Picnic dinners & play

As the weather warms, we're spending even more time outside. Nicholas is mowing and trimming, I'm weeding and sorting out rocks from a garden bed, Cooper is roaming and playing in dirt. But beyond the practical outdoor tasks, we're doing a lot of playing too!

The other night, I pulled out a melamine tray, plated our dinner (egg casserole), and grabbed a sparkling water. We laid out our favorite thrifted picnic quilt (I think it was my mom's find a long time ago). Cooper ate ground beef and blackberries, took sips of our sparkling water. We left our shoes off, enjoying the feeling of bare feet in grass—all three of us. And then Nicholas climbed one of our trees, like he used to all those years ago when we were newly dating in college. Cooper asked to join him, too. And then didn't want to come out of the tree.

It was refreshing to just play. And it made me realize that this little family of ours, this home and yard of ours, these are not minor blessings. Having a little boy to play with outside makes me more playful. And oh, it's good for my heart to feel the lightness that only play can spur on.

So thankful we have a God who knew that children can bring this lightness, and that He created children to specifically learn and enjoy life through play (and us alongside them).

Tags:

Related posts

Winter adventuring

Starting sometime in the fall, I made a point to be a bit more creative and find new to us trails to hike on and explore. Since then, we have found several new favorites for when we are in the mood for a hike, regardless of the season.

•5 min read

2022: A year in review

Welcome to my annual post of our life in the last year – a review of all the big and little events, travels, habits, heartbreaks, and joys. These posts require a lot of time and energy, in part due to sifting through all the posts I wrote in the last year, but also because these posts spur me to reflect and sit with the previous year for a moment, before stepping into the next one.

•12 min read

More green than the sky: A July beach day

A few weeks ago, our little family of four made plans with my father- and sister-in-law for an early Saturday morning at the Lake. When we arrived in the eight o'clock hour, it was breezy, in the low seventies. At this particular beach and time of day, we had our pick of spots; only a few families were there before us. I chose a spot pretty close to the water and Coop dumped out his new beach toys out of his mesh bag and got busy building and digging. Soon enough, Nicholas, who had been parking the truck, and my SIL and FIL joined us.

•2 min read