Deep Fall

Knut is home again.  Well, at least he’s home around supper or so.  He’s busy catching up on chores non-stop when he is outside, so we don’t see him much more yet.  When he is home, he sits a lot and zones out, and then feels awful for not getting stuff done.  He has so much to get done at home.  I told him that one does not rest after harvest for just a day.  He needs a deeper rest than that.

From my end of things, I’m still running everywhere.  Harvest, no harvest…either way I still have 5 kids to care for and educate.  Silje and David are both in this really beautiful spot where they can handle lots of responsibility, (with oversight and help) and I feel like at long last I can focus on doing some things with Elias.  Oh, the sorrows of the middle child, ever stuck in that middle ground of not being a little kid, and not being a big kid.  He’s in sore need of attention, and he’s just lapping it up.

Knut, Silje and David somehow have it in their minds to help me get back to writing my knitting patterns, and I’m even able to get some writing done for my Bible study too.  I feel so out of practice for knitting patterns, and it’s been slow turning my brain on to those equations again.  Silje is saving for a new iPod touch, too, that is new enough to allow her to use our wifi to text, so that could have something to do with her constantly asking if I need a babysitter, even if I just go back to my sewing room and let her take over.

(Apparently she is the only 11 year old on the planet without her own phone.  I know.  Poor thing.)

Halloween was different this year, as Great-Grandma’s house was no longer our first stop for pictures and goodies.  We did visit Oldefar (Great-Grandpa) in his communal home in town.  He was looking so good, and loved the visit and activity.  It was the first holiday without Alice, and everything already felt off.

 

Solveig and Elias are playing “funeral” a lot lately.  Solveig will pretend she dies, and Elias will run the funeral service, where all the stuffed animals come to pay their respects.  Kids process death so uniquely, I can tell both of them are still trying to wrap their minds around their Great-Grandma’s recent death.

David did so well with his gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free, peanut-free, coconut-free Halloween. (Sigh.) After we trick or treated at an elderly neighbor’s house, and then went through the nursing home circuit (the nursing homes are our kids’ favorite trick or treating places!)  The nurses bring out all the residents in their wheelchairs and line them up and stick a big bowl of candy in their laps.  The kids just go up and down the aisles of grandmas and grandpas who get all dressed up and look forward to this day when hundreds of kids come to visit them.  Then we went to a local church party where there are lots of games.

I had stuffed my purse with specialty candy I had bought that David could have, so that when the other kids were digging into their candy, he could dig into his.  He was just running around playing the games, though.  I kept checking on him and saying, “Hey bud!  You want some of your candy yet?”

“Mom!  Stop asking!  I’m playing a game here!”

Sometimes indifference is such a blessing.

With Knut being home, I see more bike riding, more roller skiing, and more getting out into nature in my kids’ future.  He’s constantly getting them active and getting them outside on adventures.  He took some of the older kids out on the farm with him for an afternoon here and there as well.  Both Silje and David learned how to weigh sample corn, and check the moisture content as the kernels go through the process of drying and storing in the bins.  They love being out on the farm with him.