This Week at Our House #34

1. John finished work, but he was fixing a few things here and there. We really need them to pay him now. I was hoping they would do so by Friday. Instead it looks like they have not even finished putting it in their system. He delivered a very good product. Hopefully they will pay this week. We had an offer on the house. From the beginning it was clear that the realtor and the buyers intended to take advantage of us at every turn because we are unrepresented. The offer was very low and they tried to justify it using neighborhood stats from houses that were 1000+ square feet smaller than our house, but selling for what they wanted to buy our house for. Their suggested earnest money was low enough to be unheard of.  We countered very hard. They came back with a reasonable offer, but we are inclined not to take it because we know that they thought we did not know anything about real estate in the neighborhood or how selling a house is supposed to work. They meant to get us at every angle. Of course they still can get us, accepting an offer is only the first step. There are negotiations all the way to the end of closing. If we felt like we could trust them to be honest and straight forward, we would accept their offer. But we don't trust them. We will very likely keep looking for buyer.We have had about 7 people look at the house and 2 offers. I think if we can get 12 more people in, we will have a reasonable offer that we are happy with.
2. School is back in full swing with early mornings full of work to lots of homework to arguing over bedtime to minor difficulties with some teachers. By Friday, I am completely exhausted. And now we have 9 more months to go. 
3. Ruth worked more this week than she often did over the summer even though she is back in school full time. Everyone kept asking her to take their shifts and she did. She was very tired and the most out of sorts she has been since she was 7, so I sent her bed early (never do that) and told her not to accept so much work. In all, though, I would say that Ruth is going to be very happy with her course schedule. She focused on taking classes she liked and has an interest in. 
4. Kate got back into the swing of things pretty well. I think her favorite class will be AP American History because she has a teacher with conservative views and a lot of friends in the class. Kate has honors physic with Ruth and gym class with Johnny.
5. Johnny misses Legacy Prep. It was smaller and the dress code and clean language were enforced. Johnny is eating lunch with Ruth and Kate or alone. As far as I can get out of him, he has not talked to anyone who has not talked to him first. He hates his math class because the review is stuff he did 2 to 3 years ago. I am counting in it getting hard fast, though. He is very intimidated by orchestra because he has the least amount of experience. We have told him to stick it out because he always wants to quit things he feels like are too hard. This should be good for him. Hopefully, this week Johnny will get feeling a little more comfortable and start to make a few friends.
6. Adam is at a school all alone, but he seems to be adjusting quite well. He gets to sleep in the latest because he gets ready the fastest. He seems to be getting his homework finished at school which is good. I'm still trying to get that boy to love reading. I have decided that this year Adam, Rachel, Anya, and Joseph to read out loud to me every school day. 
7. Rachel got into the school musical again and this year she has a small speaking part, The show is the Aristocats. Rachel will be a soldier in the dog army. I think she is a little disappointed not be a cat. None of Rachel's good friends are in her class. She says her class is boring and her teacher gives too much homework. She does play with her friends from last year at recess, though.
8. Anya still won't talk to anyone and try to make friends. I think I will talk to her teacher and see if she will help her.
9. Joseph seems to be doing fine with a full day of school. His biggest problem is getting up in the mornings. I have to wake Joseph up about 30 minutes before the other kids so he can sit around and get reoriented. Otherwise, he doesn't ready in time.
10. Joshua got to work sneaking and getting into his siblings things as soon as everyone was gone Monday morning. I had to establish some firm rules right away. On Thursday, I made some corn starch slime for Josh and Arwen to play in, but they wouldn't touch it. Then Josh dumped a cup of water in and destroyed it. I was pretty unhappy. 
11. Arwen and Susan followed Josh's example and got into Ruth's nail polish and make up Monday. They would sneak off every time I went to fold the laundry. Ruth's bedroom door has been kept locked since then. I took the little ones to the library. Arwen wanted every book there.
12. Suzy has 4 molars coming in. Two have started to break through the skin. She is either really grumpy or perfectly happy right now. But she wants to be help constantly.

This Week's Pictures