outside

We're starved for a bunch of things right now and near the head of the list surely is our connection to the natural world. Winter keeps us indoors and even when we are outside, the frozen landscape seems out of reach. Even when Ed and I ski the trails that run through the forest, it's hard to remember how much life there is all around you. In the winter months, it's well hidden.

Of course, we've had some fine early spring days this year, but clearly,it's not been enough, because today, the kids (and especially one kid, the older one, whose choices typically determine the play sequences for the both of them) kept asking for outdoor time.

 

I am up super early. Before dawn maybe, though the clouds contribute to the feeling of being up at an ungodly hour. Typically I have 90 minutes worth of chores to do before breakfast. Today is no exception. I fly through them ans still, they take 90 minutes.

Ed, breakfast!

 

And immediately after, the kids arrive. And it's like a whirligig of activity: read, play, remote school, go outside, go inside, play, lunch, remote school, outside again, inside again, outside again. Note the recurring theme: again and again, the great outdoors beckons. 

This then is our day. For some reason, my camera was as active as the rest of us. Consequently -- fewer words, more pictures!

On arrival, she reaches for one of her all time favorite chapter books. We've read this and the others from the series maybe 100 times.

Speaking of all time favorites, Sparrow will never tire of his rubber puzzles...

... and Snowdrop will never tire of making up stories with her dolls here.

Oops! School time! It starts with writing class. She likes that.

School's done for now. A visit with the chicks...

Let's go outside! Boots on, door open before I have a chance to react...

We find Peach's eggs in the garage...

School again! Math this time. Sparrow pulls up a chair and brings something he can count. She tries to concentrate...

I hear it again: let's go outside! They join Ed in branch removal...

The heavier the better...

We go to the fields behind the mighty pines. He collects pine cones...

She tells us this is what meditation-relaxation should look like.

Plenty relaxed!

We needed this time outside. Life is stirring. Everywhere. It's palpable.