned. Quite frankly you can read all the books you please on 'disengaging' and 'teaching assertiveness', but but until you start practicing actually raising the SD with the open mind that she is becoming an adult (even when her new found adult views annoy you), and continue to treat her as the child (both 'moms') it's just setting up more hurt feelings and keeping the girl a girl stuck in the middle. She's young, socializing with a whole new group of people, seeing different lifestyles and discovering who she is and what she believes. My niece as decided her new found 'thing' in life is to be a veggie,...she'd have a stroke to think you're LS eats skittles and poisons her body blah blah blah. LOL. Once 'kids' start expanding their social network, experiencing new groups and ideas, well they can be quite crazy in their new 'worldly views'. My 2 cents. Good luck to you. Sd has reached the age between childhood and adulthood and she's likely to say many more things that appear to be 'anti-you' (or mom or dad or the neighbor) while she opens those wings and begins to shape her own ideas.