WoodsWalks 1-4

                 January begins a new year and with it, new goals and aspirations.  I love the openness and expectancy of a new year; the fresh, clean slate.  And I love the reflection on the last year- where I can improve, where I did improve, what I was able to achieve, what really needs my focus now.  Now that it is nearly FEBRUARY, I'll soon be doing a proper post on reflections of last years' goals and what the new ones are for this year.  But for today, I want to share one of the goals for this year that I am most excited about...  a weekly woods walk with the children.  All year long.

CONFESSION: I turn into a hibernating bear in wintertime.  A hibernating SLOTH would be more accurate but sloths don’t hibernate.  I move as little as possible.  I avoid anything to do with the cold unless I absolutely must.  And, it's no wonder, winter can be a very challenging time for me- despair and anxiety and stress creeps in little by little.

(Apparently, sunshine fills my proverbial batteries.)

Coupled with that, I have been thinking a lot lately about how my mothering looks differently, now that I am older,  with my Littles than it did with my Biggle babies.  With the Biggles and some of the Middles, I was growing up with them.  I was making snow angels alongside them and playing hide and seek with them.  Somewhere along the line, the children started playing with siblings and I began staying inside.  I realize this and want to remedy it.  Playing with siblings is so, so good but I do not want to become a dull mother in my old age.  

I hope that this weekly woods’ walk will help with ALL of these things.  I will move my body, even in winter.  I will breathe in deep the fresh air.  I will exhale long.  I will soak up sunshine.  I will feel revived.  I will be encouraging my children to do the same.  And, maybe best of all, I will be a mother who plays, explores and experiences alongside her children once again.  I have already been sledding twice- and I haven’t done that in YEARS!  Moses and I had a very fun time rolling down the pipeline two weeks ago.   Imagine!  Me, 43 years old… rolling down a hill, arms tucked tight and legs flailing- laughing like a child.  It was amazing. 

I am going to take a picture every week for accountability and later, a rememberance book.  At the end of the year, we will have witnessed the woods in all its' seasons, we'll watch it transform and come alive.  

And maybe, just maybe, we'll see the same in ourselves.

WoodsWalk 1:

(First Week challenged My resolve almost immediately when we went out in the middle of a winter snowstorm)

Right behind us was where Matt fell from the sky and lived to tell the tale

Woodswalk 2:

WoodsWalk 3:

Not clever enough to bring sleds along, the pipeline hill begged to be sledded down- so we used coats instead.

Woods Walk 4:

We came prepared this time

 

 “Everyone begins as a child by liking Weather. You learn the art of disliking it as you grow up. Haven’t you ever noticed it on a snowy day? The grown-ups are all going about with long faces, but look at the children—and the dogs? They know what snow’s made for.”

                                                -C.S.Lewis, That Hideous Strength

Birthday Wishes Do Come True (Ineke turns 10!)

Ineke, going in to her 10th year, has a deep and abiding love (infatuation?) with horses.  

And so naturally, horses had to be a part of her birthday.

Besides horse socks and a horse notebook and a little horse lantern, she got a beautiful horse card...

and on that card, she got a ticket.

And on that ticket, she got a birthday trip to ride a horse for the first time!

(I think, from those tears, that this was a very Special, Secret Wish that she had been holding close inside for a long time.)

Thank goodness for friendly, generous, homeschooled horse-people like Kate, who are willing to make birthday wishes come true.

This is Boon.  

I think both Boon and Ineke had some trepidations about trotting.  Poor Kate had to practically pull the horse to a trot...

But eventually trot he did. And Ineke was glad that she had done something that made her nervous.

What a brave, beautiful, boisterous girl you are, Ineke Beaneke. 

And we love you more than a barn FULL of horses.  ;-)

For her dessert, Ineke requested a fruit cheesecake.  Here is a fruity cheesecake at dusk.

 And here is her fruity cheesecake on fire.

And here is her attempting (and failing) to blow out the MANY candles upon her fruity cake:

One can only assume she had such a hard time because all her wishes had already come true.