This Week at Our House # 2

1. I was really thinking John would get some work this week. But he didn't. I feel pretty disappointed and discouraged about it. 
2. I started work on Monday. I spent the whole week in training and tomorrow I will start working on my own. I will be cleaning classrooms and hallways and such in the BYU SLC center. I work from 9pm until 1am, so I am still home with the kids during the day, but I have to stay on a fairly strict  schedule to be ready to leave around 8:30.
3. Ruth now has a daily babysitting job and a weekly house keeping job. She is really busy between school, homework, and work.
4. Kate has had to pick up the slack with Ruth and I gone as much as we are.She has lots of homework and several tests coming up to.
5. Johnny never has homework. I have no idea how he gets through school as well as he does while doing so much less than his sisters.
6. Adam eased into school without any trouble. He got up and ready in the mornings and did not complain too much about homework.
7. Rachel had to write a book report the same night that she had musical practice. I thought she would be up past 11pm like Adam usually is, but she got to work as soon as she got home and finished before I had to leave for work.
8. Anya had her birthday!!! She is now 7! She is a bright fun little girl. She does not like things all pink or to be a princess. She likes to read, run, and play ball. She is a really good artist with a keen sense of design and balance. She is smart and fun to be around. We are grateful to have darling little Anya brighten our home.
9. Joseph did well with getting back on schedule. He does his homework and his reading without much help and little prompting.
10. Josh is driving me crazy. He won't stay out of his brother's room and he is constantly sneaking and making big messes. He will be 4 in another week. I am hoping he will be a little happier and a little less destructive in the year to come.
11. Arwen got a lot of art things for Christmas and spent the week coloring and reading books.
12. Susan gets around everywhere. She can stand herself up and will sometimes try to crawl up the first step. We have to keep a closer eye on her. I usually wait to give my babies solid food until they are around 9 to 10 months, but Susan just wants to eat. She crawls around and she finds food that the other kids have left on the floor. So I have given up and given her food. She can even eat finger foods and picks them up between her forefinger and her thumb.

This Week's Pictures

This Week at Our House 2015 # 1

Christmas Morning

1. Still no job.
2. We went to John's parents house for a New Years party and returned home at 3am. The kids stayed awake the whole time. We read Fablehaven 3 & 4 to the 5 oldest kids. On Saturday, we took the whole family to see "Meet the Mormons" which is now free at the Joseph Smith Memorial building. And Saturday night we used the gift cards to Red Robin my mom had sent and took the entire family out to dinner. The kids were very, very good. We waited 45 minutes to get a seat and another 45 minutes for our food and the kids didn't run around or complain or cry at all. 
3. Ruth mainly enjoyed laying around the house and watching "I Love Lucy" when she had the chance. 
4. Kate did about the same as Ruth except that she really, really enjoyed reading Fablehaven together.
5. Johnny played lots of games-- video games everyday, and board games almost everyday. I loved hearing Johnny, Adam, John, Ruth, and Kate play dungeons and dragons together.
6. Adam has become and maybe always was the ring leader of the little kids. He can get his younger siblings to do whatever he wants. Yet, he is the first to be annoyed with their noise and mess. Adam, like Johnny, played video games every day and as much as we would allow.
7. Rachel read a lot, drew a lot of pictures, and spent plenty of time playing video games too.
8. Anya loves video games. I would say that she is just as easily addicted to them as are her older brothers. Free video game time was the highlight of her vacation too.
9. Joseph likes video games, but they are not his main source of entertainment. He played out in the snow and spent a lot of time drawing, reading, and building with blocks and legos.
10. Josh had some pretty funny things to say this week. One night he was keeping Joseph up late building legos with his light on, so I had John remove the lightbulb. The next morning Josh came over to me. "Do you know what Mom?" he said, "That man you married is a jerk!" I looked at him rather dumb founded, when he clarified, "You know, Dad. He is a jerk. He took my light bulb out last night." Sunday Josh had his first day of primary. I noticed that he was pretty unhappy and Kate saw him in the hallway screaming at one point, so she comforted him. When we got home, I said, "So you hated primary," and Josh replied, "No. I was just mad."
11. Arwen takes naps and then wakes up incredibly grumpy for a couple of hours and then won't go to bed. I try and keep her from taking these naps, but she always seems to sneak them in.
12. On New Years Eve, Susan crawled up to her cousin Seth, who is 7 weeks younger, kissed him tenderly on the forehead twice and then grabbed his face and pulled his hair. She is now starting to pull herself up into standing positions, but she does not know how to get back down and just cries.

Christmas Break Pictures

Exposing Yourself and Letting Other's Help.

My friend, Ganel-Lyn Condie's husband lost his job 4 months after John lost his. She started the Magic and Miracles in the Mess. Recently on Facebook, she admonished everyone to expose themselves and to be honest and open about their needs. She's not asking people to become complainy or generally ungrateful, but rather to show their gratitude while being sincere about their needs. She has learned as I have learned that Angels are surrounding us anxious to help.

Nine months ago when John lost his job, I was very quiet about the fact. I did not want to tell anyone. I even pleaded in my prayers that we would not have to get help and that we would be able to get through this alone. In my prayers, I informed Heavenly Father that we needed to and wanted to be keeping commandment to be self sufficient and therefore He would need to get John a job right away. If John got a job right away, we could then go on our merry way taking care of ourselves and keeping the commandments.

Obviously, that did not happen. At all. Pray denied. We had other things beyond self sufficiency to learn.

As time went on, I began struggling a lot, mentally and obviously financially. Then Ganel-Lyn began her Magic and Miracles and the Spirit whispered to me to find a way to count those blessings publicly too. Being the creative person I am not, I asked Ganel-Lyn if I could copy her. She seemed grateful to share.

Months have gone by since I began writing our magic and miracles and putting them on Facebook. Near the beginning of December, I got this comment from a good friend and neighbor, 

"Wow! These are wonderful! I wonder if some of the miracles you experience are because you share your outlook and experiences here. You inspire people, and I think people genuinely want to help. Sharing your miracles has brought you attention that I know you weren't looking for. Kinda fun how things come in full circle. 
I am grateful you share your family's blessings."

She's absolutely correct. We would not be having the amazing experience of people we know and people we do not know helping us out if I had continued to remain silent in the name of self sufficiency. It's possible I would have fallen into bitterness, maybe even anger with God for abandoning us. This.Has.Been.Hard. 

To be completely honest, we have been living on nothing for the last month. 

But, miraculously, ways have been open for all of our bills to be paid.
So if you are having trouble-- if you need friends-- cheering up-- financial help-- physical help-- there are scores of good people in the world who want to help-- take Ganel-Lyn's advice and expose yourself. 

What am I learning in this mess??? Self sufficiency is good. In fact, it's the best! It feels wonderful to be able to meet all of your own needs. But we all face times when we will not be enough. That is why we have community and family. That is one big part of building Zion. If we want Zion to come again. If we want to be of one heart and one mind and have no poor among us, then we have to expose ourselves. It hurts. And it heals. It helps us. And it helps others. It feels good to be the giver, and we need to allow people to be the givers. I want to be the giver. Someday, I know that prayer will be answered. For now, I will be grateful to be the getter and for the lessons I am learning.

This Week at Our House # 52 Christmas

**I didn't get any pictures of Christmas morning or when Santa Claus came on Christmas Eve because the flash died on our camera. But don't worry, we have every intention of buying a good expensive camera and starting a photography business once we get the tax return.**

On Dec 23rd for United Families International, I wrote:

"To my children tonight, I read the words, “Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small, Was singing! Without any presents at all! He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME! Somehow or other, it came just the same!”

These words mean a whole lot more to me this Christmas—more than they ever have. My husband lost his job 9 months ago. Despite trying and applying for job after job, as the holidays approached, he still hadn’t found employment. We did not know how to approach the holidays with our 10 children. The week before Thanksgiving, we sat our children down and told them to not expect too much for Christmas. We explained that Christmas means a lot more than just presents, and it would be okay. We would still have Christmas.

That very week, the miracles started happening.

Several of my friends had gotten together and donated money for me to buy presents for our kids. They gave me this the day before Thanksgiving.

The day after Thanksgiving, some people I did not know came to my door. They purchased a new washing machine, new pots and pans, a new Kitchen Aid mixer, new cups, and new towels. Not expecting anything and certainly not asking for anything, two days earlier, I had posted a list on my blog of all the items that had either broken or were just wearing out since my husband lost his job. These gifts came from complete strangers.

After that, we had several people offer to help with Christmas. We had money either come in the mail or dropped off on our doorstep—some anonymously and some not."

On Dec 24th Santa Claus, like a real living person in a red suit, showed up at our house with a whole bunch of wrapped gifts. My dear friend, Marianne stopped by at midnight with even more gifts. My children had a huge Christmas.

This is the first year John and I did not know exactly what was under the tree. The kids woke up at 7am. I had grabbed Suzy up a little early to feed her. We went downstairs together to open stockings and get the unwrapped Santa gifts. Anya cried because she wanted Joseph's gift. She said she did not want her gift and gave it to me. Everyone else was in present heaven and very happy and excited. After a time, we moved to the Christmas tree and began opening presents. After opening some more of her presents, Anya took her Santa gift back and decided that she actually did want it. 

Suzy didn't last through all of the gift unwrapping before falling asleep. Arwen was cautious about opening gifts at first, because she had been in a lot of trouble the day before when she unwrapped about 5 gifts. I am glad that she got the message. Josh loved everything he unwrapped. He got an array of cars, trucks, trains, blocks, and legos. Joseph, Johnny, and Adam would unwrap a gift and then move to the other side of the room to play with it before their turn to open another gift. Kate got everything blue and some paint, which she loved. Ruth got mostly clothes, make up, and perfume as was her desire. Ruth and Adam helped hand out the gifts. Rachel got a lot of arts and crafts stuff. She has been very happy and it has kept her quite busy.

We really did have a magical Christmas and the kids knew why. They knew that their gifts came from a lot of Christmas Angels.

MAGIC & MIRACLE in the MESS: Finding the Good During Unemployment

From Dec 28th

MAGIC & MIRACLE in the MESS: Finding the Good During Unemployment

I was hoping to say that John had some contract work, but we are not there yet. So here goes, we have been blessed with a million miracles.

1) A real Santa Claus came to our house at 7:30 on Christmas Eve with a Christmas dinner, and wrapped presents for all of the family. He let all of the kids sit on his lap and tell them what they wanted for Christmas. 
2) Ruth's best friend, Desi brought and wrapped gifts for everyone in our family. She also gave us $50 cash. She is 16 years old!!!!
3) Because my friends gave me cash, I was able to buy my kids just what they asked for for Christmas.
4) My former  visiting teaching companion showed up at about midnight on Christmas Eve with wrapped gifts for the little kids and needed items like socks, hair brushes, tights, leggings, and pajamas for the older kids.
5) I turned down 4 other offers to help with Christmas. Seriously, if you need help, please ask. There are so many angels everywhere anxious to help out where they are needed.
6) My Dear Aunt Kathy, sent us a Christmas card with $100. I haven't seen her in years. I really feel very touched and blessed.
7) Walmart Gift cards from Jill, Melanie, and my Shannon, my friend since I was 9 yrs old.

From Dec 15th

MAGIC & MIRACLE in the MESS: Finding the Good During Unemployment

1) I got hired as a part time custodian for the church. It's not much money, but it is something. The hours are perfect: 9pm to 1am, and I will be working 10 minutes from my house. I start in January.
2) John had a job interview that went well. Please pray for him. He may be able to get some contract work and that wold be a huge blessing in many ways that were not very obvious to us before.
3) The kids were all quite sick this whole week, but the baby has been just fine, and she would be the one we would have to worry about the most .
4) I was given quite a bit of Christmas money from my friends. I finally shopped and we will have a very nice Christmas for the kids. Thank you. We are still telling the kids not to expect much. It will be nice for them to have a surprise.

From Dec 8th

MAGIC & MIRACLE in the MESS: Finding the Good During Unemployment

1) Unexpected new towels and new extra large pyrex dish coming anonymously on the mail.
2) Help from the church.
3) A job interview for me for a part time job that I would actually like.
4) $100 showing up on our doorstep.

Merry Christmas

This Week at Our House # 51

51 weeks. The year is coming to a close...

1. I wish, wish, wish I could say that John got a job. He still hasn't. We will be having Christmas jobless. But, so many angels have come and helped us. We will be having a very nice Christmas. We already are.
2. I got a job. I will start as a night time custodian working for the church on January 5th. The hours will be just right for a stay at home mom. I will work from 9 pm to 1 am. John feels pretty unhappy about it, but it has become necessary. Life is hard and we often have tough choices to make. I feel blessed that I was able to find a job with hours that will not disrupt the lives of our children too much. 
3. Ruth had a rough week at school. She had a big chemistry test, and she broke her toes in gym class. She's glad to be on vacation now. We get two full weeks off and that should be just enough time for her toes to heal. Ruth has gotten 2 neighborhood jobs. She is doing some house keeping each Saturday for one neighbor and she just got hired by another neighbor to watch her 9 year old daughter everyday for an hour after school. The workload is just about right for what she can fit in with her school load, and she can walk to both jobs. We really have been blessed.
4. Kate has been babysitting more. She had a very busy week with tests, and a huge final debate tournament. All she has wanted to do since school got out on Friday is to watch TV. That reminds me of when she was 6 and had a primary lesson on talents. Kate came home and told me that her talent was watching TV. I'm glad that she turned into a good student anyway. 
5. Johnny had several tests and an orchestra concert. He has an amazing orchestra teacher who preforms with the Utah Symphony Orchestra and always has the kids play really nice pieces. I love going to Johnny's concerts. I think Johnny probably broke a toe too.
6. Adam had his pinewood derby. He worked really hard on his car and while it won the first race, it lost all of the rest. Adam cried. Poor guy. 
7. Rachel has been trying to be friends with Ruth. I just think it's adorable. She finds things to relate to Ruth and then just talks to her. I just love how my kids like each other and try to be friends.
8. I took Anya to the doctors on Monday. There wasn't an obvious infection, but because she had had such a high fever for so long, she got an antibiotic. I am not sure if she just got better or really needed the antibiotic, but 24 hours after she started the medicine, her fever finally broke.
9. Joseph is being a stinker this Christmas time. He keeps sneaking to see presents. Ruth wrapped a bunch of presents and put them under the tree. Joseph opened just enough of Anya's to see what it was and then told Anya. Later, he snuck into our closet to get a glimpse of the unwrapped gifts in there. We have not had a kid do this before.
10. Joshua loves to cuddle. I am trying to get cuddle time in with him each day. He's better boy when he gets enough snuggles.
11. Arwen went shopping with John and was just so good. 
12. Suzy is moving all over the house, though she has not shown any interest in the stairs yet. I expect that will be coming soon. She's very interested in food, so now that she is 6 months, I am going to slowly let her try out food.  

This Week's Pictures