This Week at Our House # 16

1. Still nothing, not an interview, not a contact, just nothing on jobs for John.
2. I worked hard at trying to stay focused and get all the needful things done this past week. I would like the house to be cleaner. I am really good at keeping this scrubbed and shiney and dusted, but the clutter tends to get away from me. I took the kids to visit my parents on Friday. It was nice to see them again. They are a 4 hour drive and they really don't have space for us to spend the night, so it is a lot of driving to see them at all. We drive a total of 8 hours and visit a total of 8 hours. But we had a great time. My parents took all of us out to 
3. Ruth entered into a contract for housing at BYU-I making this big change more real. She will be staying at the Colonial in an apartment with 6 other girls. We are grateful for friends who have had kids already attend BYU-I and could help us with housing choices. I suspect we would have made some pretty wrong decisions if we did not ask around first. As it stands, I think Ruth will be in a nice apartment complex that enforces the rules, is close to campus, and has a reputation for attracting faithful girls. And it was only $100 more than most of the cheaper places that apparently don't have good reputations or good landlords. 
4. Kate got her ACT score and we immediately signed up for the next one in June. It wasn't terrible not it was not what she needs to get into BYU, where she intends to go. Kate got to hang out with her friend Elizabeth when we drove out to visit my parents. I think she needed that. She has very little social interaction outside our family these days,
5. Johnny has been reading The Hobbit to Joseph at night. I really appreciate the time Johnny puts in to helping his younger brothers. He also reads scripture stories to Josh every night.
6. Adam is buzzing through his school work. He has learned it well and understands what he is doing. He always wanted to graduate early like Johnny, but I never thought that would work out for him. Now I have changed  my mind. I am sure he will be more than ready to graduate at 17 in the summer and leave for a mission at 18 in the fall, which he is happy about. Interestingly enough, Adam just needed less structure and more time outdoors to get the focus he needed to excel in academics. I am very, very pleased with homeschool.
7. Rachel is very good at taking care of herself. She bathes, gets dressed, combs her hair and brushes her teeth without being told. That is such a relief to me. Rachel's fortune from the Asian restaurant told her that she would inherit a large some of money. My sister told her that if she eats her fortune it will come true. So she did.
8. Anya 
9. Joseph likes to read comic books to me all of the time. He did better at doing his school work this past week because I really put my foot down and got after him. He is very smart and could be doing a lot better than he dies, if he would just sit for 10 minutes in a row. He was good in school and learned better there. But I cannot send him to school here. I just need to be stricter with him than I am with the other kids.
10. Joshua has begun peeing his pants again. I am now back to reminding him to go the bathroom several times a day. But he does know his alphabet and sounds pretty well now, so that is a relief. He will be ready for kindergarten, even though it will be homeschooled for him.
11. Arwen is very independent. She just does things like she is 6 and not 3. Though she is not at all reliable about chores and that is more like a 3 year old.
12. Suzy actually went to nursery this last week on her own. She said no, but we stepped into the room and there was a puzzle that she really wanted to do and decided to stay and do it.

This Week's Pictures

Suzy climbed this tree all by herself

This Week at Our House # 15

1.  John has been doing yard work and he really, really hates yard work.
2. I can say that I survived this week and even got some needful things done. I always have so much to do. I need to get much more writing down this coming week. That will be my goal and focus.
3.  Ruth is almost done school. She has about another month and a half before graduation. She is ready. But I need to convince her to spend time studying for the permit test so she can get her drivers license before she leaves for college in 5 more months.
4.  Kate is my little Captain Moroni. She has a good understanding of the scriptures and truth and defends them boldly, even to adults.
5. Johnny's playing the hymns and primary songs on the piano now. He's slow, but determined to learn the songs he likes no matter how hard. This, of course, makes me so happy. I have wanted a piano player, but most of the kids have shown little interest. 
6.  We somehow need to get Adam to understand that he must be gentler and nicer to his younger siblings. He is especially rough with Joseph. This was not the case before home school, but now Joseph is constantly jumping on and wrestling Adam and Adam is always knocking too hard back.
7. Rachel  has gotten a lot better at getting her school work done quickly with a lot less goofing off. Rachel is reading The Secret Garden to me. It is good for her to get all of that read out loud practice and I love that story so much. I think we are both really enjoying that time together each week.
8.  Anya is my helpful little buddy. I can always rely on her to clean her room and play with Susan. 
9. John saw Joseph and Joshua standing in front of the toilet together and asked what they were doing. Joseph said, "Well, we kind of made up this game called pee fight." I honestly thought my boys had more sense than that. Who was I kidding?
10.  I think Joshua needs more parent one on one time. He has just been so grumpy that he is pretty much always in trouble. I think if I can get a little personal time in with him each day, the viscous cycle of always being grumpy and in trouble should end.
11.  Arwen has changed her clothes 5 times already today. I don't even bother washing them all the time anymore. Often, I will just throw them back in with her clean clothes because with the rate she changes, I don not have enough for her to put on something fresh and clean each time she changes.
12. Suzy gets what she wants. She wanted a bath and no one was available to giver her one, so she took off her clothes, and took off her diaper and laid down in the bathtub singing until John came by and thought it was too cute and gave her a bath.

This Week's Pictures

This Week at Our House # 14

1. We still have no bites on jobs, but a group of my close friends had a fast for our family and a couple other families that are experiencing extreme difficulties. Already, I can feel the power of their faith.
2. I filed our terrible taxes. It was terrible and I am glad it is almost over. I still need to go through the state taxes but all the information is in, so it will just be matter of paying for it to be sent, etc. 
3. Ruth had school and seminary and everything ordinary. 
4. Kate had the ACT on Saturday. She is sure she did not do very well, so we need to get her signed for it again in June.
5. Johnny slacked on school while Kate did ACT practices. Me, John, and Kate all have to keep on top of Johnny or he will goof off with his schooling. However, he did finish an entire pre-calculus text book in 3 months time and is now full on to study calculus, which if he had stayed in school, he would not have been allowed to do and would not get to calculus until his senior year. 
6. Adam has been a big board game advocate in the family. He gets a game going with someone most days.
7. I am making Rachel do dance and singing lessons through youtube. She is very unhappy about this as she wants the real thing, but since we have no idea if/when we will ever be able to pay for those things again, I've decided it is time for her to work on her talents.
8. Anya is doing the dance and singing lessons with Rachel and she loves it. 
9. Joseph is still being terrible about doing his school work, so I have changed from a mom to a nag. He has to do school whether he likes it or not.
10. Joshua comes and asks me to give him a big squishy hug a few times everyday. Josh is picking up his alphabet and sounds. Hopefully teaching him to read next year won't be too hard.
11. Have I already said that Arwen changes her clothes several times a day???!!
12. Little Suzy sure knows what she wants, and determinedly tries to get it. She wanted a bath, so she took off all of her clothes and laid down naked in the bathtub until John came in and gave her a bath.

This Week at Our House # 13

1. We took spring break with Ruth this week, so we did not do school. It was really nice to have the break. We went to the beach on Monday, then had some lazy days, then General Conference and Rachel's birthday. John did not hear anything from jobs. 
2. I signed up to be a freelance writer for the Blaze. I got an assignment less than 24 hours after I got my profile up, worked on that quickly and got it published on Friday. So I have now written and published my first paid article. I am hoping I can make a few hundred a month on this. I am also still planning on selling DoTerra and will be setting up an online class soon.
3. Ruth loved the beach, and loved swimming. She still has not been able to get a job. I feel like our family is cursed.
4. Kate read and drew and enjoyed Ruth and the beach and General Conference. 
5. Johnny was astonished at how fast each session of General Conferene went and how much he enjoyed it. I think he is growing up. 
6. Adam wrestles Joseph and almost always hurts him. The problem is that every time Joseph sees Adam, he jumps on him and starts wrestling. One day this week, Adam had to take everything off the kitchen shelves, wash the shelves, and then put everything back on because he hurt Joseph too much and too consistently. Since then Adam has been a bit gentler. But it is hard to say which boy is more at fault and part of me wants to just ignore them completely because I have no idea what to do with boys sometimes. 
7. Rachel turned 10!!!! Today, in fact. She was such a sweet angel and loved her whole day no matter what went wrong.
8. Anya loved her time off. Apparently she is afraid or more likely phobic of spiders. Adam told her that there was a spider on her and she screamed and cried and then sat hugging her two baby dolls for some time for comfort. I can always rely on Anya to take care of Susan. If I am busy, I can have Anya take Susan outside. She will push her on the swing and play with her. It's just a wonderful thing.
9. Joseph is wonderful and horrible. He is so rough and wrestles and makes messes, but he is so smart and knows the scriptures and always knows what you have taught him. I think there is hope for him and his tons of energy.
10. Joshua is grounded from the computer until he quits peeing his pants (he will go just a tiny bit in his underwear before heading to the bathroom) and quits getting poop on the toilet. We didn't have any poop messes this week, so I think it is working. 
11. Arwen if definitely going through the obstinate toddler stage. She rarely does what she is told unless there are sure and swift consequences.
12. Suzy is in the "no" stage. We ask her questions, she answers no. We say it is time for bed, she yells no. She wants me to read her a book while I am making dinner, I don't and she screams no. It's kind of cute no, but it won't be as she gets older.

This Week's Pictures

Happy Birthday, Rachel

Our dear little Rachel turns 10! And when I say little, I mean little. She is 46 pounds and I actually have no idea how tall she is, but she looks like the average 6 or 7 year old. Rachel is energetic, fun, incredibly talkative, and a very good friend to everyone. She is our singer and performer, and we love to hear her sing.

This Week at Our House # 12

1. We had a busy week with all of the regular stuff plus Ruth's birthday, a trip to the Temple and Easter. John did not hear anything from any jobs. We have increased how many he is applying to as well as the type of job.
2. I really needed that trip to the Temple. I am so glad that we did that. The Temple is about 70 miles away, but we would still like to be going twice a month. Our next trip will be for the youth. 
3. Ruth had her 18th birthday! She came home from school early to get in a good nap. She is now on spring break also included Friday for Good Friday.
4. Kate is a bit sad with Ruth turning 18. Ruth is Kate's best friend and has always been so. She will be lonely when Ruth leaves.
5. Johnny was a bit of a slacker with his school work, but so was everyone else.
6. Adam actually didn't slack on his work. He woke up early and had just about everything done by 10am.
7. Rachel sleeps in past 10 every morning. She always was the hardest to get up and motivated for school. Last year I told Rachel that she could hide Easter eggs this year. Good thing she remembered. I had completely forgotten. But she was very excited about it.
8. If the kids do their school work through the week, I let them take Friday as an extra reading and creative day. Anya has been using that time to build some impressive lego spaceships.
9. Joseph was terrible about his school work all week long, so he did not get his free time on Friday. He had to use it as a make-up day. But we are taking spring break along with Ruth, so I expect we will feel a lot better after a week of no school work.
10. Joshua is good at sitting and concentrating on things. I am hoping that will make it easy to teach him when he starts as a kindergartener next year.
11. Arwen changes her clothes way too much!!! It is driving me nuts because she will get into the folded, but not yet put away laundry and mess it all up.
12. Today Josh informed us that Suzy is not the cutest kid in the family, but  no one believes him. Suzy really is just an extra cute baby. Kate even said that she does not expect her babies to be as cute as Suzy because how can you beat her cuteness.

This Week's Pictures