This Week at Our House # 37 Lots Got Done

Last Saturday I checked the weather and it said there would be no rain for a full week. I decided that we could make double the dinner on Sunday, so we could have it two nights, and then would have time for an after school beach trip on Monday. Just as we were leaving for the beach late Monday afternoon, we noticed storm clouds in the distance. About 2 miles out, there was mild rain. I decided to keep going, thinking the storm was in the opposite direction of the beach. I was wrong and we drove into a huge storm. At that point however, we were far enough and decided to at least get ice cream cones at the grocery store near our beach. Once we went over the

bridge there was no storm. However, when we arrived at the public beach, there was a police car blocking off the entire road. We went and got ice cream and talked about going to a further beach, but by then there was loud thunder and visible lightening. We went home and drove through an even bigger storm. The weather man, as usual was wrong. And it turns out that the tornado that touched down on Emerald Isle during the hurricane, hit our closest beach and will be closed for a while. We thought the double dinner on Sunday was a good idea, so we are

going to try and get to the beach again tomorrow. We will have to go to a beach further out, though. One funny little note was when we arrived home, Sam said to Ruth, "We go back home and died. it rain it rain!"

The rest of the week was pretty good. Rachel is struggling with school, but everyone else is doing well, mostly enjoying what they are learning and getting their work done. I am not sure what to do about Rachel. She is completely unconvinced that she needs to learn anything at all.
Susan finally lost her first tooth. When it came out, there was no drama at all because she waited until it completely dropped out.

Tuesday, I did our weekly grocery trip. Kate and a bunch of the little kids came along with me, while Adam stayed home to do some mowing and Ruth rallied the kids that were home and got the house cleaned. Kate and I are a great team shopping. We have been doing it together for a good number of years, and we have a good system. We got through to stores with long lists and a bunch of little kids very quickly by dividing the list.

I came home with a sushi platter, sold at Sam's Club, and frozen egg rolls for dinner. This is one of those times where I realize what a large group we are. The sushi platter was gone, including the pickled ginger, in less than 10 minutes, and all 32 egg rolls were eaten there after.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I worked on mowing the lawn. I am doing more of the mowing to get more exercise in. When I mow the little kids come out and play outside. Joseph has been working on building a hill for our yard. He spent about the same amount of time on that, as I have spent on mowing.

For a science lab, I bought the kids some little glass chips from the dollar store. They thought they made good Go pieces. Go is a Japanese game. Adam decided to make a Go board. He spent several hours on getting the lines straight, carved, and inked. Then late on Friday, he stained and polyed it. It looks really nice and the kids have spent hours playing Go. They are allowed to read and watch an anime called Hikaru No Go. That is the main reason why they are familiar with the game.

Adam and I fixed the wood finish on our countertops of Friday. That was interesting, because we use the bar in our kitchen all day. It is the heart of the home. The kids were not used to having to stay away from it. But no one seemed to get wet stain and polyurethane on them, so it turned out well.

Adam and I also cleaned out the garage on Friday. That was hot and hard and gross. And later that evening, I finished mowing the south side of our house. I have the north side left, which I will do on Tuesday.

The 40-something year old, drug addicted son of one of our neighbors has moved into a camper on his father's lawn. When he was out mowing his father's yard this week, John brought all of the kids into the house. Josh looked at him from the window and said, "That too drugged man is creepy." He is. When he mows on the riding lawn mower, he talks to himself and hoots and hollers. One time, I heard him say, "Woohoo. I am the man." He's a sad sight. I think our kids have had all the education they need to get on why you are not supposed to do drugs.

Generally we live in a very quiet place. In fact, John was sitting outside with Arwen. She heard a car drive by, seemed surprised and asked John what that noise was.

Kate said that while she was transcribing "good weather for sleighing", Joseph with great concern asked "What kind of slaying?" We thought that was a pretty funny misunderstanding.

Anya spends a lot of time drawing. She has one girl character that she draws everyday. Sometimes she will spend several days on one drawing. If you want to know where Anya is, she is likely sitting down

with her drawing board.

Ruth sent me this about Arwen, "I hugged her and said goodnight and she put her eye against my cheek, blinked and said she had kissed me with her eye."

Gideon wants to be walking. He holds on to furniture to get around and when the furniture ends, he always tries to take a step before getting down and crawling.

Johnny, forgetting that Gideon cannot walk yet, set him down on his feet. Gideon stood for a moment before falling down. Johnny said that Gideon actually can stand. Well, not long enough to be left with nothing to hold onto yet. 

More Pictures

This Week at Our House # 36 Hurricane Dorian

I really don't feel like blogging this week, so I am going to give a quick recap. We survived Hurricane Dorian! Haha! It was no big deal. We lost two branches from our favorite window tree, but that was all. The hurricane mostly whirred over night and while it put down enough rain to fill our little "ponds", as far as I know there was no flooding anywhere.

We spent the week preparing for the hurricane, which basically meant hurrying up and finishing the roof, except for the half of the garage. It took 15 hours and it was mostly just dealing with the valleys. I definitely way under estimated how hard and how long it is to do a roof. But all that is left we know is easy.

The roof held firm! We didn't lose a single shingle. We didn't lose electricity or water, and we were only without internet for about 6 hours.

Joseph and Joshua were very disappointed. They kept asking when our electricity would go out. When it didn't, they said "that was the stupidest hurricane ever". Kids are funny.

Indeed Dorian was not at all stupid. The Bahamas are devastated and the amount of life lost from the aftermath of the hurricane is not yet known.

We didn't get school in as well as I would have liked, so we will have to do a few math lessons over Christmas break. But for all of the younger school kids, the week was definitely vacation-y. Joseph was just mourning the fact that school will be in full swing tomorrow.

Everyone is doing well. The family seems happy enough and next week will be business as usual.

Pictures

fire ant bites on Gideon's pinky finger

This is our sometimes pond. After the hurricane, the pond was full and the water was cold and clean. The kids had a blast before it dried up again. We've had a dry summer and that has been nice.

This Week at Our House # 35 Last Week of August

 Is it really September 1st already???

This week was busy, busy, busy and I did not get everything done that I needed to. Oh well, probably most women alive could say that. School went well.

Monday is our hardest day of school. We made it through, survived 3 dentist appointments, and even mowed a bunch of our lawn. Monday was probably my most productive day. Johnny had his dentist appointment and has no cavities. Rachel had one filling done and has one more to go. Rachel managed the Novocaine shot and then was a pro through the drilling and filling. Arwen had sealants put on her 4 six year old molars. The taste of the cleaning solution, bothered her so much that she started to puke. But she swallowed it back and bravely got all the work done. I think the dental assistant was relieved that she was not puked on. I made a crockpot dinner, which gave me time to get some mowing done. John and Adam mowed some too.

Tuesday we stayed home all day and got school in, and more mowing done. We still have more mowing to do. Rachel has been slow about getting her school work done. Some days she spends so much time sitting and day dreaming that she doesn't finish until 6pm. Everyone else is done by 2 or 3pm. Adam finished mowing our biggest section of lawn while Rachel slowly got through the same work that Adam finished hours earlier.

By Wednesday the kids have less school to do. I make each day a little easier, so by the time we get to Friday, our wish to have the school work over with comes true faster. Arwen and Josh have a world history workbook that they love because it is a little bit of reading a big amount of craft projects. We did the biggest craft project yet for this course. Susan joined in. Susan and Sam have decided that they both enjoy cutting and gluing.

Thursday we completed school and

then I went on our weekly shopping trip. The trip is long because it is about a half hour drive to the stores. When we moved here, we ended all quick trips to stores. I go once a week at most now. I have to carefully plan a menu, seek out what ingredients I need to buy. I also need to make sure that I get everything we need that is a non-grocery item. If I miss out, we wait until my next trip. This has made it so I have to be much more organized when I shop. Our errands, while not really taking longer, take a large chunk of one day because they are consolidated. This Thursday, I took the 6 youngest kids and left the 6 oldest home to clean up and make dinner. When I take the youngest kids with me, I get a lot of comments about my hands being full or about having too many little problems. Joseph is a big helper now, though. He helps with the younger kids. Joseph, Joshua, and Arwen all love getting items off the shelf and helping that way. All 6 of my little kids were good too. They aren't always, but this week they were and the trip was reasonably easy.

Friday is our easy school day and also our clean the house day. When we planned on making homeschool a permanent part of our lives, I knew that I would need the kids to do a lot more housework. When the kids were in school, I was happy to do most of the work during the day while they were in school and have them help get their bedrooms and bathroom cleaned on Saturday. Since I tried homeschool once before, I knew that would not work because I just do not have the time during the school day to do all the work that I did when they were in school. I decided that the kids would have housework as part of the school week. It would teach them to clean and organize and to have responsibility for their living space. I chose Friday as the cleaning day. On Fridays we have spelling tests, story club, and a weekly drawing competition and housework. We mow, we repair, we wash floors, walls, clean underneath and around furniture and appliances. We wash bathrooms, and the kitchen. Pick up and vacuum and dust, and just whatever is in needed gets done. I make assignments that morning according to what needs to get done. And that is our school day. For an example, this week, Ruth did laundry and vacuumed. Johnny

put in a floor divider between the hall carpet and the bathroom and swept. Kate and Rachel cleaned the kitchen and baked homemade mini eclairs (treat for after chore time). Joshua picked up the main living area and cleaned on and under couches. Joseph picked up the boys room and hallway. Anya picked up the girls room and the parents room. Adam and Susan and Sam cleaned out the van. I scrubbed down the two bathrooms and helped clean the van.

Saturday is our free day. No one is assigned anything other than floor pick up, cooking, and dishes. This Saturday, my sister Amber had flown into Charlotte to visit my family. I took Ruth, Adam, Rachel, Anya, Joseph, Joshua, Arwen, Susan, Sam, and Gideon early in the morning, drove for five and a half hours to my parents. We visited for 5 and a half hours and then drove home. My sister Amber is doing really well. It was nice to see her.

Sunday, we went to church, and I found out that hurricane Dorian may take a north easterly route and we may get hit by the tail end of it, beginning on Thursday. We have already done some hurricane prep, but we have more to do. We may take a day or two off from school to get the house ready.





More Pictures

Adam's drawings

Joseph's Drawings

Kate's drawings

Anya's Drawings

Rachel's drawing

I'm pretty sure this is Rachel's

Happy 20th Birthday, Kate

This amazing girl, is all grown up and entering her third decade. She is not where she wants to be in her life right now, but she is happy and productive. Kate is one of my very best friends. She has been for many years now. I go to her for advice, as she is very wise. I love to play card games with her and read books with her and discuss the gospel with her. Kate is a talented artist and writer. She is full of knowledge in a great many subjects. I could not be happier with this beautiful daughter the Lord gave to our family.