“….but encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today….” Hebrews 3:13
Over the last two days we have had four inches of rain. This is good news considering the lawn was already turning brown and it’s only June 2. It’s been so nice not to have to carry water to my flowers.
I’m sharing miscellaneous photos today, like the one of Grace’s rabbit, who was allowed to explore the outdoors for the first time a few weeks ago, with Grace nearby, keeping a sharp look out.
I’ve been turning over lots of logs as we walk in the woods…we find lots of friendly little woodland creatures, mostly the large beetle many legged kinds, but sometimes we get to say hi to a lizard or two, they have the loveliest earthy homes. So cozy. And then I gently turn the logs back over for them.
All the women in my family love wild lady slippers.
water balloon fight on a very hot day
Rich was on a business trip last week and I was at one of many little league games. I watched the games and kept a casual eye on Seth and Sarah but at one point I couldn’t locate Seth. I walked all over the place trying to find him. I finally asked Dave, who was in the dugout at the time, if he had seen him…..and yes, it turned out he was up in the score box hanging out with the scorekeeper. He’s wearing the bright green neon shirt in the picture.
Much to my dismay, Mr.R, our neighbor whom Jacob works for, gave the boys a HUGE old TV to play with. They took it apart this weekend and it was nice, after all, to see them busily doing a project. There are now baggies of copper wire and what-not in my cupboard, and they very neatly put the pieces they didn’t want into the garbage.
With Rich in my line of vision, and the three youngest in the pond, it was hard to concentrate on my book.
Then the rest of the children marched by, on their way to what they call “the murder scene” far away in the woods…..Jacob, Emily, Grace, Zac, Ethan, and Dave.
The new chickies are growing nicely. They are now in the coop with the seven hens, which makes for a slight difficulty as I am very protective of the chicks and keep them shut in the coop tightly (all sorts of creatures love tender chick meat). I go down in the morning to let the older chickens out to roam around. Therefore, the hens can’t get back in as usual and have no where to lay their eggs and I don’t know what they are doing with them.
Snickers smiling on the front steps.
The late-bloom lilacs are blooming. They smell divine. I have a bouquet of them in the kitchen.
Emily gave Sarah presents for her birthday.
Time for Birthday Cake! Will Parker the dog get some? He looks so sad.
Five candles
We gave Sarah a scooter for her birthday and she loves it.
She loves the little knee and elbow pads, and the little gloves. We bought her a helmet, too, but when we went to put it on her we realized it had a crack in it already so we have to take it back.
She took her scooter to David’s late game on Saturday night. It was great fun watching her go all over the place on it. The wheels light up as they turn, so it was especially exciting for her as it got darker outside.
“Let us fix our eyes
on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith.”
Hebrews 12:2
There is so much to be thankful for, especially the holy Spirit of God within our hearts, turning our dissatisfaction to contentment, our bitterness into love, our “poor me” attitudes into confidence and joy. He gets all the glory forever and ever. He makes all the difference..anything and everything that is beautiful is because of HIM alone.
Sarah has been pretending to be a couple of different animals lately.
First she was a dog named Princess and I was her mother and our dog, Parker, was her father.
(She announces these things to me and then gets irritated when I can’t remember her name.)
Next it was, “Mom, I’m your cheetah and my name is Star.”
This last one has been going on for several days, I’m getting kind of used to her name being Star now.
I love how she naturally includes me in her land of make-believe, always. Always her mother.
We took the kids out to dinner last night and then Rich wanted to go in the Apple store so I went into Gap Kids and came across the perfect shirt for my cheetah daughter named Star.
Isn’t she beautiful? Today is her birthday and now she is five years old.
The weekend was full of ups and one very downish down.
First was the prom for Jacob and Ethan.
Then was a rare and lovely overnight visit from Rich’s Dad and step mom. We went for walks, we had a campfire with hotdogs and marshmallows, we planted a family tree together, we went to the diner for breakfast. We skipped church so we could soak up every minute and then waved goodbye as they drove slowly away on Sunday afternoon.
Monday morning I found out that the night before our dear Billy-Cat had been hit and killed in the road. I went outside to where Jacob had lovingly put him and stroked his beautiful fur. When I saw the ants I stumbled into the house. Rich gathered me into his lap and held me as I sobbed.
We buried him where he lay and put a nice rock at the top for Jacob to paint Billy’s name on. The children all grieved in their own way and losing our cat cast a melancholy mood on the whole day.
Later that morning we took them downtown for the Memorial Day parade. Grace marched as a music student, David and Caleb, who looked like typical American Little League boys….fresh and energetic, marched with their baseball teams.
Sarah and Seth were so surprised when the candy started being thrown right at them by the parade marchers.
I wore sunglasses to hide the tears…tears for my cat, tears for loss, tears for all the nice people of our town who marched by us, throwing candy, the ones who serve us, the ones representing the sacrifices of the past.
Yesterday Rich left for work and I am home alone carrying the load of the family, not in my own strength, but by the grace of God. Ethan had a game last night, Jacob threw a PR in Javelin during a big meet and won forth place despite an empty stomach, Seth had his very first concert performance, we were home and in bed later than usual.
This morning I got the kids to school, carried water to my plants, loaded the dishwasher.
There is a homemade card on the counter that Seth brought home, which is propped up against a vase of flowers. In Kindergarten handwriting are the words, “I’m sorry Billy Cat died.” It’s bothering all of us that it is there.
I’m tired. Deep, deep tired. I made a list of things that must be done today. David has an orthodontist appointment at 1:30. Ethan has a home game at 3:30 and it’s a big one so I need to be there. David and Caleb need to be at their field by 5:30 and Jacob has to be at driving school at 6:15. Grace is being inducted into the Thespian Society at 6. I will do the best I can for my children….in the meantime….it’s only 9:30 in the morning……and I’m sleepy and don’t want to move.
Sarah took a break from playing and came to stand by me half an hour ago. I was half asleep, arms and legs limp as I cuddled into the couch cushions. She was trying to get me to turn on a movie. When that didn’t work, she leaned in close and said, “Mom. God said something to me last night.”
I perked up slightly. These were the words of God. I opened my eyes, ready to receive them.
“He told me that in the morning I needed to take a bath.”
I roused myself.
“Well, you had better obey.”
This is how Sarah got her bath this morning and how I have come to sit crossed legged on the floor of the bathroom to write this little story of living….
Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! Psalm 113:2
O how He loves you and me, O how he loves you and me, He gave His life, what more could He give? O how He loves you, O how He loves me, O how he loves you and me.
“We planted a tree and it grew up,
While it reached for the sky and the sun. . . .” Diane Muldrow
“I used to take every new day for granted. Now I realize that each new day is a gift of God’s grace; and it is this day I need to focus on. It is full of possibilities – not just responsibilities – for relationships and for surprises.”
A sense of humor is more valuable for a busy woman than all the latest inventions for making housekeeping easy. The patent dish-washer, the self-feeding and self-shaking range, the washing-machine, the bread-mixer and the egg beater all put together will not help “mother” through Saturday morning so well as the ability to laugh long and heartily.
Unfortunately, there is no school where this accomplishment can be learned. The giggling girl is not so sure to grow up a laughing woman. She may regard herself and her own affairs with a portentous seriousness. Egotism is fatal to a true sense of humor. So is a lack of imagination. So is that morbid conscientiousness which is our least desirable inheritance from Puritanism.
That family is fortunate indeed where the mother is first to see a joke and to lead the mirth. In too many homes her sole share in merriment is her dismal “I’m sure I don’t see what you’re laughing about!” The mother, an invalid for years, who could answer an inquiry about her health with a quizzical smile and a quick “Sick abed, and worse up!” was not a burden but a joy to the children who found her room “the jolliest place in the house.”
A nonsense rhyme, a droll conundrum, a lively repartee, a story of misadventure may all serve as sauce for a dull day. The appetite for fun may be coaxed to grow by what it feeds on, until the mature woman, laden with responsibilities, can smile at her own small trials and help others to follow her example. She will learn first not to cry over spilt milk, and later will master an even more useful accomplishment, and will laugh over it.
Youths Companion, 1903
We laugh a lot at our house. I mean, honestly, there are gloomy times as well like just yesterday when they (not I) decided upon the idea of going to Subway for lunch after church…ordering subs for 11 people and overtaxing the employees can put a damper on any joyous attitude.
However, in general, we are constantly laughing over things…like, for instance, the funny things that the little ones say. Yesterday Sarah was riding in the backseat with her brothers. They were playing with toy animals when we overheard her little voice saying pleadingly, “Will you please give my ear a little nibble?”
We read humorous stories from the latest Reader’s Digest out loud on the way to church.
We love watching funny movies.
Sparing back and forth with my husband…we get ourselves laughing and happy to be together. Like last week when I had to use the bathroom twice in the first half hour of church…as I pressed myself past him during a song he said sarcastically, “What did you do, drink a gallon of water before church today?”
I make up funny songs and sing them to the kids…like this morning when Sarah was trying so hard to look sad because she hasn’t seen a baby calf and I sang, “Sarah looks sad but her Mother think she’s funny!”
After the initial shock, we even laughed about the applesauce.
“Sauce for a Dull Day”
The other day, Seth wanted some applesauce so he brought me a new plastic tub of it from the pantry. I was busy making dinner with several children around me underfoot. “Seth, we already have one open, go put that back.” I told him rather impatiently, only to hear a loud crash when he went to do it.
“What was that?” I cried as I left my dinner preparations to walk to the pantry. I met Seth on his way out with a very messy jar of opened sauce. “What did you do?”
“I threw it in the air and didn’t catch it,” he explained with no remorse.
There was applesauce across the floor, into the cat food dish, and on the front of the freezer. A couple of days later I happened to look up and there was some dried to the ceiling, too.
Emily helped me make him clean it up, I was silently seething, but by the time we got done with the mess I had found my sense of humor again.
“Now, what was I doing before my son decided to throw applesauce into the air?” I asked, as Emily pretended to throw her own imaginary jar of it, sky high. We laughed together at our crazy little boy who is so impulsive. Later on when Rich was home, I took Seth to him and said, “Seth, tell Dad what you learned today. About applesauce.”
“I learned not to throw applesauce too high or it will ‘splode.”
(six words too long of an answer)
I believe in happy people, happy Christians…joyful hearts…giggling in church…life is hard and dreadful at times, so we need to laugh as much as we can…it’s the best medicine in life!
*******
I put the morning’s egg collection in Sarah’s bike while she played and I gathered rocks to surround a flower bed down by the woods near the long pond. (thinking of Aunt Carol as I did so).
This is what the baby toads look like now. Growing so fast, they spend their days swimming.
Violets as delicate as purple tissue paper.
Strawberry blossom.
More violets…our property is overrun by them, to my delight.
We decided to go for a little walk with Dave, who was home from school with a stomach ache. While Sarah hesitated on the other side of our makeshift bridge, David dissevered a baby lizard in the water (unphotographable) and……………
a small snapping turtle!
He picked it up carefully by the tail. It’s little arms and legs spun around and around in fierce anger. His neck stretched out so that he could face his foe:
Oh he wanted a piece of Dave so bad. David left for home with his prize while Sarah and I continued on our walk.
I wanted to see the violet patch in the field by the edge of the forest. There were thousands of them blooming all at once.
There were also a great number of bright dandelions, fully opened with nice thick stems. I taught Sarah how to make a dandelion chain with them and she had no trouble making me a wreath for my hair, as I made one for her, too.
You can see that she was smelling them..her little nose is yellow. I tucked an apple blossom into her wreath, and some violets, too. She looked so pretty.
When we got back home, Sarah wanted to see Dave’s turtle so bad. Dave had put it in a bucket by the pond so we ran down to look inside. It was gone, completely gone, David’s head turned this way and that in disbelief. When we told Jacob later on he spoke with experience, “Oh snapping turtles always escape from buckets, every turtle I ever put in a bucket got out. You can’t keep them unless you put a lid over it.” And we wondered. How can a turtle climb out of a bucket?? And now that snapper is no doubt in the pond waiting to bite off the toes of my children this summer as they swim.
There was a box on the porch from a friend…with beautiful fiesta dinner plates contained inside! And an encouraging note and card: thank you Jami, from the bottom of my heart. God bless you.
ex library books…beautiful books…library bindings, hard covers, oldish copies of good, wholesome, living stories for my own collection of the best books for my children and someday grandchildren. all for a song at the thrift store. TWO DOLLARS!
Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs, by Tomie DePaola
Such a heart warming, sentimental story that David was very touched by that day he was on the couch with the stomach ache and I made him read all the books.
A wonderful story: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by Steig
and a funny one : ANIMALS SHOULD DEFINITELY NOT WEAR CLOTHING
“because it might make life hard for a hen”
Happy Monday, my friends! Hope you have a great day with lots of belly laughs.
We love to laugh Loud and long and clear We love to laugh So everybody can hear
The more you laugh The more you fill with glee And the more the glee The more we’re a merrier we.
{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
that time when she was four and she took a handful of animals to a “human concert” (her words)
With fingers shaking with exhaustion, I bring to you day four of our admiration for all things handmade. Yes, I am tired, but it is only the common tiredness of motherhood, so I am thankful. For instance, it’s taking a long time for Seth’s amazon.com order to come. He asks so much for his little dog Duke which he ordered days ago. Seems like forever. And another boy is having a little trouble, and another one (a girl) doesn’t get home until way after dinner is over, and a couple others stay up too late playing video games, and another one forgot to do his homework, and another one was so grumpy…..and several are still coughing. But, it’s not a big deal, the sun is shining and soon the snow will be gone along with all the problems. LOL
I read Seth and Sarah Curious George and the Pizza this midmorning which gave Seth a powerful hunger for pizza of our own. Did you know that when a child is recovering from being sick you’re supposed to do whatever they ask? Me neither, but in this case it seemed good and proper so we got in the kitchen, argued about who was going to stand where, and made HANDMADE pizza and they were so cute that I had to document the process with the camera.
Seth was telling her that his was going to be better but she didn’t care.
She was busy spreading around sauce and she was entirely capable…. sauce sauce sauce, rub, pour, slap, sauce.
And then when it came to the cheese…..she put a tiny bit right in the middle. Very amusing.
What she really wanted to do was eat all the dough raw but we talked her out of it.
Seth’s was stuffed crust.
We each made our own pizza and we all exchanged slices with each other.
Seth, can I have a piece of yours? Sure!
Do you want a piece of mine? Uh…. Okay!
Try mine!
She had to blow on her pizza a little bit and we made up a song about it.
I was pretty proud of mine, too! We were all proud of our pizza.
On Saturday, my Mom and Dad gave me a handmade wooden box , and they also gave me this handmade trinket hook board.
I hung it up today, it was obviously made for the wall above my sewing table. It should have only taken two holes in the wall, but of course it took me four since it was a struggle for me to get it straight…….(don’t tell Rich)…..
They decorated it with buttons from my childhood clothes. I loved these heart buttons then, and I still love them now. (first day of Kindergarten dress)
They used other little odds and ends, too. I hung some of my necklaces from the hook on the left.
And a beaded necklace, with a paper heart made by Dawn, was hung on the hook on the right.
The two metal pieces are an “S” for my initial, and a “38” for my age. Everything was meaningful……
Even the board was from my Grandfather’s chopper (farming machinery).
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
I’ll be back tomorrow with no words, for a “this moment” friday post.
With an old scarf around my head keeping the hair off my face, and a wooden spoon in my hand, I opened the door to let out a cat. Sarah and I were in the kitchen making Christmas cookies.
I had determined to have a quieter day. We had a pleasant snow fall in the night but not enough to keep the children home from school. Ethan had a dentist appointment at 8:50 so Sarah and I left to pick him up…..while the snow continued to gently fall.
The many tracks in the driveway, made by the family I love, made me smile. So much activity belonging to the special boys and girls in my life. My husband’s truck tracks meant that he was already at work, making an early start so that he could get back to coach wrestling later at the High School.
At the end of our road, I stopped to take a picture of the farmer’s cows in the snowy field.
In town, Sarah and I both admired the ivy growing up brick buildings. She asked me if we could grow them on our house.
Ethan didn’t have a coat on and shivered as we made our way to the car. “Why on earth didn’t you wear a coat?” I asked. “Because! I don’t have any classes outside, Mom!” (obviously!)
Ethan is the one child that I nag the most about brushing his teeth. It’s become sort of a family joke although Ethan himself may not think it is funny anymore.
He had zero cavities!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He is in wrestling now at school and had to get his official weight taken today. I couldn’t even tempt him to a small hot chocolate after his cleaning. I took him back to school.
By that time it was only 9:30 so Sarah and I went to the Thrift shop and spent two dollars on some rubber stamps for the children to play with, a few books, & an ornament.
We walked hand in hand to the car, over the railroad tracks. When we got there, I noticed that the snowflakes were falling from the sky as pretty as a picture on top of Sarah’s pigtailed head.
In the parking lot by the town offices I stood with my camera, taking careful close ups of Sarah’s head and my own arm! I had to laugh when I realized what I was doing in public…..but the magic of it all…..
God is so good to me! I didn’t want to leave my cozy house this morning and when I remembered Ethan’s appointment I had groaned. But, in the midst of running these common errands of motherhood I was given yet another opportunity to see the simple beauty of a day I would have missed if I stayed inside.
It is the life of the crystal,
the architect of the flake,
the fire of the frost,
the soul of the sunbeam.
This crisp winter air is full of it.
~John Burroughs
How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose,
if there were no winter in our year! ~Thomas Wentworth Higginson
*****
We drove home and my mind was on the snowflakes and William Bentley.
If you’ve never taken a picture of an individual snowflake I encourage you to try it!
I meandered around the yard and our cat Sherlock tried following me across the ice on the pond and fell right in the water. It was rather shocking for us both. He swam back out quickly, which was a good thing because I was on the other side of the pond.
This is Billy-Cat.
Two fresh eggs were waiting for me in the chicken coop.
Sherlock was very busy on the porch, trying to clean the water off his fur.
Sarah was already inside and we fried up the eggs and shared them for a snack.
And then we read the books we had found at the Thrift store.
Under a soft, warm, electric blanket, we learned that “Q is for quiet times”……
And were inspired to be as kind as the shoemaker and his wife.
Best of all, we decided to make Christmas cookies, after a cozy nap.
While the oven was still hot, I mixed up a banana bread. I read on allrecipes.com that if you wrap up your *hot from the oven* quick bread in foil, it will steam itself cool and become nice and moist.
This entire morning *after the children left for school* has been a “no TV” day and the quietness of the house has been wonderful.
There is something about snow falling down outside to make a day seem so peaceful.
I snapped these frosty photos the other day. Down at the edge of the pond the grass and leaves had beautiful long lashes of frost.
Guess what our little artist, Sarah, has been doing these days?
The first time she tried tracing her own hand I told her it looked like the hand of a monster. I did most of the tracing but eventually I became reluctant about stopping my own projects to trace *yet another hand* for her, so she decided it was more time-efficient to do it herself.
‘Mom! I did it! And it doesn’t look like a Monster-hand!”
(it doesn’t?)
I taught her how to draw pretty jewelry, and fingernails, too.
This one doesn’t have fingernails. But it does have a ring on each finger.
All that is required is paper and colored pens/crayons. It kept Sarah busy for a long time and it gave her lots of practice with tracing, drawing, and designing.
lady-bugs
I traced two sets of hands on some of the pages, trying to save time and paper.
As you may have noticed, Billy-Cat came over to see what I was photographing.
He communicated to me that it was a much nicer idea to photograph a handsome cat.
*lick-lick making myself ready for my portrait*
*wait, let me pose first*
*this is my best pose*
*how’d it turn out?*
I have happy cats because Sarah and I went to the grocery store to buy them food. They ran out yesterday and had to gag down dog food. All four of them have full tummies and are in various places in the house, sleeping it off.
This is what our mantel looks like right now. Jacob did the painting. I love how the red in it matches the mushrooms. Grace and Dave went for a walk and brought me the piece of wood (to the left of the painting, it’s the same color as the rocks so hard to see), they called it an octopus and plan painting it purple (I admit it would be easier to see). My felt mushrooms are from the Masonville General Store in NY. I pulled up some greenery from the woods and added artificial flowers along the mantel, too. The “give thanks” banner is from Pottery Barn (last year). I love how if you take the “e” off the end of “give” and then next four letters from “thanks”, it spells my son Ethan’s name. Sometimes I move those letters to the middle just for fun.
fiestaware in the sunshine
Tonight, I’m making meatloaf for dinner, with spinach and mashed potatoes.
I’ve shared Sarah’s hands and now I will share her song:
Good to be Home 