Sweet September

After we returned from our end of the summer vacation, September seemed to go by in the blink of an eye.  My brother Joe and his fiancé Beth came to town and we had a vacation reprise while we joined them on their Michigan fall tour of the zoo...

…the apple orchard...

…and even the local art festival near our house.  We also felt right at home at our cousin's chicken themed birthday party...

…and met my parents at the local cider mill for a fall hike and Apple Fritter Friday.  We enjoyed our third annual Cemetery Walk, where local residents from the past are featured by community actors and actresses.  This year's theme was all about women who shaped our city and the most memorable story depicted was of two sisters named Lucy and Anna who owned a dress shop on Main Street.

Our sunflowers were in full bloom this past month, despite our late planting of them earlier this year.  They were not only beautiful but attracted monarchs, bumble bees and of course my honey bees.  Now we are drying their heads so that we can save some of the seeds for next year and eat the rest.  

Interestingly enough, our sunflowers captured all of our affection with lots of water and care, whereas the rest of our garden was mostly neglected.  Our two apple trees produced the best tasting apples we have ever eaten - one tree boasted Honeycrisp and the other tree had beautiful Empire apples.  It is so fun to pick a snack right from your own backyard and enjoy it right down to the core, and then toss the core to our chickens.  We made applesauce from buckets of apples from a tree at Will's work, zucchini muffins by the dozen and I perfected one of my favorite soups from a local restaurant - crushed lentil.  And best of all, everyone in the family likes it!  This is huge for me and honestly, I am so excited about this economical, healthy, high in protein, tasty soup that it may be on my top ten list of accomplishments.

There is definitely not enough time in the day to accomplish all that I want.  Between my kids education, feeding them nourishing foods, playing with them, exercising and finding time to spend individually with each member of my family, including myself is not easy.  Oh, and keep the house clean, the social calendar intact, everyone's health in order, and of course our side businesses humming along - there hasn't been a day yet where I accomplish all of my priorities.  BUT, I'm pretty certain that God gave everyone the same amount of time for a reason, and I just have to be intentional about what I do each day.  Sometimes that means rolling with the craziness as it unfolds, and other days it means saying no to things that don't align with my priorities.  Either way, I feel like I do not have the balance figured out yet and I am starting to wonder if that is just life.

In the above picture the girls are playing outside, a top priority on my list of intentional living.  Sometimes my hopelessness at achieving balance is given a boost of faith when after an especially harried day one of the kids tells me as I tuck them in at night that, "This was the best day of my life mom!"  Not only does this shift my perspective and remind me that sometimes the little moments are the biggest moments, that maybe I'm not failing hopelessly after all.  I just sincerely hope that my kids childhoods move at a slower pace than I feel like the world is trying to push us.

A wonderful milestone was achieved just days before the last day of summer, which makes me smile at a summer well done.  Both Lucy and Emma learned how to ride their bikes without training wheels, and it was an amazing experience to watch how each day they accomplished big steps until a week later they were riding their bikes like they've been doing it all of their life.

One of my dreams is to build a business with my kids so that they can learn first hand the ins and outs of entrepreneurship in a fun and hands on way.  I don't need the business to make millions, I just want it to stay out of the red and be something that we can strengthen our family's relationships with while learning an important skill set.  Lucy and Emma are very happy to help with my honey business, from stamping shopping bags with my logo, to labeling product, to assisting me with my honey bee classes.

 

We had our friends and families with kids come to a class this past month and had a blast.  In the above picture, our Uncle Fred (a kid at heart) didn't let a little mud stop him from getting his hands dirty while making seed bombs at the class.  Lucy and Emma had fun selling various products after the class, although I caught Emma saying, "I'll take your money!" before our friends and family had even contemplated buying something.  

So far we have been very fortunate with beautiful weather on the days I've had my bee classes.  Of course the day our friends and family were coming it was supposed to rain all day.  After watching the weather like a nervous bride planning an outdoor wedding I decided that there was nothing more to do, but to go clean the garage.  Let's just say by the time I was finished, my dust pan had every color and variety of bird feather you can imagine, plus the tails of several squirrels, chipmunks and a rabbit.  It seems our cat is a really good hunter.  And I don't know if I am now aware of it more or he is preparing for winter, but he has been eating about an animal or bird a day and it's kind of depressing.  I know it is what he was designed to eat, but I can't help but feel sorry for his prey.  There is a gray dove that sits alone now on the telephone wires next to our house that used to always cuddle next to its partner.

Violet and Charlie have a strange relationship.  I think Violet is jealously fascinated by Charlie and Charlie is cautiously jealous of Violet.  Violet can't handle Charlie playing with any toys and will yank them from him, which Charlie thinks is just a part of the play.  It usually ends with Violet screaming and crying and Charlie running confusedly away.  

We have found our groove for the time being with school work.  Violet is starting to be more compliant during school time, and we've found setting a timer helps Lucy to focus and get things done in a timely fashion.  Emma is just happy to do school like her big sister, and is holding her birth order spot as middle daughter in a very stereotypical way.  I have to make a point to go over and above for Emma, for if not, her more boisterous sisters will steal the show.

 We have had quite a run of sister fighting.  This fall we started back up with their yoga class and they are the only two kids in the class right now.   I was disappointed at first, as part of the point of taking extracurricular activities, especially for homeschooled kids, is for the socialization and Lucy and Emma need a break from each other, not more alone time together.  Until Will pointed out that I should ask the teacher if she could focus her classes on sister love, or in other words, to use it as a sister therapy session.  Our wonderful yoga teacher took that idea and ran with it and I am not kidding when I say that it has made a HUGE improvement in them!  They haven't stopped fighting, but I feel like the tone of the fighting has changed.  I can see more love than anger now and it is such a relief.  Here they are below at yoga class and the library.

 We have had a great month at our house, and mostly because of the harmony between the sisters.  I realize this could just be another phase, but I will bask in it's peacefulness for as long as it lasts.

Although now that I think about it, I did try one other tactic to create solidarity and love between the sisters...

 …matching outfits!  It occurred to me that schools have uniforms for a reason, so why not try out a sister uniform?  Success!  They love matching and I can't tell you how happy I am to spend my days with such adorable and SWEET girls.  The leaves are changing and so are we.  And we will continue to evolve, as we learn side by side the secrets to an intentional, peaceful and joy-filled life.