Apple Picking Time

 

We were grateful to be headed out to Darren's boss' land again this year to pick apples from his small orchard. We had a great afternoon for it! We all took turns picking apples from the low branches and climbing the trees to pick the apples that were higher up with a few breaks to try out the produce. Darren did most of the work, but everybody helped pick apples and haul the full buckets back to the van. I don't know how many apples we picked, but we filled up two coolers, two buckets and a bin. It was great to spend a sunny afternoon together surrounded by the beautiful countryside. This was also a great wrap-up activity to our Autumn & Apples homeschool unit! Over the upcoming weeks, I will can most of the apples (eg. applesauce, applesmash, apple butter, etc.). The kids have also requested that we make an apple pie!

 

Kyrie checking out a bird's nest.

Oktoberfest 2012

 

This was our second year volunteering at Oktoberfest as representatives of the Ohio German Language School. We had a beautiful, sunny afternoon at the Fest- and since we knew what to expect after last year things all went very smoothly. Darren took the kids to go get food while I helped man the OGLS game booth "Wild Vogels." The game is located in the Kinderplatz, and we saw a lot of kids try their best bird launching skills (a la Angry Birds). This gave us an opportunity to speak to families who might be interested in attending OGLS. Soon enough, Darren made his way over with the kiddos and some delicious German fare. The whole family helped run the game for a while, and then I took the kids around to some of the other Kinderplatz activities: crafts, shows, jumpies, pedal train, etc. When Darren was done with our shift at the game booth, we wandered the merchant area and then headed back to the Kinderplatz for a few more activities before heading home. It was a wonderful family afternoon together!

 

The Kinder waiting in line and all decked out in their German duds!

I love this photo!

Degen working the pedal train!

Kyrie in the craft tent, making spin art!

Handsome boys!

This juggling show is one of two shows in the Kinderplatz. Below you can see Degen's worried, little face as he watches the juggler on the unicycle!

The juggler told the kids that he would need some of them to catch him, so a bunch of them ran up ready for the task, including Kyrie! (Of course, no catching was required.)

The other show in the Kinderplatz was a classic Punch & Judy show. P&J is 350 years old, and it was amazing to see how something so simple still delighted so many kids & adults. Kyrie LOVED this show, and we saw it twice!

Kyrie just thought the Punch & Judy show was the BEST! The only souvenir we brought home was some P&J coloring posters that she just had to have!

LOVE my babies!

Kids at the Park

 

These are just a few pics of the kids that I took at a park. We have a had a good (& busy) fall- I am always amazed at how quickly we pass from season to season when I know good & well that when I was a kid an hour took forever to pass by. We are official homeschoolers this year, and everything is going well. I have to keep a really tight schedule so that we have enough time each day to get to lessons and our regular activities (plus find time to keep the house clean and prepare meals). I took Kyrie up to the local elementary school last week for some standardized testing. Everyone at the school was really nice, and she did well. We continue to work on phonics skills and sight words. She has really improved her counting, which was a little lacking even though she has been awesome with addition, subtraction and multiplication.

 

 

Degen is working on cutting and basic skills like counting, shapes & colors. I work with him while Kyrie does her independent work. This boy can be an absolute mess. He mostly thinks that he is the boss of things, and when you reprimand him he will either break down into tears or turn right around and try to reprimand you back. Thankfully, his big personality has not been an issue for his teachers & coaches. I have talked to a few other moms who have the girl-boy combo and say that they have experienced the same thing.

 

Kittens: Meet Samson & Delilah

Samson, Day 1

 

It has been entirely too long since I last blogged, but I have had my hands full with two of the cutest (& most rascally) kittens ever! At the beginning of September, we went to the Shekinah Festival (a country school fair) with some friends. In the "petting zoo," we spotted two kittens that were the exact copy to our 11-year old cats Brutus & Diva. We decided that if both of the kittens were still unadopted by the end of the day, we would ask to have them. Sure enough, they were there and we took home two tiny kitties. The tiger-cat is the boy who we named Samson. The gray girl is Delilah. We would find out at the vet's office the next week that they were only about 3 weeks old when we brought them home. We have had Sam & Lilah for about a month now and they have really grown. (Check out the picture below taken their first day home and compare it to the last photo on this post!)

 

Compare this photo with the last photo.

 

Kyrie with Lilah.

Stealing a moment with Brutus. None of the adult cats have been overly pleased with the kittens' presence. Of course, the kittens just want to be with them all the time.

It is amazing to see how much Samson has grown in just a few weeks!

In Sickness & In Health

 

 

Dear Darren,

 

This year, a day before our tenth wedding anniversary, I will watch as you are wheeled into surgery to remove a spot of skin cancer, a melanoma. I will anxiously wait for the surgery to be completed and anxiously wait some more for the results of the lymph node biopsy, which will tell us if the cancer has spread. So much anxiety and sadness juxtaposed with celebrating a day that held so much joy. If this is not life, if this is not marriage, then I do not know what is.

Amid so much good and so many blessings in all our years together, we would be remiss not to mention the struggles. From the petty and every day to the significant and long-lasting. From the bad luck that comes without fault of our own to the personal weaknesses that keep us making the same mistakes again and again.

Though at times we may wish to do so, we cannot take away the bad times without also removing the lessons we have learned and the strength that we have gained from our shared struggles. How can we recognize ease without the experience of hardship? It is not easy to be surrounded by the muck of life and smile at your spouse, but we have managed it a few times. Lucky for us that life is always giving us plenty of opportunities to practice. Both of us taking turns at being strong, being positive and keeping an eye on the goal. We haven't always gotten there without complaint or injury, without tears or panic, but we have always gotten there together.  

Hands down you are the absolute best at forgiving me of my mistakes. I cannot tell you how much it means to me to have no fear when I have to call and tell you that I hit your car with my car or spent $500 on the wrong sized tile (which we can't return) or accidentally broke our son's arm at gymnastics...I could keep going with that list. But each and every time, you have put my heart at ease. That is more gift than I often feel I deserve, especially when I have been so willing to show you my annoyance at some of the most insignificant of errors. For that, I apologize. Your strength in crises (big, small, real or imagined) and your willingness to withhold judgment has helped to create for us bridges that help us to cross more easily from hardship to acceptance and resolution. These bridges altogether have helped create the bulwark of our love and our relationship and established the foundation for our family's life.

So, here we are...and sometimes (but rarely) it all feels so good and so easy, but a lot of the time it feels messy and exhausting and difficult. Good-bad, poor-rich, sickness-health...so, here I stand (tired & worried) and give thanks for sunny vacations & children with the flu, freshly bathed babies & stained rugs, walking hand-in-hand & the argument that comes at the end of a bad day, tired muscles from too much work (still not completed) & having you in my life for the past 10 years and every day until forever. And I will count us blessed to have known both sides of life and more blessed to have known them together.

I love you, Darren.