Thank Goodness for the Outdoors

I can't remember ever spending so much time outside last summer as we have this summer thanks to Covid.  There's no where else to go and nothing else to do, so we spend a lot of time just playing outside in our neighborhood.  Frankly, I love it and I hate it.  I really, really miss all the fun museums, libraries, Greenfield Village, the zoo, and other indoor play places we used to frequent.  However, I love the money and gas I'm saving and I love how much we've come to appreciate the beautiful place that Michigan is.  Especially this week - the weather has been fantastic.  It helps me feel a little better when I'm mourning the village and my beloved model T rides and historic baseball games.

Every morning we go running.  Today I ran a 10k and Christian biked with me.  He got a new bike a couple days ago since he'd woefully outgrown his old one.  He was so excited to ride his new one and I love that his new one doesn't have that awful squeak that was the soundtrack to all my runs in the past.  Then we went to the Farmer's Market to check out a friend's stall.  The Farmer's Market was far, far less enjoyable with all the rules about what direction to walk, where to enter, where to exit, and the mask requirement.  My face was soaked in sweat long before we were done.  Normally I love to browse the market and talk to vendors, but this time, we came to the one stall because we promised we would, bought a few of her items, and went home.  After that we enjoyed the outdoors mask and rule free - biking and playing cards in the back yard.  Finally we  visited Benjamin at scout camp.  He's been at camp since Weds.  Normally they would have gone to a large camp with a thousand local scouts and had a whole week of wonderful activities, but thanks to Covid, his troop had to hold a troop-only camp at a local metropark and, of course, that meant not nearly as many activities, people, or fun.  However, they invited the families to join the last campfire of the week and watch some skits and have s'mores.  It was fun to see him with his troop.  Wearing masks the whole time was hard, so I sat myself far enough away that I could take it off.  I noticed the boys were pretty loose about wearing theirs despite the Scoutmaster's repeated appeals to put theirs on.  I get it.  Masks are miserable and they've already been around these same boys all week.  During one of the skits, I was called up to help too.  Having been a cubmaster, I know pretty much all the usual scout skits, so as soon as he asked me and the other mom to hold the stick, I thought, "Oh, we're doing the 'suckers on a stick' skit."  Turned out I was right.  I like that one.  It's cute.

Right now we're anxiously awaiting the school district's decision on how next school year will run.  Some districts have already announced their plans and every single one is different.  I'm really curious what will happen.