flowers

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Shanda

Last week I was tiredly standing in line for the bathroom at Trader Joes when I heard a man say cheerfully “We’re here for another free sample.” I looked up from the floor and down the hallway to see a young Dad, dressed in a plain sweater, jeans, and a casual rumpled suit coat. His hair was dark blond, long, and pulled back messily into a pony tail. He had his little girl with him and she looked to be about four years old. Her hair was cut in a bob with bangs across her forehead and her hair was charmingly windblown and messy. Her face was clean, open, and happy and she was wearing a sweet feminine dress with a full skirt. The free sample was for her, “I don’t know why but I just liked it so much I had to have another one,” she explained happily.

I was seeing with my heart. Something about this little girl drew me out of my sad little world and into her pure and joyful one.

It was my turn for the bathroom and then I continued shopping.

As I paid for the groceries, the little girl and her Dad were just leaving their line at another register. As she walked by me and my cashier, she flung a wilted dandelion on the counter for the cashier as a gift. Not waiting or looking for a reaction, and with her Dad smiling at her, she continued to leave the store, flinging different flowers at each register, even the registers that weren’t open. I had a distinct feeling this was all her idea, and my heart smiled to think of her busily picking flowers before going to Trader Joes with her Dad. I also had the feeling that he had nothing to do with his daughter’s kind pursuits. He was standing back and watching and keeping her in his sight with a proud smile. It was like they were in their own quiet and beautiful little world.

I took my cart and left the store. I was heart-worn and weary from days of crying and working through my own personal challenges. I walked behind the two of them and headed toward my vehicle, leaving them behind me, my mind returning to it’s own gray thoughts again.

I heard the fast slapping of little running feet and before I knew what was happening, the little girl was at my side ……handing me a flower. I looked down at her, seeing the innocence and happiness of a sweet angel child. I bent down and asked her for a hug and she flung her arms around me and nuzzled her nose back and forth lovingly into my neck. I’ve raised seven four-year-olds so I am an expert judge of their hugs and this one was as precious as any, and warmed my soul.

Rich was in the car waiting for me. I put my head in his lap and cried as I told him what I had just experienced. His heart melted too as he said, “Shanda, that little girl was you. You are a giver and your loving and thoughtful personality is a gift to the world. You and she are the same.”

The heart sees what it knows. It recognizes. It loves.

I’m almost positive the next time I go to Trader Joes I’ll be taking flowers, too.

“You have a place in my heart no one else ever could have.” f. scott fitzgerald

spring has sprung

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Shanda

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“It’s surely no accident that
the most universal toast is,
‘To Life.'”

~quote from Victoria magazine

Spring has sprung! Everyone’s happy!

This was Rich at a little league game on Monday, with a photo of the two of us the very next evening:

It’s much more fun watching baseball with the sun in your face than it is when wearing five layers and still cold.

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I made dinner, packed it all up and put it in the vehicle, drove Caleb to drum lessons (with S and S with us, too) then went to the HS for Dave’s meet, Rich picked up the boys there for baseball, when Dave was done Sarah and I went to baseball to watch Seth’s game, too, all with dinner in the car for people to eat when they were hungry. Sarah walked around eating salt potatoes out of a plastic cup.

I took the photo of Dave with the javelin and his siblings all around him because it always touches my heart when they wander away from me and form their own gang. Sibling-love is great to see.

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Dave in mid-air.

He had another meet yesterday but it was away (I don’t go to the away meets). He confessed he was relieved that I wouldn’t be watching him “do badly”……(track is a new sport for him)…..to which I replied, “The only time I think any of you ‘do badly’ is when you get hurt.” It’s obvious that David likes track, he’s often smiling. After his events were over I took him some food before I left and he was verbally thankful. “What’s this? A brownie? For me? SWEET!” he said. So I left with a smile on my fact, too. Later on he told me he shared the brownie.

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Seth’s first game of the season was a dud because his team had two players missing and therefore didn’t have enough to field a team. They had to forfeit but then played it anyway. I saw Seth playing pretty much every position. (He’s catcher in the photo). He pitched, ran to cover second, ran to cover first……When he was catcher he did very well but it makes me SO nervous to see my son so close to a swinging bat. Rich reminded me to look at all the protective gear he was wearing but of course as a mom of boys you just know for a fact that they can always find a way to get hurt. It didn’t help that Caleb was watching through the fence and saying “He doesn’t have a CATCHERS mitt on, it’s going to KILL his HAND!”

Seth got the game ball. 🙂

But he would tell you his favorite moment was when he slid into home plate to score a run.

His baseball pants are gray but Caleb’s are as white as snow. One of my favorite challenges is to try to get them white again after each game. (I’m a dork) What I do is sit on the floor, lay them out in front of me, spray each dirty spot with shout and then take a bar of laundry soap and scribble it into the stains before popping them in the washer.

The most horrifying thing I saw this week was a child (not my own but it very well could have been) DELIBERATELY fall on his knees in the dirt and grass multiple times during warm ups just to dirty his white pants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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She makes me laugh…….at one point she was also carrying around my umbrella. She was wearing: sunglasses, a thick fabric headband that looked more like a hat, winter coat, shorts, and a backpack which had a small metal mailbox in it containing her tic tacs. All set for another night of baseball.

Rich took this video of Caleb getting a base hit last night. I have such fun watching him play. We were down by home plate at one point to watch Caleb hit. He got a triple and Rich tried to video it but it turned out to be a perfectly clear video of THE FENCE. But when Caleb got on third he did a dance, moving his arms and shaking his hips a little. His coaches kept reminding him of what to do and it was almost like he was half-listening. He had a coach RIGHT there and started talking to him like it was time to have a conversation. “PAY ATTENTION CALEB!” The first base coach yelled all the way over “GET ON THE BASE CALEB!” And the team mom also coached, “QUIT EATING those SEEDS and keep your hand out of your pocket! …..who has those seeds?” she asked the dug out, “I’m getting rid of them……” and so on. And Caleb dances and smiles. They lost the game though but at least they had fun. I left early because it was raining. I drove to the grocery store to get ice cream for a before bed snack.

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This McCoy planter is so beautiful! I found it antiquing. And of course I can’t resist taking photos of the lovely eggs…..

Even Parker the dog gets one each day. I give it to him whole and he drops it on the ground to crack it and eat it.

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They rarely walk on the front lawn so I had to laugh when I looked up from my book and saw the flock making it’s way to the bird feeders. They like to eat the sunflower seed that drops down from the feeders on the porch.

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I had to take a photo when I saw the knives on the quiet piano. “Dave was here”.

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I asked Seth to take the garbage out. I was running around the kitchen trying to make his dinner. “Why do I have to do everything?” was his groan as he sat in front of the TV. (The truth is he does almost nothing) “Now you’re standing in the corner for 10 minutes.” “Okay, I’ll do that first before I take out the trash.” “Now it’s 12 minutes.” And then he stopped talking and I won. By the end of 12 minutes he was on the floor lying down on his side, with only his face in the corner.

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I played two games of P-I-G with David and Sarah. Here is a photo of Sarah trying to make the impossible basket that David just shot. Their faces are so cute. (I won both times)

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After basketball we dared him to jump in the pond. He was happy to be dared. He prides himself by being the first one in the pond every spring.

I asked him if it was cold and he said yes.

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Then they went fishing. Sarah tried to bring herself to touch a worm. She is sincerely quite squeamish of them but was trying her best to participate. It didn’t help that Dave would say things like, “Oh, don’t touch that one it bites.”

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It was a small one but Rich got home just in time to give Dave his first lesson in cleaning up a fish to eat it.

I put butter on it and put it under the broiler where it promptly caught on fire. “I guess it’s done.” “Are you sure mom, just because food is on fire doesn’t mean it’s cooked.” Dave said dryly while bending over his fish and filleting the second side.

Seth was the most disturbed by it all…..because of the smell. I guess his nose is the most sensitive. He said “Can someone get this fish head out of here?” And Rich took it out and threw it away in the woods across the road.

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She gave me this flower. It’s an artificial flower that fell off the front door wreath. She found it and got creative by finding a small stick, painting it green & pink, sticking the flower into it and giving it to me. She also used one of David’s pocket knives to carve a little design on it. You can see how pleased she is with herself. I was most impressed by 1) she didn’t get paint on her shirt and, 2) she put the paints away when she was done without being told.

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To finally see COLOR is glorious.

~distractingly beautiful clouds

~I get this as a treat at the natural foods store. Delicious!

It’s so good to go barefoot again!

Seth and Caleb fishing derby

This photo is from a week ago…. (I didn’t take it, it was given to me by the sports photographer)…. at a fishing derby that the wrestling coach hosts at his house for the team every spring. David, Caleb, and Seth are all three in this picture, can you find them?

Dirty and happy at the end of a long playful day, getting their own bedtime ice cream.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore. Psalm 121:7

drink them in

Posted on March 20, 2018 by Shanda

“The kitchen door opened. Marilla looked up expecting to see Mrs. Lynde. Anne stood before her, tall and starry-eyed, with her hands full of Mayflowers and violets.

“Anne Shirley!” exclaimed Marilla. For once in her life she was surprised out of her reserve, she caught her girl in her arms and crushed her and her flowers against her heart, kissing the bright hair and sweet face warmly. ‘I never looked for you till tomorrow night. How did you get from Carmody?’

“‘Walked, dearest of Marillas. Haven’t I done it a score of times in the Queen’s days? The mailman is to bring my trunk tomorrow; I just got homesick all at once, and came a day earlier. And oh! I’ve had such a lovely walk in the May twilight; I stopped by the barrens and picked these Mayflowers; I came through Violet-Vaile; it’s just a bowlful of violets now–the dear, sky-tinted things . Smell them, Marilla–drink them in.”

Marilla sniffed obligingly, but she was more interested in Anne than in drinking violets.

“Sit down child. You must be real tired. I’m going to get you some supper.”

“There’s a darling moonrise behind the hills tonight, Marilla, and oh, how the frogs sang me home from Carmody! I do love the music of the frogs. It seems bound up with all my happiest recollections of old spring evenings. And it always reminds me of the night I came here first. Do you remember it, Marilla?”

“Well, yes” said Marilla with emphasis. “I’m not likely to forget it ever.”

“They used to sing so madly in the marsh and brook that year I would listen to them at my window in the dusk, and wonder how they could seem so glad and sad at the same time. Oh, but it’s good to be home again! Redmond was splendid and Bolingbroke delightful–but Green Gables is HOME.”

~Spring and Anne Return to Green Gables, Anne of the Island

Grace drove us to Logee’s greenhouse last week. It was a 52 minute drive and when we were almost there she finally asked, “WHERE is this place?” I hadn’t told her how long she would be driving just to see if she would ever mention it. We had a nice laugh and five minutes later hopped out of the parked car in anticipation. I asked the woman at the counter if I could take photos and she said, “Of course!”

As I looked through the many photos this morning, after a weekend of taking Grace back to college, the old Anne quote came to my mind. Like Anne, Grace is our own dear college girl now, and it was a deep down joy to have her home for spring break. However, we did not experience the music of the frogs, only the falling of more and more snowflakes, and a charming “Froggy” begonia which you will see in the midst of the following pictures.

Drink them in: