Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Outside. Always Outside.

Breakfast dishes have hardly been cleared and my pajama-wearing seven year old asks if he can go outside.

Seat work, the first part of our usual school day, is done and my eight year old is begging to head outside.

A basket of plastic dishes, a baby doll, and a bucket of water that was, unbeknownst to me, already filled in the bathroom sink, and my four year old announces she needs to be outside to make breakfast for her baby.

The slider door is open to let in the morning breeze and my one year old stands by the screen and whines to go out. He looks at me, then looks outside, then scratches at the door. (This is why I have no interest in getting a puppy just yet - I have something close enough.)

My kids always want to be outside. 

Often, school work gets done on the picnic table while play-doh and water paint happen close by on the deck. 

My kids are "friends" with our mailman because they are almost always outside during his mid-morning mail delivery. He even humors them by getting out of his truck to shoot a few hoops. 

And apparently sandwiches and grapes taste better outside because I get a lot of "I'm still hungry, can I have more?" questions asked loud enough to waft inside where I am relishing a few quiet minutes with no kids in sight. 

After quiet time, it's a no-brainer: trekking in the backyard creek, working on a new lean-to fort, basketball in the driveway, bikes around the culdesac, or walks to the playground. 
Sometimes I bribe them to stay inside with popcorn during an afternoon cartoon, just because I don't want to sit in the sandbox and eagle-eye Jaxton while he shoves sand in his mouth, or because pulling the wagon with two kids happily munching Goldfish crackers seems like more then I can do for the batrillionth time, or because I'm tired of doing laundry and really can't handle another load of mud-caked, grass-stained, creek-smelling clothes.

But, when the popcorn is done and the cartoon credits roll? Pfsh. Obviously it's time to go outside.
If I'm honest, though, I like to be outside. Sometimes it's more work because I have to actually, you know, do stuff with my kids. (But really, how old does a little person need to be to get the pump-your-legs-on-the-swing concept?)

Really, I'll almost always opt for time outside, especially this time of year. September through December and March through May are glorious months be to outside. Thankfully, we've almost clocked the necessary 180 days for school so I can relax even more when my kids ask to go out.
Outside.

Always asking to be outside.

Always enjoying being outside.

Always cleaning up from being outside.

And always thankful to live where we can spend more time outside than inside.

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