The More the Merrier: This Week at Our House # 14

We sure had a week full!!! John found 3 more jobs that fit his abilities well. They are all out of state and work from home jobs. I really hope he gets one of those. That would be such a blessing for him to be able to work at home and would put several hundred dollars back in our pocket from gas.
I had a busy week. The kids were on Spring Break. Rachel and Ruth had Monday and Tuesday off and the Legacy Prep kids had the whole week off. My kids surprised me. I offered to take them to do things and all they wanted to do was stay home, relax, play, and hang out. I am gratefully astonished for my easy to please over vacation kids. Wednesday, I went to BYU to man a UFI booth at an event there. That was a great opportunity for UFI and has made it possible to expand the intern program. I loved seeing Laura Bunker and Rose Marie Murray, and I got to meet another UFI wonder, Linda Ash. Kate came along with me and we had a great time spending the day together and getting the shopping done afterwards. I am keenly aware that I could lose my children by spending too much time trying to save other families. I pretty much always take a child with me when I go and do UFI things and it has been well spent one on one time.Thursday was dear little Rachel's 8th birthday. I brought treats to her class, had all the kids pick out a little treat to wrap for her and made a fancy dinner. I love that little girl with all my heart. I can't believe she is 8! On Friday, I cleaned the whole house and got us ready for General Conference. Saturday we baked, snacked, and listened to some amazing conference talks. I did some driving picking up Ruth's friend who has never heard General Conference before. The kids were all really good. Between the 2nd session and Priesthood session, I got to meet Kathryn Skaggs from a Well Behaved Mormon Woman blog!! She is just as amazing in life as she is online. I would love to sit and talk to her for hours! And today between sessions of conference our sweet Calico cat, Sakura had 6 beautiful kittens! I loved Elder Bednar's talk the most today and President Uchdorf gave me a lot to work on. We are very blessed to have so many wonderful family and friends and opportunities to serve.
Ruth had Monday and Tuesday off. I LOVE having her around and talking to her and having her do things with me. I love that Ruth invited her friend over to listen to General Conference. Ruth has a job interview at In and Out Burger tomorrow. I hope she gets the job. It will be fast paced and a bit challenging, but she will be blessed to work and save money for college and a mission. I hate this and I love this. I love that she is growing and experiencing new things, but I hate that we will lose so much more time with her.
Kate LOVED having a week to lay around. She spent one day on homework and the rest of the time either going out with me, playing legos with the boys, or watching her favorite movies. She needed the break. There is now a 7 week stretch of no vacation and then the 9th grade will be over for Kate.
Johnny played legos, computer games, wii games, babysat a bunch, did no homework, helped finish another 1,000 piece puzzle, ate lots of food (I think he is growing), and happily did everything I asked him to do. He was a delight to have at home this week.
Adam played as much wii as we would let him. When I told him to get dressed, he would change into clean pajamas. Adam took lots of good notes during conference and listened attentively to all but the last session.
Rachel had her 8th birthday!!! I can't believe my baby is 8. Now we must have her spend time in our room at night teaching her about baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She gets baptized the first week of May. I look forward to spending that talking and teaching time with her, just as I did the other 4 kids ahead of her. She is a good girl and has learned to help and work a lot this last year. She has begun combing her hair and taking care of herself. My mother sent her an American Girl Doll for her birthday, so now she has a big responsibility to take good care of her nice things.
Anya loved her much needed spring break. Now it is back to school and the race to the end of kindergarten.
Joseph went with me on many errands this week and took a lot of time to just talk and ask questions. He also spent plenty of time trying to get out of chores, wrestling his brothers, and playing outside as the weather permitted. Joseph is very, very excited about the kittens. I am worried about keeping them safe from my 3 youngest kids.
Josh pooped his pants almost daily, but started taking himself pee for the first time. He is by far my hardest kid to potty train. Maybe in 6 months down the road, I can say, "Josh is potty trained."
Arwen was so cute looking at the new baby kitties. She is just cute anyway. I love to watch her play and set up her toys.
Susan is moving around. I am still dead tired with the pregnancy, but am grateful that I have not had the hip and leg pains that I had the last 2 pregnancies. I suspect they will come at some point, but I am enjoying that moving doesn't particularly hurt yet.