Autumn. Simplicity. Transition.

I can't decide what to write about today, but I wanted to get something out while I have the time. So I'll just write what is on my heart and mind:

* Autumn. I have never been so aware of seasonal shifts as I have been since having children. Maybe part of it was living in Texas and Hawaii, where the seasons were a bit more subtle. Here in Utah though, change is in the air and you can't miss it. Amelia is so into the changing seasons and I love that! She sees a yellow or orange leaf and exclaims, "It's Fall! See mama?" We are pulling our Fall books out for our seasonal book basket, we are back to eating warm oatmeal every morning for breakfast, going for multiple walks during the day, making plans for another trip to the apple orchard....just settling in to the season. It feels good, though I have to keep my negative dread of winter at bay.
We were on a "nature walk"* yesterday and Sam spied some chestnuts that were still in their prickly shells and he was so curious about them. We stopped and had a good look and then walked on home. In our mailbox were two books that I had ordered. One was this one and just look what is on the cover! Chestnut boys in their tree! I couldn't believe it. Such a wonderful, creative Fall story of the Acorn family and Mr. Squirrel and the Chestnut boys...we plopped down in the front yard and gobbled it up.

* Simplicity. Yep, my trip to Oregon is coming up next week! I feel like God has already been using the principles that I'll be learning about even before I get there. I felt like I was shedding skin as I let go of some things I had been holding onto for years at our last yard sale. I have seen the value of staying home and cultivating our little garden and our home. Because of it, we got to connect with two different neighbors that we have wanted to for so long. One was some Ethiopian refugee neighbors that live at the end of our street. We have chatted several times, but have never connected like we did when they found out we had a garden and came to see it. The visit ended with several teenagers, one woman, and about 6 kids sitting in our basement, the kids playing and the women looking at Joel's Ethiopia pictures! What a gift to connect to such a precious group of people.

* Transition. As the babes are off to pre-school for two mornings a week, and we are changing seasons, I just feel transition all around us. Tying into simplicity, I feel like this is a time of scaling down in both our schedule and our things. I am reading the book, "Simplicity Parenting" right now and it is AMAZING. I will write more about what I feel about my "homeschool preschool" goals are for this year, but mostly they revolve around establishing a rhythm for each season, reading often, exploring nature together, unstructured play, prayer and singing! Most of this can happen at home. This will take some transition as I feel like my mentality has always been, "Things are fussy, let's get out of here!" and I know that is partly because creating a home rhythm is hard. In what order do I clean, play, teach, read? I'll let you know how this goes:)

I'll leave you with this quote from Simplicity Parenting that I'm chewing on this morning, " The pace of our daily lives is increasingly misaligned with the pace of childhood."

Love to you this morning friends!
Jen

* I said "nature walk" because I gave Sam and Amelia both a magnifying glass and told them we were going on a nature walk, when my real motivation was to get to the corner store and buy a diet coke. Tee, hee:)