This Week at Our House #21 Just Ordinary Life

I didn't get the things I needed to get done this week. I bought the things I needed to repair the wood on the roof, but forgot to get a saw. Then we went to the temple. That takes a full day. I was unable to get back to the store, so the roof did not get worked on. But we have the roof covered well and are not having anymore leaks.

We did however, get a majority of the living room floor replaced up until the point where we need to replace the subfloor where water came in the front door and went under the floor boards during the hurricane. That was  on Monday. We need to buy a better saw for repairing the floor, so that is waiting for me to get the new saw too. I do feel like we have been in a construction zone since we moved into this house. Of course, that is not surprising since we bought an abandoned, foreclosed home.

We were quite busy with the floor and the temple and the regular house chores that I only got the kids their summer math problems twice this week.

Adam, Johnny, and I put a swing up on the deck for the little kids, but the rope keeps breaking. That too is waiting for me to get back to the store to get better rope. But the little ones love it and we keep tying the rope back up and they have spent hours on it.

John allows the kids computer game time minute for minute for how much time they put into learning foreign languages. It has been over a year and it has finally clicked for them. Everyday, the kids get out the language books and each of them try to spend an hour or more copying the three Japanese alphabets and Spanish vocabulary. Japanese and Spanish are the two languages we have been working on. Then they take turns playing their hour of computer time. They were so tired out from academics as we ended the school year, that I have been surprised how much effort they are putting into this. They are certainly enjoying the reward for their efforts.

Sam continues to potty train. He will not keep a diaper on anymore, so we are stuck no matter how well it goes. So far, I can assert that he knows what to do. He is still having accidents of both types, but I think they are genuinely accidents as he seems to get it more than he misses without a lot of reminders. He has trained for the potty chair, though. Eventually, we will have to move him to the toilet. Ruth is the only other child who used the potty chair for more than a day or two.

All in all vacation is going well. The kids have lots of play time and I have a lot more time for work. Both have been good as the kids are getting along well, playing outdoors a lot, and doing things to expand their minds, and I am getting the house repairs done at a much faster rate.


Here are the fun stories I kept track of this week:

Arwen came to me after dinner and asked, "Can I have a s'more, since I did not like that dinner?" Of course I said no. A few minutes later she came up to me for another try and asked, "Well then can I have a ding dong." I said no again. She then tried one more time, "Well what am I going to eat? I am hungry." I suggested she eat either the meat, the vegetables, the bread, or the cheese. We had homemade philly cheese steaks. Arwen just said, "I don't like any of those."

Sam was having a hard time going to bed. I went to his room to get after him, but decided instead to lie down beside him and sing to him. Every time I stopped singing, he would drowsily say, "Do it again."

Kate was carrying a very fussy Gideon around to help him to calm down. Gideon would not calm down. He heard John playing some sports videos for some of the boys. Kate showed that to him and he immediately calmed down and sat with John and the boys.

I saw Sam carrying around the photo album my wedding photos. I told Sam to put it away right away. Those are my wedding photos. Arwen turned to me and said. I looked at that yesterday and I did not see you in it. I got the book from Sam and showed her that I was the bride. She said that it was not me because that girl had blond hair. She did acknowledge that the face looked like me and that the man looked like her dad.

This is a conversation Ruth had with Susan:

Susan: in my house there are lots of girls
in Josephs house there are lots of boys
in Josh's house there are lots of girls
We don't have the same mom

Ruth: Who's my mom then? What does she look like?

Susan: Your mom always wears the same clothes


A conversation one morning:
Kate: Sam you got to give Rachel a kiss to wake her up!
Sam: oh

Kate: Give Rachel a kiss
Sam rolled her over to kiss her, and he leaned in said: No!
Rachel woke up and said: Prince Charming you betrayed me!

Joseph came to me and asked, "Who is your favorite character in my mystical world?"

Anya has a white dress with black kittens on it that she got from her cousin. She has been carrying the black kitten around when she wears that dress to match the kitten with her clothes. 

I was wondering if the kids were actually learning any of the language stuff they have been working on or if it is just a bunch of copy work that they were not even thinking about. As it turns out, Josh, at least, is learning something. He asked me for some sidewalk chalk and went out to the back deck to draw. Ruth later came in and said, "Josh knows the kanji for bug. He wrote it on the deck and then drew a whole bunch of praying mantises."

This Week at Our House #20 First Full Week of Summer Vacation

We had our first full week of summer vacation, and the weather turned hot. North Carolina's weather is funny. All winter it seems that it cannot make up it's mind whether it is hot or cold,  and then finally it settles into very hot and that is what it stays for close to 6 months.

I managed to get the kids' reading and one math problem in 3 of the 5 days. Most of the kids read on their own and I don't need to remind them or read with them. It's Josh and Arwen that I need to remind and have them read to me. Arwen is quite a good reader now, but does not sit down and read unless she is told to. Josh is getting there. He brings me boxes and books and things to see if he has read them correctly, and I think that is a big step forward.

Friday we made it back to the beach. The waves were huge with a strong undertow and the wind was blowing really hard. There was a red flag out warning beach goers. We could not really swim much, but the kids had a lot of fun being crashed down by the huge waves on the shore. As we were leaving, Rachel exclaimed, "That was the best beach day, ever!"

I felt like we got a lot done on the roof until we got to a stopping point. We found some damaged wood and need to get that repaired, so we are waiting for me to take my weekly trip out to the stores. I will do that tomorrow. We have a temple trip planned this next week which will cut into roofing time so I think we will have the roof done in two weeks. Once the tear off is complete and any repairs are done, nailing on shingles goes quite quickly. Fortunately, the weather has been unusually dry.

Ruth, Kate, and Johnny do not take any time off. They have their projects they are working on and they do so 7 days a week. They are all working on transcribing church historical documents, and they feel perfectly fine doing that on Sundays. They have also gotten Adam and Rachel involved. There is so much stuff and we have learned so much over the last year and a half from reading, researching, and studying church history. In a way, my kids have become self-taught historians. They do exactly what historians who have PhD's do. Honestly, it surprises me that anyone has thought that a PhD would be necessary for historical study, research, and writing.

Kate has almost finished her first children's book. We will self publish that through amazon. Adam and I carried her ducks into her when she had her drawings out and she about had a heart attack. She has worked very hard on this project.

All of the older kids work a lot on art and illustration. Along with John, they have a drawing contest each week. They have two parts to this: they each submit one drawing from someone else's art and one original drawing.

I began potty training Sam this week. The first day, he did the best. The following days have been hit and miss. The positive thing is that he seems to be getting used to being without a diaper. When we got home from church, he immediately stripped down and sat on his potty chair. Later in the day, John put a diaper on him and he took it off almost right away and used his potty chair. I can never tell how easy or hard potty training will be. So far, it is not too terrible.

Gideon is 4 months old now and as

healthy as can be. He is a very large baby weighing over 16 pounds. He holds himself up well when lying on his tummy and has even begun to scoot around a little. I put him on the floor and ten minutes later, he had turned a corner and moved about 3 feet. I find that pretty impressive for a baby the day before hitting 4 months. He still coos and talks and is smiley. He worried us a lot during the pregnancy, but is smarter and stronger than most of our babies at the same age. The Lord has really blessed him.

Arwen lost her second top tooth, and now has that cute gap on top. She lost the tooth on Saturday. All day long she came to me saying, "Mom, my tooth is much more wiggly." It has been loose for months, so I did not pay too much attention, until she came outside to me and showed me the gap. We don't do the tooth fairy, but I always get them a pack of gum for the lost tooth. Arwen is pretty excited about that. She knows exactly what kind of gum she likes.

Ruth has been helping with the little girls a lot. She reads scriptures to Susan everyday. And she reads books to Susan and Arwen. They adore her.

Susan loves to swing. We put a couple of swings in a large tree in our yard. But I only let Suzy go and play there if she has an older kid with her. This week we are going to try to get a swing put up on our back deck for her so that it is in the fenced in area. It won't be as shady, but she will be able to use it as much as she wants.

Anya is at that very sweet, very helpful, and very innocent age. She is also just Anya and everyone likes her and everyone gets along with her. She rarely fights with anyone and everyone likes her to be there playing their games or coloring or whatever is happening. Anya helps me a lot with kitchen cleaning and taking care of the baby.  I rarely have funny stories to tell about Anya. It is not because she is not around or not fun, it's just because she is such a sweet tempered, easy going girl.

Joseph came into my room while he was supposed to be cleaning the kitchen with Johnny. He said, "Johnny told me that he isn't nice and he isn't kind." Joseph and I both agreed that Johnny's statement was plain silliness. We all know that Johnny is the nicest and kindest in the family.

Sam ran into the house panting. He grabbed my arm, looked seriously into my eyes, and said, "Mom, it's scary and bites!" I sent Adam outside with Sam to check it out. Adam came back in the house laughing. It was a slug.

Joseph asked me if I had written about our chicken named Menace being broody and nesting in the garage. I said that I had not. Joseph told me that I should start keeping a weekly list of all of the things the chickens do. I said I thought that would not be interesting, but Joseph assured me that it would.

John told Sam he could have no more m&ms and Sam replied, "Oh man."

John told Josh to stop wrestling Joseph and to go and tell everyone to come for prayer. Josh replied, "Ahhhh, that's hard." Not thinking he had asked Josh to do anything terribly difficult, John made a surprised exclamation.

Kate asked how many fudgicles she could have. I said I didn't care, and that she could have 5 if she wanted. She ran into the house to get them and ran out with Adam chasing after her trying to get some too. It was pretty funny.

More Pictures

This is the second bucket of blackberries that we got this week.We need to go out and get another. There are still plenty of berries to collect.

I asked Arwen to show me her gap.

I then told her to smile.

Mother's Day 2019

I have been very blessed with all of these beautiful children. I love being a mother, and I love being a mother to many. 

It's only been a few years that I have made the kids take a picture with me on mother's day, but I thought it would be fun to put them all together in one post. 

Mother's Day 2018

Mother's Day 2017

Mother's Day 2016

Mother's Day 2015

This Week at Our House #19 Summer Vacation Begins

Another busy week has passed us by. Monday and Tuesday, we finished our final two days of the school year. Unlike public school, where things get easier at the end and there is a lot of down time and fun activities, we just plow right through until the end. For the summer, I will make them read their scriptures everyday and do one math problem, for the most part, but this week, we only managed that on Wednesday.

Thursday, we took the five and half hour drive to the temple. It's a rough trip. Driving 11 hours in one day for two hours at the temple is not easy. But this time, I was glad to be there to have the time to quietly ponder and pray. Additionally, the ride home, while tedious was quite fun. Kate, and Ruth and John and I had some good conversations and some very fun conversations.

Friday, we cleaned the whole house and put the new floor into the dining room. We have the living room floor left, 2 more bedrooms to paint, two more doors to paint, and some of the outside of the house to paint, and a storm door to replace and hang. Plus this week I began working on our roof.

After being cheated by the original roofer and getting estimates from a few others, we decided to take the task on ourselves. It's intimidating, but our roof is one story, so it is not terribly dangerous. In the end, we decided if the druggies around here can tear off a roof and put a new one on, then we, without drugs, could do it just as well, if not better, and keep the cost of  the labor. We have a little more than half the roof, plus fixing some of the things the first roofer messed up. We know what needs to be done. We have most of the parts, and can get the rest with a quick trip to the supply store. I think it will be challenging, but we are beginning to get into a groove with it.

I have been doing the tear off and the clean up and the tar applications. Johnny has been nailing down the tar paper and John and Adam have been nailing on the new shingles. Adam puts down all the starter shingles because he has the best balance. I have been kind of the boss about it too. Not because I am bossy as much as because I knew what was messed up and what needed to be done from the companies that came and gave us estimates. And because I am doing the tear off, that pretty much decides the order of the other parts.

Basically this week, we ended school and got to work on house projects. That will be the case, I think for a good month more. We are still hoping and praying and fasting for John to get a job and to be able to move out of here. We have been having one person in the home fast each day for several months now.

The kids played outside all week. It is so beautiful here and our yard is private and peaceful with a variety of nature. We have flowers and bushes and tons of trees. We have fruits and vegetables and herbs growing. Last year, we found out that we had a bunch of wild blackberries, so we made more room for them and now we have an acre of wild blackberries, along with a fertile hill full of very large luscious berries that will ripen soon. When I want some herbs, I step out of the front door and clip them. I weeded my kitchen garden yesterday, brought in a large bunch of cilantro and immediately made a delicious salsa that will go well with our falafel dinner tonight. I love our yard. I wish we could have made this our permanent home.

Here are our fun stories and conversations from this past week:

Adam: "Josh, stop licking our electronics,"
Johnny: "what was he licking?"
Adam: "The bottom of the keyboard where the battery goes in."
Johnny: "Josh, don't lick the keyboard."
Josh in a very pleasant voice: "Okay."

Gideon happily talked to the picture of the raccoon on Ruth's sweater.

Sam handed me a banana. I peeled it for him and handed it back. He said, "thank you, mom." Then he took a bite and said, "mmmm, that's great, Mom!"

Susan asks to watch "minjas" meaning, "Lego Ninjago" a lot everyday. One day this week, when I was wearied of her pleas for tv time, I said, "Nope, the minjas are dead." Later that evening, I gave in when Arwen asked to watch Ninjago, and turned it on. Susan came in to watch the show and I did not think anything of it, and went out to work on something or take care of the baby. Ruth and Kate came into me laughing and said that they had the funniest conversation with Susan. Apparently, Susan went into their room sad and begged them to watch Barbie songs on their computer. They asked Susan why and why she was sad. Susan said it

was because the "minjas are dead." I told them, that actually, I told Susan that the minjas were dead. So I went in to where the little kids were watching tv and asked Susan if the minjas were actually dead. She pointed to the screen and sadly said, "these ones are not." I felt bad and explained to her that none of them were dead and I was just teasing her.

As I said in another post, Rachel is being a little silly by refusing to say anything absolute. It would be too embarrassing if I wrote down the funny conversation I had with her this week with her, "Well, I think, maybe, it is this way" conversation. Needless to say, by the end of the conversation, she declared absolutely what was the case, lest she have to face having me take a closer look resulting in more than necessary embarrassment.

Arwen just loves babies. She is always cuddling and cooing at Gideon and now she is always holding the baby kittens and cooing at them and telling them how cute they are.

Joseph made brownies for us at night and the little kids did not get any, so he made more the next morning.

Our most pecked hen has taken up residence in the house, particularly in Gideon's bed, but also on the couch. She walks inside when the kids open the door and comes and builds a nest to lay her eggs or just hang out with the family. She sat by Anya, probably her favorite human, and tried to get her hair to use for a nest. Anya gave her some rags and a bath towel. She built a nest and laid her egg there on the couch. The next two days, she got into Gideon's bed, napped there, and used the blankets to form a nest and laid eggs there.

Susan got into Gideon's bed with the hen to take a nap.

Our pecked hen finding peace indoors with lots of children

(Gideon mostly sleeps with me still, so it's not  that big of a deal.) The surprising thing is she has been mostly going outside to poop. Mostly, is the operative word, though. She has pooped 3 times in the house. Once in my shoes, once on the couch, and once on the floor.

Mom: Tell me what to write about Joseph and Anya.
Johnny: I don't know. I don't know what Joseph and Anya did. I don't even know what I did.

More Pictures

Rachel being goofy in mismatched clothes

proof that I actually do weed the flower beds

Wild blackberries