It has been rainy and dreary for several days, but the sun came out today and it felt so good!  Our normally dry creek is full of water and ready for leaf dam building and stick floating.  It is hard to get the kids to go outside.  We’re a family full of homebodies, I guess.  Overcoming inertia is hard sometimes, but once we get out it is always so refreshing.  I can’t quite figure out why it is hard to convince some of my kids that getting out in the fresh air and the woods will be worth it.  Invariably they feel better once they’re out there and often gripe when it is time to come back in.  I’m learning that a great deal of life as a parent is like that– always resistance, always resistance.  The trick is to flow with it and not get too bugged by it.

I feel like our new year officially starts tomorrow.  We’ve been lucky to have Barry home for several weeks, but he has to go back to the grind tomorrow.  It has been so wonderful to have him home.  He is such a do-er!  Our downstairs bathroom got a new sink, toilet, light fixture and paint.  I’ve got to figure out how to take photos of such a tiny space so I can show it to you.  We’ve started a new habit of meeting with the older kids to help them plan the week and we’re learning more of how to tweak the process as we go.

And I just heard it again– there is something that roams our back yard at night screaming/ barking/ yelping/ calling… I don’t even know how to describe it.

A neighbor says it is a female fox in heat.  Maybe we really know what the fox says!  Just what we need back by our chickens.