This Week at Our House #17 Ugly Wall Paper Removed

We finished taking down all of the ugly wallpaper in the living room and got the walls primed. We just spent a couple of hours a day most days soaking the walls and scraping wall paper. The kids were pretty good about doing it, and we were able to get the walls primed Saturday, but painting won't happen until Tuesday. Years ago, when we lived in Wichita, the house had a lot of wall paper. We took down all of it, except one room and it was a lot of work. I swore I would never buy a house with wallpaper again, but this house was so cheap, I gave in. It's actually a lot easier now with so many older kids. I always have two or three people working to peel the wallpaper, one making dinner, one cleaning the mess, and one holding the baby.

This week completed one more week of school. We only have 7 more school days to go until we will have completed our 180 days of school for the year. That means we will be done on May 7th. The kids are looking forward to the freedom and I am looking forward to the extra time, so that I can finish all of the rest of the house repairs.

I have been reading through some of the older years of this blog. I'm awed at how much we have changed since October 2007 when I started this family history. First of all, I only had 5 kids, though I keenly felt that my plate was full, my family large, and that once I had that 5th child I had left behind the approval of the world. Second, we were much more mainstream than we are now. Part of that is because we have changed things, like homeschooling. The other part is the world has changed where we have not. Third, I think we were happier then, and that I think I can also attribute that to how thoroughly the world has changed. We have many more worries and sorrows from things that never entered into our minds would occur. I am not talking about job loss and poverty, I am talking about certain changes in the church and the world at large.

Some fun things from this week:

A spontaneous beach trip on Wednesday at the end of the school day.

A Conversation overheard:
Johnny to Josh: "Going to bed is normal! Licking salty feathers is not!" About a minute later Josh came in asking us why this feather he licked tasted salty.

Sam, who did not want to take a bath, stomped into the bathroom while I was bathing Gideon and yelled, "I told you NO!"

Susan making lunch for all of the younger kids everyday this week.

Story club in which I was pleased with my very sarcastic poem and rhyming scheme. Susan told her story, which was "A cow jumped onto a balloon." Anya's poem that rhymed quite well, and most of the family actually participating.

The older kids all drawing together at night and making a fun game out of it. One person would describe their character and then everyone would draw their interpretation. During that, I asked Joseph if his character had armor-pants and he said no, he has chain mail pants. Everyone laughed and we got some funny drawings from it. 

A family game of capture the flag. 

Rachel pretending she is a Japanese girl and using fake Japanese words to talk to people.

Ruth and Kate singing with me around the piano.

Adam's really good piano playing.

Johnny moving the piano all by himself (so we could peal the wall paper).

Arwen reading very well and

interested in what she reads enough to ask a great many questions about what things are.

Ruth reading scriptures to Susan every night.

Sam bringing me hand fulls of sand at the beach and saying, "Look mom, it's cake!"

Gideon looking unhappy when Anya and John interrupted his cooing conversation with me to tell him how cute he is.

Me saying, "Sam, you are cute," and Sam responding, "No! Oh cute? Yes, cute!"

and 

Adam teasing Rachel for saying, "I think," before everything she says. Adamsays that Rachel no longer has any opinions on anything. Rachel was playing a video game and when Anya came in and asked her what she was doing. Rachel said, "I think I am playing a video game." Clearly, Rachel was playing a video game.

More Pictures

ugly wall paper gone!

This Week at Our House #16 State Testing and Easter

Every school year I am required to give my homeschooled kids some form of state testing. Every year, I have used the California Achievement Test because it can be administered online. All of the other tests come as paper tests in the mail, then you have to mail them back to get the scores. That's too much work for me. I am glad that there is an online option available and I am surprised that there are not more.

I had two kids take their tests each day for 3 school days in a row. That always cuts into the academics that happen. That 3-day loss definitely put us more behind on math lessons. All of the kids did reasonably well, especially in math. Their scores definitely helped me to know where we are lacking. We will be putting greater stress on spelling and punctuation in the coming school year. It turned out well because I had already thought that I needed to be more serious about those and ordered "The Good and the Beautiful" language arts curriculum for Anya, Joseph, Joshua, Arwen, and Susan which arrived the first day of our testing. Susan is excited for hers. She will be heading into kindergarten after our summer break.

The week went pretty smoothly otherwise. We have been taking down the ugly wallpaper. I am hoping to have that done and the walls painted before next Sunday. Joseph, Anya, Rachel, Adam, Johnny, Ruth, and Kate have all been helping on this.

Sam is still going through the terrible twos. Ruth rightfully called him a bully one morning as she tried to give in to his every demand while getting him breakfast. I've declared that Sam cannot be the boss of the family and he will have to sit in his room if he is screaming and bullying and whining and crying. John seconded me on this. One day this

week, Sam fell asleep on the couch at about 7:30. He woke up and came into my bed at 10:30 and went right back to sleep. At midnight, we put him into his own bed and he slept until 8 am. That next day, he was happy and polite the whole day. It seemed that our sweet Sam returned. We decided to get him to bed earlier each night, but Susan, Arwen, and Josh keep sabotaging that by playing in his room and keeping him awake.

I told Susan that I needed to get her to the dentist because she needs some fillings in her baby molars. I mentioned this two weeks ago and she has reminded me several times a day each day since then. I guess I better make the phone call. I will take Sam in then too, since Susan will have
to see the pediatric dentist.

Adam sent an email to John, me, Ruth, Kate, and Rachel with pictures of cartoon girls in which he

said, "these are the girls that Johnny thinks are pretty." I am not sure if Johnny was embarrassed or mad, but he went into everyone's email, except John and Ruth's and deleted them. He even deleted the sent mail out of Adam's email. I just mentioned that Ruth could forward it again to everyone. Johnny may now be thinking of how he can get rid of it from Ruth and John's emails too.

The four new baby chicks all died, seemingly of the same thing the ducklings died from. But I took a few kids to a nursery to pick up a few plants for the garden, and Joseph bought a 6 week old rooster and Arwen a 6 week old hen. They were big enough to put in with the rest of the flock outside. They are healthy and surviving. But Joseph has worried about them constantly and is always going outside to check on them. They have been very safe and very healthy, although the cats will chase them and the ducks will bite them.

Ruth and Kate stay in their room transcribing church historical documents and learning so much. I wanted Ruth to have this time of learning, so I promise not to ask them to help at all until after 7pm. They think this is very fair and always come and help happily. Ruth is emotional, though, worrying about her future. Kate is still just waiting and working hard to learn all that she can.

Gideon hit 3 months this week. He is nearly 15 pounds. He looks around quite happily at everything. He coos and chats with everyone. He loves us to bounce him up and down. When we do, he sticks his tongue out and when we stop he gives us the biggest, dimpliest smile, which I finally got a picture of!

All of our bushes are in full spring bloom and Susan and Arwen have been picking bouquets, putting flowers in their hair and carrying them around. Then they fight about whose flowers they are. I fertilized all of our bushes last fall and they are so much bigger and so full of flowers.

For Easter, we did something a little different this year and I have loved it! John did a word search

through the Joseph Smith papers, which we have on file, and we began reading all of the things Joseph Smith has said about resurrection. We've also searched the D&C, the Book of Mormon, and the Pearl of Great Price for everything about resurrection. We have learned so much more. In the past, our focus has been on the last week of the life of Christ. That is good, but this year has been much better as we are gaining more knowledge and understanding. It has been a very religious Easter and I think everyone older than Joseph is thankful for that.

I can't overstate how much I appreciate John's ability to lead us spiritually as a family. When I knew that I wanted to marry him it was because I really admired how seriously he took the scriptures and how he studied them to learn what was in them. He reminded me of the mission president that was in

my hometown mission when I was a senior in high school. I knew then that I wanted to marry someone like that, I just didn't think I was worthy. I still don't think that I am worthy. I simply lucked out somehow.

We still had our traditional candy hunt for Easter for the kids. Arwen counted down the days until Easter for this one event. Adam, Rachel, Anya, and Joseph did all the hiding last night. They had fun finding tricky places. Susan got a wooden chest to collect all her candy and Sam was just cute, sitting by the candy set out for him to find and pointing at it in surprise and happiness.

Later tonight we will have our traditional lamb dinner which we are really looking forward too.

We will be finished with our school year in less than 3 weeks! Hurray for vacation!

More Pictures

I love our chickens

This is my little kitchen garden. It is right outside the kitchen. It has cucumbers, bell peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes, and lots of herbs. Right now when I want fresh herbs, I just step outside and get them. The vegetables will be coming in another month.