It was a beautiful day yesterday, and I spent the morning photographing families while Christian and Lola did chores. I had asked them only to clean while I was gone, then discovered I wasn’t in any hurry to get home? Weird! It’s a tactic I will for sure employ in the future. And if you’re like me with a kid/s who wake up too early and like to bombard your bed for cuddles, here’s a brilliant bit from one of my client-friends to get them to let you sleep in on weekends. Let your kids know before bed on Friday or Saturday night that “in the morning, we’re all going to pitch in and clean the house top to bottom!” They will be ever-so-happy to let you have an extra half hour or more to snooze!
We made hot tea after lunch and headed out for a day of family therapy, aka time in outdoors together. We were heading to one of my favorite places: the apple orchard.
Truth is, I needed and have so been looking forward to this day. I’ve been struggling with feelings of never-being-enough since launching another company and devoting even more of my time to my work, which I love. But my family has always been a compass to guide me home on dark days when I feel lost, distant from who I am and from God. And when I return to those spaces I feel most whole and seen and enough.
I’ve also been on the elimination diet, which means for the past month I’ve cut out wheat/gluten, dairy, eggs, red meat, nuts, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, corn, and soy! It’s been a lot of fish and veggies and decaf tea over here. But I’ve been reintroducing certain foods slowly over the past week and have found that there are many many many correlations in what I eat and my energy levels, which is exactly the info I was hoping to discover on this wild ride of eating bird food! Plus my anxiety has gone way down since I cut out caffeine. Yesterday was all about reintroducing DAIRY. And there was only one thing I wanted: Cinnamon Vanilla ice cream from Emma Krumbees Orchard!
This is our second year at Emma Krumbees after a long string of visits to Minnesota Harvest Orchard and Aamodts (**PSA PLEASE DO NOT PATRONIZE AAMODTS!!!**) We like this orchard because it’s simple, you don’t have to pay admission if you aren’t into the little kid games, and you can pick your own apples even now into October.
AND THERE WERE STILL SO MANY APPLES!
Man with apple, 2018
Lola in the trees
Me, by Lola. At this point all the following photos are by Lola until we get to the pumpkins!
It’s one of my greatest joys to watch Lola dive deep into photography. I love the way she sees the world and watching her make sense of it in images, and I can very much relate!
There are also plentiful pumpkins at Emma Krumbees, and you can tractor ride to and from the pumpkin patch to pick your own! They’re affordably priced by weight, and our haul only cost $8
In addition to a plethora of pumpkins and ample apples, Emma Krumbees also offers great hot cider, snacks, and a cute general store where everything *isn’t* outrageou$ly expensive. And that ice cream. There isn’t anything like it anywhere I’ve been!
But the undisputed best part of the day? When Lola who is almost 11 would slip her hand in mine and Christian’s, swinging them back and forth like she’s done since she was two. I don’t know when we’ll fall off the pedestal and she’ll stop wanting us around, but I’m going to soak up as much of this togetherness as I can while we’ve got it. Because she loves us and there’s nowhere she’d rather be than with us and happy, and I couldn’t agree with her more.
We ended the day making collages at the kitchen table while a cozy fire crackled just a few feet away. And on the weeks (months?) I feel dark and lonely as an entrepreneur/young mom/creative professional and totally unsure of my place in the world, days like these keep me grounded in truth and focused on why any of this matters, the reason I do any of it at all. And weekends like these only reinforce what I know to be true; that it’s not about 24/7 accomplishment and striving to achieve, but about being present to the moment, whatever it may be.
You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are – no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.
(Matthew 5:5 The Message)