A Change of Scenery

     I apologize for not writing this post sooner, but I was busy being OUTSIDE!  For the past week two of my children and I were on a vacation to Schroon Lake, a beautiful lakeside community in the Adirondacks.  We are blessed to have such generous friends that they frequently loan us their vacation home there.  As often as we can, some combination of my family borrows the house which is a mere two or three minute walk to the lake.  This time it was Ginger, Oliver and my turn.
     The three of us have been there two times before together but never in summer weather.  The first trip was last October.  The kids insisted on swimming in the deserted lake while I sat on the beach wrapped from head to toe in their warm towels.  The next time we visited was in April while part of the lake was still thick with ice.  That time we focused our outdoor energy on the local playgrounds.  For this trip I knew the weather was ripe for beach trips.  Lots of them.  I summoned my inner strength and in order to show my commitment to all things outside, I had my nails done for the occasion.  That is how ready I was.

"I had my nails done for the occasion."

     We arrived on Saturday evening and went straight to unpacking and making dinner.  I did channel my fun mom side and took them on a walk to get ice cream.  I will admit that I love the ease of walking everywhere when we are there.  At home we live in a more rural area and can't walk to anything except the local graveyard.  It felt so good to enjoy the simplicity of a quiet walk holding my daughter's hand and seeing the excitement of treating my kids to a late night snack.
     The next day we walked to a nearby church and then stopped on the way home to play at a playground.  It had rained overnight and the only seat available was an outdoor chaise- loungy thing with a fabric cover.  It was sunny and warm and I couldn't just stand there.  I gave in and sat on the soaked cushion.  I hung on as long as I could while the children played.  It got hotter and hotter and I got wetter and wetter.  I lasted about an hour and then suggested we head home.  After lunch was our first beach trip.  The children were in the water faster than I could set up my soccer mom chair on the sand.  They were in paradise.  I am about to admit something big.  I was happy to be outside.  Happy. Outside.  Watching them was a pure delight.  They made friends, built sand structures, swam, played, and giggled.  It was wonderful.  We stayed for hours.  We stayed past dinner time and past when the other families left.  Exhausted, we headed home.  Repeat that for the next five days.
     I really was extra fun during this trip and we were outside each day for many hours.  By day four though, I prayed for rain.  I got it in the form of a thunderstorm overnight and a grey morning.  It didn't last and we were right back on the beach by lunchtime.  Oh well.  The children were so happy.  That was all I needed to keep myself on that beach.

Ginger and Oliver

     I will admit that it was easier to be outside because the weather was so reasonable.  Just as soon as I would start to complain about the heat, the sun would disappear behind a cloud and I would stop my grumbling.  Watching the kids was what really made it all worthwhile.  It made me think how easy it would be to make them happy by getting outside with them more.  They need to run and be noisy and explore.  They were loving every minute of our time there and that made me love it too.
     Saturday morning we slept in, tidied up, and were on our way home from the Lake House.  We were all sad to leave.  By the time we had driven the three hours back to our house the rain started in earnest and continued for the rest of the day and all through the weekend.  Believe it or not, I was glad it waited for us to go.

   
   

Ugly Hot

     So it turns out that Saturday was National Get Outdoors Day.  I participated in National Hug Your Cat Day and I tried to participate in National Doughnut Day, (who ever would have thought Dunkin Donuts would run out of doughnuts?), so I figured the least I could do was participate in this one too.
     I started the day by heading out to the baseball field to watch my youngest daughter play.  Ginger is a delightful little girl who is social and silly and easy going.  Although she has no real interest in sports, she is always perfectly happy to go to baseball each week.  It may be because she loves to talk to each player as they stop on the base she is guarding.  It may be because there are so many pretty flowers to pick while she mans the outfield.  No matter what the reason, she gets ready each week in her uniform shirt and one of her favorite skirts and hits the field smiling!  A lot of progress has been made with Ginger and her baseball skills through the years.  Until this season, she would frequently be found lying in the grass sucking her thumb during games.  This season she has remained standing at every game!  Another change has happened this year.  She got good at baseball.  Very good.  I think it has been a surprise to everyone, especially Ginger.  That girl can hit!  And catch!  And throw!  Who knew?  This game was no exception.  With the first pitch she sent that ball flying between second and third base and way out into the field!  Like any self-respecting parent would, I screamed, "That's my kid!".  Can you imagine how well she would play if she actually cared about baseball?  After the game a variety of parents came over to tell her it was the best hit of the season. Well there you go.

Ginger "playing" baseball last year

     Although I technically had already been outside for national Get Outdoors Day, I wanted to do even better.  (Was it possible I was really going outside twice in one day of my own free will?)  So when my family left to visit a local farm and pick up our first farm share of the summer, I decided to tag along.  Great Song Farm is a local treasure in my opinion.  The young farmers, Anthony and Sarah are friendly and welcoming and are always ready to share their passion for the farm with you. When we arrived we went straight to the shed where the bounty was laid out.  There were gorgeous mounds of fresh greens each with a placard explaining what they were.  There was head lettuce, bok choy, spring mix, and mustard greens.  There was also fresh basil and garlic scapes and Chinese broccoli.  It smelled heavenly.  I was left to fill our bags while my husband, Dennis explored the farm with our youngest three, Ginger, Oliver and Leo.
     Once the bags were full of fresh vegetables, I went out to find my family.  They were off with Sarah visiting the draft horses.  I had a quick snuggle with the beautiful horses and then we decided to walk around some more.  The kids found a ball and began to play.  I went to the van to grab some water.  In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit this is when I stopped having fun and in all honesty, stopped being fun.  It was hot.  Ugly hot.  It was the kind of hot that made me want to punch a wall.  I wanted my central air conditioning and I wanted it now.

     When I decided to embark on this plan to go outside every week for a year, I did realize that some of those weeks would fall in the summer and more often than not, be very hot.  One of the reasons I chose to start when I did was to get the worst weather over with first. Of course the planning of this journey was made easier since it took place while I was soaking up some ice cold AC in the comfort of the Great Indoors!  I refuse to be discouraged though and I won't consider quitting!!!  I have a lot of summer ahead of me and lots of opportunities to try again.  Who knows?  Maybe I will learn to love the outdoors and sunshine and hot days.  Stranger things have been known to happen.

Baby Steps

     Three posts into my new blogger life and I figured out how to send  an email to my friends with a link so they could read it.  Okay, so I didn't figure it out.  I asked my teenage son to do it, but I did send the email out on my own.  The subject read, "I started a  blog!"!  I sent it to friends and family and eagerly awaited the response.  Apparently my older brother, Dan saw it and without opening it sent an urgent email to my mother warning her not to open it either.  "Diana got hacked!  It is junk." he told her.  That basically sums up how well people know me and my lack of interest in all things technological.  He never even considered that I may have indeed started a blog.  My dear friend, Erica read that I had started my quest to go outside more and told me she needed time to digest the news.  Clearly, saying I was going outside of my comfort zone may have been an understatement.
     Determined to keep up with both the outside exploration and the computer piece of my journey, I needed to make my move.  It was eleven days after surgery and progress had been made!  I hadn't taken pain medicine in five days, the incision had stopped draining and the threat of an emergency second surgery was behind me.  It was time to head outside!  I walked out the front door triumphantly and went straight to our side yard.  We are blessed to live on three and a half acres of fields and woods.  I don't go out there very often, but when I do I can't believe it is all ours.  It is beautiful.  My older kids were terrified to have me venture out but my younger ones were thrilled to see me in their favorite play space.  They greeted me warmly and my seven year old daughter, Ginger took me by the hand.  We started walking towards the path in the woods that my husband had created.  My ten year old son, Oliver joined us then.  My steps were a bit tentative but their excitement was my guiding force.
     We followed the trail lined with trees and flowering plants.  The kids kept shouting, "Look at that!" and pointing at a tiny flower or a chipmunk scurrying by as if I had never been outside before.  Although I had been in our woods a few times, this time felt like a first.  This was a first..  This was the first time I did really look and listen and see what was out there.  Usually if I was in the woods I was giving a new visitor the quick tour.  Oliver found a small, yellow flower and picked it and held it up under my chin..  "Your chin is yellow Mom.  You like butter!".  "No, I don't!", I told him which sent him into a fit of laughter.  Throughout the woods I could see remnants of makeshift clubhouses the kids had constructed and an elaborate pet cemetery commemorating too many of our beloved animals.  The children wanted me to walk off the trail but I thought better of it due to the uneven ground and we headed back.

     The whole experience probably only lasted ten minutes.  By the time I got back to my bed I hurt.  I felt jubilant and discouraged at the same time.  Here's the thing though.  I did it!  I went outside just for fun.  Amazing.

The Best Laid Plans

     I swear my intentions are good.  I want this.  I want to get out there and try new things and I truly hope to fall in love with nature in the process.  Unfortunately, life got in my way this week.  I started my pursuit of a year exploring the Great Outdoors with a big kick off!  I camped!!!  Sort of.  Then the day after the camp out I had surgery on my spine.  It was my third in three years.  I knew the surgery was coming and decided to start the blog and the adventure anyway.  I figured I needed the accountability of announcing that I was doing this or I wouldn't stick to it.  I also knew it would be harder to be outdoorsy for the first few weeks after surgery which is why I started it before.  I know myself well enough to know that any excuse to not get outside would make it easy for this journey to never even begin.  What I hadn't counted on was not being able to get outside for the past week AT ALL.

     In my mind I had thought that by now, six days post-op, I would have taken a small stroll or at least sat on the back deck and sipped a cup of tea.  Nope.  As each day passed I became more anxious about the fact that I hadn't been outside for the week and the clock was ticking.  Yesterday I was determined and today I was defeated.  I hurt.  My neck hurts, my head hurts and the dizziness is taking its toll.  I have decided to cut myself some slack though.  It has only been six days after all and it was major surgery and I still blogged!  Go me!  Plus I thought about going out.  That has to count for something.  I actually did even more than that.  I emailed some friends and asked them to consider adventuring with me in the future.  I received enthusiastic yeses!!!  Planning is in the works and I am thinking about feeling good again and getting back out there.  You can't stop this girl!!  (In all honesty it would be very easy to stop me so please don't try.)  The point is that tomorrow is  a new day and the Great Outdoors are right there waiting for me.