Our Tuesday activities

I have to have a plan, or an idea of what is going to happen the night before. Can't just go into the day wondering, "What will we do today?". If I do, nothing happens, I don't get out of my pajamas, and we sit around like bums. There will be those days, I'm sure, but not when it's sunny outside, and my house is in desperate need of vacuming.

We started the day with some vague outlines of what we wanted to accomplish. Clean ds's room, have him help me, trim back some bushes so I can get to the outdoor faucet without battling branches, and doing some housework. Ds did help me clean his room, he helped by staying out of my way so I could do some serious thinning out, reorganizing, and putting away. And he does help me vacume, by shooting it with whatever pretend gun he has in his hand, and whacking it as it goes by. Ds also wanted to do some digging to hunt for dinosaurs, since his current "Little Critter" book features this super cool idea.

When we headed outside, the backyard had about 2 feet left in the shadow of the house (our backyard is due West, so unless you get your backyard work done in the morning, you're on center stage with the southern sun as your spotlight). I got to work with the power trimmers, while ds was entertained by washing his out-grown front end loader. We want to pass this toy along to another boy, and it first needs to be rid of it's outer coating of pollen. He's having a great time with his super size sponge, when I look over and he's IN the bucket of soapy water. "Mom, look at this" he's saying to me with a great big grin on his face. By now, we're in full sun, so of course getting into a bucket of water will feel good. With his 4-yr-old abilities he's trying to wash the loader, stay in the bucket, refill his sponge, when something has to give... everything topples over. This just adds to the fun! We refill his bucket with more water until the loader is washed, and ds is soaked.

I collect all of my tools and put them away, and pick up my out door quilt. We can't go inside at this point, so we might as well enjoy some time outside in the shade. We lay the quilt down under some shade trees and hang out. Reading a book, and looking at birds, until he is mostly dry. Then he gets his shovel and starts digging for dinosaurs. He finds plenty of worms, which are just as cool, and finally decides that a safflower seed is a dinosaur bone. As he's telling me about this new find, he's putting the seed all around his body, trying to figure out what type of bone it is, and declares, "It's from the dinosaur's tail" as he's holding it behind his bum.

It's my hope that we'll have more days like this, full of projects, playing and exploring. He's only this age once, and I want to savor every moment. Next week starts soccer, and that with gymnastics we might not get a full day to hang out again until the fall. For now, this is my life, and I'm so thankful for it.