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