A Beautiful Day and Picture Catch up

 We've had some beautiful weather!

November Birthdays

 Happy Birthday, Sam!!!! This sweet little boy is 4!!! When I ask him how old he is, Sam says, "I'm big now!" Sam has a big heart. He's sweet and kind and gentle. He likes building houses with blocks riding the mini coop and plasma car my parents got for Sam and Gideon, the color green, penguins, cutting, gluing, and painting, and playing outside. 

Happy Birthday, Adam!!!! Adam is 16 and good and mature. He works hard everyday and he is conscientious about how he acts and what he reads and watches. Adam is honorable and dependable. I can tell him to do something and he does it and does it well. Adam likes drawing, Japanese, computer games, and wrestling and sword fighting with his brothers. Adam would like to date, but that's not going to happen quite yet. 

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.