Life.Planted.

 A few weeks ago we celebrated our niece's 3rd birthday. On her actual birthday the kids and I went over and had a tea party and we went for a walk at the park. Labor day weekend we had her birthday party. We celebrated with lots of food, family and fun. 

Summer came to an abrupt stop. Not a slow fade into fall, but abrupt. It’s gone. There is that cool, refreshing chill in the air, even when the warm sun is shining on your skin. The nights are cold and the days shorter. The leaves are changing and falling from trees everywhere you look. The pumpkins are overflowing from the patches. Shorts are being replaced with long pants. The last few weeks we have been busy living. Life has been full. We are having so much fun homeschooling. We have been hanging onto what’s left of the nice weather and getting boat rides in with family. We’ve been taking nature walks and embracing football season. We had the opportunity to care for 5 newborn baby bunnies and the unfortunate event of them not making it past a week old. God had other plans for them, and us. We loved, we learnt, we let go. With eyes full of light and hearts full of hope. With a little piece ripped away from us. Not our first experience of loss and it will surly not be our last. These ...

........nature walks. This week we found mushrooms, frogs, grasshoppers, golden rod and the biggest wild snake we've ever seen. We went over bridges, through the forest and fields and out to a small community garden with the coolest old corn crib.  

This pretty little niece of mine starts high school today! Dear Rory, I’m in shock and speechless. I’m so proud of the person you are and continue to become. You were the first little baby I gave my heart to. The first I loved as my own. I watched you grow and change and live. Missing the days of you holding my hand, crawling up on my lap and wearing dresses and bows I’d buy you, but now I have a life long friend in you.  You are full of life and adventurous. You can light up a room. Sunshine follows you around and you always have a song in your heart.  You will walk through those school doors today still a child giggling with your school girl friends and in four short years you will walk back out an adult, probably gone through some heartbreaks, tears, but some of the best days too. You will walk out those doors excited and scared and ready to face the world on your own. Today you focus on your very first year of high school, but before we know it you will be focusing on the ...

 Soft breeze flows through open windows As golden warm sun seeps in Dancing curtains casting shadows   As the first sips of coffee touch my lips and probably my soul  September is awakening  And August has closed her eyes to rest Little footsteps heard running around our home Breathing in whats left of summer's air Soon to be surrounded by books and daily rhythms Instead of embraced by sun kisses and salty waves  and the freedom for which summer holds 7 more days  Then we will embark on our new journey of home school Long summer days will draw to an end  The days shorter, the air cooler, the nights longer When walks can be endless without the wrath of the hot summer sun and days spent inside don't feel wasted And our home,  Our home will come alive with its inhabitants.

then I don't know what to tell you. Lots of family, fresh air, the ocean and ice cream, freshly picked veggies, animals, skating down the sidewalk and swinging on hammocks on a clear blue sky day!