This Week at Our house #14 and #15

I'm two weeks out again. We've finished most of the school year. We have three weeks to go. Hurrah!! We celebrated Rachel's 14th birthday. The apocalypse continues with news and rulings growing faster than weeds. We've been staying home and isolated, which is what the cool kids do now, so that's weird. The kids have missed trips to the store and to the beach, but have enjoyed the raising ducklings, spring weather, Smash Brothers, board games, out door games, art and more.

1. Ruth's book is up on Amazon. I think it took 20 hours to get the formatting to work with Amazon'd printed book standars, but she persevered and it's a beautiful finished product. I'm so excited to advertise it. Now she will finish the pictures for my book.

2. I stopped at the Pumpkin Center to see if they had older hens. They did not. But the had mallards. I brought Kate home a present of 3 baby mallards and she is in mother duck heaven, holding them, and feeding them, and taking them out to play.

3. Johnny's been working on his stuff, initiating lots of outdoor games and exercise and staying up til sunrise discussing scriptures with John.

4. Adam's finishing off his schooling and learning how to run hard. He's strong, but not a runner, so this is a challenge for him. But he's taken it on.

5. Rachel turned 14!! She looks like she is 12, but that is actually good news for her growth because when she turned 12, she looked like she was 8. Rachel woke up at 8am on her birthday to get the most of the day. She is working on illustrations for a cute little imagery little girl story, I wrote about Susan. She's doing all right.

6. Anya is drawing the pictures and coloring them via computer for one of my favorite kid poems. I'm very excited about this one. Anya is one talented artist for a 12 year old. I am excited to see what she can do at 18.

7. Joseph's done with school even though he is not done. He acts like he cannot stand another day of school. But I keep him going. Three more weeks and he is free and can relax and rejuvenate his boyishness. He started making a fort this week, while I made an outdoor pen for the duckling.

8. I am so pleased with how Joshua's doing with school. I look back at what he could do last August and what he can do today and I rejoice in his success.

9. Arwen Eve's a little gem. She is smart and funny and doing so well in everything. Johnny and Adam were saying how she's way too advanced on the computer. She doesn't need help. She figures things out quickly.

10. Suzy's enjoying the gorgeous spring flowers and the ducklings and the sand. She plays all day. She has almost finished all of her kindergarten work. I will get her started on reading little by little over summer break, and she will go full into reading lessons in August when we begin our new school year.

11. Sam's pacifiers have all been broken and we have all learned that Sam actually talks. We have a new voice and new opinions in the family and that's nice.

12. Gideon, at 14 months climbs out of his crib. He walked at 9 months, but I didn't expect this new development. He is an adorable little terror, into everything and interested in everything. He is surprisingly gentle with the ducklings.