autumn

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On the equinox I really felt the need to go be in the aspens. And so that's exactly what we did.

















We decided to have an evening picnic at the lake.



It was actually quite warm and the girls were able to spend hours playing in the sand and beside the water.





We walked up the river after dinner. The lake was very low.







Chessa of course walked in the river, my little water child.





And she can never resist digging into that soft cool sand.



Here she was a raccoon. She would run off just a bit further and then drop down and start digging again.



Joined by Chloe, digging a little more tentatively.




It was the perfect way to spend the first day of our beloved autumn.



Wishing you all a beautiful new season!


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botany, cardigans, and golden...

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First pages from Chloe's botany main lesson book.


She is feeling like she can't draw or write well enough with her hand injury but I think she did beautifully. For this reason though we are taking it a little bit slow.

Rather than Charles Kovacs Botany book we are mostly using The Living World of the Plants by Dr. Gerbert Grohman. I really like the Kovacs book, but I really love The Living World of the Plants. And Chloe agrees, so that is our focus. I also have the Christopherus Botany lesson guide, which we are not exactly following but provides good inspiration for my lesson planning.

And please excuse my not great photos. Jason has been taking the camera with him most days, he has been out bow hunting this month... (Yep, from 17 years as vegans, to not even vegetarians and hunting!) So I tried to take a few quick pictures before he left today, with very poor lighting...

Some Tasha Tudor book love. Goodness she makes me happy.
I was recently gifted two vintage books illustrated by Tasha Tudor, maybe I can share pics of them soon...

One of my favorite trees at the moment...

And the cardigan! So close to finished! So not perfect, but so perfectly fine to me. I feel like I have learned so much knitting this first sweater. I intend to go finish that other sleeve right now (yes Melanie, I know I have been saying that for a few days now...) and hopefully by the end of the week I will be casting on the next cardigan for Chessa.

With the days turning cooler I have been wishing I could just sit and knit all day long, perhaps outside beneath some of those beautiful golden trees...


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all kinds of good things...

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First of all I need to say, dear friends, I'm so very sorry that I caused any of you worry. And I apologize for my weirdness and defensiveness regarding the deleted post. Chloe is fine, she will heal, she is strong. And I will try to not overreact in such a way again...


So, on to the good things...

These photos were taken about a week after Chessa turned 7 in May. She asked me if I would teach her to play flute. Cause she sure was waiting to turn 7 years old so that she could be a first grader!

And so we began.

This past week we began our new homeschool year. My sweet little first grader and my big girl fifth grader! I decided to start with a week of form drawing for both girls. Next week Chessa will be continuing with form drawing and Chloe will begin a first botany block.


Circle time included many of our favorite apple verses and songs as we traveled off to the orchard...

And all that apple singing must have brought us good luck. Because when we stopped to check on a wild apple tree that we have had our eyes on we discovered that the apples were absolutely perfectly ripe! Big, red, rosy apples, so juicy and sweet. We gathered two bushels that day, and Jason and the girls returned on Sunday and harvested another two.

I found it so funny on that first harvest day... we had only one bag with us since we weren't expecting to be picking apples yet. The bag was actually full of veggies from the garden but we just set those in the bag of the car so it could be filled with apples. Then Jason layed out his flannel shirt and we filled that. Then, since I was wearing my usual cooler weather ensemble of long skirt over pants, I took off my skirt, tied up the top, and we used it as a big apple sack! Now you may think I am strange for always wearing skirts over my pants (or pants under my skirts) but it sure had a practical purpose that day!

And we found plums! How excited everyone is about that! When I came up the stairs this morning the smell of those plums greeted me, and I spent the first part of my day in the kitchen getting lots of them pitted and into the freezer. I would like to make some plum jam too, but I am waiting for the canning jar lids that I ordered to arrive (the reusable bpa free ones) and these plums are not going to wait, so into the freezer they went.

Not all of our house smells sweet and fruity though. Sometimes the smell of sauerkraut overwhelms us instead. I have nearly two gallons fermenting, this is my first attempt at it and it seems to be going well so far. Goodness we grew some huge cabbages this year. I just had to weigh one before I started slicing it and it weighed 17 pounds!
(And on a kind of scary note, one of our cats does weigh more than the cabbage! Oh Taddy Orangeo, we know you cannot help being so big. You have a big name, and huge double paws, and you used to have a big meow, but you seemed to have lost that...)

So, homeschool, apples, plums, sauerkraut. It really doesn't take much to make us happy.
Oh, and we have pumpkins growing quite big in the garden!
And I baked plum crisp, and it came out so so beautifully pink!
And it is September, a wonderful month that holds such promise of the beautiful autumn season to come.
I hope you all have been enjoying beautiful happy days too!


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pretty pictures only...

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If you happen to have noticed, yes I have deleted my last post. To those of you who shared such kind and supportive words, I thank you very much...


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to remember...

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It passes so quickly, this moment of summer. I want to remember that it was green...

That they climbed into trees...

That they ran in the grass...
(That sure is some well trimmed grass. But they ran through pastures and tall meadows also...)

That they wandered together...

That they wondered together...

That they touched the earth...
(Definitely dirt more often than grass...)

That they had all the time in the world...


And now this month is nearing it's end. Outside it is not only green, there is golden too, more and more everyday.
The sun still blazes during the day, the thunderstorms come in the afternoon, the chill comes late at night and stays to greet us in the morning.
The season is changing. We feel so ready for it, but are going to continue to enjoy these last summer moments while they are here...


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around the house the other day...

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Hello friends. I thought I would share some random photos taken while I wandered about the house one day last week...

Bee and honey. This was all Chessa's idea, a craft she thought up for herself. She put yellow wool in jar, drew a little bee on paper and cut it out, attached bee to string and suspended it in the jar by closing the lid on the string. I though it was cute.


Hollyhocks are blooming. And finding their way indoors, usually floating in a bowl or basin of water. The girls have also been making dyes from the petals, which they then use to dye little fabric squares for their dolls.


Little girl dressed up as a knight.

Little girl's playstand fort.


Inside little girl's special space.


Little girl's special friends.


Pasture and stable for the animals.


Little girl's clever wagon for the family.


Another family traveling about.


Building materials of the very best kind.


Chloe's handsewing. Her dolls are opening a little shop. She is making a pinafore :)


Mama's sewing.


Art. Often.


Sometimes it's a castle, sometimes it's a village, or a town...


The beauty of wet-on-wet watercolor painting. Chessa's paintings always feel so alive to me.
(We have still been not at all consistent with our paintings days. I really hope to do more during this coming school year.)


Girl with glue on her face. (If you looked closely you could see...)


Girl loving kitty cat.


And suddenly I realized how it was that I ended up walking around the house taking pictures. Because really I was going to sit down to knit, but then discovered this big orange cat in the chair...


Hope you are all enjoying happy days in your home!


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