I really can’t believe September is now half over already!  It seems like summer just whizzed by in a blurry flash, leaving us kind of dazed and bewildered.  We definitely didn’t have a normal string of warm summer days this year.  There were too many interruptions with rain and chill wind to be quite satisfied about our summer weather…and now it’s too late, for fall is knocking on the door, leaking it’s colors into the trees before we’ve had a chance to even realize it’s upon us.

With that said…I do miss the warmer days of summer, but fall is actually my favorite time of year.  🙂  A big part of me morphs into a little girl when the leaves start to change and I feel the briskness of the air and smell wood smoke drifting on the wind.  Love it ALL!  This time of year says: pumpkins! birthday! trick-or-treating! cozy sweaters! warm mittens! steam from a hot mug! frost in the grass! candy corn! …and prepping for the holidays just around the corner!  Can you see why I love this time so much?

We’ve been up to quite a bit in September so far… we’ve had an impromptu visit to our favorite farm: Lattin’s Country Cider Mill for some tasty home-baked goodness of apple fritters and their award winning cider.  (just click on the pics to view them larger)

The girlies got to go with their aunt (my sister) & uncle  (her hubby) to tour Seattle in the Ducks!  Sounds weird, I know, but it was tons of fun!  Make sure to click on the link to see what I’m talking about…I know you want to, lol.

We’ve been practicing driving with our first time driver, Emily!

We’ve been busy loom knitting too!

Don’t you just love these stripes???

I adore them.

I’m completely. in. love.

I just can’t help putting stripes and lots of color into my projects, lol.

I think I’m a bit addicted.

Somebody call the stripes squad, because I’m tangled in all kinds of yarn strands and haven’t been able to make my escape!  😉

We’ve also been enrolling my youngest daughter in public school.  It’s been quite a summer trying to figure out what school she should attend.  Between our worries about her attending the local schools, which are truly a danger to one’s health and  can’t seem to get their act together to achieve any decent parent/teacher ratings or test scores, and our struggle to get approved to enroll her in an out of district school, we were finally able to find a school that has pretty much everything we need.  It’s really quite close to our home as well, though it is out of district because of the way the boundary lines were drawn up…a definite plus!

As you probably have read, we were going through K12 for her last school year.  This was an interesting experience, and one that we found we don’t really want to repeat, lol!

Don’t get me wrong…love the K12 curriculum and flexibility.  Just didn’t love the huge commitment involved with teaching and struggling to accomplish 8th grade work with my lovely, yet very head strong, darling daughter. 😉  My eldest fit right into the online school scene with hardly no effort at all, so the last year kind of took us by surprise, lol.  Megan needs to be able to be around people she can socialize with and to learn her school material in a group setting…she does great this way…excels at it even!  I think I was just too boring for her because I was…well, simply put…mom.  This is definitive proof that each child is unique and learn in their own individual ways, don’t you think?

So… off to public school we go!

…and not just public school.  High School.

Megan is a freshman this year.  I’ve really been having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that my baby is now in high school.  So many of my own memories of high school are still bright in my mind and have defined my life today in countless ways.  To know that my youngest is going to be now embarking upon those experiences  puts my mind and emotions through a bit of a tailspin.

But she is so far doing great!  She seems to love her school.

I love her school!

I can’t tell you how helpful everyone has been, kind of unnaturally so, lol.  It’s really unique in our past schooling experience to have people, including students, so interested in helping the people around them.  I feel like we’ve discovered another dimension, secretly nestled right in the suburbs of an entire town that seems to have crime around every corner and a chip on every shoulder. But what a load off our shoulders this has been so far!

We have been blessed indeed.

Let the memory making commence!  🙂

Bethany~