Welcome Fall!

Our (somewhat new, but lasting - in my mind) tradition for the weekend of the autumnal equinox is to bid the summer goodbye with a final trip to the ocean.  This year, however, due to full schedules, lack of funds, and assorted other snafus, the trip didn't come together.  (Yes, I realize that missing a year of a "new yearly tradition" makes it not really a tradition. Yet.  You'll see...you'll see...)

So we ushered autumn in at home...by getting to work...because after the carefree days of summer, fall inspires work, does it not?

We have a lot of outdoor things we would like to begin this summer to achieve some goals for next spring: move and enlarge our garden space, build a compost bin, build a woodshed, build a chicken coop and figure out the best place for it to be.... The list goes on and on, but these are some of the more pressing things...which then lead to us having to cut and move a lot of wood, and clear and turn a bunch of land.  Now is the time to begin.

We are also starting to take baby steps toward making the inside of our house a little more lovely in the near future.

 

The girls' room has a new, cozy look - one that with some minor adjustments is probably here to stay for many years.  We even hung something on the wall!

Slow and steady wins the race...


And at the end of the weekend we still had time enough to bid our farewell to summer...with fifteen first-graders and their families.

 

Welcome autumn! So glad you are here!

One Week

A few weeks ago Matty and I watched the ridiculous movie - maybe some of you have seen it?-  The Men Who Stare at Goats.  Despite its mildly amusing commentary and awesome (as per usual) performances by George Clooney and Jeff Bridges, it is definitely a movie I will soon forget. 

But one thing that has stuck in my mind was a line from George Clooney's character concerning destiny.  I can't remember it verbatim, but here is a paraphrase:  Each person is born with his or her destiny laid out before them.  Throughout their life, if they move toward a destiny that is not their own, it is akin to a fish swimming upstream.  However, if they move in the direction of their destiny, the current will carry them.

(And isn't that the job of comedy?  To speak the truth?)

Well, apparently all of us here in our world are moving in the right direction, because despite my ambivalence about summer ending, Emerson starting full days of school and gymnastics on the same day, me picking up an extra shift at work, and not having a babysitter to speak of, we are somehow all peacefully swimming along.

 And this is what a first grader looks like!

 

BIG!

Small, scared...

And BIG again! (What I love about this age... big, but still so little...)

Emerson entered the first grade with courage and grace, and was welcomed into the grade school at the traditional Wildflower Ceremony.  (Each first grader is assigned an eighth grade and twelfth grade "buddy" who they spend a lot of time with throughout the year.  Their "buddies" introduce them to the rest of the school by giving each child a wildflower.)   Because Waldorf schools don't begin academics until first grade, it is a big leap for Emerson to transition from half-days of play, play and more play to full-days of Reading, Writing, French, German, Math... but although she spent the first few days like a deer in headlights, she has moved right into her new role and is inhabiting it happily.  It is amazing to me how much she is thriving...how she was so ready for more! (And from what I gather, she still has plenty of time to play...)

 

And it isn't just Emerson who is clicking along.  All of us, it seems, are where we are supposed to be.  Ophelia is napping in the afternoons instead of being dragged around in a car.  I am writing this blog at 2pm, not 2am.  (And I will still have time to prepare dinner before we have to go get Emerson at school)  I have been spending time with my husband in the evenings, going to bed at a reasonable hour, and the very best part...

 

And soon I will be going off to school myself! (And starting a new blog... the inaugural post of which will appear here!)  Life is feeling really good at this moment.  Really right. 

Reflections on Summer

Are those really leaves I see falling into my yard?  Once again I'm left wondering how summer has disappeared so quickly.  Once again I'm wondering what happened to all my grandiose plans...

Each year as the school days wind down to an end, and the spring days grow hotter and hotter, I see before me summer days stretching into infinity - day after timeless day to be filled doing whatever our hearts desire.  We will go the park whenever we want to, ride bikes every day.  I will be able to fit in some exercise: I will walk every day, swim laps a few times a week, maybe even do some yoga!  Emerson and I will do crafts in the afternoon as Ophelia sleeps.  We will paint and sew.  We will both learn to embroider.  Oh these magical endless summer days....

Mm-hm.

And now leaves are falling from the sky, kids are back in school, and did I do any of these things?  Ah...no.  We went to the park a couple of times.  Rode our bikes a little.  No yoga, no lap swim.  Definitely no embroidery.  (Very little blogging - remember that whole Childrens' Literature thing?  None of that...)  Somehow it feels as though summer has passed me by; like it was just yesterday that I was breaking out into hives and counting the days until I didn't have to drive back and forth from school every day.  And now here I am, about to start again.

Sigh.

But as I look through photos of our summer, (in the hopes of recapping in here in my blog) I realize that summer didn't pass me by at all.  Our summer was Full ...as it always is.  Full of relaxing and playing, trips and adventures, lazy days, friends and family, swimming and exploring, hiking and projects...even if the projects never got done...  Full of beaches and lakes and rivers and mountains, sunshine, sprinklers, worms and toads.  Full of the joy of being able to do whatever we wanted to do - which obviously didn't turn out to be walking or yoga or embroidery.

It was a summer where things didn't go as planned, and that's OK.  Life had it's own plan for us...