Apple Picking + Honey Pot Orchards

The highlight so many b-school families talked about last year was the fall retreat – apple picking and a potluck at a professor’s home, a little outside of the city. And we missed it. I can’t remember why now. Maybe something up at my parents? It must have been.

This year, though, we went. We may have only picked apples for half an hour. And we may have left the potluck early to make it home for naps, but we went.

I’ve been listening to this book on time + priorities and it talks about a few different characters involved when talking about “yourself.” Instead of just considering your “experiencing self” when deciding on an activity, think about your “remembering self.” For me, this boils down to “just show up” or “do it anyway.”

This apple picking excursion may have made my “experiencing self” a little overwhelmed, exhausted, and a bit hangry, but my “remembering self” has so beautiful pictures and fond memories of Lincoln and Adelaide running through the orchards with dear friends. It was a few hours for my “experiencing self” but it’s lots more for my “remembering self.”

So often I find myself shying away from activities I want to have done, but don’t actually want to do. Like camping, for example. I want to be a family that camps, but actually packing everything we need and spending two nights sleeping in a tent with my children? I can imagine more enjoyable things.

But then I find myself waxing nostalgic about trips I know had lots of EARLY mornings and toddler meltdowns because we were in new places doing things, all together.

All of that to say. We went apple picking this year. We followed up the apple picking with the rest of the HBS Parent’s Club retreat at a professor’s home. The kids jumped the bounce house, painted pumpkins, and refused to sample all of the delicious soup at the chili cook off.

This season might be tiring for my experiencing self, but it is the sweetest for my remembering one.

Here are a million more pictures:

** Of the photos up above, the one of all the little friends makes me the happiest. The greatest thing about this short chapter of our lives is the wonderful people we get to live with (or live on top of, in these tiny little Boston apartments). Before this, friends required scheduled play dates, and now, even on days I am too frazzled to schedule fun things for my kids, all I have to do is walk downstairs and they’ve found a friend. Tonight Ben asked Lincoln how our walk was and he responded, “GOOD! We saw ALL the friends, dad. First we saw Kenley and Ryan. And then we saw Ida and Wendy. Oh and there was Hyrum (pronounced Hyrooooom), too.”