Beyond my Back Yard
Over the past year as I've started to share more about our family's outdoor adventures I've gotten questions from people asking how we do this with our children.
I think the overall vague question of "how do you do this?" can actually be broken down into several questions. Two of them being, "how do you make the time?" And "how to you get multiple family members on board?"
As we have time to articulate our thoughts (we're actually quite busy having adventures and making time to write about having adventures is challenging) we plan to answer these questions fully. Here at FIMBY, our home blog, and ADVENTUREinPROGRESS, our adventure blog and eventually in a book devoted to that very topic, hiking with your family.
But before we ever publish a book with gear lists, menu plans and clothing guidelines we would like to help families get started by addressing a few of the basics, one of which is making the time.
Damien just published a fantastic post on this subject. Time is such an important topic to discuss because if you are wanting to be outdoors more with your family finding the time to do so will be one of the biggest obstacles to overcome.
Damien's post, One Day A Week, explains in some detail our family's experience with setting aside one day a week to be outdoors, all together, for the better part of the day (ie: morning till supper). I plan to follow up on his post with more practical tips from a homemaker's perspective. Let's just say actually getting out the door is the hardest part of the whole adventure. Never mind hiking up the actual mountain!
When I get around to writing that I'll be sure to give you a heads up. But to get you started you can read what Damien has to say about how to make family day a priority.
PS: With this recent "new look" you'll notice at the bottom of the FIMBY main page that you can read the titles of the last 10 posts written at AdventureinProgress.
This has been "the winter that wasn't". Our heating bill has been down but in every other respect the lack of snow and cold has been a disappointment. We only had one real back country sledding adventure and as for local hills I only took the kids once. Pathetic.
But spring is around the corner. It's actually popping up in my flower beds. This is Maine though so I can't expect it will be clear sailing from here till mid April when spring really arrives. I'm worried that those daffodil and tulip shoots and exposed perennials, without their usual snow blanket, will be damaged by late winter frosts.
Oh well. What can you do? Head the mountains, of course! Because that's where the snow is and where winter can still be enjoyed (forgetting all together about those garden plants).
While the lower altitude of home base, aka: our backyard, is decidedly spring-like in temperature if you go up a few hundred (or thousand) feet you'll find snow, lots of it.
Which is what we did this past Sunday and it was absolutely wonderful. So, so beautiful. The silence of snow draped evergreens was breath taking and awe inspiring. Like being in the presence of God.
Which is one of the reasons I love the outdoors, the mountains and the woods.
It's been a rainy week here in Maine. Ridiculous for February. I'm calling this the winter that wasn't. Now this may be good for some folks but not us. One of the reasons we love Maine is because of winter. We love snow and we especially love outdoor snow related adventures. So I am very thankful that the rain held off till this week because last weekend was our family's snow adventure highlight; our (2nd annual) winter backpacking trip.
I wouldn't of believed you if you'd told me a couple years ago that I'd be backpacking... in winter. Not only that I'd be going but that I would love it. Ah, the ways I have changed. And my parents along with. They're real troopers; buying backpacks, learning to enjoy tent camping and re-hydrated food all in the name of experiencing the outdoors together with the grandkids.
My own experiences from the weekend are reminiscent of last year's, except this year I didn't have the pre-trip exhaustion, tears and anxiety about the unknown. Without those negative elements it was an even better trip than last time. If these adventures keep improving like this I'm not going to want to come back home.
I spent a couple hours this weekend most of Saturday writing about our trip over at ADVENTUREinPROGRESS. I really encourage you to check out that post especially if you're seeking specific trip details in hopes of doing something similar with your family. I also spend some time in that post talking about being inspired to live according to our values. That's the stuff that gets me really excited.
Almost as excited as I get when I hike sunlit, wooded trails with family and friends up to mountain top, ocean view summits.
One of the highlights of the weekend was having our friends the Sifferman's and their dog Ronin along.
John Sifferman wrote an great summary of our time together, from his perspective, at his blog Physical Living. He even put together a video of us all sharing what we loved most about the trip and what camping means to us. If you have a soft spot in your heart for family togetherness or goofy kids (the video heavily features two of my kiddos) you'll want to check it out. You'll even see a mug shot or two of yours truly.
Our weekend was wonderful and inspirational in so many ways. We spent a lot of time talking about the kind of lives we want to live, as family units and in community. And I know that over the next couple months new changes and directions will unfold in our lives because of those conversations. Some of those will make it to this blog as I, in my everyday life, work out the living of our ideals.
One such change is starting to take shape already (and has been discussed for months, not just this weekend) and you can watch it happen for yourself over at ADVENTUREinPROGRESS. Damien and I are partners in every aspect of our lives and we intend to bring the synergy of that relationship into the blogosphere.
To that end we are working to change our two distinct blogs into a more collaborative effort. We are all about simple in our everyday lives and we're hoping to bring that life value into our on-line efforts. Stay tuned for more developments on that front (and others) in the coming months. Get all the views you can of FIMBY as it is now because it soon will have a new look and feel that better reflects our family's overall vision and purpose.
Creative energies and collaborations are so much fun!
