Here I am today wishing I had started school earlier in the day, so we could have accomplished more.  However, since we had a big dishwashing battle this morning, which turned into a " cleaning the whole downstairs thing", we got a late start. Oh  yeah,  I forgot that I NEEDED to take a walk (or, if I was a kid I would say I needed to run away), and while I was walking and pondering ( de-stressing or something ), I had a great idea.

      What if we all worked together and made a really neat "nature trail" through the woods to the swamp, where we could go and observe frogs and geese and stuff.?Isn't that a great idea? Wouldn't it be good for the kids to promote health and fun togetherness?  So I went back in the house and told everyone I had a great idea.  They immediately stopped their frantic cleaning (before mom get's back) and listened intently.  I said "Let's make a nature trail"   ...silence.    "You know, a neat trail through the woods that is all cleared with little signs naming unusual trees and stuff."  more silence .  #2son  kid says, "what for?"    So I make a little snack for them all first with  squares of cheese and saltine crackers and apple slices. They liked the snack.  #2son says "how did you cut the cheese into such nice little squares?"  someone else says, " they fit so nice on the crackers"  .  Anyway, we

all went outside , across the huge expanse of yard (which we will soon have to mow for hours on end.), and to the woods. 

           We started to make the trail, clearing sticks and stuff.  It went along pretty good for the first 5 minutes.  Then #1son says "when I go outside I get all itchy on my arms, and what's this bug bite, and why do we have to do this?"   #1daughter says "it's too hot in here, and there's probably mosquitos"  Then we reach wetter ground.#2daughters's new white sneakers are getting black mud inside them.    So we get a good idea of laying down as many sticks as we can find to make walkways . 

    Everyone works hard breaking sticks.  As we walk it gets softer and wetter. More Sticks!  Logs! We need logs to walk on. #1daughter entertains #3daughter by pretending a bent over tree is a horse.  Of course #3daughter falls off and starts crying.  #2daughter keeps wanting to walk in the real soft part and I keep telling her to go back until we get enough sticks across it.  #3son finds some neat ferns starting to grow.  He attaches one to the end of a beaver-chewed stick.  Then he notices some really neat moss.  #1son finds an old junkpile .  He gets distracted and starts

digging around for stuff.  H e gets some old tires and we put them in the mud to walk on.  Then he proceeds to hang various things from a tree, such as an old vacuum cleaner, an old heater, and misc.He thinks it would be really neat to hang a whole bunch of junk in a tree, except he doesn't have enough string. (thank goodness).

      The baby has a dirty diaper of course  The three girls ask if they can go in the house now.  So I take them back, change the baby, and go back out .  I find the boys still on the trail(Amazing).  While I was gone they explored back to the swamp, and found out there's nothing to see except more wet, swampy woods.

#2 son says he wants to go use the computer.  So I tell him and #3 son that they can go in now.  So it's just me and #1son.   He says we really need a tractor to move logs in the right places to walk on. I say "yeah, you're right , it's too hard"  So we come to the conclusion that we all got a little excercise anyway. Then we see a tiny little brown tree frog.  It was worth it all after all.

     Anyway, we DID  finally get some academic school done, but we also learned a few things in the woods.