Friends and photos

We've been blessed this week by a visit with these two:


That's my friend Michelle and her daughter Erica. (We met Michelle during our adoption of Isaias. They also adopted from Guatemala, and we traveled to meet our boys at the same time.)

Here's our first family picture since Audra has been born:


I know it. It doesn't really count since you can't see Audra, but she's there- behind me in the stroller, sleeping.

And here was our attempt to get a cute picture of all five of our children together. Out of eight photos, this is the best one. I get that that's hard to believe, but you should see the other seven. If I weren't so lazy, I'd post them just for laughs. But you're just going to have to trust that they are awful.


I think in this one, we'd just reprimanded Adelia for something, and she is beginning to tell us how she doesn't like being reprimanded. Isaac is nonchalantly wondering how Audra is faring. I think Audra is expressing how much she loves being a part of our family (so... not so much, then, at the moment). I'm pretty sure Isaias is clueless that we even are taking a picture. And Ella is posing and pretending that everything around her is just fine, thankyou.

We'll have to try that again someday. Maybe if we bribe them with treats next time we'll fare better.

Okay, I can't help myself. Here's the worst of the eight photos. I do not even know what is going on with Isaac in this picture. I really don't. But this picture should make every single one of you feel much better about every single one of the pictures you've ever taken of your children. I'm just glad I can help you out with that.

And it makes me want to SHOUT

Instruction: "Boys, please go downstairs and get your pajamas on."

Action: [from what we can gather]

Son #2 uses a chair to climb on top of the washing machine, reaches up to a shelf located above the washing machine, and obtains a bottle of this:

He then proceeds to begin spraying Son #1 while Son #1 is actually obeying daddy's instructions. Pajamas on, Son #1, not to be outdone, climbs up to obtain a bottle of this:


All manner of furious spraying ensued.

Generously doused: the walls, the boys' dress clothes, the FOUR hampers full of clean laundry that I have spent the better part of two days doing(!), various items around the room, including one another (spraying into each others' mouths, eyes, bellies, hair, and onto Son #1's pajamas).

Enter responsible Daughter #1, sent to find out what was taking the boys so long. The girls (and daddy) were waiting for story time. Daughter #1 takes stock of the situation, runs upstairs to report that the boys are spraying cleaner all over the place.

Enter daddy. And mommy, about one step behind him.

I won't go into the rest of it, except to say that it was not one of my finer parenting moments. I was royally FURIOUS. There may or may not have been some yelling on my part. And some throwing around of some clothes while I tried to determine which of the clean clothes were wet and needed to be rewashed. And later, tears.

On the bright side: Three things:
1. It does smell clean throughout the entire downstairs area.
2. Daddy was home. Had this happened during the day when Mark was working? I very well might have taken the girls and run away from home. And you think I'm joking.
3. More importantly, we have one son with a very repentant heart. [Son #1, for the record.]

Son #2? Not so much.

Maybe when he has spent the next several days doing laundry and doing extra chores around the house in order to purchase a new bottle of this


... then maybe at the very least he'll think twice about this type of activity next time.

Or so we're hoping.


So now, to help me put this frustrating evening into perspective, why don't you share with me some of your childrens' less-than-stellar achievements? Or at least just tell me it's-a-boy-thing and list all the worse-than-this things your boys have done? Please do. It will make me feel so much better.

Ella's reading list

This is Ella's new favorite job. Not the reading, but reading while holding her sweet baby sister.


Right now she's reading the Millie books by Martha Finley. She's read the first four books of the series. Our favorite part about this is that Millie reads her Bible, which makes Ella want to read her Bible.

For those of you who, like me, are always looking for recommendations of good books your daughters can read on their own, here is a list of the books Ella has read over the past couple of months:

Millie's Unsettled Season, Book 1
Millie's Courageous Days, Book 2
Millie's Remarkable Journey, Book 3
Millie's Faithful Heart, Book 4
Little House in Brookfield
Little Town at the Crossroads
Little Clearing in the Woods
Little House on the Rocky Ridge
The Story of Florence Nightingale
Brighty of the Grand Canyon
Go Free or Die: A Story about Harriet Tubman

Ella has been doing so much reading I began asking her to write a "book report" on each book she's finished. Here's one such report:


It reads:

HaRRieT Was a sLaVe
SHe LeD OVer THRee HuNDReD
sLaVes to FReeDoM anD NeveR LosT 1
SHe WaNTeD To Be FRee
aND ON a DaY seH DiD GeT FRee

Okay. I can't resist. Here's one more: [Click on it for a larger view]


I can't decide if my favorite part is that she circled the "Flo" part of Florence and wrote "for short" above it, or if it's the fact that at the bottom of this book report, she signed it "ella AGe 7" and then wrote: "MY sisTerRs 1". [Because it totally matters that Adelia is a year old for the sake of this particular book report.] Ah... my Ella-girl? She's so cute I can barely stand it.

And I *love* having such things tucked away in her binder.

One month

Verse #5 & #6

Before I get to the subject of this post, I just want to thank all of you for your responses to my last post. Not only did many of you give practical suggestions, but you also gave me great support and encouragement. It heartens me to hear from those who have had similar experiences and have DONE it, or from those of you who are just positive that I can do it! :)

~thank you~

***

March 1st was the date to select Verse #5, and that happened to be just a week after I had Audra, so I sort of skipped that one.

For the second half of this month, I decided to choose a passage that consists of two verses to memorize so that I can catch up on Verse #5 and tackle Verse #6 all at once.

From Isaiah 43, verses 18 and 19, NASB:

Do not call to mind the former things,
Or ponder things of the past.
Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert.

My shower wall is getting crowded!


Speaking of catching up... the whole Bible reading plan I was all gung-ho about? I am weeks behind. I have not yet given up, but things are not looking good. Maybe this was not the year to commit to that?

Parenting from the couch

The common question I get lately:
"So... how is it with five?"

Five is great. I love five. And I genuinely don't think five in and of itself would overwhelm me one iota.

But five with two of those being babies? Oh my. Now we're talking.


Adelia is wonderfully pleased with and interested in Audra, which means that she wants to give Audra 400 kisses a day, which involves lying on top of her to do so. Or- if Audra is in the bouncy seat? Why not just climb on in on top of her to give her that kiss? Or if she's on the couch, sleeping? How about if we just yank on one of her limbs in an attempt to get her closer for that kiss?

It's wonderful. But challenging. We have to be very vigilant about where those two are at in proximity to one another.

If Adelia is not in one of her adoring-Audra moments, she is emptying the contents of a drawer, or pulling all the tissue out of the box, or hitting one of her older siblings (likely because they've just said no to her about something she truly should not have been doing), or... she's wanting mama. Mama who is sitting on the couch, breastfeeding Audra.

The biggest challenge for me so far has been in my attempt to train Adelia to obey. The arrival of Audra coincided with a newly-mobile and into-everything Adelia, and I foresaw this particular challenge coming. Our days so far consist of me, nursing Audra, and trying to parent Adelia from the couch. Nevermind the other three children.

And I'll just say right now that the parenting from the couch? Not super effective. Being just 12 months old, Adelia is not entirely obedient to the instructions I'm giving with my voice. Saying "No/Don't touch/Put that down" from my spot on the couch isn't really working. And my "Come to mama, Adelia" often goes unheeded. I've taken to having Isaac or Ella carry her into me for the obedience training she needs. (Ie: "Adelia? NO. Do not hit your brother with that block. Bring it to mama, please." She hears me, ignores me. I try again. And finally, "Ella or Isaac, please carry Adelia to me." So one of them does- usually a kicking and hollering Adelia!- and then she'll stand near me (or they'll help keep her near me) while I instruct her to not hit, or to please say sorry, or whatever.) But as many of you know, at this stage, these things are happening every three minutes, so it's been fairly exhausting.

I'll say it now: ANY AND ALL TIPS ARE WELCOME. ~smile~
[One tip so far that is working: Having the pac-n-play set up in our living room has been particularly helpful. Having an enclosed area for Adelia to play for small stretches throughout our days has been great.]

I've been beginning each day praying, "Lord? I feel so overwhelmed. Help me. I don't even know what this is supposed to look like." And remembering- and being reminded- that this is just a season, and to take one day [moment] at a time.

My mantra? I can do this.

Now if I can just plaster a smile on my face and tackle each moment with lots of grace and patience, we'll be set.

Storytime

Storytime with all five. One of our saner moments in the past couple of weeks. [Because most of the other moments? Pure craziness.]