What do you say, it's an apple day!

I thought I found one con against potential move to Texas: New Englanders favorite Autumn pastime: apple picking.
And then I googled "apple picking in central Texas" and to my great surprise I have found few places!
The best thing was that the season starts in the beginning of July and lasts until the end of October. I think it might be kind of weird though, to go apple picking in 100 F heat! But I'll take that.
But decision is yet to be made, so I won't be worrying about that now.

The weather was certainly more suitable for the beach than orchard, but since I do not like hot, sweaty beach, we settled down for picking apples in 83 F !
It might just help that apples are my all time favorite fruit ever, which might come as a surprise since it is such a common fruit in Poland.
But sometimes the simpler things, the better :)
The Macouns were in their peak, Jona Gold were still plentiful too, but I could not find Cortlands:(

The four out of five members of our family were enjoying the apple picking and five out of five devoured apple pie. So I think it is safe to say that it was a rather successful enterprise.
We picked about thirty pounds of that deliciousness! I can assure everybody, it will be gone by next weekend :)

 

 

Kinga:)



Few thoughts

As I settled to the ordinary, everyday school year routine, it is so hard to make memories either by blogging or taking pictures.
Does this mean that my life is less meaningful and do I have to look for my simple daily pleasure really hard? No, not really ! However it is difficult to make it sound interesting .
I will try though, since this is how our life looks now!

The girls have settled down in school. It has been almost a month of school.

Kateri has a ton of homework.
 At least she makes such an impression. She also participate in the XC running program in school. I would lie if I said that she is enjoying both. Even though she really likes the school, the wake up call around 7am ( not really early ) makes her miserable for the first few hours! I am trying to stay away as much as possible from her in the morning, only supervising her preparation for school. She is not better after coming from school. She is tired and the bus ride makes her a little sick. Throw in the XC practice and she is done for the day.
Apparently though it is not as bad around her friends , because I hear her laughing loud while chatting with them. Go and figure the teenagers out...

 

 "resting after the school"



Zuzanna would be very happy to be homeschooled instead of "going" to school, unless it is pajama day at school. She complains about the homework ( not really much of it ), but I keep telling her that the older she gets, she needs learn more, not less.
She also started swimming for swim team, which means three practices a week plus occasional meets. Though on parents!!!

Kubus is happy to spend time with me. He loves when girls leave for school, since that's his time for watching a couple for truck videos. He likes the library programs and digging in the sandbox. He could listen forever to me reading "truck books"! His favorite animal is an elephant and favorite kids' song, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. We are laughing hard while listening to him singing :)
He seems to be taken recently by Taylor Swift...His favorite song? Shake it off!!!
He tries to play soccer, and let's just stay with trying for now...

 



no, it is not an advertisement for OSJ Lot

 



Andrzej, well, is coming back from his conference trip to Chicago today. He spent there just few days, but too many for me to sleep well at night. The amount of responsibilities that fell on me, really overwhelmed me at first. There is NOBODY here, besides Andrzej, that could help me in case of emergencies ( let them stay away from me, and even better, from everybody else !)
But by God's grace I made it through without falling apart and without any panic attacks!
The kiddoes got colds though, which made them a little less pleasant than usual...

Do I complain about it? No, I made a promise to myself, that I am going to be happy, however the daily, sometime gray, routine might put me down.
I have decided that breakfasts, lunches, cooking, baking, cleaning, attending homeworks, shopping trips, library programs, playgrounds, swimming practices, drop offs, pick ups etc... can be a source of joy too. It depends ONLY on me to let them be that joy!

And because today is Thursday, and everybody seems to be sharing their TBT pictures, here is mine: Kiki and Zuzia, around Halloween 2006.



Weren't they a JOY?!

Kinga :)

Summer, Long Weekend and First Soccer Practice

The summer weather came back to this part of the country, as soon as I decided to play fall!
I had apples, pumpkins and leaves on my mind, with school and upcoming different afterschool activities along.

But instead the kids still enjoyed the pool, ice cream and cold breeze from the central air:)
With the long Labor Day weekend over, Andrzej is a little sad that the next time off, beside the usual weekends, will be in November for Thanksgiving!!! I do not want to think about it yet...

Past Saturday and Sunday we were busy with different kind of errands, but on the holiday Monday we decided to visit the place, that we did not visit for at least last two years; Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge.
We took a short hike on the gorgeous trail along the coastline, with a multitude of birds to watch, plenty of rocks to climb on, waves to admire and sea breeze to feel!

In the evening almost whole family came to witness Kubus' first soccer practice. He was shy, but not too timid. He followed the instructions, as long as he knew what they meant, which was not often. He picked the ball up with his hands because it was just easier to move it around, and he took a break to watch the planes ( field right next to the airport ) take off. And that was quite often:) .
Well, he did not really care much if it was right or wrong and at the end of the practice was quite proud of himself. The first game is coming up this Saturday; we will be there to enjoy it all...

 

 

 



 

 

I enjoyed watching all the members of my family present on the field :)

 



 

Kinga:)



Last week

I am a little ashamed to admit, that my kids' first day of school pictures, were not posted yet. The facebook exploded with those, but I have decided to save them for a blogpost.
Needless to say that almost one week later there are still nicely tucked in for no one to see. And mostly I am concerned about my family; which I believe is "dying" to see them.
Last week was also one of the warmest weeks of this summer, so we splashed a lot after school,
Kateri had her mini violin concert, I harvested some veggies from my small garden. The Autumn is just around the corner:) Oh, I have also tasted the first crop of apples of this season, ( apples being my favorite fruit so I had to mention it ), even though not from our orchard, because we don't have any...
On Friday I started the Whole30 program, which was initiated by Haley.
So far I am sticking to the principles and what helps me tremendously, is the support group that Haley created. I hope to see some great results 27 days from today!
As for now, few promised pics :)

 



 

One from the archives! Kiki's first day of Kindergarten, 2006 !

 



 

Kiki eight grade, less happy:(

 

 

Zuzia, fourth grade :)

 

 

Kubus, preschool with mommy :)

 

 

Homegrown sweet pumpkins. Ready for soups, cakes and muffins; and disappearing quite quickly!

 

 

Cherry tomatoes; abundance of them. No need to can :)

 

 

I asked Andrzej if he needs a picture of his first day at work after the kids' vacation, but he politely declined. I won't ask anymore.

 

 

Kinga:)