It was another long week, with plenty of blessings along with too much to do. Most of our time was spent on continued fall cleaning. I helped my nieces and nephew clean out several totes of toys stored under the house. Grace and I sorted all the pantry totes from the storm shelter. We keep bulk items there, mainly canned goods and bottled items. These had all developed some mildew, so we sanitized everything. Grace cleaned out our garden totes, getting everything organized before winter.
We didn’t accomplish as much as we would hope, but life has been even more chaotic than usual. All three of our female dogs went into heat, and our two males are going crazy. To make matters worse, Jeremiah’s German Shepherd Dagger cut his paw last week on a rock. It had pretty much healed until he busted it open playing outside this week. So, he has to be kept indoors and mostly off the paw. With all the dog angst, few of us have slept well all week. We hope that by the end of next week, it will all be over.
Despite the zoo that is our life right now, our brother Jeremiah hosted his annual family highland games yesterday. He usually does this earlier in the year, but between the hot summer and various health issues and life events, he kept putting it off until it was a good time for everyone. As part of our festivity, we started the day with a Scottish breakfast — sausage, bacon, eggs, potato scones, and British-style baked beans — served with hot English breakfast tea. We cooked almost everything over a campfire, enjoying an outdoor breakfast at the picnic table.
Jeremiah usually leads our family members in a contest of traditional Scottish games — like caber toss and tug-of-war. This year, we opted for something a bit less physically taxing — disc golf. It isn’t technically a Scottish game (though golf itself is), but we thought it would be close enough. Most of the family took turns following flying discs from the bunkhouse down to the spring, which was challenging but accessible.
In the midst of the fun, we took a break for a light highland snack of apples, various cheeses, and oat cakes — a homemade oat cracker that we all fell in love with.
For dinner, we went for a Scottish pub theme. We sisters whipped up some Scottish steak pie, Neeps and Tatties (mashed potatoes and rutabaga), and buttered pees. We finally opened up some of the cherry cider we brewed this spring. It was all so good. For dessert, we had cranachan — a raspberry whipped cream parfait featuring whiskey-soaked steel-cut oats. It was delightful.
It was a fun day, which we all needed after such a long week. Things weren’t perfect. I battled a headache all day, and our dad pulled a muscle in his knee playing disc golf. We took the difficulties in stride though, thankful for the much-needed quality time doing something fun outside as a family. We realized how rare these moments have been this year, with so much going on with different people. It made us all want to be more intentional about enjoying the fall, even if it means being a bit less productive.