This winter, our house began to feel really small. We don't get out much, and I actually love being at home with my kids, but it seems that when I'm pregnant my personal space bubble expands! The layout of our house ensures that there is always a little body somewhere in my vicinity; our only play spaces are the main living room and the kids' bedroom which, with three kids' stuff inside leaves little room to actually play. The boys play amazingly well together... as long as I'm not in sight. So I find myself hiding out in the kitchen sometimes just to keep from being a distraction to their creative play. I crave afternoon rest time when all three kids are contained upstairs for an hour and I can have the couch to myself, and I look forward to evening meal preparation when the kitchen becomes my territory and I can only be interrupted for a really good reason.
I know this makes it sound like I don't like spending time with my kids. I do! We have lots of intentional time together. But there are hours during the day when I want them to be free to play independently and it seems difficult to find the space to do that when it's 10 degrees outside.
Then finally the temperature starts to creep into the 30's, then 40's... and yesterday we hit 70! Suddenly I feel as if we could comfortably fit in this house forever! We now have a fenced-in "play room" that resurfaced from under two feet of snow, complete with dirt, boards, rocks, and infinite opportunities for imaginative play. The kids have spent hours outside each day and, while my laundry pile has doubled, it's worth every load of muddy jeans and grass-stained t-shirts.
Today I am writing at 10:00am because the boys (Bilbo and Fili) are busy journeying to the Lonely Mountain to steal the dwarves' treasure back from Smaug. I packed them some sandwiches and grapes and they were off! They have only poked their heads inside once to ask for red paper to make a campfire. This is my life in the spring, and it is amazing.
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