Joyfully Weary

One of my favorite days of the year is Christmas Tree day. We prefer a real tree so we head out early in the morning to one of the local farms. For the the last several years we’ve been going to Abbey Farms ; it is by far the best place we’ve found in the Chicagoland area. Jeremy grew up in upstate New York so he has lots of quintessential memories of Christmas tree hunting. He was pretty bummed this year that their was no snow for our hunt - it was in 50’s! The kiddos and I, however, enjoyed the sunny weather. BabyZ is at such a fun age! His little mind is like a sponge. It’s such a joy to watch him observe and try to figure things out. He was so engaged all day - that night he had one of his best sleeps yet!   The older boys wanted to try and cut the tree down themselves, but still needed some assistance from Dad. I adore the picture above of Jer calmly coaching Big Buddy as BabyZ crawls all over him - he is such a patient wonderful dad!...

One of the read-aloud books we've enjoyed this fall is Swallows and Amazons . This was a really fun book to introduce to the kiddos, because it was one of Jeremy's favorites as a child. It ignited his love for seas and sailing. The book is centered around the four older Walker children: John, Susan Titty, and Roger. They are on vacation with their mother in the Lake District of England. There is a sailboat (the Swallow) at their cottage; after getting permission from their father, and swearing not to be duffers, they set sail to deserted tiny island to camp. While on the island they meet a group of sailing sisters - the Blacketts, owners of the Amazon. They pair up with them to wage war against Captain Flint - the Blacketts' reclusive uncle. The book is full of exploring, discovery, and imaginative play. Most of the adventure surrounds the Walkers and the Blacketts having a capture-the-boat-contest to see who should be commander of their fleet. There is also suspen...

It's probably a little late to be sharing these photos, but we had so much fun dressing up as Harry Potter characters for Halloween that I'm going to do it anyways. I can't believe it's already the middle of November! I make so many plans to visit this place...taking pictures and jotting down ideas of what I'd like to share, but time flies by and then the pictures and ideas seem old. Right now family and homeschooling can be all consuming some days. It's a season and one I'm trying to savor and not fight against. As much as I preach to myself, I still struggle to enjoy the moment instead of focusing on all the possible to-dos and what-ifs.  Anyways, back to costumes. This was the first year were everyone dressed up around the same theme. I loved it, and have been throwing out more theme ideas for next year. Nobody seems to be biting though. Harry Potter is a story we all enjoy, and it was easy to find characters that we all wanted to be.   Jeremy wen...