This Autumn at Our Home

 Fall has come and we have reveled in it.  The days have been filled with lingering and walking and playing and learning and gathering up as many outside days as we can before winter chases our favorite season away!

 The boys in the leaves on one of the warmer days. Bare feet.

 Cricket my always relaxed one.  And Badger wearing his hat and bandana that are always with him these days.  He's really into scarecrows for some reason and likes to dress up like one almost every day.

 The two littles.  Hen wasn't quite sure about being "in" the leaves and Owl was pretending to be a mummy?

 We spent a day a week or so back carving pumpkins and gathering seeds for next years crop.  We were blessed to be able to trade some of our Concords for pumpkins this year!  The boys were diligent in picking out the seeds for saving and roasting even though it was a gooey job.

This fall has been a season of change for us.  J has changed positions at the company he works for, which is a blessing to be sure, but also has kept him very busy!  I spent the most part of September and October feeling really quite lousy and after a time of the doctors not being able to figure out what was "wrong" we discovered I am expecting. 

I don't really know what to write about it.  I have written and rewritten this post trying to put my thoughts down on paper....for you...and myself.  But I find I just don't have much to say about it right now.  We feel like this is a blessing and that God has a plan for us and for this baby.  This doesn't mean that there aren't times of feeling totally overwhelmed and a whole myriad of other emotions!  But I find those emotions aren't even worthy of me taking note of them.

When I told J we were pregnant, I was nervous, and he just was so calm and said "It must be the plan for us!"   And I'm just sticking with that.  :)

And for the record I'm just 11 weeks. We had an ultrasound to confirm the dates and the baby looks great.  We got to see his little arms and legs moving around. Due date is May 21st which means l'il babe will probably arrive the first few days of June. (if he's anything like his brothers)  Here's hoping and praying that all goes well!

Visiting the Encampment

 Last weekend the historical society in our area hosted a Historical Day at one of the beautiful parks in our area.  And we got to go!  It was such a fun day.  There was a hatchet throw, which the boys got to participate in.  Here's Cricket learning how it's done.

 

 Give me a try already!  He did great, and after a few tries actually got the hatchet to stick into the wood slab.  Can you see the small white rectangle on the target?  That's a playing card.  The goal in the competition is to hit the card, or better yet slice a chunk off it!

 Badger's turn.

 He nailed it after just a few tries.

 And of course the big boys had to try to.  Here's papa measuring out the paces to know where to stand.  (7 paces away from the target)  J actually hit the card, but that was after breaking off part of the woodslab's stand with a wayward hatchet.  The trick apparently is not to throw it hard, but to take advantage of the natural spin of the hatchet. 

 There was also a blacksmith demonstration.  The boys have been interested in smithing for awhile now, and were anxious to see it up close.  We had the chance to talk with the blacksmith for quite awhile and the boys even got to hold the metal as it was being cooled in the water.

 There was also a large tee pee.  With a fire inside, and all different kinds of animal furs and hides.  The boys loved going inside and talking with the man about it.

 And games.  Here's J and Badger practicing the three legged race.

 My dad and Cricket joined them.  Such fun!

 And of course a potato sack race. :)

Such an awesome morning. :)  Followed by a very nice afternoon, where J and I actually got to get away for a little while and just walk our small town by ourselves. (thanks mom and dad)  We have so much fun when it's just the two of us, not that we don't have fun with the whole clan, and it's so refreshing to be away.  We both greeted our week this week with a little more peace and gentleness of spirit than usual.  And it seems we need it.  Two boys are sick, J and I are both recovering from long colds, and we still have so much work to finish on the house and garden before winter arrives.  I will just trust that God will continue to take care of us, and go about my days, my moments, with a quiet trust in my heart.  And I'll remember these fun days that get put in there with all the rest.  Life is really beautiful.