This Week at Our House # 22

1. We had an ordinary week with nothing special to report. Things may be coming up on the job horizon, but it is just a maybe. 
2. Ruth needed to exchange a dress my mother bought her for graduation and I needed to get to the Temple. John was originally going to come along, but he was sick the night before. So, I had a lovely drive, quick shopping trip, and time at the Temple with Ruth and Kate while John took care of things at home. 
3. Ruth finished all of her finals this weeks. She is graduating with high honors and a total gpa of 3.9. The silly girl thinks she is stupid. She is terrified to take the written drivers test tomorrow morning. It has been months of me trying to convince her that this needs to do this. The next step will be to force her to learn to drive on a 15 passenger van and then get her licence before college. I thought kids were excited to learn to drive and gain that independence but that has not at all been the case for Ruth.
4. Kate is trying to prepare for the ACT, but we have been really busy. She got to babysit a little 2 month old baby boy and loved that so much. She also came along to Raleigh with Ruth and I. But she has been reading a ton, even staying up most of the night to do so. Since her difficulty is not accuracy, but speed, I think her abundant reading will probably be just what she needs. The ACT is next Saturday. She will get one more try at it before she has to apply for college next fall.
5. Johnny takes care of the little kids a lot these days when I am busy or tired. He never complains, though, He just does what needs to be done.
6. Adam didn't spend so much time on the computer this week, but with him off everyone else did, so my rules had to change for all anyway. His computer time this week was building his own levels on portal (a computer game) which I feel differently about because he is learning and creating.
7. Rachel told me this week that she thought when she turned 10 she would just automatically become responsible, and this week she realized it didn't just happen, so now she is trying hard and doing things to become responsible. I thought that was adorable!
8. Anya was one of the reasons the free media was changed. She just wanted to wake up, get her stuff done and then play computer games and wii the rest of the day. So on Tuesday, I changed the rule to no media except between the hours of 1 and 5 and only after they got their chores and reading done. On Thursday, Anya was sitting by me and I asked her what she was doing, and she said that she was just waiting for 1 o'clock. 
9. I told Joseph if he read one whole book on Friday, I would buy him a box of popsicles. He read a Magic Tree House book in just one hour. I kind of think that is how long it would take me to read one of those books, but I have not tried. 
10. Josh loves to build. He builds with legos and wood blocks mainly, We have a box of big wooden blocks that we just keep in the living room and Josh is pretty much constantly dumping them out and building things with them. Sometimes he builds buildings and other times he builds armies.
11. Arwen is anxiously awaiting her birthday. She has asked me nearly everyday if it is her birthday yet. Her birthday is July 27th, so it is coming for sure. I think it is cute how excited she is for it.
12. Suzy is talking a lot now. It has been this way with most of my kids. They pretty much say nothing until they turn 2 and then they just start in with a lot to say. Today I walked in the kitchen and she was sitting on the counter with her feet in a sink full of cold water. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "washing." Sure enough, she had the hand soap right there and was rubbing it up and down her legs and then rinsing them in the water.

This Week's Pictures