Our new curtains were installed yesterday afternoon and the children are just as pleased with them as Rich and I are.  They make the windows seem bigger and the room brighter. 

Yesterday we put together the gingerbread houses.  This is the first year we did two, instead of just one. 

I buy the kits at Costco. 

David came home from school at 3:30 with something he had made;

And then we got to work on our houses.  Jacob, Ethan, and Grace did one by themselves, and I did one with David and Caleb.

Seth was really interested in what was going on.  But, he was such a busy-body that he was put on the floor and had a melt down.  Jacob thought his noise was enough to raise the roof.  This was just as soon as we were getting started and I wondered, “Was this a good idea?”  David was already bossing Caleb around, I couldn’t find Seth’s pacifier, so I had to call a time out until we got him settled down……..(he was put on the couch with his pacifier).

And we began again.

For a few minutes, Caleb and David were QUIETLY concentrating on what they were doing.

Although it was difficult (we broke several pieces and put our back wall together upside down and the roof was sliding down and so on……) we ended up with a half way decent gingerbread house.

Jacob, Ethan, and Grace did MUCH better with theirs, but I didn’t even get a picture of it, it was quite crazy for me, dealing with everything going on.  Their house was color coordinated, neat, and thoughtful.  What a difference a few years makes. 

Seth fell asleep even with all the activity going on behind him.

In the evening, after it got dark, I turned off all the lights except for the tree and window lights.  I lit a candle and called the children to the table.  We began reading a book for the advent season that a friend here on xanga recommended to me.  I was supposed to start reading it on November 29, when advent began, so we will have to catch up somehow, the book didn’t come until yesterday, I had ordered it from amazon.com.  It was a special time, they did really well listening to the story and I tried my best to read it in a very thoughtful and interesting way.

This morning has already been busy.  Caleb woke us up at 4 and Rich couldn’t get back to sleep so he got up.  I was restless because I kept hearing him walk around.

He left for work at 6 and at 6:04, I found Caleb and Seth like this;

So, I was up and at ’em at 6:04 this morning, serving a bottle and cereal and keeping Caleb out of the gingerbread house candy.  It’s snowing outside and it’s a snowday.

Caleb and Seth were both so grumpy that by 8 they were both put back to bed.

“Oh the weather outside is frightful, and so is the prospect of the entire day before me” ~mom of six

“It belittles us to think of our daily tasks as small things, and if we continue to do so, it will in time make us small.”  Laura Ingalls Wilder

(homemade cinnamon rolls)

“Doing up cut fingers, kissing hurt places, and singing bedtime songs are small things by themselves; but they will inculcate a love for home and family that will last through life and help to keep America a land of homes.”

“Putting up the school lunch for the children or cooking a good meal for the family may seem very insignificant tasks as compared with giving a lecture, writing a book, or doing other things that have a larger audience; but I doubt very much if, in the ultimate reckoning, they will count for as much.”

(this morning)

“If when cooking you will think of yourselves as the chemist that you are, combining different ingredients into a food that will properly nourish human bodies, then the work takes on a dignity and an interest.  And surely a family well nourished with healthful food so that the boys and girls grow up strong and beautiful, while their elders reach a hale old age, is no small thing.”

(peacock fiestaware, Grace’s roll and cup of milk)

“It belittles us to think of our daily tasks as small things, and if we continue to do so, it will in time make us small.  It will narrow our horizon and make of our work just drudgery.”

“There are so many little things that are really very great, and when we learn to look beyond the insignificant appearing acts themselves to their far-reaching consequences, we will, ‘despise not the day of small things.’  We will feel an added dignity and poise from the fact that our everyday round of duties is as important as any other part of the work of the world.”

“And just as a little thread of gold, running through a fabric, brightens the whole garment, so women’s work at home, while only the doing of little things, is like the golden gleam of sunlight that runs through and brightens all the fabric of civilization.”

all quotes from Laura Ingalls Wilder, May 1923

(Jacob’s 13 year old blue blankie, and the rest of Grace’s milk, left behind at the table)

For your holiday baking, may I suggest a flour that I recently discovered?  I’m really excited about it!

Whole wheat flour and wheat baked goods are so much healthier and filling, but I honestly don’t like the taste of them.  Lately, I have noticed that the stores are selling “white whole wheat” bread and I’ve bought it for the family, and it tastes so much better than the dark brown wheat bread.  Then, the last time I was at the store, I was buying flour and found this(from King Arthur brand)….”a lighter, milder 100% whole wheat flour.”

I’ve made blueberry muffins and pancakes using just this flour in the recipes and they tasted great, and were much more satisfying to eat.

Last night, I mixed together homemade cinnamon rolls using half regular white flour and half of this new flour.  After I had the rolls all put together (but not baked yet), I put the pan in the fridge, and this morning I baked them.  It was quite the treat to have fresh and delicious rolls for our breakfast.

“You children don’t know how blessed you are right now!”  I said.

“We’re blessed because we have YOU for a mother!”  said Grace.

That was all the reward I needed.  And then I ate two warm cinnamon rolls and tried not to cry for joy. 

Here is an idea for your candles.  Lately I have been fascinated and encouraged with the verses in the Bible that have to do with LIGHT….and that Jesus is the LIGHT OF THE WORLD.  I usually have at least one candle lit during the day and it came to me that it would be a blessing to have a Bible verse propped up by it.  So, for my devotional time this morning, I sat with my Bible and picked a couple of verses.

Can I just say, I love my Bible?  I bought it at a library book sale for 2 dollars.  It’s filled with a woman’s notes and underlining and they are all a blessing to me (I can’t wait to meet her someday, and I wonder HOW her Bible got at the library book sale!?!)…..I don’t even know her name, it’s not written in it.

I love the feel of it in my hands, the smell, the sound of the pages opening and turning.

Most of all, I love that the Words are from God, and are healthy and perfect and nourishing to my soul.

Writing the verses took just a couple of minutes….and at some point I would like to make a stack of thicker, pretty cards made with scrapbook paper, to use every day with my candlelight.  Enough to change the verse every few days.

Aren’t you so very thankful that Jesus turned our darkness into LIGHT?  And now we are lights, as well, shining for Him each day.

“Once I was blind, but now I can see!  The light of the world is JESUS.”

“Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and GLORIFY your Father, which is in Heaven.”

I did not pick out the older ones’ clothing.  I just made an announcement that people were to wear red, green, or white.  And this is what I got.  As you can see, Rich always does his own thing.  He is also somewhat color blind, but I don’t think he can use that for an excuse for wearing GRAY in the Christmas photo.  Oh well.  I think it still looks just fine and I am much happier taking a picture with my own camera and tripod than trying to get a portrait done at a studio.  The very thought makes me nervous.  Anyway.

Seth’s expression makes me laugh.  I think Grace is lovely.  And my husband is handsome.

After our Christmas picture (it was freezing outside, by the way, poor Seth and his bare feet!) Rich left with the children to pick out our Christmas tree.

The chickens were so funny and very curious about what was going on as Rich trimmed off the bottom of the trunk and some of the lower branches.

I’m afraid, we are all in love with the chickens.  Never did I believe it was possible.  But, they really do have personalities and endearing qualities to them.

Our dear Miss Grace was in her very first piano recital.  We were so proud of her.  I never did make those popcorn balls for the reception afterwards.  I ended up with what I believe is possibly low blood sugar or something (I could have used a popcorn ball! LOL)….every once in a while I get weak and shaky.  I decided that buying cookies, although against my personal principles (everything is better homemade, dontcha know) was the best way to go.  And the children were absolutely thrilled with them, of course, LOL…..store bought are a TREAT. 

But, back to Miss Grace.  She picked out her own outfit, a long khaki skirt and a red top.  I fixed her hair a little, and off we went.  She was about half way down the program and she did SO well.  I was nervous for her (I used to play the piano and it’s meaningful to me that my daughter is also learning to play) but I tried to mask those feelings.  All of the students did well, Rich and I especially enjoyed this one little bitty boy who got right up there and POUNDED out his pieces just as loud as he could.  And one precious little girl, probably about 7, she actually was SMILING TO HERSELF as she played, very naturally, you could just tell she was full of joy over being able to play her songs.

When we got home…..the snow was starting to fall.

And we began to decorate our trees.  Can you believe that?  Snow, at the perfect time to make us feel all Christmasy.

The children had a wee tree that they decorate all by themselves.

After they are done you wonder if it’s a tree or one big hodge podge of ornaments.

Then, we all decorated the big tree, the biggest tree yet.  It’s about 9 feet tall, I think.  We did a gold and red theme this year.

Rich tried to get Caleb to put the star on top but he just cried and howled in fear.

So, Davy-do did it.

This picture gives an idea of why on earth Caleb might have been a little worried.  Perhaps he is afraid of heights?  Rich is 6 feet tall.

After the star was put on top, we turned on the lights and admired it.

And began to teach Sethie to leave the ornaments alone.

He took his first steps this week but please don’t make a big deal out of it because I’m in denial.

This morning, we woke up to a white wonderland.  My eyes enjoyed the beauty of the snow and the children were itching to get out and go sledding.

This is an extremely random picture of Caleb’s Thomas train.  The one on the right has about 25 layers of paint on it, from several years of paint jobs.  Caleb was waiting for the latest coat to dry and brought it to me this morning to show me.

Wow.

Come to think of it, it might be a James train underneath all that paint.  I’ll have to ask Caleb.

Instead of spending the morning sledding, we all got dressed for church.  The boys rarely wear ties or suits but this morning they did, so I took a few pictures in front of the tree right before we all ran out the door to get in the vehicle.

After church we went out to eat at an Italian place and I had the most wonderful pasta dish with tomatoes, mussels, scallops, shrimp, olives, and capers.  Oh my it was such a treat.  Rich also had a pasta dish and the kids shared a pizza.  It was really nice to sit down together and eat.  Our waitress was so nice and enjoyed seeing the children.  Seth was a busy body, though, and dropped everything he could on the floor as he laughed right at us.  I gave him a lemon and then it was my turn to laugh.

Now that we are home, I walked 2 miles on the treadmill and Rich took a nap while the older kids finally got to go outside in the snow.  They are back inside now and the five of them all played a game of memory together.  It really made my heart happy, to see them all sitting around the game together.  Ethan won.  He said, “Even if you put all of their matches together I would have still won.  David just got one match.”  David piped up and explained cheerfully, “I’m a dummy.”  We laughed and I said, “No you are not, David!”

Thank you to all my sweet friends who take the time to visit my blog today and say hello.  It means a lot to me!

Blessings and love~

Shanda

This morning the weather was mild and beautiful and it gave me energy so I took Seth and went Christmas shopping, leaving Jacob to babysit Caleb for me. 

We went to Toys R Us first and my heart sank as I walked across the parking lot to the store; I had forgotten to put my wallet in my purse (I had switched to a bigger one for the day)……I was almost positive that I had left it at home.  I went back to the vehicle to check, and there it was, in the glove compartment!  I was so relieved and thanked God for that blessing several times today!  I have no remembrance of putting my wallet in there (sad, I know, but my mind can only hold just *so much* information).

Anyway, four happy hours later spent with the cutest baby in the world, all my shopping is done except for some online things I need to order.

Now, who’s gonna wrap all this stuff?

There are beautiful gifts in this bag for JOANNA and my MOM (I just have to tease a little)………….

Merry Christmas!

And I have several full bags like this (I have to tease the children, too)…….

ooooo, I just can’t wait to see them open their new things!

Something randomly funny;

I had to get something off the porch earlier and I couldn’t get the door shut so I went back to shut it a minute later and found my flock of chickens coming RIGHT INTO THE HOUSE!

They are spoiled and are looking for treats.

I know how sadly materialistic our society is, but Rich and I absolutely love to celebrate Christmas with the children with gifts, a tree, decorations, and such.  All those plans and activities, we believe, make our family love stronger each year.  However,  we also carefully take the time to teach them what the holiday is really all about, in fact, I read the children Luke 2 just this morning.  I want them to have a respectful idea and a holy wonder about Christmas.  Everything we do to celebrate is because the most important person EVER was born on that day….Jesus Christ, God with us, our wonderful Savior, King, and Lord.

He is The Reason for the season.  I want to be sure to have a thankful and aware heart this month and always.  I want to be excited, like the shepherds were, about Jesus’ birth.  After hearing the angel’s great news, they RAN to go see the babe in the manger!  I just love that.

Blessings to you on this day, my dear friends!

We sat at the table late this morning and started cutting out paper snowflakes.  As I helped Caleb with his, I was overcome with fatigue.  I haven’t been sleeping well at all and I wake up numerous times in the night.  Every night.  The nauseousness of this pregnancy is getting better every day, but I get so sleepy at times.  However, I somehow powered through the sleepy feelings and had fun making snowflakes.  I even glittered Caleb’s nose.

We listened to Christmas music as we worked.  We used the snowflakes to decorate our window by the kitchen table.

I had the children do their glittering over cake pans so we could save the extra. 

We had pretty candles lit.  One of them smells like vanilla sugar cookies.

Ethan found our window wreath and we hung that up with a red ribbon.

Every day we tear off a chain from the paper chain that the older children made.  This is something that we do every year, and I remember doing it as a child, too.  At first the chain seems so long, you think Christmas day will never come, but it does……….

I took out my collection of Christmas magazines and children’s books so we could read them.

Here are a few pictures that inspired me from past issues of Country Living magazine.

The first one is of a tree with dried fruit, strung cranberries, and popcorn garland, but I also love the table next to it, with the glass containers filled with silver ball ornaments and the beautiful lace tablecloth.

I want to make these with the children this year, I just need to find whole cloves. 

Grace glittered a pinecone, which is something else that we do yearly.  It’s fun to put our nature collection to good use.

She hung it up with a white ribbon and a blue bead.

Our handsome little baby boy turned 10 months old today.  10 months.  This baby has grown faster than any of the others.  He really has.

He makes me so very happy.  This morning, when I went upstairs to get him out of his crib, I was filled with contentment….it just feels so right to have a little body to scoop up so easily, and snuggle.  We went right down to say good morning to Papa, and Seth was all smiles.

He’s still a little baby, even though he’s doing so many active things nowadays.

Did I tell you, he crawls up the stairs now?  And he tries drawing with a pencil or crayon, too.  He wants to do everything we do.  Today, I put him on my lap as I was playing the piano, and he copied me by playing some notes, and then touching the pages of the hymnbook in front of us (“turning the pages just like mama does”).

I had Jacob feed Seth his lunch today, as I dozed on the couch.  He did a good job giving him his macaroni and beef baby food.  It was really saucy so I made sure he got a bib on him.  I had to laugh later on, after he was fed, when I noticed the (formerly WHITE) sleeves on both his arms were filthy with baby food.  So much for keeping him clean with a bib!

Jacob takes such good care of Seth.  Sometimes Seth prefers to go to Jacob when he cries, rather than me or Rich.

Seth’s little foot, in my hand;

10 months old and drinking a bottle, now.  Serious business by the looks of it.  I always hold him when he drinks it, it’s still our snuggling time…..but, I wanted to get his picture today and had him hold his own bottle for a minute.  He was asleep in my arms by the time he emptied it.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day!

On the first day of Christmas,

day number one,

Ethan and Mama made……

**ooey gooey sticky orange**

popcorn balls!!!

I was on my friend onehappymomma’s blog and found the recipe.  I showed it to Ethan first thing this morning and before I knew it, he had copied it down and was back in the kitchen, stirring the syrup and popping the popcorn!  I helped him finish up, and we burned our hands a little, forming the popcorn into balls.  They taste very yummy but are too sticky for Jacob to eat (because of his braces).  We decided to make them again on Saturday, to take to Grace’s first piano recital, only we will go to the store to buy red and green jello for that batch.

Merry Christmas!