Friday was one of those rougher days where everyone was a bit on edge and snappy. It was after noon. E could use a nap but the chances of that were unlikely so we hopped in the car and drove up the road to see how far we could get before the road was still blocked by snow and with the hopes that E would fall asleep. (With the price of gas, I don't usually do this.) We turned around when I started to hit snowy patches in the road on a steep incline, thinking either we could get stuck or that I'd have to back the car down to turn around.
E still wasn't asleep so, on the way back down, we turned off at one of my favorite spots by the creek and got out. We couldn't even walk down the steep path to the creek as there was no place to stand at the bottom, only the rushing water of spring meltoff.
Instead, we wandered up toward the main road, seeing purple violets all along the way, new leaves opening on the cottonwood and aspen trees and the red-twig dogwood and alder bushes. First, we saw one snail shell, then another and another. Going in for a closer look, we started seeing them poking their tentacles out and slowly meandering around the forest floor every foot or two. R picked up a piece of birch bark and started filling it with treasures: abandoned snail shells, lichens, twigs, leaves, old cedar branches, dandelions, wild strawberry flowers, and more. The more we looked, the more we saw. Suddenly, I noticed there was no bickering! There were the snails and the flowers, the sound of the river, the sweet scent of the cottonwood trees and so much more...and us together, slowing down and experiencing it all. I was, of course, playing with the new camera too, trying to find out what it can do.
We NEED to do this more often, to heck with the price of gas. This was worth every penny. Besides, there's only 6 more months before the snow covers these roads again making them impassable for the other 6 months of the year.
On the schooling side of things, when we came home we looked up online about snails which lead to reading stories and poems and more info online about them. We drew pictures of snails and read Leo Lionni's Biggest House In The World which we just happened to have checked out from the library. Homeschooling serendipity yet again. This is a book all of us hoarding crafters could stand reading, too.
Tomorrow: the crafty results of slowing down to a snail's pace.
