About Shanda

wife, mom of seven, friend, child of God

“no days off”

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Shanda

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We all woke up this morning at 6 and couldn’t sleep anymore! We don’t know why!

To break up the day we decided to go out together to first and foremost get chicken feed, and then do a little shopping, and have lunch. I bought Sarah a cute dress, Seth some stylish sweatpants, myself some earrings, a vase, a liquid measuring cup for baking, and a couple of shirts, and Grace a brown bandana for her hair. The tacos at Moe’s have gotten smaller but lunch was filling and delicious. We listened to happy music on the way home.

David and Caleb are away at camp this week and Rich is on a business trip until Wednesday.

Grace went out for tea with a friend when we got home and we are having quiet time now because this evening is Seth’s first football practice for the season AND Sarah is doing cheerleading for the first time! She’s nervously excited.

I am watching the Waltons and filling out their sports forms. Mondays are always a “catch up on laundry” day and we’ll have chicken patties and veggies for dinner before we leave for practice later.

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My shirt says “no days off” and I wear it when I’m in a humorous mood because I didn’t buy it because I work out daily in the gym, I bought it because I’m a mom. And while it’s true that my current stage in life (“motherhood”) allows for almost no days off, I cannot complain as I constantly count my blessings, the first of which is that I get to be mom of these seven children of ours. There are many busy and even chaotic moments in each day, but there are also many peaceful and quiet ones to recharge, like right now, while I’m blogging and watching TV……….or reading, petting the cats, scrapbooking, baking, walking, or taking off for a morning of shopping with the kids.

life is good and I’m glad I can flop on the couch in between laundry, cleaning, and dishes!

Happy Monday!

raspberry vinegar

Posted on July 27, 2018 by Shanda

“I’m so proud of my vinegar.” ~Things I Never Thought I Would Say

Joanna gave me this cookbook. I don’t remember when she gave it to me but it was published in 2012 and I simply LOVE it…the photography is luscious and lovely…and the theme, SUMMER, makes it an obvious month of July choice to pull from the shelf and look through, slowly, out on the porch in the breeze. Yes, I persue it often at this time of year but I’ve never really tried a recipe until two weeks ago.

On Friday the 13th I found a recipe that excited me. The date was important, as I knew with that date I wouldn’t forget “WHEN” I started the vinegar. Friday the 13th is easy to remember.

I’ve been picking cups and cups of wild raspberries, which are like gems, priceless gems, and the unusually generous amount this year gave me the freedom to easily sacrifice one and a half cups to make some raspberry infused vinegar. The only downfall for me was having to wait the 2 weeks.

However, in typical busy mom fashion, after a couple days of being impatient about waiting, I completely forgot about it until today….two weeks later.

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I know the bottle isn’t very beautiful. I couldn’t even find a mason jar. But the bottle is BPA free, so………

Right away, I reduced some of it in a pan on the stove in order to drizzle over cantaloupe. And while it was delicious, it looked rather like blood.

The cookbook suggests drizzling it over vanilla ice cream. Can’t wait!

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in the kitchen

Posted on July 26, 2018 by Shanda

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For years I’ve been making dinner with children underfoot. Isn’t it grand. Indeed, if it isn’t a child, it’s the dog. Or maybe even both.

David is almost 16. He knows if he wants some attention, he just needs to lay on the floor in the middle of the kitchen while I’m making meatloaf.

I asked him to peel potatoes. He got frustrated because he didn’t like the peeler. I got frustrated because he peeled them on the floor. But he cleaned the floor when he was done.

Dinner was great.

Since the oven was already on and hot for the meatloaf, I made a chocolate cake for dessert, too.

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I baked our family favorite chocolate cake recipe and coated it with a newly found recipe for Glossy Chocolate Frosting, which tastes great with the cake. It ends up being like a thin layer of not-too-sweet soft chocolate fudge. And stays shiny!

Glossy Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 T cornstarch
3 T. cocoa
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup boiling water
2 1/2 T. butter
1/2 tsp. Vanilla

Mix sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, salt and add water. Cook until mixture thickens. Remove from heat, add butter and vanilla. Spread on cake while hot for a glossy frosting which stays soft and smooth. This recipe is enough for a 9 by 13 cake.

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I took the kids to the local library today. Seth and Sarah always play a silent game of hide and seek in the library without running. They always do this…. why don’t they sit and read books is what I want to know.

David read a book about weapons. I recently bought him a new white t-shirt covered in dark red roses and he looks handsome in it. He stayed by my side in the kitchen last night and at the library this morning. He’s a great friend and son and always makes me laugh. He tried to insult me the other day by saying, “I’m this way because of YOU.” but it just made my heart melt, as I took it as an ultimate compliment.

Grace looked at a book about Art and I picked out two books on home decorating. Weapons for Dave, art for Grace, and home decorating for me were all conveniently located in the same area so we sat on the floor together. Caleb came over to us now and then to add to his pile of books which he left with me (Garfield, football)….

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I checked out the books while the children looked at charming paintings and talked to each other.

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And I thought to myself, “They love their sister.”

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I went to the farmer down the road next for some packs of nice hamburger. I am going to make Dorito chip Salad for dinner. Seth and Sarah know if they come in with me they can ask the farmer (or his wife) for a popsicle and they will say “yes” and cut the top off for them.

When we got home I took another cat portrait, this time Sherlock was with David, rather reluctantly.

Seth is standing here with his arm around my neck waiting for me to be done typing. We are about to make another cake because there was only one piece left this morning and he wanted it. However, I ate it in a weak moment (it was so good, so worth it) and I told him we could make another one.

Brittnee is happy.

Brittnee is always happy (says Seth).

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cat & CALEB portrait

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Shanda

fullsizeoutput_582f SHERLOCK, OUR MOST DECORATIVE CAT
HE IS ALWAYS SLEEPING IN THE SAME SPOT……FOR HOURS.

caleb’s most favorite pancakes

Posted on July 24, 2018 by Shanda

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The boys found me writing in my journal, still in bed, when they woke up. They also found our big beautiful (but very shy) black cat and to our surprise, he allowed himself to be loved……..

…..while petting the cat, Caleb cleared his throat and asked, “Mom could you make pancakes this morning? The ones with cinnamon?”

“You mean your favorite ones that you always ask me to make?”

“Yeah.”

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Spiced Pancakes

1 1/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 large egg
1/1/4 cups buttermilk (I keep dry in the pantry and add it to milk)
2 tablespoons oil

Mix dry ingredients and in a separate bowl mix the wet, then pour wet into dry to combine. Fry on griddle alongside sausage or bacon. Serve with warmed maple syrup and, in my case, a sliced banana. Yum! Maybe they will be your favorites, now, too!

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*******

“The Swedish artist Carl Larsson made the everyday life of his wife Karin and their seven children the subject of his most famous watercolors. Instead of idealizing everything in its place, he painted what he saw; the dog asleep on the parlor floor, cast-off slippers, a rumpled sofa scattered with newspapers. These are the frames of a home movie shot by a doting father and an artist who focused his lens on the comforts of the real and unadorned home.” a perfectly kept house is the sign of a misspent life by mary randolph carter

love goes on and on

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Shanda

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2007 big sister

On Saturday, this photo came up in my memories on another social media site. It is a photo I took of Grace eleven years ago, when she was seven years old. I immediately wondered if we could capture the photo with her little sister, Sarah, who is eight. Rich and I were away with Ethan and his girlfriend, so Grace took the photo of her little sister.

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2018 little sister

Once we watched a lazy world go by
Now the days seem to fly
Life is brief, but when it’s gone
Love goes on, and on…….

jam mama (part 2)

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Shanda

Ten years ago almost to this very day I wrote a post on my blog which was untitled but included the words…..JAM MAMA……

“You should have seen small Grace
diving into the warm cup of jam
that I set out on the table,
with a loaf of soft white bread from the bakery.
She tore of big chunks of bread
and dipped the majority of it down
into the bright red jam. . . .
there is just nothing like that warm, strawberry taste
. . . .it’s heavenly.

She called me ‘jam-mama’.”
July 12, 2008

Ten years have come and gone……

Grace is 18 now and was at work (as a cashier downtown at the grocery store) yesterday when I walked up the road to “see if there were any raspberries left”. I determined to really look and really pick every single good enough berry I could find. This involved lots of bending over and looking underneath the tangle of vines and briars and taking my merry ol’ sweet time.

I eventually came home with 6 cups.

Incidentally, these berries grow on the side of the road, free for the foraging! I already have a gallon of them frozen in our chest freezer in the pantry. Once they ripen, we have to go back every couple of days to pick some more until they are finally all done. They are productive!

We have a small patch of wild raspberries over by the chicken coop, too, which the chickens love to jump up and eat off the cane. Then they lay us the most lovely eggs out of appreciation.

The black-cap raspberries grow on the bank by our drive way and under the dead pine tree at the bottom of the yard by the pond.

I always pick clean but you never know what little creatures may have taken a ride home with the berries. So I dumped them out to look through them.

I put them in a pan and simmered them until they released all their juice. I strained out the seeds, measured the juice (2 cups) and added them back to the pan with the same amount of sugar (2 cups). Brought to a rolling boil for 3 minutes and then beaten with the mixer for another 3 minutes. Done! So easy, so satisfying.

I was given the recipe by my very own jam mama, Cindy.

Jacob said the jelly would taste good on “that cake you made the other day” and Ethan suggested some other baked good and I said “How about homemade biscuits?” And he said YES PLEASE.

I made a double batch of biscuits and we all ate them up right away with the homemade jelly on top.

Everywhere I looked there were children grabbing another and another biscuit, slathering it with butter and jelly, and walking away with it………

This morning my feet are sticking to the carpet and the floor.

lovely things

Posted on July 18, 2018 by Shanda

Jeremiah 32:17 Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.

Lovely things are silent…
Rosebuds waxing bloom,
Shadows stealing softly
In a darkened room;
Dragonfiles on rushes,
Stars in dark blue skies;
Hatching, fuzzy birdlets,
Love in sweethearts’ eyes.

Lovely things are silent…
Rainbows in the sky,
Violets shedding fragrance,
A soft breeze waltzing by;
An apple tree in blossom,
Sunsets all aglow;
Moonlight on the water,
Falling soft white snow.

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Lovely things are silent…
Foam clouds in the sky,
Hummingbirds at flowers,
Butterflies gliding by.
A spider’s dainty spinning,
Wild flowers on a hill.
I bow my head in silence
And in my heart I’m still.
~Betty Fox Solberg

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The cobwebs look blue in this light. I’m down on my stomach in the woods to take a picture of a mushroom and I ask God to show me one more thing and I turn my head and see another tiny mushroom pushing up the leaves that I wouldn’t have noticed if I was walking…….

I like this feeling of walking without being in a hurry. The woods around me are so still. And I’m becoming still as well……..

I stand in one spot and don’t move anything but my eyes.

Shanda, July 13, 2018 6:26pm

what are the odds?!

Posted on July 17, 2018 by Shanda

Rich and I and the boys were binge watching one of our favorite shows on Netflix and when I finally turned it off and back to the TV there was a cooking show on and the chef was plating chicken from the grill RIGHT ON TO A beautiful COBALT FIESTA HANDLED CAKE PLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I screamed, “Rich!RICH! Take a picture, take a picture, quick!” (I didn’t have my phone on me). And he did!!

Collectors are always trying to spy fiestaware on movies and television and this was a particularly surprising and fun sighting!

camp fire pizza

Posted on July 16, 2018 by Shanda

When I was in Alaska I was blown away by the campfire pizza they made out in the backyard over a hot fire amongst the trees and canopied by a tarps just in case it started raining.

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While Hannah and I were out about town and exploring Glacier Lake, her daughter Rebekah prepped everything for the pizza. She made homemade sauce (red AND white!) and dough, busily chopped vegetables and got the meat ready, too.

Here are a couple of short videos to “set the scene” so to speak. Hannah and her husband worked like a well-oiled machine and had the entire process down like a science. I asked her about campfire cooking in general and she said they don’t really have any favorite recipes especially for campfires; they just figure out how to cook their favorite foods over a fire. They have done A LOT of camping over the years……

seven puppies, my friends, seven puppies…. and the first-time mother dog didn’t ever want to nurse them, thus Jacob’s foot on her neck. LOL The puppies spent most of the time wandering around exploring.

I wore thick clothing so as to discourage the mosquitos which were large and very plenteous. I could kill five in one slap to the leg.

I don’t know where everyone was when I took this photo……which is of a pizza on the fire, covered in foil held down by sticks. This is the final step in the pizza making, in order to get the toppings melted. LOTS OF CHEESE.

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