Spring is when you feel like whistling
even with a shoe full of slush.  ~Doug Larson

(This quote made me laugh, I had wet cold slushy feet every time I went out this weekend. I need some good boots……)

The hens are laying again!  We are now getting about seven eggs a day.

On Friday, I got to sit on the porch for the first time in ages.  I sat with a blanket over my lap, ate homemade chicken soup, and looked at the latest inspiring issue of Mary Jane’s Farm magazine.

On Saturday morning, Rich and I took the children out for breakfast.  After our meal, I went to the antique store and found three treasures to bring home with me.

First, a beautiful figurine of an older lady.  She reminds Grace and me of Tasha Tudor. 

Then, I found a hand-held egg mixer and a pretty pot holder.

The best part of the weekend was Saturday afternoon, when it was warm enough to spend some time outside.

I took my coffee in hand and checked on the flower beds.  Things are coming up nicely.

I love spring anywhere,
but if I could choose I would always greet it
in a garden.  ~Ruth Stout

The chickens gathered around me, curious as always.

This one is drinking water out of a puddle.

Several of the hens took a peek into my coffee, and one of them actually took a sip!  Never thought I would share my coffee with a chicken……

Signs of spring:  Hens venturing out of the coop, and the daffodils coming up.

Yesterday the twig was brown and bare;
To-day the glint of green is there;
Tomorrow will be leaflets spare;
I know no thing so wondrous fair,
No miracle so strangely rare.
I wonder what will next be there!
~L.H. Bailey

Seth very much enjoyed the freedom to run and play outside.  We went down to look at the water.

Jacob was with us, too.

So was Caleb, who wanted to show me “Caleb’s Island”…..a small clump of land next to the stream.

It was a joy to watch Seth play and explore.

Happy Springtime!

The children and I went to the library this week.  Not just any library, but the one in a different town, much BIGGER, with MORE books, DIFFERENT BOOKS, with a librarian who SMILED and OFFERED to HELP and complimented the children!  Truly enough to set the heart a flutter.  I spent the majority of my time in the children’s section (with a brief trip into the adult military section, with a couple of handsome teen boys).  As the little ones played with puzzles and toys, I picked out a few books to read to them later on, at home.  One of the books I found was “love at first read”.

PETER’S POCKET is one of the cutest books we’ve read.  Judi Barrett (author of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) wrote a darling story, and Julia Noonan drew sweet, realistic illustrations.

The story is about a little boy, almost four, who collects any and every small thing and puts them into his pockets.  We see pictures of the small objects–crayons, marbles, raisins.  We see pictures of Peter’s clothes that have pockets.  But, oh dear!  There just aren’t enough pockets and some of his clothes don’t have any pockets at all.  So, what does Peter’s thoughtful, wonderful, special mommy do?  She sews her little boy more and more pockets, to pin onto his clothes.

“Peter had pockets on everything now.”

And that’s not all.  The last page of the book includes a pattern and directions for your very own “portable pin-on pockets.”

It doesn’t get much more precious than this.

It was chilly today and we still have quite a bit of snow but it felt like S P R I N G!  It rained a lot this weekend and the stream has flooded, it’s fun to see it so the children and I all went on a walk.  We were happy to go on our first walk of early spring, all together.  Jacob wore Seth in one Ergo and I wore Sarah in another (that my sister in law let me borrow).

Before heading into the woods, we stopped to see the stream rushing into the pipe under the road.  The water was wide and high.

On the other side of the road, the water was roaring out the pipe and down the stream bed….fast and furious.  The ice was glittering on the bottoms of the tree branches.

 Walking up the trail:

 Jacob, with little Seth on his back. 

 At the watershed area.  The land we are standing on here in the picture is the highest part, on each side the land goes sharply down.  The stream flooded up and became a pond– and the water was frozen.  The ice would crack and splash loudly….a strange sound that made me jump several times because I thought it was an animal on the ice.  The water will gradually recede until the stream is properly narrow again.

 The snow was blindingly bright!  It hurt my eyes.  But it was such a joy to be outside.

“Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you……” John Muir

 David especially enjoyed throwing rocks onto the ice…the rocks would bounce and slide.

 As we headed back toward home, it was tough going at times.  The snow had a hard crust on top but every once in a while I would fall through and get ice down the backs of my heels.  Plus, I am not used to carrying Sarah in the Ergo.  She did really well, though.  Wearing her is not as natural as it was when I wore Seth, for some reason.  I think she needs to get used to the feeling of it.  But she looked around and up at the trees.  I think it was good for her to get fresh air.

The stream is flooded all the way up into our woods.

 I wish you could hear the sound it makes.  I’ll always be thankful that we live by a stream.  Its the sourse of so much pleasure for the children and me.

 When we got back home we came across two of our chickens, silently but busily taking dust baths together.  They are so happy to be able to finally scratch and dig after all the winter months.  We hope their happiness translates into more eggs for us, as we have only been collecting about 2 a day lately.

“You can bury a lot of troubles, digging in the dirt”  -anonymous

The children played outside all afternoon.  What a blessing it was to hear them laughing and running all their pent up winter energy out.  They should all fall asleep nicely tonight. 

 We had a nice day of homeschooling, too, and I spent a few hours this afternoon being wonderfully LAZY while Seth and Sarah napped.

We had goulash and homemade breadsticks for dinner.

“Your home is secure; your nest is set in the rocks.”  Numbers 24:21

“But as for me, I will sing about your power.  Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love.  For you have been my refuge, the God who shows me your unfailing love.”  Ps. 59:16, 17

“Peace be both unto thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.”  1 Samuel 25:6

We celebrated Ethan’s birthday with a breakfast at McDonald’s. 

We all squeezed into a big booth and the littlest ones sat on the end.

It was a wet and mild day.  When we got home, the chickens had all made it to the house for the first time in months.  We were so surprised and figured out that we had forgotten to shut them in the night before.

We have a flock size now which will require fencing.   There are lots of things on our Spring TO DO list.

I wandered into the woods, trying to clear my head (still not feeling all that healthy).  The snow in the woods is covered in tree litter.  I don’t remember ever seeing such a mess.

To my joy, I came across my birthday boy and we had a nice walk together.  It was a gift of time, with E.

He made his way over the stream to join me.

This “wall of five trees” is the location of one of many of my children’s old forts. 

This is their current favorite spot.  This fall they discovered that this tree had spikes in it, enabling them to climb up to a certain height.  Thankfully not to the top!  This is one tall tree.  Aren’t trees wonderful?  Have you ever rested against a solid tree in the quiet woods?  It’s very comforting…….trees are strong and silent but offer such peaceful strength (I feel the same way when my husband holds me)……I go away feeling renewed.

On Sunday morning, we woke up to discover that Grace was sick with the stomach flu.  Rich took the boys to church with him.

It’s a sense of accomplishment when all the church clothes have been located and put on……..

Grace and I took some time to pray together, write in our journals, look at a magazine, read the first two chapters of Anne of Green Gables, and watch a “Road to Avonlea” show.  All delightfully GIRLIE things, with baby Sarah close by, too.

Grace thanked me for serving her some chicken bouillon broth.  Such a small thing, but very appreciated by the sore tummy.

Sarah and I mixed up some jam bars for the boys to enjoy when they got home.

Later on, I went out with Jacob and Ethan to the bookstore and then to evening service at church.

We have had so much rain the last few days that there are flood warnings today.  It is raining now and slowly the snow is melting away.

The children and I are busy getting our morning chores done and then we will go over to our schoolroom for some study time.

Happy Monday!

Ethan’s Birthday

Our boy Ethan turns 13 years old today!  He’s a wonderful, one-of-a-kind person and it’s been a joy watching him grow and develop into the young man he has become.

Rich and I have two teenagers now, but this morning we tried (unsuccessfully) to sleep in, with Seth and Sarah in our bed at 5:30.  After being flopped upon and listening to them giggle at each other one too many times, Rich made me laugh by saying, “This is like trying to sleep in a playpen!”  How interesting/challenging/fun it is to have older children AND little ones, in our family.  There is never a dull moment, that’s for sure.

(Jacob is 14, Ethan is 13, Grace is 11, David is 8, Caleb is 5, Seth is 2, and Sarah is 9 months.)

Ethan opened his presents at 7am and then we all went out for breakfast at McDonalds, even though Caleb is sick.  We’ve had sick family members among us for so long now that we’ve decided that life will just have to go on, regardless.  I still have a queasy stomach from my experience with the stomach bug this week (Seth and Sarah had it, too).  Now that it’s Caleb’s turn, we just took along a little bucket and everyone still had a great time.

We stopped at the library on the way back home so I could pay for the latest lost book and fines.  Ethan really wanted to watch a movie on his birthday so after cleaning up my library card, we checked out a movie for later. 

It’s a gray, dampish sort of day outside.  But with a birthday boy inside the house, we’re all smiles!

I’ve not been feeling like myself…..I think things have been escalating to point of an almost break-down.  This weekend was tough…..on Sunday I had stirred myself up to a frenzy … feeling sick, overwhelmed, spinning in circles, feeling like every little thing was going wrong all day long.  We couldn’t go to church because most of the family was sick and Seth was miserable.  I had been pouring myself out to serve my family and feeling selfish about it, then guilty because I very much just needed a break—(I would eagerly await bedtime, but at night my mind would spin and I had all this energy and couldn’t sleep.)  On Sunday afternoon I decided to leave for awhile, got out the door, decided not to go, went back in the house to my room, then decided to go again.  That shows how crazy I got!  I cried all the way to the bookstore.

After some browsing around and a cup of hot chocolate, I was feeling somewhat calmer and I went to the mall to say hi to my sister (she works there) and to pick up some more children’s Motrin at Target.  It was good to see Amanda, and I met her again briefly after I was done shopping.  She was just leaving work and we walked out together.

Getting out of the house ALONE, for a breather, helped get me through the weekend.  I’m also trying to take better care of myself, confess my selfishness and controlling tendancies to God, pray a lot, take vitamins, drink water and milk, and think positive. 

Yesterday David came down with the stomach bug so I had to cancel music lessons and I cancelled another appointment that we had for today.  It’s been nice not to have to rush everyone out the door for things.

It’s been a challenge caring for sick children (for the last 2 weeks we’ve been sick) but we are coming out of it now, I think.  Most importantly, I am feeling much more hopeful today. 

Random pictures from the last 2 days:

So yesterday, I was feeling pretty blue and decided I needed to wear some color to offset the mood.  It seriously helped!

Caleb and Grace bounced Sarah on the bed.

She loved it.  Yes, those are Caleb’s happy feet. 

But, as usual, things started getting a little out of hand and I had to put a stop to it.

Sarah fell down the steps yesterday.  The children took her upstairs and promptly forgot about her.  It only took a second and down she came.  It was not a good moment for us (I was particularly upset b/c I had JUST told J to bring her to me but he insisted she liked being with them), thankfully she is okay.  She has quite the busy life with all her big siblings to entertain her.

Jacob took these pictures of Sarah and the toothbrush.  It gives a good example of the things that go on around here, and how diseases spread.  Seth was up no good, getting a chair to help himself to the refrigerator, a habit that I am now in the process of putting a complete end to.

And Sarah had found a treasure to chew.

Oh how yummy!

Jacob thought her facial expression was so funny in this one that he showed it to me as soon as he took it.

Seth came along to help her learn how to use it.  No matter that she has no teeth.

Hmmmmmm, she needs more information.

“Like this.”  “Oh, I see.  Fascinating!”

“Now you try.”

Caleb, Grace, and I played this game together yesterday.  We enjoy the detailed, colorful pictures on it.

Caleb likes to do this with Sarah and it’s adorable how she looks up up up at him adoringly.

Seth was quite precious this morning.  I heard him make a sound “OHHHHH!” –just like he had just seen an exquisite, beautiful ROSE.

I turned around to look at what he was admiring and discovered,

the car battery charger.

Caleb took Seth and Sarah and covered himself and the two of them up with his blanket.  It was like a little cave under there.

I imagine that when the children play like this they are making wonderful memories.  I certainly remember doing things like this when I was little!  It’s magical, child play.

Boy, Caleb has been busy…. he has also started giving Seth and Sarah rides in the stroller (thanks to redladybug’s suggestion!) to keep them out of trouble.

Sarah in the morning sunshine, sitting on her blanket.

Some of the best books to read out loud…..A.A. Milne understands. 

David was yellow- sick last night and he was all bundled and covered up for bed, on the couch.  I read to him for a while out of these books and he quieted down for a cozy time with his mama.

I love my eight year old boy.

He rested against me and listened.  Today I found him quietly reading them for himself.

He said, “Mom, I love how they drew Pooh for this book.  He’s SO CUTE!”

This is one of the poems that make me feel as though they were written just for me, and for my boys;

“I’m fishing.  Don’t talk, anybody, don’t come near!  Can’t you see that the fish might hear?  He thinks I’m playing with a bit of string…he doesn’t know I’m fishing.”

My Davy fishes just like that.  I’ve caught him at it before, lots of times, in our ponds.

So when I read it, I get tears in my eyes.

And that’s a little bit of what we’ve been up to.

Love, Shanda