Have a Happy Weekend

Despite all my postulating about simplicity, I still sometimes panic when there are too many openings in the calendar, or when plans fall though and I feel the need to fill that space back up. I've also been battling some guilt and self-doubt lately due to our mostly homebound summer.

I keep reminding myself that this is because I'm imposing my own ideas on to my children, and not because they actually require things like daily outings and excitement in their lives. Time and again, the data has supported this.

I came across this quote by Elsa Beskow yesterday (do you know her books? you should get to know them, if not!) and thought I'd share:

“With a great deal of planning and bother, you can take the children to the zoo and show them the wolves and the bears. Once there they become enthralled by a tiny stone at the side of the road or can talk of nothing but the ladybug creeping along the bars of the wolves’ cage. You might just have stayed home in the garden – there are both stones and ladybugs there.”

"Home in the garden" is the phase of life we're in this summer (and really, a phase we've been in for 5 years now and haven't left!), and sometimes when I see others with older children racing this way and that way I want us to be there, too. Sometimes it feels like we'll never be out of this phase of life. But we will, and I'm sure when we are, we'll long for the simplicity and innocence of these early days.

Here's to a weekend spent at home in the garden!