This Week at Our House # 40

1. John enjoyed taking Kate and Johnny to the game store to try out new games. I am glad he has kids that like to do this with him. I like some board games. But I am a poor companion for John and his games.
2. I had my birthday on Monday. I am now 38. With 9 kids, I really do not feel too old for my life. Plus, I think it is kind of funny that we start to think we are old around 40, when at that point in time many of us have not even lived half of our lives. 
3. I didn't feel like I saw much of Ruth this last week. Even though all of the kids had Thursday and Friday off from school, Ruth keeps herself pretty busy all of the time.
4. Kate loved her 4 day weekend. She relaxed. She went out with John a lot. She also didn't have much homework, so it was a real vacation.
5. Johnny had a history research paper that he was supposed to be working on for the last two to three weeks. It was due with an oral presentation on Monday and Tuesday. Johnny didn't even begin looking for sources until Monday night. Ugh! With help from parents, he got it all done. I am puzzled at how to help kids be more responsible.
6. Adam had a bit of a cold this week. He was coughing enough Tuesday night that I said he could stay home. When I woke the kids up on Wednesday morning, I asked Adam if he wanted to stay home from school or not. Adam said he did and went back to sleep. When I got home from dropping kids off, Adam was dressed and ready to go to school. Later that day, I realized that I had never made Adam a lunch. Fortunately, it was a half day. Adam never said anything about not having a lunch.
7. Rachel has not been doing her homework when I tell her to, or if she has done it, she has not been turning it into the her teacher. This is really very frustrating. I always hope that by second grade my kids would just do their homework when I tell them to without me having to check everything or to check with the teacher to see if they turned it in. Rachel spent the first half of the week grounded from friends. But on Friday, Rachel had a Halloween craft party with a couple of her friends. I just sat down with a bunch of little girls and did three different crafts and Halloween bingo.
8. Anya had the craft party too, but none of her friends could show up. I think it was because we held it during fall break. Still, Anya had fun with Rachel's friends. Anya is actually quite responsible with her homework. She always tells me that she needs to do it and that I need to help her.
9. Joseph tries really hard to stay up late every night. I got "Duck Dynasty" season 2 and 3 for my birthday, so I have been letting him unofficially stay up late and watch it with me. Joseph's natural schedule does seem to be staying up late and then sleeping in. He sleeps later in the mornings than anyone else.
10. Joshua has been answering "trains" for every question we ask him. It is both funny and hard to interpret. Josh went to the bathroom in the toilet for the first time this week. I will probably be slow potty training him, but this is always a happy milestone. When he is officially potty trained, I will take him on the front runner for a real train ride.
11. Arwen has become my little shadow. She follows me around and "helps" me with all of my chores. On Saturday, while I was cleaning the bathroom, she found me in the bathroom, looked to see what I was doing, left, and then came back with a rag in each hand. 

This Week's Pictures