I’ve attempted to write this post for about a month now, so finally – here it is!
We’ve officially joined Wild + Free homeschooling group in Lakeland and went on our first nature hike with that crew! We had a blast. It was fun exploring the same park Blake and I used to hike when we dated ions ago.
Drawing, painting, sketching, inventing, creating… you can be these things are happening practically every day in the Scheidt home.
This week has been one of those off-weeks. Micah has regressed to waking up between 3- 4am for feeds and losing those couple of hours of sleep has severely heightened my brain fog. This has meant lots of apologizing for mom being impatient as well as more television watching than I’d like. As a recovering perfectionist, I’m learning that a messier home and occasional television can actually lead to mom extending more love and patience, which ultimately means a successful day. Which is my [our] main calling after all, right? I will say, however, it is a weird job -working at home. I’m the only employee… and also my own boss… and I can quickly turn against myself during performance reviews!
{Side note about the T.V., we’ve really enjoyed several episodes of ‘Little House on the Prairie’ this week. The stories of a family that work together to make ends meet, choose gratitude over complaining, and at value integrity over wealth has made for great conversations. Also, nostalgia… 🙂 }
We decided one day this week to do a back yard scavenger hunt, looking for items in nature. Anytime mom creates a game or scavenger hunt, Adon loves to then create one for mom to do. 🙂 (Did I mention when he grows up he wants to be a “job-maker”? This doesn’t mean creating jobs for the job-less, this means he makes his own job and is his own boss…) One of the items on the nature hunt was to find an animal or insects habitat. The above picture is the boys discovering together an ants home.
Occasionally Tristan wanders inside for some alone play. And sometimes momma sneaks to make sure the unsettling quiet isn’t due to mischief.
Of course, there’s always drawing! (we aren’t big fans of coloring books since they don’t work the muscle of imagination) Adon has been leading Tristan and I in an art activity after our breakfast devotion each morning and Tristan has surprising enjoyed participating. Usually it is drawings of spiritual battles and God conquering the enemy with His Sword of Love (or in one case, a “tea kettle” filled with love).
Almost every evening this week we’ve had a dinner picnic at the park. Like I said, it’s been a week of less energy so getting out as a family and not having to clean up dinner has been such a filler! The Florida skyline each evening on our way home has been a sight to behold…
As I mentioned, we’re learning how to enjoy staying home more so that we can love Micah well by letting him sleep. He’s transitioned from 3 naps a day to 2, which is well and good, but also means he doesn’t sleep as easily on the go. Little strolls around the neighborhood are perfect ways for us to get out of the house in between naps and still feel like we’re partaking in some sort of adventure.
Today we decided to practice riding our bikes Mimi & Pop Pop gifted for Christmas! Of course there was much push-back from my 5-year-old that doesn’t enjoy new endeavors he hasn’t yet perfected, but we started the journey off with a Charlotte Mason mantra: “I am, I can, I ought, I will”… and inevitably ended with, “I did!”. It was even more encouraging to see how we could use our newly memorized virtuous poem, “Try, Try, Again“.
We took a little walk down the road to a small creek that has a sign saying “DANGER: Snakes”, so naturally we call it Snake Creek. Of course we’ve wandered here dozens of times and have yet to see a snake, but one day we hope to… from a distance. 🙂 The neighborhood stroll is mostly passing houses on a long, shady road, so today we took our time to see what we could find “breathing” on the nature strip next to the road.
Of course dozens of Spanish Needles (bidens alba) lay, also known as Butterfly Needles, which I must include because we saw a lovely yellow butterfly fluttering about. We enjoyed the one single purple flower standing out among the rest.
Scheidt family walks are rarely concluded these days without the toddler sitting in the middle of the road, boycotting movement. Usually laughing. And usually finding a small pebble to put into his mouth, while laughing.
And every now and again, proof of mom & Micah.
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