Weekend Challenge #3

For me, winter is the hardest time of the year to get outside regularly. Shortened days, overcast weather, plus the whole process of bundling up the kids to keep them warm sometimes seems like too much of a hassle to deal with. Of course, once I’m outside, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I love the pink cheeks, the windblown hair, and the deep breaths of cold fresh air. I love the smell of the outdoors that lingers on the body and clothes after going back inside. It is always eye opening to find, once I return, a house that is hot with stale air.

Here is another challenge for those of you who are looking for a reason to get outside. The photo essay that follows is a walk we took looking for the colors of winter. What colors can you find in your neighborhood? 

Yellow Green Moss found wedged between a rock wall

Red Nandina Berries

Yellow Dandelion

Burgandy?? wild boysenberry branch

I was surprised by how many colors showed up on the pine tree trunk after color enhancing through photoscape

Orange leaf from unidentified weed

 Blue, gray and white from the winter sky

Every Newborn Need a Full Grown Tree

I have a bunch of newborn toys hanging around the house. Soft, plush bunnies and teddy bears, brightly colored plastic teethers to chew and hold on to, and plenty of black and white checkered objects (for those first weeks when babies can only see black and white). These are all guaranteed to hold your newborn’s attention. Honestly, I found these to be absolutely worthless for at least the first three months of a baby’s life.

Might I offer an alternative to the vast array of toys that companies are hoping you will spend money on? A full grown tree, visible from any window in the house, will keep your newborn’s attention like nothing else will (with the exception of nursing). Mere days after the birth of both our daughter and son, I remember being in awe of the power of nature at such a young age. The contrast between the blues and whites of the skies and clouds and the greens and browns of tree trunks and leaves captured the attention of our tiny babies even more than face to face time with mommy and daddy. Eyes were especially drawn outside on windy days when clouds billowed by and branches swayed to and fro.

Let me further suggest that that fresh outdoor air will calm a baby better than any sound machine. My second baby was fussier during the first few weeks of existence than my older one. I remember evenings when his little stomach seemed to be giving him no relief and he would cry softly throughout the late evening hours. Walking up and down the halls would sometimes appease him but, more often than not, simply walking out onto the porch would bring a calm to the little one cradled in my arms and sleep was soon to follow.

God has created us to revel in the natural world around us. From infancy, there is a connection to nature that just blows my mind. It takes hard work to turn us and our kids away from that connection. We must increase T.V. time, surround ourselves with expensive toys and gadgets, decrease outdoor time and allow for more sedentary activities. Sadly, that reality is becoming more and more prevalent. I want to say “yes” to the simplicity of nature and all it has to offer and “no” to manufactured happiness.

My youngest is 4 months old now. He has started learning to grasp things that are put before him. I am just now using one or two of those colorful teething toys. But I am happy to say that being outside still catches his attention and calms him down more than any of the other baby objects lying around the house. And it does wonders for mommy, daddy, and big sister too!

Weekend Challenge #2

Here is the second installment to my weekend challenge series.  The purpose of these posts is to get you and your family or loved ones outside, enjoying God's good green earth. Don't delay - before you know it you will be 70 years old with arthritis, back pain, and no stamina wondering why you didn't take advantage of the good years.

In a previous blog entry, I mentioned future plans for a nature walk that involved finding places that critters call home. We have since taken that hike, and what follows is a photo essay of what we found. Your weekend challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to do the same. I look forward to hearing about what homes you discovered!

For those of you who lost sleep trying to figure out the theme of the last weekend challenge, hop on over to the comments section of that specific blog (Weekend Challenge #1) to find out what the photos were showing! 

 The Squirrel nest. They are all over the woods. Someday you will learn just how much I dislike squirrels. I'm just not quite prepared to alienate my readers yet

I wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch the cockroaches running away when Sarah pulled back the bark

                                                                      Bird House

                                                                 Daisy, the flea motel

You never know what you'll find when you pick up a rock. This was the only thing slow enough for my camera

Happy Habitat Hunting!

Christmas Decorations and Crafts: Enjoying the Old Standards

It’s the week after November. For many families that’s when the transition from fall and Thanksgiving to winter and Christmas take place. Why look for new and exciting Christmas crafts, when the ones we grew up doing can be just as enjoyable today and can become part of the traditions that the family looks forward to on a yearly basis.

1. Outdoor Christmas Trees. Kids will love making an edible tree for the birds. Pop some popcorn and open a bag of cranberries to string up and hang around the tree. Slice a couple of oranges and poke a clove in the center for ornaments. Slather peanut butter on pine cones and roll around in bird seed to hang as well.

2. Sugar cookies. I’ve never really enjoyed the taste of sugar cookies, but I always loved making them at my grandmother’s. We would use her Christmas cookie cutters and by the time they had baked and cooled down, she had colored icings and various decorating supplies out and ready for our use. Here’s an easy recipe if you are looking for one.

3. Ornaments. The Cookie cutters you used to make sugar cookies can also be used for creating ornaments. Use this recipe for the dough and you’ll have ornaments to paint and hang before you know it (don’t forget to make a hole in the dough before you dry it out.) You can also soak construction paper for 5 minutes in warm water, blend and, after squeezing out excess water, pack into cookie cutter forms. Place on a towel to get more water out  (watch out, colors bleed) and then place in the oven at about 200 degrees Celsius, until dry. Glue ribbon on back of ornament

4. Berry Gathering As a child, we went out in the surrounding woods to find a Christmas tree to cut down and decorate. Now that I have a family of my own, we don’t do that anymore, but we do go and gather juniper berries, nandina berries and pine branches to decorate windows and tables. My daughter loves to grab her nature treasure basket and look for the reds, blues and greens that keep nature colorful even during the colder months. Remind your little ones that not all berries are for eating. Some are just for looking at. Google any berries you find to see if they are poisonous

5. Paper Crafts.  How can snowflakes ever go out of style when the possibilities are endless? Instead of using the usual white paper, try heavy duty Christmas wrapping paper as an alternative. And don’t forget the linked construction paper. I'm not saying that this is the most aesthetically pleasing craft out there, but I am saying that cutting strips of green and red construction paper and giving them to your child with some tape will keep them happily involved for a good bit of time.

Of course, there are 100’s of great ideas for Christmas crafts and decorations out there, and I am likely to try one or two of them this season. However, I think interweaving those new ideas with these old ones will help create a tradition that your loved ones will look forward to year after year.

Weekend Challenge #1

If you’re looking for a reason to get outside this weekend, look no further. I’m introducing what I hope will be the first of many challenges. Below you will find a group of photos taken on a recent themed walk with my daughter Sarah and newborn son Jabel. Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to guess the theme and then go on your own version of the topical trip outdoors. You can post guesses and verbal descriptions of your experiences in the comment box. What I really want to see are photos, but I don’t think you can post them.  You may be able to upload them to a folder on Picasa or a similar photo website and then post a link, or your are welcome to send photos via e-mail (Shannon.urum@gmail.com), and I will add correct photo essays to my original post.

Just a note: my purpose was to help my daughter see nature from a different perspective and then share our experience with daddy. It was not to make award winning pictures, so please excuse the quality. You will also have to really stretch your imagination to figure out a couple of the pictures. Good luck!

A review of Big Backyard

Some of the best presents that my daughter receives from family members are magazine subscriptions. In fact, Sarah probably receives more mail than her parents do. I get as excited as she does when one comes in the mail.

We headed out a few weeks ago in search of acorns after reading the October 2011 issue of ­Big Backyard. Sarah carried the basket while I lugged baby Jabel along in my SnuggleWrap. Of course, acorns are plentiful until you are looking for them, so it took a little longer than I thought it would, but soon we had returned home to try out the different activities they had suggested in the magazine. We put a pile on the porch for the squirrels. We counted how many we could toss into containers. We looked for the acorns that sank so that we could sprout them and grow oak trees. Sarah drew some pictures of acorns and hung them on the refrigerator to remind us to check the chosen acorns regularly. True, the acorns have yet to sprout, but we had a great afternoon.

The feature, Green Hour, gives ideas every month of things to do with your ever inquisitive child. I am already ready to take November’s ideas out on our next outing, which include tree find-and-seek and looking for animal homes. There are so many resources out there for parents who want to offer their kids a natural childhood. In the same magazine, the National Wildlife Federation is publicizing one of their websites: BeOutThere.org. Be Out There is a movement to help families raise happier, healthier, nature-loving kids. There are tons of fun ideas and activities on what kids can do outside. On one of our daily jaunts, we searched for any animal life and made a list. Once home, we made up a story that included all the animals we saw. How fun is that?

If you have kids or are just young at heart, take time this week to explore the outdoors. You can use these resources I’ve mentioned or find your own unique activity. Let me know what you come up with, so that I can incorporate it into our walks.