This Week at Our House # 29 Beach Day and a Birthday

Hmmm... the weeks really seem to fly by. John had had a job interview and I was hoping and hoping this would be it, but it has been 2 weeks now and nothing. Ugh... but other than that, things went well this week. I cannot remember what happened each day. For us personally, all was well. We got the letter form CPS closing our case, and that is a relief.

My dad spent 3 days in the hospital with cellulitis and John's mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, so our parents had rough weeks. I will be heading down to visit my parents this week.

We continue to get the repairs done on the house. The house part of the roof is almost complete, but with the very hot weather, we only made it up one day this week. The shingles burn your hands, never mind the metal hammers and screws, so we have to go early in the morning or just before sunset. With the heat wave, we spent that time on indoor projects. Johnny and Adam did the most of them, as I was running a lot of errands.

I took the van to get new tires and brakes and an oil change. We did not need the brakes. The squealing was because our rotors are rough, but we have lots of pad left. We only needed 2 new tires, because the alignment was the real problem. We got that fixed. The oil change and 32 point check revealed that the van is in excellent shape. The man said that when you take good care of your car, it will take good care of you. and we had done that. I had to laugh. We took very good care of our other cars, but have been too poor to take good care of this one. It is the Lord that has taken good care of our van and it kept it running. It is now 12 years old with over 200,000 miles on it. That is when our other two cars died.

Wednesday, I dropped all work projects and we went to the beach. It has been very hot here and the beach was a welcome break for us all. Gideon was the cutest at the beach. He loved the water washing up over his feet. He got pretty excited about it and laughed and splashed.

I took Joseph out swimming a couple of times. He is much better behaved at the beach now. Sam kept his clothes on this time, even though he got wet. And Sam actually enjoyed the water some.

The waves were very crashing and Rachel did not dare to swim out. I was surprised. She usually likes to get into the deeper, gentler water. It was hard to swim through the break, though.

Johnny swam a lot more than usual. Kate swam a lot less as she was not feeling well. Though Kate was feeling well enough for ice cream. It has become tradition to stop at the grocery store, pick up some ice cream and ice cream cones and eat an ice cream cones on the way home from the beach.

Ruth came out swimming with me for a while. She swims very well. I had forgotten until she was out with me, but Ruth learned to swim younger than all the other kids in our family. She is still a strong swimmer.

I went out further than everyone else, and swam alone for a while because I love to swim and no one wanted to come out as deep as I did. I would not let even Ruth and Kate go out alone, though. I guess it is easier to trust my own strength.

Susan and Arwen and Anya stayed in the water the whole time. They are good at staying where they are safe.

Adam swam with Johnny more than Kate. John came, but he did not want to go out far in the water. He stayed in the shallow end with the little kids, jumping the waves.

Joseph was so excited for his birthday that he woke up at 5am. John got up and hung out with him, and then they both went back to bed. Last year, Joseph spent the whole day playing computer games. We made fun of him for that and even complained about it because he had asked for some tough meals, but wouldn't break from his computer game to eat it. This year, Joseph did not play computer games at all and spent the day doing different activities with other family members. He was very conscientious about it. Joseph asked for chicken pot pie for dinner. I was a little surprised as it is not fancy food. We made three pies and they were gone quickly. The whole family enjoys homemade chicken pot pie.

Our summer vacation is coming to an end. We start school on August 5th, 15 days from today. We have had a nice long break. This year Adam will be in 9th grade, Rachel in 8th, Joseph and Anya in 6th, Josh in 3rd, Arwen in 2nd, and Suzy will be starting kindergarten. I have everything I need. The older kids have all their stuff written out and assigned for the whole year. I still need to write a schedule for the younger kids.

The year is sure flying by!!!!!

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6 Months Old

Oh, Gideon, you grow too fast!!!

Happy Birthday, Joseph!!

Joseph is 10 years old!! Has it really been a decade since his birth?????? Joseph is smart, energetic, witty, and soft-hearted. He LOVES our animals!! Joseph is the chicken shepherd. He goes to check on them several times a day to make sure they are safe and staying in the fence. I often wake up to a chicken in the house because Joseph got up early to let the chickens out for the day and brought one in the house to keep her safe from the ducks. Several times a week he comes inside in tears because a chicken has hopped the fence. But when we have lost chickens, he has taken it well and concerned himself more with keeping the other ones alive.

Joseph will be entering the 6th grade in just a couple more weeks. His birthday put him as one of the younger kinds, but when I began homeschooling him I realized that he was at least 1 grade ahead in every subject, so I put him on the same track as Anya. He will graduate before he turns 17.

Joseph is a rough and tumble boy. He is always jumping on Adam or Joshua. He likes to joke and tease.

Joseph has an imaginary world that he has been writing stories for. He is a particularly good story teller. I think he will write at least one novel, but maybe he will be able to pursue that as a career. John has him learning computer programming already and he is doing well with that. Joseph will have options.

This Week at Our House # 28 Van Trouble

This week did not turn out at all like we thought it would. On Monday when I went to  grocery shop, the battery had died in the van. This was the second time in a week and a half. Late Tuesday evening, John asked the neighbor for a jump start. On Wednesday, when I was planning to grocery shop and get the new tires and brakes for the van, again the van would not start because the battery was dead. We knew there was something going on and had to change plans.

Thursday morning, I asked another

neighbor for a jump start and it took fifteen minutes to get it to work. We kept the van running while we decided what we would do. John and I decided to just go together and find a place to get it fixed. After driving around for a while, we went to the place I had planned on getting new tires and brakes. They tested the battery, the alternator, and the starter. All tested good, so they sent us on to a place that can diagnose electrical problems. They did not charge us anything and they called the other place for us to ask if they could get us in. The other place said they would take us.

We did not know at the time, but the place we were sent to had actually closed down for a month to catch up on the work they had. While we were there, they turned two other people away. We were really blessed to have them take our business and take it right away. We explained some funny things that had been going on with the locks of the van.

The electrical locking switch on the drivers side turned out to be the problem. The technician ran diagnostic tests to first see if there was something draining the battery and there was. Then he tested the individual parts. He removed the locking device and showed us how to replace it ourselves. Then charged us only $85. They were so generous with us, even though they knew nothing about us.

The next day, we got a call from the place that fixed our car. They had left a magnet flashlight under our dash board and needed it back. I got it back to them right away, and had a very pleasant surprise. For a year, our a/c in the van had not been working very well. It now works perfectly. We are guessing that little locking piece has been causing electrical havoc for sometime. And, we feel very, very blessed. We got our battery problems and our a/c problems fixed for $85!!!! The Lord has been very good to us with this van. It is 12 years old and has over 200,000 miles on it, and it is going strong and has never cost us very much except in normal wear and tear such as struts, and brakes, and tires.

The kids are good. CPS finally called my family to check and see if we are not big liars. We thought they would be at our house on Friday, but they have not come yet. We still expect them. They are supposed to visit the open cases each week, so obviously, we are not their priority.

Here are my thoughts on each child:

Ruth and Kate are not children anymore. John lets Ruth and Kate do whatever they want to. I always wondered how John would be with his adult children. He's exactly as I would have him be. They can come and go as they please, eat what they please, go to bed when they please, etc. They still help me a lot around the house. Both girls are working on the continual project

to transcribe the Joseph Smith papers. They work on their art and writing. Kate does math and is working on cooking. She tries to make new things each week. More recently, Kate has been making pasta. We do not have a past roller, so it is tedious, but she is getting better.

Johnny is my repairs companion. He has a game that he is programming. He has learned a lot of programming in the last year, so John even goes to him for reference every now and then. Of course, Johnny goes to John for reference too.

Adam is my second repair partner. He is also our music man. He keeps music playing in the house if he is not playing the piano. He's our jokester too. Adam and Kate always banter back and forth.

Rachel's sense of humor has developed more recently. She played a game with the family and instead of playing to win, she played combinations that would be humorous.

Anya's art is up another level. I think she is going to get really, really good in the next couple of years. I remember when she was 2 and started to draw. She would draw recognizable lions and giraffes. I need to photograph her drawings more. Ruth asked Anya how she could read so well and spell so terribly. Anya said, "ask Kate."

Joseph continues to be our chicken shepherd. Several times each day, he goes outside to check on the chickens to make sure they are safe. When he cannot find one, he cries and worries and rallies help.

Joshua has been making paper boats galore. I had to stop him because he would use a ream of paper a day on boats. Josh finally lost his first top tooth. The tooth underneath has already come in, so he does not have much of a gap. His other top baby tooth is still not even very loose.

Arwen's birthday is in two weeks. She has been giving me a list of things she wants for this birthday for the past 50 weeks. I finally told her to write them all down. I think I have gotten probably five different dinner requests.

Anya told me this funny story about Susan: "We were climbing a tree and uh susan was like "let's play climb the tree!" and started climbing with me. Then I climbed to the highest I can get and I said "Susan do you think you can climb that high" and Susan said "no I will get scared fall down and die" and then I am like "if I go back will I get scared fall down and die" "yes you will get scared fall down and die".

We finally got most of the garage cleaned. This has a lot to do with Sam because he has ravaged that garage for a year. We are now keeping it locked, so it stays clean. Sam will miss "his" tools. I finally took Sam to nursery today. He is so shy around strangers. I pulled up a chair and sat down. Sam pulled up a chair and sat beside me and watched the kids play. He would not even touch the toys. However, he willingly went for snack and he even listened intently and with interest to the lesson. I wonder if he will go to primary in January.

Gideon played with the toys in nursery, as well as charming everyone with his dimply smile and his bright happy eyes. Gideon is not shy at all. He loves to look around at all the people at church. Gideon is still scooting with his belly on the floor, but he can really move now. He has now made it into every room in the house. He likes to be put down and likes to go and explore now. He will be 6 months in 4 more days.

This Week at Our House # 27 Beach Trip, July 4th

Wow! I cannot believe we are more than half way through the year!! I remember how slowly time went when I had all little kids. Now time flies by so quickly, I hardly know that it has passed. This week we made some real progress on the roof, painted a bedroom, went to the beach, and had a holiday day.

Monday, Johnny, Adam, and I got up early to get some roof time in before it got too hot. Monday afternoon, we all went to the beach. The waves were tall and crashing. We could not go out too far. But the water was warm and nice. We all had a good time. Sam played in the sand a lot and enjoyed himself more than he usually does. I brought him a change of clothes this time, and once he got wet, he wanted an immediate change.

Gideon enjoyed the water and the feel of the sand. I liked watching him experiment with the textures at the beach.

Susan, Arwen, Joshua and Anya swam happily in the shallow water the whole time. They like the waves knocking them around as long as they feel safe and remain close to shore.

Rachel spent about half her time swimming with the younger crowd and about half her time trying to swim deeper with the older crowd. She's a good swimmer and her confidence matches her ability. I don't worry about Rachel at the beach. She had a good time.

Joseph, on the other hand, has too much confidence for his ability. He was more obedient this year, which I appreciated, but he still kept going out deeper than he should have. We all had to watch Joseph carefully and grab him back when necessary. I took Joseph out 3 times. It was hard to get past the initial break. When we did, it was easy to float over the tall waves and really enjoy the water, but that was over Joseph's head. When I was not with him, he still wanted to be out in the deeper water. He needs to understand that he still needs help to navigate the water safely.

Johnny and Adam and Ruth and Kate are all quite capable. They are good swimmers and know how to navigate the waves and tides. They all had a blast swimming.

I am a good swimmer, and I love swimming in the ocean. I am glad that I have had the opportunity to teach my kids safety at the beach and a love for the ocean. The water here is amazing. I love how warm the water gets in the summer.

Tuesday, John, Johnny, Adam, and I got a huge portion of the roof done. We had spent a lot of time repairing wood and putting in flashing and new vents and measuring and drawing lines. It felt good to get lots of shingles finally nailed down.

Wednesday, Anya and Joseph had cavities filled at the dentist. They both held perfectly still and remained calm. I was impressed at how well they handled the needle and the drill.

Thursday was of course, the Fourth of July. We opted to stay home and out of the big crowds.  We made a steak dinner. We had chips and soda cans and ice cream cones, and we rented and watched a family movie. We do movies rarely enough that it was as much of a treat as the beach. The kids were fine with our low level holiday celebration. We promised more beach trips and even some park days on days when it will not be so crowded. We play to go again this coming Tuesday to make up for no beach day on the 4th.

Friday, the cps worker was supposed to come again, but he did not. We got up early and cleaned the house real well.  We always clean on Fridays, we just don't get up early to do so. So we will continue to wait for the case to be closed. Kate and Ruth feel a little miffed that again we stayed home and waited and readjusted our schedule for nothing.

Saturday, we did a lot of laundry and painted the boys bedroom. Rachel made macaroni and cheese for dinner. She did a good job and it was eaten up really fast.

Susan was the star for saying funny things this week. She told the kids not to forget about her sister that lives in the purple house. She laid down on John and said, "You'r belly is soft and squishy." Then she looked in his face and asked, "Is there a Gideon in your belly?" Another time, she showed me her belly button and said, "that is where my Gideon is going to come out."




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Josh loves insects, especially praying mantises. He's caught two this year.

This is when Sam got wet