While compiling this past months photos, it seemed our November was filled with lots of food, fun, friends and memories. My perspective of our day to day life seems sharply contrasted to the overall month's snapshot however, as more often than not I am living in the moment which is filled with individuals moods, sibling rivalry, burned food, late arrivals, practicing patience and struggling to let go of self-inflicted pressures and perfection. I would say that this particular chapter of my life right now is incredibly full, to the point where there just isn't enough time to do everything that I want or need to do. Fortunately, there are moments of beauty, peace and joy sprinkled throughout my day that keeps me going and reminds me why I am motivated to give my little family all that I have to give. Sitting down to compile and write these monthly blog posts is very beneficial to me and helps give me the fuel I need to keep on keeping on by offering me both reflection and direction.
Despite my levels of exhaustion, I feel incredibly lucky to be with my three girls each and every day.
In the top right hand picture below, Lucy is showing me the tooth she yanked out on her own while I was putting Violet down for a nap. It is the second tooth that she has lost and she seems to be a seasoned pro. I on the other hand still have issues with loose teeth and you can imagine my horror when I came downstairs from putting Violet down for her nap to find a bathroom sink full of blood. Lucy's response, "the blood just kept squirting out mom so I spit it in the sink." Lucy is practically a grown up now, as revealed by the statements she has been making as of late when I try to tell her something: "I already know everything mom" and "Let's talk about something else."
Emma is a very active girl and her view of the world is greatly influenced by her older sister. I overheard her tell Will the other day, "Daddy, I just heard something crunch in Lucy's mouth and I want something to crunch in my mouth too." Emma is usually very laid back and loves wearing accessories and picking out unique and twirly outfits each morning. She has discovered the word "super" and loves to use it as she dances on the fine line between talking and whining with her head thrown back while saying things like: "I'm super hungry." "I'm super cold." "I'm super hot." "I'm super thirsty." You get the idea.
In the above pictures the girls received a box of sea treasures and books about the ocean from their new pen pal who lives in Washington, my cousin who happens to be exactly Lucy's age. We had fun looking at all of the amazing treasures that Ella has found at the ocean, and it made for a very nice home school unit. We also had fun sending our first package to them - featuring our very own honey. In the top right hand picture above, Emma is showing me a yoga pose that she learned in their yoga class.
I have been enjoying my time doing school with the girls. I wish I had more time to devote to school with them, as there are so many great projects, books and ideas out there. Will is good at reminding me that as long as our kids know we love them, we are doing great. He is right of course, and when he is home I am able to do more with the older girls. Here the girls are below, finding their own fun.
I have been trying to get a walk in with the girls whenever the thermometer is above freezing and the wind isn't too bad. We've had some very nice walks and have seen some amazing sunsets too, since it gets dark before dinner now.
We had quite the party scene this past month as it seems lots of our favorite people have birthdays in November. In the top left hand picture below, all of the cousins are waiting to find out the gender of their newest cousin/sibling at my brother and sister-in-laws gender reveal party. We are all excited to meet our newest nephew in February, although his big sister still has some reservations. In the bottom left hand picture below, my nephew Sam is comforting his big sister Ellen as she comes to terms with having another brother. As someone who has four brothers, I told Ellen that brothers make great friends. I mean look how sweet Sam is giving his sister a hug! We also attended two different friend birthday parties - both of who turned four years old!
We spent Thanksgiving this year at my parents house and enjoyed taking silly selfies and making our own butter. Ah, the holidays. After we mastered plain butter, my sister's boyfriend had the brilliant idea to try making honey butter, so that occupied us for a while and I must say, it turned out really good. Perhaps it will be an up sell for my honey business!
Thanksgiving weekend we enjoyed the lights downtown as well as a carriage ride with friends.
We put up our Christmas decorations over the Thanksgiving weekend too, and marveled at having Violet with us this year. I also found a note I left last year on the top of the box of ornaments in which I warned, "Even if you give the kids everything they want, they will still be grumpy on Christmas." It's so easy to forget the reality of the holidays with kids, and I am grateful to have my expectations reigned in so that maybe this year normal kid behaviors won't come as such a shock.
Violet discovered the Christmas tree in 10 seconds flat. She has yet to pull it over, but has figured out how to get ornaments off of the tree and has tried to suck the paint off of them with her baby drool. She also enjoys swatting the ornaments back and forth and laughing hysterically.
The girls convinced me to buy gingerbread house kits at Trader Joe's this year because they were food-dye free (Lucy knows exactly how to convince me!) and we had a fun afternoon building and decorating and eating them. A note to put in the bin for next year - spherical sprinkles are a bad idea. Stick to ones that don't roll everywhere.
Every year we order a year's worth of beef from a local farm. This year we made it out to the farm for a cattle drive and had a great time. It was freezing cold that day on the hayride as we watched the farmers drive the cattle across a mile or two to the barn for the winter (and unfortunately for some, for processing). The timing actually worked out really well for us though, as the farm was an hour north, but only fifteen minutes away from where we needed to take our meat chickens to be processed that very same week. I seemed to have been the only family member who was having emotional difficulties with taking our meat birds that we had raised from day old chicks on their final ride. We stopped at a gas station on the way up to the farm and when I got out of the car I could still hear them peeping exactly the same way they did on the day we got them as fluffy little chicks. When I got back in the car the girls were loudly hounding me to turn on the Christmas music and then sang happily along to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I personally felt like we needed to at least observe a moment of silence - if not the entire drive - for the somber occasion about to take place.
The chickens were a lot of work and Will and I will have to seriously rethink if we were to ever raise meat birds again. They ate nonstop, cost a fortune in feed, and were quite smelly as well. Will has no problem interrupting my sad story about processing them with the fact that I was greeting him each day after work with the line, "I am done with those **** chickens!" Again, hindsight gives great perspective and helps to remove my tunnel vision of the day to day trenches. I will now say that I am glad we raised the meat birds. It was very eye opening to see how much it actually costs to feed chickens healthy food, the work involved in taking care of their needs, and the process involved in butchering them. I hope that my new appreciation for small, natural farmers and ultimately for the life that is sacrificed so that we may live will not fade as time goes on. For now, I have made a solemn promise to not let our chickens sacrifice go to waste. I will do my very best to be thankful for the food they have given me. I also found it interesting that Lucy and Emma seemed to have no problem with the life cycle of our chickens, and besides Lucy commenting that the chicken feet "were ugly" when I put them in our stock pot, they have eaten the meat and broth with no qualms whatsoever. I can only guess that because they see this process as natural that it isn't a big deal to them. For me, born and raised in suburbia, it has definitely been an adjustment. It would be ideal for all people who make the choice to eat meat to have this type of experience at least once in their life so as not to take the animals' life so easily for granted. I think that the distance between the chicken's life and the drive thru window or the meat case at the grocery store is just too far apart for most people to grasp the serious reality of eating meat. At least that was the case for me.
The day after Halloween we found an abandoned farm stand with bins and bins of pumpkins with giant FREE signs taped onto them. We hurried home, hooked up our trailer, and brought it back to the farm stand where we loaded up! We gave most of them to our neighbor who will feed them to his sheep throughout the winter, but I did keep about a dozen pie pumpkins and we have been enjoying pumpkin pie, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin muffins and pumpkin bread. Our same neighbor with the sheep has a pair of heritage turkeys that have survived several Thanksgivings now. We found it humorous that a couple days before Thanksgiving they had gotten out of their pen and came over to eat the birdseed on our driveway and scare our cat.
Will and I feel strongly about feeding our family organic, home-cooked foods. It is perhaps the most time consuming priority we have however, and it is all I can do some weeks to get to the grocery store let alone cook food that is both healthy and kid-appealing. This past month I discovered Door to Door Organics and let me just say, it is like Christmas in a box every week that it arrives on my doorstep! I am loving this new assistant to feeding my family healthy foods while being pressed for time. At this point, after a month of using it, I haven't had to step foot in a grocery store. It isn't the cure all to end all grocery shopping, but it will allow me to hopefully shop in bulk once a month at a traditional grocery store, which frees up my time to spend with the girls. The top right hand pictures below are of Lucy and I attempting to make our own candy - homemade marshmallows which turned out great and homemade "honeycomb" candy which turned out horribly burnt and almost cost me the pan and cookie sheet. You win some you lose some, but Lucy and I did have fun. Lucy has been interested in the science of candy making and spends her screen time watching YouTube videos of candy making. A girl after my own sweet tooth!
We scored these huge orange beauties below at the abandoned farm stand and attempted to take a family picture for our Christmas card this year.
The above picture was the best one out of probably twenty different shots and I still didn't get the lighting and general composition to my likening. We decided to splurge on a professional photo shoot and I think it was some of the best money I spent all year.
I love my little family. I have never worked so hard, practiced such perseverance or patience, or been so darn tired in my life. God knows just when to throw a bone my way though, and I have to say that the moments of beauty with my babies and the love of my life make every other challenging moment completely worth it. Raising a family is hard work, but its rewards are great and there is no place I'd rather be.
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