This Week at Our House # 3

1. John is still negotiating some possible contract work and he has a couple of job interviews this week. Maybe things will be back together soon.
2. I wrote this to my moms with big families group of friends, "While I was working tonight, I realized, probably for the first time, what a charmed life I have had. We've never had a lot, but we have always had sufficient enough for me to stay home with the kids until now. I had gotten so used to thinking that I am sacrificing some big career or what could have been prestige. blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I never realized how good I had it until now. And now I really know, that none of that matters much. I have just been very blessed to be at home and have as much time as I want to care for my family."
3. Ruth's been quite busy with school and work. She doesn't have an actual job, but she is working about 12 to 15 hours a week babysitting and housekeeping. She has a pretty good savings so far and is paying for all of her own things now.
4. The semester ended this week and Kate has another 4.0. She is working real hard because she wants to get a scholarship to BYU.
5. Johnny ended up with all A's and 2 A-'s but never does any homework. 
6. Trying to get Adam to read is trying. I don't know how to help that boy learn to love books. I limit video games to just 2 days a week, and TV is supposed to be just as limited, but the kids sneak it if I am not home. Adam got all A's and one A- for the second term.
7. Rachel brought her grades up. I think she is trying harder to  pay attention in class. She has way less homework at Legacy Prep than she did at Foxboro. She now says that she likes Legacy Prep better.
8. Anya for the first time did not get straight A's. She got a B in essential skills because she never did her make up work from when she missed a week of school. But she is only in the first grade.
9. Joseph got all A's too, and he's also been bumped up another level in reading. 
10. Joshua had his 4th birthday!! He LOVED it! He loved his gifts. His sibling all pitched in using their Christmas money and got him a pretty nice lego set. We use the food stamps to get the kids their own little stash of candy which he has been carrying around and sharing little of. Uncle Jeremy showed up with a real model train and track, that Josh is in love with. He got a noisy plastic train that runs around the floor on batteries from my mom. He carried that around for days. Josh knew exactly what he wanted for his dessert and dinner. He wanted salmon for dinner and a "brown" train cake for dessert. We provided both. At dinnertime he chanted "Salmon, Salmon" and at cake time he blew his candles out before we even started singing. John kept relighting and Josh kept blowing and we all had a good laugh. Josh is a very organized little boy. He likes things neat. He loved building things with legos and blocks.He loves to color and tries to stay in the lines. He hates dressing and undressing himself and going to the bathroom. Hopefully, he'll outgrow those 2. He still wakes up crying at night which is annoying, but all in all, we love our little Joshua. He brings a lot of joy to our home.
11. Arwen was sick most of the week. I came home from work Monday at 1:20 am and she had puked all over. She had been having diarrhea the week before. She puked one more time that night and one more time on Wednesday, We tried to keep only simple sugars and carbs in her to give her body time to get rid of the germ and to give her stomach time to heal. So she cried every day when we said no chocolate milk. She seems to be okay now and is happy to be getting her favorite drink again.
12. Susan is getting her top teeth. She's been pretty grumpy and waking up at night. Since I get home after 1am, I have been getting 3 hours of sleep a night. I never planned on working before my little ones started school. When John gets a job, I am going to go back to that plan. 10 young children and a part time job is a little more than I can do, I think, at least long term.

This Week's Pictures