I used to read, a lot. When I was in grade school I would often be grounded to my room, which was fine by me, as I could just hole up and read. My Mom quickly grew wise to this though and in addition to being grounded to my room, she grounded me from reading! My teachers were horrified to hear this in high school, but thankfully it didn't cause any damage. It just made for an effective punishment.
When I started riding the bus to work, 5 years ago, my love of reading was in full force. As Tony just recently reminded me, I used to go through a new book a week. At the beginning it got expensive! But then, I remembered my love of the library and soon it became a monthly trip to get stocked up.
I'm not sure what happened, but when I came back downtown 3 years ago, after a hiccup in the suburbs, I stopped reading. I'm going to blame it on my blackberry. Countless rides, just mindlessly refreshing facebook or checking up on the local news.
And then, Tony got me a book for Christmas. A physical hard cover book by Jon Acuff, called Quitter. It's reignited my love to read . . . and spilled over into downloading the Kindle app on my phone.
I'm not even sure who recommended it, but a blog I've never visited before recommended 15 Minutes Outside: 365 Ways to Get Out of the House and Connect with Your Kids. And I bought it, for $1.99.
And I love it.
The premise is so simple. The author resolves to spend at least 15 minutes outside with her family. Regardless of the weather. Can you imagine the possibilities? I can and while I won't go so far as to institute that it be daily, it's surely going to be more than weekly!
Because this kid?
Love to run.
And kick.
And just be a boy.
And I want to enable him to have adventures, like unexpected turkey tracks.
And I want this little one, to expect the turkey tracks.
Last night we went for a walk.
It was chilly.
It was past dusk.
And on any other day I would have said it was too late or too cold, but last night I was motivated by those 15 minutes it took to walk around our block. We got more done last night than we normally would have and got to enjoy each others company.
I can't wait to do it more.
10 comments:
Your photos are stunning- and your boys are SO adorable. Ezra looks A LOT like his dad. :)
Soon, with the warm weather coming, that 15 minutes will be just a drop in the time bucket. It's so hard to get out when it's cold! But I love this idea. I wish this were a "real" book you could loan me :)
It's cold. My house is in desperate need of a good cleaning. And I'm crabby today. But this post inspired me to put that all aside and take my babies out for a walk this afternoon. Thank you, Leah :)
thank you for sharing this! we got out last night as well, just for a few minutes and i was amazed with how it changed everyone's attitude.
beautiful pictures!
So many reasons NOT to go outside this time of year, but thank you for the push to suck it up and bundle up a little bit each day!
Your boys are precious!
I used to get grounded from reading too :)
I think there's so much wisdom in spending daily time outdoors--I notice we ALL sleep better when we do. Man, I want so badly to have a real live backyard this summer to play in!
I wish I lived closer to you so that you could take pictures like this of Coen. These are just so cute! I love Issac's outfit! Where did you get that hoodie?
I like the new layout!
We just got bak from being outside... in the snowy-wet after reading this... thank you for reminding me to get outside - even when I don't want to.
I love this! Your boys are so stinking cute.
I have a 2.5 month old son, my first, and I'm going back to work on Monday. No doubt ill be reading this blog on lunch for inspiration.
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