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I Made a Good Change

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 I didn't want to write last week because I felt too whiny. "Our days are hard." "I don't want to do any school." "What are we going to do?" "Everyone fights everything I ask them to do!" "There's no joy in our journey right now." I didn't want to fill a whole post with those feelings in my mind as I wrote. So I made a change. I worked hard to get the kids outside for many weeks, but the effort was exhausting and then the time change came. I love regular time, when the cold evenings are dark early, and we can gather around as a family together. But my children are bigger. It was this past year that my little boys turned into big boys. Three of them grew about a foot and put on lots of man-to-be weight. They take up so. much. room. I've been treating everyone as if they were old enough and ready to do more studying and less playing. But they're huge, and they're still kids. If I reduce all of their ages by 3
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The Week Rose Red's Dog Bit Me!

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 He's the sweetest giant baby of a dog. He loves me, and I feed him tidbits of bacon fat or chicken skin when he happens to be upstairs in my kitchen. He's 80 lbs of pure muscle, and he's quite scary when he's barking at a stranger, but he's never been anything but sweet to me. He knew I was in the room, I'd made eye contact with him and spoken to him with the baby voice I usually use with him when I entered the room.  I sat down to sew for half an hour, and then it was time to get the kids up for the day.  I spoke to him again, stood right next to him, and scratched the base of his neck.   He flinched, snarled, and bit my hand simultaneously. I yelled at him, and he ran into Rose Red's room. I think he knew he'd been bad. But I was bleeding and hurting, and I didn't want to be near him, so I went upstairs to tell Sir Walter Scott and wash the wounds with soap and water. Stitches might have been a good idea for the deepest cut on my wrist because it
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So Much Love in a Single Week!

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 After turning her life over to to full-time service for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 18 months, Belle is home again. We spent the day of her return making posters. This is the working draft of the candy poster we made.  The final poster included Hershey's Kisses at the end, and we circled or blocked out words on the treats as needed to help the message be easier to read. And then she finally arrived! (Our joy sure brought joy to lots of other people in the airport.) She brought home presents for everyone! He has collected spoons from new places for years.  They're getting harder to find, though, and he's waaaaay delighted to have one from Aruba. I love the excitement on Nature Angel's face! She said, "Now I have 2 pieces of original art from up-and-coming artists!  I bought the first one at the Art Walk I went to a few weeks ago, and now this one!" This is a reversible doll in beautiful Carribbean dress. The dolly has beads in her hair,
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