Giving Thanks

I have been away from this space for longer that I had hoped, but life takes us on it's own adventures. Not that we have been up to much, but for us to be present in this place, present with the boys, present with the business, many things have been set aside. Many things I am slowly bringing back to my daily rhythm.

We had a lovely thanksgiving with friends and family. All of whom I am so grateful for. Also though are the friends who are no longer in our daily lives. Oh how I miss them and am so thankful for all of their amazing souls. Mamas, crafters, geniuses, awesome human beings that inspire me and daily motivate me to be a better person and for us to live the life we are meant to live.

I feel like we are hitting the true adjustment to our move. It no longer seems just like summer vacation when we see people less, now it is real. We are mostly alone searching for our way in a new place. While we are alone, we are happy, though the natural yearning for companionship other than family seems to be effecting some of us more than others.

We were thrilled to have so many people in our home for a feast. Thirty four pounds of turkey, and so much food, and all these people filled our hearts and home with the companionship we have been missing and now are willing to get out into the world again and seek.

And crafting came back too! While the turkey roasted, pies baked and the last minute details were prepared, I was able to whip up this needle felted garland from an old already felted scarf. I love needle felting!

Morning Adventure

We have been really slow to get out of the house these days. But these perfect fall, incredibly beautiful days are running out (rain the rest of the week) so I needed to get us out today and I am so glad that we found what we were looking for, a beautiful place close to home, sand, water, woods, trees and a great view.
Directly across from Ferry Bluff Natural Area, I could see these sandbars and knew that it would be an amazing place
The boys instantly got wet, which I struggled with too much this morning... but I would like to forget about my yelling about running through huge puddles in my crazy attempt to keep their shoes dry. I did successfully prevent Asher from swimming out to the other sand bar...
They got wet, dug in the sand. I enjoyed the view and explored the sand.
And thought about what a wonderful, amazing place this was.
We walked down river a bit.
And I came to the realization that this place is loved by a lot of people.
Mostly naked people. Which I really don't have a problem with, I just want to still be able to come here in the summer! I have known for over a decade now about the Mazo Beach, my friend parents knew of Mazomanie because of the nude beach, in fact most people bring that up when you tell them where you live. I just didn't think we would stumble upon it in such a manner, as me asking a man who was doing trail work on behalf of the Badger Naturist group if there were family volunteering opportunities to take care of the natural area. And he asked me if I knew where I was... which led to me finding out.
But, we climbed trees, ran and had a great morning... though I still need to deal with all of the sand that I stripped off my children.
and we will for sure be back.

This Seasons Garlands

I do so love things strung up on my windows, and pinecones are a natural fit for fall and winter decorations and are built for stringing up together. I think in the next month we will be making these again.

For these garlands all you need are pine cones and a roll of thread, I used an old sewing machine color that I most likely won't sew with, it is off brown, didn't know that was a color, but it is. This brown blended in the with pine cones which was nice. All I did was follow the natural spiral of the cone to wrap the string around one and a half times then moved on to the next.

I love the texture of pine cones and the effect you get when piling them on top of one another, the bigger pattern of the whole is pretty phenomenal... so we kept a bowl to stare at.

Happy Fall!

Ferry Bluff State Natural Area

We really have landed ourselves somewhere very special, which I guess was kind of the point in moving, we wanted our kids to be able to run and explore a creek close to their home, to grow up with a sense of awe to bodies of water, land shaped by a river, rises in the earths surface. A respect for the land that is hard to get in an area of the planet where so much of it's spaces have been made worse by human interaction.

With the help of a new friend, we found ourselves at Ferry Bluff, which just happens to be right across the river from the natural area closest to our home, Mazomanie Bottomlands. It was awesome to climb up on that bluff look across at the sandbars (I love sandbars!) and think of all the adventures to come for us on the banks of this river. To see kingfishers, bald eagles and sandhill cranes all so close to this place we now call home, witness the nocturnal activity of the beavers as we explore, it all makes the heartache of leaving a place that is familiar a bit more bearable.

To let my boys just play, thought staying out of the water isn't their best skill, was refreshing. They quickly took to being beavers with their new friends. Hauling branches into the river to float downstream. Gnawing branches (sometimes too literally), packing sand into their lodge, putting food stores by for winter... the natural world is amazing as is role playing with your kids.

I also felt on this day that River started to understand a bit of his name. We didn't have river in our vocabulary much, but now River lives by a river and will be able to explore his namesake. I don't know what he thinks of this revelation, but he knows that his name is something we call something else and it isn't another boy like Big Asher. It is all spinning in there.

Blue Mound State Park

There are so many parks around us to explore! We have a great little park across the street with a wonderful creek to explore and fields behind it which we have yet to really explore and then the map is loaded with green space. Our first venture out as a family abandoning our mile long project list was 20 minutes south to Blue Mound State Park. Right off the trail we found a recently felled oak that was wonderful to climb and explore.

We found tons of acorns, ate hickory nuts and walnuts and enjoyed the October shorts weather.

I don't know that I will get my full fall love post this year, so I will just shout is our here, I LOVE FALL. I missed fall in Wisconsin and am so happy to be back for this season.

Oh, and these boys, they are rocking this move. I really expected some sort of problem. They have started to miss friends, but are dealing with their emotions well by role playing being their friends which is so wonderful I think I may have to do the same, as I think the missing of my gals is going to hit hard this week.

A Blustery Day

Oh, how quickly things change. The woodstove is rolling to warm us, chestnuts (from Iowa! thank you coop) are roasting on top. I spend my evenings with knitting piled on top of me and we had to wear several wooly layer for our walk in the prairie.

The dull of the day was okay by me, as we spent the last two weeks really soaking in all of the sun.

Enjoying All We are Given

We continue to be outside all the time. This fall weather is amazing. While I am a little disappointed that we can't have a fire in the wood stove without sweating, I know there is plenty of time for that.

We ventured one day with our pots and pans to play music in the park- Asher's idea. He and River played and sang.

I am definitely feeling the pull inward to hibernate. Less inclination to socialize and more wanting to spend all of my moments embracing our home life. I don't know if it is the weather or the boys ages or what. I think we have finally reached a point where they can actually be in a room and just play independently and with one another, which has felt like the most amazing gift.

Into the Woods:: 11/8 + Complete Project

I think we will be hiking every moment we can this week. Such awesome weather in these parts.
We found a great new nook in the woods this week. Asher could have spent the 3 hours in the same place. It was a true natural jungle gym composed of so many fallen trees. Luckily he decided to continue on with us and we found lots of deer and scat.
River was super cuddly after our weekend apart.
He picked coral berries to throw in the ditch...
and totally rocked the sweater I finally put the finishing touches on. It has been knitted for a year (his solstice gift last year) but didn't stay on without the buttons. Now is has buttons.

I altered the sweater from last minute knitted gifts to make a cardigan as I love that pattern. I need a reminder to not sew cardigans unless someone pinky swears to put the buttons on for me.

I love the original pattern, I always knit sleeves first now, so that I don't get board. I also didn't do the most careful job adjusting the patter and while I thought I accounted for the overlap, still ended up with the buttons slightly off center... but it is done!!!