So yesterday I finally started blogging again. I even watched videos for my OCF class I’m taking with Clickin Moms. And I edited the photos of my family in our backyard hike in Calvert County. Never have I been more grateful to have the house I have and to live where I live.
We live in Northern Calvert County. We built our house in 2015, and we chose this area for a few reasons: we liked the Catholic school, we liked the public schools if the Catholic schools weren’t financially an option, and we loved how much there was to do, how many places there were to eat, and how we were surrounded by nature.
A new part of my routine since I have been home is to walk up and down my street every day. I started off walking in “recess duty”, but I realized how much soaking in the nature on my street has helped give me a sense of calm in all of this. I have found that being outside, sitting in the sun, and being as active as I can outside has helped my mood immensely and diminished so much stress. I’ve also had great walks at night star gazing. All of this walking has pushed me to even shoot for my “perfect” month on my Apple watch. While I work out a few times in normal circumstances, everyone knows that daily workouts are pretty atypical for me. I usually don’t have time.
I’m so thankful to have a house surrounded by nature. I love that my kids have a huge yard to play in. The woods surrounds two sides of my house, and we have a lot of woods around the entire neighborhood. My husband and I were supposed to spend part of my spring break hiking in Virginia completing the Old Rag Mountain trail (because we obviously could NOT do that with kids), but that trip obviously was cancelled. Because we love hiking and since two of the three kids had a nature walk/nature scavenger hunt to do, we decided to explore the woods around our house.
A neighbor tipped us off about an old barn he found, so we went exploring earlier this week. At last minute, I decided to take my camera. It had been one month since I took my last picture. March was supposed to kick off the first of a busy three months with a handful of sessions each month. All of my spring clients booked back in January, and my schedule was as full as I wanted it to be through the end of May. I’m not sure if the heartache of having to cancel or postpone so many sessions was subliminally getting to me or if I just didn’t have time with homeschooling and teaching online, but I didn’t even yearn to pick up my camera till that hike on Tuesday.
So here’s what I documented… the first of my documenting life at home in this new normal. My kids had to take their Camelbak water bags. (Here’s the link for the blue one, btw. They are awesome products and have been useful hiking here and even when we hiked in Colorado last summer!) Once we had those filled up, we were off on the trail that leads off our property into a neighborhood common area.
There must have been an old road that went onto our property and across the street. It may have been used by tractors even; that was our “trail”. One day I’ll try to figure out in Calvert County records what the “trail” really was. The kids had fun looking at weird buds on trees and walking on the “flat” part of the trail.
We hiked about ten minutes and came upon the barn. Calvert County is known for its barns, but this one didn’t feel like the typical tobacco barn.
From there, we ventured looking for the clearing that our neighbor talked about. We found a bit of a flat valley with a creek, bridge, and an abandoned, old tree house. It was marshy, but the kids thought it was a cool spot. The creek was covered with tiny frogs. Our youngest had a school meeting, so we didn’t get to explore it as much, but next time, we’ll go further!
The kids even posed for a cute photo! That never happens!
My oldest never tires; she could walk and hike forever. My youngest was hot and tired, but he usually tries to keep up with us.
My middle kid is my slower kid; he’s also more my more inquisitive kid who asks a million questions. He and his dad finally hiked up the hill, meeting us back at the old barn.
From there, the race was on to get back home for snack and my youngest kiddo’s Facetime class. I know that this time isn’t easy for many, but I continue to be thankful for the house I have in Calvert County, thankful I have a spring break, thankful we have flexible schedules, thankful we have paychecks coming in, and thankful for the gift of each other.
Let me know what you want me to blog about next! Send a message to me on my contact page! Even though I’m not booking any new sessions until we know when essential businesses can start again, I’ll keep trying to share about my life in quarantine if you help me figure out what to write about! (And side note: I’m completely in love with the final images of my middle kiddo and his dad as they exited the “trail” and came back onto our property. I could just tell they were having an amazing time talking!)
