Sabbath Hiking

When possible, on the weekends, we like to get out.  It's nice to have a break from the daily grind.  It's nice to enjoy a sabbath as a family: a day of rest, a break from our work, a day to delight in God and in His creation.  It seems the busier our lives get, the more I crave a get-out-of-the-house adventure.  God in His infinite wisdom ordained this day of rest.  Praise God!

It's not always easy to retain a sabbath.  We try to be intentional to give ourselves one day of rest on the weekends, Saturday or Sunday.  This is a day we give ourselves a break from house work and school work.  Sometimes the easiest way to preserve this weekly break is to get away from home for the day. 

This past week, we took off on a day trip to Chattanooga: 8 hours in the car (which we love!), picnic lunch, Tennessee Aquarium, walking downtown, and dinner at our favorite pizza place.  The week before we stayed closer to home and spent the afternoon hiking at Mouse Tail Landing State Park. 

What better way to enjoy our day of rest than to spend it with our family marveling at God's creation: lady bug swarms, salamanders, brilliant fall leaves, sleepy babies, and tree nuts. 

Then Jesus said to them, "The sabbath was made to meet the needs of the people, and not the people to meet the need of the sabbath."  Mark 2:27

Praise God for the gift of a Sabbath!

Splash Park

After sending our good friends off on their way to Minnesota from Memphis, (and a fabulous Ethiopian feast at Abyssinia) we ventured over to the Collierville Splash Park. 
We've been looking forward to a trip to the Splash Park all summer - it's fantastic! 

While the big boys loved being doused with buckets of water, Maclaren was a bit overwhelmed and more hesitant to get wet. 

I love having weekday adventures with my kiddos - we should do it more often :)

Apple Picking

We look forward to apple picking each September, and thanks to Dabney's early arrival, we were able to venture out all together to collect our fruit this season.

This past weekend, incredibly gracious out-of-town friends offered to host our family for a weekend getaway at their home set on 8-acres outside of Nashville (after we invited ourselves over for a visit :)  The big boys camped out in the backyard, the little ones bunked together upstairs, and we were fortunate to have several hours enjoying the cool September night, great conversation, and fellowship with our friends fireside.

Sunday, our friends joined us for a trip to our favorite apple picking spot, Breeden's Orchard.
(followed by lunch at an Ethiopian Restaurant!)

This year, we actually under-picked!  We came away with only 56 pounds of beautiful apples.  Enough for apple jelly and a few quarts of applesauce, but not nearly the overwhelming bounty of last year.  We had picked 125 pounds last year, and while we had trouble storing all of our applesauce, we had no problem eating it all :)

This was a perfect way to spend a delightfully cool September weekend.

We've been busy processing our delicious apples this week!

Blackberries

We love picking fresh Summer produce . . . and with seven helpers, we're a very efficient picking crew.

The blackberries are just ripening, so we ventured over to Cowen Farms to gather a loot.  We picked 4 gallons of beautiful, sweet/tart berries in less than 20 minutes!  I'm not planning to do much canning right now, so most of these will be frozen now and processed later.  Of course we'll be enjoying plenty of our bounty fresh too! 

The bigger kids were very serious workers.  Kolpin was our taster - consuming more than he contributed to our baskets - his hands, face, and shirt were stained purple! 

The kids have all decided that they like blackberry picking the very best.  Hendrick likened their sweet/tart burst of flavor to Sour Patch Kids, only a healthy, natural version : )

After the picking frenzy, the kind farmer (himself one of nine children) invited the kids to visit the farm.  They fed the horses and goats, chased chickens and hens, eagerly collected eggs, asked lots of questions and explored the barn, and gave some extra attention to the sweet, affectionate barn cat. 

Our picking adventure became a rich farm learning experience, and now all the kids want us to move to a farm. . . I think they just want to get a barn cat : ) 

We came away with eggs (collected by us), blackberries, jelly (pulled from the processing pot as we watched), and peaches.

I am so thankful for unexpected local adventures and the kindness of others. 

Cincy

I drove with all eight kids to Cincinnati last week to be in town for my sister's vow renewal ceremony.  It was an adventure getting there (involving a necessary impromptu bath in a rest stop sink), but we thoroughly enjoyed special time with (and help from) family until Mike was able to join us mid-week. We had several days all together in Cincinnati until our return home after Mike's sister's wedding. 

Ten days in a big city . . . we stayed busy! 


Slumber party with cousins, two playground trips, Parky's Farm visit, fishing and swimming at Grandpa's lake, Cincinnati Reds Game, Skyline Chili,  pontoon boat ride, Children's Museum outing with Gramma and Grandpa, two water Splash Parks, LaRosa's Pizza, wildflower hike at Miami Whitewater Park, and U.D.F. Ice Cream . . . whew! 

It was a great week. 
We appreciate both sides of the family hosting our crew during our stay : )

The Splash Park:

And Ice Cream!

Zoo Lights

Special trip to Memphis for Ethiopian food at Abyssinia and Zoo Lights at the Memphis Zoo.
Perfect weather
Awesome food
Creating great memories

And we got to visit with another Saint Nicholas . . .
As well as our very first Santa-freak-out!

We placed Maclaren on his lap.  As she looked up at the jolly St. Nick, her eyes got HUGE and she began screaming uncontrollably.  It was quite impressive.  Poor girl.  She settled down quickly : )