OUR COMMON HOURS

in the woods // last day of summer

Happy we who can bask in this warm September sun, which illumines all creatures, as well when they rest as when they toil, not without a feeling of gratitude…

— Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849)

The title of this post seems a little misleading, given the preponderance of colorful foliage herein. But, today it is still (technically) “summer.” Though I’m not entirely despairing, I do feel a little bit as if I’m not quite ready to let it go. The weather was so mild this year, it almost feels as if we were cheated out of a proper summer; I said almost, okay? So, despite his having a nasty cold virus, Zane and I took a little walk in the woods just to revel in summer’s last moments. (I think we might have made contact with some poison ivy, so that sours the whole thing a bit, but we’ll have to wait and see if either of us have a reaction.)

in the woods // last day of summer 1
in the woods collage
in the woods // last day of summer 2
in the woods // last day of summer 3
in the woods // last day of summer 4
in the woods // last day of summer 5
in the woods // last day of summer 6
in the woods // last day of summer 7
berry collage
in the woods // last day of summer 8
in the woods // last day of summer 9
in the woods // last day of summer 11
in the woods // last day of summer 10
corn collage
in the woods // last day of summer 12

corners of my home // late summer

With the autumnal equinox just a few days away, I’m afraid I’m a bit late in posting our “late summer” corners. I’ve changed up the nature tables a bit so now Zane has more items to play with and arrange, instead of just pictures and foliage. We had a lot of fun making the little peg gnomes.

corners of my home // late summer 1
late summer collage
corners of my home // late summer 6
gnome collage
corners of my home // late summer 3
corners of my home // late summer 2
corners of my home // late summer 7
corners of my home // late summer 4
corners of my home // late summer 5

37 // 52

37 // 52 // Lillia
37 // 52 // Zane

“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Lillia: This week you were very upset because you’ve been placed in a remedial math program. I know that being remediated does carry a stigma, but it can actually be a good thing! I told you about my own struggles with math in high school, and how I desperately wish I had been remediated so that I could have been more successful. I know it’s hard to accept, but a fact of life is that you’re not going to be incredibly gifted at everything you try. Sometimes you are going to try and fail, and you will face challenges of varying degrees of difficulty throughout your life. Remediation is not a punishment and it is not an indictment of your future potential; it is a gift, and I hope you eventually see it that way.

Zane: This week we’ve been spending a lot of time exploring the trails behind our house. We have been out there before, but you were always too small to really hike by yourself so you ended up being in a backpack carrier. It’s a whole new world being on the ground! This week we saw herons, salamanders, and slugs. You poked mushrooms with sticks, and collected acorn caps and other treasures. You love running down the trails at full speed, though you do occasionally get a little tired. To go all the way around the pond and back home again is about two miles, which is a pretty long way for those little legs to go on their own! I plan to make nature walks a part of our routine on days when you don’t have preschool.

36 // 52

36 // 52 // Lillia
36 // 52 // Zane

“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Lillia: This week as been very difficult for you in a lot of ways. The expectations for fifth graders are so much higher than for fourth graders, and I think you are a little overwhelmed. You are such a bright girl and so far you have been able to succeed by doing a minimal amount of work simply because you are smart. But, I feel this year is going to be very different for you, and you’re going to have to decide how hard you are going to work, and how important your grades are going to be to you. Of course, as your mother, I would love for you to be a stellar student. I want every door to remain open for you. But, I can’t do the work for you, so from this point on you are going to play a much larger role in your destiny than I will.

Zane: You’ve only been at school for a week and already you’ve picked up a virus! Having been sheltered at home with me, you weren’t exposed to as many germs as you will be now that you’re in school. Thankfully, it has been a very mild cold and you’ve done well. This week you also seem to have had some sort of developmental shift and you are now REALLY enjoying having people read to you. You always enjoyed books before, but you didn’t have much of an attention span. This week you’ve been bringing me stacks of books and sitting through each one attentively; you remind me so much of Lillia when she was your age.

35 // 52

first day of school collage

First Day of School 2014 – 5th grade and Morning Preschool

“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Lillia: This week you became a Middle School-er! Hooray! You seem to be be enjoying school so far, with your only major complaints being the heat (why is it always blazingly hot the first week of school?), the awkwardness of having to change into your gym clothes in front of other people, and the stress of not being able to remember much of the multiplication tables. On the other hand, you’ve been thrilled about seeing your friends again. I’ve noticed that you’re mildly preoccupied with others’s perceptions of you this year, which I don’t think bothered you very much in the past. Don’t forget: you are awesome just the way you are.

Zane: This week you started preschool! You weren’t upset at all when I dropped you off and you wanted to hop right into the action. I left you playing Play-Doh with a couple of other little kids who looked about your age. You were really happy to see me when I first came to pick you up, but then you went and hid under a climber. When I bent down to look in, you threw a couple of handfuls of wood chips at me. Even brave little boys have mixed emotions about being without their mama for a few hours. But, you said you really wanted to go back next week so I think it was a big success overall.