I made a big cake today, using some of that roasted pumpkin, to go with all that coffee I just got.

The older children were in my room watching an animal show on the computer and I sat, all alone in the kitchen, enjoying the quiet and my cake, and my coffee.

By the time my cake was gone, I was feelin’ a little lonely.  I was thinking of all my friends, and wishing one was sitting by my side.

Just then, Caleb came walking into the kitchen, awake after a three hour nap.

“oooo, ooooo, a person!!”  I thought to myself.

Out loud, I said excitedly, “Caleb!  Do you wanna piece of cake?”

“Yes,” he said, nodding at the same time.

As I sat and watched him enjoy his cake, I thought, “I just can’t think of a more satisfying guest to have for dessert than my three year old little boy.”

Who else would sit and carefully eat all the frosting off, first?

Who else would say, “Um.  Um.  Um.  A PEACH,” with their mouth full, when I asked what fruit was on their napkin?

Who else could forgive my laughing at them for calling a cherry a peach?

Who else would boldly say, “Can I have some JUICE?”

Who else would boldly say, “Can I have more frosting?”

 (more frosting)

Who else would do a face plant onto their cake because it’s easier than using a fork?

Who else would soberly use their napkin to wipe their mouth, their whole face, their head, and then their mouth again, when I told them to clean the frosting off their mouth?

Who else would eat comfortably with ME staring at them the whole time, with my elbow on the table, and my chin in my hand, and frank adoration in my eyes?

Who else would hop down after they were done, and instead of walking away, come to me and say, “I want a big hug”?

Who else could make my heart melt so?

No one, but my little Caleb.

~Thanks for having cake with mama today, small friend.~

PS, the cake recipe is here  I would recommend using canned pumpkin, not fresh.  I was trying not to waste my pumpkin, and I’m glad I used it up, but I had to work a lot to get all the extra water out of it.  Also, it’s not quite as flavorful as the canned. 

It’s so touching, and meaningful, when God’s people pray for one another!  As I sit and read through all of your names I cry, and thank God for His church.  It’s overwhelming, how we are family and have love for one another, even if we haven’t even met.  It’s God alone, Who knits us together and makes us one body.

~Thank you~ so much, for praying.  My dad said to me today that Pastor Steensma is still about the same, maybe a little improved.  The congregation is so sad, but with all the prayers there is also such peace, placing the ultimate course of things into God’s loving hands.  I will certainly keep you all updated, as I hear news.

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Last night, I took the two older boys to their music lessons.  There is a big field nearby so I took my camera just in case I got in the mood to snap a few pictures. . . .it doesn’t take much to get me going, although most of these were taken by David or Grace!  It was about 6:30 when we took them, the sun was going down and glowing so prettily.

Mama and Caleb, the best little three year old hugger anyone could wish for.  Yesterday, he came to me as I was gripping my ankle in agony (after ramming it into my desk), and said, “Mama!!!  Give me a big hug,” he began to squeeze, “so I can make you feel better!”  More squeezing.  *sigh of pleasure*  What a nice boy.

Doin’ a little kissin’. . . I love the boy’s faces, David looks so content on my lap.

I’m sure someone*somewhere* could fix the little flash of gold on my forehead, but I don’t have the time!

Let’s just call it “pixie dust”. . .I love the picture anyhow!  Me and my little Davy-do

And my girl of girls, I just couldn’t crop Caleb out. . .he’s Too Cute!

Oh, the delicious skin of a little child!  I hope I can remember that their hearts, and souls are just as tender at this point in the game. . . .need to treat them gently. . . . mercifully. . . .

Verses from a wonderful time of Bible reading this morning, out on the porch while the children were still sound asleep—all from Psalms—

“Wait on the Lord:  be of good courage, and He will strengthen thine heart:  wait, I say, on the Lord.”

“The Lord is their strength, and He is the saving strength of His anointed.”

“O love the Lord, all ye His saints”

“Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.”

“Thou art my hiding place”

“He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.  Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.”

“. . the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”  (FULL!!!)

“O taste and see that the Lord is good.  Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.”

It’s been raining here just about all day.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the children this evening.  I feel like I have to do something fun, to break up the time between now and bed. 

Thanks again for your prayers!  You all are wonderful!

Love ~Shanda~

I was reading one of Jacob’s books yesterday about one of his heroes, Sergeant Alvin C. York (who fought in WW1).  York was born and raised in the mountains of Tennessee and only received a third grade education.

When I came to the chapter in which he writes about his Mother, I was inspired.  I think you will understand what I mean if you are able to take the time to read this little story.  I want to be this kind of mother. 

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“Like most all boys, I think my mother was the best mother in all the world.  I jes think so much of her that I don’t know how to say what I want to say.  I guess sometimes you can feel things so deep you are sorter lost for words to express them.”

“Hit’s different talking about Mother, but I jes got to.  Her story is jes sorter mixed up with mine and mine with hers, and I can’t jes tell where one ends and the other begins, and I can’t look into my own life nohow without finding her always mixed up with my affairs.  And always for the better.  I have generally taken her advice as being most helpful.  When I have failed to do it, I have ‘most always got into a heap of trouble.”

“She went to school and larned to read and write and that was about all.  She never read no other books but the Bible.”

“Father built the log house at the spring, and that’s where most all of us were borned and growed up.  The children kept coming right smart until there were eleven of us.  Mother had to work hard from sunup often until ten o’clock at night to keep us clothed and fed.  Until we was old enough to help, Mother had to do ‘most everything around the house.  She milked the cows, made the butter; she looked after the hogs and chickens.  She made the soap and the tallow candles and fixed the grease for the lamps.  She carded the wool and spun and wove the cloth and made all of our clothes.  She was a good mother to us, and with Father she brought us all up, and we are living today.  We’re all strong and healthy and well and she enjoyed every minute of it.  She enjoyed life much more in those days, so she says, slaving and working for us, than she does today, jes quietly living with us with not much to do or to bother about.”

“She jes didn’t have time to worry or to be unhappy.  Life tried to crowd in on her and bust her up right smart and she jes wouldn’t let it nohow.  She knowed what she wanted-she wanted her home, her husband, and her own children, and she knowed she would have to pay for these things with work and sacrifice, so she was willing.  That’s a mother for you!  And that’s what she’s done for me.”

“And here I was running hog-wild around the country, keeping her up late nights and worrying the heart out of her.”

“All of this was making me feel kinder bad.  I jes knowed I was wrong.  I jes knowed there was no excuse for me, and I was beginning to make up my mind to cut it out, when she begun her praying for me.  She prayed and prayed.  So I made up my mind to finish it.”

“I sorter turned over in my mind all the sacrifices Mother had made for me.  I ricollected that I had never asked her to do anything which she refused if it was right.  I knowed she had given up ‘most all her life for me.  I knowed how much she loved me.  And now she was asking me to give up all of this wild life and bad companions and be a good boy again.”

“So I thought and struggled and prayed more and more.  And then, jes as I was making up my mind and getting control of myself, a preacher-man came into the valley.  He preached very close to the word of God as it is revealed in the Bible.”

“So I was saved!  And that is the greatest victory I ever won.  It’s much harder to whip yourself than to whip the other fellow, I’m a-telling you, and I ought to know because I done both.  It was much harder for me to win the great victory over myself than to win it over those German machine guns in the Argonne Forest.  And I was able to do it because my Mother’s love led me to God, and He showed me the light, and I done followed it.”

~From the book Sergeant York and the Great War

O dear mothers, please understand that you have a very sacred trust reposed in you by God!  He has in effect said unto you, “Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages” (Exodus 2:9).  You are called to equip the future man of God, that he may be “thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:17).  If God spares you, you may live to hear that pretty boy speak to thousands, and you will have the sweet reflection in your heart that the quiet teachings of the nursery led the adult man to love his God and serve Him.

Those who think that a woman detained at home by her little family is doing nothing think the reverse of what is true.  Scarcely can the godly mother quit her home for a place of worship.  However, dream not that she is lost to the work of the church.  Far from it, she is doing the best possible service for her Lord.

Mothers, the godly training of your offspring is your first and most pressing duty.  Christian women, by teaching children the holy Scriptures, are as much fulfilling their part for the Lord as Moses did in judging Israel, or Solomon in building the temple.

~C.H. Spurgeon

“. . . .teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

to be descreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands,

that the word of God be not blasphemed.”  Titus 2:3-5

“When I think of the sacredness and the responsibility of parents, I do not see how any father and mother can look upon the little child that has been given to them and consider their duty to it, and not be driven to God by the very weight of the burden that rests upon them, to cry to Him for help and wisdom. 

When a man bends over the cradle of his first-born, when he begins to realize that here is a soul which he must train, teach, fashion and guide through this world to God’s bar how can he longer stay away from God? 

Let him, as he bends over his child’s crib to kiss its sweet lips, ask himself:  “Am I able to meet this solemn responsibility of parenthood all alone, in my unaided human weakness, without divine help?”  I know not how any father can honestly meet these questions as he looks upon his innocent, helpless child, given to him to shelter, to keep, to guide, and not fall instantly upon his knees and give himself away to God. 

Rather would I see my own little ones laid away in the grave tomorrow, and miss from my life henceforth all their love, and go with empty arms and sobbing heart through this world to life’s close, than to attempt to train them, teach them and lead them on without the help of God.” 

J.R. Miller

I found this poem recently and loved it because is it my heart’s passion in mothering. . . .I hope it encourages you as much as it did me.

“Mothers, it’s worth it.  It’s worth it.  It’s worth every hour of it.  It’s worth every sleepless night of it.  It’s worth every moment of counsel.”  –C. Swindoll

I’m my way outside to catch fireflies with Grace, Ethan, and Jacob.  Even though I am so tired that my eyes itch, even though I need quiet and my nice comfy bed.  Even though my book is calling me.  Even though their bed time was almost 2 hours ago. 

They are outside already, on the porch.  I keep hearing them say, “There’s one!”  “There’s one by the pine tree!”  “There’s another one!”  “Let’s go catch them!”

I didn’t know if they would leave the security of the porch, to go into the dark night.  But, they did.  They’re out there now, with a big glass jar.

And I’m smiling.  It’ll be a late night.

But it’s so worth it. 

P.S.  I took the pictures of Caleb today with my new camera.  He’s such a cutie!