Killing time in an empty house: rain walks, nature wreaths, and craft dates

We have been blessed with a very wet summer, filled with plenty of thunderstorms. It's sometimes made our walks a little difficult to take, but it's been lovely to literally soak in all the rain while we can.

I took Alexander and Phoebe for a walk last week after a storm and they enjoyed exploring their wet world. Here's Alexander pointing to a little herd of deer wandering through our neighbourhood (they've eaten everything in my garden that we would have liked to eat—such a nuisance).

Here's Phoebe seeing how close she can get before spooking them:

Those deer are everywhere so we're almost always approaching a deer on any given walk. We recently saw one grouping with three adult females—and five fawns between them! Those fawns are cute, but...like I said...a nuisance. There are just so many deer around here!

Our neighbour (who just bought our RAV-4) has a son who was driving over to do some laundry at their house when a deer tried to jump over his car...and missed, crushing the roof and breaking the windshield. 

So this neighbour was like, "Can I...talk to you about your van?"

That was kind of nice timing for us, but...like I said...these deer are such a nuisance.

Anyway, here are the kids hanging out under a dripping crepe myrtle tree:

They soon invented a game called "Turn On the Shower," which is played by having one person stand under a tree and the other person pull a branch down and quickly release it, causing a secondary little rain shower.

They arrived home soaking wet even though it wasn't even raining on our walk.

(We went for another walk today while it was steadily raining, but while there was a lull in thunderstorms...and came home rather drenched even with our umbrellas).

I don't know how to say goodbye to the rain. 

On yet another walk, we found a cicada shed. Phoebe thought they were perhaps from dead cicadas, so we talked about exoskeletons and the long and mysterious lifecycle of a cicada larva. And then a little ways down the road we found an actual dead cicada, so we could talk about how it bursts out of the larval exoskeleton and then its new exoskeleton hardens and its wings dry and it can live out its loud and obnoxious life for a few months in the summer before laying eggs and dying.

It's the circle of life.

We spent the rest of our walk collecting little treasures from around the neighbourhood and when we got home we arranged them into a wreath, which is a thing that we do from time to time to time to time.

Phoebe loved going on a "nature walk" and told me several times.

I don't know why but collecting these little details of the world, all the colours, all the (still) life tends to generate quite a bit of awe and appreciation for our little corner (wherever that corner may be). I think—perhaps—it just makes us notice things. I think—perhaps—there is magic in noticing.

*****

Our house is rapidly emptying of anything and everything. We recently had everyone pick out seven outfits and have been packing everything else that we're taking into our large suitcases (because I simply can't do all of that packing in one day). This is leaving us with an impressively little amount of available stuff. 

Thank goodness for the library!

We also have a rather eclectic collection of art supplies that we've largely elected will be left behind. Oh, I'm sure we'll take some of it with us (there's a few pairs of left-handed scissors floating around, for example), but a lot of it will just be thrown out or given away. So the kids are doing their best to burn through it all while they still can.

Here's Phoebe in a superhero mask she made (inspired by our new friends, who will be in Doha with us in August but are home in the states right now—the kids have been having weekly crafting "dates" with them over Zoom, where we each gather around our own tables with whatever craft supplies we have on hand and the kids make stuff and chat and play make-believe...it's been amazing).

And here are the kids making a spaceship for Phoebe (once again inspired by one of our new little friends, who was also making a spaceship):

You can't see the computer, but it's there on the table, out of the shot.

And here's the finished product—it even has a baby seat!