Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa

This really was a miracle trip. we are grateful the Lord blessed us to make it there and back. Thank you for the Christmas Grandma and Grandpa

Here are some highlights since we got home:

1. Sam loves his train and helicopter that he can take apart and rebuild. He has done it 4 or 5 times already.
2. Gideon can rock his little horse really well and smiles big when he does.
3. Anya and Rachel have used the craft sets to make presents for their younger siblings.
4. Joseph ran laps around the back yard in the rain for hours because his watch tells him calories burnt and how many steps he takes.
5. Adam had been using his stuff to make Christmas presents.
   

This Week at Our House # 51

I had written a Christmas fun schedule at the beginning of the week, and while we did not stick to it one hundred percent, we did a lot of it and had a nice time.

Monday we were supposed to go to the beach, but did yard work instead. That badly needed to happen, and as it turned out, the van started to have transmission problems, so it is good we did not do any extra driving.

Tuesday rained all day, so we stayed indoors and wrote and drew. It was a pleasant day.

Wednesday, the boys and I gathered all our scrap metal and took it to the recycling place and made $16 for some Christmas money. That is when I first noticed that the van was thumping in the same way it did a year ago. Later in the day, we made lots of Christmas cookies. The kids had fun frosting them. The cookies were good and gone by the next morning.

Thursday, I took Ruth and Kate, Sam and Gideon and we went to stores to buy all of our Christmas

presents and get all of our groceries. That was when the engine light came on.

Friday, we cleaned the house and then had a fun little tea party.

Saturday, after some serious prayer, we decided that we needed to trust that the Lord would keep us safely in our van, and drive the five and a half hours to my parent's house. We arrived safely, though, at times it was scary as the transmission was clearly not not behaving as it should. My parents had bought several

Christmas presents for the kids, and they were excited about that, so we sat down and opened presents first things. We spent the rest of the day talking and having a nice time. Then we spent the night.

Sunday, we went to Church with my parents, sisters, and niece and nephew. Then we left church with a prayer of safety and drove home in the van. Again, the Lord blessed us and we made it safely. We got home in time for dinner. The kids enjoyed getting to know their new toys and crafts and such. Then we sang carols

and sent the littlest ones to bed, while Johnny made whoopie pies, a favorite family treat.

My parents have offered to pay for the transmission replacement or repair, but asked me to get an estimate first. That will have to happen soon. I am grateful all is well. The Lord has kept us in mind all year long. It has been another year of poverty, but the Lord has brought us through with a gentle hand.

This Week at Our House # 50

It was a fairly calm week. We got our first three books out and immediately got to work on more. The kids played at home all week. Even though we are on school break, we have been pushing language lessons a lot, so the kids have spent a lot of time on Spanish and Japanese.

The little kids have been arguing and antagonizing each other too much, so John has stepped in and talked to them a bunch.

We have been singing Christmas

Carols around the tree most nights. Some of the kids really like that and some of them don't. Rachel is awesome at hitting the high notes. But is she starts us, she is the only one who can sing as high as needed. Rachel is definitely a soprano. Rachel's favorite songs are Rudolf the red nose reindeer and O Holy Night. Susan loves Rudolf and Arwen always wants to sing We Wish you a Merry Christmas. Josh likes We Three Kings and Away in a Manger. Sam always asks for Jingle Bells. Anya does not have a Christmas carol she likes and sings in a whisper unless she is sure that no one is listening. That is when I know that Anya actually has a nice little singing voice. Joseph has taught himself how to play Hark the Harold Angels Sing. Adam plays Hark How the Bells and many others. He is definitely our most talented on the piano.

Ruth just realized that she is home and it is Christmas and she has no gifts to give. She is getting to work on that tonight. I have some ideas for Johnny and Adam to construct for the kids for Christmas. I wish I had a sewing machine. There is so much I could and would like to do, but my machine broke in the midst of our poverty and I have not been able to replace it.

Susan requested to play a computer game. Adam asked her how long she could play and she said, "I have sixteen ninety minutes. Adam took that as 1,690 minutes and said she would never end. To our surprise, after about an hour, Susan got off and said, "Okay, my time is up."

Sam has been getting into the tools. I called him a tool monster and he said very loudly, "I am not a Too Mon ter". Johnny said there was no arguing with that.

Arwen has been asking everyday how many days until Christmas and giving me a list. I always stop her and remind her that Christmas will be small. She has now changed her mind from American Girl Doll to a clip board to use for drawing.

Anya is either drawing or learning Japanese. I went to a Japanese grocery store and bought a bad of candy, handed it to Anya and she translated a couple of sentences. Kate and Johnny are the only other kids that know Japanese as well as Anya.

Gideon has been closely observing Sam and doing what Sam does. I first noticed while giving them a bath. Gideon watched Sam closely. Sam cries and immediately grabs a towel to dry his face when his hair is washed. Gideon who never minded getting his face wet or his hair washed, did exactly what Sam did. Another time, Sam was lying on the floor crying because Susan was holding the cat that he wanted to be holding. Gideon looked at him, laid down beside him, and fake cried.

Rachel has been baking a lot more. She made homemade hamburger buns for us twice. They were so good, we will never go back to the store buns. We used them once for hamburgers and once for club sandwiches. Rachel has also been making a really good chocolate cake. And she made a double batch of hershey kiss cookies. Since we have been on vacation Rachel has been sleeping in as late as she can get away with. I guess she can claim the name of teenager for that.

Josh told Adam not to turn off the light or he would fall asleep and wet the bed. Adam turned off the light. In the morning Josh cried out, "Adam you made me wet the bed!" Adam said that was impossible, and asked Josh why he didn't get up to go to the bathroom. Josh cried, "Because I fell asleep."

Joseph has stories to tell. He is always coming to me or John to tell us a story. Since it is Joseph, it always comes out loud and with exuberance.

Johnny is still my repairman and has been helping me get things done in the house still. Johnny and Adam replaced the faucets in my bathroom. We now have two lights to tackle. Kate and Johnny are together a lot. John is teaching them college math, and that takes a lot of time. I am anxious for Johnny to start getting things finished and out for sale.


I have gotten my poems together to

put into a book. I need to categorize them and draw some pictures. I am a little nervous about the art, but I have my good artists already employed on other projects. I never thought I would be doing this, and only got started on this as a long term pursuit in August. I had about 250 poems to choose from, so I think that is good. I have learned a lot and am working with a couple of strangers online to learn more. My next project will be to put out a book of short stories. I am hoping to get Kate and Ruth to write with me on this one.

3 Books Up for Sale

I just checked and Amazon now has 3 of our children's books up for sale. One is Kate's. One I wrote and Kate illustrated and one I wrote and Rachel illustrated and Adam and Rachel colored.

They are: The Bear's Family Christmas

The Beaver Family

Mega-Dragon-Saurus

This Week at Our House # 49 Oddly Busy

It was an oddly busy week, even though it was a vacation week.

Tuesday, I left early in the morning for an eye doctor's appointment.  They kept me there for two hours and it was nothing more than the usual checks, then I needed to do the grocery shopping. I was gone from home for four hours with no kids. That almost never happens, but when it does it is very stressful for all at home.

Wednesday, I had to leave early in the morning to get the brakes on the van fixed. Again, I went alone, and it was a good thing because I was there for almost four hours. We needed a new caliper and they had to get the part from a city 30 minutes away. But, they charged me very little. We also learned that we have been a driving miracle because the rotor was more than half gone.

Thursday we cleaned the whole house, as we normally do on Fridays. Johnny and Adam did a lot of outdoor work.

Friday, I had to leave early for Johnny and Adam's eye doctor appointments, but this time I brought Gideon, so it was much easier for the people at home.

Saturday, we call free day, but I spent the whole day either on laundry or on books. I did get one up for sale on Amazon, and one ready to go. We still need to get a pdf converter so we can make them available in paperback.

Sunday, we had Susan, Sam, and Gideon all sick. I spent the whole day and all night holding a very

unhappy baby.

Here are some fun stories:

From John (d&d means dungeons and dragons):

I was teasing the kids that they needed to change their D&D this month
to make it more Christmas-y. I pointed to a blank sheet of paper next
to Johnny, who was considering maps, and I said "see, there's your
map. Its the north pole, its just all white with a mark that says 'you

are here'". Kate said, derisively, "Why does bringing Christmas into
things always mean bringing in the north pole?"
I asked "Do you want to bring the gospel into your D&D? Like, You run
into three kings - Kate steals their gold".

About Gideon:
He is running around now and saying "yes" and "hey".
He took the cat and tried to ride him, though he has never seen such a thing.

Susan coughing and sighing: See, I am not sick. I can go to church.

My conversation with Arwen while she was making a book.
Arwen: Mom will you like my book.
Me: Yes, I think I will.
Arwen: You will like it because it is mine.
Me: Well, yes, that is true.
Arwen: well, it is nothing dummy.

Ruth's conversation with Arwen:
arwen "This is a pretty skirt"
me "It's my underskirt"
arwen "Oh it's pretty. I hope I can get it when you die."
me "are you planning my funeral?"
arwen "No. But you know all people die"

Rachel's

Susan laying in Ruth's lap as Ruth pets Susan's head:
Ruth: She is my cat, she even licks me.
Susan: meow

Sam, when John asked me to go spend time with him:
"No mom, don't go in there! Don't go in there!"

Sam put a large stuffed duck on his potty chair, hugged the duck and said:
"It's okay. I like to pee too."

Anya about 16 times: "I didn't know you had said anything to me."

Joseph crying, "I can't find Sella (a chicken)", about 6 or more times.

Not funny, but I need to give a shout out and a thank you to Rachel and Anya and Ruth for doing a lot of laundry, dishes, and cooking a lot of meals.

And I need to remember something about Joshua. He mostly tries to get people to do Spanish flashcards with him because he then can turn those minutes into computer game time.

This Week at Our House # 48 Thanksgiving 2019

We had our first week of our winter and holiday vacation. I think we were all happy about the freedom of no school. Unlike when we were in public school, we aren't exhausted by the time vacation comes around, so I got us to work on other things.

Monday we did yard and house repairs. Tuesday it rained, and I had a bad eye infection so we stayed in the house and played games and studied languages until the afternoon when I took Kate, Joseph, Sam, and Gideon to the stores to do the Thanksgiving shopping.

Wednesday, it rained some more. We did not make pies for Thanksgiving, so it was a fairly easy cooking day. Rachel made french bread for stuffing, Kate made pumpkin rolls, and I made cranberry sauce and John's favorite jello salad.

Thursday, the sun came out and the wind was blowing steady and strong. We cooked for Thanksgiving as well as taking care of several loads of laundry. We are still only hanging laundry outside to dry, so rainy weeks can be tough. Thursday was a perfect drying day, though.

Kate and I got the turkey stuffed and in the oven and ribs rubbed and in the crock pot by about 11am. Then we rested, played and did laundry. The kids played games together. I wrote and played with the little ones.

After about two hours, I gathered people to peel squash and potatoes and make orange rolls. When we were part way into that, I checked in the oven, and the turkey was finished. It sat out waiting for another two hours while we got everything else cooked.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at 4pm. We moved our table out into the living room so that there was room for the family around the table. We all sat together and that was nice. Instead of saying what we are all thankful for, we said what we thought Ruth was thankful for. That was pretty fun. This was the first Thanksgiving with Ruth after three years. Ruth was thankful to have orange rolls for thanksgiving for the first time in three years.

John and Sam loved the ribs most of all. Susan ate turkey, black olives, and several glasses of sparkling grape juice and the flavored ginger ale I bought. Rachel loved the mashed squash most of all. Joseph, Adam, and Johnny now willingly eat John's jello salad. He's had that mostly to himself for 21 years. John was a bit surprised when he did not have his bowl full of leftovers.

Josh and Joseph got the drumsticks. That is the most sought after part of the turkey in our house. Joseph ate all of his, and Josh had a lot leftover.

Arwen only liked the turkey and the drinks, I believe Arwen and Susan both asked for bowls of cold cereal and nutella on bread later in the day. Johnny has similar sentiments about Thanksgiving food, except that he has a boy appetite now.

As tradition, Johnny got teased for saying, "Mom, this is the most disgusting dinner you have ever made," on Thanksgiving when he was 4.

Gideon slept through the entire meal, and then spent the rest of the day grumpy until we pulled out the ice cream sundays around 9pm.

All in all, we had a nice family day. We enjoyed cooking together and sitting together, and eating together and playing and cleaning together. I love my peaceful family.