Happy Michaelmas Day!

Today we celebrated the Feast of Saints Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel, Archangels. St. Michael is the patron of our homeschool, St. Michael the Archangel Homeschool. Having read a Bible story about each archangel earlier in the week, we made a special angel food cake for dessert. We prayed the St. Michael Prayer, then discussed what each archangel's name means, and what we had learned about them while we enjoyed our cake.

Apple Picking Time

Yesterday we joined our friends, the Wyss family, at a local orchard for some apple fun. At first, the littler ones had trouble finding any apples low enough to pick, but then enjoyed using the long apple pickers. We had a little trouble identifying some
of the varieties we ended up with, but think we came away with Empire (the kids said they taste like bananas), Golden Delicious (that one we're sure of, at least), Northern Spy (possibly), and Granny Smith (pretty sure about that one, too).



Half the fun was sampling the different varieties, as Sam is doing here.







Patrick peruses the shelves of honey while he holds his chosen Indian corn. The little store at the orchard also sold cider, honey, pumpkins, etc. We bought some of the local honey with the comb. The boys were fascinated that the honeycomb was edible.


Sam was eager to use some of our apple as table decoration. They do look pretty in a wooden bowl.

How could twenty years go by so fast?!?!

Twenty years ago today, I married my best friend. Yes, I know that sounds corny and cliche, but it's oh so true.




I was a lot lighter twenty years and five kids ago.

Here's to many, many more happy years together!

Check out...

a wonderful Autumn post on Elizabeth Foss's blog, Real Learning in the Heart of My Home. I'm so impressed by the myriad ways homeschoolers celebrate the Liturgical Year. Especially when there are so many feasts so close together, like in the next two months. Thanks, Elizabeth, for sharing your celebrations with all of us.

My Daughter's Buying Her Own Clothes

and I'm not sure if I should jump for joy, or be really sad. So I'm doing a little of both. MJ  is 13, and just now really starting to get interested in clothes. She is tall for her age, and finding decent (meaning modest) clothes for her has been r-e-a-l-l-y
difficult in recent years. So I guess I'm glad she is finding good clothes, and Jim is so happy that she is paying for them herself.
It's just weird going into the teen stores with her, instead of the girls' department at J.C. Penney. *sigh*.

So Happy It's September!

For some reason, I'm really ready for Autumn to arrive. The coming of September has caused a debate in our household, though, over When Fall Really Begins. Yes, I know, technically, the first day of Autumn in September 23rd, but I never considered
September to be part of summer. Let's face it, in our culture, Labor Day is usually thought of as the last day of summer. That doesn't seem quite right, either, but for our purposes, I have always called September the first month of Autumn. Tiger insists that September 1 was the first day of Autumn, but my daughter M.K is holding onto summer as long as possible. She won't admit to Fall's advent until, oh, probably the first of October. Anyway, when we did our annual Labor Day Weekend shopping yesterday, I broke down and bought some Yankee Candles. It's a little early yet, but I can't wait to fill the house with the aromas of Farmhouse Apple, Autumn Wreath, and Spiced Pumpkin (saving that one for October).
I'm enjoying reading Dawn's Labor Day post from last year,A Harvest of Autumn Delights. Delights. It's really getting me thinking about what defines the beauty and pleasure of Autumn for our family. For Jim, it's Notre Dame football all the way! The kids like the cooler weather, looking forward to Halloween and Thanksgiving, and we all enjoy a trip to Hilger's Fall Festival.
Before that, though, is the Johnny Appleseed Festival, and this year I hope we will get to the Fall Harvest Festival
at Salomon Farm. I'm also planning to see if we can't get to an apple orchard this month for apple picking and cider buying. That's a lot to look forward to!