This Week at Our House # 47 Last Week of School

We finished up our last week of school. Our first semester is over and we are half way through the school year. Everyone is happy to now be on vacation and I have a lengthy list of home repairs and yard work to keep us occupied through the holidays.

The whole week went smoothly and quickly enough. We still had a little sickness making it through the ranks, but everyone is better now and we were all able to get to church today.

Rachel and Adam still have one book from first semester to finish reading over vacation. They were warned, though, that the work had to be completed. I also plan to read some of the next history book to Rachel to get her a head start for the next semester, and instead of the writing course I was going to give to Adam and Rachel, I am having them join Joseph and Anya with their good and beautiful lesson.

Anya and Joseph have finished everything. Arwen and Josh are a little behind, but they have done their lessons everyday, and the only reason they are behind is because I spent more than one day on lessons that I felt like they needed more time on. Suzy is a little ahead of where I wanted her, so that is good.

I have one book ready and on the computer. I have a few more things that I want to do to make it look better and John has been editing the poem to make it flow more nicely. Kate was the illustrator. The book that Rachel illustrated and Adam and Rachel colored the pictures is ready to be uploaded too. I am hoping by the end of the week, I will have my first two children's books up for sale. One is a Christmas book. Ruth is still working on the illustrations for my other Christmas book, so we are planning on having that ready for next Christmas.

We tried to put in a new ceiling lamp in our laundry room. Once we did, we no longer had lights working in my bathroom, the kitchen, and the dining room, and the laundry room still. I took out the new light and Johnny figured out how the wires were routed before and got all the other lights working again. That is some pretty messed up house wiring. Johnny was awesome to figure a lot of it out, and he said he might be able to figure out how to get the new light working.

Adam loves to draw and has been getting frustrated when he is asked to do things that interrupt that. John wants Adam to be able to develop his talents, so he has given him the whole day off from chores to draw.

Ruth and Kate have been working on illustrating and church history as usual. They work quite hard and I am grateful to have them here with me as I start this children's books project. They are happy to be here doing this with me too.

It rained most of the week so the kids did not play outside as usual, and we were very behind on laundry. I don't even have a dryer in the laundry room anymore. All of our clothes get dried outside. It saves a lot on electricity and gives us more space, but it is hard on rainy weeks.

I bought candy bars to get Sam to start using the toilet instead of his potty chair. He loves his potty chair. He has been potty trained to it for several months now and I would like him to move his business to the

toilet. Yesterday I had a funny conversation with him. He asked for a candy bar. I told him he had to go to the toilet. He went in his potty chair and then asked for a candy bar. I told him that didn't count, he had to use the toilet. Sam thought for a moment and said, "I don't like that. Give me a candy bar."

Gideon LOVES to walk. He spent the last three days walking around the living room and kitchen, literally the whole day, with the biggest smile on his face. He is now 10 months old and cruising. He is also saying "yes" to us now. It is cute because every time he does, several kids say, "Wow! Gideon said yes to you!"

This Week at Our House #46

Wow oh wow, time is flying. We finished off week 15 of school and have one more to go before our first semester is over. The kids are excited about that, and I have a large list of yard work and house repairs that we will need to get finished during our 6 week break. I am so, so, so glad that I prepared so perfectly for this year.

Sam had his birthday and asked to be sung happy birthday to with candles the two days after his birthday. He got a light saber that lights up and rarely puts it down. Susan has been trying to get it from him, though not successfully, so we have had more contention coming from the younger section of the family this week.

Gideon walks and walks now and he has not yet hit 10 months. He is our youngest to start stepping and walking.

Gideon watched the kids put up a Plants v. Zombies computer game and growled through the whole of it. Everyone laughed and laughed and Gideon just continued to growl.

I have one book that is complete except for putting it up on Amazon, so that will be done this week, and hopefully people will be willing to buy it.

Everyone else was a bit sick and the weather was cold windy and rainy, so things were fairly low key. The wind was so bad Friday and Saturday that Joseph asked if we were getting a tropical storm. The winds were tropical storm force, but the rain was more of a normal amount. Joseph kept more animals inside on and off.

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Happy Birthday, Samuel!

Darling baby boy Sam had his third birthday! I won't be able to call him my baby boy much longer. Sam is my only blue eyed child. He is Mr. Cuddles, but he also loves to play monster and chase too. Sam is good at saying sorry. He gives the sweetest hugs. If I get after him, Sam comes to me and holds out his hand for me to hold.

Sam loves kindergarten more than Susan. He knows her routine and her and where all of her stuff it and he gets it out and sets it up for Susan. Sometimes Sam even makes sure that Susan is doing her work.

The kids ask Sam to count to twenty because he says "oneteen, twoteen, nineteen, eighteen, TWENTY!"

Sam is a delight. I am excited to see how he grows and develops this next year! And he is potty trained, so that is nice to have that done!!!!

This Week at Our House # 45

Adam had his 15th birthday on Monday.

We schooled, finishing off week 14 of our school. We now have two more weeks before our six week semester break. Everyone, including myself, is tired of school and ready for a break. But we made it through and have only two more to push through. After that we will be half way through our year and will have accomplished 16 weeks of school without one day off! I do this to give up longer vacation times.

Kate has finished illustrations for a children's Christmas book I wrote. Adam and Rachel are a few days off from finishing the illustrations for another book I wrote. Ruth is working hard on the other Christmas book I wrote. I will have the book Kate illustrated up this week. I will now start designing a front cover and choosing about a hundred poems for an adult poetry book. I will put everything up on Amazon.com.

My parents and sister came and visited for about an hour on Monday. My sister was taking the GRE the next day, so they all came and stopped by to say hello. The little kids really liked seeing them at our house.

Anya cut open a chicken pot pie thinking it was apple pie and then said, "there's soup in my pie. I wanted apples."

Joseph has a pair of Christmas pajama bottoms that he got from his

cousin. They are hideous. He loves them and calls them his Christmas sweater pants and his best pants ever. He loves them because they are ugly.

One by one the kids have gotten sick this week. Today has been the worst day for it. And as luck would have it, Gideon or Sam broke the tv the day before they got sick. Sam was the first down with a fever followed by Gideon. Then Arwen, Anya, Josh, and John got sick. Joseph and Susan joined them. Ruth and Rachel

have felt a little sick. They have fevers and sinus headaches and sore throats and stomach aches. It's not too bad, but it has made for a lot of extra work and been harder without a tv to simply sit them in front of and help them to feel more relaxed and content.

Gideon is walking around a lot more, though he is still half walking, half crawling. I think it won't be long before he is just walking.

Sam's birthday is coming on Tuesday. I looked at trucks with him, as he has said that he wants a truck. We watched toy truck commercials. He loved those and wants me to play them over and over again.

Adam's Birthday

Adam turned 15 on Monday!!! I'll get that collage made at some point.

Adam is my only kid where I feel like his age is catching up to his size. He is big and tall and all grown, though I expect him to get taller. Most people think Adam is older than he is.  Adam is very capable. He has always been able to do more than all of his other siblings at all of the ages. He could vacuum at 5. Most of my kids could barely push a vacuum at 10. This year Adam has peeled wall paper, painted sanded and refinished woodwork, tore off and put in a new roof, replaced deck board, replaced a floor, replaced subflooring, replaced ceiling, played with and watched little kids, wrote computer programs, learned difficult classical pieces on the piano that no one else in the family can play, learned to draw very well, transcribed original historical documents, work on illustration for books I am writing, and more. He is advanced in his math and is finally reading a lot faster and even some things just for enjoyment. He even bakes and cooks. Yesterday he made homemade cinnamon rolls.

Ode to Adam

Adam so big and gracious and strong

walking, whistling his cheery song

sitting and pounding out proudly

on the piano playing loudly

standing, booming out serious jokes

obtaining laughs from his friendly blokes

Adam so big and gracious and strong

we always like to have him along.

This Week at Our House #44 October Ends

The dying leaves from trees unfurl

every morning they dance and whirl

wisps of gold, scarlet and brown

from the treetops they circle down

in autumn storms, fierce gusts hurl

they delight to prance with a little girl

shining brightly like elegant pearl

twisting around her princess gown

the dying leaves

when at night, they blow and swirl

sporting with owls, a cavorting twirl

embellished like a child's crown

blown on puddles sure to drown

in the earth and mud they furl

the dying leaves

October ended this week. The year is coming to a close, and the kids are excited for the upcoming`holidays and their school break.

Two years ago we decided to stop the celebration of Halloween in our family. Year three, and we mostly have not looked back. I buy the kids candy because we like candy. I still cook pumpkin five or six different ways, but we have let go of everything else. When we were married we said that we thought Halloween was fine as long as we stayed away from the gruesome, then it would be innocent fun.  We were mostly successful, but not as careful as we should have been.

A couple of years, our Utah ward had a haunted room, and it was quite gruesome. I let our kids go in, but never felt good about it. I justified it because it was being done at church. In the end, we started only attending the trunk or treat part of the ward Halloween party and not going into the building for the party or the haunted house.

Our first two Halloweens in North Carolina are what really convinced us that we needed to turn away from it. The first year, in my mothers posh neighborhood, we took our kids trick or treating but came home early because there were several groups of teens standing around smoking marijuana. The second Halloween, at our rental, there was a domestic dispute with a gun across the street from our home. Both neighborhoods were normally quiet and free of crime and drugs, and at the end of the holiday, they returned to normal. That convinced me that Halloween is not just innocent and neutral. So we quit going out, and for the third year in a row, I feel like that is the right decision.

No one trick or treats in this neighborhood, so that has not been a problem. Plus our driveway is 400 feet long.

I know people who don't celebrate it because they say it is a part of the accult and pagan worship and devil worship. I haven't looked into that and I don't really know, but that is where we were at.  These people usually celebrate other holidays on the same day. I have not done that either. I am not sure if we will try other things moving forward.

This year, I bought the kids $30 of candy. They made bunny hats and hopped around eating candy and carrots. Then they buried a bunch of their candy and played pirates and treasure hunting. I thought that was awesome. They had a good day, and I was lax about what they had to complete for school. We mostly read books.

Friday, it grew cold, and Saturday, I switched out our summer clothes for our winter clothes. I have never been so glad  that I have a huge storage of clothing for my kids to grow in and out of. They have plenty to wear, and we have not been in need that way.

I wrote this down about Gideon earlier in the week: Gideon sitting outside. I asked him if he liked it outside. He looked up to the sky and opened his mouth in awe.

Susan's second tooth has been loose for a long time, but she would not touch it and her adult tooth is growing in behind it. Today, the tooth is barely holding on and Susan said, "Look mom, my tooth is broken," as she tried to set it back into place.

On the whole it was a good week. We have 3 more full weeks of school and then we will have completed semester one. The first few days of vacation will be yard work days. Besides the final mowing and weeding, I have 2 big yard projects. Since it is a 6 week vacation, I don't need to feel too guilty about it.