President's Day Gumbo

There was a time when we didn't get any time off. President's Day was the first holiday (after Veteran's Day) to be cut from the holiday calendar. This year, schools have a make-up day on President's day (it would have been a work day), and day care has the day off. Daddy, fortunately, also has the day off - but not like it makes much difference since he's paid hourly.

First on the agenda for President's Day (after the usual exercise and breakfast) was a trip to the back yard so Katie could jump on the trampoline while Daddy raked leaves. A million MORE leaves fell thanks to the 50 mile-per-hour winds we got last Wednesday. I thought I'd already raked enough! There are a few fallen branches, but nothing serious.

After the trampoline (which involved sweeping snow off and jumping), we went over to the swing set where Katie pushed me on the swing, then I pushed her. I climbed up top and cleared some pine needles from the bridge above the swings - which turned into a bit of a target practice game - to see if I could hit Katie with just a little of the detritus while she was swinging. She loved it!

Then we went for a little nature walk out the back yard. Usually, we just cut straight across from the north gate in the back yard to the greenway, but this time we went out the south gate and walked along the west bank of the stream, trespassing in a few neighbor's yards along the way until we got to the HOA stream bank. Katie got to see ferns, moss, vines, thorns, and other cool nature stuff you can see in the winter. Daddy picked up trash and had two hands full upon return.

The main stream has a channel of varying width, but it's about 5 feet wide where the water flows about 6 inches deep at a relatively brisk pace. We were walking upstream and came to a fork where we chose to cross a small (foot-wide, 3 inch deep) tributary. Katie walked across on a root while Daddy held her hand and straddled the stream. It was beautiful.

Then we came back. Daddy found an easier place to cross and took that, but Katie wanted to go back by way of the root. And Katie managed to put both feet in the stream along the way - and cry for the next 10 minutes home. Even still, she enjoyed the walk. Time for cookies and hot chocolate by the fireplace!

Nap was long, affording good time for scanning of tax papers in preparation for going paperless. We hung the costume hook in the playroom and afterwards went to the back yard to burn off some steam. We raked leaves - Borrowing Lulu's rake so Katie could participate, then played on the swings.

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