This Week at Our House # 15 Trying to Get a Good Photo

Today after church, I drove the family straight to the beach to get one decent photo of all 12 of my children. Between sun in the eyes, snotty kids who purposely made faces, and wind blowing hair, I completely failed.

The rest of the week was a perfectly normal week without much to report. We held school. I planted a lot in my various gardens. We worked a little more on house repairs, and Adam and I put up swings and ropes using stuff we have around on one of our trees for the kids to enjoy.

We now have 4 full weeks left of school and then we are free for the summer or until I decide to start

the new year. I researched out curriculum and purchased a few things, so we are almost all the way ready for next school year. In these 4 weeks we have left, we have to do the mandatory state testing, and finish off our math texts. It will be a race to the finish line.

The weather was beautiful all week and we spent hours outdoors in our beautiful yard. The bushes have all bloomed this week too, so there are colorful flowers everywhere. For a garden this year, I have a small kitchen garden next to the clothesline, so I will be out checking on it daily. In that garden I have bell peppers, ancho chilis, mint, 

rosemary, basil, oregano, cilantro, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Then I have butternut squash, yellow summer squash, and corn planted in last year's garden. I have a small plot of potatoes with cantaloupe behind it in a different part of the yard. In another section, I have pumpkins planted. I will be making two more separate beds, one for honeydew melon and one for watermelon. I am trying to keep things from intermingling this year. I have enjoyed learning how to garden and providing gmo-free, pesticide-free, and herbicide-free food for my family to enjoy.

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This Week at Our House #14 A Birthday and General Conference

We've toned things down in our life. We used to make birthday celebrations big and we used to make General Conference a big celebration. Neither of those are big anymore. Birthdays are smaller and more centered around spending personal time with the person rather than on presents and parties. Birthdays changed out of necessity and poverty, and General Conference changes just happened. We used to buy a lot of snacks for General Conference and make and buy things to encourage the kids to sit and listen. Now we only buy a few snacks, and the kids pretty much sit and listen without the coaxing. I think that is because about 4 years ago we started doing hour long family scripture study most days, and that has conditioned even our little kids to sit still and be quiet. We aren't one hundred percent perfect, but to get the kids to just be there and give whatever attention they can does not take the preparation that it used to.

Along with the birthday and General Conference, I would say that the week was a calm one. School went fairly well. We are now at the end of our school year with only one month to go before summer break and a new school year. Things are winding down. My main focus is finishing off math for the older kids and getting in lots of reading for the younger kids. We still have state testing to get done too.

Some highlights from the week were:

 

Joseph's declaration: "Since there are infinite numbers I can name one. I'm going to call it 'Joseph Awesome-illion'".

John finding Susan awake playing in her closet at 3am. When he told her she should get back to bed and go back to sleep, she replied, "Ok, but I need to finish this one thing first."

Johnny making fun of home repairs saying, "'Just install a dishwahser, it will only take an hour'" she says-- 6 hours later...still working on it."

Gideon cooing grumpily at Joseph and Joshua when they got too loud during General Conference.

Rachel sitting on my bed asking John (Dad) about repentance and how it works until 2am on the night of her birthday.

Adding Ruth back in to Kate and my skip-bo games. 

Anya helping me sort through and clean up all the legos Sam dumped out, without being asked. 

Arwen reading scriptures as fast as she can get the words out. 

Sam lying down beside Gideon and holding his hand.

Joshua separating out his kinex pieces by color. 

And Adam's piano playing bringing some of his own pieces and other classical music pieces into our home.

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Lost her first top tooth

Happy Birthday, Rachel!

Little Miss Rachel is officially 13! She is a tiny, tiny teen. She is my 5th child to enter this stage of life. I have loved having teens and I fully expect to enjoy Rachel as a teen just as much as I have enjoyed my other teens. Rachel is innocent and cute and kind. She still loves to play with toys and have pretend adventures. Rachel can play well with the little kids and talk and participate and joke with the older kids. She still loves to sing and dance, but she is much more self-conscious. She is hesitant to learn new things, but always excels with whatever she tries. Rachel has a big imagination. She comes up with very unique and creative ideas that are all her own. I look forward to seeing where her unique imagination and originality takes her in the coming years.