The Apples of My Eye

Posted by Tammy | 0 comments

Ohhh, I just love this time of the year! God’s creation just BURSTS with vibrant colorful glory everywhere we look in the woods around us!

The sunny days hold a warmness that still pulls us outside when we should be inside. However, the very cool mornings and evenings remind us that it is a short season of slipping outdoors between subjects.

The corn stalks, which provided a few late summer meals for our family, will be moved from the garden and onto the porch with pumpkins joining them. And let’s not forget one of our family’s favorite parts of fall…..the APPLES!

A couple hours north of our home are apple orchards and there’s always someone you know heading that way to pick apples this time of the year. This past week I was blessed to find a bushel of apples in the back of my car.

One of my older sons had traveled with someone else to help with an errand and they needed to pass right through the apple orchard area. He remembered his mom and the thought of warm applesauce prompted him to pick up a bushel as a surprise for me. And a wonderful surprise it was!

As I went through the apples one-by-one, I noticed how different each one was as I set it on my cutting board. Slightly different shapes, slightly different colorings, slightly different tastes, some with a bruise or two. Different yet perhaps all from the same tree. And once stirred together in my simmering pot, the apples blended into a wonderful tasty sauce.

Ahhh, yes! Those apples reminded me of my family. Oh, not quite a bushel of us yet, but it’s fun to watch our family tree grow!

Each one slightly different from the others with unique characteristics of their own. As we’ve been homeschooling through the years, I’ve realized that I can’t compare them to one another. No apples to apples here. Nope. Although we’ve used much of the same materials for their learning through the years, each child has grasped the subjects differently. You could go through each subject area and find many differences of opinion about whether it is a thumbs up or thumbs down depending upon the child. And a perfect example of their uniqueness could be found by having each one of my children write the exact same paragraph. None of the paragraphs would look the same! Each one has their own unique style of handwriting right down to the five year old. Yet, when you squeeze us all around our big kitchen table for a big bowl of applesauce, we’ll all blend together to make a wonderful savory family with the tart ones being balanced by the sweet.

Do enjoy the beauty of the fall season which comes from the hand of the Creator. And the next time you eat applesauce, remember how unique your own family is as it’s perfectly blended together by His love. For His love for us truly is the heart of the matter!

Married in 1980 and still living in the same house in a woodsy rural setting, Tammy’s homeschooling journey began in the fall of 1987 when her oldest turned six years old. As rather new believers professing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, homeschooling was a way to live out the principles found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Through all the challenges of life Tammy has stayed the course growing to a family with nine children who presently range from preschool age to college graduates married with children. Her role has transitioned from learning everything she could about homeschooling to becoming an encourager to others coming along the way. Please visit Tammy at Garden Glimpses.