Grocery Trip and Other Stuff

 I have started taking the little kids back to the store some. Today, I did the big grocery store trip with Sam. That's the first time he's been in a store since February. He was well behaved and asked for a variety of things on the shelves. When the cashier cooed over how cute he was, he ducked his head under his arm. Then he got out of the cart and hid behind me. 

The mood this evening is quite festive. I brought home a lot of groceries including raspberries and donuts and easy peasy chicken nuggets for dinner. The kids are all cheerier and playing or chatting together. Sam got some playdough, so Sam, Gideon, Arwen, and Susan are all enjoying creating with playdough. 

When I took Gideon to the store last week to buy the stuff, he was afraid of the cart, but I put him in because I needed my hands. At one point, I took him back out to hold him, but he wanted to get back in and have me push him faster. 

Sunday I Josh came into my room looked at me and I automatically said, "It's Sunday, no computer games."
The same thing happened with Anya, and then Arwen came in and requested to play Minecraft. When I got up, I found Josh, Anya, and Arwen all sitting quietly and still on the couch. I looked at them and laughed and they said they couldn't think of anything to do besides computer games. I suggested  books. That was a no go. Anya said, "I thought of painting, and I know that I have paints, but I don't know where they are." Josh said that he could think if a hundred things. I told Anya where to find her paints. Then I got the little kid paints out, and Rachel, Anya, Joseph, Joshua, Arwen, Sam, and Susan spent about 4 hours sitting on the back deck painting.  

Susan Tales

Susan said "being a big kid is the best, you know why? because then you can turn on shows for the little kids"

Susan sings to my doll "I can tell your pregnant," ends the singsong voice and says bluntly "cause your fat."


Susan: "I think you should change your dress."
Ruth: "Why?"
Susan: "Because people will call you ugly."
Ruth feeling pretty astonished:"Then I will definitely wear this dress, and then when they realize I am pretty they will regret not marrying." *cue evil laughter*



Susan: "You know where they will throw you when they call you ugly? They will throw you in heaven."
Ruth: "Awesome."
Susan: "What is heaven again. Is that God."
Ruth: "It's where God lives."
Susan: "And Jesus Christ."


Susan: "Sometimes good people throw you in heaven."
Ruth: "Really?"
Susan: "Sometimes. Only when you're good like good enough."

Susan: "But there's only one prince there and he chuuuu choose Meee!!! Because I have two necklaces and you only have one."
Ruth: "Yeah! No surprise there."

Johnny's Birthday and Huge Problem

 Johnny had his birthday and we all had fun with him. He's 19!!

Today we went to fix a leaking outdoor water spigot. We could not shut the water off to it because it is not attached the water main in the house, even though it is only a few feet from the house. We decided to just unscrew quickly and screw in the new part quickly under high pressure. It wouldn't unscrew and when we tried a little more leverage, the pipe broke from underground. Soon water was bubbling up all over the already wet (from the leaking spigot) background, and the the water in the house would not run. It was hard. John and I went and bought new parts while Ruth, Johnny, and Adam kept trying to get something on hand to stop the leak while also bailing water.  Eventually I called a plumber and he told me how to turn the water off from the water meter next to the road. John, Johnny, and Adam got the pipe sawed and somehow the plumbers glue held on the new pipe, even though it was put together under a large puddle of water. There will be more to do. We'll dig it up better after the ground dries and get it glued on better. But, hey, we have running water again in the house, so we know it is holding, and it has been a few hours, so it probably will. 

A Cool Saturday

 

The weather was cool and windy and I sent the kids outside. It has been so hot, they haven't been able to be out as much. They played rough games on the trampoline, and came in bruised and happy.

Gideon wore a metal mixing bowl over his head and walked around bumping into things growling. Later when he found a speckled hen feather, he picked it up and laughed triumphantly. He laughed like that again when he put a sock in a cup of water and no one stopped him.

When Kate asked Susan who the first man on the earth was, she said, "Lehi!" Sam said, "Jesus."

Joseph played rooster today and jumped on people's backs. I had four kids come to me and complain about how Joseph should not be allowed to play bad roosters. 

We had two young hens lay eggs for the first time today. That's exciting. We have 20 hens and we're looking forward to a dozen eggs a day. The older hens aren't laying as much. 

All in all, it was a fine day. 

Scriptures with Sam and Susan

 

Kate told Sam and Susan about Joseph Smith's first vision and his death. Kate told about the devil attacking Joseph Smith. Susan asked who the devil was and Kate explained that who he is and that he does not have a body. Susan said, "Oh, so he's just a head."

Kate asked Sam what Joseph Smith did when the devil came, and Sam said, "He stabbed him!" and made the motion of a sword pushing forward. 

When Kate told about Jesus appearing, Susan said, "Jesus is good. He is kind. He heals people."

When Kate told about Joseph Smith's death, Susan said, "dying is a bad idea."

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Ruth spent about 4 hours making orange chicken for our family because she LOVES orange chicken. 
Now she has a bunch saved for later. 

Failing this Blog

 

I have become a complete blogger failure. I think I am going to start journaling quick daily updates, so that my littlest kids can go back and read about their babyhoods. It would be sad if they had none of that because I got bored and lazy with blogging. 

Here's what I missed over the past month:

Kate had her 21st birthday!

John's brother James and his family

visited for labor day weekend. We went to the beach with them. When they arrived, Sam ran to his room and would not come out. He said it was too scary. Eventually, Sam did come out. I think Ruth succeeded by coaxing him with a cookie. Then Sam played happily and wildly with his cousins. Gideon never got comfortable with company. He stayed very close to me. 

We've now completed 7 weeks of school. 

Gideon mostly clings to me and nurses or follows Sam around. He also usually naps once a day. 

Sam has been a menace sneaking and snooping and getting into his dad's things, Johnny and Adam's things and Rachel, Anya, and Ruth and Kate's things. He has been in trouble a lot over the past couple of weeks. 

Susan is reading her books well and pointing out the words that she knows in other books, so hurrah! She's doing great. She has a two loose teeth on the top front that look crooked. 

Arwen's smart and doing great with her schooling. Her one weekness this year is memorizing her multiplication facts. 

Josh is finally reading decently. He wakes up first every morning because most mornings I will let him play a computer game while everyone else sleeps in. 

Joseph has been doing a lot better. He was angry about anything that kept him from playing and computer games, but now he is doing his school and his chores without anger or resentment. 

Anya at 12 and in the 7th grade is a little beauty. She has silky brown hair that goes down past her bottom, dark brown eyes with long thick black eye lashes and regular soft features. I think it's good she is homeschooled. Anya doesn't argue about her school work, but she will cry if she makes a mistake.
Rachel likes to complain about school, particularly math. But she is in geometry and doing well with it. She gets her problems right. While reading T.S. Eliot's "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock," she said, "I just hate thinking!" 

Adam and I are actually doing pre-calculus together because I need to relearn it. John is our teacher. I have to be able to do the same math as my kids and pre-cal is where I really forgot a lot. Adam's doing all right. He is great with all of his other topics, but he really needs to learn to think about math more, and frankly, so do I.

My grown up kids are doing well. Ruth and I got another book put out and we will have another one finished to sell for the Christmas season. 

Now, hopefully, I'll be able to get some daily updates and we will be able to get our pictures fixed. 

This Week at Our House #32 #33 #34

 

We started school. We've done school and nothing more. It's time consuming, so this blog has been neglected. 

After three weeks, here's my report:

Adam is in the 10th grade. He gets everything right except for math. He struggled with math for the first two weeks, after that he seemed to 'get it'.  He did well on his test. 

Rachel is in the 9th grade. She's doing reasonably well with everything. She pretty much doesn't like to do any of it, and she's slow about it. 

Anya is in the 7th grade. She does her work. She complains a little and cries a lot. She gets her work done in a timely manner. She gets embarrassed when she gets something wrong. Her writing is good and interesting. Her drawing is really, really good. 

Joseph is in 7th grade too. I have had him a year a head since his second year of homeschool. He rushes through things. He's a fast reader and a fast writer. While Joseph is generally interested in things, he acts like he doesn't like school. 

Joshua is in the 4th grade. Josh is reading on level, though slow, so that is good. I can tell when he does not pay attention to what he is reading because he struggles through every word. If he pays attention to his reading, then he reads smoothly. His tracking is still troubled, though. We work through that by using book marks. Josh does well with math. He doesn't need me to read things for him in his workbooks anymore. 

Arwen is in the 3rd grade and an excellent reader. She's smart and picking things up quickly. She loves language arts and learning hard words and big words. She doesn't like memorizing math facts, but she's finally remembering them. 

Susan is in the first grade. For the most part, she likes doing her school work. After three weeks, I would say that she is coming along nicely with reading. But, we'll see. She doesn't really get how to sound words out yet, but she does memorize words and passages with ease. At first, I thought her curriculum was going to be too hard. I slowed down with her and that made a big difference. She's doing well with math. Kate saw her adding on her fingers while just laying around talking to herself. 

Samuel loves to learn and demands learning time. He's doing starfall and counting and tracing. He already knows some of the alphabet, and a few numbers. He counts to 5 by himself and 10 with help. Sam likes the structure of school. He keeps his school things neat and organized. He also spends a lot of time looking at books. He's a very curious 3 year old. 

Gideon, also known as gettingin, takes the busy lesson time and reseatches every nook and cranny, drawer and shelf. He particularly likes electrical and computer related devices as well as tools and coins. 

On the whole, I think we've had a good start to the school year. 

Ruth has almost finished putting the children's book that she and I have been doing together. She is in the process of getting the cover to work. She has put it up on amazon to see the preview and is working through the changes. 

I am going to start a book of children's poetry next, and get Kate to illustrate it. Ruth is working on the illustrations for a Christmas story, the birth of Christ children's book that I wrote and will need to edit and clean it up. I am working with 16 other poets from around the world to get a poetry book printed together. Our deadline is going to be in September, so I think we'll have it out in October. I need to get thinking about cover design and construction. 

Kate and Johnny definitely keep busy. 

My garden is producing. I have a large watermelon sitting on the bar from my garden now and many more still ripening. I have new plants planted and many things all the way harvested, like the butternut squash. The tomato bush is aging, but I have several offshoots from that plant now producing fruit. I have basil growing in 3 different places and peppermint in two different places. The parsley and oregano are doing well, but the lavender, thyme, and rosemary didn't make it through the summer's heat. Cucumbers, acorn squash, and split peas are young plants and should harvest in October. Deer have been into my watermelon and cantaloupe patches. They've eaten two cantaloupes and four or five watermelon, beside trampling down a lot of the melon leaves. I look forward to the young hens and ducks laying eggs.