born imaginative.

October

Right now we are experiencing less than pleasant weather with a Nor' Easter....makes our October picnic days feel like forever ago. Glad we took advantage of so many nice days in October.

Today will not be a picnic day, but we will curl up by the fire for some books, which is pretty fantastic too.

New Barn Roof

Here it is raining buckets in Maine and it is NOT RAINING IN OUR BARN NOW. I cannot even begin to tell you what a relief that is!

7:30 am

Mid morning

Problems

Of course my kids needed to 'help'. They were so kind, letting them be involved.

Solutions

Done by dinner.

I totally fed the crew. Wonderful crew from Ecuador. We didn't speak the same language verbally, but we all understand the language of homemade warm food on a chilly fall day.

Adrian painted this for them.

And now our barn is not leaking. Next up, we need foundation help. Recommendations?!

Frost is coming

Sill working on making lemonade out of lemons...unfortunately today shot me more lemons than lemonades. Perhaps tomorrow will be my reset?

Until then, I am finding a few gems so my memories of today are sweeter.

1) Frost is coming. I brought in a TON of flowers.

2) I also picked what is likely my last quart and a half of raspberries. Plus there are bowls upon bowls upon bowls of tomatoes. And more basil than we would probably eat in a decade. But it's in.

3) The October afternoon sun is delightful.

May tomorrow be a day with cups brimming with sweet lemonade!

Reset

Some days things are hard. Some weeks things are hard.

Here's to hoping and praying the weekend will be a marvelous reset.

When we bought this house, it had a cast iron dinner bell outside. It was taken off when we did some replacements of rotted parts of our mudroom years ago. Ever since, I have not been able to find it. I looked in the barn, garage, cellar way, cellar. No one remembered moving it. No one knew where it went. I honestly had assumed it was accidentally thrown away. Today I just so happened to move a piece of wood in the woodshed and lo and behold, I found it!!! I am over the moon!!! I cleaned it up and am planning a fresh coat of paint. It was a bit more of a search, but I also found the cast iron stick to ding it with (not picture). All was located and is ready to use.

To be honest, life as of late has had numerous trials. The work of the mama of the house is one that is forever going, always trying and struggling to not grow weary. It seems three steps ahead and maybe five steps back lately. Will I ever complete anything? Am I doing the right things? Will the 'to do' list ever get shorter? How can I even do the things I ought to do for me? Is my best enough? I'd like to say this isn't my internal dialogue, but it is. It's hard to keep the energy when it feels like life is a treadmill going a few clicks too fast and the dial to turn down the speed is missing.

The turning up of the dinner bell came at a time when my self doubting was rambling on. It made me stop in my tracks and turn the tide. The dinner bell is a story of hope. Something I had lost was to be found. Something missing was located. The problem worked itself out. It was right here, all these years under my nose. Certainly not the timeline I expected, but it all worked out in the end.

Sometimes the day to day overwhelms. Planting one seed at a time, awaiting the harvest is tiring work that requires patience. I have faith the harvest will be grand. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galations 6:9).

Book buddies

On one of the last warm days, I found little Miss Anna-Kate enjoying a good book with her fave book buddy.

Getaway last day

Our last day of adventure had clear sky and nice weather. A beautiful fall day.

Once we got back to camp, my husband took the kids to the water for an hour and a half. I read on the porch. A perfect afternoon.

The nice part of having a cabin meant that I could cook real meals. Some I prepped at home and some I made there. Pictured below: Chili, bread, applesauce, all homemade. The applesauce was from the apple tree on the property. (They said take all you want, my kids loaded up.)