Though things are unrolling throughout the coming weeks, there is no doubt, in our little home anyway, that the new "fall schedule" begins today. The delicate dance of the September Shuffle, I am beginning to think of it as. For as these babes of mine get older (middle school age....really? Pray tell, how did that happen?), and their interest in the world beyond our doors increases, we find ourselves (the adults, anyway) looking at the calendar each night, dissecting it and devising a plan of attack for the day that follows. Dance classes (so many more of them than ever before), horseback riding, homeschool coop, singing, Spanish, gymnastics, and the list goes on and on.....with a farm to manage and a magazine to create and a website to run and have fun with...and oh my. My head spins at the beginning of it all, as we attempt to find our groove and our rhythm and our peace with all that our days hold as a family of seven curious, creative, and active people in the world. You're feeling it too, I have no doubt. Back to school, back to work, back to it all - that's the September Shuffle.
As I embrace all the exciting new things ahead for all of us this season, I gently remind myself that I needn't run at the apparent pace of the calendar. That in fact, my job as Mama is to do just the very opposite of that. To stay strong and steady, to breathe deeply, to walk slowly through these wild and full days. To be the anchor of home, as I can.
{Starting with number two, every other photography is by Ms. Adelaide.}
This weekend, we took a little trip to the shore. A last hoorah of summer before the calendar fills with 'everything else'. To celebrate a birthday (hello, 36, here we are!). To take a long, deep inhale before it all begins - to set the rhythm and the pace of the September Shuffle. For no matter how much there is going on, I do believe we can greet it all with calmness, gentleness, and grace. Or certainly try our very best, anyway. And when that fails (as sometimes it does), to get up the next day and try it again. That's what matters most of all.
Why, hello September. Shall we dance?