From the earliest moments, hearing those birds chattering to eachother in their own little homes, to the crickets singing us all to sleep, our lives are a series of moments strung together. Sometimes I feel like I can almost taste Springtime in the fresh bursts of air: rain, sunshine, dirt, flowers. It's intoxicating.
These Spring days are jammed packed and I'm noticing our family rhythm changing, just a bit, with the seasons. Outdoors and then in, back and forth, all day long. Sand from the sandbox is tracked right up into the bedrooms. Quilts stripped off beds are carefully laid out on the grass for outdoor naps. It may seem a bit backwards and mixed up, but in reality it's just life - this family these days.
The kids seem to feel it, too, and it's all I can do to get them to tackle a few chores, a bit more schooling, before they run out and around. These days are longer but somehow they still don't seem long enough to cram in all the living that we want to do. It's all requiring me to take a bit more time to pause and think on what matters most right now. These days it looks like we might not finish up that math book, but we're treasure hunting in the back yard - the tender blue shell of a robin's egg, chives that sprung up all on their own, a woodpecker in that tree out back. We're baking with rhubarb and hanging laundry out on the line. I'm gardening during the day and knitting when the sun dips down in the West. Taking a bit more time for some things and switching priorities around. It feels good to give in to living life the way it feels it ought to.
Extra curriculars are wrapping up - a handful more baseball games, a ballet recital this weekend, homeschool co op done for the year. Our little homeschool is too, though I plan to keep some of it going all summer long. I look over what we have left and find a balance: 30 minutes of reading per day minimum and another 30 minutes of book work. Just enough to keep us working, but quickly and easily accomplished so we can get to the hard and happy work of living real life as it presents itself. And once again I'm reminded that it's in the living that there is learning, not just in the pages of a work book. Learning takes place in the imagination of children, in the immersion in the natural world. We see it all out there: Science, Math, Art, Logic, Order.
Outside and inside. Day in and day out.
How is your family rhythm changing?
This reflection is so peaceful and energizing all at once. I will admit it makes me jealous! We are in the midst of moving into a new house which has been an exciting but extremely stressful transition. As the result, our family rhythms are completely off. Time together, time in prayer, time relaxing alone - all of it is out of whack. I am craving a return to normalcy; life is not good when we lose our natural rhythms.
ReplyDeleteOh, but the blessing of a new house! A few months of turmoil are worth that! I do know what you mean though, even with good things, if our rhythm is thrown off for too long, life is a bit harder to take. Thankfully this will just be a short season for your family and soon your life will regain its normal flow! Congratulations on your new home!
DeleteThat is just really nice to hear Lydia - especially the sand up to the bedrooms part :-)
ReplyDeleteI was having those same thoughts last night (though you make them sound much more romantic)and today the kids breakfasted on the porch (which means my 2-year-old in pajamas enjoyed the left-over water in the kiddie pool...) and I sent my big boys out first thing to enjoy chores in cooler morning air. Parking the math books and leaving reading until later, they man-up out there splitting firewood. The girls and I are going to dive into bedroom cleaning/sorting and what for you is sand, is for us dust and dirt. And more dirt. Lots of dirt :-) At least we're past the mud stage!
Laundry spins on its last cycle and maybe this is the day to reinitiate our clothes line? Yard clean-up interrupted by trips to the creek, and I see lots of nature journaling in the sunny days ahead!
Enjoy your backwardsness :-)
Love
I can't believe Peter is walking!
ReplyDeleteI have felt a strange shift in our rhythms over the last few weeks and I couldn't quite put my finger on it...until now. It's the shift to longer days, more sunshine, more time outside. While I have enjoyed the shift, I have not embraced the change by shifting our rhythm - thanks for the reminder :)
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