(reading fine print is unnecessary but may prove entertaining)
I was up at 5 a.m. so I could spend time with my husband before he left for work at 6.
Then, I lit candles and
had Bible, breakfast, and coffee-time.
I did some laundry (lots of that to do today),
emptied and loaded the dishwasher,
set table for cereal, complete with tablecloth, cereal, and lit candles.
The children start appearing and so
I served them breakfast, packed David’s backpack, prompted David to get all ready for school, and then
waited outside with David for bus.
After he left, I sent the older children to walk the dog “to end of road and back”.
I was able to spend some time in the kitchen, mixing up Orange Pumpkin Loaf, a recipe I’ve been wanting to make for quite a while.
Caleb, who has been potty trained for a while now, had an “accident” of the solid variety, so I had to walk away and clean him up, give him bath, dress him, wash my hands real good. . . . .and then I got back to my bread.
After I finished mixing it together, I popped it into the oven.
Grace returned without brothers, told me they lost dog “on the busy road” (where they weren’t even supposed to be).
45 minutes went by, no boys, I started to worry so I got in the van and
I started driving around, with Caleb, looking–no boys anywhere! I went back home.
Thankfully, even though I was distracted, Grace remembered to take the bread out of the oven when the timer went off. It was perfect.
The boys still hadn’t appeared so I called Rich, started to get shaky, and went out driving again.
I found Ethan wearing one boot and carrying the other (he had blisters), who told me that Jacob was “just up the road” so
we drove up road about 1 or more miles (!!!) and came across Jacob with the dog.
I drove everyone back home, mad, and sent boys to separate rooms with LOTS of schoolwork (they had gotten the dog back quickly but then walked all the way to a friend’s house instead of coming home)
I folded yet more laundry.
I helped Grace with school work.
After I turned the bread out onto a vintage fiesta platter, I decided not to wait until it cooled.
I cut a slice, buttered it, tasted it, and liked it so much I photographed it so I could share the recipe with you.
Orange Pumpkin Loaf
1/3 cup butter
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup water
1 large orange
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I didn’t have enough so I left them out)
1/2 cup raisins or dates (I used dates)
Preheat oven to 350. Grease one 9 by 5 by 3 inch loaf pan.
Cream butter and sugar together well. Add eggs. Beat lightly. Add pumpkin and water. Stir.
Cut and remove seeds from orange. Put in blender or grinder and grind complete orange including peel. Stir into batter.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nuts and raisins/dates, mixing well. Stir into batter. Spoon into prepared loaf pan.
Bake at 350 for about 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes, remove from pan, cool and wrap.
Grace agreed, “It was great”.
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Also,
I thought you would enjoy a photo of what my living room looks like right now.
Ahhhh, a morning in the life of a busy mama. . . . .I hope you, too, are enjoying this fine Monday.
And try that bread! It’s SO yummy!
Good to be Home 
my house tops yours 😉 heehee…
Haha. That’s what happens when you have kids, I guess!
Matthew and I get our apartment pretty messy with just the two of us. But then again, we both work full time and are almost always gone every weekend doing something.
Oh man. I love your living room. Looks like LOVE lives there. 🙂 I bet that livingroom smelled scrumptious with the pumpkin bread baking and the legos scattered……….HOME. 🙂
I feel ya Shan. My home looks like that alot. It is all about living right???? You are one busy momma. Glad you found the boys safe and sound. I know that scared you. Have a great rest of the day.
Mmmmmm, that bread looks yummy! So glad to see my house looks like someone else’s! LOL Yay for the boys getting the dog back… I could feel my heart racing as I read the story – thinking of my kids missing like that. Truly terrifying. So glad they are all under the same roof again. Have a wonderful day!
Pumpkin Loaf looks wonderfully tasteful!!
My living room looks like that all hours of the day until bedtime, then it starts all over again the next day. And I only have one girl!! She can make it look like a tornado went through the house in 2.5 seconds!!
Oh, I love your living room! Your post typifies the life of a young mother. When I was a young mom, and most of my days were a mixture of this kind of stuff, and I felt like life was just CONSUMED with cooking, cleaning, and the children’s activities, one of my favorite verses was Isaiah 40:11 (I especially like the CEV) “The LORD cares for his nation, just as shepherds care for their flocks. He carries the lambs in his arms, while gently leading the mother sheep.” I often felt the need to be gently led! 🙂
ok, I have obliviously not been by here in a loooong time! CONGRATULATIONS!!!! The names sound great! and I am definitely trying that bread, this is my favorite time of year to start doing bunches and bunches of baking! ttfn! Oh and Happy Monday! LOL!
the bread looks great!i can smell it already..and about your living room??thats not that bad at all…i do have a picture of mine i had to take last month..i’ll post it in the next blog…just take a deep breath before you look at it!(ouch!i can see those blocks on the floor and every time i step on one i grit my teeth as i try not to scream out in pain!)have a nice day!
Sounds like some of my Wednesday last week. I love the picture of your living room. That’s life.That recipe sounds delicious and I don’t even like pumpkin. I wish I had the chance to talk to you yesterday. It seems we are always two ships passing…
I wish I had an orange b/c I would make it right now!!! All I have are grapes and bananas. Bananas might be good…but they’re not overripe yet…just getting ripe. Maybe another day….sigh…I love that pic of your living room!!! I almost took a pic of all the dirt/dog hair/food/leaves/grass I swept off of my floor b/c it was so gross. 🙂
The bread sounds so good!! I will have to try that. I would have been scared to with the boys being gone that long. I’m glad you found them & everyone is ok. I can relate to your living room, that’s how mine looked on Friday. Toys everywhere, even one’s that don’t belong. Enjoy your day and your bread:)
We “live in” our house too! LOL! Thanks for sharing your living room with us! And the pumpkin loaf. I would love to have a buttered slice, a cup of coffee and to carefully flop on your sofa to enjoy them! Children, Lego’s, crayons, laundry and a boot or two…I know that I would feel at home! :)Blessings!
p.s. I didn’t participate in the name thing…because till I got there I thought everyone else had it covered!:)I thought of this one to share this morning.The name of my oldest son!JARED; he was the father of Enoch, it means leader
#1 Can orange juice be substituted for an orange in your pumpkin bread??? #2 Hey! That’s MY living room. When did I get new furniture???!!! LOL
Sounds like an eventful morning you had!! I’m glad you got your boys back, and the dog back, and some yummy bread too. I was all set to run to my kitchen to make that bread but realized I don’t have an orange in the house. *Note to self: buy one orange while out today. Thank you!!
Hmmm.. very interesting – a nice twist on the average recipe – so what exactly does the orange do for the flavor. I will have try – very curious.
@cherylyn_p – I’m sure using just juice would make the batter way too runny.
@rugbana – The orange adds a yummy flavor and texture to the bread, I’m lovin’ the little bits of baked in orange peel. YUM. When I first read the recipe, I felt the same way you did, intrigued by the addition of a whole orange– It was fun to make and even more fun to eat.
The bread sounds delicious. Do you think it would be missing something if I left out the raisins/dates? I’m not a big fan of either. I LOVE nuts, though, so that part definitely stays!
Oh Shan, you poor dear. I’m so glad you found them ok…I would have been mad, too. Goodness. That bread looks yummy, and I’m not too crazy about pumpkin. I hope the rest of your day is uneventful. I missed seeing you yesterday, Alex has a bad cold/fever, though he is bouncing back this afternoon. I hope I can come visit soon, I miss you. Love, Trish
Well, I knew since you were blogging about it, you had found your boys, but if I had been there – OH MY! I would’ve been right behind you waggling my finger at them when you sent them to their rooms. Silly boys! What were they thinking? So, SO glad they are safe and sound this afternoon! (Well, probably until Dad gets home, huh?)Alesha
My Monday has been a busy one as well! I call it my “not ideal homeschooling day”, we still got some things done but they didn’t quite go how I wanted them to-felt a little chaotic. I love the picture of your living room!
Oh, just one of the many “joys” of motherhood. Don’t you think that at least a month of you life was shortened from the stress?! I would have been hoppin’ mad if I couldn’t find my children….and scared to death (not a good combination). Just think how “smart”they will be after all that homework. LOL
Can’t wait to make the bread!! Your recipes haven’t failed me yet. Hope your week gets better:).
YUMMY. Thank you for passing down this delicious recipe. Your living room could be twins with mine, love it. I tried to read the fine print but my eyes couldn’t do it, and I don’t even wear glasses.
Oh my! I related so well listening to your search for the boys….shakey, concerned, then mad. Been there. Good idea to send them to seperate rooms with homework! So glad they are alright. Such yummy looking bread and a sweet lived in home. When picking up our place I always wonder how we manage to mess up so much with just the 3 of us left…but family life, and homeschool do that! blessings, Jenny
Ha Ha I love your livingroom look:):)
Loved the fineprint!
I’ve been jotting down more of my daily life at http://cookingwithlittles.blogspot.com if you are interested. I’m also enjoying xanga and I deleted my other private blog so now it’s just these two!
I’ve got some pumpkin. I’ll be trying that recipe soon and the baked squash!
I will certainly try that recipe! I’m glad everything — including the bread — worked out!
I sure can relate to your experience with your boys adventure as I have boys myself. They sure keep you on your toes. Happy to hear they are alright and that God has his hand on them.Your living room is like mine, its life with kids.Thanks also for the recipe too.Great post and I enjoy the way you write. Love your photos too. Have a great day.
Well, since I have all of the ingredients, and we just finished off the cookies, I think I shall try your pumpkin orange bread. Sounds so good! How scary for you when the boys were gone so long! Glad to hear that they are safe and sound. Hopefully they won’t be pulling a stunt like that again any time soon. Grace getting the bread out of the oven reminds me of my girls. Yesterday they got the chicken out of the oven when it was done- I was otherwise occupied at the time. Your living room looks like home!
So glad the boys were safe! The bread looks wonderful.
That bread looks so delicious! I’ll have to try that when I get an orange! I remember my house looking like that in the past — sometimes I miss those days!
Shanda, the pumpkin bread is everything you said it is! I don’t have any oranges so I used a teaspoon of orange extract. Can’t wait to try it with an orange.
I sent my Shannon over to my SIL with half a loaf a few minutes ago. It’s too good not to share. Thanks and may your boys always remember their mad mother at the right times!
The story of the boys reminds me of the time we did that to our moms….and got a blistered bottom for it.
Love you and I know what you are going through…my 2 youngest went down to the creek alone yesterday (after we had an inch of rain Saturday). They were sent to time-out as well.
thanks for the bread recipe!!! :))
dont worry…the living room can be clean and tidy-up… you’ve got 3 lil helpers there…
the experience I had cleaning a house with 2 lil children and my host mom was fun and unforgettable (^^)
ciao~
Shanda, apparently you and I share the same interior designer. :o) Look at how big your baby is getting! WOW! you must be getting excited!
That bread does look scrumptious! And out living room looks like that quite often!
thank you so much for sharing the picture of your living room!! It is just what I needed!! 🙂
the loaf looks so good!
LOL, better to laugh at this point then to cry.Amazed you managed a yummy bread out of all the chaos!I gave the recipe to Brianna to try
I have been looking for a good pumpkin bread recipe! Last year mine didn’t turn out very well! I love to bake, so hopefully this year it will taste better! I love the pic of your living room! It made me laugh, I have a niece and her room looks very similar right now! : )
Your post took me back a few years; messy house, missing child. Ay, ay, ay!! I’ll bet your boys will never give you a scare like that again! The bread looks and sounds worth the 2 pounds I’d gain! Take care, you dear little mommy. love, Gail
haha cluttered but so “home-y”
Sounds yummy! My rooms look like that on an almost constant basis. 🙂
this was really cute! i loved it and that is bread is making my mouth water!
the pumpkin loaf looks yummyto be honest I’ve never seen / heard of canned pumpkin before lol
Definitely entertaining. Thanks for being so real. I just noticed the quote in your sidebar by Melissa West…love it. It’s how I felt today. The bread sounds delicious.
Did you take that photo? (the close up of the loaf)It’s very nice shot. I wish I can just grab one from the screen :Pp.s. I like that piggy mouse cursor, so cute ^^
I just made Pumpkin bread as well, very similar recipe I did not add the orange and dumped a ton of vanilla in even though the recipe did not call for it, b/c I firmly believe vanilla makes ever little thing taste better, I loved how the butter melted on it when it was fresh out of the oven, just sunk right down into the bread..mmmmm
thank you for the recipe. i think i’ll make it for my daughter’s preschool halloween potluck.