Outside

One of the best things about being a stay-at-home-mom is getting to be outside with my kids every day. Even now, with triple-digit temps every afternoon for months, we can get out early in the morning or after 7PM or so, and it's quite bearable, even enjoyable. Besides, if Natalie is cooped up inside all day, there's hell to pay! Good thing that's exceedingly rare here in Central Texas.

Over the weekend, Rob and I took the girls for a walk in a nearby neighborhood, not ours, for a change of pace. We were also eyeing xeriscapes to get ideas for our own yard. We parked near the entrance to a small wooded area and made a short walk around the neighborhood before we ventured into the woods.

I forget how refreshing it is to walk in the woods. I forget that I believe it's absolutely essential, like a vitamin for your soul. Thoreau was definitely on to something.

Fortunately, it's not just the woods. Being outside anywhere in nature makes me feel like all is essentially right with the world, in a way that I can't tap into indoors. Our little human drama is just that, little, in the grand scheme of things. I can't feel that here, thinking about it at my computer. Not looking out a window. You have to be there, outside, surrounded by it, to feel it.

We spent a good part of this morning on our back deck, as we often do if we aren't over at Schroeter Park on the playground. Natalie played with a simple teddy bear, changing its diaper, making it fly like a butterfly, sending it down the slide of the dry kiddie pool. Rachel fussed until I put her in the Ergo carrier, then she settled and quickly fell asleep. I hand-watered a bit of the yard missed by the sprinkler yesterday, then assembled and folded cloth diapers fresh from the laundry. It was simple, but wonderful, to be outside doing ordinary things with my two daughters. It was warm, to be sure, but we have a fan and a roof on the deck, and with the morning breeze it's not bad at all.

Now I'm enjoying some quiet time while the girls both nap. Yes! It happens! Not every day, but it does happen. And it's so nice when it does.

Anyway, I'm a big believer in "outside". It does wonders for the girls' disposition, and for mine. So lucky are we to live in a city of parks, where it is temperate almost all year.