Fall flowers + baby

It's officially fall and the weather has really cooled down, especially at night.  We've had so many visitors coming to meet our baby, Elijah.  Everyday last week at least one friend came over, to take the big boys out for an activity, or to bring a meal or help me tidy, wash dishes, etc. 

Monday, one of the nuns came over with these sunflowers + zinnia.  She sat with us and had a cup of cider that Rob and the boys pressed Sat.

My cousin's wife knit these socks!  She also sewed some flannel blankets and burp clothes, this one below is my fav - has farm animals on it.

A friend, who has a sheep farm, gave us this swing and a few hand knit items as a gift.

Father Theodore, the monk from Scotland, did the 8th day naming prayers.  Paul is helping by holding the prayer book, while Father holds Elijah.  He will also do his baptism next month.

Just missing Hannah and Olivia to have a family photo.

4:39am on Sunday

That's when our NEW baby was born!  A boy! I had thought baby would be a girl.  Now I think it's just because we had settled on a girl name, whereas we hadn't decided on a boy name yet...

His name is Elijah!  8 lbs. 2 oz. of cuddles.  I really thought that he was going to be over 9 lbs. which he probably would have been if he had been born in October.  Apparently babies gain about a half a pound each week towards the end.  

• George was 9 pounds
• Paul was 8 lb 3 oz 
• Olivia was 7 lb 11 oz
• Hannah was 7 lb 2 oz

I'll share more in a few days.  We have visitors coming this morning!

Making cider

windfall apples are for our pigs, the good ones off the trees are for us, to bake or make sauce with and we purchased a gently used cider press!

we had a full weekend!  Started with a visit to General Nicholas Herkimer's home from the 18th century, kept up so beautifully.  This man was playing the hurdy gurdy.  Then we saw a reenactment of the Battle of Oriskany, volunteers in the 1777 clothing fired real muskets...it was loud and smokey.

There was a garlic festival not far away.  All kinds of garlic items, garlic cheese and pizza with garlic for sale.  One vendor was selling these beautiful bouquets of sunflowers.

I've wanted to do this challenge and 3 yrs ago, I did commit to wearing a denim dress for a length of time, it may have been just a week though, not 100 days.  Below, is a photo from the Wool& catalog that arrived a few days ago.

Four 5-gallon buckets yielded about 3 gallons of cider.  We chopped the apples first, then put them in the press.  It is really perfectly sweet with a little tart, and just scrumptious.  I baked a batch of donuts and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on top, to have with the cider.

And of course, we went to church.  We are homeschooling this morning.  We start lessons with prayer and light a beeswax candle and incense, then choose a verse as copywork.  It's kind of like a warm-up.  Even I start with writing in my journal.

Late summer

Selenite from my great Uncle Bill, who is 92 years old.  He's a geologist and lives in Ithaca.  He taught at the University of Rochester and then at Cornell.

Paul held the pitcher with extra holy water on the feast of Dormition.  The chapel in the cemetery is named for the Dormition of the Theotokos, so the tradition of having a procession around and sprinkling of holy water was done.  Always feels extra festive.

We took a 2 night trip to Niagra Falls.  We saw my sister and her family who were on their way from Ohio back to Canada. The next day, we went on the Maid of the Mist boat ride. It was a great little trip.

Friday evening we ate fish and fries!  

Niagra Falls!  It's such an immense amount of water.  I stayed home and slept while everyone else went to the evening illumination of the falls and to see the fireworks there.  I am 36 wks along and need extra rest.. This baby moves everyday... a lot!