Apple Orchard

I forgot to mention. Last Monday before the new work and school schedule started we were blessed to visit Aaron's Advisor Anne Currier's house to pick up some clay and to walk the property and pick apples! It was the first sunny morning in almost a week, appropriately brisk and cool, so we layered up and went! The property was gorgeous and so picturesque with the quilt of fall colors gracing the rolling hills. The kids were thrilled to eat the apples they picked right then! Reese enjoyed romping around ahead of us, through the tall grass and around the pond. We were thinking of all the commercial places you can go pick apples and pumpkins, and here we were in a friend's backyard having this beautiful experience with the kids, simple and good ( and even better than going somewhere commercial). Seems we are opting for the "simple" alot more these days when it comes to traditions and events.... practical and less gifts (no gifts on holidays other than Christmas and birthday), small family birthday parties, less toys and clothes in our house overall, just simple. The kids dont miss it and get more of the actual experience because the focus isnt on getting treats, toys, and souvenirs for every little occasion. Its more about getting the parents to embrace this and it took me a while to realize the value of having less, until I actually did have less and saw how FREE it made me feel!

So our morning was from somewhere magical and its a beautiful moment that I will remember always. Its the kind of memory that while you are making it, you wish you could make it last for hours or even days. I knew it was going to be over before I could soak it all in, and etch in my memory how the light was streaming through the golden leaves onto the foreheads of my angelic children. Hearing them munching apples as we stood still in the wet, tall grass feeling as if we were the only ones in the world. Brisk wind blowing against our pink noses, while birds sang their fresh morning songs. Knox was heavy on my hip as I followed Aaron to find the perfect spot for a picture to remember our beautiful morning. I wanted to live in that moment, and somehow freezing my children in time so they would grow a minute older. Seems like everything is going so fast, and I need more time to just focus and soak in where we are. I keep looking to the time where we will be settled in a home, and somehow feel like that will be the beginning of our family. But no, its NOW. The moments I am looking forward to are what I am experiencing everyday, its just happening without my knowing so often. I cant savor enough these days, these early years with my kids and my husband. The rich moments are now and not in the future. When I am settled in my designed and completed home, one day, with quiet surrounding me because the kids are in school, seeing a clean house and a full pantry, with security of a good job and good pay, I KNOW i will long and pine for these years, when my babies were young, my house was a wreck, we were on food stamps and medicare, and had small jobs with little pay, and only plans for a year at a time. I will want the little voices, the messy house from hours of play and cuddles, the sweet free time together before obligations and school schedules fill up our lives. To have everything ahead of you and not behind is thrilling, so many possibilities and potential. But as I move ahead, I hope to savor every minute, so that when I am looking behind, I see sweet memories and feel contentment of having lived intentionally and fully.