This Week at Our House #30 A Trip and a Birthday

We had more of a fun week than anything else. Nothing much got done, and I hope to not be kicking myself for that later. School will be starting in one more week, so I think it is good that we had a fun week, but there is still so much work to be done.

Monday morning I took Joseph, Kate, and Adam to the beach for Joseph's birthday. He always wants me to take him out into the deeper water and swim with him, so I did without any other kids to worry about.

When we got home, we repaired a large part of the ceiling in our living room, and then, Ruth, Rachel, Anya, Arwen, Susan, Sam, and Gideon got in the van with me and drove the five and a half hours to my parent's house. I instructed the boys to get the whole yard mowed while I was gone, but they had trouble with the lawn mower and got one row of 2 acres mowed. I may have to purchase a new mower, which concerns me, but will have to be done if we cannot get our mower working.

The trip to my parent's was nice. I hung out with my mom and sisters and visited with my dad. He was in the hospital last week and home healing this week. I made lunch for him each day that I was there. He really liked that, and I liked that I could do something special for him.

All 7 of my kid's slept in my sister's room with her and her daughter. We stayed up late watching movies each night. The little kids really liked the movies. Their cousin Sadie liked having her cousins in for a sleepover, but was ready to have us leave when we did on Thursday.

The last night we were there, the dog that was sleeping with my sister and her daughter puked on their bed. Ruth rose to the occasion. She cleaned up the entire mess by herself, while my sister just sat there and watched. Ruth gagged a few times. She said the smell was horrific-- a cross between dog breath and vomit. Ruth got it off the bed, off the wall, and off the floor under the bed. Ruth was a hero!!!! My sister got her phone flashlight out and said stunned a few times, "She got it all."

We got home before 8pm on Thursday. All was well and happy at home, but the grass is long and the weeds are long and there is still more roof work to be done. We will have a lot to do this coming week-- the last week before we start school.

Friday, I dropped Ruth, Kate, and Johnny off at the book store and ran a bunch of errands. Joseph came as my helper. He was awesome. He got things off the shelf and sped through the stores and the best thing he did was to come up with the perfect suggestion for Arwen's birthday present. We got Arwen playdough and she loved it.

Saturday, we took Arwen and anyone else who wanted to go to a playground. Arwen had a list of things she wanted for her birthday and time at a playground was on the list. The kid's had a lot of fun there running around, swinging, and playing tag. Then we got home and had the birthday party. Arwen's birthday may have been one of the most anticipated birthdays of all time. I think the day turned out happily enough for her.

Sunday at church, Kate and Johnny's favorite friends were there because their family was staying at the beach for a family vacation. Kate was so excited to see them and they had a little time chatting after church.

Here are some little notes about the kids:
Ruth is finally driving the van with confidence.
Kate conscientiously cleaned the house just in time for us to get home and it looked perfect.
Johnny has been praying to see his friend again and then they showed up at the ward we have been going to, even though, no one really knows where we attend church.
Adam enjoyed days with no mom calling chore time.
Rachel and Anya and Ruth all said

that the best part of Grandma's house was swimming in her neighborhood pool.
I can tell Joseph is growing up because I can talk to him like an adult now.
Josh drew an amazing picture of a shark and he is reading his scriptures like he has always known how to read. I still need to photograph that picture.
Arwen said she really likes playing dolls with her cousin Sadie.
Susan was quieter and calmer this week. I think she liked the trip to Grandma's.
Sam is very whiney. I have never been a fan of the age two. He did really well with the two long drives.
Gideon stood himself up for the first time and then cried because he did not know how to get back down.

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Happy Birthday, Arwen Eve

Our little Arwen Eve is not so little anymore. She is 7 years old!! Arwen is thoughtful and mature. She says mature things which sound so funny coming from such a little girl. As an example, on her birthday, Arwen chose to spend a few hours playing Minecraft on the computer. At the end of the day, Arwen said, "I'm sorry everybody. I wasted too much time on the computer. I should have been playing with you."

Arwen's loves include coloring, drawing, our animals, playing in water and sand, and swimming.

One funny thing about Arwen is she is a very picky eater. There is very little food that Arwen likes. She likes chocolate, and spaghetti, nutella sandwiches, and cold cereal and almost nothing else. I make her take one bite of vegetable each day, and she will usually take a bite of whatever is for dinner. She was born this way. Arwen would not eat any solid food, except for chocolate until she was past a year.

Arwen is very conscientious and obedient. When I think of Arwen, I think of the phrase, "easy to be entreated". Arwen is also very capable and reliable. I can ask Arwen to do something and she will get it done. She is my steady, dependable girl. We all love her.

This Week at Our House # 29 Beach Day and a Birthday

Hmmm... the weeks really seem to fly by. John had had a job interview and I was hoping and hoping this would be it, but it has been 2 weeks now and nothing. Ugh... but other than that, things went well this week. I cannot remember what happened each day. For us personally, all was well. We got the letter form CPS closing our case, and that is a relief.

My dad spent 3 days in the hospital with cellulitis and John's mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, so our parents had rough weeks. I will be heading down to visit my parents this week.

We continue to get the repairs done on the house. The house part of the roof is almost complete, but with the very hot weather, we only made it up one day this week. The shingles burn your hands, never mind the metal hammers and screws, so we have to go early in the morning or just before sunset. With the heat wave, we spent that time on indoor projects. Johnny and Adam did the most of them, as I was running a lot of errands.

I took the van to get new tires and brakes and an oil change. We did not need the brakes. The squealing was because our rotors are rough, but we have lots of pad left. We only needed 2 new tires, because the alignment was the real problem. We got that fixed. The oil change and 32 point check revealed that the van is in excellent shape. The man said that when you take good care of your car, it will take good care of you. and we had done that. I had to laugh. We took very good care of our other cars, but have been too poor to take good care of this one. It is the Lord that has taken good care of our van and it kept it running. It is now 12 years old with over 200,000 miles on it. That is when our other two cars died.

Wednesday, I dropped all work projects and we went to the beach. It has been very hot here and the beach was a welcome break for us all. Gideon was the cutest at the beach. He loved the water washing up over his feet. He got pretty excited about it and laughed and splashed.

I took Joseph out swimming a couple of times. He is much better behaved at the beach now. Sam kept his clothes on this time, even though he got wet. And Sam actually enjoyed the water some.

The waves were very crashing and Rachel did not dare to swim out. I was surprised. She usually likes to get into the deeper, gentler water. It was hard to swim through the break, though.

Johnny swam a lot more than usual. Kate swam a lot less as she was not feeling well. Though Kate was feeling well enough for ice cream. It has become tradition to stop at the grocery store, pick up some ice cream and ice cream cones and eat an ice cream cones on the way home from the beach.

Ruth came out swimming with me for a while. She swims very well. I had forgotten until she was out with me, but Ruth learned to swim younger than all the other kids in our family. She is still a strong swimmer.

I went out further than everyone else, and swam alone for a while because I love to swim and no one wanted to come out as deep as I did. I would not let even Ruth and Kate go out alone, though. I guess it is easier to trust my own strength.

Susan and Arwen and Anya stayed in the water the whole time. They are good at staying where they are safe.

Adam swam with Johnny more than Kate. John came, but he did not want to go out far in the water. He stayed in the shallow end with the little kids, jumping the waves.

Joseph was so excited for his birthday that he woke up at 5am. John got up and hung out with him, and then they both went back to bed. Last year, Joseph spent the whole day playing computer games. We made fun of him for that and even complained about it because he had asked for some tough meals, but wouldn't break from his computer game to eat it. This year, Joseph did not play computer games at all and spent the day doing different activities with other family members. He was very conscientious about it. Joseph asked for chicken pot pie for dinner. I was a little surprised as it is not fancy food. We made three pies and they were gone quickly. The whole family enjoys homemade chicken pot pie.

Our summer vacation is coming to an end. We start school on August 5th, 15 days from today. We have had a nice long break. This year Adam will be in 9th grade, Rachel in 8th, Joseph and Anya in 6th, Josh in 3rd, Arwen in 2nd, and Suzy will be starting kindergarten. I have everything I need. The older kids have all their stuff written out and assigned for the whole year. I still need to write a schedule for the younger kids.

The year is sure flying by!!!!!

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