Let me preface this post by saying, many of our days are at home and monotonous. I am so thankful to be able to stay home with the kids but many days I lose my patience and am overwhelmed. My house is a mess (I often look around our home and think "Wow, it looks like 4 little kids live and play here!") So please don't look at this post and see a fun adventure and believe every day is like this one in the Southards' home. Most days are just like your days (if you are home with little ones). Cleaning up messes, breaking up fights, keeping a 16-month old from falling off the dining room table he now climbs or keeping him from pulling a fistful of hair from one of his sisters, watching tantrums unfold in a 2-year-old and reminding her I am the boss, trying to help a passionate 4-year-old understand his emotions and learn to control them, and helping a 6-year-old with her spelling words, build confidence in herself and to be grateful with all of our blessings.
But there are some days, we get out and explore. I love being outside and now Stetson is down to one afternoon nap, we have freedom to go out in the morning. This is the perfect time of year as fall is absolutely amazing here in Ohio.
This past week, the kids and I were going to go for a walk in the woods. Where we live in Ohio, there are some amazing parks that have trails through the woods. There are so many we have yet to explore. This particular day we were just going to appreciate the fall weather, find leaves and rocks and let kids be outside enjoying nature.
We ended up finding a part of the trail I had not been on before and we found a place to get near the river and let the kids throw rocks into the water.
It started as nicely standing by the edge of the water throwing rocks and turned into, soaking wet, almost naked kids running around getting themselves so messy.
I have learned that kids are often having the most fun when they are a mess. So I have learned to get out of my box and let them be kids and get themselves messy. Even if it means, going home nearly naked and having to grab all new clothes before heading to a lunch meeting at church.
These are the days I love being at home, watching our kids be kids!