I’m suffering from a case of writer’s block so what better time than now to do 7 Quick Takes, linking up with Kelly over at her blog. Happy Birthday, Kelly!
-1-
It’s September! I do
believe that September is becoming my favorite month of the year. I’ve blogged about this before, but every
year, I love September even more. I
think people tend to overlook the wonderful things about September, skipping
too quickly ahead to “pumpkin spice & jack-o-lantern” season instead. But September, with it’s dusky evenings and
cool mornings, late summer wildflowers and heralds of migration always leaves
me feeling nostalgic and more at peace than any other month of the year. I love the winding down of the summer and all
its craziness.
Unlike last year, this year, thanks to several tropical
depressions, our September has been filled with rain, and so the garden is
still growing, although the season is near an end. This week, maybe even today, I hope to dig
the sweet potatoes and then in a couple of weeks, I’ll be planting garlic, and
that’ll be a wrap for Garden Year 2020.
The year has been good, but nothing like Garden Year 2019 was. That year was our most bountiful ever. This year, there were no apples nor pears,
and a late freeze in May took a heavy toll on our potatoes. Still, God always provides just enough, and
our shelves are still filled with the canned food from last year’s surplus, plus
we harvested just enough corn, squash, potatoes and tomatoes this summer to get
us through another winter.
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School has begun, although for us, school never really
ends. We have always homeschooled
year-round, which allows us to work learning into our daily routine when it is
most convenient. This year, we are doing
5th grade, 4th grade and pre-K. I have thought often about blogging more
about our homeschool experiences, but it seems like every homeschooling blogger
has already done that. For years, I mostly
stayed “in the closet” about homeschooling, sharing little about it over social
media and with family and friends. But
now, in 2020, it’s suddenly cool to be a homeschooler, so I’m a little less
apprehensive. I have no advice to new
homeschoolers other than it is really hard.
But if your kids are anything like mine (and if they are, you have my
condolences), they will learn despite everything you do wrong. There really must be a lot of grace that God gives
to homeschoolers for this miracle of learning to happen despite all the chaos
and disruptions that make up our homeschool days. I trust him to do his part if I only do my
part.
With cooler temperatures that came with September and less time required gardening and putting up food, we’ve been doing more hiking. We had a week without rain last week and took advantage of the low water levels to go to the river. The water temperature was “almost” too cold for swimming, but of course that doesn’t stop little boys from jumping right into it. They ran and played and swam and jumped and fished and cooked 2 pounds of hot dogs over an open fire. Homeschool lessons of the day were 1) how to successfully build a fire using only one match and things we found in the forest, 2) how to cast a rod and reel without piercing your neighbor’s ear, and 3) how to leave-no-trace when all is said and done. Life skills that will take them far, I hope.
-5-
We celebrated two birthdays this month. September 13 was the 2-year mark for our dog,
Chessie, something the boys made sure I did not forget. Chessie got a lovely “cake” made of leftover
chicken nuggets, cheese sauce and dog food sprinkles as her award for
officially leaving the puppy years behind.
And as lab and lab-mix breeds are known to do, she is finally starting
to act like she has a brain now that she has reached the two-year mark. She is loyal to her family, especially Joah,
who claims her as his own, and has shown remarkable patience around our
chickens in spite of the fact that two boys keep trying to encourage her to
chase them for their own delight. She is
also showing evidence of becoming a surprisingly good squirrel dog and expertly
spots and trees any squirrel that dares put foot on the ground around our bird
feeder. No doubt, it is the mountain cur
in her that we can attribute to that.
So, while I had my doubts about Chessie in her first year of life, her
brain seems to be maturing, and she is turning into a remarkable dog. This same phenomenon gives me hope for my
children!
And of course, the other birthday not to be overlooked was
that of our Most Blessed Mother. Unlike
Chessie, Our Lady did not get chicken nuggets for her birthday, but rather,
some home-baked gluten-free chocolate chip cookies prepared by John. And of course, also unlike Chessie, Our Lady
was more than willing to share her special treat with the rest of us. John took great pleasure in baking cookies
for her birthday, perhaps knowing how generous she’d be in sharing!
And lastly, this September will be recorded in my memory as the
time when I took care of all the kids alone for 13 days straight while Tom was
out of town. Small potatoes to many
mothers out there, I know, and I tip my hat to all of you ladies who are
single-parenting, or who have husbands deployed, or are frequently away from
home for other reasons. You are superheroes! But for me, this was the longest period I
have had to solo-parent all the kids since becoming a parent and it was brutal,
but worth it. Tom got some much-needed
time away and caught up on some work, and I realized that just keeping the kids
alive and fed really is the most important thing. And absence really does make the heart grow
fonder, so I am feeling even more thankful now for this man whom God gave me to
help me through life and especially, with this parenting gig. I know even more now than ever that I
couldn’t do it without him.
I hope you have a wonderful ending to this loveliest of
months! Based upon the arrival of the
fall migrant birds I’ve seen, the woolly worms, the persimmon seeds, and the
general aura of 2020, I expect an early and hard winter so, get out(side) while
you can!
