a meal the entire family likes

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Shanda

This morning before school Sarah read me her reading assignment. It was a book by Gail Gibbons about the sun.

It became an unexpected sacred morning moment; a small girl tucked up beside me reading in her sweet voice.

“The sun gives all living things energy and strength in order to grow.”

Ah yes, thank you Jesus, the Light of the world and only Son of God.

“Without the sun, there would be only darkness and nothing could live.”

…..he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

What a dark and deathly world it would be without His presence.

All of humanity benefits from his warm and life-giving light.

I see Him everywhere, I know you do, too. There is no need to force a religion (laws and rule keeping) when you truly believe and love Christ. He opens your eyes to see Him, He puts a longing (hunger and thirst) inside of you to know His beauty, and the whole of life blossoms and flourishes because of the relationship you share with Him.

Since Sarah read me her book, an old hymn has been keeping me company for the morning; written by Philip Bliss, the author of many of our favorite hymns:

The Light of the World is Jesus

The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin,
The Light of the world is Jesus!
Like sunshine at noonday, His glory shone in;
The Light of the world is Jesus!

Come to the light, ’tis shining for thee;
Sweetly the light has dawned upon me;
Once I was blind, but now I can see:
The Light of the world is Jesus!

No darkness have we who in Jesus abide;
The Light of the world is Jesus!
We walk in the light when we follow our Guide!
The Light of the world is Jesus!

No need of the sunlight in Heaven we’re told;
The Light of the world is Jesus!
The Lamb is the Light in the city of gold,
The Light of the world is Jesus!

*******

After getting Sarah on the bus, I went for a short ramble all by myself in the snow. I was still wearing my pajamas but it wasn’t too cold thanks to a sweatshirt, a sweater, and shawl.

Orange fungus growing on a dead tree;

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I noticed snow covered cobweb wisps everywhere on the trees (why?)…….

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reflection of the stream;

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texture of slushy icy water;

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black and white;

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There is something magical about being outside in the woods while it’s snowing.

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Inside the chicken coop;

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I was thrilled to find a half dozen eggs!! (the hens haven’t been laying for over a month)

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I rewarded them with a bowl of snow.

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Which they appreciated very much.

******

And now for a recipe.

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This recipe is “blog worthy” because the whole family loves it. It’s different; there is no milk or cheese in the sauce, the mayonnaise gives it a richness.

Scalloped Potatoes and Onions

5 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3/4 cup chopped onion
6 T. butter
1/2 cup flour
3 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 325. Grease a baking dish.
Layer potatoes and onion in prepared baking dish.
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat; stir in flour until smooth. Gradually add broth, mayonnaise, salt, pepper; cook and stir until thick and bubbly, about 2 minutes. Pour mayonnaise mixture over potatoes and onion. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil.
Bake in preheated oven until potatoes are tender, about 1 hour 45 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes more. Cool slightly; serve.

(I double this for my family)

Also, the original recipe doesn’t call for ham, but I do add it whenever I have leftovers to use up. Enjoy.

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The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.
Henry Ward Beecher

as we drive along

Posted on January 5, 2017 by Shanda

I have found the one whom my soul loves. Song of Solomon

Grace and Jacob were available to take care of the house and children for a few days so Rich and I decided to stay two nights in Vermont. We stayed close by our Ethan’s college so that we could visit with him when he was free.

After the busyness of the holidays, it was calming to be alone together.

I can sense our marriage shifting, ever so slowly, from the stage of “super busy with little ones” to “busy raising children but life is quieting down just a tiny bit”……it doesn’t seem like a big of enough change to even notice and indeed, most of the time we don’t realize that things are changing in a way that effects us as a couple.

In fact, “being a couple” has been sort of hard during the years of babies and little ones. It’s been more like two trains passing in the night at times………

This weekend, being alone just the two of us, without a worry or a care for the children we left back home, showed us that there is still a deep contentment and companionship between our two souls.

The children will grow and move on, but the two of us will always have each other “til death do us part.” We’re friends, we know one another, we enjoyed our time together this weekend very much; reading, working out, eating meals, holding hands, little touches, talking or not talking, getting coffees, driving, sleeping, resting, watching a little tv…..all very ordinary things, but with a quiet joy from being happy together.

It’s been nice to watch my parent’s marriage evolve from full nest to empty nest and it’s nice to see that Rich and I are following in their footsteps in this way. Lovebirds.

(I know it will be a long time before we have a literal empty nest, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now so that’s good…….)

Also, I took pictures out the window of lovely Vermont.

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two things:

We took Ethan bowling and I actually scored an 84….coming in last place as usual but I have hopes of continuing to improve. There was a group of women of all ages next to us throwing strikes on a consistent basis. Even an old old lady who couldn’t even bend over. She just walked up and swung her arm and got strikes.

We ate breakfast together at one of those shiny stainless steel diners shaped like a railroad car. I took this photo because the waitress was walking back and forth from the kettle pouring hot steamy brewed tea into gallon jars. She said it was for iced tea, and that they go through a lot of it in a day.

“We need to live in the now of life,
it can’t be about how much we suffered yesterday
or what we might face tomorrow.
It’s about today. And today was good”
~bonnie leon

jacob’s twentieth birthday

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Shanda

It’s still so weird to think about Jacob being twenty years old. Ah yes, young moms, the days are long but I am here to tell you that what *they say* about the years flying by is true. It’s not depressing news, it’s actually very ENCOURAGING! Whatever days you have going on right now are going to rapidly pass. What a blessing. Jacob was QUITE a handful for many years and now look at him, I barely have to parent him anymore. He’s all grown up and just needs a minor parental adjustment once in a great while (considering he does still live with us and all).

Jacob’s birthday is New Year’s Eve, so for the last few years it’s been a tradition for him to fill the house with his friends and stay up all night to celebrate his birthday AND the New Year.

PICTURE ALBUM:

Rich had his laptop connected to the TV so he could watch some of the wrestling matches from that morning. Zak (the one making the face) had hurt his lower back during his match so they were trying to figure out what happened. You can see the laundry I was still working on folding….after all these years of having people over to our house I’ve gotten gotten over the feeling that “it must be clean”. I have gracious friends.

Ethan and his girl.

They are soooooo cute.

Kylee was trying to braid Grace’s hair and Sarah was watching intently because she wanted to learn to braid. You can see the braids in her hair, I had done them a few hours earlier and as I was braiding, Sarah was saying she wanted to learn…..so it was providential that Kylee decided to practice on Grace, and Sarah could get a lesson. 🙂

Playing “SORRY”

And UNO

Caleb and Jacob; Caleb is Grace’s boyfriend, Grace has a brother named Caleb and Caleb has a brother named Jacob.

three of my boys (two are missing)– Ethan (18), Jacob (20), and David (14)

And one with their Dad, too.

Time for the cake! Dixie cups making things easier. And please notice my stack of small fiesta plates. 🙂

I can’t get over it.

Look at all these wonderful people.

I LOVE THIS PICTURE SO MUCH. Grace is so cute!

Sherlock’s favorite place to sleep these days.

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best friends

Downstairs in the basement….we got a new couch for Jacob. Seats 10. I love how Seth (the little guy) stayed right with the bigger kids all night.

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my Caleb

And Sarah (despite the face) LOVED being able to spend time with the girls.

Parker the Dog was in heaven (and spent the night trying to steal food and chew things up in order to get people to notice him). He was resting his chin on his stuffed animal in this picture.

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I went to bed at 11 and when I got up there were kids sleeping all over the place. Ethan eventually made pancakes and then everyone left and it was just our family again.

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