Summer Has Taken Wing

Dear Readers,

Well, it's official-Summer's lease had too short a date! There's frost and snow in the forecast, so we've been scurrying to harvest as much as possible (How much arugula CAN a person eat before it goes bad?) before Master Jack (Frost) comes our way.

"Mr. Dignified" strikes the perfect pose.

We started reading On the Banks of Plum Creek lately, to correspond to our little plum harvest, and we all started feeling REALLY GUILTY about all of our material possessions in the process! Has this ever happened to you? The Ingalls had THREE books, TWO dresses, ONE nightgown, finally had their FIRST boughten broom, etc., etc. Suddenly my EIGHT slipcases of Victoria Magazine looked like sheer vanity! And that's only ONE kind of magazine! I think my life would be a lot easier if I could just get rid of everything and get back to the basics. Think of how easy it must've been for Ma to keep house! But when I think of the energy involved to GET back to the basics, and I want to climb under the covers and not come out till the Millenium! Help! Does anyone know Mary Poppins' email address?


But then, think about the culture that Ma Ingalls came from-her mother taught her everything she needed to know about housekeeping, and she lived in a society that embraced beautiful femininity-I have to get my mentoring from books and magazines! And there was no "Made in China Syndrome" to cope with back then. So, we will go on, onward and upward, forging ahead till some semblance of simplicity is achieved! No longer do I wish to be the Queen of Clutter, but I must not overwhelm myself, trying to tackle the whole situation at once. May I also remember that the messes are the result of five healthy, active children, and that I wouldn't want to change THAT for anything in the world!

Time to bring "Adam and Eve" inside!

Speaking of active children, here are some fun photos of fall for your enjoyment:

Frankie and Spanky, best pals

Sometimes!

"Where go?"

A "raw" pizza AnnaMarie made for dinner.

And plum puddin' for dessert!

"You mean it's my turn to wash the dishes?"

"This will require a little thought!"

"Okay, Frankie, where there's a will, there's a way!"

"Did you say 'Drink the soap', or 'Don't drink the soap'?"

"I guess it was 'Don't'!"

"When only one pair of woman's hands is ready to do a family's work, and that woman must have resting time, let her scrupulously forbear all labor that is for mere ornament, in dress and furnishings; let there be plain hems now; by and by these little girls will have grown up, and these boys will be old enough to help more, to bring in less mud, and to wear out less clothes, and then you can have fancy quilts and toilettes, and pillow-shams, and aprons, and underclothes. Only try now to spare the mother, to train up her children in helpfulness, kindness, courtesy, home-loving, and it will seem after a while that the problem has solved itself; and today's hinderers will be tomorrow's little helpers, and you can have what you now crave of pretty things, and are now by your commensense denied." ~Mrs. Julia McNair Wright, "The Complete Home"

Wishing you and yours a blessed day!

~Marqueta