Procrastination

You know that place where you feel like you won't ever get caught up unless you don't sleep for 108 hours straight and so you don't attempt anything because of the sheer weight of inertia?
Yeah, that's where I am.
Sorry, folks. I'll try to overcome my need for sleep and get my pictures organized once and for all.
In the meantime, here's a few from our trip to the pumpkin farm a MONTH AGO. *sigh* (This is the pumpkin farm where, ironically, we came home without any pumpkins. But a good time was had by all.)
Love,
Casey

Blast From the Past (2)

I'm organizing pictures online, and I'm enjoying the stroll down memory lane. So I thought I'd post a few for y'all to enjoy.
Note - I am not organizing pictures this far back, thankfully; otherwise, I'd be rocking back and forth in the fetal position. I just got sidetracked and wasted about half an hour looking through old photos.
More recent photos to come when I've organized them, like our trip to the pumpkin patch.
Love,
Casey

This first photo is of Shiloh when we visited Wimpole Hall and Home Farm in England for lambing season. It was our first experience with the weird picnicking habits of the Brits. Do you see that Shiloh is wearing a hat and coat? Yeah. We ate outside, along with all the other Brits who brought their little thermoses (sp?) of tea and their Marmite sandwiches. We were freezing, and it was all very strange.This picture of Cora is also from England at the playground on RAF Alconbury. She still has that same wide smile and friendly, cheerful eyes. We went to the playground the other day, and some kids from an after school program were outside. I helped Nathaniel with his bike, looked around to find Cora and said, "Where's Cora?" Shiloh pointed to where Cora had just found a new friend and was letting her borrow her bike. That's my Cora.The next picture is Abigail looking cute in Florida in an outfit made by friends from England (I seem to have picked a theme here). The other girls have now decided that Abigail will be the one to ask Daddy things because she makes "the cute eyes" at him. And breaking news on Abigail: she just caught her first fish on the farm in Tennessee. And so far she's watched two deer being gutted with nary a grimace. She's a tough, cute chick.Look at Jackson's cute jammies! He had the roundest face of all of them besides Cora. He was 3 months old in this picture. Now he's four and riding his bike without training wheels. I'm old.

This is our update picture from May of 2006 when we thought we'd be going to pick up the kids about two months later. Little did we know it would be another year and a half before we would pick them up. I missed all of Nathaniel's babyhood and seeing the last of Adah's toddlerhood, but God somehow redeemed that time and is making it all work for our good. It's amazing how He does that!It's great to have these adorable reminders that we only have our children in our homes for such a short amount of time -a blip, really. At least it seems like it as we age. :) As we are about to hit birthday season around here, it's a reminder to me to love on 'em all I can!

Wonder Twin Powers - Activate!

So here's what I've discovered since Daniel took Adah and Abigail to Tennessee on the hunting trip/visit to grandparents. NOW I know where all the noise comes from in the house! All this time I thought the boys made the most noise, or maybe it was the combination of all six kids, but NOOOO! It's Adah and Abigail! It's been so incredibly quiet since they left Saturday. Sure, the boys create louder outbursts, but for sustained noise level, you can't beat the twin chatterboxes of Adah and Abigail.

And I actually miss it. :(

Better Late Than Never From the Guest Blogger

As Casey has pointed out on numerous occasions, life in the Houseworth household never seems to slow down. As a result, over a week later I am finally adding an entry on my fantastic road trip with the kids while Casey was at an OPC ladies retreat.

On Friday morning, October 10th, we packed our picnic lunch and and an extra change of clothes for everyone into the van, said farewell to Casey, gave Adah her Dramamine pill (her stomach really, really does not like windy roads), and headed over the Blue Ridge Mountains and into the Shenandoah Valley. The day was perfect with clear skies and the temperature hovering in the high 70s.

PART I

Our first stop was the Natural Bridge Zoo (http://www.naturalbridgezoo.net/). Many of you who have traveled up and down I-81 have seen the signs for it. The Zoo has the largest animal petting area in Virginia, and from my experience, it had the most animals in one place I've ever been able to pet and feed (excluding the mountain lions, Bengal tigers, etc., of course). It's not a fancy zoo like those found in large cities because it is actually a wildlife propagation facility that is also a functioning zoo and education facility. Daddy's only rule for the zoo: "DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE AFTER YOU TOUCH THE ANIMALS, ESPECIALLY NOT YOUR MOUTH! I DON'T CARE HOW BADLY YOU ITCH!" Needless to say, I kept a bottle of hand sanitizer in the little pocket on my shorts where I usually keep my cell phone.

My parents used to raise a lot of goats on their farm in Tennessee, but theirs certainly weren't as "friendly" as these. It reminds me of the time in Florida when we had a "hurricane proof," tinted film put on the windows just after moving into our new house. The man doing the work saw Cora watching him and asked, "so, what do you want to be when you grow up?" Cora, four at the time and fondly remembering her trip to the farm two months earlier, responded very matter-of-factly, "I want to be a mother and raiser of goats." She still wants to be a mother, but I'm not sure goats remain part of her life master plan.

The pig pen was right next door to the goat yard. How does something as cute as these piglets turn into such an ugly beast?! One whiff of the pigs and you can understand why it takes a very "special" person to raise pigs.

One animal you don't find in most zoos is the guinea pig. They had three big wash/feed tubs full of guinea pigs. Even better, there were at least a dozen babies. The tubs were located under the overhang for the snake exhibit. Convenient, perhaps? This was definitely the kids' favorite exhibit as it required a return trip before we left the zoo. There was a for sale sign over the tubs, and the kids did ask if we could buy one to take home. Recalling the marital strife barely averted when I brought home Prince Caspian the beta fish, I chose to honor my better half's wishes to limit the number of pets we'd have to find temporary homes for when we take trips.

In spite of the camel's poor reputation, these juvenile camels were quite docile and seemed to enjoy being fed and pet.
The adult camel, on the other hand, did not appreciate being ignored and decided to use Shiloh's skirt as a hanky when it blew it's nose. Needless to say, this camel did not receive as much attention as the other animals!

The zoo brochure shows a picture of and advertises riding an elephant. Unfortunately, the day of our visit they were not doing rides, so we had to settle for a group photo instead.

I think this particular buck in the fallow deer pen could sense I was less than a month away from my annual hunting trip to my parents' farm. He didn't mind the kids trying to feed him, but when I got close, he tried to gut me through the fence with his rather large rack. I could certainly understand his anxiety as I was day dreaming about monster, multi-point racks. Then again, his species is native to Europe, and while he may have been able to strut and posture while behind the fence, were the fence removed he would have had to raise a white flag and surrender (ah, fond memories of our time living in the UK where they fondly refer to the French as the cheese eating surrender monkeys...) . This also reminds me of my "successful" hunt three years ago when I returned home with a 7-point rack. The kids were excited to see it, but when I showed it to them, one of them responded with, "it's not very big, Daddy..." What do kids know anyway, right?! Man, it still smarts a little after all these years...

It's a good thing I had that bottle of hand sanitizer after we feed the giraffe. Do you have any idea how big their tongues are?!?

This particular llama had issues with "personal space." Thankfully, in spite of its size and need for instant gratification (i.e., "FEED ME."), the llama was quite gentle and content to be pet.

The miniature donkeys were pretty much the most docile of all the animals. I briefly thought about sticking one of them in the back of the van. I really hate mowing our half acre with a push mower, and this guy would have a great life tethered in our front yard! To cap off the first leg of the day, we had a nice picnic lunch in front of the Bengal tiger exhibit. You can barely see the tigers because they were a pretty lazy lot. There are three of them, and they spent the entire time we were at the zoo sleeping - two of them on their backs!

PART II

Our next stop was Lexington, home of The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) as well as the historic house of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (United States Military Academy Class of 1846 and the man for whom our Jackson is named); this was his home when he taught at VMI.

We parked next to the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery on Main Street and walked down to the end of the Downtown Central Business District (a registered national landmark) and back, enjoying the beautiful Fall weather. Unfortunately, the way back was all up hill and the Fall weather was more like Summer with the sun beating down on us, but the children were troopers. Halfway down the street is the County Courthouse, and I could not resist taking a picture of the kids on the old piece of towed artillery.

When we got back to our starting point, we wandered around the cemetery, reading the old headstones. The girls were particularly taken be the number of ladies named Elsie since we've been reading the 19th century Elsie Dinsmore series for some time now. At Stonewall Jackson's burial site the girls were aghast seeing the lemons someone had thrown at the foot of his statue. I then explained to them that this was actually a sign of respect. During the U.S.-Mexican War of 1846-48, Jackson was introduced to citrus fruits and acquired a taste for them that remained with him the rest of his life.

After the museum we then headed over to VMI (the nation's first state-supported military college dating to November 11, 1839) to get a parking space and good seats to watch the cadets' Friday dress parade. It turned out to be Parents' Weekend, so there were a lot of folks watching the parade. We sat next to a gentlemen who was a graduate who explained some of the things we saw. He, along with his son, was there to see his grandson who is a first year student and member of the Rat Line. There were several things they do differently than we did (do) at West Point. The first thing you notice is that their Rats (what we call Plebes) are not integrated into the Corps of Cadets but are part of their own battalion during the first year; they aren't even allowed to wear the shako "hat" (we called it a "tar bucket") or the full dress coat (you can see this in the picture below; the cadets on the far right of each line are upperclassmen).

The next thing you notice is the Brigade Band which is made up of Cadets (at West Point, the "Hell Cats" are all active duty soldiers), and even better, they have a Pipes and Drums Corps as part of the band. It really added to the pomp and circumstance of the parade. The final difference I appreciated the most was the entire Corps fixing bayonets on the parade field; I was quite impressed watching them. My pride in my alma mater was restored, however, when I noticed that at VMI they did not have the courage to attempt the wheeling maneuvers we did at USMA. Ah, the not so fond memories of the multiple passes and reviews on Drill Days ... The kids thoroughly enjoyed watching the parade, and we all agreed we'd have to go back and see another one and definitely bring mommy with us. I know Casey too has fond memories of Drill and Ceremony at West Point. After all, unlike her husband, Casey had the added bonus of having to walk area tours a couple of weekends for missing class. Area tours were (are still?) USMA's way of taking away the only thing you already didn't have enough of - time. She got to parade around in Dress Gray under arms for 10 hours over two weekends. Did I mention I never walked any area tours? Oh, yeah, I did, didn't I.

We capped off the day with dinner out. And where do you think we went? Why Cracker Barrel of course; where else?! It was even Friday night fish fry, so I got to have fish and chips (it's not like Barney's Plaice - get it, "Plaice?" - back in Huntingdon, England, but it'll do). I think we cleaned the place out of popcorn shrimp and lemonade. Shiloh and Adah got to have their cornbread, so all was right in the world.

It's not often that Casey's away, and I have all the kids to myself. Believe it or not, I didn't have to use the entire bottle of hand sanitizer, and no one (including me) had to use the extra change of clothes we brought. We're all looking forward to Mommy's next outing with the ladies to see what kind of road trip Daddy can put together. Until then ....

-Daniel

Thank you!

To all of you who left comments lately - aww! Thank you very much. It makes me smile. :)
So - what's been going on lately...
School is back in full swing, co-op is going well (Shiloh is knitting now, the other girls are in soccer for PE, and Jackson is doing a letter of the week for his "class" - which is great, because I don't like doing "letter of the week" stuff - I just want to get right to reading. :) ). We went to Octoberfest at the Frontier Culture Museum last Saturday and couldn't have asked for a better day. It was gorgeous weather, and the kids enjoyed the oompah music. Adah thought the skits the dancers did were hilarious. Shiloh and Cora (as you can see in the pictures) were wearing their German outfits passed down from a friend in North Carolina, and they fit right in. This weekend is the ladies' retreat through church, next weekend is our church picnic, the following weekend is the pregnancy center banquet, and the following weekend Daniel leaves for Tennessee with Adah and Abigail for his hunting trip. Then the next weekend we're heading to North Carolina for a wedding, and the Tuesday following that Daniel will have shoulder surgery. It turns out that his muscle is starting to separate from his bone due to an injury in Bosnia (yeah - ouch.). Phew. We have a busy couple of weeks planned. In that time period we will also celebrate Adah and Cora's birthdays - which are on the same day! This will be the first birthday that Adah will celebrate at home, and I am so thrilled to celebrate with her.

We passed a milestone yesterday - it was our TEN MONTH anniversary with Adah and Nathaniel. TEN MONTHS they've been home. That seems incredible to me, both because it feels like they've been home forever and because I can't believe how much progress has been made in ten months. I am astounded at the Lord's goodness to us in allowing us to bond so quickly as a family. I expected the worst, I feared the worst, and the Lord has really given us the best. Yes, Nathaniel still has a ways to go, but part of that is just being two. :) My heart broke and broke again as we waited for them to come home, I lost hope along the way, I regained faith in the Lord's timing, and He has been faithful throughout. Adah and Nathaniel, if you read this one day, please know that your mommy and daddy are so very blessed to have you in our lives. You have added your own unique personalities to our crazy mix, and we couldn't have asked for a better fit. As I danced with Nathaniel this evening to Dean Martin and as I listened to Adah and Abigail giggling in the bathtub, I thought, "The Lord has done this." He has made us one big, loud, crazy family. I'm so grateful.
Have a great day and enjoy the FALL!
Love,
Casey
Adah with her best bud. Next to Shiloh, Roscoe likes Adah best. I think he could take or leave any of the others, unless they were being attacked and then he'd protect them. :) The picture below is the way I first found them. It looks like Adah is hypnotized by Roscoe's ears. It's entirely possible - they are strangely soothing.
The picture below shows one of the blessings of Daniel's schedule with every other Monday off...he's helping Jackson with his reading. Jackson felt like a big boy sitting with Daddy.
Abigail Emma with her sleepy face and bedhead. Oh. My. This child is adorable. I had to take a picture. I think I want everyone to grow up except for her.
Oooh - aren't we fancy? :) This was taken by our babysitter the night we went to the opera. Daniel is wearing the tux he bought in London at the last minute as he ran around panicked. It's a long story involving a rental shop that rented him a dirty, smelly tux so he had to find a replacement in three hours. He came back to the hotel room having BOUGHT one. :) At least he's getting some use out of it. We had a simply lovely time - it was a beautiful theater from the 40s, wonderful performances by Renee Fleming, and two champagne receptions during the intermissions. Too bad I got some sort of stomach flu right afterward and had to pull over from driving the babysitter home because I thought I was going to throw up (I didn't - then). I stayed in bed the next day and Daniel took over with piano lessons, co-op, meals, signing kids up for pictures, etc. What a man!
Daniel brought home his grandfather's steel helmet from Pennsylvania, and Jackson is making good use of it. He also brought home another helmet - civil defense - and I looked out the window while making lunch one day to see the girls pelting him with acorns while he just leaned his head down and let them ping off the helmet. How do they think of these things? They just laughed and said, "Well, he was wearing a helmet and sunglasses. He would've been okay." Uh huh. It's all fun and games...
(In the picture above he's actually wearing Daniel's dad's uniform along with his grandfather's helmet - do you think we can sign him up for West Point now?)

The following pictures are from Octoberfest. This might have been the third try to get everyone to look at the camera. :)

It's not traditional to have miniature ponies at Octoberfest celebrations :), but the kids were thrilled to see them anyway. Nathaniel said, "Moo!" when he saw it. I can see we need to work a little more on the animal sounds. Shiloh beamed the ENTIRE time she rode this pony. (Notice the saddle blanket - very German, methinks :) ) Daniel only had ten dollars in cash with him after buying brats and the boys' hats, so we were trying to decide which combination of kiddos could take a ride (the rides were $5 a piece! sheesh - this economy!). We ultimately decided only Shiloh would ride because she's the horse crazy one. All of the kids had been looking longingly into Daniel's eyes waiting for the decision, and we were so proud to see not one of them pouting afterward. They were so happy for Shiloh instead and leaned on the fence to watch her. We were especially proud of Adah, given her history with pouting and her insistence on "fairness" to all. The bystanders were forming a line to dance through the pavilion, and this lady reached out and and beckoned to Jackson. We can't believe he actually went willingly! He danced around with them for the whole song, and I think he even let out a smile at one point.
The kids are grabbing ribbons from a pole. I think Cora is trying to keep Nathaniel from ripping it off, though. :)
I can't remember what this young woman said she was doing, but it's like a miniature loom. What she was making could be used for laces or for embellishment on her gown. They have four working historical farms at the museum, and all of them had special events going on during the Octoberfest.
Cora is stirring plum butter. The gentleman told us that they would gather as small villages and cook the plums all day in a central place. They only add water at first to keep the plums from sticking, and it had to be stirred constantly. After the plums were smooshy enough (technical term), they would then taste the mixture to see how much sugar it needed. Cora struck up a conversation with this gentleman as well as another one, and then she decided to instruct additional visitors about what she was doing. They might have thought she was a volunteer with the way she was dressed (minus the shoes, of course! :) ).

Blasts From The Past

I came across this photo when I was looking for the vacation photos. This was taken in Florida after Daddy sprayed whipped cream on their noses. When did they grow up??
And this is who started this whole crazy parenthood journey. This was taken in Maryland when I was pregnant with Cora.

And this is the first photo I received of my precious Adah - after agonizing days of waiting and checking email obsessively every twenty minutes of the day. She was only three at the time. My four daughters - I am so blessed!