go outside

Instead of X boxes, we've aimed for tackle boxes. Or empty boxes.

In lieu of new toys, we've hoped for more outdoor play - imaginative games born of boredom, sibling squabbles in the hammock, high hopes four square tournaments, chalk drawings on the dead end street, biking with neighborhood kids.

Highlights of a recent play date included breaking open buckeyes and front yard sword fights with art print mailing cylinders. Last week the boys tried to float leaf boats in a cooler filled with water, aiming to find a leaf that could hold multiple acorns. I'll be honest though, by the time Andy pulled into the driveway after work, the boys were *in* the cooler themselves, fully clothed. 

One day, Hank and Tols colored a cardboard box and called it a pizza truck, before it became a cozy place to read. Tuck and Tollie designed a game using found objects from the woods, and battled for the better part of an hour, while Hank and I kicked around the rubber ball he bought with his commercial earnings.

Most often, after this kind of unstructured play, we come inside refreshed and inspired. And this seems as much a gift to the boys as it does to myself.

Also.
Dear Cathy in Missouri,
You have no idea how many of us were texting each other, friends and family - OMGoodness, can you believe it?! Cathy came back! - and how many of us cried over your kind words. There are a million ways we can lose ourselves in the demands and the doldrums, aren't there? Thanks so much for taking a minute to come back here. We do see Celia's shadow behind the three bright faces of her living brothers... Thank you for shining a light our way again, for letting us know you remember her, too.
xoxo