Gigi's Blog » Tales of the Mortician's Wife

The Finest Age

When he was only nine months old,
And plump and round and pink of cheek,
A joy to tickle and to hold,
Before he’d even learned to speak,
His gentle mother used to say:
“It is too bad that he must grow.
If I could only have my way
His baby ways we’d always know.”

And then the year was turned and he
Began to toddle round the floor
And name the things that he could see
And soil the dresses that he wore.
Then many a night she whispered low:
“Our baby now is such a joy
I hate to think that he must grow
To be a wild and heedless boy.”

But on he went and sweeter grew,
And then his mother, I recall,
Wished she could keep him always two,
For that was the finest age of all.
She thought the selfsame thing at three,
And now that he is four, she sighs
To think he cannot always be
The youngest with the laughing eyes.

Oh, little boy, my wish is not
Always to keep you four years old.
Each night I stand beside your cot
And think of what the years may hold;
And looking down on you I pray
That when we’ve lost our baby small,
The mother of our man will say,
“This is the finest age of all.”

-Edgar Guest

Mothers, love your children!
Time flies all too fast – enjoy them, cuddle them, read them stories and be with them in the daily living.
We are so blessed to be mothers.
Let us not take it for granted.

“October was a beautiful month at Green Gables, when the birches in the hollow turned as golden as sunshine and the maples behind the orchard were royal crimson and the wild cherry trees along the lane put on the loveliest shades of dark red and bronzy green, while the fields sunned themselves in the aftermaths. Anne reveled in the world of color about her….
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.
It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it?…”
~Anne of Green Gables, 1908

The white screen door creaked as I carried my burden of wet, clean washing outdoors to the laundry line. The crisp morning air greeted me, waking me up and setting my heart into thankfulness for this wonderful season.

October.

Autumn.

My favorite season.

The garden is nearly done being harvested (we shall plan on finishing it up this week) and the trees are slowly changing colour, becoming more vibrant and rusty coloured with each sunset.

As I strung out the large amounts of washing, pegging up socks and skirts and sweaters, I could hear the frantic call of the migrating Canadian geese overhead. I paused to watch them – my hands full of pins, the wicker laundry basket still full of damp clothes waiting for their turn to be hung out in the fresh Autumn air.

Oh, how I love the sounds of those familiar geese … seemingly honking their good-byes as they head southward to warmer climates, their chest feathers glinting in the morning sunlight like jeweled feathers … later in the day, my daughter, Lacey, told me she was 97 turkey vultures, circling ever so high in the sky, also migrating to another warmer-for-winter territory. Until we moved to the country, I never realized turkey vultures migrated. In fact, I never paid attention to them at all. Our eyes and ears and senses are opened and alive when we begin to notice all the interesting details that surround us day by day.

{This golf cart is well used and not very well taken care of, I must admit.
Here the girls and boys are, collecting some of our squash from the garden –
Do you spy the hiding child?
Who could it be?}

Nothing is ever boring in life. And if it is, all you need to do is step outside and observe nature or find a new creative venue – you will surely find something fascinating to entertain and charge your mind with refreshing ideas.

We are still busily harvesting – feeling a bit behind with our camping trip and hustling to get everything done before it is too cold outdoors. Garlic will be planted shortly.

Apples are also in full swing here in Ontario – they are beautiful, delicious and amazing. We have gone back to the Hilltop home and collected apples three different times. It is wonderful to be blessed with such fantastic apples for the family!

Bushels of sweet red apples are now resting on my back porch, waiting for me to process them. We are working on apple pie filling, applesauce and apple butter. We also want to keep some apples for simple eating.

I hope to post the apple pie filling recipe soon.

Some of the girls are collecting their seeds from their flower gardens. My heart absolutely fills with joy when I think of young girls, finding time to scour their gardens and find seeds from their well-tended flowers of the summer. Saving seeds – another thing I did not think of before we moved to the country. I grew up in the country, surrounded by fields and flowers and nature, but never did I think to preserve seeds from my favorite flowers.

Now, the idea has struck me and I am so happy my daughters are thinking ahead and being creative. They have saved seeds from Rocket Larkspur, Morning Glory (one of our favorites), Mexican sunflowers, Four-O-Clocks, Marigolds and Cosmos. Tomorrow, we will collect some sunflowers seeds. Our goal is to plant 400 sunflowers – as we had such a lovely time with our 200 random sunflowers planted in our garden this late summer.

It is good to be home, good to be settling into an Autumn routine, good to hear the sounds and sights that are familiar to my ears.

Well, obviously, we have been “Home Sweet Home” for a while now – but it took about two weeks for us to recover with all our extra chores, laundry, gardening, unpacking, etc. Amazing how much effort it takes to take a group of 10 people away for a week!

Despite the very long drive on the U.S. highways, a near border failure to cross into the United States and quite a few wrong turns … we had finally made it to the homeschool Family Camp in Iowa.  We had a fantastic time – the children loved every second of the week –  and our spirits and faith were refreshed. We come home with a desire to serve the Lord and study our Bible more faithfully and deeper. We already do devotions and read through the Bible, but this is a Living Word – and if you’re not moving forward with your learning, you’re moving backwards. There is not standing still in a Christian’s life.

It’s time to move forward and train our children in a deeper manner! Very inspiring!

This is the little cabin our family slept in – snug and cozy in the Iowa hills. There were plenty of storms and rain but the Son still shone.

We are home now and ready for Autumn! It is in full swing now and I am in the middle of preserving and putting up beautiful apples, apple cider, apple pie filling and some more stews. I will be posting again soon.

It’s been busy here on the home front as well – the internet was broken, our vehicle broke down a week ago (thanking God it did not break down on our road trip!), we had a birthday, an anniversary, guests from out of Canada visiting and started school full time.

Thank you for wishing us well and patiently awaiting an update. xo