And we have apples!

For the first time in the 7 years since we planted our apple trees, we have apples! And not just a couple - maybe 20 on the Goodland tree (excellent for eating) and close to 100 on the Haralson tree (good for baking). We think it is the bees - yet another good reason to have them!

Here we are, pulling the wagon out to the orchard to pick our apples. You will notice the large dog kennel behind Jason - those are the bee hives in there.

These Goodland apples are awesome. We ate them all in a flash. I'm going to plant another of those trees.

And aren't they pretty?

Steffany and I made apple pie filling with the Haralson apples. I got 7 pints..and I could have had more but I ran out of syrup and jars, not apples. Fall is definitely a busy time of year. It takes a lot of effort to preserve all of summer's goodness!

And a Reder update. His dropoffs at school have been getting worse, not better. Per Jill's suggestion I got in touch with the school counselor. We decided that I am not to linger at school one bit, and every connection Reder makes with his actual classroom is to be a positive one (ie, I'm not allowed near it because then panic sets in). So, yesterday she met me at the front door of the school. She immediately took his hand and whisked him away, with markers and paper in hand, to take him to his classroom so he could show her how he can write to 100. When we talked about this before we actually did it, he thought it was a great idea. And it worked! Today we did the same thing and it worked again! Hooray! We also gave him one of Jason's old watches to wear, as we are learning that the bell is a source of anxiety for him. He's worried he won't hear it, won't have enough time to eat lunch and go to the bathroom, etc. When he heads out for recess and lunch, his teacher is going to first show him where on the watch the big hand will be when the bell rings, so he can keep track of it. Hopefully this will alleviate some stress for the poor kid too. Yikes, this has been quite the month!

Ruby, on the other hand, loves school and even wants to go on Saturday's. :)