For the Love of

PATCHES
“A home without a cat
           -and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat-
                                may be a perfect home, perhaps,
but how can it prove title?”
~Mark Twain

“There are two means
of refuge from the misery of LIFE~
music and cats”  Albert Schweitzer

“No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be
                        plenty of kittens.”  Abraham Lincoln

“THE SMALLEST FELINE                                                         
                          IS A MASTERPIECE”  LEONARDO DA VINCI

“I hope I’ll always have at least one cat” ~ Shanda
“I hate Patches” ~ Rich
He said this because he caught Patches, who is just a kitten, digging furiously in one of my houseplants, flinging dirt everywhere.  Then, after he put Patches outside, she promptly went up the screen of the livingroom window, which Rich deemed “freaky”.

I won’t be blogging for the next week or so.  I am going to my parent’s house with the kids.  They will be attending VBS at my home church.  I’m looking forward to spending time w/my family and friends “back home”.

Have a wonderful week, all of you!  Love, Shanda

“Before you were conceived I wanted you
Before you were born I loved you
Before you were here an hour I would die for you. . . . . .”  ~From a quote I found

Jacob    Ethan    David    Caleb

The Boys

 If you’re not an animal lover you will NOT understand this post. 

My cat was missing for a week.  We had almost given up hope that he was still alive when suddenly. . . . . last night I heard him meowing on the porch!  He’s very skinny but otherwise fine.

Today has been great!  I love Saturdays.  Rich had nursing home ministry and he took Jacob and Ethan w/him.  I stayed home and put the baby in his carseat for his morning nap and off we went–Grace, David, sleeping baby, and me, for a drive.  I stopped at the ATM  and a couple of tag sales.  I bought a wooden crate (I have a weakness for them, they are so useful, my favorite thing to do is use them for planters) and some handmade lace from an elderly lady’s tag sale.  She was a piano player and had a lot of old sheet music for sale.  I asked her about piano playing, and she said that she couldn’t play as much any more because of her arthritis.  When I told her that I used to play, she encouraged me to take it up again.  She had a lot of fabric and handmade things (which reminded me of my Great Grandma).  She made an impression on me, she seemed very ladylike; dressed nicely, talked nicely, smiled nicely.

I went to a fruit stand and bought 8 quarts of fresh peaches, some cucumbers, tomatoes, and corn on the cob.

We came back home and when Rich and the boys got back, we went down the road to our favorite place, an antique store that also doubles as a refurnished furniture store.  The owner refinishes nice, old, heavy furniture and we bought 2 dressers from him today.  One for Grace and one for Ethan.  We also bought a beautiful ceder chest for Grace, it’s from the 1920’s and the lid lifts up and stays up (important for little fingers!)  It’s as long as the end of her full sized bed.  She already has her doll things in it.  I also bought one of those cast-iron bells, the kind where you yank the string back and forth to ring it, so I can get the children to the house when they’re out in the woods (I won’t have to yell anymore!)

I made PEACH JAM.  Oh,  I’m so happy!  Feeling so domestic today!   The jam is so good, too.  I did it while the two little ones were sleeping ~ I had almost no distractions the entire time.  What bliss!

Another Happy Simple Pleasure.

“Rain Rain Glorious Rain”
We took these pictures yesterday, late afternoon, during a deluge of rain. . .it was so refreshing after a blistering hot day.  I wanted to run around in it, but didn’t ~ for fear of being struck by lighting.