This Week at Our House # 15 Ducklings, Chicks, and 5hr. Church

We are now required to go to the ward the church put our home in, which is an hour away, until we get permission from the first presidency. So church will take us 5 hours now. We are deciding whether or not our situation merits the attention of the first presidency. There are two other buildings about half the distance. When I made the drive to the grocery stores, I decided to make a stop at the tractor supply store to see if they had chicks and ducklings. They did. Kate bought us 3 rouen ducklings and 5 chicks. 2 chicks died in less than 24 hours. All the rest of the birds seem healthy, friendly, and adjusting well to the kids.

1. John had about an hour job interview on Tuesday. They said they may take a while getting back to him as they had several candidates. John thought the interview went well, but who knows. Certainly we are praying several times a day for John to get a job. Additionally, John has continued to work through the nights and most of the day getting his first phone game developed. I think he will be done soon. Then he will continue to develop more.
2. John and I started a 2 week vegan diet to lose some weight. I lost 10 pounds the last time I did this. I am hoping to lose another 10. John hates this, but is sticking to it even when the kids are eating big homemade hamburgers and salmon.
3. President Nelson and Elder Holland visited Ruth's mission this past week. We look forward to hearing from her about this tomorrow or Tuesday.
4. Kate is in mother bird heaven again with her ducklings. She has been asking for duckling since she was 12, but it wasn't until we moved to our little home that we could get them. Kate has been missing her baby sparrow for a year and these little ducklings have made her very happy.
5. Johnny and Adam dug up several buckets and bins of dirt, carried them across the yard and filled in all of the holes on the shed floor to help us prepare the shed to become a chicken coop. Johnny hated the work, but he did it without complaint.
6. Sam loves Adam. Adam carries him around and takes him on walks around the yard and Sam sees Adam as his buddy. Sometimes Sam wants Adam over me.
7. Rachel had her first day of young womens. There were only beehives there because all the older girls were called into the ward counsel meeting. Rachel enjoyed the beehive class. I think she particularly enjoyed having no boys.
8. We had state testing to meet the state homeschool requirements this past week and Anya scored really well in everything except spelling which surprised me since they are timed tests and she is slow with math and doesn't always pay attention to what she reads. But it is nice to know she is keeping up ahead of her grade.
9. Joseph liked testing better than regular school. I didn't have to nag him at all. At the end of it, he said he liked it better.
10. Joshua has been playing with Susan a lot. He also gets after her a lot. He is always correcting her and trying to punish her.
11. Kate drew two girls on the same page. One had short hair and plain clothes and another with long hair and a fancy dress. Arwen looked at them, pointed the the fancy one and said, "That is me." Then she pointed to the other one and said, "That's just ugly, Kate." Arwen has been drawing pictures of ducks and taking them to Kate to see what she thinks.
12. Susan pointed at her baby picture and said, "It's Lila." A couple of days later, she looked into the mirror and said, "I see Lila."
13. Sam fell on his face. He came to me crying and I held him and rocked him. When he got down, he walked a few steps faked falling down and came right back to me for comfort. Another time, Sam climbed up behind me, grabbed my hair and then fell back. I screamed "ouch". He rolled over and laughed hard.

Pictures

Since we moved away from Utah, I have had to get good at making Mexican food. This is one of John's last big meals before our diet.

We are loving these flowering bushes. Sometimes we see humming birds eating from the flowers.

This is Sam saying cheese. I love it when my babies make this face for the camera.