muffins in the morning

It has taken 10 days for Poppy (the cat) to get close to Arley (the dog).

Arley wants so badly to play…Poppy, not so much. My kids are dreaming of a ‘Milo and Otis’ friendship between Poppy and Arley. Time will tell, but it isn’t looking so good right now. Granted, it has only been 10 days.

As I miss summer, I’m looking for the good parts of dropping temperatures. The best part of cooler days is eating all our meals outside. It means less sweeping for me, so that makes it the best.

In between bites, she dances. I’ve tried telling her to stay off the table, but it is her favorite stage. I figure her feet can’t be as dirty as all the random critters and birds that I find on it. Tablecloths for the win. Or not, because that would be more laundry…defeating the purpose of eating outside to reduce household chores in the first place.

These shots were taken yesterday. Sometimes I focus on the hard parts of homeschooling. When my kids were in ‘regular’ school, there were times I focused on the hard parts of that too. The reality is – everything has hard and beautiful parts. The hard makes the beautiful more lovely. Whether my kids were in public school, private school or homeschool – there are big challenges and great rewards with each. It just depends on where I set my eyes. So yesterday, we ate breakfast slow and outside. She danced. The boys played four square. And then we started school. We are in a season where our days can move very, very slowly. We aren’t rushing or cramming or trying to fit it all in. I need to focus more on the beauty of that each day because I know like every season, this too shall pass. One day kids won’t be dancing on the tables and eating muffins with me in the morning. Hopefully, that day is really far off.