This Week at Our House #44

We had a reasonably quiet week, getting back to school. The kids did their school work without much complaining. Adam had an eye doctor appointment and a lot more of our chickens began laying eggs. We have 7 chickens and have been wondering for a while which ones are hens and which ones are roosters and it's looking more and more like we have 7 hens, as 5 are now laying and the two youngest are both nesting. We aren't even sure how that happened. I really didn't want more than one rooster, but expected more like 3 roosters and 4 hens. The eggs have been great, though and the kids are really enjoying them. I don't think I will have to buy eggs again for a while. Today we got 5!

1. John continues to work a lot of hours. When he is not working, he is either teaching the older kids or playing with the little kids.
2. I had a week of no doctor's appointments and that was wonderful. I will have one each the next two weeks. They were both this coming week, but I changed one to accommodate grocery shopping needs. I am seeing a fetal medicine specialist and a group of CNMs. 
3. Ruth did not write anything this week. Instead she sent a few one line response emails and two 10 minute voice recordings, so I have nothing to post from her. She would like me to send more voice recordings, but it's generally easier for me to sit down and write. But all is well with her. She is teaching the English for the first time. She has been teaching immigrants up until this transfer. I think she misses her immigrants, but I am glad that she will have an opportunity to teach the English in whom we likely have many common ancestors. 
4. Kate's been very busy working on her book and transcribing all the documents she and Johnny downloaded from the Joseph Smith Papers. She has also been doing a lot of math.
5. Johnny has been busy with transcription too as well as his computer programming, and math. He also spent one day on the roof.
6. It was cold this morning, so I told the kids they could wrap themselves in a blanket because I was not going to turn on the heat. Adam, instead rolled all the blankets together in a tight roll and then rolled the kids in the blankets. He tried to roll more than one kid together, but that did not work out too well.
7. Rachel adores Kate. She comes up behind her and hugs her and spends lots and lots of time talking to her.
8. Anya and Joseph spent the all their free time outside. They have some imaginary games they play together. Every now and then, I see one of them and another comes in and asks why the other quit the game.
9. Joseph checks on the chickens several times a day. They are free range and he is not happy if he does not know where they are and what else is flying in the sky. He also loves to chase them, hold them, and collect their eggs.
10. I asked Joshua what I should write about him on this blog this week and he has come up with all kinds of random things, like characters in the game Anya has made up.
11. Arwen got back into reading better than I thought she would after having taken a week off from school. She is progressing and now has all the skills she needs to sound out tough words. I think having her read some from the Book of Mormon has helped her a lot. Plus, she is not even 6 and a half yet, so I think for her age, she is doing quite well.
12. Susan gets tired between 6 and 7pm and tries to sneak in a nap that is nearly impossible to wake her up from, and then she tries to stay up until between 12 and 1am. I thought the time change might get us all to bed earlier and up earlier. But those hopes were wrong. My kids seem to live by the clock and some some inner clock. The hour change did nothing.
13. Sam continues to get into everything. He is talking a lot more too and talks in complete sentences. He will be two tomorrow. Johnny and Adam got chips, cookies, and candy for their birthdays. When I told him that tomorrow is his birthday, he excitedly pointed out his brother's snacks that he very badly wants.

Pictures

This Week at Our House # 43

We took the week off from school to clean up the yard and fix the roof. The yard is done enough for the winter and the roof has a long, long ways to go. The kids worked very hard. I allowed one or two them each day to stay inside to clean and there was always someone who preferred the indoor work over the outdoor work. We have a great number of flower beds with very little flowers that had gotten very weedy. I took down all the weeds and filled the beds in with pine needles to keep the weeds from growing right back. The cat seemed to like that, and made a little nest in them. The kids did not feel like they had vacation time. On the contrary, they felt like they worked harder than ever and are looking forward to a relaxing week of school. But three acres, after a hurricane is a lot to take care of. We still have 3 trees that will probably have to come down, a giant pile of wood to burn (but at least it's all piled now), grape vines that are on the ground from their trellis being broken down in the wind and 2/3rds of a roof to repair. The chickens ate all the grapes this year. Last year we harvested them and squeezed them. They are the great big wine grapes and much too sweet to eat. We had two minor tragedies this week. Sam learned how to climb out of his crib and open doors all in the same day. Bedtime for Sam is much more difficult now.

1. John felt much better this week, and I think got a lot more work done. Everything is still the same, and we are praying harder than ever now. He has been up late into the nights working on his game. He also spends a good amount of time learning more things that have weakened his chances in job interviews in the past.
2. The place I am going to for OB care is crazy!!! They have now done two HIV and syphilis tests on me. They act like it is such a great thing that I have no stds. It makes me nervous to use the bathroom there. I remind them that these are behavioral diseases and one can know of a surety if they do not have them simply from one's own behavior. They look at me like I am crazy and insulting. Oh well, sometimes it feels good to just state what is true. 
3. Ruth has been sending us voice recordings. The last one was pretty funny. She had a lot of difficulty getting to her new area with a funny mishap in which they were given the wrong tickets to get as far as they needed to go, and ended up stuck in the train station. While stuck, they ran into an elder, new in the mission field, who had been separated from his companion and was genuinely frightened. So they stayed with him and helped him locate his companion. Maybe there was some divine intervention in all of that since they happened to be where the young lost elder needed them, even though they weren't suppose to be.
4. Kate hated all the yard work. But she did it and mowed and everything.
5. Johnny is now transcribing all the Joseph Smith papers that he downloaded. He wakes up early to claim the computer first thing and gets to work on it.
6. Adam worked hard on the roof and in mowing part of the yard. He didn't ever seem to run out of energy, though.
7. Rachel preferred to stay inside and clean the house and make some lunch. She made dinner twice this week, which is a step in the right direction, though, it did not happen without tears. 
8. Anya carried a lot of heavy logs one day and then came with me to a farm down our street where they had piled a lot of pine needles they had gathered from the storm blowing them next to the farm. I was glad to have such a huge pile stuck out for the city to collect that no one would mind me collecting.
9. Joseph carried lots of heavy wood for two days straight. He does not work steady, though. He carries a log, goes and checks the time, goes and talks to someone, and then waits for me to tell him to get back to work.
10. Joshua carried weeds away from the flower beds for me, and collected trash out of the back yard. He works steadier than Joseph, but usually cried while being told he has to do the work.
11. Arwen usually got sent to the house to clean inside because she just played outside. Inside, she  more willingly did the work. But for a 6 year old, I find Arwen very steady and reliable.
12. Susan actually did the best job of carrying weeds out for me. She was very pleasant about it and liked dragging the little plastic wagon with weeds to and from the flower beds. 
13. Sam was just delighted to have full access to the garage and tools and to be outside most of the day long. When it rained on Friday, he was sad not to be out of doors. Also, most of our stuff stayed in its rightful place (except for the tools in the garage) because Sam was occupied with other things. 
14. We are naming baby boy Gideon Moroni or Moroni Gideon. He is moving around a lot, which is always good for peace of mind, and I have been able to control my blood sugar very well with diet. I find it easier to diet when the diet is for someone other than me.

Pictures

Anya's drawing

Anya's ducks

Arwen's fish and ducks

Anya's dragon raising ducklings

Anya's people

Happy Birthday, Adam!!!

Adam has now turned 14!!!! For the first time ever, I feel like my child's age is catching up to his size rather than his size catching up to his age!!

Adam is a fun, fun teenager. He keeps us entertained with a constant string of jokes. He used to be quiet with little to say and now he has a lot to say and something on nearly every topic. Adam loves food, and thereby soccer and weightlifting. He is big and strong and very useful and capable. When I read about Nephi and Mormon being young, yet large in stature, I have an idea what that meant now. Adam is young, yet large in stature.

At 14 he is more physically capable than his three older siblings were, so he does a lot of the heavy work around the house and yard. He has been up on the roof this week replacing ripped shingles, and he is the man who carries the big heavy packages of shingles up. When I read about fixing your own roof, the first suggestion was to try and carry a package of shingles up a ladder and put them on your roof and if you were okay doing that, then you could do your own roof. It's a good thing we have Adam!!

Adam is a friend to all of us, and is often Sam's sibling of choice. When Sam is sad, he likes Adam to carry him around. The other kids love to draw with him and jump on the trampoline. He makes up wild games that they all love and John and I do not.

Adam plays the piano all the time, but he prefers to learn it his own way. He doesn't have much interest in learning the hymns or the notes particularly, but he learns difficult classical pieces and plays them all the time. Adam also LOVES classical music and keeps good, wholesome music playing in our home. The younger kids know a lot more about classical music because of Adam.

We love our Adam. He brings a lot of joy to our home.

Stories from Ruth # 59

It was my first week in Gillingham and I can say that it is nothing like any of my other areas! It is literally all suburbs and houses upon houses! Not to mention most people here are english! If anyone reading this has seen "My Fair Lady," let me just tell you that that is Gillingham and Chatham. Not the posh people in my fair lady, but the other side. They even sound like it. It is actually fairly entertaining.

I love my companion Sister Shin from Burma! She is so cute and sweet! We have so much fun laughing all of the time!

Today we visited Rochester with the Senior Sisters and the elders who we apparently share a chapel with. It was a lot of fun! We got crepes and went to the Cathedral! 

This week we saw so many miracles as many people accepted copies of the Book of Mormon. I know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and witnesses of his resurrection! I love it! And it has helped me to develop faith in Jesus Christ. I love what Thomas S Monson says about the Book of Mormon and testifies of its truth "My dear associates in the work of the Lord, I implore each of us to prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day. As we do so, we will be in a position to hear the voice of the Spirit, to resist temptation, to overcome doubt and fear, and to receive heaven’s help in our lives. I so testify with all my heart in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." I know as we prayerfully read and ponder the Book of Mormon we can come to know more of who Christ is and learn to cleanse ourselves that we may be prepared even to see him and to be even as he is.