Our chicks are almost five months old now and love drinking from puddles in their yard.  We can’t wait to get the first egg from this flock!

The children have a fort made with this fallen down pine tree.  We were visiting there last week and I noticed that clumps of mushrooms were growing out of every single crack in the bark.

These leaves, a soft tree fungus, and the wintergreen, all came home with me in my pocket. 

(After a while, the fungus got wormy and I threw it out yesterday)

I called the winter green “leaf gum” so that Sarah and Seth would chew on the leaf I gave them.  They made funny faces and I laughed when they bent over to spit it.  I love the pinkness of the berries….so pretty.

This small, feathery light mushroom had a tiny slug under it.

And this purple mushroom cap was slick and slimy.

Someone picked a teeny bouquet of flowers and I inserted them into a small dish from Sarah’s tea set.

The big kids, doing their homework in the evening.  I think Grace keeps things quiet.  (is this a future librarian?)

I made a big batch of Grandma’s dinner rolls for church. 

I replaced the “crappity crap” white cabinet with this piece from Pottery barn.  Better?  Yes.

What’s happening?

The other evening there was a scuffle on the porch when a raccoon became Daring and tried to visit (in order to steal dogfood).  The cat and dog when berserk and the children fled to the window, where they remained, watching this raccoon until he got brave enough to come down out of what he mistakenly thought was a “tree”.  Look at those fingers!

It was interesting to see the reactions in the children.  They immediately got a chair.  Seth ran to get my phone and promptly took 84 pictures.  David opened the top window and started throwing things.  I didn’t know until I heard him say “I hit it!” and then I made him stop.   Rich and Ethan ran for their guns and would have shot it if I didn’t intervene. 

An American raccoon.  I daresay he won’t be back. 

I buzzed Seth’s hair yesterday.  He ran to look in the mirror.  “Do I look just like Weston?”  he asked.  (Weston’s his best buddy-and cousin–) 

I took this at the end of our road at 8:30 this morning…..on my way to Dunkin’ Donuts, my sister, and Bible Study.

The leaves are so stunning.

I found this run-over snake in the road for my snake lover, Caleb.  He gazed at it and said, “If it were alive it would be my pet right now.”

He even dreams of snakes.   Last night he dreamed he had a big huge water snake.  But, he says, he doesn’t love snakes the best.  He loves the Bible and God more.  I told him I was sure God was smiling right then, to hear it.  How very precious indeed, are the words that come out of a child’s mouth about God.

My favorite verse for the week:

“When you give it to them, they gather it up.  When you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.”

It’s a wet, wet world out there today, one to put a smile on your face and a spring in your step.  I took my camera out with me to get the mail and found myself continuing up the road in my flip flops, attracted by the abundant variety of little ferns curling out of earthy wet leaves.  “Welcome to springtime in New England, I for one, am very happy to see you lovely things again. A photo, if you please?”   (To share with you, my friends.) 

The countryside is different after a rain; with clean smells, cool sweet air, and bright sounds.  The birds sing energetically and happy.  You can’t help but notice the different notes and songs bouncing off all those wet leaves.  One bird sang such a long, drawn out melody that I stopped in wonder to listen.  I think it was a cardinal down in the pine trees. 

On the way back home I picked a big crispy bouquet of all the different ferns.  In the kitchen, I put them in a mason jar of water, and carried them to my room.  They are just as lovely as flowers to me (and beautifully green).

The mail?  Oh, yes, it’s still in the box.

Take a look at this flower.  Do you notice anything unusual about it?  Hint: it’s not the fly.

I have some very pretty daffodils still in bloom down by the pond.  As the children jumped on the trampoline, I wandered over to the garden and lifted one particularly lovely flower “face” by it’s chin to look a little closer.

Right away, I noticed there was a fly on it.  I am not impressed by flies.

The fly’s wings weren’t moving and as I tipped the flower, the fly moved back and forth.  How odd, I thought.  Won’t this wretched thing just go away?

Then, I saw and understood.  A perfectly camouflaged, white and smooth, tiny spider had the fly tightly around the neck.  As I moved the flower, the spider quickly moved it’s catch away from me.  Who knows how long she had to wait to gain her prize?  Or how often a juicy meal like this comes along?  She wasn’t letting go of Mr. Fly (her next meal) for anything.

I ran to get the boys so they could see.  And then I ran to get the camera, yelling behind me, “Don’t touch it!” as away I flew.

Does this give anyone else a creepy feeling?  But still, very fascinating.  I have found that there are always little surprises like this one, just waiting to be discovered, outside in God’s big wonderful world.

Nature will bear the closest inspection. 

She invites us to lay our eye

level with her smallest leaf,

and take an insect view of its plain. 

~Henry David Thoreau

t h i s   i s   m y   F a t h e r’ s   w o r l d

ice, frozen solid, hard and smooth and wet

running water, freezing cold (I wanted to drink some)

scalloped edges; pretty, I see hearts

sunshine

frozen pinecone, brown and orange

looking down the bank at the stream

there were beautiful ripples and patterns

a rainbow of colors in a tiny bubble trapped under the ice

amazing

like velvet

down low, just above the water and ice, wonder of whites and waves

the sound of the rushing water smooths my cares away….

“God made us curious adventurers and granted us permission to explore His creation through everything from a telescope to a microscope.” (including a camera lens)  “Because God made us this way, we have an insatiable curiousity that begins once we are born and continues throughout our life as we seek to experience and learn, travel the world, and explore every nook of creation.”  Mark Driscoll, Doctrine

(Thank you to my beautiful friend and sister in Christ Shayna, for sharing this quote with me.)

frozen bubbles

January 2012

If you only could have been with me.  Your cheeks would have gotten chilly, like mine.  You would have heard the quiet.  You would feel, with your feet, the soft nothingness of the snow as you walked along.  

You would have admired the trees; the pines, the shag bark hickory, the white birch.

You would have heard the chattering of birds, all of a sudden when they saw you; the big bluejays were scolding, the funny chickadees were innocently in their own little worlds.  You would have caught your breath, like I did, when you saw the bright red of a cardinal.

You would have stood under the tree with me, when I shook it.  The snow from up above would have fallen on you, and around you, gently.

You would have listened to the flowing, gurgling stream.  Admired the pretty ice.  Thanked God for his amazing creativeness.  Noticed the glittering of the snow, all golden as it fell from the trees.  The sunshine made everything look gorgeous.

You would have laughed at yourself as you crawled across the stream, nervously, over rocks and ice.  You wouldn’t have fallen in!

Your toes and hands would have been cold as you made your way back to the house, but your heart would be light and happy, from being out in God’s big beautiful world.

Hope the pictures helped you feel like you were there.  I took them just for you.

B l e s s i n g s  &  l o v e,

Shanda

“…the showiest, most conspicuous, and most interesting of wild plants…”  ~from How to Know the Wild Flowers

“Truly a lovely creation, made lovelier still by hummingbirds, which like the red flowers.”

“…brings fiery beauty to swamps, wet meadows, ditches, and low ground in late summer.” 

I’ve read several essays about this beautiful flower and they all say basically the same thing…that the CARDINAL flower is one of the most stunning of wild flowers and a wonderful example of a flower of the truest color red.

I had never seen one before, until we moved here four years ago.  We have a stream which borders our property, and the cardinal flowers grow wild in the stream bed, on top of rocks and in the rich soil in and along the stream.  They bloom every August and delight my soul.  I thank God for the beauty that he has created for pleasure and glory.

GOD MADE THESE FLOWERS.  THEY DID NOT EVOLVE FROM NOTHING.  THEY DID NOT JUST HAPPEN IN A BANG…..GOD MADE THEM and everything else in nature….HE IS THE #1 ORIGINAL & PERFECT ARTIST!

I gathered a few stems to take home with me (I was all alone on this walk and it was a treat!)  On the way back to the house I found blue jay feathers.  The blue and red together were a perfect combination.  I think the brightness of each color complimented the other.

I put my nature treasures in a small cobalt blue fiesta vase.  They made me happy every time I studied them, especially during those weeks when I was tending my sick little ones.~

When I was writing this, Ethan came in with a solidly woven bird’s nest.  He found it by the pond and brought it to me so we could admire it together.  Our God is amazing, don’t you agree? 

I like mushrooms.

I like to eat them.  They taste really good in an omelet.  Or with a steak or roast beef dinner.

Rich bought me mushroom salt and pepper shakers for Christmas once.  So cute!

Seeing a mushroom, while walking along in the woods, makes me very happy.

I made Sarah a dress.  It is made out of lovely forest green material, with mushrooms all over it.

It’s her little Miss Mushroom dress!

Mushrooms are an edible fungi, but some are poisonous.  It can be hard to tell the good ones from the bad ones.

People who forage for mushrooms to eat are brave.

I say that because every year someone dies from eating poisonous mushrooms.

I buy my mushrooms from the grocery store.

The ones in the woods, I only observe.

If you are a wild mushroom forager and have lived to tell about it, please leave a comment on this post!

Fungi are beneficial to our world because they break down dead material.

There are many many different kinds of mushrooms…and they are easy to draw and label, making them a perfect nature study.  Children can draw them easily into their notebooks after every new discovery.

For more interesting information on mushrooms see:  Handbook of Nature Study, by Anna Comstock

Do you see the mushroom in this next picture?

“In times of old, not only was it believed that toads sat upon them, but that fairies danced upon them and used them for umbrellas.”  ~A.Comstock

Little Miss Mushroom

“The lives of many insects afford more interesting stories than are found in fairy lore; many of them show exquisite colors.”  ~Anna Comstock,  Handbook to Nature Study

We had the privilege of seeing a treasure of a moth, on Saturday.  The children were playing outside near the pond and noticed that it had fallen on the top of the pond.  Ethan rescued it and the whole gang of them made their way back to the house, *to show Mama*.  (I love that!)  They know that I want to see any nature discovery that they find, and take a picture.  I heard happy voices and the sound of many little bare and dirty feet as they rushed toward me, with their prize.

When we looked up the moth in our Handbook of Nature Study, we found a picture of the moth with this little quote,

“The delicate, exquisite green of the luna’s wings is set off by the rose-purple, velvet border of the front wings, and the white fur on the body and inner edge of the hind wings.  Little wonder that is has been called the ‘Empress of the Night.'”  pg. 297

Isn’t it beautiful?  I’ve always wanted to see one up close!

Moths always make me remember a book that I have read and enjoyed several times.  Have you read A Girl of the Limberlost?  It is such a beautiful, wonderful book………here is a little quote:

Then the Bird Woman came back and showed Elnora a long printed slip giving a list of graduated prices for moths, butterflies, and dragonflies.

“Oh, do you want them!” exulted Elnora. “I have a few and I can get more by the thousand, with every colour in the world on their wings.”

“Yes,” said the Bird Woman, “I will buy them, also the big moth caterpillars that are creeping everywhere now, and the cocoons that they will spin just about this time. I have a sneaking impression that the mystery, wonder, and the urge of their pure beauty, are going to force me to picture and paint our moths and put them into a book for all the world to see and know. We Limberlost people must not be selfish with the wonders God has given to us. We must share with those poor cooped-up city people the best we can. To send them a beautiful book, that is the way, is it not, little new friend of mine?”

 *Here is a post I did a couple of years ago, about our discovery of a Cecropia Moth*

Today I am thankful for our creator God, the One who made such surprisingly beautiful things for us to find and think about.  If he put so much care into the flowers and trees, insects and animals, just think of how much He cares for, and loves, you and me!

Have a wonderful afternoon, dear ones~

Grace got sick in her bed in the night Friday night and when I went up to strip her bed on Saturday morning (in the middle of celebrating David’s birthday, making pancakes, and needing to wrap his gifts). . . . .anyway, when I was in her room I got all frustrated by the M E S S she was living in (poor girl).  I had to wash (in hot water) everything on her bed and why go to all that trouble when there was stuff scattered everywhere else?  We might as well do a complete job!  Needless to say, her room started us off on a weekend of cleaning the whole house. 

So, that’s what we did this weekend.  Cleaned.  A lot.  And I kid you not, I had that washer and drying going nonstop on Saturday!

The kids helped and when they weren’t helping they basically ran wild, playing with David’s new birthday toys.

I was surprised by myself when I was working in Grace’s room.  It was the first time I had been in there for a while, and as we were organizing her little toys, hair-things, books, clothes, I got all sad about not having another girl.  I had been excited about maybe having a new daughter and now that I know I’m having a boy, even though I’m thankful, I had a time on Saturday of letting go. . . .seeing all of Grace’s girl things that she will grow out of, with no little sister to pass them down to, made me sad.  I did a little crying, even!  Grace has so much, so many pretty things.  Her birthday is in November but I can’t think of much that I could buy her, so my idea is to maybe go on a little day trip together. 

Of course today I am ashamed of myself, for being sad like that.  I have so many blessings, I can just imagine how ungrateful I seem in crying just because I’m not having another daughter! 

Caleb’s room needed work, as well.  We had moved him into his own bedroom and a few months ago I had so much fun picking out new bedding and getting Rich to hang nice new curtain rods and curtains.  Caleb was in that room for maybe a week before he somehow pulled the curtains right off the walls and they’ve been draped over the back of a chair all this time, waiting for Rich to hang them back up (he needed to buy new anchors).  So we played music, Grace and I worked in her room, and Rich worked in Caleb’s room with Jacob and Ethan.  David got a new webkinz for his birthday so he played the computer.

Rich noticed that Caleb needs some extra training over the next few days, mainly because he’s not obeying right away.  He is also doing a lot of whining/crying/dramatics over very little things (like a bug bite or a spot of marker on his hand or his cracker breaking in half).  Thankfully, dealing with Caleb is pretty easy because he is so tenderhearted.  If I happen to say a sharp word, he melts and needs a big hug (that’s what he says every time, “I need a big hug”).  I love how Rich is able to see where the kids need some extra teaching, because as a mom I do sometimes have a tendency to overlook their faults and sympathize with them, rather than seeing areas that I need to train them so that they (we) don’t develop deep-rooted problems. 

We did take a break from cleaning in the middle of the day on Saturday.  Rich took us to a local diner and then we went to Kmart so that David could spend his birthday money from Uncle David and his Great Grandma.  He bought a nerf gun, a small Buzz Lightyear toy, and a horn for his bike.

I bought some yummy smelling baby detergent, because Grace wants to find all of Caleb’s old baby clothes and wash them up.  This is something I typically do when I’m about 8 months pregnant, but Grace is getting excited so I don’t see the harm in getting organized a few months earlier than usual! 

After we got home from shopping, in the late afternoon on Saturday, Grace and I went for a walk and I took these photos.  I thought you might like to see some of the fall colors we have around here.  Everything was wet from a rainy day, there was no bright sunshine, so the colors look even deeper and richer than usual.

During our walk I told Grace that I was feeling a little sad about not having another girl.  She immediately said, “I’m not.” 

 “You’re not?” I replied, surprised. 

 “No, I’m not.  IF I can have a pony.” 

I was standing on the front porch when I took this picture.  I’m continually thankful that all I can see out the majority of the windows of my house are trees!  They are a feast for my eyes.

We had David’s birthday cake at the end of the day.  It was really yummy (no, I didn’t make it, it was a Carvel ice cream cake) and as soon as it was consumed, the children were all put in bed.  It had been a busy day.  Sunday (yesterday) was nice, we went to church and continued a study about church history in S.S. and heard an excellent sermon about God’s glory during the morning service.  After church we came home and spent the rest of the day relaxing and resting.

Today I am back to a normal routine of homeschooling the older three.  David left for Kindergarten at 8.  It feels nice to start the week with a clean house! 

Quote from Sunday School that I loved:

“The well-spring of youth is Christianity” ~St. Augustine

Also, I thought I would share a verse that has been running in my mind for over a week now.  The children and I have been studying ancient Egypt and as a Christian, I had to notice that they had all the wrong ideas about religion and worship.  The ancient Egyptians did not know the true God.  This concept got me thinking and when I came across this verse in Acts, it meant even more to me:

(this account is from the time when the people of Lystra attempted to worship Paul and Barnabus.  These verses are Paul and Barnabus’ response to the people)

“Sirs, why do ye these things?  We are also men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.  Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”   Acts 14:15-17

Those verses just amaze me!  They show me so much about my heavenly Father, and the common graces that He gives to everyone.  Even during the worse times, God still FILLS OUR HEARTS with food and gladness, in many ways, and according to this verse, through his creation.  This is why I am a HUGE advocate of spending a lot of time in NATURE.   Pastor talked about meditating on God’s glory and letting His glory transform our hearts and I could think of two basic ways that God’s glory fills my own heart in a real and personal way:

1.  Through reading the Bible and coming to an understanding that God loves me as His own precious child.

2.  Through spending lots of time in His creation, going for walks, taking deep breathes, collecting and studying bits from the woods–acorns, mushrooms, flowers, plants, leaves, etc.  After all, Jesus Himself prayed on the mountains and in the gardens!

Okay, I’ve written a lot this morning and I better get moving on my day.  I hope everyone who reads this has a wonderful day. 

Love,

~Shanda~