“Mother knitted and rocked in her high-backed rocking-chair.  Father carefully scraped a new ax-handle with a bit of broken glass.  Royal carved a chain of tiny links from a smooth stick of pine, and Alice sat on her hassock, doing her woolwork embroidery.  And they all ate popcorn and apples, and drank sweet cider….Almanzo sat on a footstool by the stove, an apple in his hand, a bowl of popcorn by his side, and his mug of cider on the hearth by his feet.  He bit the juicy apple, then he ate some popcorn, then he took a drink of cider.  He thought about popcorn……Almanzo looked at every kernel before he ate it.  They were all different shapes.  He had eaten thousands of handfuls of popcorn, and never found two kernels alike.”  Farmer Boy, Laura Ingalls Wilder

I am sitting on the floor in the livingroom.  Sarah Joy is beside me, playing and talking.  I’m sharing my morning toast with her.  The newborn day is almost two hours old for us….I got up at 5:15 thirsty….and found Rich watching the news before getting ready for work.  We were able to spend a nice hour together before he left. 

Today on my blog, I am sharing some pictures from last week.  It was the end of a long day here at home and I was exhausted, feeling sort of blue.  I had turned on the news just to take a peek at the outside world and what do I discover but the fact that it was National Popcorn Day.

A jolt of new energy got me off the couch….I would make popcorn to celebrate the day.  I truly enjoy the funny, (unnecessary) random “days” that are devoted to foods.  I remember years ago I took pictures for my blog of an egg, for World Egg Day.  And I have done several posts for Pancake day. 

Now, for the love of popcorn.  And what’s not to love?  It is a very inexpensive snack and a whole grain, healthy one.  If you don’t add too much butter and salt, that is.

We have an air-popper and every time I pull it out I get an audience of children who want to watch.  It makes a pleasant, humming sound, it’s warm, and it’s super exciting to sit and wait for the first kernels to explode.  Plus we always overfill the bowl and have to run squealing, to get another one as popcorn avalanches off the counter.

We popped and popped and popped.  Until I was laughing again.  And throwing it.  And amusing my children.

It was great fun.

 Some of us wore our popcorn on our sweaters.

Rich came home late to dinner that night, but he was right on time to sit and share popcorn with the last remaining group of us who were still munching and crunching.  When it comes to drama, he is quite my opposite (a good thing) and when he came home he didn’t even say a word about our “party”…the children all explained, “Mom popped popcorn!” and he said pleasantly, “I see that!”  and just started eating it.  “It’s National Popcorn day!”…..”Hmmmmmm” was his reply, and just calmly munched.  While I ran around flushed, taking pictures and crying out, “Don’t give Sarah the kernels, just the soft parts!”  

The kitchen was filled with popcorn remains by the time we were done…but it wasn’t very difficult to clean up.  I just swept the floor and brought up the dog to eat the pile.  Then, we swept what was on the table off into one last bowl and the next morning the chickens got a very nice treat.

Like I mentioned, National Popcorn day was last week……BUT if you happened to miss it I have some fantastic news:

TOMORROW is NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CAKE DAY!  Let’s all bake chocolate cakes and post pictures of ourselves and our cakes on our blogs tomorrow!  Who’s with me!?

“As the one room in the house that can give you a full dinner or a hot cup of tea, the kitchen has a special drawing power that tends to transform it into a general working and lounging area.  If someone is in the kitchen cooking, other members of the household wander in to help or chat……” 

~quote from “The Center of a Dwelling”, a chapter in Home Comforts, by Cheryl Mendelson

I am now the owner of a pot rack!  This is exciting.  I’ve been loudly wrestling with my pots and pans for a long time, and now all I have to do is lift up my hands and unhook one from the ceiling.  Rich and the boys hung it up this weekend.

I have Caleb’s artwork hanging on my fridge.

I asked him what the orange scribbles were and he said they were “shoot”.

I am not the only cook in the kitchen.  Everyone participates.  The smallest members of the family serve as audience and taste-testers.

In two days, Ethan made Handmaiden Hashbrowns, Han-burgers, Bossk Brownies, Wampa Snow Cones, and Hoth Chocolate.

All the recipes turned out deliciously, and were from this fantistic BOY cookbook:

This is my bright orange egg timer from anthropologie.  It’s only fault is that the buzzer at the end of time is too short.  I don’t hear it 9 times out of 10.

I may have to return it.  It would be sad though.

This is part of my kitchen windowsill.  I have two glass eggs, a potted primrose (it has a sweet smell), a verse, a candle, a pretty bar of soap with a crocheted cover, and some berries that Seth dipped in wax (yes, he did…I had the berries next to a lit candle…he blew out the candle and dipped the berries in until I caught him.)

I bought this card for myself because it made me laugh out loud.

My friend Gina G sent me this Holly Hobbie card.

I had a gift card for Williams Sonoma and I treated myself to the Meyers lemon bread mix (it’s SO good), real vanilla beans, and the biscuit cutter set.

I’ve had my fiesta canisters for years…they are like little friendly kitchen pals now…with their pretty dustings of flour.

I keep my red cutting board handy by propping it up behind my canisters.

I put my fresh garlic in a fabric bag, my measuring spoons in a fiesta mug.

A cooling rack is behind them.

Sarah was eating some little bread bits today, like a sweet bird.  I sat and watched her tiny fingers pick up the pieces, she’s just learning that skill and as I admired her, I took several pictures.

And when she was done, I moved some farm animal magnets over to her, and she yelled at them.

The Latest Baking:  I baked a homemade carrot cake (with cream cheese frosting) yesterday.  I call it my healthy cake.

I am standing at the kitchen counter right now, finishing up this post.

Ethan is right next to me, playing Greensleeves on his guitar.  I am supposed to be listening, to tell him if he’s playing it right.

Seth is here, too, standing on Ethan’s foot rest and singing.

And that, my friends, is all the news from the kitchen. 

We had another bad-weather day today.  It started as the most gorgeous snowfall, with big fluffy flakes.  They were coming down so fast.  The other day Caleb said, “We are being FLOODED with snow!” and that’s how it looked this morning, too.  However, after a while it turned to freezing rain.  All the area schools were closed and I cancelled Sarah’s doctor’s appointment.  It took Rich over an hour to get to work, and how thankful we were that he had travelling mercies today.

We wrote out another schedule-for-the-day today.  I am not a big schedule person, but somehow when it’s written in hen-scratch on the back of an envelope it seems less threatening to our freedom.  

Here is a self-timer picture of me and Seth, and Sarah.  

I love this picture of Jacob, with his little brother and baby sister.  It’s a really and true smile from him, without any teenage awkwardness in front of the camera.

How proud I’ve always been of Jacob, as my firstborn…..he has done all the childhood milestone things first, and surprised me every time.  

Jacob made cookies for us today.  I was feeding Sarah some baby food and drinking coffee.  It really wasn’t as relaxing as it sounds…it was happening in the afternoon and I was in my slump part of the day.  Thankfully, the coffee and sugary cookies helped perk me up. 

Jacob gave Seth cookie dough until I told him I thought Seth would get sick.  He was quite generous.  We are still loving the cookie scoop that my mom gave me for Christmas last year.  It’s so handy.

Seth and Sarah played with the doll house together.  This is something that makes me happy…..especially because it’s been so long since we’ve had baby girl things around.  We gave this doll house as a Christmas gift for Grace this year and it’s played with every day.  Doll houses are so fun.  You can rearrange furniture constantly!

This picture was taken at dinner time.  (Tonight was leftovers night)….and I think Grace was busy unloading the dishwasher.  I laugh because the counters are a mess; an empty storage container that Seth brought me and I just threw it up on the counter because I was busy doing something else, David’s little paper box he taped together today, the peanut butter and the mixer from the cookie baking, my empty coffee mug.  This is life in the kitchen.

See the picture I have taped inside my cupboard?  

With all the bad weather, the dog has been living in the house with us.  It’s not the greatest of situations but he’s doing pretty good.  He’s behaving, for the most part.

Except when I take his picture.

I found Caleb locked away in the bathroom with the water running.  When he let me in, I discovered that he was using someone’s toothbrush to wash David’s car for him.  Wasn’t that nice of him to do that for his brother?

David’s car is nice and shiny now, and smells so pretty.  Like Bath and Body works hand soap, “Winter Candy Apple.”

Rich got home and then we were all together again.  Here he is, with Caleb;

And then, with David.  David spent a long long time trying to explain a movie that he watched to his Dad.  It took so long that Rich gave him some pointers about how to make stories shorter and more interesting.

Other random notes:

I read my Bible portion out loud to the kids today and we enjoyed it.  We read about Joseph and his beautiful coat and his brothers who threw him in the cistern.  We read about Jesus healing the demon possessed man on the Sabbath, and we read portions of Psalms and Proverbs.  

Today was the first day of Sarah’s life that she didn’t really nap much.  She kept getting woke up.  But she is so content.  She is in a very quiet and happy stage of babyhood (see first two pictures of blog post).

Also, I read more of The Long Winter to the kids.  

I’m still reading We Took to the Woods.

I finished the doll’s smock that I was sewing for Grace’s American Girl doll.  As soon as I get an outfit done I’ll post a picture.

I talked to my mom on the phone tonight.  We laughed a lot.

I realized just now that I did not take a picture of Ethan today.  Poor E.  Here is one from another day:

Good night, all!

“That whole day long, everyone was as cheerful as the sunshine.”  The Long Winter, page 135

He has been with me wherever I have gone.  Genesis 35:3  (oh yes, he is with me always, every step of the way!  “He leadeth me”)

But you would not have condemned my innocent disciples if you knew the meaning of this Scripture:  I want you to show mercy and not offer sacrifices.  Jesus’ words, in Matthew 12:7  (don’t condemn God’s children—-show mercy!)

And His name will be the hope of all the world.  Matthew 12:21  (what a precious promise!)

~verses from my devotions, this morning.

It was a challenge to read at the table.  I had to keep hopping up, mainly to get Seth away from Sarah.  But at one point I had to grab the camera because I thought it was so cute the way he was loving on her.

After a while, as I cleaned up the breakfast things, I thought that for sure I could not deal with a crazy unstructured day with 8 people all trying to do whatever they felt like doing.  I called all the children to me and we sat down to schedule our day all the way up to 4:30 in the afternoon.

It worked like a charm and was just what we needed to give us direction.  

After some play time, we sat at the table together.  It was “art at the table” time but it ended up being a history lesson about Martin Luther King Jr.  I read them his basic biography from wikipedia, we watched a youtube clip of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and they all colored a picture of him.  (so, we did do art)

After that, we had lunch.  David surprised me because when I asked, “Does anyone need a drink of milk?”  He said, “I’ll have a cold beer.”

Now, let me just say.  We have never had beer in our home.  We don’t drink it, and we come from families who do not drink it.  

No, I have never tasted beer in my life, but one time as a child, I was collecting cans and bottles from the side of the road and some leftover beer splashed on my pants and left a bleach mark.  And it smelled horrible.  It never seemed appetizing to me after that.

I insisted, ready for a good laugh, that David tell me where on earth he got such an idea—you know—requesting cold beer at lunchtime.

Come to find out, the boys had gotten a “Calvin and Hobbes” comic book from the library and there was a comic strip where the boy was trying to figure out what drink to leave for Santa, to go with his cookies.  “How about a cold beer” said the Dad, (who was really Santa).  Ethan solved the mystery when told me about this particular comic strip.  It all became clear to me, and then dear innocent David asked, “What IS beer?”

You mothers know about these strange conversations that come up…..you just never know what will come up next.

After lunch we cleaned up and then we were supposed to have read-aloud time but the children were full of energy so we went outside.

Seth was so thrilled.  He loved being free to run and play.  This was the first day, after that huge snowstorm last week, that things cleared up enough to us to enjoy the weather.  It wasn’t quite as cold and the sun was shining.

The snow was glittery and pretty.

Seth threw some.

Seth is so tiny compared to his big brother Jacob.

Caleb found some treasure–ice–and ate it.

David cried because he was too cold, then I bundled him up so good that later on he cried because he was too hot.

Here he is, in a happier moment;

Grace Lillian;

She wore homemade crocheted mittens that my mom gave her.

They played around the upper driveway, digging and making snow forts in the big drifts that Rich plowed up.  Then, they had a big snowball fight.

When we came back inside, we hung up all of our snow things.  Sarah woke up from her nap and I put Seth down for his.  Then we snuggled up on the couch for some reading.

We read two chapters from The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  It was cozy and delightful.  These stories never grow old, they actually seem to get better and better with each reading.

“All that happy afternoon they were full of the clear, cold air and as bright as the sunshine.”  pg.137

After reading and quiet time, I took Grace to her music lesson.  We had baby Sarah with us and Jacob was in charge of the rest at home.

We got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and ended up cancelling our lesson (we will make it up next Monday).  We stopped at the grocery store and got all the fixings for a big spaghetti dinner; 2 boxes of pasta, hamburger, fresh Italian bread, and things for salad.  We got home at 5:30 and then I spent the next hour putting groceries away, paying attention to little boys who had missed me, feeding Seth a snack and Sarah her dinner, making the dinner, directing Grace to help me in various ways, and I got A HUGE HEADACHE.  Rich called and was also got stuck in traffic so I asked him to pray for me and then I served dinner to the children myself.  It went pretty well, thanks no doubt to his prayers and my own (“Dear Lord, please help.”).   Rich got home at 7pm and the older children went back outside to resume their snowball fighting.

Well, it’s approaching 9pm now.  Everyone is in bed…I started this blog entry at about 7:30 but Sarah pinched her tiny little finger and I had to quit for a while to take care of her.  She is sleeping like an angel after being nursed and snuggled by me, with Rich sitting next to us as well.  How we love our little baby girl, and the rest of our children, too.

I hope and pray that all of my friends and family are doing well and are staying cozy.  I hope you liked the pictures of the children and little stories.  It was a nice day, and I hope yours was, too.

Much love ~ Shanda

PS, Grace and I had a wonderful time talking together on the way home.  She had some questions for me that she had been wanting to ask but “at home there was always too many boys running around.”  I am thankful for the time we got to spend, just the two of us.  I don’t like the hassle of driving here and there but I must say, those times in the vehicle have proved to be very valuable times for TALKS and laughter with my children.  They all open right up and start yapping as soon as they get into the seat beside me….all but my Ethan, who is always so quiet.  I tell him to talk to me but he just says, wonderingly “About WHAT!?”  So when I’m with E, I do most of the talking myself.  

One year ago today I was making myself sick with anxious hope that my next baby (born after three beautiful boys in a row) would turn out to be a GIRL.  I had an ultrasound on January 13, 2010, but the doctor that day could only tell me that she thought maybe it was a girl but she didn’t know for sure.

Fast forward one year to the day and here I am with my six wonderful children and a beautiful baby girl who is seven months old.

The purpose of today’s post is to record a milestone for Sarah.

She’s crawling now.

It’s very strange for me to see her going away.  

How I love it when she turns around and crawls back, smiling at me with her gummy grin.

My heart knows that like her big brother Seth, she will very soon crawl, no RUN, completely out of my sight and into mischief.

But that will be a story for another day.

Today she’s simply a beginning crawler…going so slowly, but steadily.  She sees what she wants, turns toward it, lifts an arm way up high and out and down and forward and there goes the other arm next, then the feet push and she’s going, going, gone.

R E A D I N G

As a homeschooling mom of seven, I revel in the bits of calm that come my way during the day.

My life may be busy but thankfully it’s not too busy to enjoy my BOOKS.  I’ve always been a reader, it’s in my heart, mind, and soul.  It’s in my blood.  I MUST read and I love a good book.

In the last month I read Mark Twain’s autobiography, V1.  

Then, I got Circle of Friends out of the library, and read that.

Then I read The Light on the Island.  It was a book written by the daughter of a lighthouse keeper.  She was one of 13 children.  It was a quick read but very entertaining.

I read Once Upon an Island next.  This one was written by a man who, along with his wife, bought an island.  The book covers the first year or so after moving from the city to their island, and all the ups and downs they went through to get settled.  

Now that I’m done with that one, I am reading We Took to the Woods.  This one is funny and tells little stories of a woman’s adventures, living in rural Maine with her husband.  She even gives birth to their firstborn son in their cabin, and her husband delivered the baby.  She takes only about 1 page to explain the birth but I chuckled all through it.  The chapter I am on is about lumberjacks and she just finished up writing about gathering ice from the lake.  There is lots to learn in her book.

I have three more books waiting for me:  Three Men in a Boat, to say nothing of the Dog, Not my Will, and To Kill a Mockingbird.  

These books are first-reads for me, except To Kill a Mockingbird.  But I read that one in H.S. and I can’t remember it.  I decided on these books from book lists and from wandering around on amazon.com with Christmas money in my pocket.

Rich is currently reading President George W. Bush’s autobiography, Decision Point.

So, my current routine is this:  Work like a crazy whirlwind all morning.  Then, after lunch, I send the children away to their rooms.  Seth goes down for his nap, and Caleb also naps.  The others are under strict orders to be quiet and I go to my room with Sarah.  I leave my door open a crack but turn a fan on for white noise.  I settle down in bed, read my book, and nurse Sarah away to dreamland.  Then, if I don’t fall asleep, I slip out of bed to make a cup of coffee and bring it back to bed with me and my book.

And my sleeping baby.

I recently learned something very important and let me just say, in case you don’t know by now:

CHOCOLATE and COFFEE go together like…..like they were made FOR each other.  

Savor a piece of chocolate in your mouth until it melts away, then sip down some hot, creamy, slightly bitter coffee, and it’s simply wonderful.  But you probably already knew that.  I’m just a little slow sometimes.

Are you laughing at my box of chocolates?  As you can see, I lose self control when it comes to the filled chocolates.  I simply MUST know what’s inside right away.  I’m sure some of you can relate?

S E W I N G

This is a picture of dear Sarah’s foot, warmly covered with her new softshoe, made by yours truly.

This is the fourth pair that I’ve made.  And guess what?  I used two of her baby things that she grew out of.  A pair of pj’s and a tiny pair of pants.

I cut the material out yesterday, after hunting and hunting for my wonderful sharp shears without success.  I was stressed out about it.  I had to use the children’s dull school scissors, but don’t worry I did find my shears today.  Of course, I did not need them today but I’m happy I found them.

The moral of the story is:  Do not hide things from your children.  Keep things in plain sight, or in obvious places, and just train your children to leave them alone.

Anyway, the shoes.  I sewed them up just this morning.  Aren’t they darling?  They are completely lined with the same dark pink material that you see on the heel, so they’re nice and thick.

It’s been s n o w i n g and snowing, since the middle of the night.  Rich was so excited about the storm that he couldn’t sleep.  He made me stay up until almost 11:30 last night and then he got up very early this morning.  I got up at 6 to find him in front of the weather channel, with Sarah awake and sitting next to him like a tiny bundle on the couch, and she was watching him type on his laptop.  So cute.  

I thought I’d share a few pictures of the exciting weather:

SNOW:

SNOW and WINDY GUSTS

AND MORE SNOW, all the way past Jake’s knees so far!

Hope you’re having a happy Wednesday!