September is coming this week and I love this month. For me, it is a time of contemplation as we head into the mood of Michaelmas. It is truly a time of prayer, meditations, new impulses and an idea of serving others and changing the future.

There is a beautiful poem in the book “All Year Round” on page 129 that could make a particularly lovely blessing for this time of year:

Thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us;

Thanks to the rivers and streams and their water;

Thanks to the corn and the grain fields that feed us;

Thanks to the herbs which protect us from illness;

Thanks to the bushes and trees and their fruiting;

Thanks to the moon and the stars in the darkness;

Thanks to the sun and his eye that looks earthward;

Thank the Great Spirit for all of his goodness.

Adapted from an Iroquois Indian address of thanksgiving

Here are a few things we are celebrating:

Labor Day – September 5 

The Nativity of St. Mary – September 8

Holy Cross Day – September 14

Autumn Equinox – September 22 – You can see my Autumn Pinterest Board for ideas!

The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels – September 29.  This is one of my favorite celebrations in the church and at home!  You can see my MIchaelmas Pinterest Board for some ideas!

The Home Mood:

To me, the fall becomes a time of turning inward; a time of gratitude and reflection.  How do my words, my actions, reflect my gratitude toward my Creator and toward my life?  How do I interact with others in order to show this?  There is a quote I often think about from Dr. Rudolf Steiner that talks about this. He says;

The cultivation of this universal gratitude toward the world is of paramount importance.  It does not always need to be in one’s consciousness, but may simply live in the background of the feeling life, so that, at the end of a strenuous day, one can experience gratitude, for example, when entering a beautiful meadow full of flowers……And if we only act properly in front of the children, a corresponding increase in gratitude will develop within them for all that comes to them from the people living around them, from the way they speak or smile, or the way such people treat them.”  Rudolf Steiner from “A Child’s Changing Consciousness As The Basis of Pedagogical Practice”

Gratitude is such an important mood to create in the home. I think this creation can be tangible,  like those gratitude jars or going around the table at night and sharing something we have gratitude for…those are wonderful in their own way, but I think creating a  true mood of gratitude in the home actually is a much harder and deeper task. 

How do I really permeate this mood and carry it, even when things are overwhelming, is for this season of overcoming and courage as we head toward the longer nights of Winter. I think this is especially pertinent for those of us with teenagers and young adults who often are in the throes of figuring out who they really are, what turn their life is going to take as they launch. It can be a daunting time requiring inner strength on the part of the parent to really hold for that teenager.

I think prayer comes to the forefront if that is in your spiritual tradition. I have never prayed as hard as I do now for my young adults and all the things they face. Even knowing from a certain perspective that they are made for these times, it can still feel overwhelming for them. Teaching them deeper joy in the midst of transitions is something valuable that they still can learn from us! The teaching and guiding is not over and in many ways they need us more now than they did when they were small. I also use many affirmations and place that positive energy out into the world on their behalf.

Ideas for the Home:

• The seasonal table is transitioning to yellows with dried flowers, seed pods, bunches of oats or wheat or corn that are dried, cornucopias, nuts, acorns, leaves and little “helicopters.”
• I am going through and taking stock of fall and winter clothes and purging what we do not need.
• Fall menu planning – a time of chili, soup, stew, warming dishes
• Crafting – I have some autumn crafting ideas on my Pinterest board, but I think I am going to start with Michaelmas crafts  and autumn lanterns.

Ideas for Celebrating this Month with Littles:

• Quick Autumn Ideas for Waldorf Kindergarten
• Favorite Fall Tales for the Waldorf Kindergarten
• Fall Stories for Puppets
• Cook, bake, and preserve with apples
• Crafts with leaves, although down here sometimes we don’t get the best color to our leaves until October
• Sing favorite Autumn songs

Ideas for Celebrating this Month With Older Children:

• A Beautiful Back to School Ceremony
• Start working on homemade holiday gifts
• Celebrate an attitude of kindness and gratitude
• Celebrate apple picking and cooking with apples
• Knit fall projects!
• Long bike rides and walks in the cooler air

Ideas for Celebrating this Month With Teens:

• Find great theater, museum, and festival events to attend
• Longer hiking, camping, and backpacking trips
• Bake and cook fall dishes
• Work on fall organizing and cleaning
• Stargazing
• Find new activities outside the home that your teen will adore
• Find  new knitting, crocheting, sewing, woodworking and woodcarving ideas to try

The Farm –

We are ordering cool weather seeds and setting out seeds and transplants for a fall garden, and we are ordering more apple trees to plant in winter.

I am contemplating ducks much to my husband’s chagrin. He is not enthused, but our middle daughter and I would love them!

We are enjoying the antics of our two barn kittens and our dogs who love them and want to go outside and play with them in the barn.

The equine end has been a time of injury and healing for nearly all of our horses, which is a very disappointing way to have our middle daughter’s senior year to be honest. No lessons, no showing. Horses are almost like a long term project in which the fruit does not always ripen at the time one thinks it will.

Our bees will be headed into winter in decent shape and we hope to pull honey in the spring

Homeschooling and Working:

Work has been busy both at the clinic and with my private patients. So much so that it has been hard to find time to do things like get a hair cut. Every day is busy.

Homeschooling our seventh grader has been going along – also busy! I am trying very hard to keep pushing him forward with math as he is interested most in science and science in the upper levels and college really requires math. We are also working on writing quite a bit as this has never come easily to him. We are studying African geography and this history of African kingdoms and different African cultures. We are also finishing up Middle Ages right now so we can move into the Renaissance.

Our senior in high school needs physical science to graduate and at her school this was done much earlier, so we are doing that at home along with two online electives she needs to graduate. Wish us luck to get it all done!

Our college junior is sort of in the homestretch as she attends every semester (through the summer) now until she graduates college in December of 2023. She wishes it wasn’t flying by so fast!

What are your September plans? If you blog or on social media, please leave a link in the comments below so we can follow each other’s plans!

Blessings,
Carrie