Rachel SleepTalking

 
In her sleep Ruth and Kate her Rachel say, "It's annoying. I want to kill someone," she paused, and then said, "in the video game."

Almost Finished

 So we've had two birthdays. Adam's 16th and Sam's 4th. I asked Sam how old he is now, and he said, "I am big."

I will need to get pictures and collages finished for those before I write about their birthdays.

We've completed another week of school. We have one more to go. Most of the kids have done well and are ready for a break. I have three kids that have not finished the things that they're required to finish, so I will make them do another full week of school, with what they have not finished plus other educational things.

My three oldest kids were all very serious about their school work, about learning and improving their skills. Adam and Rachel have been the opposite and their attitudes are extending to the younger kids. I have debated about what to do and believe that it is best to enforce their education even if they're against reading and learning. I had a sister who never tried in school and when she was older and had no talents and no intelligence, she blamed my parents for not forcing her to do what she should have done. 

I put our broken washer out on the back deck. We broke the lock on the door, so that no one can ever be shut in. At first the kids used it to spin around in. Now the cats use it to sleep in at night, and the chickens use it to lay their eggs in during the day. It's not uncommon to go outside and see 3 or 4 eggs sitting on an old pillow inside the broken washing machine. I probably would have taken it to the metal recycling place soon, but I think I will keep it longer for the animals. 

Gideon Tales

 
Gideon, when he was quite tired and in need of a nap, walked up to me, slapped my hand and said, "you bad, mom." I scooped him up and rocked him to sleep and then I think I came back into grace with him. 

At midnight, when Gideon couldn't sleep, he sat in bed with me watching a 1980's version of The Secret Garden with me. At one point, it showed a man and a woman kiss. Gideon immediately turned to me, took my face in both of his baby hands and kissed my lips tenderly. It was very sweet and I tried not to laugh.

The Last Two Weeks

Well time sure flies! October is over. 2020 is coming to an end. We have the Christmas tree sitting out in the sun airing and preparing to bring it in for the season. Since Sam, in the past, called Christmas and Swiss Miss both miss miss, we've decided to make him a "miss miss tree" We're going to hand swiss miss packets and candy canes on it. 

We've finished 13 weeks of school, so we have 3 more to go before Christmas break, and everyone is still doing well and hanging in there with very little stress. I think these three weeks will go better than

The weather has been beautiful and cool. We had a two day wind storm. The air was hot, humid, and heavy, and the wind was fierce. The trees went from mostly full of their leaves to half empty. The first day reminded me of the morning before hurricane Florence in 2018. I have no idea what caused the windstorm. Cool air blew in the next day and now it is calm and cool. I checked the weather and it is supposed to get close to freezing over night tonight, so yesterday, I cut down all of my basil and dried it. That took several hours and the family was patient with me and my giant armfuls of basil. 

I planted some basil clippings in the house and the garage and some tomato clippings in the garage. So far, the basil in the house looks alive and healthy. I am hoping to keep the same tomato plant going for next year. Only time will tell. I'm trying to learn how to grow things from my own seeds and own clippings so that I do not have to rely on seed companies. 

Ruth's been working long hours on illustrations for my this year's Christmas book, and I think that I need to prepare the Bear Family's Christmas to be put out as a paperback book. 

Little Miss Suzy Q is missing her two front teeth, which is adorable. Though she has told me recently that she does not like Suzy Q, only Susan. Sigh, but I love that my little ones have their own cute personalities and feel free to tell me what they think.

We don't really celebrate Halloween anymore, but we did have a giant bowl of candy and two fun movies to watch as a family. Oddly enough, I didn't feel too attacked by my little ones. Often, I hate family movies because the little kids climb over me again and again and cry and whine the whole. Plus, they're messy. Last night was much more pleasant than that. 

Since I Last Posted

 John turned 49!!! When we got married at 21 and 25, 50 seemed incredibly old. I can't believe it is at our doorstep. 

I turned 45. I am halfway to 90 years old now. So much has happened in my lifetime, thus far, particularly with a lot of change in the past 5 years. I cannot imagine what society will look like in another 45 years if it continues on its current course. 

We've completed 11 weeks of school. So we've only 5 to go before our holiday vacation.

The fall weather has been 100% enjoyable. The leaves are changing, and it is time to get the basil dried before we have a frost. 

I finally got the van fixed. The engine light has been on since last December. So far, it is driving a whole lot better. 

The washing machine wouldn't drain. We fixed that and then it completely failed. It kept stopping and putting up a systems failure code. We tried a few things to see if that was wrong. But it wasn't it. 24 hours later, it had no power. We used Lowes to buy a new one because they have a section on their website to shop only for available models. We were able to purchase a new machine, pick it up, bring it home, and set it up all in the same day. It's a top loader with the agitator and it does not clean as well as my last two front loaders, but it won't have the door lock problems and we'll get used to it. The agitator does fluff up our towels a lot more, so we have both softer towels and more lint. 

We went to the beach for probably our last swimming trip until the spring. It was gorgeous, sunny, warm, and the kids said that the waves were so calm that it was like swimming in a lake. They really had a good time in the water. 

Gideon has been extra clingy. I can't leave the room without him getting upset. He'll go to Ruth for comfort, and he'll go on walks with John, but those are the only other people he goes to willingly without me right there.

Bizarre Susan Conversation

 Susan came up to me. With her finger she drew a line down her forehead, down her nose and all the way down her chest. Then she said, "If you get cut in half, you will die."

I said, "yes, Susan, but that's disgusting."

Susan continued, "Your heart will be split apart and it will stop working, and blood will be everywhere."

I said, "Yes, Susan blood would be everywhere, but this is gross and you know that death is sad."

Susan then said, "But if you cut off an arm, you will bleed, but you will live.  BUT, you will be like, 'hey, I can't play Minecraft.'"

Miracle

I had a miracle this week. 4 weeks ago, I started to miscarry at 8 weeks pregnant. I am sure it was a molar pregnancy as I had pregnancy stuff, but no baby. I bled steadily for 3 weeks and then it mostly stopped. On Wednesday afternoon, I started bleeding fast and a lot. After a couple of runs to the bathroom, I started collecting what was coming out of me. I caught about 20 ounces of blood in three hours, and that doesn't count the time spent in the shower or the 8 large filled pads or the other stuff earlier. It was clear that I was hemorrhaging. John gave me a priesthood blessing, and it slowed down immediately. I had no more blood clots come out from that moment on. I never passed out or had any symptoms other than losing about 7% of my blood. I know that I was healed through the power of the priesthood.