Fowler

It was one of those weekends that is just me & the kids. I confess that I had BIG dreams for this weekend. There were three painting projects, a construction project, and a fantastic cake slated for completion. Jim gets home in about three hours and oh, none of them have even been started. I could blame it on my mildly fractured fingers (smashed in an extension ladder), or two sick kids, but really, it's just that I had ridiculous expectations. Clearly I am not in single-parent mode any longer (thankfully!!) and grossly overestimated my productivity in a couple naptime hours each day (which I didn't actually end up with anyhow). 

We spent a lot of energy working through some emotional stuff Friday, then on Saturday we all needed a break. I told the kids (ok, just the one old enough to have super-strong opinions about family time) that we were going on an adventure whether they liked it or not, I would be taking pictures, and they were going even if I had to cram them into the car with bed head and pajamas still on. The threat of bed-head pictures posted on the blog for all to see did the trick. Happily, I can report that no force was necessary and they all came along joyfully. 

There is a nice little natural area we chose to check out. Honestly, I had no clue what to expect when we headed out and my gps couldn't locate it, so I was happy as can be to find clearly marked signs on the highway. 

There were really neat mushrooms growing all over the place, and we saw a turtle and a crane in the lake. My plan was to hike, but there was a wide mud bog at the start of the trail that Aeryn could leap quite easily, but was too big for T to maneuver and I had visions of myself knee deep in goo if I tried to traverse it with him while wearing the baby on my back. In a split moment I chose the easy (read: dry) option and we skipped hiking for the day. 

As we were walking along, one of Jim's coworkers saw us as she drove by. It caught me completely off guard to hear our names because we still know about four people in town. 

Aeryn did a reasonably good job of pretending to be interested. I'm sure she knew that her mom is a sucker and if she's nice just long enough she'll get her phone back before unleashing the teenage tyranny once more. What can I say, she knows me well. This time however I gave her a photo scavenger hunt and it seemed to keep her interest for more than a few moments. I'm sure it's hard to be a teenager stuck with the preschool age crowd all the time. Once in a while I succeed at being compassionate. 

Tate just loves everything.  He's at that super fun inquisitive, curious, and mostly cooperative age. I don't want it to change, though when he decides he's done with diapers I will welcome a little change gladly. 

I'm thrilled to have found a little place to escape from daily life and enjoy the peacefulness of nature. We all felt a little refreshed and it gave me the mental strength to make it through the rest of the weekend. Yay nature! We will be coming back here for sure, if only to look for more turtles.