There’s a ham in the oven, baking, and making the house smell soooooooooo good.  There are sweet potatoes boiling cheerfully on the stovetop, getting nice and soft for a casserole of candied sweet potatoes.  The house is turning dim, it’s getting toward evening and my yummy youngsters are all bundled up in blankets on the couches, watching a movie. . . . . .

Soon Rich will come home from work and this contented feeling will get even more intense.  I love that man!

It has been a relaxing day, with lots of much needed rest for me, but the children did need some fresh air so I went out as well, to keep an eye on everyone David and Caleb.

The outdoors is getting older looking as we move into late fall.  The leaves are almost all gone now, but still, I saw enough color to get my tripod from the house and set up the camera for a group photo.  You will notice all the winter coats.  Seems like just the other day we were looking at pictures of them all swimming. . . . . .

I spend my days with these precious children, so many hours, so much togetherness.  It’s not always easy, but the highs more than make up for the lows! 

This next one is of my two youngest boys with their still-baby faces.  I remember taking photos of Jacob and Ethan like this all the time when they were this age. . . . . .I love love love this picture.  That bush behind them is giving me so much pleasure lately, it’s one of the only things left that is bright and red, most all the other leaves are a dark rust color.

If you lean in and squint, you just might see the snowflakes!  The children were absolutely thrilled to see the first scattering of snow while we were on our little walk.

That’s my boy Ethan with his dog behind us.  When you live in the country you just don’t care if you have a pink hat on.  Or your mother’s boots and father’s big gloves for that matter.  I said these children were yummy and I meant it!

When I came inside, I noticed that we now have mittens on our nature table on the porch next to the front door.

MITTENS!  Where O where did summer~time go?

Have a glorious evening, all!

~Shanda

My brother and his lovely fiance were married on October 10, 2008 in a private ceremony.

I always admire couples that “think outside the box” for their special day, and do something that is creative and reflects their uniqueness.  David and Maria were married outdoors on my parent’s beautiful property, by our local Baptist Preacher, with only my parents and brother Isaac (who took the pictures) in attendance.  It was a special day for them and the weather was gorgeous. 

I am the oldest of five children and David is the sibling closest is age to me.   I’m thrilled to see him so happy and to have a new sister.  Maria is a wonderful addition to our family, we all love her.

Congratulations to the newlyweds!

(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!

The best things in life are nearest:  Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you.  Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.  ~Robert Louis Stevenson

First of all, I want to thank each and every one of you for the feedback you gave us on a baby name.  It’s been fun to read through all the comments, and it really did help to get some opinions.  I wish I could tell you that we have made up our minds once and for all but we have not.  I guess we’ll all have to just wait a little bit longer. 

Let me try to answer some questions.  Some of you mentioned the name Isaac.  Rich and I both like that name a lot, especially since most people have LAUGHED when we told them about having another boy, and the name  Isaac means “laughter”.  However, I have three brothers named David, Nathan, and Isaac.  Because we have already named one of our boys after a brother, I am trying to avoid naming another one after a brother.    Makes sense, right?  But, we’ll see.  I’ll first have to ask Isaac if he would mind.

As far as other names mentioned, believe me, we have considered them ALL.  The four on the list from the other day were the only four that Rich and I could agree on. 

To me, this is a major decision and I do like to get feedback about baby names, especially from family, so it really helped to hear from so many people in the past few days,  thank you!!!!

However, moving on. . . . .away from that subject for now. . . . .

Happy Saturday!  I have had the most relaxing morning.  I did not get out of bed until 8:30 this morning, and compared to 5am or 6am, which is when I normally get up, it was pure bliss.  I opened up all the shades so I could see the sky and watch the birds doing their morning exercises.  I got back in bed with a new library book and soon Rich came in with a hot cup of coffee for me.

Hot coffee, in bed?  When I normally drink it as I run around the house taking care of the kids?  No wonder such a small thing brought tears to my eyes.  To just sit and sip and stare out the window!  How wonderful!

Then, lil’ Caleb came in.  “See the car I made?”  (of legos)  “It’s really cool”  “There are two men driving it”, he reported, and then away he went.

Next, in came my husband again, with toast and three pieces of bacon on a plate.  I kid you not, it was the very best breakfast I’ve had in ages.  To sit in bed and savor every bite of generously buttered toast (made from homemade bread, that I made last night, no less!) and bacon (from the pig my Father-in-law raised!).  The flavor was out of this world.  Oh yum.  Simple pleasures are the best, don’t you think?

I normally move so quickly the moment my feet hit the floor in the morning, and I felt like a queen this morning as I ate my breakfast and read my book in bed. . . . .I was totally relaxed and felt very cared for.

***************************************

Yesterday after I put David on the bus, I stood in the driveway watching the birds for over half an hour.  I came in the house chilled to the bone (we had a heavy frost that morning), but it was addicting to watch watch them busily eating berries and zooming every which way.  I had fun trying to take photos of them in flight.  I needed quick reflexes!

Female Cardinal:

Male Cardinal:

Robin:

Another Robin:

They were gorging themselves on these red berries:

This next one made me laugh.  He was so fat, he was reluctant to even move.  I was able to get quite close.

I’ve been busy in the kitchen the past few days, too.  I made beef stew yesterday in a heavy cast iron dutch oven that I recently bought at Costco.  It has a nice heavy lid, too.  I enjoy using cast iron to cook with, it’s so rustic and country—the kind of cookware that makes me think of open fires on the prairie.  And if you take care of it, it’s just as non-stick as teflon.

I also made homemade bread (two loaves) and some yummy squash.

Rich and I have been trying all kinds of squash.  Yesterday I baked an acorn and a hubbard.  The first thing I do is cut them in half and scoop out the seeds.  A lot of the recipes I’ve seen tell you to put them cut side down in the pan with some water, and poke holes in them to let the steam out.  However, I bake them cut side up because I love the crispy edges and brown flavor.  I set the oven anywhere from 350 to 400 degrees and sprinkle them with kosher salt.  I baste them with melted butter now and then as they bake, until they are cooked through, nice and soft.  Then I pull them out, baste them with real maple syrup, dust them with cinnamon and a sprinkling of brown sugar and let them sit on the counter until almost room temperature.  YUM.  If ever a vegetable was as delicious as ice cream, this is it!  The hubbard was more dense, the flavor was fantastic, and the c
olor–a dark dark orange–was beautiful.  The acorn is a lighter textured squash, with more moisture.  It is my husband’s favorite and again, the flavor is dreamy. 

I guess this post is just full of simple pleasures—I hope your weekend is full of them, too.  Life is wonderful and there is so much to be thankful for.

Love, ~Shanda~

P.S.  One more picture to share.  The other day I found Grace showing her bunny the picture I put on my blog of her.  Isn’t she so cute?

So, Rich and I are having a hard time coming up with a name for our fifth son, due in February.  We have plenty of time to decide, but he and I both are looking for some input on the list we have come up with so far.

Our new boy will probably look something like this:

The names we already have used are:

Jacob Richard
Caleb James
Ethan Gregory
David Lloyd

And, here is our short list of possible names for the next one.  They are all Biblical names, by the way.  Let me know what you think.  We stayed up talking about it last night and Rich made me laugh when he said he was about ready to offer a 100 dollar reward to the person who could name him.    

Asher  “happy”. 

Elias  “the Lord is God”.

James  “one who supplants, replaces”

Peter  “a rock”

I asked my mom this weekend if we could make homemade donuts while we where there for our visit.

Seems to me, making donuts is one of the best kitchen activities you can do with a large family.

Using an old family recipe, we mixed up the dough, and then went on our walk (the one I wrote about on Monday).  When we got back we rolled and cut the dough, dropped the donuts in hot oil, and then finished them up by shaking them in paper bags full of cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar.

It was made even more fun because there were family members all over the place!  In my mom’s kitchen there was standing room only.  Jacob and Ethan helped quite a bit, Elisha did the shaking in sugar, my mom did the mixing, rolling, and cutting, and then there were others just watching or passing through to snatch a hot one off the plate. . . . . .

Doughnuts (just as my Great Grandma Wilcox wrote it):

3 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 teas. nutmeg
1/2 teas. salt
1 1/2 cups sweet milk (*sweet milk is just regular milk*)
3 tablespoons butter
4 teas. baking powder
2 teas. vanilla
Flour enough to make a dough, so you can handle-roll, cut and fry.

Put 1/4 cup of the sugar and butter in a dish, cream well, add eggs one at a time and beat well.
Mix 1 1/2 cups of the sugar and 1 1/2 cups of milk together in a bowl, stir as you use it, the vanilla can be put in with the sugar and milk.  After all mixed together, let stand about 1 hr before rolling out.  By doing this, you won’t have to use as much flour and they will be nicer.

If you make them, keep your little ones away from the hot oil.  Let them help you mix the dough and shake the donuts in little brown paper bags instead.  You will have so much fun!  Eating them hot is the best part.  If the temperature of the oil is correct, then they will not be greasy at all.

The donut snatcher (and raw dough eater, too) 

*The children are doing “bare bones” education today, Language Arts, Spelling, and Math.

*Grace wore her nightgown until 11:30 this morning.  She only got dressed because I insisted.

*Went to the grocery store with Caleb, had a grumpy cashier who was busy barking orders to everyone around her, loudly.

*I fell asleep watching “Toy Story 2” with the kids.  (After David got home from school).

*We LOVE home-grown pork!  (Rich’s Dad raised the pig for us and had it butchered).  The bacon and ham from yesterday was awesome, and tonight we try the sausage, in lasagna.  If you can raise a pig, DO IT.  YUM.

*Rich went to work yesterday and today with nothing to look forward to but meeting after meeting all day long.  He looked so haggard last night that I sent him to bed at 9.  He once read a book, “Death by Meetings”, and is now experiencing it first hand  (well, I hope not, but you know what I mean).

*I made banana muffins today.  Iced cookies yesterday.  We are well-supplied in baked goods.  

*It’s chilly out today, and raining.

*I missed getting the recycling out to the curb in time for pick-up again today.  I hate that!

*The bunny is doing fine.

*I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday.  My weight is 142, I’ve gained 20 pounds total so far.  Blood pressure fine, baby’s heartbeat strong and healthy, I had a flu shot.  Next time I go, I get my dreaded Rhogam injection. 

*I bought a baby book for the new baby yesterday at Hallmark, and since we were at the mall, we also went to the Children’s Place, where Grace and I picked out some half price little bitty socks and a bib, and a sleeper for baby, too.  Very Fun.

*I’m so sleepy today.  I think I’ll go back to the couch soon, with a mug of hot decaf coffee.

*Being this sleepy reminds me of the picture I took of Grace this past Sunday morning, in the hotel room that she and I shared with Caleb (Rich was in another one, with the three other boys, having adventures.  We won’t talk about how and why David dialed 911 five times while his Dad was in the shower. . . . . . .*at 10:45pm!*. . . . .)

Sleepy-day Banana-Walnut Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I didn’t have any, so I substituted a 1/2 cup of old-fashioned oats)
1/4 cup melted butter (I was too sleepy to melt butter, I used canola oil)
1 cup mashed, ripe banana (about 2 bananas)
1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs.

Mix dry ingredients.  Then, in separate bowl, mix wet ingredients.  Add to well in center of dry, mix lightly (until moistened, don’t over mix).

Put batter in well-greased muffin tins.  Bake at 425, for about 20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.

Of the photographs that were taken this weekend, this one is probably my favorite.

Not because I am completely vain, but because when I look at it, I see a content woman.

This is a picture of me, wife of a hard-workin’ man, mother of half a dozen young ones of various sizes.

Wife and mother are the roles that have almost completely taken over the *rest of me* at this time.

However, I’m so much more.  Child of God, sister, daughter, friend.

I’m also just me, myself, apart from any human relationships, I’m an individual, unique, and created by God for His pleasure.  A living soul that can deeply breath in and out, and smile with her eyes shut, while sitting cross-legged in her Grandpa’s fields.  Because even though Grandpa is in a nursing home, and his land is now divided amongst family and strangers, in my mind they will always be my Grandpa’s fields.  The same ones I ran in as a child with my long long hair,—just being a child,  flying kites, turning cartwheels.

My cousin Elisha was playing with my camera when she took this snapshot.  We had just gone on a long walk with my mom, my aunt, and my sister-in-law.  I think part of the contentment I see here is the result of all that time with the women in my family, women that I feel secure being around, who love me.  We take care of each other and want to do what we can for each other.  My daily life is full of motherhood, and it satisfied something deep within me to leave that mothering back in the house with the men, and just be with the women I love the most in life. 

It was the first walk I’ve been on in this pregnancy, and heard words like, “you okay?”  “be careful!”  “you better go up that way, it looks easier”. . . . .those words meant so much to me, because I’m the one usually saying them these days, to my children.  It was *delicious* to be on the other side of that for a little bit, on the receiving end of care and concern.

We walked all over family property, land that is in our blood and memories, our hearts.  The air was fresh and chilly, our talk filled the air and scared away any bear (or men, for that matter) that might have been hanging around the forest.  We laughed.  We picked apples.  We noticed things in nature and collected colorful leaves.  We reminisced.  We took pictures.  We enjoyed each other and came away happy.  Content.  Thankful.

Because you never know when this time might come again, if it ever does.

The family farm, my Grandpa’s barn, is quiet, except for the sound the wind makes through the empty buildings. 

As for me, I’m now back home in CT, back to being wife and mommy.  The walk is a memory and the precious women I walked with are in another state, hours away. . . . .

Time changes some things, but not the things that matter most–the parts of life we hold dear in our hearts and gently remember, like the love of family and friends.  Distance may separate us, but the bond is never broken.

. . .Chocolate Chip the bunny.

Grace has been talking and reading about bunnies for a while now, filling her mind (and the rest of our minds) with random rabbit facts.  When we were in NY this weekend, Rich and I decided to take the hint and get her one at Frog Pond Farms (one of our favorite places).  We are hoping that the bunny will be a good compromise for Grace, who, to be honest, wants a pony more than anything else in the world.  Our girl is an animal lover.

Grace seems quite content and happy to have something soft and cute to love and take care of, and is currently writing up a daily schedule for her new pet.  I hope C.C. has a long and happy life in this busy household!