Our little home doesn’t have much of a backyard. It doesn’t have much of a sideyard. It just doesn’t have much of a yard at all. While our son enjoys the outdoors we’re not within walking distance to any parks and sometimes, by virtue of our one vehicle situation and various scheduling issues, we’re not able to make it to the large open areas that parks provide. We’re not always able to find the swings and wave to the ducks. Sometimes it really is too cold (with the heavy wind) to be running around an open field in any amount or type of warm clothing. Sometimes we’re at home. Sometimes the fence’s protection from wind is perfect. Sometime has been very very fun.
One of the things we did over the holiday was to obtain a truck worth of firewood. This was piled neatly in our sideyard and we’ve been using it frequently ever since. While it isn’t always cold in Texas it has been getting that way lately. Over Christmas it wasn’t really cold at all but we lit a fire anyway to pretend that there was snow outside. At any rate, as our supply is depleting we’ve been steadily losing small bits of bark and other shards to the ground as the logs knocked into one another as I piled them into my arms to carry them indoors. These were too small to even grip in my hands effectively so we hadn’t yet used them for kindling. Recently our son has created a job for himself. He’s been picking up these small shards and walking them over next to our now empty tree stand. He throws them into the bucket where water used to be and begins clapping. It is a job he’s created for himself and it has turned into a game strikingly like basketball that we play indoors by virtue of his gift from Santa. Perhaps cleaning up toys can be turned into a game too?