a Michaelmas celebration

Between several days of relentless rain, the sun peeked out just in time on Sunday to shine warmth down on our community Michaelmas celebration.  The children were eager to test their courage and strength and immediately started a tug of war game.

There was jousting and balancing as the community members arrived,

and cute babies loitered about the lawn.

A sharing of harvest veggies began our celebration as many hands helped to make light work in the chopping of vegetables for our harvest stew.

We listened to a bread story.

And each received a scoop of the dough to form into a harvest bun.

The smaller children enjoyed making kites.

And many of the children chose capes to suit their needs.

Soon the children began to dress in costume to perform the play, Saint George and the Dragon.

{the dragon's lair}

{the castle, townfolk - working in the gardens, and narrators}

{the dragon, terrorizing the townfolk by stealing sheep}

{St. George fighting the dragon}

We ended our community celebration with a Michaelmas circle, a song of St. Michael and the Russian fairytale of the turnip.

{pulling the turnip}

Once our circle was complete, we blessed our meal and ate the harvest stew, dragon bread (completely orchestrated by the older children this year), and harvest loaves.

I so enjoy watching this celebration morph and grow, year after year, and I feel blessed that my children can participate and blossom in this magical community.

school camping trip

I just returned over the weekend from a trip to the NC mountains where I was honored to spend 3 days camping with the wonderful kids in Elizabeth's 6th grade class.  These kids are truly the sweetest, most creative, the most eager to dive into whatever is thrown at them, and they have the most joyful spirit while they work on everything from setting up tents to washing dishes to whittling sticks.  We played in frigid rivers, hiked to waterfalls, sketched, observed, whittled, sang (every song from this play) around a campfire, and generally had an amazing time.  I would take a trip with these kids every year if the opportunity was afforded me.  And I'm so grateful that Elizabeth has the opportunity to grow up around such amazing people.

{this moment} - his writing obsession

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.

her project

Elizabeth is obsessed with using her new pocketknife that she received for her school camping trip.  She'd been asking for one for a while and this trip made it a necessity. ;)  To give herself a bit of practice before the trip, she started whittling everything in sight.  This project has not been cleared for divulgence, but I have it on good authority that it will be a Christmas present for Finn. 

Yarn Along

For Yarn Along this week, I'm still working on Finn's blanket, slowly but surely.  I did take a hiatus last week and work on a few other things, but I try to get a few rows on Finn's blanket done each day.  I'm sure it will be finished with plenty of time to spare before Christmas.  I just started reading The Long Winter to the kids, at Philip's request.  All of the kids really enjoy the Little House books, but Philip and Finn seem particularly connected to them.  I've put off reading The Long Winter because of the harsh conditions, and starvation, they had to endure.  But now here we are and I think the kids will enjoy it despite the desperate times.

Here is one of my hiatus items.  Philip requested a storm trooper hat for Christmas and this really was a fairly quick knit.  One problem...the colorwork has very little give and made the hat too small.  I guess my nephew will be getting one as well. :)  And I'd better order more of this yarn soon!

I also knitted these hand mitts last week as well.  They will be keeping my hands warm over the next few nights as I travel with Elizabeth's 6th grade class on a tent camping trip to the NC mountains.  It promises to be quite an adventure, and my hands will be warm the whole time!

first autumn weekend

The first weekend of autumn was the quintessential celebration of the season.  We spent the weekends with the first fire of the season, roasting marshmallows and warming ourselves against the chill of the evening.  We also helped watched some friend brew beer, which was a fascinating experience.  I, looking through the lens of having done a bit of fermentation and cheese-making, observed some similarities and many differences.  The art and science of making ancient and artisanal foods is such an intriguing process to learn.  We wrapped up our weekend with a meal directly from our garden and other local harvest.  Every ingredient in our spaghetti squash with homemade sauce was from within 15 miles except the olive oil and salt. A lovely way to start the autumn season, I think.

{this moment} - preparing

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.