This Week at Our House #32

1. The job interview from that one place will be this coming Friday at 2pm. So if you remember, we would really appreciate some prayers. I think they are interviewing a lot of people. 
2. Things are getting easier with Susan. She is learning to nurse a little better and will usually sleep a good 4 hours before needing to eat at night. Then she is going back to sleep, so I have not had to stay awake for long periods of time during the night. I am wondering about what I should do to help with finances since John has had such a hard time with jobs. I am thinking about starting a business. If you have any ideas please leave them in the comments. I am not interested in child care, but I think some sort of service would be good. I've thought a little bit about a housekeeping business, an in home preschool or a tutoring service. I started exercising this week-- just taking long-ish walks. I also took the kids to parks almost everyday this week. School starts in a week and a half, and we just haven't done very much this summer. I really wish we could afford to take the kids camping. Sigh...I am trying to keep my chin up and weather this storm with cheer. I want John to have a job. I want to continue to be a stay at home only mom. I am not sure I am going to get to have what I want.
3. Ruth spent the week working on a story board for a Manga competition. Her pictures are beautiful! I think she has a chance of placing. 
4. Kate made whoopie pies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake with chocolate pudding, and peanut butter bars because she was having womens issues. I think the kids look forward to next month when Kate is craving chocolate again.
5. Johnny had his first year of boy scout camp. He came home dirty, tired, happy, and with a fishing pole he found covered in mud at the bottom of the lake. I am very impressed with Johnny's attitude and goodness. A couple of the older boys tease Johnny (all the time) for being a nerd. He just agrees with them. He says, "They are right. I am a nerd." He is just happy to be himself. Johnny managed to read 4 and a half books this week in addition to a week worth of scout camp, so yea, he is a nerd. :)
6. Adam missed Johnny. He got some donuts as treat for doing his chores quickly and without complaint, and instead of eating them right away, he saved them until Johnny got home so he could share them.
7. I went to the library and got a bunch of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books for Johnny. Rachel, one of my unwilling readers spent a lot of time reading them. That always makes me happy, even when I think the books are silly.
8. Anya went on a 5 mile walk with me in the hot sun and did not complain once. I asked Anya what she did this week and she said, "I rolled down the stairs with blankets."
9. Joseph has been sitting by me while I nurse the baby and just gabbing. He is getting the attention he desires by just coming and hanging out. I love that! I can almost always talk, but I can rarely play a one on one game.
10. One morning Josh woke up, ate breakfast with John and then said, "Good-bye Dad. I need to build." He then headed to Johnny's room to play with legos.
11. Arwen is calling all bugs spiders. She saw a fly on Susan and said, "Oh no spider, get off Suie." We have this book that has pictures of vegetables arranged like the ocean with all sorts of sea creatures. She pointed to most of the fish and said they were spiders and then she pointed to some mushroom things posed as coral and said, "That stinks. The spider pooped."
12. Susan is finally 9 pounds. She is generally happier, eating less frequently, and sleeping better. As a result, I am making dinner earlier, going on walks, and taking the kids to the park more.

This Week's Pictures

This Week at Our House #31

1. Well, the usual report: finding a new job stinks! He should have an interview this week. The place has been very slow, so I would not be surprised if it is another week off. 
2. I'm tired from not enough sleep. I am emotional from the after effects of being pregnant and not enough sleep. I am trying hard to get us somewhat back on a normal schedule and am amazed how thoroughly one tiny, tiny person can throw of the schedule of 11 other not as tiny people.
3. Ruth is my right hand man. I will be so sorry when school starts back up and I have to figure out how to do everything by myself again. But, Ruth has been spending most of the day in her bedroom working on a drawing contest. It's due on the 12th and I think she still has a way to go. I hope she finishes.
4. Kate's been reading lots of good books all summer long. It's really cute. I always wanted Kate to learn to love reading and now she loves reading and she especially loves reading some of the more difficult classics. This makes my mothers heart happy.
5. Johnny spent the whole week locked in his room building legos. He has his first year of boy scout camp this week.
6. Adam had cub scout day camp. He doesn't talk much, so when I asked him to tell me about his days all he said was that he liked it and gave me a brief list of the activities. He's so unlike all of my other kids close to his age that give me details of their daily lives. 
7. I really can't remember anything particular about Rachel this past week. Some days she is happy all day and does her chores and her reading, and other days she is fighting and screaming and trying her darndest to get out of chores.
8. Anya is the weepiest 6 year I have ever had. I suspect she is going to be a very, very teary and emotional teenager.
9. Joseph has been quite a jolly little boy. I am relieved that he is out of the toddler stage. He laughs and plays and spends a lot of time talking to me or playing with his older brothers. He is destroying less and I am so grateful for this, because Josh and Arwen have taken over.
10. Josh is driving me nuts. He is disobedient. He goes to the bathroom in his pants everyday. He cries all the time. He is constantly fighting with the other kids. I miss my happy little boy. I know this is a normal stage. All little ones at some point push the limits with fits and bad behavior and every little one seems to grow out of it. I just wish I could hire this stage out. (Maybe that's what daycares are for.) :)
11. Josh is a terrible 3 and I would say that Arwen is a terrible 2. I have had both. They usually choose one year to be difficult and eventually give it up. It looks like I am getting two for one and it's possible that this all has to do with another baby joining the family. Kids are funny. I think I will start potty training Arwen once school starts. I might as well get the hard things done at the same time.
12. I have no idea if Susan is still gaining weight, but my mother in law is going to lend me her baby scale so we can keep an eye on it ourselves. Some nights she is sleeping well and other nights she hardly sleeps at all. But she is a whole lot happier. She loves to have you look into her eyes and talk to her. She will give you a great big smile, though I have not yet caught it on camera. She sure has an intense littler personality. I have been off of dairy for more than 3 weeks now and it seems to be helping her mood. I am surprised to find that I am not that bothered by a dairy free diet. I wonder if that will change at some point.

This Week's Pictures

UpDates

Susan Update

Susan is finally above her birth weight!!! She was weighed this afternoon and she is 8lbs 8ozs. She was 8lbs 4 ozs at birth. We are very grateful to finally be over that hump!

John Update

John heard back this morning from the one place that had him write a couple of small programs after the phone interview. They said he passed the second part of the interview process and will have him come in sometime next week when their interviewer is back from vacation.

This Week at Our House # 30

Arwen was terrified of her birthday candles

1. I was sure hoping John would hear back from the job that had him write a couple of programs, but no such luck! If there is something to be grateful in all this mess of a trial, it is nice to have John home and helping 24 hours a day. I will both rejoice and really miss John when he again has the opportunity to leave home each day to support our family.
2. Pretty much all of my time has been spent feeding Susan and hoping she gains weight. As of Wednesday, she was still only 8 pounds. She will be weighed again tomorrow. It took me 10 babies to have breast feeding and infant weight gaining problems. This is much harder to deal with than I imagined, so I am counting my lucky stars that I have only had this once.
3. Ruth, hmmm, I hardly remember this week as I basically spent all week feeding Susan. Ruth has been my biggest help. I look forward to the day that she has a baby or two and I can go and help her and clean her house and make her food. We went to Gramma's house twice this week and Ruth had tons of fun with her cousin Emma. John took the older kids to the local water park with his brother's family, so Ruth's week wasn't too bad.
4. Kate is a big help, and she had lots of fun with her cousins too. Kate is bonding with Susan by walking her around to keep her happy when I am busy. I did that a lot with Kate when she was a baby.
5. Johnny got to hike Mt. Timpanogos with his Uncle Jeremy, Grandpa, Adam, Aunt Amy, and cousins Mariah and Aubrey. This is one of the harder hikes on the Wasatch front. Jeremy only had good things to say about Johnny. I am sure it was a great experience for him.Johnny also had a lot of fun playing games with the couple of boy cousins that were visiting from Wyoming.
6. Adam's favorite cousin Mariah was visiting from Arizona. He hiked Mt. Timp with her and from what I hear did a really good job. 
7. Rachel hurt herself a couple of times this week. She got her fingers smushed in the hinge side of the van door, and she jumped up into some exercise equipment, bashed her head and bled all over. But she managed to spend tons of time swimming in Gramma's pool, playing at a water park, and spending hours outdoors playing with her cousins. She also made a cute headband and wrote up a cute 'Happy Birthday' song for Arwen's birthday.
8. Anya played and played and played. She loved going to Gramma's and to the water park and playing games and toys with all of her siblings. She did a good job of keeping busy and staying off of the computers and TV while I spent so much time focusing on the baby.
9. Joseph  had a good week too. He is getting a lot better at just doing what I ask him to do. This morning, I told him to stop kicking the piano and he immediately moved away and said, "Okay,mom." That was huge. Maybe he will be okay when kindergarten starts next month.
10. Joshua is being a little stinker. He is having a hard time with the addition of Susan to our family, me spending the majority of time feeding the baby, and just plain old being three and pushing the boundaries.
11. Arwen turned 2 today!! She has been the sweetest, cutest baby! She's always calm, the way she plays and interacts has been so fun to watch. John and I took her out to Walmart to pick out birthday presents. She was such a doll. We would hand her things and most of the time, she would put them back on the shelf and say, "put it back." Occasionally, she would bat it with her hand and say, "no," and rarely she would hug it to her chest and smile. She is such a joy. We have been very blessed to be this little angel's parents.
12. Susan is a rough baby. She has been much calmer, since I stopped eating dairy. I took her to a pediatrician on Wednesday for the thrush. Our pediatrician retired two weeks ago and the clinic would not move her in to a new doctor without having a well baby check first, so my midwife gave me a name of a couple of pediatricians and I got her in and got a prescription for thrush. Now I will have to switch all of our records over from one office to the next. Susan's mouth is much, much better now, although not 100% clear. Hopefully, she is gaining weight. I know she is getting taller. She is a very long, thin little baby.

This Week's Pictures