A Walk in the Park -

I wish I could tell you that these photos were from today—that after a super long day at the school (made even longer by the beyond-depressing end-of-test results that started coming in for my students), we struck out into the sunshine for some quality family time that involved a picnic of gourmet cheese and fruit and maybe even a yoga pose thrown in for good measure (because that’s what trips to the park look like in real life, right?).

Not.

But, picnics and yoga poses aside, these pics were taken on a particularly fine day a few weeks back when spring was still gracing us with ample sunshine and we were thoroughly enjoying the newly-green outdoors (even despite the fact that we did not, in fact, pack a picnic) and I was blissfully counting down the days until school got out. (Note: I am still obsessively counting down the days, all right, but there’s not much bliss going around this particular school week, let me tell you…)

I’ve been thinking a bit lately about what I’m going to do during the summer when my daily schedule is vastly less rigid than it is now. There are some things I’d LIKE to do, of course, like really hunker down in the writing of my novel and more actively work on developing my photography skills and devote more concerted efforts to my 100 Hours in the Kitchen project. Yes, I hope to do all of those things.

But I also plan to spend lots of time enjoying Raven and the stage she’s at now, and one of the ways I plan to fully take advantage of her love of all things outdoors (and her naturally curious nature) is to try and explore as many local parks as I possibly can (with Matt coming along too, whenever he’s able).

I’ve heard too many moms say “You’re going to miss this stage” to take it lightly, and because I have no idea how my health will affect our future family plans, I am striving to live out each stage of life (both mine and Raven’s) with as few regrets as possible.