I got up last night at 1:45 to nurse Sarah-dumpling and found a hot feverish Caleb flopped on the couch, sound asleep.  He is the latest sick child.  Jacob is still sick, Ethan is almost totally recovered, Grace is recovered but is now afflicted with poison ivy, David is sick and can’t talk (lost his voice), Caleb is sick, Seth is FINE, Sarah is FINE, Mama is FINE.

And of course, as you know, Rich is away but I am feeling joyous today because he’ll be home tomorrow afternoon!  I am thrilled that he can come right home instead of having to go into the office to finish up the day.  HE said he could be here as early as 2:30.  I can’t wait to see him.

I woke up this morning at 6:30 and found Caleb and David awake and watching a cartoon.  The day started too early but I got a lot accomplished so far;  pancakes and cheese scrambled eggs for breakfast.  Babies changed and dressed (and one had a bath).  David had a bath.  I made hummingbird solution for my feeders, which is something I’ve needed to do for about a month.  I watered my hanging baskets, cleaned up the kitchen, took my shower, and went to the library (I took Ethan and he watched S and S while I was in the library.  I had to pay for a book……and check out more, along with some videos as a treat for the sickies.

On the way home from the library, I stopped by Mr. G’s garden produce stand to buy tomatoes.  I noticed he had some perfect cucumbers so I bought a whole lot of those, and some dill.  I came home and boiled up the brine to make more refrigerator pickles.

The kids are all watching Toy Story 2 and Sarah is asleep, so here I am for a moment!!!

I wanted to post some more pictures from our weekend back home, almost 2 full weeks ago now.

These are all from my parent’s house.  We got together on Saturday evening.  Two of my brothers were there, and my sister was also there.  We missed our youngest sibling, Isaac, he couldn’t make it out this time.

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Dear Dad, patting little Sarah.  My sister Amanda is showing Naomi Sarah’s little feet.  We were all outside together, my brother David grilled some meat and we had a picnic dinner.  It was a gorgeous evening.

My handsome brother Nathan, with his cutie pie daughter, Makayla Lynn~

My brother, David, and me…holding my two babies~

Mom gave us a garden tour.  She absolutely LOVES to garden.  Whenever I can’t reach her on the phone, I think she’s out in it, working.  The book, The Secret Garden comes to mind….

Rich took this, because I wanted to be in the picture.  That’s my tall son, Jacob, next to me, along with Ethan, my sister in love, Maria (David’s wife), and niece Abbie.  My mom is wearing purple and is showing Abbie the growing things.

My sister in love~ Melissa ~ (Nathan’s wife)

Jacob picked a container of yummy cucumbers~

There are lots of wild blueberry bushes and all of us spent some time picking, including Seth.  This was only Seth’s second time at Grandma’s house, I am sorry to say.  I can’t believe how fast time flies by.

But Seth loved the berries and soon figured out how to pick them and eat them.  Too bad he eats both the ripe ones AND the green ones!   Mom sent us home with a bag of berries and they sure tasted WONDERFUL in pancakes and muffins.  A taste of home, for sure.

We had a little bonfire so that the kids could roast marshmallows and makes s’mores.  Once again, Uncle Dave was in charge and he did such a good job making sure they each had a turn and things didn’t get too crazy.

So, they thought it would be funny to stick a cucumber on a twig and roast that, too.  We all encouraged Nathan to try it…turned out to be quite entertaining.

Mom laughed so hard.

Naomi gave Sarah a ride in the stroller with her doll:

We went back over on Sunday before we had to drive home.  I got this one last picture of MOM, with Caleb and Sarah~

It was so good to be home again for a little while.  I can’t wait to go back again soon.

Okay now that I am officially homesick I think I’ll try calling Dear Dad to tell him the pictures are up.

((love)) Shan

Please keep us in your prayers this week as Rich travels on a business trip (he’ll be back on Friday).  He is on a plane right now, to California, clear on the other side of the USA.  He should be here, with me, of course, but duty calls.

I took these pictures just as he was leaving this morning:

Goodbye, my love. 

*sigh*

To make myself feel better, I dressed Sarah up in a sunflower hat and took her picture.

She thinks her hat is silly.  She thinks her Mama is silly. 

Hats?  Let the party begin!  I wonder how much “trouble” I can get myself into while my husband is away?!

Rich just put the children to bed and baby Sarah is swinging in her swing.  We have four sick children.  I should have known they would get sick after the week we had last week…VBS every night and then a hotel stay in NY as we visited our family.  It’s some kind of virus with a bad sore throat, low grade fever, strange headache, and general feelings of tiredness.  Grace had it first, and now Jacob, Ethan, and Davy have it.

The good news is that Rich was able (with the help of the kind Norton people on the phone) to clean our computer and it is now over it’s terrible infections.  I’m so thankful we were able to get it fixed.  The children are in bed and Rich is working on his Sunday School lesson that he is teaching tomorrow, so I am free to sit and blog about our visit with Grandma.

This was a significant visit, because we found out last year that Rich’s dear Grandma had bone cancer.  We went to visit her last September, shortly after we heard the news, and a couple of weeks after our visit, we discovered that I was pregnant.  Grandma had been so close to our hearts as we prayed for her that it seemed right and fitting that we name our baby daughter (born May 30) Sarah, after Grandma.  As soon as we settled on the name, I was praying that we could go with our baby, to see Grandma, and that Grandma wouldn’t be too sick to enjoy her.  And God was pleased to answer those prayers.

Grandma Sarah Lillian, holds our Sarah Joy.

Miss Grace Lillian, and Grandma Sarah Lillian.  (Even though her first name is Sarah, everyone has always called her Lillian)…….

(Pay no attention to the Star Wars light sabor next to Grace!  I wish I could remove it somehow, but part of me also realizes it’s just the way it is with boys in my life….may as well smile and be thankful….)

Grandma spent some time talking carefully with Grace.  In this next picture, she is going through a little booklet that she put together with pictures and captions of our family history.  Grandma told her about each person, and how Grace was related to them.  She had Grace write in some extra information in the book.  I could hear her say things like, “Yes, that’s right.  Good job, Grace.  You write so nicely!”  “Now, let me see, this would be your…..Great….great….great….grandfather.”  And, “Oh, we should stop.  I don’t know if you are interested in this.  You can put this booklet away and someday, when you want to know, you could get it back out again and look at it.”  Grace would say, “I’m interested!”  And Grandma would start talking again where they left off.

Oh how I wished I had it all secretly tape recorded.  Grandma’s voice and Grace’s voice, discussing family.

She also gave Grace a copy of a poem.  Her mother had recited a poem to her when she was a child and she could remember the beginning of it so clearly.  Recently, her daughter (Aunt Phyllis) found the whole poem for her online and copied it off for her.  It’s called Minuet.  There are also some poems in the same folder that were written by one of Grace’s early ancestors, whose name was Elizabeth Young.

Grace carried the folders around with her all weekend.  It’s a wonderful keepsake.

This quilt was made by Grandma’s Granddaughter, Charlene.  She put pictures of all the family in the quilt.

This is wonderful Aunt Phyllis.  She has always been so friendly and warm to me, and she is so good with the children and loves them.

We spent some time outside.  Seth was a busy boy, as you can see here.  I am so used to this behavior that I took a picture before I went to rescue him.  By the time I got there, he had already gone back up on the porch again.

To the right of him you can see Grandma’s green tomatoes in a pot.  Two of them were picked while we were visiting and I felt so bad.  She said that they could still be used.  One of them had little teeth marks ALL over it.

This is Grandma’s garden.  Rich’s Dad (her son) made her this big platform container so that she could work on a garden easily.  She has all sorts of things growing in here and told me proudly that she had just picked her first ripe zucchini that morning.

Caleb and David:

Seth and Caleb.  That’s bee balm in the background.

I’ll never forget Grandma’s happy face as she watched Rich and I kiss for this photo.  She thought it was great.

Grandma sent me a handwritten letter this week and she wrote about her nice memories from the visit.  She wrote that she could  “still see Seth getting into the tomatoes, and still feel soft Sarah in her arms. . . .”

She also wrote that she could still see this memory clearly in her mind, as well:

This was taken right before we left.

Wasn’t it wonderful of the Lord to give us such a nice visit?  We spent about four hours together and we valued every moment.  We plan on getting together again in September, for a family reunion.

Thanks for praying for Grandma.  I know that God has done so much for her and we thank Him for His love and care. 

Our upstairs computer (the one I play with my pictures on) is not working at all.  I can’t email, I can’t transfer photos, I can’t go online…..(I’m on my laptop right now).  I’m going to take a break from blogging until my husband gets a chance to fix it.  Hopefully that will be tonight.  But, just in case it takes a few days I wanted to leave a note here letting you all know that we are fine and dandy.  We went back home this weekend and Sarah met her Grandma Sarah for the first time.  Grandma was honored and so happy to see her great grandchildren.  I’m afraid that by the time we left she was all tired out.  But it was worth it to be together.  I can’t wait to post the pictures I got of our visit with her and Aunt Phyllis.  We also got to spend time at my parent’s house.  It was the first time the children have been there in over a year. ( I didn’t travel to NY the entire time I was pregnant with Sarah, and we only went one time with baby Seth.)  The wild blueberries were ripe, we walked around the gardens, we made s’mores, played catch, talked, rocked on the porch, so fun!  Pictures will be posted as soon as possible.

I caught up on things here at home yesterday and……I made more pickles!  I made the refrigerator pickle recipe from our family cookbook:

10 large cucumbers
4 sprigs of dill
6 cloves of garlic
6 cups of water
1 1/4 cup vinegar
1/3 cup salt
1/2 cup sugar

Wash and sterilize 4 1-quart jars.  Cut cucumbers into quarters.  Add 1 sprig of dill, and 1 1/2 cloves of garlic per 1-quart jar.  Boil water, vinegar, salt, and sugar and let cool.  Pack jars with cucumbers, pour liquid over cucumbers.  Cover an refrigerate at least 48 hours.

I made one batch but we haven’t tried them yet.  I know they will be delicious because my Mom had some made at her place this weekend and the children all ate them like they were candy.  Mom was happy.

Have a wonderful day, friends!  I’ll be around to visit when I have the time, using my laptop.  And I’ll be back to blogging soon, when our other computer is fixed.

Love, Shanda

Just a quick post, with some pictures of our little baby girl.

*Sarah is 2 months old today*

We are very thankful for her and love her more than words can say.

I love all these pictures.  The first one is what she looks like after a good long meal.  Pure contentment is written all over her face.  Grace took the picture just as she was done nursing.  The next photo is of her sweet smile at me, as I sit and play with the baby and ignore the laundry there in the background.  Next, is her bubbly bath photo.  I use Burt’s Bees baby soap & lotion on her and it smells so yummy.  I love giving my babies a bath and holding them close to warm them up after they’ve been all cleaned, washed, scrubbed, dried, lotioned and dressed again.   And the last picture….She is so cute with that bright happy look on her face and the way she’s holding her tight fist up by her chin.  She looks really beautiful in pink.

Thank you, heavenly Father, for our darling baby girl.

We used to have a double stroller when Jacob, Ethan, and Grace were all preschoolers.  I used that thing so much that we wore it out.  I got rid of it and didn’t replace it because by that time we were spacing our babies out.  By the time the next baby came along, the old baby was old enough to walk with Mama.

Well, here we are:  Jacob is 13, Ethan is 12, Grace is 10….David is almost 8, Caleb is 5.  They all know how to walk like proper duckies behind their mother duck.

But, Seth (17 months) does not.  Seth wants to go his Own Way. 

Baby Sarah (2 months) is just a baby.  She can’t walk.  She doesn’t even stay awake during walks. 

I like to go on walks but I needed help with the little ones.  I’m a mom of seven and I understand that there are lots of near-impossible feats that women can accomplish with youngsters.  However, going for a lovely walk, unaided, with a newborn and a toddler is something that I personally would not ever encourage.  Unless it is a walk of a very short length (10 feet or less)………

Hence, the wonderful NEW WHEELS:

Jacob, Ethan, Grace, David, and Caleb have had Vacation Bible School all this week.  On Sunday night, while they were attending night #1, my handsome husband and I went and bought ourselves a shiny new double stroller.  The first time I used it on my own (at the library) I had to call him at work because I could not figure out how to fold the thing back up. 

I really like the bright, cheerful red color.  It is very easy to push and it turns corners on a dime.  The seats easily lift out so that we can turn them to face each other, the front, or the back. 

Right now Sarah faces us.

And Seth faces front so he can look at things as we walk along.

It’s been such a nice week.  Taking the children to VBS every night has been crazy (it’s a half hour drive to church) but fun.  Instead of going home to enjoy his quiet house, Rich has been driving to church after work to meet me and we’ve gone on dates (with the little ones) each evening –dinner and then a nice long walk around the neighborhood.

We talk and laugh and last night on the sidewalk, as cars were driving by,  I received the nicest long romantic kiss!  Now that we have this awesome stroller we plan on walking (and kissing) after dinner as often as we can.

I was running around, in the midst of a very busy morning, trying to clean up the house before it got out of control, not really listening to little boys who were following me around, just aching for a bit of my time……

After a while, I realized what I was doing and I stopped the scrubbing.  The house work I had accomplished that morning was good enough. 

“Davy, do you want to go for a walk with me?  Let’s go to the field and see if we can find some caterpillars!”

“Okay!”

We left the house with Jacob in charge of the sleeping babies and away we went.

The two of us.

We held hands.

We looked at the stream.

He talked a lot and I listened, really listened.

We admired a big huge pine tree and Davy climbed it.

We saw a fallen down tree across the trail.

We admired the wood, noticed the many layers inside, and took a piece home with us as a souvenir.

The field was lovely, spicy, buzzing, and hot.

We didn’t see any caterpillars.  We did see some interesting bugs.  David said that he wants to learn more about interesting bugs.  These particular ones were long, red with black spots, and had long black antennae. 

We found a couple red ripe raspberries at the edge of the woods.  We ate them.

There are no apples growing on the wild apple tree this year.

We found some mysterious round purple berries.  We didn’t eat them.

Saw a beautiful butterfly.

And another interesting bug: a colorful beetle that proved to be camera shy.

Admired the moss in the woods.  It was like a carpet! (said David)

Enjoyed the lovely pine woods that belong to us, on our property.  “We should bring a picnic table back here!” (said Mama)

We walked back home and that little walk has brought a smile to my face whenever I think about it. 

I’m so thankful for moments like that during these busy days.

My camera dried out and is working fine, all except the zoom button, which I use more than I thought I did.  I miss my zoom button, but am very thankful that my camera is back to life.  Taking pictures during our busy days is something I really enjoy.

After my camera dried out my upstairs computer had a problem and I could not transfer photos into my picture program.  Rich fixed it last night so I am taking the time this morning to post some pictures on my blog.  Sarah is over in the arm chair looking cute (she can chew on her little hands now) and Rich just brought me coffee and half a bagel.

Anyway.

We made pickles this week!

It all began on Thursday.  I was sitting on the couch early in the morning, minding my own business.  I was the center of attention:

We were all hanging out together when all of a sudden our neighbor down the road drove in.  It was Mr. G, the man who has the huge garden (and the kids helped him plant it).  He came to our house to give us 2 boxes of cucumbers, zucchini, and summer squash.  He has been selling produce by the side of the road but he had to go away for a few days and decided to give us the veggies.

He told us they would be good for pickles so after he left Ethan came in the house and immediately started rummaging around the kitchen, trying to start making pickles!  He didn’t need to think about it, he knew that was what we had to do.  Of course, he had not a clue how to make them, but that’s besides the point.  He was just gonna do it.  Who knows what he would have come up with.

I grabbed my canning and preserving book (see link below) and we went downtown to get our supplies, just me and E and Seth.  It was a lot of fun because while we were at the store we also bought those new pretzel mnm’s and ate them.  It was a party!  We put the groceries in the back of the vehicle and filled our pockets with mnm’s.  Then we walked down to the hardware store to buy a canner.  Seth turned all the different colors of the mnm’s, I carried him and wiped his chin off with his shirt.  It was a beautiful cool morning.

This was the recipe we decided to make first:

When we got home, we went right to work.

After we made the refrigerator pickles, I made pickled summer squash.  This recipe involved canning/processing the jars in boiling water and this was the very first time I had ever done it.  I was proud of myself.

All the canning made me hot and tired so I flopped on the floor for a minute, with Sarah.  Grace took the picture.

Sarah’s sundress has flowers and strawberries all over it, the same color as the shirt I was wearing.  Little things like that make me happy.    When you spend so much time together it’s good to color coordinate.

My brother Isaac came for dinner on Thursday (pickle day).  I was so thankful that Jacob and I had made dinner earlier and it was in the crock pot.  We made Salisbury steak, a recipe we recently found on allrecipes.com.  It is already a family favorite.  I just have to say,  I have tweaked the recipe.  The original calls for a package of lipton onion soup mix, mixed into two pounds of hamburger.  I thought it was too salty, so the next time we made it I used 3 beef bouillon cubes and a handful of dried onion in 3 pounds of burger, instead.  You could also add herbs and spices, too.  We served the steak with hot buttered egg noodles and raw cucumber sticks (with dip).  There was NOTHING leftover.  Success!

Isaac and I took the kids outside.

Caleb flew his kite.

Caleb canned out on the lower driveway, which is gravel.  He came crying to us, showed us two very tiny scrapes (but I am sure they did sting, poor boy) and then went in the house, muttering “NOW I NEED TO PUT BANDAIDS ALL OVER MYSELF.”

He came back out looking like this:

The large bandaids were much too large but I guess that was all he could find. 

After a while, the little boys wanted to swim so I sat and watched them while Isaac and Grace walked the dog.

I made more pickles yesterday.  Bread and butter.  Four quarts of them.  By the time I was done chopping and measuring, boiling, stirring, timing, turning my kitchen into a disaster, boiling a HUGE pot of water and worrying about someone getting burned, I decided paying 3 dollars a jar at the grocery store was a steal of a deal.

I am happy that I did it, but it’s time consuming and tiring.  And when it’s the first time you try a recipe you don’t even know if it’s worth it!  How will they taste?  Will they be crispy?  Will the children like them?  Am I crazy?

I went out on the porch yesterday to get something and found E and G sitting and talking, each with chickens on their laps and the cat right there with them! 

Someone special sent Sarah a few gifts yesterday and this morning I put her new tiny legwarmers on her.  They are so cute I squealed.

And they have cherries on them.  How utterly precious!

Happy Saturday to all my wonderful friends!  Thank you for being you.

Much love~ Shanda

The children have been swimming in the pond almost every day.

I like to take my pretty quilt and go sit down at the pond and watch them.

On Friday, Sarah slept under the trees in the shade while the others swam.

Ethan gave his chicken a ride on the swing.  But I really took this picture because of Seth and his daring climb.  Seth has no fear, I have to feel it all for him…….can’t take my eyes off him for a moment!

Friday evening:

The sky that evening was so beautiful….

we ended up having to get out of the pond because a storm came in. 

I took some pictures of Sarah Joy in her fancy dress before she grew out of it……it was a gift from one of my xanga friends.  The dress and bow are darling, she’s so cute in it.  Grace and I think she looks like a baby ballerina.

Rich got home Friday night shortly after 9.  I want to say thanks to all who prayed for him.  His flight was almost delayed on Friday……but all ended up just fine and we spent a very happy Saturday and Sunday together again.  We kissed a lot. 

On Saturday Grace and David were invited to a pool party.  After I took a chicken to the vet (she had a sore on her foot), I dropped them off.  Then, I came home and Rich and I put Seth down for a nap and left Jacob & Ethan to babysit Caleb (and Seth, who was napping).  We went out for lunch and then went to pick out a new dryer.  We drove on back roads instead of the highway and we discovered a great meat market on the way home.  We picked up some hamburgers, steaks, hot dogs, and ribs to grill.  When we got home, we all walked the 1 and a half miles to go get Grace and Davy back from their friend’s house.  I love walking with the family, we talked and laughed and got too hot.  We ended up going out for ice creams when we got back home.  The only bad thing was that during our walk I was holding Sarah in the Ergo.  Because I couldn’t carry it around my neck as usual, I put my camera in the back of the stroller, not knowing that Seth’s sippy cup with water in it was leaking…my camera got drenched and is slowly drying out.  So far it is not working, but I have hope!  Live, camera, live!  Come back to me!

On Sunday we went to church.  Rich taught Sunday School and the Lord orchestrated it so that his lesson and Pastor’s sermon went hand in hand.  Its always a thrill when that happens.  People had questions during S.S. that Pastor was able to clear up w/out even knowing about our class.  After church we stopped by the grocery store.  Rich and I went in and got stuff for a sandwich lunch which I made and we ate, on the way home.  We also went through the McDonald’s drive through…I love their iced mochas, yum!

Today my friend Kathy (and her five children) are coming over to play with us.  My new dryer will be delivered and then this afternoon Jacob has an orthodontist appointment.  It’s going to be a  busy (but fun) day, and that’s why I wanted to hop online earlier ….. to say hello …. Happy Monday!!