This Week at Our House #44

1. John worked many more hours this week, so he did not exercise as much. He came with me to my 37 week check up and then we went to the Temple together. We were glad to get in one more Temple trip before the baby comes.
2. I am now 38 weeks pregnant and definitely counting down the time and looking forward to meeting this new baby. We had an eventful week. We carved pumpkins and had trunk or treat at the Church. I spent a lot of time checking off things on my "before the baby comes todo list." It looks like I will get them all done. The biggest one is getting the van repaired, which will happen this Thursday. We had the primary sacrament meeting presentation this week. I had 6 kids up there with 6 parts. It was so fun to watch. We will never have that many kids in primary in time for the primary presentation ever again. 
3. Ruth calls every two or three days. We love hearing from her. She has Kate's math teacher from Legacy Prep. He is a great guy and asks her about our family. Ruth attends the Temple almost every week. She is in walking distance from it. She says she spends all of her time on homework, but I think some of that time is spent helping other people with theirs. 
4. Kate got most of her stuff completed for her college applications including getting her transcripts from various high schools ordered. She has been a bit nervous about it all. Kate spends a lot of time playing with the little kids. They have a lego game that she has joined them in and they ask her to play often. 
5. Johnny did a lot of babysitting this week while I ran a lot of errands. I am very thankful for my older kids who so willingly watch younger kids so I do not have to take them on all of the boring errands anymore. 
6. Adam finally got his new glasses. He has been wearing broken glasses for a month and a half. His glasses were ready to pick up when John and I went to my 37 week check. When we got there, they were the wrong glasses. The were sparkly purple and very small. We thought it might be another month before the right ones came in again. Fortunately it was only one more day. But it meant that I had to take another trip to the Raleigh area. That is always at least 3 hours of driving. It is a definite downside of living in a smallish town. But there are many upsides like being closer to the beach and no traffic.
7. We got the car seat for the baby in the mail and Rachel made the box into a little house. She has been hiding in it, having Anya ask the younger kids a question and then Rachel yelling the answer out of the box while Anya pretends it comes from her.
8. John and I are still astonished at what a new person Anya has become. We spent a couple of months forcing her to read the scriptures and repeat back what she had read. She could not do that before. Now she can, but it seems to have extended to every part of her. It is like she had no idea that you could read something and then know about it. Now she tells us about her scriptures and the books she reads. She even reads one thing and then compares it to another thing she has read before. She is remembering things much better now too. We really had no idea that Anya was reading without learning. She learned to read early and easily. She had no trouble reading out loud and was often in the hardest reading group. I never really had trouble getting her to read chapter books or anything. I am glad we caught this young and I love seeing how much her world has changed.
9. Joseph dropped a homemade stuffed toy into the toilet, fetched it out, came downstairs and had everyone touch it because it was wet and then confessed how it got wet. Ughhhh
10. Joshua held onto the microphone during his part of the primary presentation so it squealed and you could not hear what he had to say, but he did have his part memorized. I bought these great little books for Josh. They are called Bob books. They are very simple and Josh is loving that he can read them. 
11. Arwen loves to color. She colors several hours a day and goes through 4 to 5 coloring books a month. Each month near payday, I go the dollar store to buy more books.
12. During Church I said, "Stop it, Susan!" She responded back, "I am not Susan!"

This Week at House

Halloween 2016 Photos

Kate--A Superman fan

Johnny-- Clark Kent

Adam-- Pirate

Rachel-- Butterfly

Anya-- The Cutest witch in the world

Joseph-- Batman

Joshua-- T-Rex

Arwen-- Fairy

Suzy-- Dancing Unicorn

Recent Susan Tales

I looked over at Susan and said that she was almost 2 and a half and needed to start talking. Johnny said that maybe Susan is just shy. Kate and I kind of chuckled and said that Susan was definitely not shy. Susan then jumped up, ran toward Johnny and said very clearly, "I, not shy!"

We got a new car seat for the new baby in the mail. The three youngest kids were playing around it. Susan sat in it, pushed Arwen down and said, "Sit down! You not a baby!"

This Week at Our House # 43

1. John took Kate and Johnny to the Temple on Saturday and lost his glasses. Now he wants to get contact lenses. He sees that I wear them always, but I doubt he would be as comfortable and as determined as I am about contact lenses. It's an expensive experiment. I suspect he will do it anyway.
2. John and I were reading back in my blog in 2008. Ruth was 10 to 10.5 at the time. We lived in Wichita, KS in a nice home. We had never really gone through anything harder than a car repair we couldn't afford without credit. I was young and pretty energetic, and worked quite hard to keep our house spick and span clean. The kids had never had to deal with anything hard. It was interesting to read how light hearted we all were. I think we laughed a lot more. Since then, we have become more serious and much, much busier. I do not have to time to keep the house so perfectly clean. The kids help a lot more around the house-- both the older kids and the younger kids. Our understanding of life and the gospel has increased as we have experienced a lot of personal difficulties. The world around us has changed substantially. I am more involved in things other than motherhood. I had no worries about sending my kids to public schools. It really is amazing to see how much our family has changed. I think it would be better if we joked more again. But I know we can never go back to those easy going, light-hearted days. Even if we hadn't experienced so much difficulty, the changes in the world, our nation, and society have been too substantial. The easy days of American life are over. With the exception of bloodshed, I am sure we will never again be as free as we were in 2008.
3. Ruth seems to be doing well. Kate and I had the opportunity to help her personally by doing some editing for her history class. She had a date, so she did not have time. We were glad to help.
4. Kate spent time working on her BYU and BYU I applications. She has seen the Bishop for her first half of her ecclesiastical endorsement. I suspect after another two more weeks, everything will be completed and it will be time to wait. Kate is not too excited about the whole application process, but I know she looks forward to college.
5. Johnny has started computer programming as part of his schooling. I think he likes it because he has been diligent about it. 
6. Adam is excited for his birthday. He will be 12 in less than two weeks and he has been counting down since August. He is still wearing broken glasses. We hope his gets his new glasses this week. 
7. Rachel is excited for Halloween and was quite good about picking out an affordable costume.
8. Anya was very excited for computer day this week because she is ungrounded and could play for the first time in months.
9. It's primary program time again. Joseph has a long part, but apparently memorized it all on his own just during the practice last Sunday. 
10. Joshua played Super Smash Brothers with Anya and won. Anya thought that was awesome and amazing.
11. Josh scratched Arwen on the nose and while John was looking at her, Arwen said, "Don't take it off."
12. Susan is talking a lot more. She has been behind in language skills and I have been mildly worried. But she seems to be saying more and more sentences. I keep doing double takes and looking who said that.

Tender Mercies

1. There really isn't much to report. Things are going really well for all of us and no one really needs anything. That is a huge tender mercy.

This Week's Pictures

This Year's 8X10's

I never got last years 8x10 photos of the kids on the wall because we lost them when my laptop died in January.This year, we took them, edited them, sized them, and submitted them to be printed all in the same day. All of my pictures of the kids on the wall are two years old. I look forward to getting the new prints.

This is Ruth's Senior Picture from June

This Week at Our House # 42

1. My birthday was on Friday, so John made jambalaya for dinner for me. His work went well this week, He had a break through on his recent project and a good meeting with his boss.
2. I am now 41!!! I saw the midwife on my birthday. She did a non-stress test, and it looks like the baby is doing great. I am now 36 weeks pregnant with less than a month to go. I'm looking forward to meeting this new little one. Oh and I got a nice, soft, and new area carpet that covers most of the old, dingy carpet in the living room area and we are loving it!
3. Ruth is working very hard. She has a lot of homework-- more than any of her roommates. Her art class is particularly rigorous. She barely dated during high school and is now having that pleasure. I am glad that she is getting that before she leaves on a mission.
4. Kate and Johnny did not have seminary all week because last week's hurricane resulted in the rivers over flowing and seminary being cancelled for a week. Kate made chocolate cheesecake for my birthday. She has become a very good cook and is often eager to try new things. She can make bread now and enjoys that.
5. John has Johnny working on some projects for school. He had him building a motorized lego thing that will draw a perfect circle. Johnny has not enjoyed the assignment but has worked diligently on it. 
6. Adam made charcoal and then used it to make a water filter. Both turned out well and he really enjoyed the assignment. Adam is going to make a backyard foundry using plaster and sand next. That will be much more complicated, but after that is made, Adam will be able to melt soda cans to make other things out of medal. Adam enjoys this part of home school the best. I think piano is his second favorite, as he plays all of the time.
7. Rachel came with me to my midwife appointment on my birthday. We went to Trader Joe's to buy some high quality dark chocolate and then out to lunch. Rachel was a joy to have along.
8. Anya finished reading Fablehaven and began the next book I assigned her and finished that too. Anya can be seen sitting on the couch and reading a lot more. She has always been a good reader, but now she is enjoying reading. 
9. Joseph had a good week. He did his school work without nagging. I bought a new math book for Joseph and Anya and they are both liking that much more. I had them doing workbooks and they just seemed too tedious and too much of the same thing. So, I bought a regular text book that goes through concepts faster and some multiplication flash cards to help them memorize their times tables. 
10. I found the magic potion to get Josh to stop whining and screaming and just being grumpy and mean. I remembered a conversation I had with a close friend about her screamy little boy. She just put a squirt of soap in his mouth anytime he whined, screamed, or disrespected. I tried that on Josh and our house and Josh were transformed in 24 hours. It never ceases to amaze me how a little push or a little discipline can change an unhappy child into a happy child.
11. Arwen came with me to my midwife appointment too. She was really quite good considering we were shut in a room with no toys for a half hour to monitor the baby. Arwen always wants to come with me. I take her most of the time.
12. When I told Susan that it was bedtime, she replied, "I can't want it." Susan got into everything all week long and screamed when she got her out. Two has definitely been a terrible and an emotional age for Susan. It was for Rachel and Kate too. In fact, Suzy reminds me a lot of Rachel at that age. I had a hard time when Rachel went through it, but Susan doesn't bother me too much. I am surprised that after 9 other two year olds, I am finally relaxed and enjoying this terrible age.

Tender Mercies

1. Since John is really only employed on a month to month basis, it is really important that he keeps coming up with new projects and creating them in a timely manner. Heavenly Father has really been there every step of the way with John and this job and John is doing very well.
2. We had no affects from the hurricane while people all around our little area lost electricity and had to deal with severe flooding.
3. Through Church we will have a few opportunities to help others displaced by the flooding.
4. After a loss, it is always a tender mercy to know that the pregnancy is going well and all is well with the baby.

This Week's Pictures

Making a water filter

making charcoal