About Shanda

wife, mom of seven, friend, child of God

dear rosemary wells

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Shanda

Dear Rosemary Wells,

I am a fan of yours. A very big fan. You see, I’ve been enjoying picture books with my various children for 19 years now and your books never get old. They are always interesting. They are “evergreen”. We have read many of your books. Max’s Chocolate Chicken is a favorite, Bunny Cakes, and also Felix Feels Better. So many wonderful stories.

We have known of you for years, but we weren’t exactly die-hard FANS, yet.

You see, I never really stopped to realize what an amazing artist/author you were until the other day, when I found myself at the library, filling a bag of books for my children, who are in a summer reading program for their school. They have to read and keep track of the number of books they complete and we carefully write the titles on a list in the cupboard.

My son Seth is 7, and Sarah is 6, so they need easier books to read. Pictures books are perfect.

So yes, I was at the library when I came to the “W” section (organized by the author’s last name) and realized….wow….Rosemary Wells has completed an amazing and prolific amount of work as a children’s author. I showed my sixteen year old daughter the length of the row of YOUR books, each one thoughtfully written AND illustrated by you. We were in awe and spoke of our love for your stories. And at that moment, I became aware that I was a true fan. So this is a thank you to you. My oldest child is 19 years old. There are a total of 7 children in our home. And we have read your books all along the way. They are a delight and charmingly creative!

My six year old, with the long blond hair, sat cross legged by my side this morning. She still had sleepy eyes and had just eaten her toast for breakfast. We took Time-Out for Sophie from the library bag and she read me every word, leaning over the pages with her hair dangling and getting in the way so prettily. “Sophie” was a hard word for her to pronounce and remember. We were very amused by the antics of Sophie. She threw her macaroni and cheese on the floor two times! And then she dumped the clean and folded laundry! But Sarah just loved the fabrics of all those pretty clothes. She carefully studied each one and pointed her finger at her favorites that *she wished she could have * (with a sigh).

Thank you for putting humor, detail, and beauty in your drawings. I agreed that the purple polka dotted shirt would look very nice on Sarah.

Sarah thought it was funny that Sophie had her time-out at the top of the stairs. She wondered what the brown wall was behind her. You see, we have bookcases at the top of our stairs. I told her that Sophie is a mouse and so she lives underground. I’m not sure if she was satisfied by that answer but her silence said it was the end of the question and so we moved on to the next page, the part about Granny. Sophie kept taking Granny’s glasses right off her face!

Wise Granny knew just how to put an end to Sophie’s nonsense….by putting HERSELF in time-out. I thought to myself that yes, when MY children were being naughty to me, I would put MYSELF into time-out, too, just like Granny.

We turned the page again to see that Sophie was now in the tub and was in the process of squirting the bubble bath clear across the room. The book didn’t say so, but Sarah knew that Sophie was headed for ANOTHER time out.

Then the book was over and she studied all the beautiful clothes that you drew for the end paper.

We read Shy Charles this week, too, and Noisy Nora. Your wonderful books make me smile and the children like them just as much as I do. We think you must be amused as you work on them, as well. Happiness & joy all around.

Thank you, Rosemary Wells! May you continue to create for many years to come!

********

I sit on the grass and watch the children jump into the pond. They say the water is great and want me to swim with them.

Sarah got brave enough…yesterday! Now she doesn’t stop jumping. At the end of the day when she’s sitting snuggled up to me, I smell her hair and it smells so good, like sweet perfume and pond water.

they show off for mama’s camera

I find a tiny toad.

“Tiny toads are all over the place. There were three on me yesterday.” ~Sarah, while swimming

I bought three bags of balloons the other day and they have been an endless source of amusement for the kids. David likes blowing them up as much as big as they will get. Then he plays with them until they blow up. I was down at the pond when one of his balloons popped and it was so loud my heart leapt and I thought someone had shot a gun in the woods. I went up to the house and the boys were laughing. Ethan said it was as loud as a cannon.

I tied four water balloons for Seth as I wrote this blog post. (He can’t tie them and Sarah can’t blow them up. I’m still needed. LOL)

Shooting hoops on a summer day.

pictures of the day

Posted on June 21, 2016 by Shanda

day of summer

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Shanda

We went strawberry picking in a quiet open field. There was a nice lady just down the row from us who was friendly and spoke like she had known us forever. From the race of Joseph, I feel sure.

They were 29 dollars and 15 cents for 11.2 pounds.

The air was hot and fresh. The sky was blue.

I remember standing at Grandma’s kitchen counter when she made a fruit pizza (it was the first time I had it). I don’t know why I had to make one today but I did, I had to.

Seth seemed to hang in the air as he leapt from the dock into the warm pond. The boys were happy and carefree. Everyone is getting browner from the sunshine but Michael’s nose is sun burnt and red.

Seth found a beautiful insect.

David had a friend over and there was a feeling of celebration as it was the first day of summer and the house was full of people we loved.

Perhaps that is why I felt the impulse to make the fruit pizza?

All thirteen of us, at four o’clock in the afternoon, had a little summer day pizza party.

The moms sat and chatted at the table while the kids all ran off to play games and swim.

“Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair…”
― Susan Polis Schutz

pancakes for the children (a photo series)

Posted on June 17, 2016 by Shanda

“Tread softly! All the earth is holy ground.”
― Christina Rossetti

what is that sound? it’s poo

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Shanda

Good afternoon, friends. This is a tale of birds and caterpillars.

It just so happens, that in the beginning of this week, I was walking with Caleb, Seth, and Sarah and we discovered a *new to us* bird. It was deeper into the woods, near the adventure trail, on the ground drinking from a small stream. As we came upon it, it flew up into a tree close enough for us to see it in detail. Later that day, I found that it was a yellow-billed cuckoo. I was not able to get a good photo of it, so if you would like to see it you can find a picture and an article here. They are known as “Tent Caterpillar birds” because they eat the hairy caterpillars that are so numerous in the woods these days.

(hairy caterpillars)

I first noticed this year’s caterpillar outbreak at Little League. They were crawling in large numbers up the side of the dugouts. Seth said “they were everywhere”. Sarah was morbidly interested but would not touch them. I wasn’t concerned in the least…but I am now.

Why? you ask? Well, the very day that the children and I went a’walking, I was puzzled by the sound of raindrops falling from the leaves of the trees. I could not understand how the leaves had gotten so drippy-wet, and also: I wasn’t getting any rain drops on MYSELF.

Today I was walking down the road with my cup of coffee when I heard *the sound* coming from the woods again. I went into the house to put down my cup and get the girls. We needed to solve a mystery.

And what we noticed was, in almost every place we looked, we could see at least one growing and munching caterpillar. The woods were alive with the sound of pitter pat droppings, not of rain, but of caterpillar POO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tiny, hard bits of poo. Everywhere. Dropping on the floor of the forest. They were most easy to see, caught in spider webs.

I went online to research, just in case I was crazy. Maybe the little hard brown bits were seeds? Maybe? But I quickly found this article.

“The caterpillars are harmless – but they do like to eat. You can see the buffet of half-eaten leaves on the ground, constantly falling from trees.

“You can actually hear the activity,” Grigoriou said. ‘It sounds like rain.'”

~Matt Scott for Fox 61 news

The activity that sounds like rain happens to be a vast amount of waste product falling from the very hungry caterpillars which cannot stop eating and therefore cannot stop pooping.

Caterpillars of various sizes are all over the place in the woods.

crawling and creeping and haunting

up and down tree trunks

big trees and little trees

they’re everywhere (insert spooky voice here)

eating and eating and eating and eating

and….dropping and dropping and dropping and dropping

Is it nature’s fertilizer?

millions of these little poop balls are littering the ground

along with leaf bits that have been chewed away and lost off of the trees

NEVER IN ALL MY DAYS!!!!!

I’m rather amazed by it all…..and I hope you are, too.

*****

Yesterday we had a pair of ducks on our pond all day long, they were quite a delight to see. The girls and I sat together and watched them.

We had conversations about monogamy, orange feet, how ducks communicate, nests and eggs, and what they must think of us, and do they like it here, will they live here and raise a family, and so on.

Later on that evening, I was watering and weeding the garden when I heard the unmistakeable sound of an Osprey.

Sure enough, I looked up just in time to see one alight in the dead tree with a fresh fish in it’s strong legs. (it was wearing white pants) I ran into the house to get my camera crying out, “Our pond is a bird-feeder!!” and the children followed me out of doors. Rich mourned the loss of another one of HIS fish to wildlife and not a fishing hook.

Look at the legs on this bird! It’s wings look like a cape.

The (poor) fish was flying.

wet walk

Posted on June 15, 2016 by Shanda

I have a room all to myself; it is nature. ~Thoreau

It had rained that day and we were restless. Therefore, Seth, kitty, and myself went for a rather wet ramble in the woods.

Our feet were soaked…. all the way through our sneakers and socks. Our feet said, “squish, squash” as we stepped and climbed over logs and streams.

The Mountain Laurel was in bloom. These beautiful shrubs are Connecticut’s state flower. As we drove along the roads on Sunday, to and from church, I looked deeply into the woods and could see Mountain Laurel everywhere.

Things were very drippy on our wet walk day.

We found two very small bushes of bog laurel, a pretty blossom. They were growing among the Mountain Laurel.

We saw an inch worm dangling from it’s thread.

It was amusing to watch it climbing back up, slowly, awkwardly, and methodically.

It was afraid of our eyes looking at it so closely.

The woods were very jungle-like, especially after a nice rain

a secret place…does an tiny elf or mouse visit here sometimes?

(Incidentally, last night I was on the couch watching TV and half asleep with Rich. The boys went outside to play “man hunt” just in time to rescue a perky eared, black eyed mouse from the cat. They brought it inside within a cup to show me, but I didn’t know what they were bringing until they handed it over and I looked inside. 9:30pm is much too late in the day to admire mice.)

my funny Seth

We went to find some wild strawberries but we didn’t eat this one.

Someone was already eating it.

I fed my son wild strawberries while he was busy looking for cool rocks.

“Put them in your pockets,” I said, and he did.

We crossed the stream to get home quicker and I stopped by the chicken coop to get……….

…..the eggs!

Want some?

David’s chicken lo mein

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Shanda

David’s food dreams came true a few weeks ago when I made a big batch of chicken lo mein, using a new recipe. I made enough so that there were plenty of leftovers and he was able to freely get a bowl whenever he was hungry. But that was a few weeks ago, and recently the craving for more chicken lo mein started up again.

Last night while Rich and I were at Caleb’s little league game, David called me and asked if he could make *the chicken lo mein that he was craving* and I said “yes”.

Then he called back and said there was no soy sauce. He was hungry so we gave up on that idea and he had soup instead. On the way home from the game I went to the store and bought the soy sauce and three packages of chicken thighs.

We started making the recipe at around 10:00 this morning. He cut up the chicken. I cut up the veggies. He made the sauce, I stir-fried the chicken. It was a fun recipe to accomplish with a partner.

Soon it was complete, and David filled up a yellow fiesta bowl with the steamy goodness.

He took a photo of his food for his instagram account.

And I took pictures for my blog.

(we have a lot in common)

After it was posted, he took a bite and said he was in heaven.

“Thank you for helping me make this, Mom,” he said.

His siblings asked for seconds.

And I enjoyed a bowl of it outside on the porch.

David and I enjoy each other’s company by making food in the kitchen. (yesterday he made funnel cakes). Jacob and I bond while grocery shopping. Grace and I bond while singing. And so it goes. I have seven children and each one has a special way of broadening my world. We can spend time together doing what they like to do best and it’s never forced. We don’t have to try hard to spend time together, we just do what we would do normally…..together.

Chicken Lo Mein

2 boxes angel hair pasta
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
2/3 cup chicken broth
2/3 cup soy sauce (low sodium)
1 T. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. pepper
2-4 T. vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, pressed
12 chicken breast halves, boneless, skinless, and cut into thin strips (we prefer thighs)
5 cups thinly shredded cabbage
4 carrots, coarsely shredded
3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped broccoli
1 medium onion, chopped

Cook pasta according to package directions. Transfer pasta to a large bowl; add sesame oil and toss until coated. In a small bowl, stir together the broth, soy sauce, cornstarch, and pepper; set aside.

In a skillet or wok, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and stir-fry for 30 seconds.

Add chicken strips and stir-fry about 3 minutes or until no longer pink; remove from wok or skillet and cover to keep warm. (I did the chicken in three batches because the pan wasn’t big enough.)

Add cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, and onions to the wok or skillet and continue to stir-fry another 3 minutes. Add broth mixture to the skillet. Stir-fry, mixing well, for 2 minutes more. Return chicken and garlic to the skillet and heat through. Add to bowl of pasta and toss together.

Serves 12

Recipe source: Saving Dinner, by Leanne Ely (highly recommended cookbook)

my boy and my boy only

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Shanda

Let’s just stare at this one for a few minutes. Can you even???????

I took this one through the window at the school. The graduates were waiting in the cafeteria and all the guests were waiting in line for the doors to open to the gym.

Rich and I sat on the left hand side on bleachers with Caleb, Seth, Sarah, David, Tessa, Emily, Grace, and Jacob. We were thankful to have enough tickets for the whole family to watch Ethan graduate but I doubt the little kids were thankful because it was a long and pretty boring night for them.

Zach is Ethan’s red headed best friend. They were even in the same Kindergarten class.

Caleb is also one of Ethan’s best friends. They were friends for years before he and Grace started dating. He looks pretty serious in picture but then we yelled his name and he smiled.

The young men wore blue robes and the ladies wore white.

*Zach receiving his diploma. (He is attending college this fall).

The graduation began at 7pm and went on for approximately two hours while we were sitting squeezed together on the bleachers. It was kinda funny. Rich was uncomfortable the entire time…too hot and the bleachers were too hard and his hip was hurting and then Sarah got on his lap and the face he made as she explained she had to sit there because she was “too squished” was so funny…….

David and Caleb coped by reading books. Aren’t they so handsome???

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We sat right behind the family of the Valedictorian which was exciting (to me). His speech was very well done.

Caleb receiving his diploma (he is going into the Coast Guard this summer).

Ethan waiting for his turn to get his diploma and my heart was bursting. He wore cowboy boots and decorated his cap with the American Flag. (one of the girls did the very same thing, boots and flag). Very fun.

I stood up with my camera to take pictures while Rich and the kids all cheered as loudly as they could for our E.

This is one of my favorites of the night…Ethan clearly in the middle of the photo leaving the room with a classmate on his arm. The kids were all so happy.

I managed to get through the crowd in my very high horrible heels and found Ethan drinking chocolate milk at the reception.

We got a phone call from the school this morning saying they had Ethan’s class ring in the office (he didn’t even know he had lost it).

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Ethan and Mitch

My daughter Grace with her boyfriend, Caleb.

Ethan with his girlfriend, Tessa.

Jacob and Ethan

Ethan and his Dad

Ethan and his Mom.

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Ethan and all of us.

(Incidentally, earlier that evening while we were still home, Grace got Sarah ready while I was getting ready and we ended up all three matching. The next day the same thing happened, we all three ended up wearing yellow shirts without even planning it.)

Ethan and his little sister, Sarah Joy. Sarah is wearing a dress that used to be Grace’s.

All in all it was a very exciting night. We left as soon as we could. My feet were killing me and Ethan went to a party that the school arranged through “Safe Grad”. He stayed up all night and slept until 11 in the morning the next day.

I didn’t cry or even feel like crying. But I had a headache and was buzzing with emotion regardless. My mind could only hold the essentials; “Ethan” and “Graduation” and “taking photos”. I was so embarrassed because I met a man and his wife in line before the graduation…we introduced each other and everything….by the end of the night I introduced myself to them AGAIN. And the lady said, “Whatever you are drinking, I’ll have some, too.” Which was rather rude but it just goes to show that I was in tune to my boy and my boy only.

****

Today is the first day of summer vacation. It is sunny but oddly windy. Caleb and Seth were invited to a friend’s house for a morning of play. I drove them there and then took the girls with me to the thrift shop where we spent three dollars on an aquarium (for nature studies at home) and a bag of books (for summer reading). Also today: David made homemade funnel cakes fried in oil (Aunt Colleen’s recipe), I made a double batch of blueberry muffins, Jacob and Emily took Sarah for a canoe ride on the pond and they threw bread to the fish. I saw a pair of cardinals and ate three wild strawberries. David had stomach ache by this afternoon so he is taking his second bath (he thinks maybe he ate too many funnel cakes but refused Pepto Bismal). Ethan is at his girlfriend’s house, Grace is at Caleb’s house, Jacob is at work, Emily is also at work, and the three youngest are now watching Zootopia after begging me all day.

Oh my word, I am in my room typing this and I could hear the dog whining at the door to the house but I didn’t think anything of it and guess who just came in, and it’s only 4pm!!!

My husband!!! so happy!

Gotta go. Bye!

blessed

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Shanda

You’re never going to believe this!!

I saw a pileated woodpecker like 9 years ago down by the stream and I’ve been wanting to see another ever since.

This morning I saw three!

They were hopping around and perched in the big tall dead tree in the far front of our property. I heard one of them make a call and observed one grooming it’s feathers. I snuck down the hill with my binoculars and the camera, quickly changing the settings to 24MP so I could make a nice print if I was blessed enough to get a good picture. I say blessed because I was praying the entire time.

so happy!

“Wonderful riches, more than tongue can tell –
He is my Father so they’re mine as well”

praiseworthy

Posted on June 9, 2016 by Shanda

“Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others
cannot keep it from themselves.”

Baccalaureate was yesterday at 4:00. Ethan almost didn’t go….

It was one of those “we almost didn’t bother” but we did and it was amazing. God likes to do that now and then. Totally unexpected SOUL FOOD.

The 2016 class, the faculty, the volunteers from the community, teachers, friends, parents, and ministers all came together for a heart-felt, spiritual service. I sat in the pew with Seth, Sarah, David, and Caleb and soaked it all up.

If you’re reading this and you had a part—THANK YOU.

pride, joy, smiles, tears, song, words. so good.

Hunter reading Scripture.

Glad there was a program so I could study it and learn names.

High School choir in beautiful harmony.

Caleb (Grace’s boyfriend) reading Scripture.

I learned a new hymn and I loved it!

Rachel and Sarah singing with their Dad playing guitar. Making us cry.

Rachel spoke to her class some encouraging words.

They were given candles as “Go Light Your World” played.

Whoever put this service together was thoughtful and gave the kids so much to remember.

They will go far.

The Pastor of the church was kind and down to earth.

I held it together until Grace became emotional and then realization flooded over me again that this is a season of changes, not just for me as a mom; but for my children as close brothers and sisters.

The love they share will never change.

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friends

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.