Hi Y'all!

This is a big THANK YOU to my Aunt Babs, who sent the girls these adorable socks for Valentine's Day. They were thrilled with them, and they promptly put them on OVER their tights (ever the fashion-forward girls) for the rest of the day.


This has been Adah's hair-do for the last two weeks. I can BARELY put it up into two puffballs, but they are adorable. She likes them because we can change ribbons or barrettes to match the outfit. She's a pro at smiling for the camera even when the camera isn't even on her face. :)



The rest of the pics are from our wonderful neighbor's Valentine's Day party. Obviously, I'm not the best photographer, and the kids were too busy playing to pose for me. These aren't the "organized" shots where we were doing Kindermusik activities, making adorable crafts, or eating chocolate cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies. The kids had a wonderful time, and I met another homeschooling mom in the neighborhood (too bad we're moving!!). Do you see the baby slings that Cora and Shiloh are wearing? Aren't they cute? My friend Kelly made me one for Nathaniel and then decided to make Abigail and Shiloh miniature versions for their birthdays. Cora borrowed Abigail's for her doll Susanna. (Or, as Cora still calls her four years later, "Zuzanna")
































So here's something strange. Apparently the word out there is that we're the parents of SIX children. Yep, I had one of "those" moments today. I was just thinking about nothing in particular when: Wait a minute! I have six children? How did THAT happen? (Okay, obviously, folks, I know HOW it happened - these were rhetorical questions to myself). Then I told myself to get a grip before the kids started noticing that I was acting weird. And then I smiled because it's just been a great day to be a mom to all these wonderful kids. Sure, Nathaniel threw a temper tantrum at lunch, Jackson spilled an entire cup of water that he was trying to prepare for his brother, Abigail and Adah continued their ongoing Chutes and Ladders feud and took it to new heights with Uno, and Shiloh got a little emotional during Latin (Latin?? How in the world does that make you emotional? I can understand math, but Latin?), but even WITH all that...it's a good day. They're all here, they're all healthy, they're all happy, and life is good. We are seriously, abundantly blessed. And apparently Cora is my favorite child today since I couldn't think of an example of evildoing for her, but wait...there's a funny story coming...
Cora had a spelling test today and after she wrote her second word, I told her that the words needed to be in cursive. So she went back to erase the other words, concentrated on getting the cursive correct and was preparing to write her third word when she looked up and said, "So, does it matter if the words are spelled correctly?" Um, yeah. It's a spelling test, sweetie. She's not naturally blonde, but she sure does act like it sometimes.

And the BEST PIECE OF NEWS FOR LAST! We got Adah's and Nathaniel's readoption paperwork in the mail the other day! They are officially Adah Resilia Houseworth and Nathaniel Erickson Houseworth, U.S. citizens. They will be issued North Carolina birth certificates, although the birth certificates will say they were born overseas (it sure is easier to have those than to try to track down Haitian birth certificates when they need them in the future!). We are DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE with the mountain of paperwork that has plagued our very lives since August of 2005. We have been encouraged to get Certificates of Citizenship for them, but since those are a whopping $420 per child, we're waiting until we have their social security cards and then we'll just get their passports. Much easier and less expensive.

Well, I'm going to prepare our schooling for tomorrow. We're pretty strict around here, what with actually expecting the kids to spell things correctly for their spelling tests, so I better stay on top of things.

Love,
Casey

Phew! Part Deux

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post! Apparently I can homeschool, hang out with the kids, keep up with laundry, make meals, and blog, but I can't do all that AND show the house to try to sell it, so something had to go. That one thing threw me all off; it's kicking my booty. The kids are grateful that making meals didn't get thrown off the list. :) Actually, I COULD blog and do all that, but I actually like having a conversation with my husband over a cup of tea in the evenings so that we can catch up. (Now that he's actually OUT AT WORK now. Bummer.)

So the previous paragraph was just to say that HEY! I've missed you. I've missed blogging and sharing our precious kiddos with you. I had big plans to post about the rollerskating birthday party we had for Abigail and Shiloh, but when I got to the rink, my camera was chastising me: "Change Batteries!" Ugh. I'm waiting on a friend to email me some pictures that she took. If I waited until then to blog, though, it might be another two weeks before I get around to it. Right now the house is REALLY quiet, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to write. Daniel has taken the girls to see "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" at our cheapo movie theater, and the boys are napping. It's weird to have the house this quiet. I love how full of life our house is, and I can't imagine that someday it might be this quiet all the time. (Well, not ALL the time - the grandkids will be hanging out and making noise!) Sometimes my ears are ringing when the kids are finally in bed at night, but having grown up with my sister Kira, I'm used to loud. HA! (You have to admit it's true, Mom.)

So...the State of the Household. Trying to sell a house right now really stinks. That's honesty for you. I know I stress the kids out right before a showing because I'm so particular about how it needs to look. And yet they put up with me anyway and pitch in wherever they can. They're earning money for vacuuming, a chore I don't usually have them do because it's still a little much for them. Shiloh likes feeling grown-up, though, so she happily volunteers. Nathaniel doesn't like the vacuum, although he's much better now because we've been vacuuming so often. Adah and Abigail do things at their level like cleaning the windows from Roscoe slime. :) We've had 7 showings in two weeks, so that's a pretty good amount. No offers yet. We've set up temporary housing in San Antonio, which turned out to be a bigger problem than we thought because of our family size. :) The relocation specialists who are supposed to be helping us said that they couldn't put us in a 3 bedroom apartment because their regulations stipulate only two children per bedroom. Has anybody ever heard this? I mean, I understand the regulations if someone is trying to cram three families and their relatives in an apartment, but a single family with small children? I thought it was weird. We found a place on our own that has no problem with our family size. Daniel has his physical on the 13th and then we'll get orders to start the whole process. We're praying we'll sell the house before we leave, but we have two months of temporary housing paid for in San Antonio if we don't.

Despite showings hanging over our heads, we've been getting our regular schooling done, and I'm enjoying re-learning (or learning as the case may be) Roman history with the two older girls. Abigail is doing really well in math, which is always surprising for one of our offspring. Adah is reading simple books and re-learning her numbers in English. It's so nice that she can already read! For some reason, that's the biggest hurdle in my mind when it comes to teaching the kids. So when I discovered that she could read, I immediately thought, "Wow! I only have two more to teach to read!" :) I LOVE to teach them to read; I just automatically assume that I can't do it proficiently enough. Ah...the guilt of a homeschooling mom. If your child can't read, you can't blame it on another teacher!

Adah Tomata ("Tuh-may-tuh"), as she is now known, is doing exceptionally well (Daniel calls her this, and then she responds with "Papa Potata!"). She is speaking so much more English these days, and she finds ingenious ways to explain things to us when we don't understand. She's curious about everything, and she's game for anything. She LOVED rollerskating, although she decided after about 2 minutes on the real skates that she wanted the little kid skates that Jackson had on. She definitely has a zest for life. Our biggest hurdle with her is dealing with her entitlement mindset. If she wants it, she feels she deserves to have it. It's hard to explain, because it's not a grabby, 2 year-old mindset where she's going around taking things. It's more sophisticated than that. It's a "you shall cater to my wants whenever I have wants and whatever those wants are." If she wants your attention, she wants it now and will sulk if she doesn't get it. If she perceives that she's been treated unfairly, then she will sulk. If she doesn't like the dress she's wearing that day, she will comment, "I like that dress" and point to one of her sister's dresses. In other words, she's just a sinner like the rest of us. :) She is getting SO much better, though, and we are heartened by the progress we've seen just in the two months she's been home. She went to bed unhappy last night over being corrected for something, and she didn't want any goodnight kisses or hugs. We told her we loved her, blew her kisses, and told her we'd be there whenever she was ready for hugs and kisses. We went back in a few minutes later and she put her arms up for hugs. YEA! That's good progress. If we had had any Moose Tracks, we would have celebrated. (SOMEbody ate the last bit we had. Oh, wait. That might have been me.)

Nathaniel is 99.99% recovered from his surgery. It's amazing how quickly those little bodies recover! He is also full of life aka VERY LOUD. I remember this age with all the kids when they would say, "Mommy?" and I would answer, "Yes, __________," and they would proceed to babble for a couple of sentences. Then two minutes later, "Mommy?" and I would answer, "Yes, _________." You get the picture. They're not great conversationalists at this age, but they really want to feel connected. :) This happens especially in the van, where I think I hear "Mommy?" an average of fifty times. That could be our fault for living 30 minutes away from everything. :) Nathaniel has been more of a challenge than Adah has been, and I joke that I prayed too hard for Adah and not enough for Nathaniel. :) We certainly thought Adah would be harder to integrate. Nathaniel is learning to trust us, and that comes with a lot of rebellion to see if we're going to respond the same way each time and whether we'll still love him. We are still working on eye contact, and we see a little improvement though we're nowhere near where we'd like to be. He wants affection on his terms, and the boundary between normal two year-old ornery behavior and pushing us away can be hard to see sometimes. We pray for guidance and wisdom, and we love on him all we can. He LOVES chasing games, being thrown up in the air, belly kisses, and tickling. He especially loves it when we tickle his feet. His laugh is addictive, and I can forget what else I'm doing if I'm trying to make him keep laughing. :)

Although this season of the blog is dedicated to the newest Houseworths, I don't want to neglect the others. In that effort, this post will also highlight Abby-dabby-doodle, who just turned 5. Abigail only wanted a mound of frosting - no cake - to celebrate her birthday. Think she has a sweet tooth? :) Abigail is a delight, from her adorable voice to her adorable face. She is also a stinker, and I say that with equal parts frustration and admiration. She is a STRONG personality, which is excellent for being matched with Adah. She and Adah have had some heated games of Chutes and Ladders! :) Both girls are very competitive and VERY persistent. They have played Chutes and Ladders for ONE WHOLE HOUR at a time. It makes my head hurt to play one game of Chutes and Ladders. Abigail is obsessed with being a big girl and doing big girl things. She will never be big, and she must face this fact. :) She is, however, doing big girl things. She rode her bike without training wheels last year at 4 - that's the earliest for our kids. She's reading REALLY well, and she has a knack for math. She helps around the house more than the others did at her age, because she watches them and learns. She's thorough in her tasks, and I appreciate her energetic personality. I look forward to seeing what 5 year-old Abigail will do this year!

Oh, and one more piece of news. Our two lovely young ladies, Shiloh and Cora, will become, Lord willing, full communicant members of the church on Sunday. Shiloh approached Daniel awhile ago and asked if she could take the Lord's Supper. Daniel made sure that her request was sincere and began studying the Lord's Supper with her on Sundays after church. He used Scripture, the catechism, and a book our pastor recommended. Then Cora approached him and asked that she be included in the study because she wanted to take the Lord's Supper as well. We thought they were too young to understand the solemnity of the Lord's Supper and to be able to examine themselves as commanded by Scripture, but they have convinced us otherwise. They were interviewed by our Session two Sundays ago, and the Session agreed to admit them providing they can get up before the congregation on Sunday, respond to the questions put before them, and give a credible profession of faith in their own words. They have both written their "testimonies" and practiced them. Would you pray with us that they (especially Shiloh) will be able to confidently stand before their brothers and sisters in Christ and proclaim their faith before many witnesses? This is a hard thing they're doing, and I am so humbled by the strength of their desire to join with the body of Christ that they are willing to speak before the church. Would my zeal be that great? Hmmm.

That's all for now. I'm going to take advantage of the quiet and read a little, rest a little, and maybe even sleep a little. :)

Love to all-
Casey