September 1, 2021

 I love September!  It's one of my favorite months!  It's when the hot days of summer are over yet it's still warm in the afternoon and cooler in the evenings.  It's the month where the grass is so green, the skies are so blue and the garden thrives!  School is under way and we are back to the school schedule routines.  With the exception that Austin is still having morning tears about school but he's trying to be brave and is getting used to every day in school.  Matthew is the new bus driver for our clan!  He drives us to school each morning.  September is also the month where we are introduced to autumn!  The smells of pumpkin, warm apples and cinnamon are just wonderful!  The tastes of hot cider and pumpkin lattes are also just wonderful!  I love that we can wear summer clothes during the day and then layers at evening events!  Football begins!  Golf happens.  I really love this month!!!!!

The first day of September was doing school at home.  Hurricane Ida is roaring and bringing us flooding rains and tornado warnings.  School got canceled and we are doing it virtual today.

It went well!  I'm reminded again how much I appreciate our teacher and the way they teach is still best!  While the kids worked on school, I baked my first loaves of "Country Sourdough".

I printed out my September Bible Reading plan and I love this "read through the Bible in a year" plan!

I made a greenhouse stop yesterday before these rain come and planted some fall foods!  For the first time, I planted celery!

And the zinnias are so pretty right now!

The cosmos are taller than me!  They have yet to bloom!

These "pea size" tomatoes are loaded!

I planted some kale and spinach.

I wanted to buy some ornamental peppers but just not quite ready for that kind of fall decor!

The fennel is growing like crazy!  Still not sure why it grows so tall and pretty without a nice big bulb because it's the bulb that really tasty!  Ashlyn and I love to eat the greens to though!  So good for your gut!

The cosmos are taller than me!

Buttercrunch, Ruby and a red leaf lettuce!  

Still picking tomatoes from the garden.

We are still picking green beans, peppers and cucumbers but the garden is slowing down.  It's been a good year so far!

Austin is struggling school mornings.  He wakes up crying but most days he was over it and on his merry way when we got to school.  He was like this last year too but now it's school every day.  Sometimes changes and adjustments take time.  When I went to PTF the other night, this was cute to read in his journal.  So far the word MOM is in every page.  I think he may miss me a bit!  He's so cute!

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We didn't get to the ocean this summer, yet.  Maybe September will be nice enough to go but we did take a Sunday afternoon drive down to Northeast Maryland after Lena invited us to meet down there!  The kids played at a park and then swam by the bay!  It was relaxing and the seafood soup afterwards was delicious!!!!!  

Love these kids with all my heart!

And these two girls are so sweet!

Layered soup ~ tomato bisque and then topped with crab soup!  So good!

And of the course the man of my dreams!!!!

Summer is coming to a close and I'm ready for fall!  

We have a long weekend ahead of us and I love, love that we can be lazy and hang out with family!!!!

Stay safe!  Stay dry!  It's really putting it down outside right now with Hurricane Ida bringing us inches of rain!

PS. We started a family night!  Wednesday nights I make dinner for everyone, including Hadassah and Jeremiah!  Ritchie and Liz are invited to join when they want to!  We look forward to this every week and tonight we are going to feast on roast, potatoes and carrots with warm apple crisp for dessert!

First week of school down!

 

We already have one week of school complete.  Here's the morning crew.  Plus, Matthew is driving us in the morning but this morning, he left early to grab some breakfast before school with his friends.

It all looks good on this photo but the truth is a certain someone is struggling with being in school.  Austin had a struggle last year and I totally expected some grief from him again beginning first grade.  All my first graders had that two weeks in and when they realize they have to keep up with this, it's not always fun and easy!  Austin would much rather be playing than sitting at a desk doing school papers but he will adjust and I can't wait to watch him learn so much!  To add to the tears of returning back to school, we caught the cough bug!  I hate germs and we caught the cough.  Austin was home two days because of so much coughing.  That didn't seem to help matters any when he had to go back to school.  I'm hearing many others are dealing with sickness or back to school blues too.  Chin up kiddos!!!!  Its going to be a great year!!!    

These two ... they seem to both like to make funny faces!  Love them!!!!

Poor Mindy dear ... she fell a few weeks ago and broke two bones in her leg.  She is laid up and can't do much at all on her own.  She went from the hospital to her parents house because she needed 24/7 care.  Now she's back in their home and trying to make the best of it!  We are helping out when we can and I have committed to helping Fridays!  To watch baby Skylar is going well and packing the kids lunches is easy for me to do!

Get well Mindy!

It's just the beginning of my favorite season ... the very beginning of fall!  You can start to feel it in the air at night and the daylight is cutting short each evening.  I grabbed some soup at Weis the other day and it tasted so yummy!  I'm ready for the smells and tastes of fall!

Clarita invited all the church ladies over to their farm for a ladies dinner.  She made tomato pies and we added dishes to share!  The night was fun and pretty and we laughed so much!  A community of Christian ladies and eat and chat with is such a blessing!  We have a great church of fun ladies!

We started something that we hope will continue for many years! We stole the idea from the Petersheim's and love it!  Back when we had shut down, Jeremiah's family said they wanted everyone to come to their house for "family night".  They played games, ate dinner together and just gathered!  Hadassah and Jeremiah joined the fun and they still do this!  Mike and I loved this idea and now that Hadassah and Jeremiah are married and we don't see Hadassah as much anymore, we chose Wednesday nights for our "family night"!!!  I hope this is something we do for many years!

Hadassah and Jeremiah came for supper and the sixteen year old decided he is still going to go to the fair with friends.  After dinner, Mike and the kids went out back and shot some guns.  Not my thing but I watched.  Guns scare me too much to shot 'for fun'.  The night was fun just being together as a family!

We made a new purchase!!!!  Our goal for the Yukon was to make it last until Matthew turns sixteen.  Sometimes when you make goals like these, it's amazing how they hold out!  We bought the Yukon eight years ago and at that time it seemed funny to say when Matthew starts to drive, then we will upgrade but it happened!  We traded the 2008 Yukon in for a 2021 Audi.  It's not brand new but new for us and we love it!  When Mike and I went to test drive it yesterday, I didn't realize that we would drive off with it and say goodbye to the Yukon!  But we did!  We cleaned our things out of the Yukon and while they had paper work finished up and we grabbed our first fall drinks from Starbucks and by then we signed the papers and drove off!  

Good bye old .... hello new!

And now today, we personalize the new Audi and babysit this precious darling!  Look how dear Skylar is!  Such a fun baby to care for while her momma takes care of her broken leg!  I said it before and will claim it for forever ... mom's should never get sick or get hurt!  

Its the weekend!  One week of school is finished up already!  The weather is still so hot outside but the fall drinks are being added to coffee shops and I love that!  August is closing and my favorite month is just around the corner!  Our coughs are under control by now and it feels good to be on the mend of that short sickness!  We have new wheels to drive this weekend and life is so rich and full with women around me that love the Lord and care for each other!  Family means the world to me and I AM SO BLESSED!

Happy weekend!

School has begun!

 It's true!  We are back in session with school at Linville Hill!  August 18 seems super early to start up school and we knew we wouldn't be ready any day sooner!  But here we are getting up early, packing lunches again and driving the kids to school.  It's a new year, with new teachers, making new friends and getting back to a school routine.  Once we get started, I'm usually all about it!

This will be a new chapter for in my life.  With all the kids in school EVERY DAY, ALL DAY, I'm home alone.  I hope to use my time wisely and do more visits to my 84 year old grandma, be more intentional to bless others around me and enjoy the quieter season of life.  So far, my first day at "home alone" is spent cleaning the house and going room by room and getting things back in place after the summer vacation.

If you want fun photos, tell your kids to show their teeth!!!  Ashlyn and Austin did a great job getting up and at it the first day of school!  There were nerves, a few tears from a certain little man and getting out the door at 8 AM!  Ashlyn is excited for fifth grade!  She's growing into a little lady and likes school.  She had the butterflies and only ate one bite of toast and called that her breakfast!  Austin was asked a lot if he's ready for school and he always answered with a yes.  But right after I woke him up, he had tears.  Knowing that school with be extra days away from his momma made him sad.  But, as usual, the minute he was up and back into the school morning routine, he was happy to go off to meet his first grade teacher!  I love these kids SO MUCH and can't wait to watch them grow and learn!

Wow, count it a miracle that the Junior Boy gave me a second to snap a picture and call it good enough!  :))). Matthew was out the door extra early for school because some the kids in his class said they were meeting at Wawa for breakfast!  I promise we never did anything of that sort when I was in high school!  Matthew's class does a lot of things together!  They gather once a week for Bible Study at the Chapples home.  Often, they are together another night doing something!  Last week, he came home from work and said he invited some people over from his class.  Is that fine?  Of course!  But then he went on to say that they were going to do a cooking night and wanted to use my kitchen!  OH MY!!!!  Now that was a different kind of yes!  The kids came and they cooked up a storm in the basement kitchen and made brussel sprouts, potatoes and had the whole house smelling like a fryer!  They had a blast though and cleaned up so well before they all went home!

High school is different than elementary.  Matthew plays golf in the fall and has already begun with practices and after school golf games.  He wants to get driving hours in, so he is driving the school kids (along with me) to high school and then he hoppes out and I take the other scholars over to Main Campus.  It works!  Matthew did a great job at his summer job working for his dad and will that but here's to a good start and much learning to take place!

Off we go!

One thing that I love that Linville does is the principles off the school meet and greet the kids as they enter into the school building!  They do this every day of the school term!  It's fun to see the kids smile and give hugs!

Austin goes one direction and Ashlyn goes the other! Both to find their new rooms and meet their teachers!

School was only a half day and when I picked them back up, this was how he opened the door!  Must have been a good time!

We drove off and went to Chickfila with Lena and her boys for lunch!  This was such a fun start to a good year of learning!

I just can't express how grateful we are to have a Christian School to send our children to to learn, hear about God, pray and grow academically and spiritually!  I saw this prayer on Pinterest and had Ashlyn pray it on the way to their first school day!  I love it and bless all the teachers as they teach, inspire and influence the children in their classrooms!

School for 2021/22 is off to a great start!