This Week at Our House # 3 More Snow in North Carolina???

Life is busy, yet quiet. It's busy because we are schooling and feeding so many kids and it is quiet because we don't have the money to go anywhere, and therefore have as few obligations as possible. I like our little house and big-ish yard. I like that my kids can be sent outdoors when the house gets too noisy and bouncy. We had Joshua's birthday this week and another opportunity to play in some snow. I dug out more sod for my garden on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and then to our surprise it began to snow Wednesday night, so we woke up Thursday morning to snow. With snow on the ground, and kids who were too excited to pay attention to lessons, I changed school up, and made Thursday talent day. The school kids had to spend time practicing the piano more seriously than usual, drawing and painting. I dumped out all the toys and organized them again. I also made sure they all had their math lessons and we spent an hour on Spanish. It was pretty fun to mix school up a bit. I think I will try that again in another month. 

1. I am anxiously hoping John will get another contract soon. It's so hard to be this poor. I want John to find a way to really start his own business to cure us of this unemployment curse. I realized this week that John hasn't been counted in unemployment statistics because he has been working contracts, and only the people who have had w-2 jobs and have applied for unemployment insurance get counted. I think that means that the unemployment numbers are much bigger than what is actually published. There are a lot of people who work contract work, so the employers are not responsible for health care and benefits.
2. I have several books on my mental list to read or reread this year. I love to just sit down with a good book. Once it gets past 10 pm, I just get in bed to read. If my kids want to hang out with me, I read out loud. I like this arrangement. It gives me time to relax and recoup.
3. Ruth has gone through another transfer. When we hear from her again, she will have had a new companion in the same area for about a week. I sure miss talking to her. 
4. I was reading Anne of Avonlea to Kate, because that is the book I was reading to myself in bed at night. Last night, when it said that Ruby Gillis has lots of beaus like she always said she wanted, Kate said it just makes sense. Girls who think a lot about math are bound to be good at math, and girls who think a lot about boys will be good at getting boys. That made me laugh. 
5. Johnny is John's good friend. They do math and programming together, and they have a variety of games that they always like to play. 
6. Adam is such a strong athletic boy. I have played basketball a couple of times with him. He is rather aggressive, but he almost always makes the basket he shoots for. 
7. Rachel wrote a very good story for the story club this week, but she left out all the punctuation except periods. Once she fixes that, I will get her story on here. She did spend most of her time this week either reading or writing. 
8. Anya painted the prettiest picture out of everyone on Thursday. Maybe she has a natural knack for acrylic paint. 
9. Joseph is really good playing the piano with his right hand. He can pretty much take any new piece of music and get the right had right away. It's been hard trying to convince him that he needs to learn both hands.
10. Joshua had his 7th birthday!! Kate and I made him a layered orca cake with two kinds of sponges and two kinds of fillings. It is the first time I have made a cake that tasted good and had a good rise and texture. Josh loved that it was a killer whale. He said that he had the best birthday. 
11. Arwen drew a picture of her and Josh getting married for Josh for his birthday. The next morning, when she woke up, she immediately declared that she would not share her birthday candy with Josh, if he would not marry her. She is so funny.
12. Taking a page from Arwen's book, Susan decided that she is going to marry Adam. Once she declared her intentions, she jumped on Adam and kissed him all over his face. Johnny hid under his blanket in embarrassment and tried again to explain to his youngest sisters that they cannot marry their brothers.
13. Samuel likes to be outside, especially on the warmer days.

Pictures

Drawing together. There's snow outside, so the hats and mittens bin is back in use.

Suzy kept snitching cake throughout the day, so by the time, we got to singing happy birthday, there was a chunk missing from the fin.

This is the cake before Suzy got to it. 

Arwen's Present to Josh

Since Josh got this set, he has built every single dinosaur. He keeps taking it apart, getting out the instructions and building anew.

Joseph and Anya made these space lego creations for Josh for his birthday

Kate making the pattern for the cake.

Fitting the cake to the board

Our first 1000 piece puzzle for the year

Adam made these pianos for their lego game.

Johnny made this lego robot for Josh for his birthday