Farm
I knew what I wanted this Christmas season to be like. Time at home, time outdoors, time together. Creating, learning, hiking, relaxing and loving. I have experienced many stressful Decembers, last year was one of those. We were involved in a community giving project, which although very meaningful for us was quite taxing on our family.
I knew I didn't want to do that again. On that note, if someone knows how to give meaningfully to their community while homeschooling, hiking on weekends and cooking 3 meals a day - I'd love to hear how to do it. I also knew I didn't want to spend the month shopping, feeling forever behind on tasks & preparations, overeating (well maybe just a wee bit) and otherwise stressing.
Now here I am, 7 days till Christmas, and I can honestly say this has been the best pre-Christmas season I've ever had, or at least that I can remember. Just ask Damien, I've expressed my feelings to him often in this way, "I'm just enjoying this month so much".
I seriously scaled back my expectations for this time leading up to Christmas. And although I thought I was preparing myself for the un-perfect month, in truth I was preparing myself for the perfect month (as many of you pointed out in your comments on that post).
Letting go of things that are very good (a family Christmas letter & photo come to mind) but just couldn't be accomplished without stress felt so wonderful. I love writing an update letter and have done so each year but you know what? I can send a letter just as easily in January or February.
Dropping this one thing, and a few others, have freed up this month to do the things we value as a family. Like sledding on a frigid but beautiful afternoon at the farm.
Our time at the farm yesterday was wonderful. No rushing, except to the CSA room to warm our toes. No shopping, except bartering for dried gourds to make fairy homes. No stress, except coming home and realizing oh yeah, we do still need to make supper and clean up.
I feel like I've already had Christmas morning with a month of doing exactly what we wanted to do as a family. I feel so blessed.
Tomorrow we leave for our holiday trip to Nova Scotia and Quebec. (I'm taking a little break from packing to share these thoughts.) And Christmas begins in earnest. I'm so excited. Spending days with my best girlfriend (my mom), eating my mom's cooking, sitting by my parent's fireplace, hanging out with my brother and his family, playing games, watching movies, staying up late and sleeping in.
I hope to chronicle our adventures on this space with photos and a few words. But if I don't get around to doing so as much as I'd like I'm not going to stress about it, because that would be simply un-Christmaslike.
Firstly, I am feeling better, not 100% percent which I find frustrating, but better. I hate blowing my nose and I'm thinking for next time around (which hopefully will be many moons away) I might consider one of those nasty neti pots. And yes, I did get to enjoy the outdoors with my family yesterday. It was spectacular and I can't wait to share those photos.
Today's post is a photo summary of the annual bean threshing at the farm. It actually happened over a week ago but being sick last week post-poned sharing the photos here. By this point you might be asking "what's a bean threshing?"
Well, the version I know is what we do at the farm each fall. These dried bundles of beans are thrown down from the hay loft of the barn (darn, that would of made a good picture) onto big tarps. Then they are jumped on, hit with bats and otherwise pummeled by small children and adults alike until the beans come out of the pods. The biggest stalks and chaff are removed at this point and the beans (with a bunch of little bits of chaff) are scooped into buckets. These buckets are then dumped into empty buckets and the breeze helps blow away the bits of chaff. This last step is done repeatedly till most of the chaff is removed. Clear as molasses? Good.
The bean threshing party itself is more of a potluck and excuse to get together with other share members, listen to fiddle music, take wagon rides and run around the whole farm on a scavenger hunt (if you belong to the 4 ft and under set). Some beans do get threshed but this year I have to admit I did not do my part, too busy chattin'. I will enjoy those beans, with guilty pleasure, when they show up in our shares later this winter.
I managed to take a photo of our farmer, Jill, when we were on the wagon ride. I asked her permission to share it here. I want to introduce you all to the wonderful woman who grows our veggies; our family loves her and her farm dearly (in case you haven't been able to tell).
What cool fall activities or parties have you participated in lately? I love marking the seasons this way, don't you?
The other night we finished reading "Charlotte's Web". Sigh... Of course the whole book is a masterpiece but I felt I could linger forever on this second last paragraph:
Mr. Zuckerman took fine care of Wilbur all the rest of his days, and the pig was often visited by friends and admirers, for nobody ever forgot the year of his triumph and the miracle of the web. Life in the barn was very good - night and day, winter and summer, spring and fall, dull days and bright days. It was the best place to be, thought Wilbur, this warm delicious cellar, with the garrulous geese, the changing seasons, the heat of the sun, the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats, the sameness of sheep, the love of spiders, the smell of manure and the glory of everything (emphasis mine).
Doesn't that passage just fill you up? I read that and I feel content. And I feel blessed to have a place so like Wilbur's barn, a Maine farm no less, to escape to with my children and experience "the changing seasons, the heat of the sun, the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats (I've never seen any!), the sameness of sheep, the love of spiders, the smell of manure and glory of everything."
Earlier this week I went one morning all by myself to the farm to watch the sun rise. Leaving the house when the sky was the still the color of ink and dawn just a sliver of pale blue beyond the trees. I want to take more sunrise and sunset shots but my house in the middle of the city is not the place to do that! I need to get out, up high where I can see. So I did my best to stay warm on the second floor of the barn, listened to the rooster crow and watched the sheep and turkeys meander from their slumber.
And I wondered and reveled in the glory of everything.
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