This Week at Our House # 27

1. The employee that is starting John on his first project is on vacation, so John does not start work until Tuesday the 12th, He has been enjoying his last week before he starts work again. Of course we are all very happy that he will be starting work including John. A huge burden has been lifted. 
2. The 4th was fun, and then on Tuesday it got hot-- very hot. I believe the house got up to around 100, but the thermostat does not go above 90. After checking the weather forecast, I was pretty sure that July had hit in full force and it was not going to cool down. John and I had talked about buying a window air conditioning unit. We thought we might wait until payday, but the heat hit hard. We had been surviving okay, because it had been cooling down every few days. Well because John did get a job, and the house was so very hot, I gave in and bought an a/c unit on credit. Hopefully that will not turn out to be a bad move. In the meantime it has been heaven. We bought a large capacity unit and it cools the entire house in a couple of hours and it does not run 24 hours a day. We expect it will be much more cost efficient than the old unit that came with the house. I have now been off Facebook for a couple of weeks. John has told me there has been a definite difference in how I interact with the family, but I didn't really believe him. I asked the kids and they said things like, "You do more with us now." "You listen to us when we talk to you." "It is so much easier to get your attention." So while I miss my friends, my kids have spoken. I will continue to stay off Facebook for a long period of time. 
3. Ruth had a friend over for a movie Friday. She and Kate cleaned up the house and made some treats all for the one friend.
4. John read Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson to Ruth, Kate, and Johnny finishing on Thursday or Friday and that is still pretty much all Kate is talking about. Kate goes to girl's camp this coming week alone without Ruth for the first time. We will miss her a lot. She will leave Monday morning and not return until Friday. Just from what we have heard, camp will definitely be a different experience here.
5. We decided to watch a movie, The Hulk, 2008 with the older kids on Friday night. The trailer terrified Johnny as a 7 year old so he refused to watch the movie with us as a 14 yr old. He wasn't scared of anything we got him to watch, but he was having terrible anxieties about his 7 year old anxieties. I am not sure if we were more humored or more worried by his 14 yr old reaction.
6. Adam made up this terrible game where he and most of the younger kids wrestle while Adam sets up his camera video taping it. I tell them to stop and that this is a horrible game and they just tell me it is not a game and they are not fighting or being too rough, they are just making a video. :P
7. Rachel has been better about helping around the house this week. She has picked up a lot and taken care of other things. Sometimes is it volunteer and other times it is by force. This week without Kate will give her more opportunity for service in the home.
8. Saturday I told Anya to go outside and play. She said she did not want to. I reminded her that she spent most of her time outside before we got the air conditioner and asked her why she would not go out now. She said, "I don't want to go out because it is boiling, boiling, boiling." I said it was boiling before and she replied that it was colder outside before. 
9. Everyday Joseph antagonizes Adam. He kicks him and jumps on him and wrestles him and teases him. Eventually Adam fights back. Adam is older, and bigger, and stronger and always hurts Joseph. At that point Joseph comes crying to me about Adam hurting him. It's frustrating to know exactly what to do about it.
10. Joshua is Joseph's other wrestle buddy. If Joseph is not on top of Adam, Josh is on top of Joseph.When Joseph is on top of Adam, Josh is upstairs building legos. Josh does three things. He wrestles Joseph, he eats cereal and sandwiches, and he builds with legos. 
11. Since we put the air conditioner in Arwen has been sitting on me for hours on end. She wiggles constantly, so it gets old fast. But I am glad that she is getting the affection she needs. I was pushing her and everyone else away while we were all covered in sweat so constantly. Now I have kids back on top of me all of the time.
12. Suzy is driving me and everyone else nuts. She will not keep her diaper on and she keeps playing in her poop. I did get her to poop in the toilet one day. The rest of the days it has been a huge, horrible mess. She is also throwing temper tantrums and sassing everyone. Johnny closed the front door so Susan could not escape out into the road, and she followed him around red faced, stamping her foot and yelling, "bad, bad, bad." She called Adam a jerk 3 times and she told John to shut up. We are really having to clamp down on this behavior. I have banned the words shut up from the house and I am trying to get all of the kids to stop laughing when she acts this way. The rest of the time, she is my little shadow. She brings toys and books for me to play and read to her. She always comes to me when she is crying or upset asks me to play wheels on the bus on youtube for her. I don't always comply. Today I told her she should ask her sisters to play with her when she brought me a couple of ponies just as I was about to start cleaning. We tried getting Arwen to play with Susan, but Arwen just ran away with the ponies and left Susan crying. Anya then came and played with Suzy for a few minutes. All I can say is that baby is sure a hand full. Whenever I go out in public with any number of my kids, people tell me I have my hands full, but right now I would say that my hands are full with one very energetic and willful two year old.

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