Between the woods the afternoon
Is fallen in a golden swoon,
The sun looks down from quiet skies
To where a quiet water lies,
And silent trees stoop down to trees………

A.A. Milne

Happiness is blogging on a Sunday afternoon as a Muppets movie blares in the background and Seth is over at the counter eating a bowl of homemade ham and potato chowder.  He’s so cute over there perched on a stool with his little legs dangling.  David and Ethan and Sarah are on the couch with me, too.

Ethan is sick with bronchitis.  He’s had a bad cold for days and days, on Thursday his coach called me and said that Ethan had trouble breathing for over 15 minutes after running.  I wanted to rush him to the doctor’s but Ethan insisted that he was fine.  He went to practice again on Friday and Saturday (in the rain, no less), then last night he came down with a fever and chills.  I took him to a walk in clinic this morning and the doctor gave us a prescription for antibiotics and a note to miss school for two days.  He slept all afternoon.

He requested pancakes for dinner so I made my mom’s recipe for the children, and at the same time I made a pot of soup so I could use up leftover potatoes and ham.  I had ordered a big deli platter for Rich’s lunch meeting on Friday and there was so much meat left over that I decided to use up the ham in a soup–no recipe–I melted half a stick of butter and sautéed chopped onion and celery, with salt and pepper.  Then, I peeled and diced 6 small red potatoes, added them to the pot and covered everything with chicken stock.  Once it came to a boil, I turned it down low and put the lid on until the potatoes were tender.  Then, I added in the leftover baby potatoes from Friday (cut in chunks), a can of corn, about a pound of chopped deli ham, and half a pound of chopped swiss and american cheese.  A dash of onion and garlic powders, more pepper, a can of evaporated milk and it was done.

The kids are most thrilled that “it has no clams”.

They all liked it!

We spent some time outdoors this afternoon.  David got his fishing pole out, after noticing sunfish in the bass fish pond.  He said he had to get them out or they would eat the bass eggs this spring.

Isn’t Parker (the dog) funny?  The boys put their fish into a cooler (with buckets of water poured in it) and Parker would stand and look with his nose straight down at the swimming fish.  If we let him, he would catch them in his jaws.  But the boys slam the lid down every time.

Sarah ran down to the pond in her Sunday dress and got her feet wet!

Don’t worry, Mom, I got her right out and properly dressed, see?

As the boys fished, I wandered around.  I like this next picture with boys, girlie, hens, dog, and cat all in one shot::

The hens were all gathered around a bowl of cracked feed corn.

I packed away all their shorts this winter and they don’t know where they are so they wore their pajama shorts.

David=blue shirt         Caleb=gray shirt

It just did my heart good to see them together, turning over rocks and boards to find worms.

Caleb caught a fish, too, and Seth also caught his very own first fish!

With his big brother, David’s, help.

They were good companions all around the pond.  They caught five sunfish and threw them into the other pond.

And that is what the boys did, today.