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

 catching  turtles

 catching frogs

 sharing with sister

 the green green moss

 it was cool and peaceful at the stream

 the beauty of afternoon sunshine

 wearing the socks out, writing a story

 he says they fit

a favorite afternoon snack

 “The gifts we treasure most over the years are often small and simple.”  Fred Rogers

Thankful for all the little moments to treasure on this day…….

JUST SO WE SIMPLY

REMEMBER

My dear children,

Today we had our third day of spring break.  What did we do today?

After breakfast, I cleaned up and then I folded laundry with Grace’s help.  Most of you children watched “Crocodile Hunter” as we folded clothes.  Caleb, you are always studying snakes these days, and you were thrilled when we realized the show was about the COBRA.

WE WORKED OUTSIDE TOGETHER

I wanted to make a path into the woods and I got you all to help me. Grace, you cried because you were worried about us meddling with your favorite spots.  But, after we talked, and you realized that we were going to make it prettier, you were fine.  Jacob, you used Dad’s saw and cut down all the little trees and branches that were in the way.  Ethan, you used your hatchet and cut down some trees, too.  Dave, you used the pruners and got rid of some briers and cleaned off a big rock.  Caleb, you picked up sticks with Sethie.  Sarah, you were so fussy that I walked back to the house to put you to bed for nap (You were very happy to be in bed with your beloved blankie).  It was fun to be outside together.

“Before and After Pictures of our Path Into the Woods”

JACOB MADE A WEAPON

Jacob, you found the perfect stick to make yourself a weapon.

I liked the way you designed the handle.

YOU MADE UP A DARING GAME

For this game, you decided that whoever lost a round of “the sticks game” would have to jump into the (very cold) pond.

Davy, you were The Unfortunate who had to jump in first.

You tried to run away.

Your brothers caught you.

They threw you in without mercy.

Later on, you five older ones played.  Everyone got wet over and over.  You were loud and silly.  Remember when Caleb said he would jump off even though he was very scared, because the water is so very deep?  He said he would but then changed his mind and none of you let him chicken out even though he was crying.  Jacob, you threw him in and then we all clapped when he got out.  He was so happy and proud of himself.  A promise is a promise.

WE ATE LUNCH TOGETHER AT THE TABLE

Tom and Jerry was on TV and we all ate homemade soup and some nice fresh salad.  Jacob, you said the blessing.

We had homemade soup with angel hair spaghetti noodles (broth is water and broth, with basil and 2 T. of tomato sauce). Served with a swirl of olive oil and a tablespoon of freshly grated Parmesan.  (recipe from the delightful cookbook, Apples For Jam)

I dearly love cooking for you children.  I love it when we are sitting around the table together.

After lunch, I read The Lucky Bat to Caleb and Davy in my bed and got so tired that I took a nap.

After nap, we went outside again.

OUTSIDE PICTURES

I love being with you children, but best of all I like being with your Papa.

We were pleasantly surprised when he came home early from work. 

I said, “You came home early and now you have to get your picture taken because I’m blogging about my days this week and this is newsworthy.”

Davy, you took the pictures.

“Each day is a little life.” -Schopenhauer

I wrote this with our dear cat Spot in my lap, and Sarah by my side sucking her finger and holding her blankie.

Most of you know that I have a thing for fiesta ware……I have a confession to make.  I also have a thing for vintage Pyrex dishes.  Four days ago, on Friday the 13th (cue spooky music here) I found this dish at a local goodwill store and as I went to put it in my cart the top flew off and smashed to smithereens on the floor.  (end spooky music) I love those useful glass lids, too.  Oh well.  It’s still a nice, quaint piece, isn’t it?  I like the pictures on it.

Here is a picture of another pyrex dish that I use often;

This one is smaller and still has the glass lid (not in picture). 

BJ, I posted these for you, as I saw on your blog you also have vintage Pyrex.

Today is the second day of spring break.  I cut up a bowl of fruit for breakfast (as seen in first photo).

I did a ton of laundry.  The air outside is so dry and warm that they dried almost instantly on the line.

I watered my peas and radishes.

I cleaned up the house.

I sent the children outdoors.

I chatted with my sister on the phone.

The three little boys swam in our new pond.

This is David and Caleb in our newly dug pond…..this is a sneak peek, as I plan on doing an entire blog post about the pond eventually.  One note of interest:  the frogs are back in it!  I mean, a healthy community of them!  Are they the same ones that used to live here before their pond was drained?  Did they go away and then return?  How?  We wonder.

I walked to the chicken coop with my camera, and Ethan trailing me, asking if I could take them to the mall.

So I took a few pictures of him.  He got his hair cut yesterday and looks so handsome.  He is wearing the necklace that Gary (our pastor) gave him as a gift after being baptized.  It is from the annual Jamaica missions trip. 

He was 8 years old when I first started blogging here. 

Really, teenage boys are no trouble.  They just need LOTS OF FOOD to eat.  (He is 14).

We went back outside (with two eggs) and headed back to the house.  Little Sarah was watching us from the porch.

She was calling out lots of stuff to us but we could not make out anything she said, except, “MOM”.

I found the dress at a children’s consignment shop and you probably can’t tell from the picture, but I painted her toenails light purple.  SO darling.

Can I tell you?  I love her blond hair. 

Yes, we did go to the mall, but only because David honestly needed cleats for his game tonight.

Sarah fell in love with a pink helmet, it looks so smashing backwards.

(this is Gracie, in HER Jamaican necklace.)

Of course we made a brief stop at the bookstore.

Fact:  Grace read two books already this week from cover to cover.  And she’ll finish her 3rd and 4th today.  She’s also determined to write a short story during vacation, too.

After we left the bookstore, we headed straight to Sonic for their happy hour drinks, thanks to a heads-up from a dear xanga pal.

Half off all drinks!  All seven children got slushies and I got a strawberry limeade.

Now that we are home I have the children all resting, as we still have lots to do tonight with baseball and youth group.

Hey, little Sarah, watcha doing?

Oh, I see…coloring?  And you’re holding your crayon so nicely.  Some serious art work is going on here.

And you look so mighty pleased with yourself.

Nice job!  Not bad for a 23 month old.  I love your long up and down lines in different colors.  And you were so cute about getting all concerned when your crayon fell on the floor—-you wanted to put EACH one BACK in the box, where it belonged.  That’s good, too.

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So, my friends, how was your weekend?  Ours was busy but fun.  We had such nice weather for Little League’s Opening Day in our town.

Look at our ball player.  He looks handsome in his new orange uniform.  And his mama gave him a nice new haircut underneath that hat, too. 

(Wow, has this boy GROWN a lot lately, he is 9 and a half now.)

Davy had his first game and even pitched for the first time. 

Because it was opening day, we were at the complex all day long, from 9-4:30.  I went home briefly to get Rich and my cellphone, and lunch.  We spent so much time outside and it was a gorgeous day for it.   The town does so many nice things for the children, including bounce houses, and four town trucks *parked and opened up for exploring.*

Here are Caleb and Sethie climbing out of a big bulldozer.  They also got to go into a firetruck, a dump truck, and a tractor trailor.  There was also a police car, but that was locked up.

I actually got teary eyed over this, LOL.  I just thought it was so sweet and the boys loved it.

Grace was such a blessing; babysitting her little sister at home all day on Saturday, and as a reward, I took her out with me when I got back home.

Here she is, on Sunday morning, in her new pretty dress.

Church was wonderful on Sunday.  Rich taught adult Sunday school and then the service upstairs was beautiful.  The sun was shining brightly through the stained glass windows and all the windows and the front door was open for cool breezes and outdoor sounds.  We sang hymns and praise songs to piano and guitar…I love to look around me at the worshipers, with their eyes closed or the hands up, or smiling, or just singing joyfully….I saw the preacher wiping tears now and then…just all so glad to be together, singing praises to our Father.  After an excellent, uplifting sermon we stayed around talking, the people linger and visit, we lost track of Seth THREE TIMES on Sunday.  Oh, that boy, what will we do with him?

Rich and I went on a date Sunday evening; and I got a new GREEN dress, we went to the bookstore, and also out for dinner.  I can’t tell you how these weekly dates have brought us closer (even if I do mention that “I miss the children” about 5 times a night.  He understands/ignores me.  LOL)

Anyway, I mention all that because as we got close to home we started noticing TOADS.  And we know what this means:  THEY ARE ON THEIR WAY TO OUR POND.  Every year during spring time we welcome all the local TOADS to our pond, where they lay eggs and more eggs.  I said, “Rich, stop the car!” and he did, and I hopped (like a toad) out to grab a toad who was frozen in the headlights.  You should’ve seen the children when I ran into the house with a toad in my hand.  And the poor thing was making the most pitiful “creep-creep” sounds in it’s throat.  It was scared to death.

That’s my hand gripping the toad.  I’m a cool mom, huh? 

After it was properly handled and observed, I put the little guy outdoors.  As we got the children ready for bed (it was after 8pm at this point), little Seth with his dear little ways came to me and said, “Is my toad…..in my pond?” He was so sweet and it gave me the thought to take him outside, so I grabbed my iphone flashlight and the two of us, along with Jacob, Caleb, and Grace, went outside to explore in the warm dark, noisy night.  Peepers were loudly singing down by the stream and pond, and would you believe we have never explored our pond at night?  It was quite interesting, we saw snails around the edge of the pond, for the first time.  Also, some different water bugs and fish.  The pond was actually more active than we ever see it during the day.  We were all bending over, looking at everything.  Even our cats joined us, and they stalked the toads. 

Today is the first day of spring break for my children and we were all so ready for it.

On this first day, I called our forever friends to ask if they could come over and they were already getting ready to come, without us even making definite plans.  Friends are funny that way.  So Kathy came with her five children and it is such a dry and hot day that they all swam in the pond.  I made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, perfection!   The boys (Kevin, Jacob, Ethan, and David) went down to the stream and I found them walking to the house with a big bucket.  “What are you doing, boys?”  “We found crayfish and we’re going to boil them!”  Well, this was first.  I ran to the house to take pictures just as they had put them all into a pot of rapidly boiling water, and Jacob admitted that it was quite hard to put them in, to their death.

The finished product, on a square fiesta plate in “chocolate” brown.

Eating the crayfish.  Jacob was timid, “I think they are raw”.  Ethan and Kevin ate them just fine, and I also ate one piece of tail meat, dipped in butter.

After our friends left, I cozied up with Dave and Caleb and read two chapters of our new book. 

Early this morning, I picked a little bouquet of my garden flowers, and put them in a “rose” fiesta vase.  They are a bit of quiet “happiness” on the children’s table.

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

Children are not casual guests in our home.  They have
been loaned to us temporarily for the purpose of loving
them and instilling a foundation of values on
which their future lives will be built.

James Dobson

sung by seth, age 3, and his mama

“Oh give us pleasure in the flowers today;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year.”  Robert Frost

I get down on my hands and knees to smell this new bouquet of hyacinths in Grace’s flower garden, which she planted last fall.  They are creamy white, sturdy flowers, with a delicious springtime scent.

We two (Grace and I) went for a walk on Monday and found a couple slices of hard wood by the side of the trail, they reminded us of watermelon shapes, we set them up in the flower bed (behind the white hyacinths).  You can use anything to decorate a garden.

Caleb and I stopped to watch some busy ants move a tiny piece of crumb to their underground storage room.  As Caleb had his sticky hand in a marshmallow bag at the time, we decided to break off little pieces of the sweetness, for the ants.  They got right to work at it, and we know they must have thought this treat was a treasure “from above”, for sure.

The garden is young. 

There are daffodils opening up.   This one looks like it is thinking thoughtful thoughts……..

Ethan planted this row of tulips, like a gift.  I remember leaning over the porch railing to watch him dig and plant so industriously with a stick (because we couldn’t find a proper shovel). 

Sometimes, when Davy and Ethan are making homemade bows, their stick doesn’t split correctly, and it becomes a reject.  I find them and collect them against the house, as a backdrop for the flowers.  Then the boys find them again and use them as swords.  Then I find them again and put them back in my garden.  On and on it goes.  It’s a game we play without really realizing it.

 The radishes are popping out of the ground, in a row which I believed to be straight at the time of planting, and am now discovering, is quite awry.

Little Sarah’s peonies are coming up nicely, next to a metal flower.

Rich and I planted two decorative plum trees last spring.  They are on each side of the house, it is a joy to see them blossoming for us.

If you give your children a handful of bulbs to plant in the fall, and you say “I don’t mind where you plant them”, you will find surprises in the spring like I did today.

These purple hyacinths were planted in a clump, by the garage door, straight into the regular ground, not in a flower bed.  Smiles.

Down by the pond.

We stop to bounce a little.

Bending down, I see a little mud house.

We knocked, but there was no one home.

Well, friends, my feet still hurt from walking around in heels all day yesterday.  I’m currently curled up on the couch with my toes on a warm cornbag, my legs under a flannel blanket, and a cat curled up by my side.  Davy is in the room with me, throwing around plastic easter eggs.  Everyone else is busy elsewhere.

This year, for Easter dinner, my side of the family all met at a hotel in Cooperstown, NY; they do a really nice buffet there, which means all we have to do is show up, load our plates and visit with each other. 

The drive is about 3ish hours for us, and because we were busy all day Saturday, we had to drive out Sunday morning.  Rich and I were so excited about life that we woke up that morning (was it really only yesterday!?) at 4:30, so you can imagine how we are both feeling how that we’ve gone and had fun and are now back home again. 

We met everyone at the hotel and when it was time for our seating, we all filed in and settled in for some fine dining.  Ethan and Jacob were in their element, they could eat all they wanted and order root beer.

There was a children’s table in the buffet room, complete with PB and J’s and chicken fingers (among other things).

THE COUPLES:

I had seafood, lamb, and a variety of yummy salads.  I had cheesecake for dessert, and a meringue cookie.  **yum**

After the meal, we all went outside for some family pictures.  It was quite chilly, sunny but very windy. 

The whole family. 

All the men and boys;

All the ladies (young and younger)

Melissa;

Maria;

Davy;

Grace;

Shanda;

Isaac;

with my BEAUTIFUL MOTHER:

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Rich and I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night with the children.  This morning, Ethan, Dave, and Caleb got to go swimming.

After we checked out, Rich took me to our favorite coffee shop in Cooperstown….and ordered 2 maple syrup lattes and these fantastic bagels, they were wonderful!

Rich had a fresh baked bagel with cream cheese, tomato, and pepper.  (I love how they boxed them up)

AND I HAD a bagel with cream cheese, tomato, avocado, bacon, and sprouts!!!  Oh my goodness it was SO GOOD! 

It was a nice little trip.  We got home a few hours ago.  Grace and I went for a walk together to stretch our legs after the long ride (it went by fast for me, though, because I was captivated by wikipedia history articles about the towns we were going through.  I’m a dork.)  I can’t tell you how fantastic it was to spend all that time together, as a family.  The children were constantly entertaining Rich and I with all the things they did and said.  For instance:

After Ethan went on a long technical explaination about what a persuasive essay was, I said:  “E, I really believe you would make a good teacher.  You should consider becoming a school teacher.”

Ethan replied, “But what would I do during summer vacation, how would I provide for myself?”

Me:  “You could get another job.  You could teach summer school.”

Ethan, groaning:  “I’m not sure.  Summer school, I imagine, is probably full of students that don’t do well during the regular school year.  They probably wouldn’t want to be there and wouldn’t care about learning.”

Rich, bursts out laughing, to me:  “I went to summer school once to make up two classes…………”

Ethan, overhearing:  blushes and laughs  (oops)

And,

Seth, to Caleb (who wasn’t wearing a shirt in the hotel room) “Is that your belly button?”

Then, Seth, turning to Papa and lifting up his shirt, discovered with great surprise “Oh!  You have a really good belly button!”

Now Rich is bragging about his belly button constantly. 

Yes, it was a good little trip for us.  Back here at home, our pond work is almost done.  I just can’t wait to show you pictures of the property when we have it completed.

Oh, and we also ordered new chicks!  Stay tuned…………………………..

Happy Monday, friends!