Today our home is filled with the scent of apples cooking. Not yet the scent of spiced apples, or apples cooking inside of a pastry, but the almost watery scent of apples baking in their own juice – the epitome of fall. Outside, the air has a crispness to it as if trying to clean out the stuffiness of the end of the summer heat.

For years, my husband and I have had the goal of moving out to the country to a small farm, trying to live off the land and be self-sufficient. We’ve taken great strides towards our dream with our little homestead. Granted, we’re still in town, although thankfully it’s a very small town. We haven’t yet escaped the neighborhood, but you’d be surprised what kind of country living can be done inside of town limits! At least we’ve taken a large step away from grocery stores with our small jump towards our farm.

Back when we were in the city, I did not expect how I would feel each spring and fall. Since much of our food comes from our land, the seasons mean something other than a change of wardrobe. I feel the changing of the seasons much more vividly than before, each season bringing with it a change of pace so dramatic that it is impossible to ignore. This inexorable passage of time brings about an excitement every few months that is breath-taking.

As a perfect illustration, this last week has truly been the beginning of a beautiful fall. We weren’t sure we’d get a true fall this year, since the snow came following a week of temperatures in the 80s! However, stepping outside today, I can feel the autumn all the way to my bones. One of my favorite parts of fall is the crisp feeling to the air as I take a deep breath along with the new scents – the last mowing of grass, the dusty scent of fallen leaves, the apple scent that seems to be everywhere.

This kind of crisp feeling in the air always stirs something deep inside of me – a primal, almost visceral need to burrow into our home. I feel a rush to get the firewood chopped and stacked. I long to be home instead of out running errands. I feel a deep-seated drive to stock up on foods that can be tucked away in the pantry for that day when the snow prevents us from leaving the house. I start craving hot cups of tea and cardigan sweaters and candles with a spicy scent and I have to admit that even knitting begins to sound exciting!

The craziness of the summer is starting to wind down, the baby pool has been cleaned out and stored for the winter, and the sled and snow shovels are ready in the garage. The baby bunnies are all grown, the chickens are scrambling to get the last of the summer bugs and best of all – the apples are being harvested. I’ve always loved the fall, but somehow, living closer to the land, I’ve fallen in love with it all over again.

When we purchased our current home, my husband and I spent a good amount of time and energy talking about our plans for the layout of our yard, the plans we had to improve the lot, what we wanted it to look like in the future. An elderly man who didn’t do much with the yard had previously occupied our house, so we had a lot of work ahead of us!

Over the last couple of years, we’ve done a lot, but one thing I wish we would have known about beforehand is this book: The Have-More Plan. It talks a lot about planning the layout of a country home in order to create the most of your land. Great reading and should be required before you start deciding how to set up your own homestead!

As for our own place, we’re improving on it each season. Our first improvements were practical for a family with several children – a sandbox, swing set and a slide. This allowed the kids to have a place to entertain themselves and use muscles, tiring them out so we could all get a great night sleep! Of course, it also made us the most popular house on the street, but that’s another story…

Our ideas have changed a lot since our first “meeting” about our ideas for our homestead, but we’ve stayed true to our drive – to attempt as much as possible to create a learning experience for ourselves and our kids and to start down the road of self-sufficiency on a small plot of land. The information in The Have-More Plan is so valuable, but I’m hoping to show you in future posts how we’ve come down this road and plan to continue down it.

Today I’ve noticed something about our kids. Their brains hold a lot more than mine!

Our fourth child was born under some strenuous conditions resulting in hearing loss. Even though we were able to get him into hearing aids very quickly, we wanted to teach him sign language so he would have another avenue with which to communicate. As a result, we decided that this year of homeschooling would include a new subject – sign language. (Read the whole story here)

In order to start into this new subject, and to get our kids involved with the right spirit, I checked out some children’s sign language videos from our library. Right away one caught the kid’s attention – Baby signing Time. The songs got us dancing together! My kids started signing to each other right away and begging to watch it again. And again. And again! So back to the library. That’s when I also found Signing Time. The kids just took off with it.

We started purchasing all we could of the Signing Time videos. The kids are now teaching my husband and me how to sign all kinds of words! Anyway, I’ve noticed some great benefits that I would never have thought to expect.

I’ve had a tough time with some aspects of homeschooling. I love the chance to be the one to teach my kids to read, to see them figure out for the first time that B-E-D spells bed and to catch praying mantises with them in the morning.

However, I’ve had a tough time getting them to pay attention. For the first twenty minutes or so (or even less, some days) it’s great. Then attention starts to waver to the next activity. I was at a bit of a loss to know what to do to keep everything interesting.

Once I started the sign language lessons, were able to connect ideas with each other in their own minds. For instance, during reading lessons, the difference between “were” and “where” started to make sense to my son since he could sign each of these words separately. My two-year-old started learning his colors by himself and asking for more cereal instead of throwing a fit. He’s also nearly mastered the alphabet, both vocally and in sign. My four-year-old can now count to twenty without mixing up any numbers – and can count in sign while she’s doing it.

I believe the reason behind these advances is the combining of learning styles. Suddenly the kids are learning with visual, auditory and kinetic cues at the same time. The results though, are much greater than I could have imagined!

You can read a full review of Signing Time Videos here!