Hike in God's Creation

It feels like autumn today! The temperature dropped into the 60's, the wind blew briskly through the trees, and the sun hid behind the clouds for most of the day. It is my favorite time of year! The temperature is cool but not cold making it a perfect time for hikes, playing with the kids outside, and tending to the last remnants of the summer garden (while simultaneously prepping it for the blossoms of spring). The leaves are turning beautiful colors of auburn, orange, yellow, and brown. The school year has just begun and we still have all the allure of new books, new topics to learn about, and familiarity of settling into a routine after the joys of the summer. Fall also brings the excitement of impending holidays spent with family. All of this blends into a harmonious warmth cascading over me despite the chill in the air.

This tends to be the time of year I make changes and tweak our family life - a sort of new year's resolution. It's not something I've intentionally done but it seems to work out that way. What do I want to make better as we start this new school year (and new ecclesiastical year)? Many times it revolves around spending more time together as a family - "family fun days", prayer time, etc. Other times, it's ways we can improve our daily lives - health, house, learning, sleep, etc.

One of the things my husband and I are working on this year is improving our overall health. Stress and hectic daily lives have a way of taking a toll on the body. Go figure. My husband has a job that requires a lot of overtime and business trips. Many times he misses meals because he's pulled into meetings at the last second and regular exercise is a long forgotten faded memory. This is our first year not being foster parents in a long time. We really enjoyed the children we took into our home but there are many stressful strings attached to foster parenting. Birthparent visits (which actually, we lucked out and they were not a big deal), monthly (sometimes weekly or daily) social worker visits, multiple therapies, meetings with the state where children were specifically asked not to attend (a hard one for us when we live out of state from both sides of our family)....all this for starters. Then throw into the mix foster siblings split into different homes and trying to reunite them (and scheduling times to meet with other foster parents for the siblings can spend time together), adjusting to new children in the family (trying to learn their likes and dislikes while making them feel welcomed and comforted), learning how to deal with these precious children's emotions which they themselves cannot fully comprehend....the list goes on and on.  Taking care of ourselves took a backseat to taking care of our children these past four years.

Over the past few years, we have strived to eat more organically. Originally it wasn't so much to be environmentally friendly as much as to help our youngest son overcome his eczema and ear infections. The more I read, the more I integrated organic foods into our home. Since then, I've switched to environmentally friendly alternatives for laundry, kitchen, and cleaning supplies also.  Last year we started recycling. (It is not mandated in our area. You have to call up and specifically request recycling bins.) This year, we're trying to compost much of our vegetable, fruit, and other compost friendly scraps instead of putting them in the trash can destined for the landfill. Why make these changes? One reason. Respect for God's Creation. Much like we would show respect when entering someone's house to keep their home in the same condition as when we entered it - don't we make sure not to track in mud on a rainy day, ask our children to pick up all the toys they spread across the house during our visit, and even offer to help out with dishes when a meal has been offered to us - we need to do the same for the environment. God created all of this around us. We need to take care of it as stewards of the earth.  We show respect to our friends and family when we enter into their homes - let us do the same for God.  So, with this in mind, my husband and I are striving to make one or two changes every year to help take care of the creation God has so lovingly entrusted and blessed us with.

Another way we take care of  the environment is by teaching our children to respect the earth as well. They will teach their children, spouses, family, and friends. It was such a beautiful day today that I took the kids for a hike in God's Creation.

Our four kids

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Chris - We found lots of fruit on our hike.  He's holding up a the newest find - a pear looking fruit.  The other fruit we are calling "brain fruit" until we learn its real name.

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Chris is giving Niki a flower he picked for her.

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Zach taking a rest on a hill along our walk.

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Justin wanted to give Niki something also.  He very sincerely gave her a rock he found along the side of the path.

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Zach remarked, "Mom, this flower looks like a snowflake."

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Niki calls to me, "Mom!  This leaf looks like a giraffe!!!"  Sure enough, it did.

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We talked about roots.

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Off for more exploration...

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Chris checking out his latest plant find

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The boys discovered how fun it would be to roll the "brain fruit" down the hills of the path and see who could catch up to it first.

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The kids took turns picking a wild flower bouquet for me.

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A closer view of "brain fruit"

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Niki wearing the wild flowers her brothers gave to her

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Justin - our little botantist

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I'm talking to the boys about the lichens on the tree trunk

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I opened up soup season tonight with a homemade vegetable pasta soup, fresh baked bread, and chocolate chips cookies warm out of the oven for dessert....and of course, my wildflower boutique decorating our table.

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Homemade vegetable pasta soup