Life has been crazy in a good way lately. It’s a welcome change.
Sure 3 children is still crazy, and we barely have a minute to sit down, but it’s been manageable and fun. We’ve been doing more things and sometimes I can’t believe how different it is from 6 months ago. Six months ago going to church or on a playdate might have been our only activity of a weekend, and now it’s not even our only activity of a day!
This summer feels like it’s shaping up to be really fun, and us finally doing all the things we’ve dreamed about for a while. We’ve planned trips to some small theme parks and baseball games and other things that we’ve been wanting to do for a while. We have trips or activities planned almost every free day, so much so that we put up a big calendar on the wall for the kids to see it all written out. They’ve been spending time looking at it every day, using the pictures I drew to tell the story for how their summer will go.
We went on a hike recently, surprising even myself. It was a rainy and nasty day which was giving us some cabin fever, but there was a small break in the weather and we decided to give it a try. We’d had a smallish route recommended to us, so off we went. It was the first time F was out of the stroller (she’s getting pretty good at keeping up and a stroller wouldn’t have worked her anyway) and she was PSYCHED. I’ve never seen her so happy. She practically skipped through the woods, holding my hand the whole time. She only tripped 2 or 3 times (and since she was holding my hand, she didn’t actually fall) and had some impressive stamina. E and G led the way, happily running in front of us, looking for the next tree marker. No one really wanted to stop and explore much, even when we found a bridge over a pond. They wanted to keep moving forward.
Even when it started to rain, the tree cover was enough to keep us dry enough and no one complained. F made it almost the whole way, only getting carried the last 2 minutes or so until we found our car again.
I love giving them the opportunity to explore, get dirty, and get outside. It makes me really happy to see that it’s a possibility for our family right now, and mostly enjoyable for everyone. I’m learning to always pack snacks and water in the car, and maybe a change of clothes.
Being busier plus me finally getting back into reading has definitely meant I’ve been writing less here (I meant to do a post about Mother’s Day weekend, but that never happened!), but I still enjoy capturing memories like this one when I can.
