Life lately has been spent dreaming of bright sunshine, blue skies, palm trees, soft white sand, and ocean waves.
And the piles of denim squares are growing.
Yesterday was gray but warm. These three had a blast. The game: “Rascal, bark if you like Trump.” Throw the ball at Rascal and, of course, she barks.
Great exercise and fresh air.
Back when more of our kids were little, I was pretty consistent to send them outside as part of our daily routine. Bundling them up and unbundling them often took longer than their actual time outside, but I believe that fresh air and exercise and that brief diversion to the day was so important for our days to go smoothly. This winter, with Josh and Jewel disappearing to the basement to play Legos or K’nex or farm/train, and Josh able to set his own timer for the computer and do his own thing, whatever that may be, and Jewel happy to read, days have gone by when all of a sudden it’s chore time and no one has blown off steam outside. Sure, they do chores, but that’s not a lot of time and not terrible much energy. I didn’t realize this until these two started having trouble falling asleep at night. And then they’d have trouble getting up in the morning, which pushed their bedtime back further; but there would still be nights one or the other would be awake far past what they should have been. We didn’t like this new schedule; we value our time catching up with our adult kids and each other. What on earth was happening here? When it dawned on me that they’re basically laying around all day (as compared to their siblings at their ages) and not getting that so-important fresh air and exercise, I started purposing to send them out for an hour before choretime. More often than not, they don’t want to come in after choretime because they’re involved in the activity they started when I chased them out…reminding me yet again that even though they’re cozy and warm and happy inside, and yes – they might resist going out – truth is that once they’re out, they’re happy to be there and often don’t want to come back in!
And best of all - - - they’re back to having good nights!
Always love having Ceci.
Her favorite Kaiser.
We’re loving this strange white stuff that keeps falling from the sky today. So nice to see it!
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