More strategies for rainy days

Rainy day strategy #2: Wear good gear.
Ok, this should be obvious. But I'm surprised at how often it's not. I see kids trying to play but getting miserable and cold in their soggy, not-warm-enough, leaky clothing. I only recently discovered the existence of rain pants. What a brilliant thing! With those, a good hat (or hood), and rain boots, a kid can be covered head to toe and splash to their hearts' content. I'm also a big fan of snow suits, which in spring become "mud suits." That's Lucy wearing her lightest-weight snowsuit above; perfect for a cool rainy spring day (and I'm still loving those Stonz boots for her!). Much worse than kids not dressed for the weather ('cause many of them don't really mind being wet), is parents who simply don't want to be out in the rain themselves and so keep their kids from enjoying outdoor play. Why? They're not dressed for it themselves. This is how I look when I take the kids out to play in the rain:

What? You say I'm not fashionable? That my men's rain suit is a few sizes too large? It's true. But I'm also the mom who can play outside in the rain for hours, sit on the wet ground when I get tired, and pick up a muddy child who needs some comforting without a moment's thought to my clothes. Mamas, if you don't have rain gear and a snowsuit, get thee to a thrift store and buy some! I swear, it will completely transform your attitude toward the weather.

Rainy day strategy #3: Bring out art supplies.

Sometimes, a child is feeling grumpy about playing outside in the chill and rain. That's when I like to pull out something interesting to distract them from their (often temporary) discomfort. Art supplies are one of my favorite rainy-day tricks. Chalk, paint, and clay are all easily used on a rainy day and are transformed by the rain into a new experience. Look how brilliant the chalk colors are on a wet driveway!

Chalk. Rain pants. They seem like such simple little things. But if it's the thing that gets you outside on a rainy day, it opens up a whole world of possibility for discoveries about the joy of nature in all weather.

Play along with us during the month of April for Children and Nature Awareness Month by posting a picture of your child(ren) each day enjoying the outdoors! Get outdoors and climb a tree! The list of players is growing every day; check it out here.

Aiming for a junkier garden

I used to think I hated garden ornamentation. Gnomes and shiny silver balls and most especially, junk as "art," cluttering up the yard. But then I moved to Massachusetts, where the garden is dead and barren for most of the year, and you're eager for a spot of beauty. And I began to see examples of garden objects, even junk, done well. And I started to appreciate it. Even to want some in my own yard.

But I'm not very good at it. When I put things in my garden, they look lonely, out of place, odd. So I've been studying gardens as I meet them, trying to figure out why they work. And for the past year or so, one of my main tag-sale and thrift-store missions has been to find good garden "junk."

On Easter, we went to a party in the yard of a friend who's a master at artfully arranging objects. Her home is a work of art, and I'm so in awe of the beautiful vignettes she sets up all throughout her life. I took some photos of her garden for inspiration (unfortunately, my photos do not do it justice. Trust me when I say it's much more beautiful in person.)

After wandering around her garden, I returned to my garden this week with new eyes. I've been rearranging the furniture, so to speak, moving the bits of things I've had in my garden for years and giving them new homes and new friends. It needs work yet, but I'm liking it so far. I'll share photos soon.
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Outdoors today:

Play along with us during the month of April for Children and Nature Awareness Month by posting a picture of your child(ren) each day enjoying the outdoors! Get outdoors and climb a tree! Visit the other Great Outdoor Challenge players -lisa, sanders, angelina, phyllis, sarah, christie, jennifer, debbie, dong dong, denise, luisa, joy, stephanie, cori, alex, dawn, kristen, catherine, tricia, becky, christy, ruth, kari, courtney, branflakes, jessica, renee, haiku, brynn, amy, clemencia, sherry, leslie, lise, renee, anet, jenn, marina, amy, ella, marcia, karen, beth, julie, kyndale, kelly, lizzie, eileen, ag, mari-ann, cindy, robin, nicole, debbie, julia, renee, anita, lisa, jenn, montessori, marita, jeannie, hallie, mandy, kangaroo, andrea, joey, carmen, teena, stephinie, gidget, elizabeth, emma, rosina, saminda, melissa, katie, becca, atouria, barbara, ariella, missy

At long last...

I've finally finished my first crocheted soaker--exactly one month from start to finish. It's a mess. I really struggled to keep track of where I was (front of stitch? back of stitch? which hole? decreasing now, or not?) and it's reflected in its lack of discernible pattern of stitches. And those leg holes? They're two different sizes and loose on her. That seam? Embarrassing! But I'm proud, nonetheless. I did it! And it fits her. And is pretty cute anyway.

And the best news? As soon as I finished it, I began another one just like it (I like to have 2 matching covers when possible, so we can change a damp one and still have her in the "same" outfit)...and it's coming out right! I've figured out how to keep track of where I am (thanks, Julie, for the most helpful tip of a stitch marker!) and am following the directions more accurately and can see and fix my mistakes when I make them. Can it be? Am I actually learning to crochet?

I felt so cocky with my success that I went to class tonight determined to tackle the sweater everyone else was working on (have I mentioned that I'm the only beginner in my class?). Just wait 'til you see...I'm actually doing it!
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Outdoors? It was scary hot today...nearly 90 degrees. That is just wrong for the beginning of April. But we took full advantage, anyway, spending the morning down by the river. (Don't worry about their layers; it wasn't 90 degrees yet!)





Play along with us during the month of April for Children and Nature Awareness Month by posting a picture of your child(ren) each day enjoying the outdoors! Get outdoors and climb a tree! Visit the other Great Outdoor Challenge players-

lisa, sanders, angelina, phyllis, sarah, christie, jennifer, debbie, dong dong, denise, luisa, joy, stephanie, cori, alex, dawn, kristen, catherine, tricia, becky, christy, ruth, kari, courtney, branflakes, jessica, renee, haiku, brynn, amy, clemencia, sherry, leslie, lise, renee, anet, jenn, marina, amy, ella, marcia, karen, beth, julie, kyndale, kelly, lizzie, eileen, ag, mari-ann, cindy, robin, nicole, debbie, julia, renee, anita, lisa, jenn, montessori, marita, jeannie, hallie, mandy, kangaroo, andrea, joey, carmen, teena, stephinie, gidget, elizabeth, emma, rosina, saminda, melissa, katie, becca, atouria, barbara, ariella, missy

If you're going to be wet anyway...

I don't intend a full post for every day of the (newly re-named) Great Outdoor Challenge. For the most part, I'll probably just add a photo to end of another post. But today's rainy weather got me thinking about how often I'm asked about taking kids out in "bad" weather (I don't like using that judgemental term, however; I prefer the Norwegian philosophy of "there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.") I thought it might be nice to share a few of my strategies here.


It rained this morning. Most of the parents hadn't expected it, so the kids didn't have all their rain gear. I have boots for borrowing, so we geared up as well as we could. Today I chose one of my favorite rain strategies: if you're going to be wet anyway, might as well go to water. We headed for the little stream at the end of our block. There, the kids threw rocks into the water (or rolled, as size dictated!), searched for "treasure" (special rocks, bits of glass, fallen tree buds), waded in the water, and climbed fallen trees. We returned covered in mud, pockets full of treasure, happy and tired.




Play along with us during the month of April for Children and Nature Awareness Month by posting a picture of your child(ren) each day enjoying the outdoors! Get outdoors and climb a tree!

Get Outdoors Challenge

(Lucy plays in the sandbox)

Back in the 70s, my sisters and I had free range of our neighborhood. All the neighborhood children convened in the small patch of woods in the middle of our block, where we played for hours, swinging on vines, climbing trees, using long sticks to "clean" a "puddle" of the old leaves that had settled there (as an adult, I wonder, was that a vernal pool we were disturbing?) We walked a few blocks away to a big wooded area bordering a big river: we were to avoid the river, but were allowed to wade in the stream that fed it and spent whole days building dams, creating imaginary worlds, and sometimes falling through the ice into the stream (and solving that problem without any hovering adults.)

Today, it's the rare child who's sent out the back door and told not to return until dinner. Children learn in school about environmental issues, but does it really have any deep meaning without a long-term passionate personal relationship with nature?

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and chairman of the Children and Nature Network, has declared April to be Children and Nature Awareness Month. Lisa, of 5 Orange Potatoes , has created a challenge for the month: go outside with your children every day, and document it with a photo.


(a 5-year-old who's mastered chicken-catching)

If you've been reading here for a while, you know we're already outside every day. I am a huge proponent of taking children outdoors daily, in all weather, for large blocks of unstructured play time. April seems like an awfully easy month to do this: I can hardly stand to come inside with the weather as beautiful as it is! (This morning, we were out from 8 until 9, and then again from 9:30 until 12. And then back out again after nap.) But I wanted to join the challenge, anyway, because although I tell people "we go out every day," I find that I'm often surprised by questions like "you went out today?" and "what did you do outside for 3 hours?" And I can't tell you how many times I've heard family-child-care providers say they don't go out because it's too hard to plan around varied nap schedules (here's my solution to that), or because it's too much to get all the kids ready and out the door. Well, I'm here to say it is possible to get 6 kids ages 0 to 5 out the door on a daily basis. I like the idea of a month of daily photos to document what that looks like.


(Lucy shakes a sapling to ring the wind chimes hung there for the children)

So, let's just pretend that I managed all my 30 days of beauty photos before spring (I tried!) and I'll start fresh with this challenge: an outdoors-with-kids photo every day in April. I'll share Lucy photos and some of the other kids (although those photos will be cropped to protect their identities, as they're not my children).

Here's to getting off the computer and getting outside!

(Scroll on down; I posted twice today for 2 challenges.)

Independence Days challenge: getting greener

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge. It's been a big week for the garden; seems like every day something new is up or beginning to leaf: sprouts of peas, lettuce, chard. Bigger dandelion and Good King Henry and sorrel and ramps (these may be big enough to harvest some in the coming week). Emerging yarrow, comfrey, garlic, lemon balm. Chives being picked daily for snacking on by the kids.


(more, larger ramps in the "forest garden")

Here's what I did besides watching the garden come back to life:

1. Plant something:
More lettuce, beets, peas, and chard from seed. Transplanted the parsley that's all that's left of my "winter herb garden" into the herb bed outdoors. Rhubarb, a transplanted gift from a friend.


(new rhubarb)

2. Harvest something:
Eggs. Parsley. Sap. Chives.

3. Preserve something:
*!#@*! I burned the little bit of sap we were able to harvest this week. The pan might not even be salvageable.

4. Waste not:
I've been working on using up all the old stuff that gets buried at the back of the freezer (3 opened bags of hamburger rolls? Really?).

Can't remember if it belongs in this section, but this week, I've been crocheting quite a bit (progress report on that soon!). I've completed my first diaper cover, which cost me $5, as opposed to the $25 I spent to buy some. A good money savings, as well as being very satisfying!

7. Eat the food:
Inspired by last week's cheese cracker success, I decided to try some more crackers. These didn't come out nearly as well as those did, probably because they're significantly less decadent and because baking with 4 small children in the house is always tricky (i.e. they're nearly burned. Yes, burning food because of too many distractions is a frequent event around here). I'll try again, though. They did come out crispy and crackerish and I loved knowing they were safe for my dairy-allergic baby and had only wholesome ingredients. The kids loved them, too. We're eating lots of dried fruit, applesauce, potatoes, and frozen veggies, using up the end of the stored foods.

Happy Easter!

We're home, resting, after a beautiful, joyful Easter full of good food, good friends, and play.

Our dining room table, set for Easter:


with eggs from yesterday's dying party:


and Lucy's place at the table:

(with a bunny from Granny last Easter, new all over again, and a book from our shelves that she hadn't read yet but will love right now, and a basket ready for today's egg hunt.)

The Easter bunny must have heard me yesterday, because look what was waiting on the steps:


We went to a lovely backyard potluck party. There must have been a very big bunny delivering eggs there:
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We played until we were exhausted:
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Hope your day was as beautiful!