2 November

Today is All Souls' Day, and we are quietly enjoying a beautiful snowy day at home, thinking of those who have gone before us. 

And thinking a little more about last weekend's fun, too.

Our annual trip to our favorite pumpkin farm, this year complete with snow from a few days earlier -- and gloriously muddy!

Our pumpkin carving party with my friend Rebecca and her sweet family (her baby boy's very first pumpkin carving party!). {One of our favorite sources for pumpkin carving inspiration remains this book.}

Everything autumn. (Fiona's silly bagel face early in the morning on our way to church.)

Trick-or-treating with my sister, my mom, and one of my best friends in our city's small downtown. (Where Elisabeth and James both got a turn "driving" the tractor for hay rides!)

Trick-or-treating around our neighborhood, too. (This exciting house is directly across the street from us!)

Too much sugar. 

Snow. Snow! It's literally impossible for me to be unhappy when there's snow. 

{Also, some things I'm excited about right now: habit is open for submissions all of November in the flickr group, and the iPhone is now available for Sprint, my carrier. That makes me happy in a silly way, even though I can't afford a new phone in the immediate future. Hee.}

It's official

Autumn. My favorite season of them all (and I do know that I love them all).

I don't have a lot to say tonight. But I figure, just being here, sharing a stack of photos, is enough, really. Sarah wrote a beautiful post today about this medium, the connections that it has brought many of us, its value in our lives. You should read it. Really. Maybe blogging is getting kind of old-fashioned compared to all the other social media around now. But on the other hand, it has mattered, and continues to matter, to so many of us. 

So look through my photos. Let's pretend we're sharing a meal together, maybe the dal I've made twice in the last ten days. Or sitting on my couch with a cup of my favorite decadent hot chocolate. Or maybe with a cup of tea (Cold Care P.M. is replacing my usual Earl Grey this week), and a favorite catalog to peruse. Talking about autumn, that certain slant of light, those chilly evenings and the days that still hold on to some of summer's warmth. And connecting. Connection is all I've really ever wanted from blogging, and it has delivered a hundred-fold.

Here's that dal I promised. This is the next day for lunch, cold, and even better.

Delicious Mexican hot chocolate, with a generous dollop of whipped cream and sprinkle of my favorite Vietnamese cinnamon.

My favorite way to spend an evening, holed up with tea and catalogs.

Serious, this one.

Autumn, glorious autumn. How grateful I am for this favorite season of mine, and for all of you, out there, reading this, commenting, and connecting. 

1 September

{This was yesterday's post -- my thoughts turned toward the new beginnings of September -- but I couldn't post it yesterday because my camera software was corrupted and had to be reinstalled, and I couldn't find the disk until today!}

So, it's the first of September. I can hardly believe it! August zipped by in a flurry of chaos and adjustment, and this September promises to bring many good things. I'm thinking back to a year ago, when my husband was in the midst of the worst of his illness. We didn't know what the future would bring and I tried to distract myself from the unspeakable fear. A year later, things are so much brighter. What a difference one year can make!

I wrote a "back to (home)school" post last week that needs some editing and tweaking before I publish it, but today I want to write a little bit about rhythm, something that I know is on the minds of many during this time of year.

Rhythm has become a bit of a buzzword around blogworld. People talk about it and think about it a lot. For some, it's kind of become synonymous with a schedule of sorts, for others, it's a way of consciously structuring the things that repeat in their weeks -- whether the things that need to be done (errands, shopping, baking), or that they want to get done (art projects, hikes, etc.).

I wanted to propose another way of thinking about rhythm.

For me, rhythm is the way a family's days "go" at a given time in their lives. It may be quiet and inward, it may be wild and boisterous. It may be oriented toward a season or holiday, it may be free-form. But, to my way of looking at it, it's not imposed or structured, but develops organically over time, and shifts happens subtly. It's like realizing that you've fallen into step with your walking companion -- serendipitous, happy, natural. Though there have been many times where I've felt it necessary to institute a schedule to our days, it never works for the long term. I believe that's because a schedule can never take into account all the various things that really make up our family's unique rhythm.

Sometimes a rhythm is necessarily dictated by things that are scheduled, like this summer when we were swimming three hours throughout the day. But most often, for us, it's the smaller things, like the way my children are playing (together, and separately) at the moment. The things we are enjoying eating, and therefore, their preparation. The creative outlets that pull at each of us. 

I could not write down a "schedule" to what our rhythm looks like. It's not a "breakfast at 8, tidy up at 8:30, stories at 9, outside at 9:45" type of thing. And yet, we do find that there are things we do every day, in roughly the same order. And it shifts over time, with the seasons, with the things we have going on. Naps happen at roughly the same time. We all need time to read and relax and be quiet, to work on projects alone or together, to care for our home. 

This fall, we are trying something a little bit different for "schooling" than we've done in the past (more on that in my upcoming "back to (home)school" post), and I want to find a way to gently work it into our days without disrupting the good rhythmic elements that are in place already. I know that we're finding our way into a new rhythm right now, anyway, as autumn approaches (100 degrees today, but in the 70's by the weekend!), as we continue to adjust to daddy's new work schedule, as preparation for Halloween begins to be a part of our creative consciousness. So, I guess I'm not too worried about how adding some schooling back into our days will be. At first, it's going to be one of those "scheduled" things that the rest of our rhythm will move and stretch itself around. And my hope is that on the best of days, it will become part of that daily rhythm, that breath of our family's life together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm very much interested in reading Amanda's new book, The Rhythm of Family, which I think must touch on what I've written here, because ever since this post nearly five years ago, I've felt that her way of looking at rhythm was similar to mine. The book hasn't found its way across my threshold yet, but it will soon, I hope. :)

I've been doing this for two weeks, and I love it. It's a way to briefly jot down my impressions of the day, without giving it too much thought, without laboring over it like a blog post, or editing what I say for others to read on Facebook or Twitter. It's just a little bit of my own memories of our days. And it even sends reminder emails, so I've not missed a single day. Such a simple way of recording these days of ours, and their unique rhythmic ebb and flow.

And finally, feeling such gratitude tonight for the health of my mother-in-law, who had a medical procedure today, for my best friend's sweet new baby boy, and for my brother, who will tie the knot on Monday! (Oh, and that my children don't have any squeamishness about insects.)

{Edited to add: I do feel that intention is so very important in family life, but I also don't believe that deciding to myself "Wouldn't it be nice if our days went like this?" and then writing it down makes it our family's rhythm. If that makes sense. This is meant to share my ideas about rhythm, not to criticize those who use the term to mean more of a schedule! In some ways, it's just semantics. Whatever you call these things, we all have both natural patterns to our days, and things that we need to schedule.}

5 weeks later...

Friends, I have wanted to sit down and write a post. I have tried, even. But I just haven't had the time or motivation to really be here, and I'm so sorry. I'm afraid there is just about no one left who reads this little neglected blog of mine, but I still want to be here. 

So first, thank you for all your fantastic book recommendations! I'm so appreciative!

And next, today was the final swim practice of the summer. It doesn't seem possible -- this weekend is the state swim meet, and the season really has ended. I feel like it just began. Elisabeth swam two hours a day (morning and evening practice -- her choice!) all summer. In addition to James's swimming lessons (and he still has 3 full weeks left of those), we have hardly had a moment this summer that wasn't lived at a pool. (Which is both fine by me, and also means not a lot of variety.)

It has been dreadfully hot, though the heat has been punctuated by afternoon thunderstorms -- some of which have been fantastic! And lots more has happened, too. There are probably things I want to share here when I have the chance to look through my photos.

But really, most importantly, my husband has a new job. At the end of June, we were at a baseball game with friends (by the way, if you have one of these summer collegiate baseball leagues near you and you enjoy baseball, it's definitely worth checking out! The games were free but were on a near-professional level. Very fun!), and while we were there, the principal of a high school in an older suburban neighborhood about 30 minutes from where we live called him out of the blue. He had not even seen the job posting yet. She gave him a 30-minute phone interview on the spot, and the next day he went to interview in person. Within 72 hours of the initial phone call, he had been offered the job. It's hard to describe the combination of disbelief and relief that we felt. Within a week of being offered the job, he was preparing for the school's 4-week-long marching band camp which began on July 5. It was 3 hours a day, 5 days a week for all of July. He says he thinks it was a bit much and the kids are feeling a bit burnt out, so he might do it a bit differently next summer, but this was the schedule that was already in place.

Yesterday and today he was at new-employee orientation. On Monday he starts a week of in-school professional development and teacher planning days, and on August 8, classes begin. This school district is on a pretty different schedule than other districts in our area, so he is back to work weeks sooner than he would have been at his old job. The transition to him going back to work in August is always a hard one for me, and this year it's even earlier, so I'm feeling a bit disoriented right now. I know from experience that things will ease up and we'll find our way into a new routine. Still, I don't do well with transitions, and we have a lot of them with his work.

At any rate, I wish to thank all of you who have thought about us, prayed for us, and sent us all your good thoughts and blessings as we have struggled with job stuff over the last 4 years. We are hopeful that things have finally turned a corner for him professionally. Though his new job represents more time and more responsibilities, I think we are ready now to deal with those in a way we might not have been before. So, it's exactly the right time.

Anyway, that's just a bit of where I am right now. I have been inspired by Kyrie's "Week in the Life" posts this week, so I thought maybe next week I'd try something along those lines, though it could be more of a "Rough Week in the Life" since we are very much finding our way right now.

Midsummer

Happy first "official" day of summer! (Though for me, summer really begins with pool season.)

Today I have one sick child who needs tending, some thoughts turned toward our annual Midsummer Night fairy tea party, and work that needs getting done. But there is always a moment or two to spare outside, taking in the utter amazingness of summer. 

My peonies bloomed later than usual this year, and they have been absolutely beautiful -- I'm always taken by surprise by their beauty and fragrance. I'm so happy to see them!

At the pool

One of my favorite things about summertime is all the swimming. I was on swim team myself through my childhood and teens, and it's been one of my favorite things as a parent to do with my kids. We've been doing 5-day-a-week swimming lessons all summer long since Elisabeth was three. Last year was her first year on a swim team, and she loves it. We have thought about doing a year-round team (that's what I did as a girl), but I'll be honest that the logistics of it, with my kids being relatively far apart in age, is a bit daunting to me still. Maybe in the fall; we'll see. 

For now, we are enjoying our three hours a day (at two different pools!) of swim team and swimming lessons. Time spent at the pool is worth every moment, to my way of thinking. I'd rather be there than just about anywhere else in the world right now. (Except the ocean, but that will have to wait until we can afford to travel again ... it's the one thing I don't like about where I live.)

These days of summer are so priceless.

A break sometimes feels so good, and other stuff

Thanks to all of you who have been checking in over the last three weeks in my absence! All is well, we have moved on from the hurt over the job rejection. It's disappointing on many levels, both from a career and personal satisfaction level for my husband, and our family's bottom line (I hate that I always have to be thinking about that, but it's the reality), but we remain hopeful that someday the right opportunity will present itself.

I didn't intend to take a long break, but it was a good thing, too. Sometimes it's easier to "do" stuff without feeling like it needs to be written about. 

But I did "do" some stuff that want to share with you, so here is some of it. (Plus an announcement at the end of the post if you are getting bored wading through all my photos.)

I met someone. We were able to spend one treasured day together while she traveled for work. It's so hard to put into words what it was like to meet Sarah and spend that day with her. We had so much to talk about; a lot of what we talked about was blogging -- our motivations and feelings about the whole thing, the ups and downs, pressures, and genuine pleasures. And not because we had nothing else in common, but because it really is a part of our real lives and it's so good to have someone who "gets" that. I haven't had the opportunity to meet very many bloggers face-to-face. This is due, in part, to the fact that I don't live within close geographic proximity to any of the bloggers in this particular corner of the community (crafty-photo-mama types), and even more, of course, due to the fact that opportunities to travel are very limited given our income. It's just the reality. So, having the opportunity to sit across the table from Sarah, at one of my favorite local restaurants, and take her to my favorite yarn and fabric store, was a real gift ... not one that I'm likely to repeat very often, and I really soaked it up. It was a beautiful day. Thank you, sweet Sarah.

I finished a lot of knitting projects. (And started a few new ones.) More on those to come, very soon! I think I overcame a huge knitting funk that I had been in! 

We played, and played. Indoors and out, with kites, and kitchens, and more.

We had the first (and hopefully only) summer injury, hereafter known as the Red Rover Incident of 2011. 

Swim team season is officially underway and I couldn't be happier! It's my favorite time of year, I think. (I know, I know ... in October, I'll be rambling on about my love for autumn. Let's just go with it.)

The sun, the sun! I'm so happy, here on the cusp of summer.  

I will be back TOMORROW with another post! Yee-haw!

2011, I like you already

Welcome to 2011, friends! It's looking mighty fine from here, I must say. 2010 certainly had its ups and downs -- unfortunately, more downs than it should have. I'm so looking forward to this new year, and the promise of its unblemished days and months ahead!

On that note, I'm looking forward to chronicling it in a new (to me) way. I've decided to jump in on a 365 photo project -- a photo a day for the entire year. So many of my friends have done it (some of them for many years now), that I finally felt the time was right for me to give it a go. So, please join me over on flickr, and follow along with my year in photos!

I'm going to try to do a 2010 retrospective post, like I did for 2009 (I love looking back at that) very soon. And I plan to redouble my efforts to be in this space much more than I was last year.

I have some other goals for 2011: less computer time, more making, more reading, a greater effort toward creating some time and space for myself in the midst of our busy family life, and more time carved out for my husband and me to reconnect.

What about you? What are your hopes and goals for this fresh, new year? I just love its possibility, don't you?

Being

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in the last two days. What I had intended to post on Wednesday felt kind of out of place after coming home from church that evening, smelling like incense and feeling quiet and meditative (in the best of ways). And last night I sat down to write, and fell asleep while my photos were uploading. So, no post!

I'm looking at the photos I've taken over the last couple of days, and thinking about what makes a house a home. It's hard to define, isn't it? My house is usually far from tidy, but there are all these small, quiet corners, the little things that make up our daily lives; bits that wouldn't mean anything to anyone else the way they do to us. And it's a beautiful collection, this home, this artifact of a family's days of living and working and creating, eating and sleeping, breathing and being.

Today I have Erin's post on my heart. It was a good reminder to me -- not to stress and fret, to be OK with saying no to things, to embrace the good quiet and peace that can be ours in this season, if we allow it in.

This weekend we'll seek out our Christmas tree, and do most of our decorating. We will listen to some of our favorite music of the season (some of which can now be found in the right-hand sidebar, below the books). We will celebrate, live, work, create, eat, sleep, breathe, and be.

I wish the same for you, my friends, this December weekend.

Sing We Christmas, and lessons therein

One of my happiest childhood memories is of standing around the piano, singing, while my mom played Christmas carol after Christmas carol. It was such a happy, peaceful time, and because of it, I also know all the words to at least three (if not more) verses to all the major Christmas carols, too.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but despite the fact that my mom is a classical pianist, and the fact that I have degrees in music performance (cello), my own piano skills are ... lacking.

However, we live in a house that came furnished with a piano, and this summer my mom found these two vintage Christmas carol books at a used bookstore for me. So I decided to start working on my piano skills, with the hope of creating similar happy memories for my own children.

The red book is from 1942 and is in 4-part choral arrangements, so it's above my ability level. However, the white one (from the late 70's) is easy. So I began fumbling through "The First Nowell" a few weeks ago. I made myself a goal to become proficient at one song at a time, and move on to as many as I was able by Christmas.

So far, "The First Nowell" has been learned and polished, and I'm pleased with how it sounds, so I moved on to "Good King Wenceslas" on Thanksgiving. I'm becoming fluent with that now, too, so I've begun learning "Coventry Carol", which is a little harder for me. I'm excited about my progress, though, and doubly pleased about the (perhaps not-so-) surprising benefit of having my children see me practice and improve at something that I haven't always done. (Most of the things I "do" were learned before they were born, so they haven't really had the opportunity to see me learn something so new.) It's a good example for Elisabeth with her own cello practice, as well as just being a life lesson that I hope they learn during their time home with me.

And, now we can enjoy (a few) Christmas carols sung around the piano, just like when I was a girl.

Holiday and Winter Favorites ~ 2010 edition

It's hard for me to believe this as I write it, but this is my fifth post of favorite holiday and winter books. Five years in a row I've been posting these! Surely I'll run out at some point. Surely. But not this year....

(And not next year, either; I have more waiting in the wings! You can find the previous years' posts at the following links: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009. I shared so many in 2007 that it's a Christmas miracle that I have any left to share. ;) There will be one repeat this year, and I imagine there will be a few here and there in future years, too, since we're reading older books in new ways, as our younger children keep growing and appreciating books that their older siblings loved before them!)

Oh, and please don't miss Big Susan, The Tomten, Christmas in Noisy Village, The Mitten, and The Hat. I promise that you will love each of those books as much as we do!

A Day on Skates This is the kind of book that sort of takes you by surprise. I'd heard about it for a long time before we finally read it for the first time last year. I was never sure what to expect, based on the cover -- I'm not sure if I can exactly put that into words, but I was a little bit wary of a certain self-consciousness that books from this era can occasionally have. I need not have worried. It is wonderfully clever and classic, along the lines of another favorite children's book of mine, The Wheel on the School. A Day on Skates delighted all of us last year, and we will definitely be reading it again this year!

Silent Night I was sad to see that this book is out of print. It would really be worth searching out a used copy, though. The text is three verses of the song "Silent Night", and the illustrations have a gorgeous simplicity. I love the illustration of the choir of angels, whose robes are part of the night sky. And it's part of my small collection of children's Christmas books that portray Mary nursing Jesus! (Love.)

Snow Tree This sweet book shows a group of forest animals decorating a tree with their own small gifts to remind themselves of the brightness of summer during the snowy cold of winter. I love the textured pages, and Fiona absolutely loves the animals. (This is the book pictured in the photos of this post.) Fiona is so into books like this right now -- with sturdy, textured pages, and lots and lots of animals to talk to and squeal at! (The Lonely Scarecrow is along the same lines and she loves it, too.)

Christmas Farm This is such a cool book, as it follows a story for a really long time -- about ten years in the life of a little boy, and a farm of Christmas trees. It is so sweet to see him grow up along with the trees over the course of the book. At the end, there is some historical background on Christmas trees which is fascinating.

One Winter's Night This book also appears, sadly, to be out of print, although you can still find it at Chinaberry (the link I shared). It is the story of a young pregnant cow lost in a snowstorm, with the parallel story of a couple (Mary and Joseph) told in woodcuts. The illustrations are beautiful, and the woodcuts really make the book. It is so heartwarming and well-done!

Room for a Little One This sparkling tale is perfect for the littlest ones (Fiona enjoys it and will sit through it although she is a mostly non-verbal 21-month-old) -- I think it's even available in board book format. Even without the Christmas guests at the end of the story, the message of peace and acceptance, and of there always being room for the littlest and most in need, is so beautiful.

Winter's Gift I love this poignant, tenderly-illustrated story. Like One Winter's Night, it deals with a lost, pregnant animal, although the story (besides mentioning a Christmas tree) doesn't take on such a Christmas theme. It's really a story about making our way after loss, and finding joy after grief. I think this gentle book could be easily overlooked (and especially in a collection as large as ours), but that would be a shame, because it's really a treasure.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I hope you find some new favorites for your family to read, enjoy, and love -- either in this post, or in some of the previous years'. I love sharing these favorites with you year after year! (And don't hesitate to share some of your favorites in the comments!)

Thinking ahead

mini stockings, knit about 4 years ago!

I hardly feel ready for Advent and Christmas. My mind is still on those Martinmas sweaters! But today I was looking through the December issue of Martha and thinking ahead a bit to what I hope this December will look like in our home. I'd like to create (and maybe buy, too) some new, special decorations. (We haven't gotten any new decorations, besides ornaments, since before having kids. Yikes.) I'd like to try some new-to-us baking and cooking projects. I'd like to find some new holiday tunes (suggestions? we have tons, but it's all kind of old -- we need to freshen it up!). I'd like to keep the house in order so that we can spontaneously invite friends over for drinks or crafting or play. I also liked this idea and may try to incorporate something like it into our celebration.

With those thoughts in mind, I'm beginning to look ahead to the basic outline of our December days, and how our Advent traditions can be used to foster the kind of season I hope to create for my family. I try to parent and live intentionally, and I think the way we choose to celebrate can be a very concrete place to work with this intention. This time of year is, for me, a good time to take stock in the choices I make on a daily and seasonal basis, and the gifts that I hope to give my children, beyond what they'll find in their stockings on Christmas morning.

Our Advent calendar tradition was born out of this desire, to spread out the season, to keep things from becoming overwhelming, overstimulating, and overdone. I have links today to point you in the direction of my Advent posts (still my most frequently searched posts, for better or worse!).

As I said last year, I hope that you all receive these posts in the spirit that I offered them -- as a help for simplifying the holiday season by drawing it out. By not allowing it to get out of control with doing and buying too much, but paring it down to the essentials, the things that make this time of year really special for you and your family. Please don't take my suggestions as yet another thing to pile onto an already overfull month. The last thing I would want is for you to be burdoned with guilt about needing to add a complicated new tradition to your life. But if it helps you to have some structure, and gives your family a joyful way to celebrate, then I hope my suggestions are helpful to you.

So, for your searching convenience, here are the links!

Celebrating Advent :: Part 1 Ideas for the Advent calendar -- what and why.

Celebrating Advent :: Part 2 Huge compilation of ideas for what to put into the Advent calendar.

{I'd love to hear your suggestions for celebrating Advent, making the season special to your family, and also please share the links to favorite decorations and tunes!}

A dusting

Last night we had a light dusting of snow. What a lovely thing to wake up to!

A note on the knitting ... I have completed one sweater, and the other two are in various degrees of completion. I didn't make my deadline, but that's OK. They'll be ready before the end of November for sure. I've had too much going on the last few weeks, and I've been burning the candle at every end. A lot of that has eased up now, so I have much more time for knitting than I did, thankfully. So, off to knit!

Golden days

I can't get enough of these golden autumn days. What about you?

PS: I have an antibiotic now, so my recovery from the mastitis should be forthcoming, I hope. :)

One of our favorite places

Last week we were able to go to our favorite little farm & pumpkin patch. We've been going to the same one for many years now and we are always so happy to be there.

It's a beautiful place, not too flashy or fancy, and the kids love visiting with the animals, playing in the hay bale maze, and, of course, choosing their own pumpkins right out in the field where they were grown!

What are some of your favorite autumn traditions, places to go, and things to do?

Some of the reasons I love this month so

I know I promised more knitting posts, and they really are coming, but I almost didn't post this week because I was sidetracked by trying to get some decent pictures of one of the projects, given a toddler who is all over the place, overcast days, and a lens that is too slow. (My best and most versatile lens broke, for a second time [I'd had it repaired last November], on the day Fiona broke her leg. I need to get it repaired, but it's expensive to do so, and the previous repair isn't under warranty any longer, bla bla bla.) Anyway, I'm working on it.

Onward....

Today was a perfect October day. It was rainy, and then drizzly. We're at a point now where more leaves have changed than haven't. Looking out the window to leaves falling is so heavenly.

I daydreamed about some knitting, which will have to wait a few more days.

I spent some time, with a lot of "help" from all three of my little helpers, tracing patterns for Halloween costumes (all done with that! thank goodness! I hate tracing patterns!). I'm a procrastinator, for sure, but I'm still optimistic that I can avoid last year's all-night sewing catastrophe. (Wherein I started sewing at 9pm the night before Halloween, sewed for 7 hours straight, slept for 4 hours, got out of bed and sewed for another 8 hours without breaks.) I think this year's costumes will be easier, and I'm going to start sewing on Monday.

After we finished the tracing, we headed out to the knitting shop to get some needles, walk around our little downtown, and get some ice cream. We sat on a bench (in our handknit sweaters) to enjoy our ice cream, watch the leaves blow, and people walk by.

When we got home, the mailman was just arriving with some goodies. We all love to receive a little package in the mail! When daddy got home, we made a yummy black bean tortilla pie (sorry, no link, but it's from Everyday Food October 2003), and snuggled down in jammies and woolies with stories and cuddles.

I was thinking, "This is the life."

These beautiful things, in one day, so perfectly encapsulated so many of the things I love about October. Home comforts, cool, crisp weather, costuming, knitting (or dreaming of it), busying ourselves with preparation for winter, with thoughts of warmth, and comfort. All amidst the amazing loveliness that the season offers.

{No, my life isn't perfect, and I'm not always as good at recognizing the good that there is as I should be. But this was one of those days, which had actually started out kind of badly, that managed to turn around into something that was simple and extraordinary all at the same time. And I know that I'm so incredibly blessed, in spite of the times when things are hard, or I'm grumpy, or the kids are misbehaving, or whatever. I'm not abnormally lucky -- I have very real struggles -- but I surely do appreciate the opportunity to slow down and recognize the goodness that is always there, even in small ways, if I allow myself to be open to it.}

There is no season....

"There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October." -Nathaniel Hawthorne

{fiona's shoes by livie & luca}

{that golden october sun!}

October is, by far, my favorite month. I wrote about this last year, but I'll say again -- it is such a perfect blend of enjoyment of the moment, and anticipation of what is yet to come. (A perfect example, to me, was last year's snow in October.)

Here in the midst of a life that can be so crazy and challenging at the moment, it's such a welcome thing to settle into October and the pleasantness it offers. Last night I watched MacBeth on PBS and enjoyed my hot chocolate spiked with a little rum (thanks to Melissa for that idea!). I stayed up late doing some handwork, while a cold drizzle of rain came down outside. Today it's sunny and a little bit hot -- but the breeze is an October one, and the leaves are beginning to fall. I'm so happy that my favorite time of year has rolled around once again.

{hard to tell in the picture, but these are the tiniest, cutest little cookies. though the dough was too dry for me and I ended up adding more butter, in case you try them. I'm taking a page from Leslie's book this fall and trying to bake a batch of cookies once a week, just for a little treat.}

{at the trunk of a tree}

What pleasant things are you finding to enjoy this October?

September

So, September, huh? Wow. I'm a bit in denial about it. The truth is, I'm an autumn -- maybe winter -- person at heart. October is my favorite month. Followed by December, November, February, and January (in that order). So ... I'm feeling a little bit baffled by my current feelings -- a lot of reluctance to say goodbye to summer.

I have a monthly meal planning ritual that I follow (it's kind of silly, but I'll tell you about it sometime). And I'll admit that when I sat down to do this month's plan, I even found myself feeling a little bit resentful of my (seven) September back-issues of Everyday Food. Such autumn-y fare they presented for September! Still, I plugged through and filled my September menu with creamy lima bean soup (sorry, no link), earthy orecchiette with sausage & roasted peppers, roasted vegetable soup, and other warm comfort foods. Tonight this was on the menu (with ground turkey instead of beef, a bit of extra cayenne, cinnamon, and almonds, and a bit less lemon juice).

I'm working on it. I'll embrace autumn.

For now, here's a bit of what can be seen around here, in September.

Beautiful September skies.

The colors of late summer.

The comforts of home.

(Here's a funny thing about this picture. I almost always make my bed now -- a new begninning & habit I'll share more about soon -- but for some reason, these cozy unmade bed photos always appeal to me.)

Evenings are my favorite time of day in September. The twilight has such a particular, special quality to it. And the crickets. Oh, the crickets!

A day of squeezing in every last moment of laundry possible. (I did so many loads that day. With all our own laundry, plus some for our church ... well, it can be a lot!)

Pumpkins ripening. (We have had miserable luck with our garden the last two years, but I'll take success where I can get it -- our pumpkins have done beautifully both years!)

What beautiful things are you seeing, to usher you into this new season?

{Oh, and I fully intend to increase my posting beyond just a paltry once a week(?!). I'm just getting into our new rhythm, with classes, and new volunteer responsibilities, and lots of little things.}

Summer is ... Lessons learned over a summer "on the line"

Our clothes dryer broke at the end of April, and although my husband has had the best of intentions to repair it all summer, there hasn't been a whole lot of motivation because we've been drying on the line. This has been my first "real" line-drying experience. Most of my adult life has been spent in apartment/condo situations, so I've always used either my own machines or laundromats, but never a line. This summer we finally got around to putting up a line (we got an umbrella clothesline, which wasn't the handcrafted wooden clothesline that I've fantasized about for 10 years, but has been quite serviceable). {be sure to follow those links, they're photos of a 10-year-old issue of MSL that had the most amazing clothesline ever! unfortunately it's not up on their website}

And here is some of what I learned, as a line-drying novice.

I really love hanging clothes out early in the morning. It's a refreshing ritual, a time to be alone with my thoughts while my children are otherwise engaged, and the days' squabbles haven't yet heated up.

(Sometimes it can get tedious. And sometimes I don't manage to get things out as early as I should. But mostly, I don't mind too much.)

It's not that hard to get used to crunchy towels, bathroom rugs, or even diapers. Even though it can be funny to hold up a hand towel that is as stiff as cardboard.

It's nice to feel environmentally virtuous.

Clothes dry just as fast on the line as they do in the dryer (at least in my climate).

The aesthetics of a clothesline are just as priceless as everyone keeps saying.

So, there are lots of "pros" to drying on the line. There is pretty much only one significant "con" that I've discovered:

It's not an economic savings. Let me explain that.

A couple years ago, a friend of mine did a summer of line-drying. She said that she saw a $10 savings on her energy bill per month. I thought that this was pretty significant, because it's about 10% of a monthly energy bill. My friend said that she felt that her experiment had not been a success on an economic level because of the work involved.

Now that I've spent my own summer line-drying, I'd have to say I agree with my friend on the economy of it. We've seen our monthly savings to be about $10, as well. At the beginning of the summer, there was the purchase of the clothesline, and clothespins are surprisingly expensive. With breakage and loss, we've actually had to replace them a couple of times, as well. Between these costs and the work involved, it's already not a "savings".

But the other factor that I wouldn't have considered before was the overall wear that our clothing took this summer. I noticed a really significant amount of fading to all of our clothing, as well as thinning. Because I've always dried in a dryer before this, I was really able to tell the difference in a way I might not have been able to if I'd always done a combination of line-drying and using a dryer. Given the hard wear on our clothing, I would say that overall, it was a financial loss to dry exclusively on the line.

We'll need to finally commit to repairing our dryer before the colder months set in anyway, so by next summer, drying on the line will be a choice and not a necessity. I will definitely do it again, but I think I'll appreciate having access to my dryer for things that I don't want to wear out as quickly. In all, I really enjoyed this summer on the line, and I would say that I'm mostly a clothesline convert, though I now believe that judicious use of the dryer isn't all that bad!

Do you use a line? What are your experiences?

Summer is ... Swim season

Here at the very end of summer, with so few posts from me in the last couple of months, I thought I would visit a few of the highlights of this summer.

The most prominent aspect of this summer (after Fiona's broken leg, I suppose) was swimming. We have always done swimming lessons for the whole summer, five days a week. But this summer, specifically, was Elisabeth's first swim (team) season.

At the beginning of the summer, she was one of the weaker swimmers on our (fairly large) team. She couldn't dive off the blocks, and had a fair share of "DQ's" (short for disqualifications). But as the summer progressed, she improved extremely rapidly. Her times kept jumping down by several seconds at each meet. She started to practice in the "harder" group. By the second week of July, she had qualified for the League championship, where she placed in the top ten in backstroke, and ultimately ended up making the State championship, as well. She was named our team's most improved girl, a title she really deserved.

For me, it was hard not to swell with pride at her accomplishments over the summer. Now, with our swim season behind us, I can look at it from another perspective. I'm proud of her, but not just for being fast, and qualifying for championships. I'm proud of her for working hard, and not complaining when it was tough. I'm proud of her for trying her best, even in the midst of being new -- to the team, to the sport, and to competition -- and not knowing what to do, and the disappointments of disqualifications. I'm proud of her for working with, and being respectful to, a number of different coaches with very different styles. For being a true teammate and friend. For rising to the occasion, working hard, learning, growing, and showing much character.

Swimming is fun. It's exciting, fast, and thrilling when your body hits the water at the start of a race.
But in the end, I shouldn't be surprised that the swimming itself was only a part of the whole; only a means to an end in what became a priceless experience.

(photos here from our state swim meet a few weeks ago)