Oh my, but it is busy these days!
Homeschooling has started, but it hardly feels like autumn- the weather has been incredibly hot and summery. Getting back into our homeschooling rhythm has been wonderful, though we miss Perry when he is back at work. We started our year off with a not-back-to-school gathering of homeschoolers, and it was glorious to spend the afternoon with 18 kids splashing in the mountain stream- all thrilled to be playing together in the sunshine.

This year Ari is starting grade 2 and Dorian is in kindergarten. It is ever so busy with 2 homeschooling kiddos and a wee baby, but it has been going very well. I am in love with Enki grade 2- it is exactly right for Ari. This year we are working with cultural units and our humanities blocks are focusing on "Sages" - people from different parts of the world who have done great things with their lives- and the trickster tales from their culture. We will be working with several cultures over the course of the year, and the dances, songs, crafts, food, poetry and stories from each. We are starting our first cultural unit in Scotland with John Muir as our Sage and having a great time hearing trickster tales about mischievous Fox, dancing Scottish dances during circle, dying wool,  listening to some great tunes and eating tattie scones with our supper! Dorian is along for the ride with the cultural activities, but has his own special kindy stories during story time which he loves. He joins us at morning lesson and draws  (and draws and draws,) while Ari is working on his schoolwork. He is pushing for some work that looks more like Ari's during our afternoon lesson time which is when Ari practices reading and works on practice work- handwriting, and worksheets for skills we've already learned. Perhaps some simple workbooks will be in order for him- maybe simple letter tracing or something?

And Willa- oh, sweet baby Willa- she is just the most lovely, easy, happy little love. She loves to just watch the goings on from my arms or on a sheepskin on the floor, kicking and cooing away. We borrowed a friend's sling for the chariot stroller and she's been joining us on our morning walks in there- often falling asleep and staying asleep once we are home- we just bring the chariot into the mud room and keep our ears open while we get started on morning lesson. I know enough now not to get too used to this particular routine, but I'm loving it while we've got it. And she sleeps! Glory be! This baby is a sleeper, (as least for the time being!) and I could not be more thankful.

Ari started guitar lessons this week and is loving it. He is learning on my baritone ukelele (so I suppose calling them ukelele lessons would be more accurate, but he considers himself to be learning guitar, so we'll go with that,) which has 4 strings instead of 6 and is much smaller and easier to play. Because it still uses the same fingering, the hope is he will be able to pick up guitar chords easily when he is big enough. Ari is incredibly musical (he is playing kit drums so well it rather astonishes me!) but I knew with his learning style that being able to learn songs quickly would be best for him, and he is really keen. And Dorian was fitted for a fiddle this week and will start lessons soon, with the tiniest cutest little fiddle ever!

And there is so much else we've been up to that I have not managed to record here. A lovely visit with my sister and her husband and beautiful baby girl, the fall fair with prizes for crafts and cookies, learning about bees from the beekeeper friend that kept hives on our land this summer, farmers markets and garden food we can barely keep on top of.  And with this incredible weather we have been having- so much time outside playing and soaking up the sun.

Last night we all went the beach and had a last lake picnic of the season. Ari is getting really good in the kids kayak, and they both love to play along the water and in the dense bushes around the lake.  I had a swim myself and it felt so good to get into that cold clear water. We forgot the camera, but the memory will stay warm and bright in our minds. A beautiful last hurrah to summer.

The weather has changed from very very hot to very chilly in just a couple days, and suddenly fall is in the air. Willa Rose has woken up so much these past few days, full of smiles and gurgles and curious gazes at her brothers and the goings on. She is pure sweetness- so mellow and content and adorably sweet. I just can't get enough of her- I could snuggle that teeny body and smell that baby head all day long. Which is pretty much what I do.

I've been working on a little girly baby quilt for her, pulling out all the floral prints and vintage sheets from my stash and having such a terrific time at it. Willa has been happy to lay on a sheepskin in my sewing nook and watch me sew and I chat to her while I work, loving every minute of it. 

The raspberries are epic this year, though the wasps are too- drilling holes in them and scaring away small boys who might otherwise live out there feasting on juicy berries. Perry has been braving the critters and bringing in bucket loads to fill the freezer and we've been eating lots too. We feel so blessed that this is one crop that grows so well here. The garden is a wild mess of weeds, but somehow we keep pulling zucchini and tomatoes and broccoli and tiny tomatoes from the jungle.

And what else? Someone gave the boys a stack of comic books and they are enamoured, spending so much time pouring over them, laying on the trampoline, or in the back of the car, or in the morning in their matching pirate PJ's. Has anyone discovered a more wholesome comic book than Archie? There has to be something better out there!

Ari has soccer camp this week and is over the moon with all that fun. The boys went on a rafting trip with our wonderful friends this weekend and had a grand time, and they all made it back to our place for a farm supper. Our neighbours cows have been getting out of their fences and into all sorts of trouble on our property- we have woken some mornings with our house surrounded by bellowing beasts (there are 100 of them!) No cows today, so maybe they are gone for good? 

The boys have signed up for a bunch of exhibits for the fall fair- making play dough sculptures and egg carton animals and the like. I have been perfecting my cookie recipe for the gluten-free cookie category - I am totally going to take that 4$ first prize!
Now how's that for a random post- I think it is time for bed!
Goodnight friends.

 These summer days are flying by so quickly. They always do, but especially this year, with this wee baby girl to measure the time by and to keep me busy. She also helps me to slow down though, and to not try and cram so much into these lovely warm months, and I am enjoying it so much. The evening walks with her in my arms, looking up at the dappled sun in the branches and the breeze in the long grass  leaves us both feeling calm and happy. Such a beautiful time of year to have a baby, when I can walk outside with her at any time of day without bundling her up, and when the sound of the natural world can be her lullaby.

Perry and the boys have been busy with camps and festivals and visits with friends. Willa and I join in here and there, but are happy to be at home mostly. Dorian attended an art camp last week (a couple hours each morning,) and was so proud to pack his snack in his backpack and to head off on his own adventure (and he came home with some terrific creations to decorate our home!) Today Ari went to a sports day at our rec centre and was thrilled to spend the day climbing and swimming and running races. Willa and I joined them for a day at our local music festival and we had fun visiting friends and listening to music, but we opted out of the festival that involved a weekend of camping and a big drive. But oh, the boys did have fun! It was hard for me not to join in as it is one of my very favorite events of the year, but we did enjoy our quiet time home together. Next year Willa and I will be there and she will be toddling about quite likely!

We did join in on our annual strawberry pick at our friend's Upick- bringing home 55lb of berries for winter (and I learned that shucking and preserving berries is something that can be done well with a baby in the sling!) There are a few  more out in our garden, and our raspberries are just starting to ripen. We also put up 10 large salmon from a friend, and I got to learn how to clean and cut them, and to cure the row (these things were much too smelly and messy to do with a baby in a sling, so we traded off.) Even when we are not growing  much of a garden, this time of year is all about preserving local food for the winter!

I stole away a few bits of time when Willa was willing to be put down to sew a little. Having a baby girl after being a mom to boys for 7 years is like opening a floodgate for all the flowery pretty little things I wouldn't let myself look at all those years. And now there are all these fun things I get to learn how to make! I obsessively started looking up little girls dress patterns just days after she was born. So I tried my hand at a couple teeny little dresses, using bits and bobs from my stash and a vintage shirt from the thrift store. I used the Geranium dress pattern - the newborn size is free, but I love these little dresses and will make more of the bigger sizes too I'm sure. I still can't quite believe I have a little girl. A baby girl! A daughter! Oh, the sweetness of it.

And she is growing so quickly- getting bigger and chubbier and more awake to the world every day. I remember this feeling so well from my first two babies, they just become sweeter and more adorable and loveable by the minute. She is changing so fast, it seems that she wakes from her naps a little bit bigger, a little more aware, a little more able to make sense of the world. She is a delight to be with, and I feel so lucky that she has come to be part of our family. I am so blessed.

Around here:

 The wild roses are blooming. Bringing them inside for Willa Rose.

The great jungle of a garden is growing- the weeds are epic with all the rain we've been having. Some of the plants are growing too.

 

The strawberries are coming. The boys are proud of these ones they grew themselves.

Slinging the baby and taming the weeds. Sweetness.

Playing inside when the rains and storms descend. I'm loving this knight plane.

 Cards.

 Guess who made Papa choose the Old Maid?

 Board games,

and lots of baby snuggling.

 Who could resist?

 She is just so snugly and sweet.

And she is happiest in someones arms, mostly mine, so that is where she can usually be found. I did forget a little how all consuming having a newborn is- it is such an incredible time- watching this wee being emerge and wake up to world, marveling at her amazing tiny sweetness and falling more and more in love with her every day. And at the same time, I had forgotten how little else gets done in a day- that pile of books and knitting I had thought I might get to has been utterly neglected. And the laundry and dishes and garden and cooking and cleaning just seems so much more than we can get done. 

But oh, this time is so short, I know that so fully, as my sweet boys race around me- impossibly big and independent- and I know this darling baby girl of mine will be racing around after them in no time at all. So I soak it all in and try to be present for every moment of it- her bright little eyes that watch me closely in the early morning when she wakes, her little tongue she will stick out- after some thought- if I stick out mine, the sound of her breathing beside me in the bed at night when she has finally fallen asleep. The soft velvet of her hair, the long tiny fingers, every little smile I can coax out of her. I love it and treasure it and know how quickly it all will pass. And I forgive myself when I can't resist a longing glance at the knitting and the stack of books and the laundry and the dishes even.   There is plenty of time for all that. This baby is right here, growing before my very eyes, wanting to be in my arms right now. Nothing could be more important than that.