Les Mis quotes, photos of bugs and things, & thoughts

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Shanda

“One day he sprained his ankle in his effort
to avoid stepping on an ant.
Thus lived this just man.”
Les Miserables

“Does not this comprehend all, in fact? And what is there left to desire beyond it?
A little garden in which to walk,
and immensity in which to dream.
At one’s feet that which can be cultivated and plucked;
overhead that which one can study and meditate upon:
some flowers on earth,
and all the stars in the sky.” pg 37

“The most beautiful of alters
is the soul of an unhappy creature
consoled and thanking God.” pg 15

“Be it said in passing, that success is a very hideous thing.
Its false resemblance to merit deceives men.” pg 34

“He had nothing of the prophet and nothing of the magician about him.
This humble soul loved, and that was all.” pg 37

“The sadness which reigned everywhere was but an excuse for unfailing kindness.
Love each other;
he declared this to be complete,
desired nothing further,
and that was the whole of his doctrine.”

“When the heart is dry, the eye is dry.” pg 60

Hello, my friends.
How are you today?

I’m having fun carrying my camera around outdoors.

Yesterday, I shared some wild clover from my bouquet, with Grace’s bunny. She also enjoyed some parsley from the garden.

Every once in a while I take a picture indoors, too. Because my cats like to pose for me.

The children are on their third day of school. It is going well. When they get home they like to swim.

Does anyone want to read Les Miserables with me?

Grace fell in love with the movie a while ago and I finally sat down to watch it with her a few weeks ago.

I was astounded by the story, the music, the messages.

I’m currently on page 64 out of 908.

*It begins with the Bishop, and I have found a new kindred spirit. I love the Bishop!*

By “reading the book with me” what I mean is this: You read your copy and I read mine, at our own pace. If anything strikes you, a quote, an idea, share it with me in the comments at any time and I will respond to you. Also, I will share quotes as I go along, too. Thank you, dear reading friends.

Have you seen the movie? I watched it again with Rich on Friday and he was touched by it, too.

He calls the book a doorstop.

*****

Sarah is feeling a little bit under the weather today so we are cozied up on the couch watching The Little Mermaid. It has been a bright, cool morning but is starting to heat up. The sky is blue and cloudless. I can feel the seasons change, from summer into fall, in the typical New England fashion. It’s a rich, contemplative time of year, I find myself wandering outside a lot…breathing in the air, looking at everything around me, listening to the cricket’s buzzing sounds, thinking about things or nothings. Yesterday evening Seth and I took a blanket outside to watch the clouds turn pink. As soon as we got comfy he popped right back up and asked, “Do you mind if I play catch with myself?”

I have to do a little house cleaning this morning before the children get home from school. I have started up my school year habit of making everyone’s bed while praying for that person. (recommended) Rich should be home by 5 and we are hosting a dinner/Bible study evening here later on.

My favorite moment of the week? Standing in the driveway on the first day of school watching and waiting for Seth’s bus to bring him back home, and then when it came, watching him get off and run to me. My heart! I cried a little. He was dear, and he was back home with mama.

Have a wonderful, blessed day dear ones! You are loved.

The King of love my Shepherd is,
Whose goodness faileth never,
I nothing lack if I am his,
And he is mine forever.

Henry Baker, 1868 (old hymn)

{this moment}

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Shanda

{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

a collection of little things from the ground in the woods, from a walk yesterday

not unlike collecting pretty seashells at the ocean

it’s called “gatorland” but there are a lot more than gators here……

Image

yellow mushroom, white morning glories

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Shanda

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Like his brothers and sister before him, David has read The Hobbit. In fact, he just finished it.

He’s a big fan of hobbit-holes.

It’s hard to make your own actual hobbit-fort, but he and Ethan made the next best thing yesterday in our woods by the stream.

It took them all day and then they slept in it last night, just the two of them.

The fort is in a secret location so that their siblings can’t vandalize it (not that they actually WOULD, of course).

With honor, I was ushered to the secret location so that I could admire the finished project.

It really is impressive, and picturesque, too.

I’m not feeling well. I think summertime chaos is getting to my system, I feel tired and shaky. Not sad or depressed, just deep down very tired. Please pray for me, as I have lots going on. Tonight we have a big dinner and Bible study at our house, tomorrow morning I leave bright and early with Jacob, Emily, Grace, and Sarah to drive four hours to NY for Cassandra (my future sister in law)’s bridal shower. We are coming back home Sunday evening and then that week Rich has a business trip. (so on and so forth)

The children are helping me get the house picked up for tonight and I’m going to rest at nap time. I’ve felt like crappity crap since Tuesday…exhausted.

Anyway, after I admired the fort, I went for a short walk, thinking that the beauty of God’s creation would soothe my aching head.

I saw a yellow mushroom.

And, wild morning glories. Seeing them triggered a memory from childhood. Morning glories just like this one used to grow in the bushes by my Grandparents’ large pond. As children, we used to pick them and smell them right onto our noses…..so I did that yesterday, again.

Then, I taught Seth how to do it.

And Caleb.

Continuing with the theme of “if I get away from the house, nature will heal me”, I asked Grace to go outside with me to watch the evening birds.

We saw a lot! I think I will take up a new active interest in birding because with the ponds, the forest, and the stream, we have a lot of birds. We quickly counted up about 10 different ones. My favorites to watch were the hairy woodpeckers. They are so industrious with their hammering, and it was fun to watch the wood chips fly as they pecked away.

Then, I caught a big grasshopper that had hopped over my foot, and held him until we got back up to the house.

I showed him to Seth and Sarah; their faces crack me up.

Isn’t it interesting? It worked it’s mouth around to ooze out some “tobacco juice”.

“The grasshopper has some means of defense as well as of escape; it can give a painful nip with its mandibles; and when seized, it emits copiously from the mouth a brownish liquid which is acrid and ill smelling. This performance interests children who are wont to seize the insect by it’s jumping legs and hold it up, commanding it to ‘chew tobacco’.” ~ Handbook of Nature Study (a handy book to have, indeed)

We let the grasshopper go (with many thanks) and then I walked Grace up the road a little bit to see the berries that were ripening. We quickly picked a couple of handfuls and took them home to give to Dad. Grace was funny and made me laugh a lot (dear, dear girl).

Grace wrote down everything we saw in her tiny book. (which she was given by my Mom)

This morning I was able to get away for a couple of hours to get my hair done. I stopped at the grocery store on the way to get myself some fruit and nuts. Getting my hair done was so relaxing I almost went to sleep in the chair.

When I got home I asked Grace to take my picture, and as she took it Jacob came walking down to show me yet another learned card trick.

Have a great weekend, my friends!

you are loved

{this moment}

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Shanda

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.

A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{this moment}

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Shanda

{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. inspired by soulemama

{this moment}

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Shanda

{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~ inspired by soulemama

at home, outdoors

Image

In him
we live
and move
and have our being.

Acts 17:28

Good morning friends, a beautiful day has dawned bright and fair. I am putting my feet up after cleaning the kitchen. This morning I made a pancake breakfast for David, Caleb, Seth, and Sarah Joy. David said, as he ate his second big ‘cake, that I made The Best Pancakes and I said, “I used your Grandma’s recipe, you know”.

(Thanks, mama.)

There are candles flickering yellow, and the dishwasher is humming.

Little Seth is climbing up into the recliner to snuggle up close.

Today Grace has a follow up appointment for her fractured finger, and this afternoon the boys have dentist appointments, so I thought I would use some time this morning to post some pictures from the weekend (and yesterday)….these early summer days are utterly inspiring with their beauty. It’s so good to be outdoors with the trees, flowers, and grasses turning brilliant green.

I draped the camera with a kitchen towel to take a picture of the children’s melting chalk drawings, in a pouring rain, the colors swirled and Sarah was sad.

joys of childhood (watching with a mama’s heart, content)

playing jacks (with fresh, new chalk drawings)

an old wooden crate planted to bachelor buttons~

David was silently mouthing “help” to me. He is at the age when any display of affection toward himself is embarrassing.

Jacob and Ethan

muffin lunch

under the pine trees

I was thrilled to discover this pink flowering bush hiding behind the other trees down at the pond. It is about 10 feet tall and must have bloomed every summer since we moved here without me ever noticing…….(how?)…..a happy surprise.

I recognized the blossoms from Grandma’s garden but looked it up in a flower book just to be sure; it’s a PINXTER FLOWER; pink azalea

“This much-branched shrub is especially showy in flower. It is relatively tolerant of dry sites and can be transplanted into wild shrub gardens.”

Jack-in-the-pulpit, or Indian Turnip

These aremgrowing in the forest. I’ve always been amused by them, probably because they have such a personality as preacher-men.

See? Here is “Jack” in his pulpit. Is anyone listening? All the other flowers in the forest, perhaps?

“Because of needle-like calcium oxalate crystals and perhaps other acrid substances in the swollen, underground stem, it is peppery to the taste and causes a strong burning reaction if eaten raw; this unpleasant property can be eliminated by cooking. Native Americans gathered the fleshy corms for food.”

This was growing up straight and tall in the middle of a group of ferns. When I touched it I was surprised by how dry and “scrubby” it felt.

Seth has been spending a lot of time silently walking around and around the ponds, trying to catch bull frogs. When he caught this one he brought it to show us, holding it high over his head with a grin and yelling, “Praise the Lord!”

God smiles.

Millions of toad tadpoles in our pond.

My beautiful son all tired out from the very best of activities; running wild in the great outdoors.

Our window-shelf of nature books.

“I wonder if anything will be–can be–any more beautiful than this,” murmured Anne, looking around her with the loving, enraptured eyes of those to whom “home” must always be the loveliest spot in the world, no matter what fairer lands may lie under alien stars.” Anne of the Island, LM Montgomery

Have a wonderful day, my friends. Look around you at all the interesting things in this world, there is much to see.

You are loved.

loving others

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Shanda

“When life is a weariness and escape impossible, it is wonderful to have a friend who can bring us peace with the touch of a hand.”

“Those were the good days. They were serene days and quite undemonstrative, like the best days in one’s life; the boy never forgot them. Nothing happens; one simply lives and breathes and wishes for nothing more, and nothing more.”

Independent People by Halldor Laxness

new dress

striking a pose but has a wedgie

“what are those brothers up to now?”

two toy cats, one in each hand, named Stacey and Jessica

I held her cats as she crossed the stream.

how I love this daughter of mine

with her big brother, they look so much alike

What a blessing it is to have older children to help arrange days of fun with loved friends. As parents, we desire and delight that the children *want to bring their friends* to our home. It lifts the soul to talk and laugh together with a house full of happy people, comfortable and relaxed in our relationships.

Today is the delicious feeling of a good healthy TIRED, the result of yesterday’s full day of fun, and memories. Oh how we need one another, our friends, our community, our families. I watched with contentment in my heart as children from multiple families ran in and out of doors, ate their treats, teased, laughed, got dirty, and had a wonderful time of freedom and beautiful wildness. All the children had dirty feet by the end of the day.

Kathy, Caroline, and I went for a little walk, talked, and discovered wildflowers; two simple activities which are like therapy for the woman’s heart. A good talk about all of life’s happenings, and the eyes to see and notice the beauty of the world around us.

“Come in the evening, or come in the morning:
Come when you’re look’d for, or come without warning.
Kisses and welcome you’ll find before you,
And the oftener you come here the more I’ll adore you!”

Thomas Osborne Davis

“The more I think about it,
the more I realize there is
nothing
more artistic than
to love others.”

Vincent Van Gogh

outside

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Shanda

Sarah’s been doing this bothersome thing for days now where she wakes up in the night and turns her light on to look at books. If we hear her feet (her room is above ours) we get up and put her back to bed but mostly she gets away with it. I know she does it because she sleeps in until about 9 the next morning. Last night she came in my room at 3:30am and said, “My room is too noisy!” I was so tired that I asked her to get into bed with me, which was a terrible decision because she had insomnia in my bed….after about half an hour she asked for a drink and I put her back to bed upstairs. Her window was open so I shut it for her. (she didn’t like hearing the nighttime sounds).

This morning after the big kids went to school, Seth and I had an hour and a half to ourselves before I went upstairs to wake up sleepy head (night owl). She woke up with her hair wild and a sleepy smile…what a way for her to greet the day, with a look at mama’s funny face peeking into her room and a smile appearing on her own. My heart melted as I walked over to her bed, “Sarah! Aren’t you hungry?” She nodded “yes” and let me pick her up.

I forgot to mention that she fell asleep in my arms last night. I was gone from 5 to 8:30 with little league games and Sarah stayed home with her big brothers, so I went in to check on her at 9 (after showering Seth) and she was still wide awake. I got in bed with her (no covers, it was stuffy in her room after a warm day) and gathered her up…..I felt myself relax with contentment after the busy night, Sarah drifted to sleep and I tiptoed back out of her room.

Davy hit a triple last night. 🙂

Sarah had eggs for breakfast and Seth sat next to her for a snack of applesauce. I brushed her hair back into a ponytail.

They currently have the dollhouse on the floor and are making up stories with all the My Little Ponies, the upstairs of the house is standing room only with them.

I cleaned the living room this morning, it feels so good to sit here in a clean room.

Rich didn’t do laundry while I was away so I got caught up yesterday with about 7 HUGE loads. I hung two of them out to dry on the clothesline. One of which is still there.

While I was down on my hands and knees vacuuming the edge of the room this morning, Seth asked me what was wrong with my feet. They are wrinkled, and yesterday when I was barefoot, dirt became embedded in the cracks…he was concerned. “Oh they’re just dirty, ” I explained.

“MAYBE YOU’RE TURNING INTO A GRANDMA,” he offered, innocently (still concerned.)

After my shower I got dressed and put socks and sneakers on, after rubbing thick lotion into my feet.

*******

On Saturday morning Grace went out for breakfast with her Uncle Dave, Uncle Isaac, and Cassandra. While they were gone, Mom and I ate oatmeal outside and then walked around the lawn.

Here are the photos from that morning outside:

Mom and Dad have several feeders hanging on the porch; the orioles enjoy the hummingbird feeder (goldfinch glowing in the bush behind.)

Mom’s asparagus in the garden. When we went to church the next day, someone tried giving Dad a couple pounds of it from his garden, and when Dad explained that they had their own, he gave it to me.

Basket and Gourd (gourd grown by mom) hung up in the trees by the creek.

a purple flower ground cover that I forgot the name of…..

There were tender bunches of dandelion greens all over the place, I told Mom she could be eating it in her salads but she said no thanks. I bent down to gather some as we walked around, and nibbled on it. They are highly nutritious. Nature’s spring restorative vitamins.

Giant willow tree

She’s already tidied up the iris garden.

A lilac died so she had Dad move it out back and later on discovered some of Tasha Tudor’s foxgloves had transplanted with it.

There were white violets all over the place.

Bluets: a lovely delicate flower.

David and Isaac arrived back home with Grace, and Isaac’s fiancé Cassandra, and we walked with them in the blueberry patch and woods.

Grace went barefoot in the blueberry patch, the ground was soaked with water……

Dave has been making stacked rock sculptures all over the place and he names each one “Ruby”.

It’s amazing how he gets them balanced just right.

He lifted up a rock and found a community of ants underneath so he settled it back into place, not to disturb them.

Grace re-injured her fractured finger by climbing this tree. She couldn’t resist.

Dave set up my camera with a timer so we could get a group picture. I love it. As you can see, Isaac also had his big camera and he took a great many pictures of his bride-to-be. So sweet.

Trout Lily: “Recognized by it’s mottled leaves, this is one of our most common spring wildflowers; it is found in sizable colonies. The name refers to the similarity between the leaf markings and those of Brown and Brook trout.” National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers

I was most excited to find Purple Trilliums because we don’t see them in our woods here in Connecticut. I’m sure we have them, I just don’t know where they are. We found these in the woods behind my parent’s house. See the happy bug on top of this one?

They sort of droop down, and it had rained the night before so they were wet. Their poor heads were tired.

We found close to 20 of them growing around in the woods.

“This common eastern trillium has foul smelling flowers, which attract carrion flies that act as pollinators. As the genus name suggests, the flower parts and leaves of trilliums are arranged in multiples of 3, typical of the lily family.”

Can you believe that? FOUL SMELLING!! I knew this from trying to pick one as a child. I brought hit home and it stunk so bad!

Grace, in Aunt Maria’s rubber boots now, lifted up the head of a Trillium for it’s portrait session.

“It would be well for the designer of tapestries to study the carpets of our forests for his patterns, for he would find there a new carpet every month, quite different in plan and design from the one spread there earlier or later. One of the most beautiful designs from Nature’s looms is a trillium carpet……..It is a fine study of the artistic possibilities of the triangle when reduced to terms of leaves, petals, and sepals.” Anna Comstock, in her highly recommended Handbook of Nature Study.

Brother Dave was hoping to see an orange Newt, and he found two!

These Eastern Newts begin their lives in the water, then grow air breathing lungs and leave water for land (they are orange at this point and called efts). When they become fully mature they go back to the water to lay eggs and live.

After we put it down on a rotten log, it was fun to watch it push it’s way between tree and bark to get away from us big scary monsters.

Grace looking sweet.

One last picture of the lovebirds who are getting married in August.

*******

“This is my Father’s world
the birds their carols raise;
the morning light,
the lily white,
declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world!
He shines in all that’s fair,
in the rustling grass
I hear Him pass
He speaks to me everywhere.”

Maltbie D. Babcock, 1858-1901

Thanks for going for a walk with us!

You are loved, friends.