autumn day on our little mountain

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A stormy day, which stayed sunny long enough for us to enjoy our picnic.

We tried to bake our bread to be shaped like oak leaves. Kinda worked.

Chloe baked some ginger cookies. Stars, hearts and trees.
Fourteen stars - for the 14 years of marriage Jason and I celebrated on this day.
Hearts - lots and lots of them, for lots and lots, and lots, of LOVE.
Trees - because we have our own forest now.

Such lovely autumn colored bits of yarrow.
Thunder in the distance.
Darkening skies. Falling rain.

Earlier in the week there were evening moonlight horse rides.

October is ending...


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early autumn days

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Autumn walks with baby. Walks with horses. Riding horses!

Walks in the sun. Walks in the mud. Walks in the snow!

Wishing you beautiful October days this week!


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making, knitting, reading (and homeschooling)

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Rather than being made of wool, this little doll is made of wood. She is Chloe's "fancy" woman from England. Carved one day at the land and then dressed at the house...


In my Waldorf mind, I imagine my little baby with the simplest of play things around her, and very few of them. A wooden tree and a knit animal. Perhaps a set of felted nesting bowls for her first birthday.
But this little Waldorf baby has two older sisters who already have a forest of trees, and are ready to knit up a whole entire farm for her!


Sometimes, actually most of the time lately, I feel like I have turned into the slowest knitter in the world.  I'm pretty sure I just spent at least several months knitting one little pair of pants. Finally they are finished. Elsie is wearing them all the time, just as cute as can be. But I don't think they are long enough! Fine for now, but we are only at the beginning of autumn, and she just keeps growing. I think I am going to have to take apart the bottoms and add some length. But that means that I'm not really done with them yet! Oh goodness. At least I have a new bonnet almost finished...


We have been slowly starting our homeschool year. It is October after all, I couldn't put it off much longer.

We have been enjoying so many Jakob Streit books lately. His stories are just right for everyone right now, having spent much of last year with stories of Saints for Chessa's 2nd grade, and with Chloe beginning her main lesson work on the Middle Ages.

A very useful book to me these days, which I wish I had gotten years earlier, is Teaching History by Christoph Lindenberg. Subtitled "Suggested Themes for the Curriculum in Waldorf Schools". I guess that makes it somewhat self explanatory. I am glad to have it now as I plan the middle school grades, and I'm sure it will be incredibly helpful to us when we get to high school. (!!)

I was so unable to keep up with homeschool posts here this past year that I hardly know where to begin. Perhaps some belated 2nd and 6th grade posts, and then I will be able to move on...


And to those of you who wondered what I was sewing over the weekend... Who said it was me sewing on the machine?


Joining my Friends Ginny and Nicole... (if I remember too...)


Happy making and reading to all...


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notes from the weekend...

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... accompanied by those way too many baby pictures I mentioned the other day.
(Because Mel and Jules encouraged me.) (But I already knew they would want to see them...)
(And also just cause, just for us.)

On Saturday morning Jason and the girls went to town to do our errands and pick up our raw milk. At about the time I was expecting them home, they called to say they were delayed. They had to make an unexpected stop, but they would be home soon, and they had a big surprise. I was unable to think of what it could be, for about 2 seconds, and then I realized that they must have found some apple trees.

Apples, apples, apples!!! I nearly danced around the house with Elsa, happily singing apple songs, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the harvest.

There was only a brief moment when I let my enthusiasm dampen, realizing that I could be wrong, and maybe there weren't any apples.

But oh yes, apples apples apples!

Hmm.. You would think I might have some lovely apple photos to share...

You might also think that Sunday was a day full of apple chopping, saucing, etc...
But no, it was not.
I guess it had something to do with scissors, needle, thread. Fabric, sewing machines. Things like that.
Thank goodness apples don't turn as quickly as peaches.
(Did I even mention this year's visit to the abandoned peach orchard?)

Looks like today will be filled with a little bit of homeschool lesson time and a whole lot of apples.
Hopefully there will still be some moments for handwork.

Wishing you all a happy week ahead!

p.s. Babies sitting on top of tables is not very safe. But it is pretty cute. And apparently quite fun for baby.



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moments and gratitude

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So very grateful for...

The gardens. The rain. The storms.

And now you see how wild this corner of our garden became this year. (Or was it last year that that happened...?)

Just hours after taking these (yes, more) photographs of our beloved Swiss chard, a huge hailstorm pounded down on our gardens. The chard actually held up quite well. But oh the poor collards!!!

And then there was the second hailstorm. That pretty much wiped out the rest of the chard.

Gallons of ragged greens were harvested. A giant pot of harvest stew was prepared and enjoyed all week.

Grateful for it all.

Grateful that only the gardens suffered damage.

Grateful the squash are in the greenhouse.

Grateful that the girls made it indoors safe and quickly enough when that last storm came up so very suddenly.

It was not a usual storm.

We saw water flowing on our land where it has most likely not flown for decades.

Oh yes. Grateful to know where the water flows.

Many good life lessons brought to us this past summer.

Grateful for it all.

Grateful that our cat is not 18 years old. That's what I came up with yesterday when I counted the years. Fortunately I counted wrong. I was relieved to figure out that he is only 15.

Grateful for the hawthorne that gave such beautiful berries this year, bigger than I have ever seen. The brilliant red, the glowing gold of the wild sunflowers gathered around, the soft blue of the chicory. I  see out the window the colors now faded, but I will remember.

Grateful for this day.
I wake each morning excited for what is to come.
I go to bed each night with a tingly thrill, knowing that my life is full of love and so very good.

Oh, and one more for now...
Grateful that you all will forgive me when I post way too many baby photos later this week. (Even though I did that last week too...)


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