Time to Regroup and Regather

Summer is almost over. School has started up once again here and the parks are emptying out as the regular routines become reestablished.

We've been home at least as long as we were gone this summer and I am just now feeling like I can get my act together. I'm planning and thinking and deciding on the tone for our next year. Fall has always been the beginning of my year. The human-established rhythm of school eclipses the natural rhythms of harvest and planting. The sun has less influence of my daily life than the "Back to School" banners currently covering every store.

Stella and Elise are about to turn one. They are no longer infant blobs but little people with personalities and some impressive skills. Maia is three, spelling her name, drawing pictures that look like her world and holding court with strangers we meet while out and about. John and I are about to celebrate our fifth year of marriage...and soon we'll celebrate our ninth year as a couple.

Big milestones. And high time for me to take some control and shape our days and evenings into the family life we all desire and deserve. Establishing a family routine is not always easy. We've gotten started with family dinner--but we've allowed a certain amount of fluidity in that. But it's there. It's a beginning.

Preschool is going to start up, and while I feel like we're losing some of our good friends to more traditional schools, we're gaining great new ones in our non-traditional setting. I'm excited about taking on more as a teacher to my children and working with a good group of new women friends.

I've been asked to do some writing for a collabortive blog. I'm going to write about food as nourishment for home--not just for body. I am very excited to take this on. I would like to make a commitment to post at least one thoughtful essay a week. Some day, I would like to start my own food blog. Perhaps...next fall.

For now, I'm getting my ducks in a row and watching the last bits of Summer pass into our beautiful Indian Summer (I always think of this time as pre-fall) and waiting for a touch of chill in the air to signal that my new year has begun.