Author: monstauffer

The Creek

This morning I got up and felt the desire to “go away” from our house. We’d settled back in since vacation and now it was time for a little cabin-fever driven play. Today not being a homeschooling day meant we were free until nap time, while I still hoped to spend the lunch time with Matt.

At first the idea was a local park that has farm animals, play equipment and not too much walking. I gave a few friends a call, discovered their full plans, and then rethought about our original plan. If we were not partnering with anyone else, we were free to do whatever. Then the idea popped into my head: muddy water play. The level of grease in Rachael’s hair this morning sealed the deal, clearly bath time was in order for today so why not get the most out of the dirt before returning to the world of clean.

Rachael was all-in, my previous “ew-dirt” toddler now turned into a “dirty can be fun” preschooler. But Abi had her own plans of lying in a pile of play jewelry (can we say uncomfortable?) and wrapping her stuffed duckie in a blanket. VETOED! Abi got over it with a few minutes of consoling and then happily got into a swim diaper and bathing suit. With T-shirts (for extra sun protection), water shoes, a few bath toys, some towels and my camera we were out the door to our adventure.

The girls, having never play in a creek before (dude, they’re small), learned all kinds of things about creeks through hands-on experience. And boy can I tell you, we experienced the creek TO THE FULL. Short of drinking the water intentionally (sorry Abi), we did just about every other little sensory experiment imaginable.

Rachael learned about water currants, floating and sinking objects,

 Boat floating down-currant. Then whale’s turn to float in a bucket.

depth of water, mossy rocks being slimy,

and all kinds of other personal experiments like how much water can be splashed by jumping furiously in the water.

Abi enjoyed many dump and fill pleasures with her self-declared recycled cottage cheese container which was a HUGE “no no” in the sharing category. That container was an emotional attachment, a beloved friend not just a selfish moment of “I don’t want you to have it”. No, cottage cheese container was NEEDED  (funny how they attach to things randomly). Rachael was content to play with everything but Abi’s cottage cheese container so no wars were waged creekside. Abi also highly enjoyed kicking and splashing – a must for my mud-inspired baby.

 Dump and fill.                             Kick, splash, kick!
 Catch the small waterfall.

While the girls were a little hesitant at first about the shiftiness of creek rocks, they soon kicked into their regular selves, sitting in the cold water with squeals and ‘do it again’s. In a few minutes their limbs had gone numb in the creek’s shade-covered arctic waters and their focused turned to exploring the water.

 Explore. Discover. Delight. 
           Joy.                                         Catch and release.
      Exploration.                                Watering her hair. =)

We stayed for 45 minutes of bliss, soon-to-be lunch grumbling encouraging our departure. I wondered what people thought as two young children emerged from the “no swimming” lakeside entrance (we walked a little ways back to the creek) fully wrapped in towels and soaking. We looked like rebels, but there were no signs posted in the creek area regarding swimming (probably since the water was um ankle-deep), but my children very nearly swam in that very ankle-deep currant.

A quick towel-drying, change of clothes for the ride back, peanut butter sandwich lunch, bath time and redressing has produced two wonderfully exhausted children and a quiet napping house.

I’d say our adventure was a success for all. =)

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Colored Play Rice

I was asked by my sister in law, Kat, if I’d share the recipe for the play rice I made with Rachael for homeschool back in November 2011. So I figured I could share it on here too to not only gawk at her cute pictures again, but also help anyone else out who is interested in making similar joy in their household.

Recipe for Colored Play Rice
1 cup regular rice. 
1 tsp rubbing alcohol 
food dye to your hearts content. 

Step 1: Stir rice, rubbing alcohol and food dye in a bowl until the color distributes, 

 She’s concentrating, not scowling, I promise. 😉

Step 2: Spread rice out flat on wax paper or whatever,

 Clearly the spreading was the most fun in the making part. =)

Step 3: Let dry for 1 hour.

 Start of drying process.                  End of drying process.
***No she did not stand there for an hour. ***
Then you’re good to go and ready to play! It’s really that easy!!!

***Warning: you will have fun and will need to vacuum.
***Second Warning: sometimes food dye slightly comes off on hands with prolonged play, but the dye washes off easily with soap/water and the rice still remains colored.  









Recycled medicine cups, funnels, old teaspoons, large straws, whatever make wonderful play tools. And I must say, playing with rice has such a calming and soothing affect while encouraging great creativity and manipulation of the rice. We enjoyed burying each others hands in the rice and also just letting her go to town making up communities and storylines in her rice play. We haven’t tried it yet, but another way to play in the rice could be to use toy buildings, people, animals or cars to add in more story play and less sheer manipulation of the rice. But Rachael has enjoyed sitting and playing with the rice for 45 minutes, in which I had to put an end to the play because it was lunch time. I’d suggest a plastic tub with high sides that are high enough to keep most rice in, but low enough to allow the child to play without having to stand or bend their arms awkwardly. Also, the larger the tub, the more the mess – so you’d be surprised what a medium sized (for the preschooler) tub of rice would do for creating clear boundaries and also allowing all play to be in view without requiring the child to turn their head (permitting more distraction opportunities). [Recalling how we used rice for play therapy in attending to one task.] Rachael has never complained about the size of the tub of not having enough room to play. We do use the lid to put extra play items on though, when she is not currently using them. The tub we use is about the size of a show box.

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Country Frog Huntin’

One last story about our mini-vacation that I wanted to share with you:

We had many opportunities to take life at a simpler pace. So if you could take life at a simpler pace what would you do?

Frog catching, of course!!!

Matt set aside his morning devotions Bible on our walk back from the wooden bench swing to return to his childhood.

Despite nearly catching one poor, slimy victim (he grazed through Matt’s hand), our frog-hunting experience did not produce “a big one for the camera.”-

I’m sure my one-hit-wonder theme song “Water Serpent” didn’t aid in Matt’s catching success.  Oh you haven’t heard that wonderful song? You poor, deprived people. Well I’ll share the lyrics with you…

“Water serpent… coming to bite your face off.
Water serpent… out of the mud.
Water serpent… coming to bite your face off.
Water serpent… he’ll drink your blood.” 

Now do you see why Matt’s concentration could have been slightly off?

He’s still my hero regardless. 😉

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Returning

Matt and I went away for a few days this past week – just the two of us. Our little girls stayed at Grandma and Grandpa’s house with a slumber party at a dear friend’s house for one night while Mommy and Daddy got away.
We ventured a whole whopping hour away – not really going a far distance, but certainly traveling a far emotional distance. It was the longest I had ever left our youngest, who will be 2 in June. Honestly, it’s not my distrust for people or my insecurity in leaving her (though in some moments I surely was more concerned about her than our brave three year old), but it was just that with two young children the opportunity hardly ever presents itself to leave them for more than a date night away. They are work, that we know, and yet they’re also the norm for us.
Matt thought it a good time to get away and have a few days to ourselves to celebrate our 5 year anniversary early, since late-August (our anniversary) I am going to be “great with child” and since the second trimester of pregnancy seems to carry less symptoms and more coasting. So we left our home in wonderful care of our cats and a friend and fellow past and current youth group members to “check in on”.
When our tomtom started inventing roads we knew we were getting close to our destination, breaking away from civilization into the farmlands of the nearby country. A large rock marking the gravel road to the property only seemed fitting. Twisting through the woods at 5 miles an hour we broke into a clearing of 71 acres of beautiful land. Four ponds, trees and shade, wooded paths, and a two story manor house welcomed us to our new home for a few days. Luxury breathed deep through beautiful wooden floors, large four-posted beds, various sitting/quiet rooms, a dining room that could easily hold twelve with care, large decks with patio furniture, a basement with ping-pong and a pool table, and three separate and private rooms with bathtub, sitting area and King-sized beds. Hopsitality and luxury breathed from the place. And we drank deep.
The wooded paths welcomed conversations, the bench-swings overlooking the ponds brought dreaming and reflecting, the downstairs couch and “movie theater” area delighted laughter that found us smothering ourselves in it’s cushions and streaming tears. Away with your best friend is more than wonderful. More than delightful.
There was also work to be done, times of homeschool planning (I’m now 3 weeks ahead!), VBS material studying, and recipe reviewing/tagging. We wanted to use our time to relax, but also to get a leg up on a few lingering projects and take advantage of the uninterrupted time (a true luxury for us both).
And then the trip away took the turn most trips take – no, not to the fighting or the bickering, but to the “ready to go home” phase. We looked around us at all the place had to offer and both said, “we miss our girls…. our home…” You know, I think time away is a wonderful thing, a break in the normal routine, a time to reconnect and set time apart for each other. But I can honestly say that I think Matt and I do a good job of that on a pretty regular basis. We didn’t come into this weekend not knowing each other, having neglected each other at home. Quite the contrary, we do make a very serious effort to remain best friends amidst the normal (though we all have busy weeks here and there). With the girls’ schedule, we have a lot of time to be “just us” in the evenings (2+ hours at least 3 nights a week). We treasure that time, whether it’s in watching a show together or working alongside each other in a united goal to homeschool our kids or serve the church, or whether it’s laundry or just melting into the couch together. That being said, we came to the time away with no agenda or past scars to fix, but instead with the same priorities to listen and share and love as we have at home.
And we both agreed on the car ride to our time away and we’ve agreed before that we really like our life. We love where we are right now – me at home, homeschooling, wonderful kids, the church, the house (even with her repair needs), devotions, the youth group, our families, even seminary in it’s demanding moments… we’re both just really satisfied. Really happy. Really blessed.
When you go into a time away with that heart, you find it completely acceptable to cut the trip one “night sleep” (as we describe it to Rachael) early and scoop up your kids early because you just want to snuggle them and be around them again. You find it fitting to spend some of the last day reminiscing about your own bed, those annoying meows of the “feed me” cats, the diaper laundry and other laundry awaiting you, the graduation parties and celebrations coming over the next few days that you want to be ready for… the home that you have left and love so dearly.
Sure our household has it’s flaws and it’s frustrations, last time I checked none of us are perfect. But it’s ours. It’s us. Those little voices over the baby monitor, the urgency of the morning cat feeding, the hallway light flickering from a bad wiring, the dishes piling in the sink, the smelling of socks to verify clenliness, the rocking of the over-packed washer… it’s all us. And it’s loved.
So after a wonderful time away, we returned to the delight of our normal…. and we’re grateful.
– Blessed.
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Our Vacation

  1. Laughing until tears came to our eyes and we buried our faces in the couch.
  2. Quiet swinging on the wooden bench-swing while overlooking the gentle water’s ripples and listening to God’s orchestra of birds.
  3. Getting stuck on logs, going in circles and “back petal, back petal” in “we’re going to have to go to couples counseling after this” paddle boat laughter.
  4. Just sitting beside you, cuddled up on the couch with bowl of popcorn in hand to watch an uninterrupted movie in the middle of the afternoon.
  5. Dreaming about the delights of the days after our family adds in Hannah Joy – the challenges that we will overcome and the wonderful delights of a new snuggler.
  6. Just together… just us… and drinking it in. 
    (sigh) …vacation…
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