Oh, sweet traditions. Like apple picking! I've come to rely on this simple seasonal event as a sign that summer is winding down. Each year, we head to the same orchard to gather as many apples as I can before my little ones wear out. This year, on a weekday morning early in the season we had the beautiful spot atop a hill all to ourselves, and the picking was grand. Despite the easy picking, and being properly fueled up by fresh and homemade pumpkin donuts, the usual events I've also come to rely upon transpired ~ Calvin found himself a sweet spot to hang out and eat; Ezra distractedly picked a few apples (all of them rotten, by the way), and then joined his brother for a 'break'; Adelaide spent more time scolding her brothers for not picking apples than actually picking herself; and Harper managed to sneak away to a quiet spot to eat what he could (seen the cover of The Rhythm of Family? He's been doing it since he could sit up!). This year, Annabel cooed happily, and plotted her place in the mix of things, which we'll surely discover by the next end-of-summer visit to the orchard.
Tradition.
Once home - with four bushel of apples - the annual work of eating and preserving began. With twenty quarts of applesauce on the shelves, I've still a ways to go. Oh, but the smell of a gigantic pot of applesauce cooking on the stovetop all day long! It's heaven, I do declare. Different than the canning of the hot, hot summer months when it's hard to be in the kitchen with a hot stove....the applesauce brewing and filling up the kitchen is a warm and welcome breath from the September breeze blowing outside while we work in the garden, and stack the winter's wood.
Tradition.
{Annabel's gorgeous dress was knit by the lovely waldorf mama. You can find her notes on the dress here.}
And did I mention the photos-in-the-orchard? Every year there, I find myself thinking ahead to holiday cards and trying to snap a photo of all of the kiddos. And every year, it's a futile attempt that ends in a pile of silliness and giggles. And well, there's three more months till I really need to be get a holiday card photo, and so I just laugh right along with this silly bunch I call my people. And do my very best to take a snapshot in my mind of these moments of time, moments in life, that we're sharing together.
Tradition.
