I love this time of year (…if only I could outlaw Halloween decorations). It’s the back-to-school energy, the perfect weather for long walks, the gorgeous views from a mountaintop, the sweaters, scarves, and boots. Last September we went to the Adirondack Hot Air Balloon Festival and homeschool day at the Adirondack Experience, both of which I’d love to do again. But back to this year… September was busy in the best possible way. Here are some of my favourites.
Read
The only book I finished was the audiobook of The Brothers K. It’s definitely not for everyone (I say this specifically because of the swearing and blasphemous language, which I don’t take lightly), but I thought it was so well-written and engaging. Here’s the Goodreads description: “It is a stunning work: a complex tapestry of family tensions, baseball, politics and religion, by turns hilariously funny and agonizingly sad. Highly inventive formally, the novel is mainly narrated by Kincaid Chance, the youngest son in a family of four boys and identical twin girls, the children of Hugh Chance, a discouraged minor-league ballplayer whose once-promising career was curtained by an industrial accident, and his wife Laura, an increasingly fanatical Seventh-Day Adventist. The plot traces the working-out of the family’s fate from the beginning of the Eisenhower years through the traumas of Vietnam.”
Do
Near the beginning of the month we made a weeklong trip to London, Ontario to visit my parents and siblings. It was bittersweet because my parents are moving from the house they’ve lived in for 32 years. We enjoyed our time there as much as we could, walking on the trails in the woods, meeting friends at the playground, playing in the creek, choosing books to take home with us. Of course, cousin time is always a blast and my mom fed us so well. We also squeezed in a bonfire after church, a visit with two great-aunts, some coffee dates, a visit to our childhood library branch, and trying out my brother’s backyard sauna. It was a very full week; on the way to Ontario we had stopped at the Jell-O Museum, a farm store, and Niagara Falls, and in the middle of the week we celebrated my 40th birthday!
For my birthday Andrew planned an elaborate day out for my sister and me with clues and maps leading us from place to place, including a store to buy a candle, the Tom Patterson Theatre in Stratford to hear an amazing talk about Tolkien, a sandwich shop, a tea store, a “chocolate trail” where you use your tickets at different stores/restaurants, extra shopping (I bought a woodcut of Canada geese in winter), a cemetery, an orchard, and a fancy French bakery. When we got back we had a supper of pasta with shrimp and meatballs, caesar salad, and brown butter bars with chocolate and nuts. It was so special and memorable that Andrew planned and executed all of that for me! (I also got some very nice presents: a coin purse embroidered with a chickadee, a hot mat appliqued with teapots, and a book of meditations by Charlotte Mason.)
As if that was not enough for one month, other September activities were meeting up with friends in Prescott as they were passing through on their way home from Nova Scotia, helping with a friend’s fall-themed baby shower, attending the first of a new monthly book/movie club for homeschool kids (The Wild Robot was the September pick), and hiking Mount Arab with our church. We received a last-minute invitation to a hayride and bonfire with hot apple cider and I won a Tim Horton’s gift card for guessing how many apples were in a bushel basket.
Eat
I made this chicken zucchini bake twice and I might do it again soon. We were given many local peaches and pears to eat and bake with.
Grow
Most of our tomatoes went rotten while we were away, but I collected a bunch more green beans and picked one zucchini. We’ve also begun harvesting the rainbow carrots. We finally grew more romaine and plan to eat some tonight (critters were digging up most of the greens I started mid-summer). I used the rest of the banana peppers in lentil sausage hotpot. The acidanthera by the front steps are blooming; I may dig up the corms to plant again next year.
Listen
I don’t think I’ve shared this Iron & Wine song before, but I’ve liked it for a long time.
Watch
I haven’t watched many movies lately, but I did enjoy The Thursday Murder Club with my husband, sister, and brother-in-law. I think the book(s) made me laugh more, however.
Ponder
When reading Vincent van Gogh’s letters I came across this sentence that reminded me of Charlotte Mason’s philosophy: ““I believe one gets more sound ideas when thoughts arise from direct contact with things than when one looks at them with the set purpose of finding certain facts in them.”
Meditate
“Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” – Matthew 3:8