Big Boy Nathaniel

Cora decided to try teaching Nathaniel how to ride a bike without training wheels yesterday (she loves a good project). And I thought, "Why not let him skip straight to the two wheels when someone else is doing the pushing and holding and bending down?" :) By the end of the session, Nathaniel nearly had it. He does anticipate the fall, though, so he makes it come down on purpose. (They're in the grass, so he's not highly motivated to stay upright). I may soon have SIX riders in the family. That would be awesome for walks in the neighborhood.

Shiloh's track practice went well last night. The coach timed the races they thought they'd like to run in the meet, so that when I enter her, I can have some approximate times for heats. She decided to run the 200 last night just to round out the field, but she regretted it when it came time for the 800. :) The other kiddos had a blast as well, rollerskating on the track, jumping rope on the infield, practicing the long jump (BONUS! SAND!), kicking the soccer ball in the infield, practicing baseball, and making new friends. Although the practice makes for a late Friday night, it's a nice way to spend a Friday night.

And now we're off to an Easter egg hunt at Daniel's work on this lovely morning. We don't actually celebrate Easter per se (we celebrate the resurrection every Sunday, not a specific day of the year) but this is all about the hunt and the candy, of course. After the egg hunt, we'll bring lunch to the people hard at work painting the space for our new church. It should be lovely! I thought I'd like to help paint, but that's a little difficult with six people tagging along who might or might not be helpful (might not in actuality).

Cora is doing really well. She has her sad moments, but we are thankful for everyone's love and support. Our vet even sent us a card. :) Being able to get outside in the spring weather has helped tremendously to take her mind off of Cuddles, and a sweet friend is taking her to the movies today as well.

Well, I better go have another cup of coffee to prepare for the day ahead. I got a french press coffeemaker with a birthday gift certificate (thanks, Paula!!) and I am loving the coffee in the morning.

Go enjoy your Saturday, everyone! Enjoy SPRING!

Cora Dora

Cora's email to Daniel this morning included the line: "I wish you could see me typing. I am very good, you know." :)
Happy Friday, everyone!

Jackson is Adorable

Yes, the title says it all. Jackson was finished with school and wanted to play in his room by himself for awhile. I went up to check on him, and he was happily building a Lincoln Log fort for his soldiers and listening to Jonathan Park. He figured out how to turn on the CD player, put a CD in, and get it to the right episode he wanted (he's picky about the episodes).

He gave me a smile and said, "Hi, Mommy! Whatcha doing?"

What a cutie pie.

I know I only have a couple more years before I can't call him a cutie pie, so I'm taking every chance I can get.

New Season

We are about to enter the whole organized sports world (in the most loose sense). :) Shiloh has her first track team practice tomorrow. She's going to be "training" for the 400 and 800 at the Virginia Homeschooler's State Track Meet in May. I watched her run to get the feel of the races last Friday night, and I was taken aback. I knew she had some natural ability because I make them run laps every day for exercise (or ride bikes), but I didn't know she could run like THAT. I actually felt joy watching her because she was so graceful...so awesome. The coach was watching her and said, "Wow." Uh-huh. She actually beat two teenage boys and she wasn't running at race speed. Pretty cool. I need to add, though, that she never does anything new without a little push, so she was practically hyperventilating before running. :) Such different personalities in the same family. Jackson and Abigail are BEGGING to run the 400 for the track meet, Cora couldn't care less about running, Adah stayed in the van because it was "too cold," and Nathaniel probably ran about 2 miles total that evening just running in the infield. :) We'll see what comes of this whole adventure.

Adah, Abigail, and Jackson are also trying soccer starting April 10th. They only have games on Saturdays, and their practices are the half hour before the game. Easy peasy - and family time friendly - for the single parent mama right now! They look adorable in their cleats, and we're looking forward to this new adventure. Cora's holding out for swimming lessons in the summer - now THAT'S something she can get behind. :)

Still Here - and a big photo dump

Hello, all. We've had a busy couple of weeks saying goodbye to Daniel (hi, honey!) and then getting back into routine. Last week we had an incredibly sad week as we learned that Cora's kitten Cuddles had a fatal virus. We had to put her to sleep on Friday afternoon, and it was so much harder than I thought it would be. Our poor Cora was/is heartbroken, and it's a hard lesson to learn at nine years old. :( The first few pictures are from a photo shoot the girls did on Thursday as we had a "Celebrate Cuddles" day. We got some pansies to plant in Cuddles' honor, got some doughnuts at Dunkin' Donuts (because Cuddles liked doughnuts :) ), picked up some scrapbooking materials to make a scrapbook of Cuddles, and then got a movie to watch because Cuddles loved to snuggle in Cora's lap to watch movies. It was a good day of goodbyes. There were about a hundred pictures taken, but I can't post about half of them because Cora looks so incredibly sad. :( She's doing okay, though, and I know she'll be fine with time. She's our most tender-hearted girl, so she would have taken this the hardest of all of them.

The next pictures are from a birthday party Adah and Abigail attended. (The pictures are going from most recent to oldest.) They were supposed to dress up, and Abigail took this as an opportunity to wear her Southern belle dress.

Adah also dressed up in her favorite dress and wore pearls, of course. She also had a hat, but she didn't put it on for the pictures.

The picture quality on the next picture is not good, but I love the facial expressions on each of the girls. Abigail is primping, and Adah is exasperated. :)

Nathaniel wanted his picture taken, too:

The next couple of pictures were taken during a visit from one of Shiloh's best friends from North Carolina. Her dad dropped her off, and the girls had a wonderful time together chatting and playing (and chatting). I took them to the downtown mall to wander around and get a gelato (naturally), and then we went to UVa for a picnic. It was a perfect day for it! I love homeschooling. :) Shiloh's friend and her sisters made all of our girls these lovely bonnets, and we made quite a sight walking through the UVa campus with the bonnets on. What a blessing to have such good friends. When we got home that afternoon, they all opted to stay out and play, and I got a nap on a blanket in the backyard. What bliss. I intended to read, but the sunshine was too soothing.

Jackson's newest pose. He does it all the time. Ugh. He has also influenced Nathaniel, who can't do it quite as well:

Shiloh's friend's birthday was a couple of days away, so Shiloh decided to bake her a cake and surprise her with an early party. She and her friend made dinner (while I sat on the couch reading a book - after my nap - clearly living the high life :) ) and then Shiloh brought out the cake. I was so touched by Shiloh's thoughtfulness. When I complimented her, she said, "Well, that's what friends do." :)

The next group of pictures comes from our trip to Monticello. Monticello hosted a home educator's day complete with special activities and tours. I was pleasantly surprised, because I had heard that the Monticello staff was not particularly child-friendly. We are studying this period in history, so this cemented our learning. I love that! We went with good friends from our homeschool co-op.

That's a lot of kids! (Oh, wait - half of them are mine! :) )

The view of the gardens - still with snow in the background!

I love, love, love living in Virginia. I feel so blessed to see the beauty surrounding us here.

I really liked Monticello. It was cozier than I thought it would be, and I liked the design. Fun fact about Jefferson: every morning after he woke up, he would put his feet in a basin of cold water. He thought it helped his circulation and health. Yikes.

I can't remember what this thing was called. It enabled Jefferson to make copies of his letters as he wrote them. It was harder than it looked!

Awkward transition here: these pictures are from our trip down to Georgia and then back up through Alabama to visit friends. This is Adah feeding John, the youngest in a family that we also knew in North Carolina. Deb is a sweet friend who happily took us in even though she has a three month-old and seven other children who have busy schedules. I love that I am always offered a cappucino and a comfy couch with a blanket within five minutes of entering her home. I don't think I saw the children the entire time except to see their smiling faces as they rushed past me on their way to play some game or another.

Adah's lovely nails are courtesy of Kayla, their eleven year-old daughter. :)

All the kids tend to gather around Daniel, the second oldest boy.

The next picture shows the first family who took us in after we dropped off Daniel at Ft. Benning. We have known them since PLEBE YEAR at West Point - 18+ years? Wow, that's scary. The Sumners were Daniel's mentors while at West Point, and we held their eldest as a baby (he's not pictured here since he's at COLLEGE. Wow, we're old.). Again, I hardly saw the children, especially Jackson and Nathaniel since they had BOYS to play with. Boys who had weapons, and a tree house, and things to climb on - it was very loud. :) But it was loud in a happy way, and what a wonderful thing to see kids reconnect like that (they visited us two years ago in our rental house here while they were on a trip to Maryland). This brave family took us in while in the midst of a kitchen remodel. Had I known that, I wouldn't have burdened them, but they were incredibly gracious.

Here is Shiloh Elizabeth the invalid resting on the day we were supposed to travel down to Ft. Benning. :) She got sick that morning, so we stayed put another two days to allow her a chance to rest and recuperate. We still stayed one night with our friends the Clarks in South Carolina on the way, but I didn't get any pictures at their house. Sarah lived up to her reputation and made us babyback ribs for dinner that night. Yum. Oh, and these new gadgets at the library revolutionized our travel for this long trip. Shiloh and Adah can't read in the van because they get carsick. Our library has these things called Playaways which are individual iPods with the books downloaded onto them already. All you have to do is provide the earbuds and the battery. So they were all happy as clams listening to their books on iPod (even Jackson got one, so he felt like a big kid). We also listened to "Journey Around the World in 80 Days" on the way home, which was a tremendous help since we did all 11 hours in one day just to get home. Phew! And last, but CERTAINLY not least, we have a few paltry pictures of poor Nathaniel's birthday. Because his birthday fell during the trip and the night that we weren't at anyone's house, we went out to dinner and got a treat there for his celebration (but no pictures). But we opened his gifts at home before we left so that he could play with some of the fun things (and so we wouldn't have to try to find room for them in our PACKED van). Nathaniel turned four this year, and he has grown SO much (literally and figuratively - he grew four inches in one year). He has made some big strides this past year, and we have great hope that as he celebrates his fourth birthday we will see even bigger progress. He is a charming, sweet little boy who loves to play with trucks and soldiers. He loves to run and ride his scooter. He is a snuggler, which I LOVE. He loves to be read to, and he's learning how to read as well. We are so thankful he is our son, and we look forward to seeing what God has in store for him. He seemed a little bemused by the gifts, until he gives a big smile at the end. :)

He likes to study things. He didn't really want to move on to the next gift.

"What is this thing?" :)

Cute boy! His belated birthday present is a big-boy bike, and I'll post pictures of that later. I have to publish this post since my monitor keeps turning off, and it's driving me crazy. We think it's overheating, but we have no idea. :)

A quick update on Daniel: he's doing well in Afghanistan, but he has an infection on the bottom of his foot and he's just been diagnosed with MRSA. He's being treated for it with high-dose antibiotics right now. Please pray that those will be effective!!

Must go. Computer is driving me batty.

Garmin

Shiloh has found a new use for our GPS (named Gemma, since we chose the British voice). Since she knows how to work it, she likes to turn it on and ask it to find places she wants to go. This is the new use she found for it today:

Shiloh (shocked voice): "Mommy! Slow DOWN! You're driving over the speed limit!"

Uh huh. Gemma can sense the speed you're going and it also posts the current speed limit on the screen.


Busted.



*disclaimer* I was only going 59 in a 55. But she's a black and white kinda gal.

A Milestone

I blog for two reasons: 1. So that family and friends far away can see how the kids are doing and 2. Because I know I won't remember anything about their childhoods if I don't. I have a horrible memory. I don't even remember some of the things that I wrote on this blog a year ago, so it's a good thing I blog. :) On the plus side, I'm always pleasantly surprised when I look back at the blog and read a story that I forgot.

I mention these things (in a rather wordy paragraph) in order to put a disclaimer on the milestone mentioned in the title. Last year, all four girls (along with Mommy and Daddy, since we thought we should set the example!) read all the way through the Bible using M'Cheyne's reading schedule. We're incredibly proud of them for their diligence and perseverance, but mentioning their milestone here is not meant to draw attention in a prideful way. If they read this blog in the future, I hope it will be an encouragement to them that they read the Word of God from their youngest ages. I hope it will remind them of His truth, His love, and His mercy. It reminds us of the mercy God has shown to us in granting us new life before we had children so that we could raise them, we pray, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. What a blessing they are to us! We look forward to seeing what He chooses to do in each of their lives, and we are thankful to be a part of that. To Him be the glory!

Another Post without Pictures

Sorry...haven't gotten to pictures yet. I went to bed with a whopper of a headache last night. I know, I know...I'm not drinking enough water after I run. I KNOW that and yet I don't do it. I think you call that idiocy.

Anyway, here was an Abigail comment last night: She came to me very proud of herself because she is fighting against biting her nails. She announced, "I made it TWO WHOLE DAYS without biting my nails, Mommy! Two whole days!" As she's walking away, she says, "This is kinda like smoking. It's awfully hard to stop once you start."

I think I have to assume she's not speaking from personal experience on that one.

An additional aside: Boys are MUCH louder than girls. Abigail and Adah talk MORE, but Jackson is much louder than the two of them together. I just noticed this as I was typing this post. If you put a sword in that boy's hand, it's like you've given him leave to increase his volume by several hundred decibels. I must go put lunch on the table now in order to stop the yelling.

Quick Post

We're heading to Monticello this morning for a home educator's day, so I have a few minutes to post. First of all, Daniel is safe in Afghanistan, and the countdown now begins for him to come home. :) Hi, honey!

Secondly, I'll post pictures (soon? I hope?) of our trip to see friends in Alabama after we dropped off Daniel. We are some pretty awesome friends who take good care of us. It was good to see them.

Thirdly, here are some funnies from Cora and Abigail.

Cora is a - shall we say - creative speller. She can spell a word three different times in the same paragraph. She informed me one day that she was just a "colonial speller, because colonial people made up their own spellings, too." I think she thinks the title adds more panache to her creative spelling. She's not getting out of learning it, though, even if she is cute.

We were waiting in the church parking lot last Sunday listening to music. The girls looked out the back and noticed a stray cat wandering around. Cora was cooing in delight, and Abigail said, "I would watch it if I were you. It could be venomous." :)

Have a great day, and watch out for venomous cats!

TV Can Rot Your Brain...

...or provide humorous anecdotes. :)

When we went to Pennsylvania last weekend we stayed in a hotel. We ordered in pizza and had dinner in our hotel room while watching HGTV. The impression that left with the children was pretty big, I guess. They pretended today that they were looking at our house to buy it. Adah was the realtor and Cora and Abigail were the potential buyers. Adah asked them what their budget was. The others responded, "Six hundred and fifty thousand." Uh-huh. (I'd be fine with them buying it for that much.) Then Adah showed them around the house as they made comments: "Oh, I like the living spaces here." "I like the features in that room." (BTW - what features? Our house is just a big box. :) ) "Does the refrigerator come with the house?" Here was the kicker: Cora informed Adah the realtor that she was thinking about adding a deck with a hot tub and did she know about how much that would be?

I believe they've crossed over that line between reality and fantasy. :)

I felt like I needed to have the "we are content in all things and God has graciously given us this wonderful home which is JUST FINE, thank you very much." Cora responded, "Oh, yeah, I know. It's just more fun to play it like this." :)

Hello From Our Igloo

Greetings from the frozen tundra. :) I can't believe this crazy weather.

Here's a funny from Jackson before we get to the pictures: he was sick this morning (as in, sick in the van right before running errands - blech) and we went into sick mode. He was on the couch with blankets, a bowl, and books. The girls were at his beck and call. After about five more times being sick, he looked and felt better all of a sudden. He never had a fever or anything. However, I didn't want to fall for the "all better" routine and only gave him some crackers for lunch. He had a few crackers for a snack, and then had some chicken noodle soup for dinner. After dinner he said plaintively, "When can I have human food again?" :)

Here are a few pictures from Abigail's birthday. I don't have many because we hosted prayer meeting at our house that night (per her request) and I just overlooked getting pictures. Sorry, Abigail! Notice the crown? Yes, she did wear it out and about on the town the rest of the week, in honor of the "birthday week." Shiloh was about to die of embarrassment, but Abigail considered it perfectly acceptable attire.
Abigail requested Daniel's mom's panetone (an Italian Christmas cake) for her birthday, and she had to send it in two halves; hence, the cake is already cut. Yes, Nathaniel is a ham and wants to be in every picture.

Abigail Emma is SEVEN! And she STILL hasn't lost her front teeth. It's driving her crazy.

This was Shiloh's defensive wall and tower on her fort. She and Jackson built the wall, with a little help from Nathaniel. :)

Mount Houseworth? Fort Houseworth?

Lastly, we're buying some of these cool bracelets. Maybe you'd like some, too? http://sites.google.com/site/buybraceletsforhaiti/home My friend Corey is running the whole deal. (That would be an online friend - I haven't actually MET her, but I hope she's not a psychopath, because she's staying at my house in April when we run the half-marathon together. :) ).

Stay warm!!!

It's Still Snowing...

...so I will blog and share all the photos I haven't posted since December. :) When January 12th hit and the earthquake happened in Haiti, all the other tasks of life besides schooling, eating, sleeping, etc. were put on hold as I checked continuously for news and updates. I'm so thrilled to report that these families have been reunited with their kids: www.makefunofyourday.blogspot.com and www.havingfunservinghim.blogspot.com !! They have prayed and waited, and waited and prayed, and I'm so excited to rejoice with them as they learn to become new families together. I continue to pray for those New Life Link young children who are yet to be released to their families. Those Americans who decided to try to take Haitian kids across the border to the Dominican Republic DID NOT HELP THINGS. Oh, that makes me so mad. The amount of damage they did to international adoption from Haiti is yet to be seen, but I would be suspicious of any American wanting to adopt from Haiti if I were the Haitian government now!

Anyway, here are the photos to catch up from Christmas on...
Our fireplace Christmas morning. I am thankful for such a large, stretchy stocking. :)

Roscoe is playing with the toy that Shiloh got for him from the pet store. She wrapped it and everything. :)
Calvin is helping himself to some fo my coffee Christmas morning. :) No, I didn't drink it after that.
Don't the kids look snuggly in their new fleece blankets? I am now coveting them, and I use one when I'm watching a movie in the basement because it's FREEZING down there. It makes me realize that I'm happy we didn't move the schoolroom down there.
Cora is snuggling with Cuddles, who is overcome by the warmth of the blanket.
Oh- Calvin got in there, too!
The following pictures are scenes from a play the kids put on for us Christmas Day when we had our friends the Rasheeds over. Jhael, their daughter, is the one with the flying hair. She's a reindeer, obviously. Adah and Nathaniel are playing a brother and sister (realistic casting, no?) who have a visit from Santa, hence the title of the play: "A Visit from Santa." :)
Here are the reindeer arriving with Santa in his laundry basket...er...sleigh.
Santa is climbing to the top of the house. This part made me cringe a little. He did in fact crash through part of the roof, and I think it discombobulated him for the rest of the play. He refused to follow direction from Shiloh after that. She told him to say ho, ho, ho, and he replied, loudly, "No, THANK YOU."
Here's Santa unloading his pack.

The cute four reindeer. Abigail forgot to paint her nose; she was supposed to be Rudolph.

The brother and sister discover their gifts from Santa. Nathaniel got an iPod (I made sure I got that back.).

As with all good plays, this one ended with a song. Shiloh copied the song sheets, and they all sang "Up on the Housetop." Seriously, how cute are they? They thought up the whole thing, designed the costumes and the set, and practiced their lines. They crack me up. The Rasheeds seemed to enjoy the show as well. :)

On January 9th, we attended the wedding of friends of ours. This was an INTERESTING wedding. The couple is a little quirky - a lot quirky - and we love the way they think. The BRIDE asked if the boys, who were to be ring bearers, could have mohawks. I said, "Are you sure? I mean, the mohawks will be in the wedding pictures 20 years from now." She was sure. So Daniel cut their hair the day of the wedding. Jackson decided he wanted to go with a high-and-tight and spike it with some gel. :) The girls were also asked to sing, "Morning Has Broken," to which Daniel replied, "They're singing a song written by a terrorist?!" (Cat Stevens, now Yosef Islam) Daniel threatened to break in during the choruses with, "Death to the Infidels!" or "Allahu Akbar!" I gave him THE LOOK. He didn't do it, but I know he did in his heart. Here's Nathaniel in all his handsomeness. He did a GREAT job, despite the fact that he didn't walk beside Jackson down the aisle. That made Jackson's ears turn bright red because he was embarrassed. :) And when I say bright red, I mean fire-engine red. We can always tell when he's in trouble or embarrassed because his ears give him away. Number one, they're big. Number two, they're bright red with nothing to cover them. :)
Look at this handsome five year-old!

Looking serious preparing for the job ahead.
Here they are with the lovely couple and the flower girl.
Jackson didn't like this picture. "They were smushing my jacket, Mommy!"
And hey! Here's another kid with a mohawk at the wedding! We had to get a picture! Apparently mohawks were in.
Yes, there's a picture of me. Shiloh wanted to take it. I liked this dress, so I put it on the blog.

January also brought Shiloh Elizabeth's ELEVENTH birthday. I just cannot fathom that. I know every parent says that, and we all mean it. It just flies by so quickly. Shiloh made her own crown, and she decorated the house herself. (Cora wanted to, but Shiloh loves to do it and decided she wanted to. Shiloh is now the official birthday-decorator, and I love the fact that I am out of a job.) I made apple pie, because Shiloh doesn't particularly care for cake. She decided she wanted to dress up in Cora's Indian outfit, so she made a crown with feathers. Cora dressed in her colonial outfit, so they had a little theme (we're studying the French and Indian wars right now).





Cora wanted to carry the pie in. :)


I gave Shiloh some old-fashioned curlers for her birthday, and I put them in that night. This is the result in the morning! I was going to brush them out a little, but she liked them "boing-y."
What a beautiful girl, inside and out. I am so thankful for her sweetness, her cheerfulness, her helpfulness, and her strength of character. I see her diligence, and I know she is more hard-working than I ever was as a kid (sorry, Mom!). Shiloh surprises me by what she likes...Legos, stories about the French and Indian wars, I Love Lucy, and playing out in the snow for HOURS. She's an interesting person, and I'm so blessed to be a part of her life. I can't wait to see the woman she becomes!
Well, I better go find some other projects to catch up on since we're snowed in again this weekend. Last weekend we missed church, and it looks like we'll miss again this weekend. Ugh. I thought we moved to Virginia, not Minnesota??