Imagine, life without TV, movies, videos, video games, emails, or internet.  Strange that the idea of life without these things would sound strange to me.  I want to try, though, and so I talked to Rich about my idea and we came to a decision over breakfast, just this morning:

We are literally going to unplug
both the computer and the television until September. . . .

I am looking forward to a unique summer full of fun for my whole family and I will be back to tell you all about it, Lord willing, in mid-September.  Three months isn’t that long, is it?    What I am truly hoping for is just a little more extra time to spend with the Lord, and with my husband, and our six children who are growing way too fast. 

I’ve been blogging here for three years and it will be so strange (there’s that word again) not to be part of this community of friends that I’ve discovered here.  I’ll be lonely for you all at times, I know I will.  I won’t forget you and I hope you don’t forget me, either! 

Of course, I’ll be back in the next few days before we “unplug”.   I look forward to hearing from you “one last time” before I go…….

Here’s to an amazing summer with God, family, and friends!  I hope you all have the best one ever with the ones you love.  I will be praying for you, my special and dear xanga friends.

Your loving friend, Shanda

Seth, now that he’s past the sleepy newborn stage, is demanding more of my time.  I told Rich last night that I feel like I spent the whole weekend with a baby on my hip.  Not that I mind, of course, but it leaves me with far less time (for now) to do other things (that involve two hands).  Thankfully, at the moment he is sleeping, so I have a chance to quickly post a few pictures from our weekend.

Weekends are wonderful because Rich is with us all day and we do so many little family activities.

On Saturday we went to McDonald’s for breakfast, then to a little bulk-food store (the owner is a young Christian man, and he is so nice.  His mom helps out and she talks way too much, but I always try to be patient as she over explains everything…she really does have a heart of gold and means well.  She sent me out the door with a handful of free candy for the children…..pop rocks…Caleb had no idea what they were and I didn’t tell him that the candy would pop and fizzle in his mouth.  He put that candy in and then FROZE.  I laughed and laughed.)

ummmm…where was I?

Oh yes, and I’m so excited to report that we went to a farmer’s market for the first time!  It was a treat, to say the least.  The first thing I did, with baby Seth in his Ergo carrier and my husband (with the money!!) and my children around me….was buy a bunch of yummy smelling peonies.  I thought it would be so nice to carry flowers in my hand as we looked around the booths.

We got to one booth where the warm, sweet smell of strawberries induced me to spend 12 dollars on 2 quarts of first of the season berries (they were just picked that morning).  The farmer’s market had a married couple providing live music (fiddle/folk music) and it was wonderful to sit with the family and eat fresh juicy berries as we tapped our toes in time to the music.  We also ate a loaf of fresh bread.  We left with pink lips and pink fingers, from those wonderful strawberries.

I also bought a pack of cherry tomato plants, and some local honey.  I’ve been eating the honey drizzled on my buttered toast.  YUM.

(Here is a random photo of Seth, I think he grows in his sleep)

Well, I didn’t say this earlier, but before we even went to McDonald’s for breakfast, we made another nature memory.  It was early in the morning, and I was still half asleep, but someone had called to me that the mallard ducks were down in the stream.  I think it was Jacob.  So, I went down (with Seth, of course) to see them, and as we were looking we came across a big snapping turtle digging in the loose sand on the side of the road.  It was laying eggs!

Rich, Grace, and Ethan came to see, too.  When we realized what was going on, Ethan, all on his own, went to get David and Caleb (who were still in bed)….this was the first we saw of the two little boys that morning, holding hands with big brother, letting him take them down the road to see something cool.

David was clumping in a pair of Ethan’s shoes.  So precious.

Snappers are vicious and could bite terribly.  Have any of you been bitten by one?  They are interesting to look at, we couldn’t help but think of dinosaurs.  The tail of a snapper has those scales that stand up along the top, just like you would see on a dinosaur picture.

We left her alone, and later on, when we got home hours later, I went down and she was gone.  So were the eggs.  I wonder what happened?  Any guesses?

We spent a lot of time on the porch.  I would (try to) read a book, and people would come to talk to me.  I took this picture of Grace, when she came to ask me if she could start earning an allowance again.

Rich holding Seth.

A friend of mine sent me some beautiful owl jewelry this weekend.  I don’t even know how to explain how touched I was when I opened the note and the box….I felt very loved.

This was my favorite piece.

I let Grace model her favorite piece.

Darling, wouldn’t you say?  How fun it will be to wear these things.  I will smile and say “I know WHO WHO WHO will get a big hug the next time I see her!” 

More pictures:

(I was alone with sleeping Seth in the carrier when I took these pictures in a warm, perfumed, and peaceful field.  I got pretty drowsy, myself!)

I had never seen this pretty little moth…….

We had some nice rain yesterday evening but this morning the sun is shining again.  Seth is still sleeping, so I will quickly get as much done as I can before he wakes up.  I just love productive mornings!  Thanks for stopping by my blog, I hope you take a moment to write me a little note…and I wish you all a happy start to your week!

Love, Shanda

“From the rising of the sun
unto the going down of the same
the LORD’S name is to be praised.”

Psalms 113:3

It was a busy morning, with a trip out to get groceries.  Then, back at home to: nurse-the-hungry-baby-put-away-groceries-clean-up-get-David-off-the-bus-make-lunch-eat-outside-clean-up-again-let-children-play-clean-the-porch-put-children-to-bed-for-naps-and so on…..

But how lovely that a new, beautiful, inspiring book came in the mail for me today!  Just the excuse I need to S L O W down…and what a treat to welcome an unexpected gentle rain fall, too.  Rain smells so nice, doesn’t it?  I took my coffee and my book outside.

Sometimes beautiful things make me choke back little tears…and this book is full of the stuff that makes my heart sing.  Vintagey stuff, warm memories, aprons, bright colors, outdoorsy stuff, new ideas, simple but good food and recipes, “how-to” projects, animals, adventures outside (like sleeping under the stars), gorgeous photographs so that at times I just slowly turned pages to soak them in instead of trying to read every word.  All written by a woman brave enough to put action to her dreams, so very inspiring to me….I’m a hesitant sort a gal.  Sometimes I don’t even know/realize what I want until I see it in front of me, then I recognize my dreams and let my mind soar…and this book opened those longings in me for a little while this afternoon.  I came away with a renewed desire to spend even more time outside, to beautify my home and be creative, to open my eyes to the special pictures my eyes can see here in my own life…like my children’s rubber black boots lined up by the front door, Caleb’s left behind crayons and coloring book, the pretty (but dirty) fiesta dishes in the sink, Rich’s work gloves left behind, my own grandma’s yellowed recipes written on index cards, and so on.

I’ve got more ideas, and more plans, and more things to look forward to, all from a little quiet time in the afternoon.  Whether or not I’ll get to them will be left to see.  *I’m gonna try*  It’s so nice to dream.

After a while, I let the children get up and they took a bag of peanuts (in the shell) out to their new playset and they sat under the roofed section as the rain came down, cracking peanuts and throwing the shells off onto the grass.  I had the background sound of both the rain and my chattering, laughing youngsters having fun in the rain, but not really IN it.  One baby was warm and soft in my lap, too, wrapped in a flannel blankie.  Pass the tissues, my eyes are tearing up again!  Isn’t life grand?

My hot peach-flavored coffee was just the thing!

The book was full of aprons galore~

This cute little spot was set up outside for the children, all child-sized things~

This section was about picnics~

More aprons~and little Sethie readin’ with Mama~folding his hands so nice.

I was wearing my favorite, made just for me sweater, that I’ve had since I was a teenager.

Just behind us, in the corner of the flower garden, were my peonies in bloom, enjoying a nice washing~

**sigh** Thanks for stopping by my little place on xanga, and for liking me, even though I am sort of sappy.  I know I am, I just can’t help it! 

Well, Seth is starting to call, and I have a vegetable lasagna to pop in the oven for dinner.  Time to go back to “playing house”~

Have a cheerful night, all!

It has been a nice busy morning at home.  I put on my apron first thing, and made cookies, and I also put dinner in the crock pot for later.  The children have done homeschool and David went to school and came back already.  I’ve been outside a few times…to run down to the pond to see the dead snake Jacob found (life with boys), and also to go for a walk (with Ethan, Caleb, and Seth) to pick some wild flowers (we found honeysuckle and I showed them how to pick off the end and taste the sweet “honey” inside).  *THE WEATHER IS PERFECT!*

We also went outside to take some special pictures of baby.

Because, in the back of my mind today is the thought, “Seth is 4 months old today!”

He is such a wonderful baby boy, bright and happy, with lots of smiles and coos and “talking”.

He loves his family and he loves the outdoors and he loves his toes.

He sleeps all night and in the morning his Daddy brings him in to me for breakfast…then he goes right back to sleep in our bed for another few hours.

David likes to pat him on the head or try to make him jump by saying his name too loud.

Caleb ignores him almost completely.

Grace talks to him and understands what he is thinking.

Jacob is always taking him from me and likes to kiss him on the head.

Ethan smiles at him and holds him and likes to sit by him on the floor to talk to him and make him smile.

Rich is proud because Seth looks more like him than any of the other boys did.  We laugh because Seth always insists on sitting with the family at dinner time, and he sits on Rich’s lap to watch us all eat.  He doesn’t want to be left out of anything.

The children don’t like it when I’m too busy to pick him up the very second he starts to fuss.  They bring him to me, even if I’m outside weeding my flower garden. 

And I can’t imagine life without him.  I thank God over and over for Seth, that he’s so healthy and strong and mine!

I adore the little creases on the outside of his smiling eyes~yummy!

All of these pictures are from today, and as usual, I have a hard time stopping at just one, or two.

Last night, I was changing Seth and thought about how much Jacob liked, as a baby, looking at little cut outs that I hung for him on the wall.  So, I decided to do the same for Seth, only this time, instead of cartoon characters, I found a way to use animals…a duck, a kitty, and a horse (click on links to make your own, the website has lots of other animals and shapes).  I cut them out of construction paper and put them on the wall with scrapbooking sticky squares.  Grace and Ethan were thrilled and are busy today, making their own to hang on their walls.

And see that heart dangling above him?  It has little golden bells on it and I give it a little shake for Seth, so he can hear the pretty bells jingle.  It’s fun to watch his reaction and watch him find it with his eyes, to look at and wonder about.

And the bear is “holding” the vase of wild flowers that Ethan and I picked today.  I was after those yellow ones, because I hadn’t noticed them ever before.  They are a deep yellow, and so pretty.  And, the wild daisies are in bloom!

This is big brother Jacob, 12 and a half years old, holding his little brother:

Yes, it’s fun fun fun to have a baby in the house!  How happy we all are, since Seth joined our family!

Now that four months have gone by since giving birth, I am feeling pretty happy and energetic.  I have “crash days” where I am super tired and weepy, but other than those days, I have lots of energy to take care of the children and also do some things for myself…mainly GARDENING…I have vegetables growing (yesterday we put up sticks in a teepee form and planted pole beans) and my flower gardens are giving me lots of joy, especially since my peonies have opened up in the past two days.

I decided this morning, in honor of the peonies, to have pretty toe day.  It was time for some pink polish!

I am no longer taking anti depressants.  Some of you may remember when Seth was a month old, I started taking them.  I took them for about a month and a half and then stopped.  I’ve felt fine since then, except for those crash days that do such a good job at reminding me that I am in great need of God’s strength day after day.  The Lord is always on my mind, and I think so often of eternity, of being in heaven, and how much I want to make each day count because life on earth is short……..I long to enjoy, to have joy, to be happy and laugh with my children, and the only way I can do that is with Jesus in my heart….He who loves me so, more than I can understand.  My relationship with the Lord is the most important thing that has ever happened to me……I can’t get over the fact that He chose me to be His own, I belong to Him.  Everlasting life with Him is a very real hope in my heart, and it is what keeps me content in my life, day after day.  Everything in my life has meaning, because of the Lord.

I have a heart full of thankfulness today, for my God, my life, my family, my FOUR MONTH OLD, and coffee.

“My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: 
I will sing and give praise” Psalm 57:5

The sky is bright blue this morning, the air is crisp and cool, and the sun is shining brightly.  The whole outdoors is calling me…I want to walk around in the wet grass, I want to check on my gardens and work in them.  This is an exciting time of year, when the first spring seeds are up and looking so promising, when the grass is so green, and the leaves on the trees are, too.  Flowers are in bloom, the birds are singing their happy spring songs.

Davy-do is gone off to school for the morning, Seth woke up at 6:30 and is already back to sleep for a nap.  He’s behind me on my bed, looking so precious that I don’t know which would be better…to watch him sleeping or to wake him up so I can talk to him and kiss his cool cheeks.

We had, not a relaxing weekend, but a busy-happy-crazy-fun-traveling-family weekend.  I spent all day Friday getting us ready to go, and Saturday morning we were driving away from our house at 5 in the morning!  We went to visit my parents and we arrived at their house, after a beautiful morning of travel, at 8:45 am! 

Mom and I have been looking forward to going to a plant sale together, so as soon as we got to my parent’s house and everyone said their hellos and got hugged, the two of us and Seth got right back in the car to go to the plant sale.

My mom had heard about a lady who is a master gardener, and was personal friends with Tasha Tudor.  This lady has a beautiful back yard full of flower gardens.  Mom and I found her house easily and spent some time walking around, admiring the flowers and plants.  There were many other people there, too, but because this was taking place at her house, it seemed more like a gathering of friends than an average trip to Home Depot, if you know what I mean.  People were greeting each other and choosing plants to take home.  If we saw something we liked that wasn’t in a pot, she would hand a shovel to someone and have them dig it up.  She had a pleasant English accent, because she grew up there.  It was  fun experience to meet her, and to hear her talk about her friendship with someone my mom and I both admire, Tasha Tudor, and listen to her talk about their shared love for primroses.  Mom and I came away with eight new plants, and later on we divided those up between us.  Here is a picture of one of Mom’s new plants, “hens and chicks”:

The pictures I shared in the beginning of this post are from my parent’s house.  We spent most of the time outside.  Mom and I took Ethan and Grace for a walk in the late afternoon, down into the woods.  It was such a pretty time of day, when pockets of the woods were getting dark, and yet the sun was shining still.  Such beauty all around us.

My Mom and Dad live on land that used to belong to my Mom’s parents.  Grandma has passed away and Grandpa is in a nursing home.  The farm has been sold but the family still owns some of the land.  My Aunt Carol and Uncle Brian live up the road on some of it, too.  Every spring since my Grandma died, my mom and her sisters have kept watch for some special wildflowers that Grandma loved.  They all know where to find Lady Slippers, and everyone of us who knows of Grandma’s delight in them think of her whenever we see one.  They are somewhat rare, and the only ones we’ve seen have been up the road, in the woods.  When mom and I were out walking, she sighed and told me how she wished she could find them growing on her land, too.

I said, “Well, I grew up in these woods and I can tell you I’ve never seen a lady slipper down here.”  She sighed and agreed that it was probably unlikely that we would see one.

So, we kept walking and talking.  On our way back to the house Grace and Ethan had run ahead of us.  It was just Mom and I together, enjoying the last bit of our walk.

All of a sudden my mom gasped and started to cry.

She had almost stepped right on top of a Lady Slipper, one single flower growing alone between two trees in the woods.

We both felt that it was a gift from God, and when we got back to the house, we found Dad sitting on the porch with baby Seth.  We told him the story and he also immediately said it was from God.  He quoted a line from one of my favorite hymns:

“Hast thou not seen,
how all thy desires have been
 granted in what He ordaineth?”
~Joachim Neander, in “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”

There is no coincidence in the life of a believer.  When things like this happen, we know they came right from a loving Father’s hand.

It was such a special touch from God, and a wonderful moment for us to store up in our minds, and remember that He cares and delights in giving good gifts, even something as small as a wild flower growing in the woods, small, yet important, and so very encouraging to a family that misses Grandma.

Rich and I took the children to a hotel to sleep for that night, and Sunday morning was spent sleeping in and letting the children swim in the indoor pool at the hotel.  We also went to the bookstore and enjoyed sitting there and reading together as a family.  We all walked out with at least one new book.  (I got four, one of which is linked at the end of my post today, because I’m enjoying it so ).

Other than the plant sale, the other main purpose of our visit home was to go to a family party in honor of my brother, Isaac, who just graduated from college a few weeks ago.  Isaac is the youngest of the family.  Here is a picture I took of him this weekend, holding Seth.  The children all love Isaac, he is one of those types that attracts children, and during family times, he usually has one or more following him around all over the place.  And he doesn’t mind it one bit!  I’ve never heard him say a sharp word to any of them, or get impatient.

It was nice to take our new baby Seth, and see him passed around to aunts and uncles.  I got to meet my cousins’ new babies, too.  We ate outdoors; hamburgers and hotdogs and salads.  It was the typical family gathering with people buzzing around, visiting, talking, laughing, walking around the gardens, getting food ready, with the young ones running around getting muddy and having a great time with each other.

Here is Seth with his great aunt Mary~

and with his great aunt Carol~

And one of the very best highlights of the weekend was getting to meet a very special baby boy.  My brother Nathan and his wife just had a baby on May 21.  His name is Gregory, after our Dad.

He weighed 9 pounds, 6 ounces! 

Melissa and I will enjoy watching our boys grow up together.

Yes, it was a busy weekend but very much worth it!  I enjoyed seeing all the ones I love and spending the extra time with my husband and our children.  Seth was a good little traveler, too.  I really didn’t even think about the fact that it was his first trip away from home, because he did so well. 

This morning I switched the page of my calendar.  I wish you all a very happy FIRST DAY OF JUNE!

Love, Shanda

“The Swing”

We ordered this swingset on a beautiful sunny day, four weeks ago, and we have been eagerly awaiting it’s arrival.  It was delivered and set up first thing this morning….at 7:00am!  When the delivery men saw us coming down the hill to watch them put it together, they asked me, “Are those all your children or is this a day care?”  I said they were all mine and they laughed and said “SIX? You should have gotten a bigger swing set!” 

Well, this one is good enough, we think.  We picked it out together and now our youngsters have another place of their own, a place to make childhood memories.  They have been outside almost all day today, even though the weather is chilly and damp.  Grace said dramatically, “They SAID it would be a gloomy day, but it’s the BEST day for US!”

Because, not only did they get a swing set, but Mama also made homemade brownies.

“Wanna come over and swing with me?”

The Memorial day parade (on Monday) started at 9:00am so we left the house at about 8:45….as we drove along, I was looking out the window and all of a sudden I yelled, “Hey!  I think we just passed a Bitty Baby crib!!  Turn around, turn around!” 

Sure enough, by the side of the road, in a pile of junk, with a “Help Yourself” sign, was a crib for Gracie’s Bitty Baby.  How wonderful!  Absolutely free!

After the parade, we came home and washed everything all up.  She has the crib, the bedding, and the mobile.  American Girl changes designs every few years and this is an older set, but it matches the carseat that Grace already has, from about 4 years ago.

Of course, we couldn’t keep Seth out of it.  He was a little worried at first, but after we assured him it was okay, he started smiling again.  He likes pushing his feet on the end, and holding the side bars with his hands.

Grace will be 10 in November and I hope to keep her playing with dolls as long as possible.   She’s had her precious Bitty Baby since she turned 5, when she bought her with her own birthday money.  Bitty Baby has been on family vacations with us, and all over the place….I like the pictures I have of Grace with her doll, like this one, from two years ago:

 Grace Lillian