Earlier this week, when the first days of the week felt a bit longer than I wanted and my energy for getting things done was waning a bit more than I liked, I decided to shake things up a little for me as well as the girls. The days tend to follow a pretty good routine for the most part with the girls doing independent school-related reading and fact sharing, breakfast, and then our more (but still loosely) structured school time, and then we each get to take some down time. But I was feeling a bit lethargic and too much of the day seemed to have disappeared without my realizing it and I knew I’d soon be switching gears toward dinner and then some reading or writing. Like I said, I felt I needed to shake things up, including my sleepy brain.

Up the stairs I went and rounded up my teenagers, announcing that we were going to head outside for a bit of fresh air and resetting of all of our brains. This was perhaps inspired at least in part from some words I read on a friend’s Facebook page about the benefits of how we spend our days and incorporating different activities, including time outside to stretch our limbs as well as our minds. Whatever prompted my decision, I knew I would benefit from a little sunshine on my face and some fresh air and maybe even a breeze across my skin. To my surprise, the girls agreed without much prodding from me. In fact, by the time I’d gotten my sneakers on and came downstairs, they had already disappeared into the front yard area.

As soon as I stepped outside to join them, I could already sense a shift in my lethargy and I couldn’t help but smile as I watched my two teenagers inspecting things in the yard and chatting away. Admittedly, this is one of my favorite things, watching them meander through conversations together, whether indoors or out. But it was fun to join them as they discussed the volunteer tomato plants that sprouted up in the spring from last year’s container gardening efforts. Apparently they agreed that the lone tomato that has grown on one of these spontaneous plants looks like an oversized grape. I wouldn’t disagree.

Eventually we made our way across our small cul-de-sac road to the gravel parking lot across the way where we all hunted for four-leaf clovers (none were discovered) and I learned the several my 15 year old found previously all came from a space closer to the woods in the side yard. As we considered the clover, we watched a bumble bee who also seemed to be meandering through the late afternoon, even if he actually did have a bit more of a focused purpose than we had in that moment. I loved how my youngest sat in the midst of the clover section and watched as the bee worked her way closer and closer around where my 15 year old knelt in the grass. 

When we grew tired of our fruitless efforts to find four leaf clovers and decided to leave the worker bee to her pollen collecting efforts, we wandered toward the edge of the woods on the farther side of the gravel where there’s a bit of an incline up to a ridge pathway that leads back behind some of the other townhouses and long the Duke Plant property’s fenced edge. This area is a tangle of trees and wildflowers and brambles and weeds. For me, part of the delight of these two young women is listening to their creative, imaginative descriptions for the seemingly mundane things around us. For example, my 17 year old was enchanted by the way patches of grass have pushed their way through the once all-gravel lot, spreading across the rocky surface like small oases or islands in a fantasy story realm. 

Being with these two teens often feels magical in myriad ways. Truly there is nothing that strips away my sense of listlessness and lethargy than these kinds of moments. I love taking time to see the world through their eyes and steeping myself in the wonder and captivating ideas they share, with each other and with me. Perhaps it is the creative artists in each of us, this way of looking at and describing our surroundings and I find this time together sparks my own sense of wonder and creativity, helping to stoke those fires even when I am not actively writing. 

With all the wild tangle along the edges of the parking lot, we spotted a variety of things growing which seemed the perfect opportunity to break out the Seek App on my phone. I love that my girls are curious about these kinds of things and want to know what’s around them. We saw some yellow flowers (the app couldn’t fully identify them), some berries (that I think might have been Pokeweed, if not the berries, something near them turned out to be Pokeweed). I loved that when she discovered Pokeweed, my 17 year old said she was going to give them a wide birth given that one of the dragon characters in the third arc of Wings of Fire who lived in the Poison Jungle was named after Pokeweek and that meant it might be poisonous (like references to Belladonna and Hemlock, two other characters). 

Phone in hand, my youngest also wandered around identifying several different trees and small shrubs and, her favorite, goose grass. Just the delight in her voice inspired a smile from me. I love to watch their excitement as they discover new things and determine names for things they’ve appreciated but now know what to call, as with the goose grass. As we prepared to head inside, I realized that my girls are always curious and creative. I love that spontaneous learning is a thing with them even if they don’t even realize it. Their natural curiosity and wanting to break out the Seek App and explore the different plants and even a difficult-to-track small blue-winged butterfly that my 17 year old had to chase around the area trying to capture it in the phone’s camera for the Seek App to identify. To her surprise and delight, she was actually to get close enough for long enough to get a photo and we believe it was a Spring Azure.

This small outdoor adventure was just what I needed to breathe new life into the rest of my day. With the energy of their discoveries and their company, I was able to get some ideas tapped out at my keyboard and then prepare to get our dinner started. I love that there are days like this one. Days with my girls on these seemingly small escapades that feed my heart and soul. There is a deep sense of joy and gratitude that builds in me because I love seeing the ways we mesh in how we see the world and how their natural creativity and curiosity feeds my own, especially when we step outside the norm.