This Week at Our House # 7

1. John took me on a date Monday for lunch to an Italian restaurant, and then on a date Tuesday night to a really good smoked bbq restaurant for Valentine's Day. He cooked lasagna for the sister missionaries on Wednesday. Thursday night, he did not go to bed, so he could have his project finished for work. Friday, things went well as he presented his project to his employer. Saturday, John took the youth to the Temple and then out to dinner and desert. He had a busy week.
2. I was not as ambitious as John. I took Kate and Johnny to early morning seminary and homeschooled. That takes up all of my days. I counted how much more early morning seminary, I still have. I will have 1 more year for Johnny, a year off, and then 17 more years straight.
3. Ruth has her mission papers submitted to her Bishop. I have not heard if she has had her Bishop and Stake President interviews yet. I'm hoping she gets that done within the next week. She has wisdom tooth surgery on Thursday. 
4. Kate went out with the missionaries 3 days this week. She got to help teach, and came home just glowing. Then she went to the Temple on Saturday and got to baptize her 7th great grandmother and 3 other ancestors. Today she gave a talk in Church that she wrote and researched and prayed and listened to the Spirit all on her own. I think she had a happy and busy week.
5. Johnny has almost finished an over 1000 page American history book and will be moving on to reading the Age of Napoleon. That is one of the big things I LOVE about home school. My kids have the time for in depth learning.
6. Adam worked a lot on the garden plot. John sent Kate, Johnny, and Rachel out to help him. They got the soil dug up and loosened two feet down in square sections.
7. Rachel's primary teacher stopped me in the halls today to tell me how cute and fun Rachel is.
8. Anya kept saying she felt sick a few days this week. I wasn't quite sure she was being honest because she didn't have any obvious symptoms. But then on Friday she had a fever. Saturday morning she woke up and said she felt all the way better.
9. Joseph is at that age where he will do just about anything to play computer games, so on Saturday I let him do some chores to play an hour of computer. When his hour was up, I said he had to do another chore for another hour. That kept happening all day, so our house was very clean all day on Saturday for Joseph to play video games. 
10. Joshua can finally sleep without wetting the bed, put on his own shoes, take his own clothes on and off, and buckle his own seat belt. It has taken some time and effort to get him to this point. I am more than grateful he is there.
11. Arwen has been playing with Susan everyday now. They set their toys up on the table and play pretend with them. I have always loved to hear my little kid's imaginations as their toys talk to one another.
12. Susan still has huge screaming tantrums almost everyday. The last few days, she gets so mad that instead of us sending her to bed, she sends herself to bed. Rachel mentioned that Suzy is almost 3 now and that means that she will not longer scream. We can hope.
13. Sam can roll from his back to his belly now. He will only sleep in my bed with me, and he is spitting up a lot more. We are still just enjoying his cute little babiness.

Tender Mercies

1. John's increased ability to work and provide for our family.
2. Kate has been good for me as she reminds me to go walking everyday. She likes it because we talk and I badly need the exercise.
3. I found this great website that has many quotes from the prophets organized by topics. I spent hours this week reading it to myself and my kids. (Two nights I did not go to bed until after 2 am because it was so interesting.)

Pictures

Our right pink somewhat heart shaped chocolate chip valentine's day pancakes

Interesting Conversation: What Our Family Will Look Like in 3 Years

I can't remember what started the conversation, but Rachel, Kate, and I started talking about where our family would be in three years from Feb 11th, and I thought it was interesting. Never before was I able to say in three years there would be so many permanent changes. My 3 oldest kids will all be grown up and moved away. Rachel and Adam and Anya will be our teens and youth. Joseph, Joshua, and Arwen will be the ages the middle kids are now. Susan will be in kindergarten and Sam will be 3 and probably very spoiled.

Ruth will be seeking to be married if she is not already at that point. Kate will be at the end of her mission and Johnny will have been a missionary for up to 4 months. It's weird to think about having these three kids that have defined my adult life beginning their lives as adults. And it is almost impossible to envision Joshua as a 9 year old.

This Week at Our House # 6

1. John is starting a garden with the kids. He has now bought some non-GMO non-Monsanto heirloom vegetable seeds and has been reading books and watching videos on how to do high yield gardening. He also bought some good tools to break up and soften the soil.
2. I had an average week. Home school keeps me very busy and seminary keeps me tired. I got Kate and Johnny signed up for drivers ed. They will be going every Saturday from 8am to 2pm from March 4th through April 1st. None of us will enjoy it, and we will all be relieved when it is over. Drivers ed is law for anyone under 18 to obtain a drivers permit. I wish it wasn't. It would be so much easier if it was a choice.
3. Ruth went to visit her Grandparents over the weekend. She got to see Great Grandma too. Great Grandma is 97 and not doing well, so it's nice for Ruth to see her.
4. Kate went to our Stake's super Saturday and Valentine's dance. She said she likes the Utah dances better, but I think she still had a nice time. She has a couple of friends here that she really likes and she really likes our ward.
5. Johnny went to the dance too. Because he has older sisters and he knows how they feel standing around not being asked to dance, he asked a girl to dance every slow dance. Johnny got a 31.5 on his practice ACT. The practice tests are making a difference for him. They helped Kate and Ruth too. He was happy about the score, but unhappy that it isn't his official score and he could still do worse on the test.
6. Adam has been enjoying gardening. He really liked the videos John showed him. He went out and weeded the entire garden plot, and then loosened the soil underneath. He has planted a seedling bed and is remembering to water it everyday.
7. The dish washer broke down and Rachel has been real sweet and doing extra chores to help out with the extended time it takes to wash the dishes.
8. Anya is just a little sweetie. She is usually good natured and easy going.
9. Joseph was naughty in primary today. I am in primary now and can see him. I threatened that he would have to pick up the whole house before he could eat after church, if he did not behave. That worked. You could tell that he wanted to continue being naughty with all his heart, but his stomach spoke more reason to him.
10. Joshua dropped a heavy metal pole from our old trampoline onto his toe. He woke up in the middle of the night crying because his toe hurt. It looks like he is going to lose a toenail. 
11. Arwen only likes to wear skirts and dresses, and she thinks all girls should only wear skirts and dresses. When Kate and I are wearing pants, Arwen will come up to us and tell us we are ugly because we are wearing pants.
12. Suzy loves to stand up with me and wash the dishes. She also likes to change her clothes several times a day or wear nothing but her diaper.
13. Sam's eyes are so blue. We are all hoping his eyes will stay blue, and that we will have one kid with blue eyes. But Ruth had blue eyes until she was two and Rachel had blue eyes until she was one, and now they both have green eyes. Still, we can hope. Oh and Sam is 3 months now today. The time goes by too quickly.

Tender Mercies

1. Ruth has had some personal tender mercies this week.
2. Even though I know we have been exposed to the flu and the stomach flu, no one has been sick, and if they have gotten sick at all, it has been so mild it is hardly worth mentioning.
3. We had 3 bed wetters at the beginning of the year, and now we only have 2.

Pictures

This Week at Our House # 5

1. And just like that, February is upon us. Every now and then John takes up new hobbies that benefit me. Recently, he got interested in knife sharpening, bought a lot of tools, and sharpened my 12 year old kitchen knives. He did such a good job, he could shave with them. This week, he bought some cookbooks. He has been reading to me about italian food and cakes. I am wondering if this is going to become another one of his hobbies that benefits me. Years ago, it was photography. That was fun too.
2. I decided to make Friday the clean the whole house day, rather than Saturday, so we will have one whole day with nothing necessary. We did it this week and loved having Saturday to be lazy. 
3. Ruth had her dentist appointment. She has to get her cavity filled before the dentist will sign her off and then her mission papers go in. The cavity appointment is on Valentine's Day. She will also have to have 2 of her wisdom teeth extracted. I never did. I just had mine pulled when they grew in, and I was 27.
4. Kate just reads and reads and reads. She didn't like to read until she was about 13, so this gives me hope for the younger kids who are not book lovers yet.
5. I signed Johnny up for the ACT this week. He will take it in April. He has now taken 3 practice ACT's to prepare, and he will be taking one each Friday until then. The first two weeks, he got a 26, and this Friday he got a 28. He has time, so hopefully, he will be able to get a 30.
6. Adam is growing by leaps and bounds. I can hardly keep up with clothes for him. I bought him new things in September and he literally burst through them. They had big holes and not from ordinary use. John and I were joking about him being the incredible hulk. Ruth and Kate grew so slowly that this is new territory for us.
7. Rachel loves playing with her legos and does so in a very girl way.
8. Anya is an all-around good student. She does her work without nagging. She understands things reasonably well. I never have to explain things to her more than once, and she gets the answer correctly. 
9. Joseph really likes the home school coop. All of the kids do. They get in the car excited about what they learned and played and who they talked to.
10. I made hershey kiss cookies for the kids. Joshua ate the hershey kiss off the top of one, handed me the cookie, and said, "Here Mom. You can have the crust."
11. Arwen picked out some princess dolls to spend her Christmas money on. She has been carrying them around since she got them.
12. Susan is such a classic terrible two. She screams at the top of her lungs whenever she does not get exactly what she wants.
13. Sam smiles and smiles so big all the time.

Tender Mercies

1. Ruth only has to get two of her wisdom teeth out, so the cost is half.

Parenting: the Hard Parts

I feel like there are three hard things that parents need to help their children accomplish: potty training, reading, and driving. All of those take significant effort depending on the child and all are necessary parts of becoming a successful adult. Of course, some kids will be easier than others in all three of these categories. But no matter how easy or hard it is, it is always effort.  I always feel accomplished and relieved when my kids meet these milestones.

So far I have:
9 kids potty trained with two more to go.
7 kids reading with four more to go, and

1 kid driving, with 10 more to go.

This year I will be potty training one, teaching one to two of them to read, and teaching two of them to drive.

I kind of expect helping your kids obtain a successful marriage will end up fourth on my list of hard things for a parent. I haven't gotten there yet. In another 2 to 4 years, I will know whether or not that is hard enough to add to my list.