First Nature Day of the Summer

In order to make the most of our summer, the kids and I (mostly me) have put together a calendar that includes all the things we'll be doing, including art camps, dance camp, visits from grandparents, and music we'll be seeing. We've loosely given a theme to the days of the week to help us plan our activities so that we don't drive each other crazy for the next 10 weeks. Tuesday is now Nature Day! There aren't any hard and fast rules, but in general, we're going to get outside, hike, examine, observe, and enjoy nature on Tuesdays. Of course if the week's schedule doesn't allow for nature on Tuesday, it can happen any other day that's convenient, but this at least will help us focus. 

Our hike today was at Gate 7 off the highway toward Bandelier, also known as Sunset Canyon between me and Aaron, because of the lovely oranges of the rocks at the top of the canyon. I was reminded how s-l-o-w the kids sometimes hike, but we were not out to set any land speed or distance records, so we trudged along and enjoyed the now.

Heading down the trail...

  Rhys insisted we go off trail for a bit...

So they scrambled up by the cliffs.

The view across the valley.

Alanna's primary goal in hiking is to get to a snack spot..

And here it is- about 6 minutes from the trailhead.

Rhys is following along, too.

About 8 minutes after we started hiking again, we reached our 2nd snack spot.

Everyone spent time observing and collecting. Rhys filled up a container.

Before heading out we stopped by the hardware store to pick up two magnifying glasses for $1.

We saw lichen...

And cactus...

And sunlight through scrub oak leaves.

And a quite a few signs that this drought is slowly killing everything.

Despite the dustiness, and learning that we need to start earlier than 9:30 to beat the heat, we still had a lovely hike. Yay Nature Day!

Red Sun

The view from our backyard this evening...

The Thompson Ridge Fire is burning to our west. And the Tres Lagunas fire is burning to the East. Hot times!

Happy Anniversary To Us

Our morning's activities involved building our last (planned) garden bed. I've been wanting to have the space to grow pumpkins and this a great place for that: the front of the house. And, the tree we're hoping won't succumb to drought will surely like the regular watering. 

We still need to fill it with dirt. Sigh. 

(12 blissful years! Which is why we can spend the day in the dirt "discussing" a project like this... Ha!)

First Camp Fire of the Season

With roasted marshmallows!

(And a first attempt with mobile blogging...)

Bandaids

A couple of weeks ago, Alanna got a long shallow scratch down her forearm, which after some tears and plenty of kisses, required bandaids to feel better. She wore them for the rest of the day, lined up bandaid-to-bandaid, until bath time. I then suggested she get in the bath with all 6 bandaids on and let the water soak them off; my idea was that would be the painless way to go. No. She wanted them off before the bath. She pulled them off one by one, totally dry, and totally in control. No tears, no whining. So brave.

That's my girl.

(I did all the wincing and sympathy aaahing instead.)

Semantics from an Almost 4 Year-Old

Alanna was playing with her new Lego Princess set, an Easter present from Grandma. I asked her to clean up the Legos on the floor because it was time to go to school, and was informed there were no Legos on the floor, only on the chair.

"Regardless of where the Legos are, Alanna, please clean them up so we can get going."

"They're PRINCESS Legos, not GUARDS, Mom."

Um, okay....


-------------------------------------------

"Mommy, there's a baby in my ear!"

"Huh?"

"There's a baby in my ear!"

"Well, how did it get there?"

"It crawled up my nose! It got stuffed up!"

Oh.... I think she's stuck on the semantics of stuffing something in a small space, and having a stuffed up nose while she's got this cold. I don't know how the baby got involved, though!

"That Stuff Will Kill You, Mom."

Recently, I got a phone call from school that Rhys was suffering from an ear ache, and that I needed to pick him up. Alanna and I were out running errands and were planning to meet Daddy for lunch, and we were hungry. But suddenly, I needed to pick up a sick boy and I had a grumpy girl in the backseat of the car– so I panicked: we went through the drive-thru at McDonald's. Now, I only go through the drive-thru in extreme circumstances: this one afternoon, and when I'm pregnant and don't have enough blood going to my brain. I've been a total of 4 times to a McDonald's in the last 7 years (and to be absolutely honest, once or twice we've gotten coffee inside an establishment). So, after getting three Happy Meals (one for me too) and picking up a sick kid (who had recently eaten lunch, but in my panic I forgot that little detail), I thought it would be good to have lunch when we got home. Instead, I was informed by my 6 year-old that he wasn't going to eat a Happy Meal because, "That stuff will kill you, Mom."

That's my boy.

And my daughter only ate the french fries. So the dog got a lot of treats that day.


As a note, we had to sit in line at the drive-thru so I had a chance to look up home remedies for ear aches because I really did not want to go to the doctor and have an automatic prescription for antibiotics handed to me. We spent some time that afternoon with warm compresses and warm garlic-infused olive oil drops, resting and watching movies. Just a few treatments that afternoon and evening, and another in the morning cleared Rhys's ear ache up, so we avoided antibiotics completely!