A Zero Plans Morning in the Woods

When the weather's nice (read: not torrentially raining), I like to get the kids out of the house as much as possible. More than it being fun for them, it's vital for my sanity. Never have I suffered from cabin fever quite as much or as often as I have since becoming a mother.

If we've got a few hours to play with, we love heading for the tiny local woods. J is always convinced that we'll see a bear, a Gruffalo, or "Samichlaus" (Santa Claus), and doesn't seem to mind that they never make an appearance. A has so far never been awake in the woods; something about the rushing of the river or the smell of the trees lulls her straight to sleep.

I hate lugging a thousand things with me when we're out, so we never bring toys to the woods. Instead, we spend our time doing a combination of:

• Walking along fallen tree trunks
• Hunting for creepy crawlies (and their eggs)
• Pointing out "worm poop"
• Building tiny houses out of sticks and leaves
• Looking for new shoots that are growing
• Peeking into rabbit holes
• Listening to the birds (and trying to find them)
• Climbing over tree roots
• Throwing stones into the river

...and really anything else my two-year-old can come up with. If she's in charge, we're never short of activities.

At home, I would have both of them screaming for my attention with J unable to entertain herself, and A refusing to nap, or napping for a fraction of the time she does outside. There's nothing like irritable children to motivate me to get out of the house, no matter how much laundry there is to fold, or how comfortable I am on the sofa.

And in the end, I (almost) always love it.