This past week, an absence in this space meant a presence of some very missed loved ones on a visit from far away.  Coming to our tiny home in the middle of nowhere must be quite the shock for most city folk.  The lack of television and convenience could be a bit disappointing I would imagine.  My hopes are always that it is a welcome calm in the midst of busy noisy days.  I think there is a good chance that just this happened for our lovely visitors.

And of course the littlest among us were beyond thrilled to spend every waking moment with their Duke and Dutchie.  

And those moment where one of the other was sleeping were surely spent dreaming up the next adventure they would ensue.

For we did have a few of them.

With family in town, and some oh so sweet moments stored snugly in our memories, the house is now quiet and quite honestly peaceful.  Of course family in town means help around the house, shared meals and laughs, adventures and sight-seeing, and playing and pretending galore.  But, at the same time it also means two little boys who are overwhelmed with love, sleep deprived and well… out of their element.

The first days back to normal can be so very sobering.  But not this time around.

This time, I thought perhaps a nice grounding tradition would be the way to bring things back together; To encourage our schedule to creep back up around us, to get use to the calm corners of creativity and play, to bring our feet back to the ground and begin our days as a threesome and sometimes (on the best of days) a foursome family.

The third annual apple smashing and the many annual cat pumpkin moonshine carving started this windy brisk day off right.  A few toasted seeds and a steaming bowl of apple sauce were just the remedies for the coming back to normalcy we needed.  I hope your autumn traditions are bringing you peace and comfort these days too.