Kate's Writing Assignment

For a writing assignment today, I gave Kate an article and told her to write a short summary and thoughts. I did not give her any other instructions. I am VERY pleased at how well she did, and had to publish it here.

In a school, in the state of New York, there was an “anti-bullying workshop”.  In this workshop, meant for 13-14 year old girls, rather than talk about bullying, they instead talked about Homosexuality. In this workshop from heck, they picked 2 girls from the audience and told them to kiss each other. The girls did not volunteer and were not comfortable with this. Not only did this workshop exist, but the parents had no notification, or permission slip. The people who made this workshop obviously wanted to make sure that everyone would be at it, even the girls whose parents wouldn’t approve! In every school I’ve been in, kids get in trouble for kissing; now suddenly the teachers are forcing kids of the same sex to kiss!

This workshop that was teaching girls about gender Identity was clearly trying to force them to change their identity. This anti bullying workshop was bullying girls into doing things they didn’t want to do, and even trying to push them into believing and thinking things, that I’m sure, those girls do not want to. This workshop has taken away rights, and freedoms. It took away the right for the parents of those girls to know what their kids are being taught in school. It has taken away the freedom for those of the girls who had moral standards. The kids who had to kiss might have believed that kissing another girl was immoral. This workshop has taken away the rights and freedoms of many people, and therefore this workshop has been unconstitutional! How can this be legal in our country? It should NOT!

Here's the original article

I am very pleased with Kate's critical thinking skills. She is my advocate in training.  Some year, I will take Kate to the World Conference on Families.

This Week at our House # 16

1. John had a job interview and has been called in for a second. While I went to the Temple, John took most of the kids to the mall because Ruth desperately needed new jeans. Ruth and I were dubious that John would be able to help Ruth find jeans that he both approved of and for no more than $10 a pair. Surprisingly John was successful. Since John had ALL of the little kids with him, I had Kate take pictures of the antics that John was either sure not to notice or to find too funny to stop.
2. On Saturday, we went to Jeremy and Rosanne's house to help with their yard. I painted an arbor and a gate, John worked on taking down a cherry tree, and Ruth and Kate helped build a garden box and remove sod. Then we had a movie night and a late night gospel/political conversation. We arrived home at 2:45am.
3. By Wednesday, I decided that I could not tell the difference between a can of spray paint and Ruth's jeans. So, even with unemployment, we decided Ruth had to have new pants. I told her that jeans at D.I. cost between $6 and $8 and we would buy her pants there. Ruth didn't want D.I. pants. She said that she would use her money to make up the difference in cost. John is not making her pay the difference. She found jeans at the mall for $10. I think she is more comfortable in her new jeans, but she wishes we would allow her to wear her pants as tight as her friends typically wear theirs. I am never sure what to think on this whole super tight clothes styles. I miss the days when fitted pants rather than squished on pants were the style. I want my daughters to dress stylishly, but I still think something should be left up to the imagination.
4. Kate has nearly finished the 8th grade a month ahead of schedule. She has 5 sections in math and one math test left and she is done! She is pretty proud to have completed all but one of her courses. Kate had state testing this week. She was very slow and careful about her tests. She took 5 1/2 hours to complete the 3 exams. She was confident about what she knew.
5. Johnny took the state tests too. Johnny sped through the 3 exams and finished first out of all the other kids there. Johnny took 2 1/2 hours. He said that they were super easy. I am sure the math test was particularly easy for him. Johnny is not as ahead in his course work as Kate is. Johnny still has Flash Game Programming that he is fairly behind on to finish, and he has to finish another 2 chapters in geometry.
6. I have been rather frustrated with the common core low standards that the Utah schools have taken up.Adam started up second grade knowing how to multiply and reading at a 3rd grade level. He can't remember how to multiply, and he his reading level dropped below grade level after Christmas. I have had other parents say the same thing has happened to their children. Out of the blue, one evening, I asked Adam how he would feel if I homeschooled him next year. He cheered! So it is set. I did not register him for public school, and I secured a spot for him at My Tech High. This will be great for Johnny since Kate is going back to school and now Adam will get to start a second language as well as computer programming. 
7. Rachel enjoyed the nicer weather and spent a lot of time outdoors this week.
8. We've decided to go ahead and send Anya to kindergarten so I do not have to home school 2 younger kids. Anya has been begging to attend school and Rachel keeps telling Anya how wonderful school is, so I picked up the kindergarten pack, and will have to get to work on filling out all of the papers for kindergarten.
9. We had no big Joseph destruction incidents this week. It finally warmed up and he spent a lot of time playing outside. I think that helps him a lot. He needs to get out and explore and be a boy. Joseph is good at building things. He builds legos and bionicles and completes puzzles a lot. I love it when he concentrates his time on construction rather than destruction. 
10. Josh is still our funny delightful 2 year old. He still comes to you if you call out cars or trains, but he will not come to you if you call his name. Josh likes to organize his things. He lines up his toys and keeps them neat. I suspect his wife will like that.
11. Arwen is 9 months already. She is getting around pretty good now. She will follow me from room to room if she is  not busy playing. Arwen is calm and relaxed. She loves people and will generally let anyone hold her.
    
    

    This Week's Pictures

    

    
    

    

    
    

    

    
    

    

    
    

    

    
    

    

    
    

    

    The Mall Trip

    

    Ruth's loosest pair of jeans

    
    

    

     John brought Joseph to the mall in wet, bright orange sweat pants and a yellow and blue shirt (Ugh)
    

    

     Ruth and Kate took Josh to the cloth store while John took the other kids to the Disney Store. Everyone looked at Ruth like she was Josh's mom. She was embarrassed!
    

    

     Rachel standing up with the manikin
    

    

     Joseph chewing on the hanger that belonged to the shirt Ruth was trying on.
    

    

    Rachel hiding under the clothes rack.
    

    

    Joseph pulling down a sign.
    

    

    Joseph climbing up with the manikin.
    

    

    Josh pulling off the manikin's leg.
    

    

     Anya attacking Joseph
    

    

    Joseph trying to open the call box in the elevator.

These Parents Need Your Help

Letter Writing Campaign

Four years ago a Swedish socials service officials took, seven-year-old, Dominic Johansson from his parents as the family boarded an international flight. Armed police seized the boy without arrest warrants.  Swedish officials placed him in a foster home. The boy has still not been restored to his parents, Christer and Annie Johansson.

What heinous crime did the Johansson's commit? What did they do to their son to warrent such extreme actions from the Swedish government? They homescooled Dominec before it was illegal in the nation.

After 3 years, the Johansson's finally got their case reviewed by a district court in Gotland. The court said it could not ignore the unanimous and extensive testimony of firsthand accounts of friends, family and others that Domenic Johansson was being properly cared for by his parents. The court restored the Johanssons’ parental rights. However, social services persisted and a mi-level court over turned the decision. Domenic, now at 11, has not been allowed to see his parents for 3 years!

Alliance Defending Freedom along with the United States based, Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA),has appealed Christer and Annie Johansson's case to the highest court of Sweden.

HSLDA Director of International Relations Mike Donnelly and attorney with ADF has said:

"As the district court found, Annie and Christer Johansson are good parents. It is unconscionable that the court of appeals--or any court in a democratic country like Sweden--could somehow think that it is in Dominic’s best interest to remain separated from his parents. The pain, suffering, and harm done to this family are incalculable.”Alliance Defending Freedom and HSLDA are encouraging concerned people from all over the world to participate in an HSLDA-sponsored letter-writing campaign that asks the Supreme Court of Sweden to accept the case Johansson v. Gotland Social Services and return Domenic to his parents.

Please take a moment and help this family, and parental rights around the world. Here is how to contact that Supreme Court of Sweden.
 Swedish Supreme Court (Högsta domstolen):
Email:hogsta.domstolen@dom.se
Mailing address:
Högsta domstolen
Box 2066
103 12 Stockholm
SWEDEN
A 1-oz letter from the US will cost $1.10 through the Postal Service
Fax:
From outside Sweden: +46 8 561 666 86
If you fax from the U.S., you will need to replace the + sign with “011” and then dial 46 8 561 666 86
From inside Sweden: 08-561 666 86

Conversation with Rachel

I washed Adam's stinky feet with antibacterial handsoap and then rubbed lavendar oil on them to help them smell better. Rachel wanted me to do the same for her.

As I began washing Rachel's feet, I exclaimed, "Rachel, you have my long, thin feet. They are almost as long as Adam's!"

Rachel replied, "Does that mean I will be tall like you?"

"ummm.... I doubt it," I said.

"Well then, does that mean I will at least be normal size?" Rachel asked.

"Yes, that is possible."

Then Rachel said accusingly, "Why did you and Dad have so many little kids."

I thought for a moment and the responded, "We decided that we didn't want to have humans, so we had a bunch of little Hobbits instead."

Rachel is the smallest of my small kids. She is 7 years old, weighs about 33 pounds, and is 41 inches tall.

This Week at Our House # 15

1. The Job we thought John would have by now has not come through yet. The vacation feeling of unemployment is wearing off and the urgency feeling is taking its place.
2. Ugh long week. I am really hoping the weather will warm up so I can do more outdoor things with my kids.I just want to get out of the house.
3. Ruth had another friend birthday party this weekend. She went to the Festival of Colors in Salt Lake. I thought that had something to do with tulips. Boy, was I wrong! She called and said that basically she and her friends threw chalk at each other the whole time. I was alarmed and asked if that was okay and if she was in trouble. Ruth seemed confused by my question. Apparently, The Festival of Colors is colored chalk throwing. Ruth came home covered in chalk! She had a hard time washing it off her skin. Alll of her clothes were dyed. She had a wonderful time.
4. Kate along with all of my 4 oldest children got to meet Brandon Mull, author of the Fablehaven series at the Bountiful library on Tuesday.
5. Johnny's been making some amazing lego creations. He has gone well beyond putting together a kit and is actually thinking about and making his own amazing ships and robots and things.
6. The rule I made about no video games except on Friday and Saturdays is sticking pretty well. The kids have learned to obey the rule well. Adam usually wakes up on Friday and says, "Guess what? It is half day of school and wii day." This Friday, he didn't mention it, and when I reminded him, he said that he was too busy playing.
7. Rachel sang and danced at her classroom talent show. She came home all glowy with stories of making the kids all laugh. I am guessing it went well. Rachel says she has a crush on Riley again and that Riley has a crush on her. I wonder what that means now? In the past, Rachel had said that she could not live with Riley every single day so she did not want to marry him.
8. Anya's been my little snuggle buddy this week. She's hung around and about me a lot, and I am glad. I have been trying for a long time to get Anya to just hang out with me.
9. I had Joseph wash the walls with me. For the first bit, Joseph  would point to things that he had drawn, tell me wht they are and tell me to wash them. By the end, Joseph was pretty tired and asked what was for dinner. I told him that I did not know. He suggested doritos. I said no. He said, "If you don't give me doritos for dinner, I won't get you a birthday present."
10. Josh LOVES milk. He wants to drink about 4 glasses of milk a day. He throws sippy cups at me and demands milk. As soon as he sees me in the mornings, he asks for milk. If I leave and come home, he will greet me at the door with a demand for milk. He is as obsessed with milk as he is with things that go. I wonder what this sort of 2 year old personality will turn into when he's older.
11. Arwen's finally getting around a little more. She will follow me into other rooms now. Arwen smiles for me all of the time. If I am feeling weary and worn out, I can always rely on Arwen for a sweet, happy smile. I'm glad I have my sweet number 9. I never planned on having more than 8 kids.

Thoughts

A good family with a married mother and father who honor marital vows is the safest place on earth that Heavenly Father could send His children. It is the most likely place Heavenly Father's children will learn about Him. That is why Satan attacks the family. Satan's really good at it too. He attacks and breaks down the family specifically by separating sex from children.  Satan then accuses the good people supporting the natural family as being mean, bigoted, and unfair. These arguments are very persuasive. When enough people believe that and change their minds in order to be "kind", he attacks the rest with worry-- worry that their views on the family will be known and they will be attacked or lose a job or friends over it. Satan is very clever.

A friend of mine, wrote this excellent essay on birth control and gay marriage. It is well worth the read.

This Week at Our House #14

1. John may have a job by the end of this week. A company has contacted him and have told him they are planning on making him an offer. But he has to go in for one more interview. So I am hoping, this will be the job. John has done a fabulous job of looking for the roses among the thorns during this period of unemployment. He has really enjoyed his time off and has spent much of his time just hanging out with me and the kids. He's also napped a lot. We will miss him when he goes back to work. 
2. My week was quiet and easy going. Hurray! It is nice to have a normal/no extras week every once in a while. We did a crazy thing this week. We got a dog. The dog was a really good dog. Really, she was my perfect dream dog. But the night we got her, John and I just felt like we had done something crazy. So we sold her off to someone else the very next day. My kids got to have the perfect dog for one day. She was a 1.5 year old boxer who was house trained and let the kids wrestle and snuggle her as much as they wanted.She only cost $50 too. She wanted people around her constantly and that was not a problem. The idea of keeping her scared John and I too much. So we didn't. Maybe we will try again when I know I am done having babies. I just couldn't imagine myself walking a dog pregnant in the middle of winter. I doubt we'll find such a perfect deal again. 
3. Ruth cried and complained Friday afternoon because she had a bad day at school and it took me a long time to find the address of the birthday party Ruth and Kate were invited to. As a child, Ruth did not like rambunctious boys. She still doesn't. Ruth has a bad day if the boys at school are obnoxious.
4. Kate cried about John teaching her how to figure out sine and cosine without a calculator. I still need him to show me that. Kate came to me with the same math problem and I told her to use the Pythagorean theorem. Math problems is a huge plus to having John home.
5. When I told Johnny to take his math test, he yelled at me and said that it was not fair because I was not making myself take the math test. Huh, I already did all that math stuff years ago. Later in the week, however, Johnny helped me a ton in cleaning up our very dirty garage. I am so glad that he did. His help was invaluable and it was fun to have him hanging out with me.
6. Adam love, loved , loved and actually did an incredible job training the dog the 24 hours we had her. I am still second guessing the not keeping her. Adam actually got her leashed trained before we handed her off to a new owner. When we got her, she would only be dragged on the leash. Adam spent about 4 hours walking her around until she just did it completely. 
7. Rachel begged and begged me to keep the dog. I told her we weren't. She said, "will you at least pray about it?" I told her I was sure that Dad had prayed a lot about it. She then said, "Oh good. Now we will keep her."
8. Okay, Anya is a very emotional 5 year old. She had her best friend Gracie over to play the day we had the dog. Gracie wanted to play with the dog. Anya did not want to. Anya grabbed onto Gracie bawling and telling her what to do. I put Anya in time out until "She could be a good friend". Gracie went upstairs to play with her sister, Hannah, and Rachel. When Anya was ready to go and be a good friend she went up to play. Gracie kept telling Anya she was boring and didn't like to play with her. So Anya pretended to go to sleep and told Gracie that whenever she said a mean thing, it just made her sleep. Rachel and Hannah left because they said, "our sisters are annoying," and went to Hannah's house. Anya and Gracie continued to fight for a while until they decided they needed a snack. I got them a snack and suddenly they were happy and best friends once again.
9. This week, I made a huge effort to read and play with Joseph everyday. And guess what? He didn't wet his pants and he didn't destroy anything. He still wrote on the walls some. But at least now, I know what he needs. He needs me. I had just decided that I wasn't doing house work until I played with Joseph and Anya. Joseph has requested the dinosaur museum this week, and we have a family pass! So tomorrow morning, we will pack a lunch and head off to the museum before I do my usual 8 loads of Monday laundry.
10. Josh came crying to me asking for cars. It took a minute, but I realized that he wanted to watch race cars on TV. Everyone else was already watching Dr. Who. I said, "Just go watch Dr. Who." Josh replied, "Who poop!" He's so funny!
11. There's not much to say about Arwen this week. She did eat guacamole which surprised me because she will not eat avocados. I guess she just needed a little salt, lime, and garlic added to them.

This Weeks Pictures

This Week at Our House #13

1.  John is very thoroughly enjoying his unemployment vacation. As long as it doesn't last too long, I am sure he will look back on it as a happy time with the family. He had a job interview that went really well. We will see if it turns into anything. We stayed in Provo at John's parent's house for the conference weekend. I know that John really enjoyed with time playing late night games with his brother and chatting with his parents.
2. I LOVE General Conference, almost as much as Christmas! I came in with some questions and left having them all answered. I intend to spend some time writing my thoughts on some of the talks. My favorites were Boyd K Packer, L Tom Perry, Elaine S Dalton, Jeffery R Holland, and President Monson's arson story. It always amazes me how bold and kind the apostles can be in just a few statements. 
3. Ruth had spring break. She slept a lot and hung out with Kate a lot. Ruth payed close attention and took careful notes all through conference. She has grown up since those first few years struggling to get her to sit through any of conference. Friday morning, Ruth pretended to be a "weeping angel" from Dr. Who, held her hand out toward the light and ordered the lights to go off just as our electricity went out. That was a fun way to lose our electricity. Apparently, the whole west side of our area was without electricity for about 4 hours.
4. Kate LOVED having Ruth all week. She spent every moment she could hanging out with Ruth. 
5. Nothing interesting happened for Johnny this week. He took spring break off from home school and just hung out. Johnny is just a good kid and fairly easy to please.
6. Adam had a pretty good week too. He had a lot of fun at Rachel's birthday party-- a little too much fun. I had to keep telling him to settle down. Because Adam and Rachel are just a grade apart, they know each other's friends well. Adam listened to all 4 sessions of conference, albeit very wiggly.
7. Rachel turned 7! She had an awesome week filled with Easter stuff, birthday stuff, cousins, and sleeping over at Grandma's.
8. Anya had a ton of fun at Rachel's birthday party too. During the day, Anya hangs out with Joseph, and during the evening Anya hangs out with either Adam or Rachel. Adam seems to quite like Anya and is always asking her to play with him. Things like that just melt my heart. I love watching my kids play together.
9. I am trying with Joseph, and Joseph is "trying". This week, Joseph drew all over the walls and laughed about it. He punched me and told me that he was going to break all of my things, he pooped his pants and laughed that John had to clean up the mess. I hope that we can survive this stage. I am trying to clap and get real excited every time Joseph obeys me. I think he needs more attention. He doesn't respond much to punishment. He's a tough kid right now. He doesn't throw fits, he just terrorizes property.
10. Josh is just adorable. He makes us laugh and smile everyday! He loves his cars, and trucks, and trains, he loves to look at books and draw, he loves to cuddle and be held. I'll miss these sweet days with little Josh.
11. I cannot get Arwen to eat much solid food. I am not sure if it is taste or texture issues. She will eat small pieces of bread, but nothing else. I tried giving her some banana and avocado and she just gagged and spat it out. I know she can swallow fine because she eats bread and paper. I think I will just set her with safe finger foods and let her figure this out by herself.

This Week's Pictures

Josh watching Grandpa's trains

 

Easter To Do's

On Easter Sunday, we had our usual and very nice Easter lesson. This is the best illustrative lesson about the Savior, His atonement and the true meaning of Easter. The kids really learn from it and it is set up in a way that even the littlest kids pay attention. After that we watched The Lamb of God. We finished our Easter celebration, with a wonderful lamb dinner. I had bought a huge lamb roast in January for a third of the cost of what it is around Easter. The kids ate and ate and ate. Kate made apple crisp for dessert. I would have said we had a perfect Easter day based upon the teachings of the Savior if Joseph hadn't drawn all over the walls before church and we continued to discover more drawings as the day progressed.

We didn't get to any candy and egg stuff until Friday. Friday morning the kids woke up to filled Easter baskets. I filled the Easter baskets for 8 children on $25. I am pleased!

 On Saturday, at Grandma's house with the cousins, we dyed eggs. A few of my kids even dyed their hands. It's a good thing the weather was nice and we did the egg dying outdoors.

 Finally, we hid our eggs and the kids got to hunt for them. Grandma had a lot of candy for all of the kids. I'd have to say that with unemployment and all, our kids had some pretty great Easter celebrations.