Sandals and Leaves

Today I raked leaves. I decided it would be a good outdoor activity for the girls to have a pile of leaves to jump in, so I gathered the leaves from the driveway and the path leading to the driveway, as well as the grass itself.

The pile was enormous enough that the girls could bury themselves in it. They had fun for a while--Afton kicked off her shoes and ran around barefoot. I tried the shoeless thing too for a while, but I couldn't quite bring myself to keep it up. Something about stepping on sticks with only my skin for protection--it doesn't work with me. Afton doesn't care.

I'm finding that raking isn't a burden--I like it, the imposing of order on chaos. Even felt pretty proud of myself for letting the kids play in it and not minding the mess. This lasted until they decided to play Happy Birthday. The game involved grabbing as many leaves as they could hold, running as far from the pile as possible, and shouting "Happy birthday!" as they tossed the leaves in the air. Fun time got the kibosh pretty quickly after that--I can only re-sweep the same surface so many times.

I wore sandals as I was raking, and I realized that wearing sandals is going to be a hard habit to give up. In Arizona, you can pretty much wear sandals 24/7, even in the dead of winter. They are my default shoes and I feel kind of lost when I can't find them. But they're a bit leaky in the rain and I don't think my toes would thank me for wearing sandals in 30 degree weather. I need suggestions for in-between shoes, I think--I don't want to wear my good athletic shoes or my hiking boots for everyday use.

I have no segue for this, so just go with me. My reading lately has taken me to strange, far-off places, and led me to books that I wish I'd had around when I was a teenager. For instance, I'm loving the Crafty Girl series by Jennifer Traig. The books are basically a compilation of embellishment ideas and simple but fun crafts, like Milkmaid Kerchiefs and Movie Star Sweaters (just add marabou boa trim!). I've started keeping a notebook full of crafty ideas inspired by my reading--there will be more embellishments in my life!

The other book that I loved and have probably mentioned before is The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz. It's basically a guide on how to tie knots, build forts, wear bandanas, play sports, and so forth--a tomboy's guide to life. There's more to it than that, but that's what I remember. I loved it and I'm going to get one for my girls to read when they're a bit older. There are a few histories of famous women, daring women, interspersed with the how-to bits--it's a very well-thought out book. Ahhh, if only I'd had the sense to read more instructional non-fiction as a teenager, instead of strictly fantasy and the one biography a month my mother made me read. Life would have been a bit more interesting. Well, it's not like I can't change now. I may be a little too . . . mature . . . to be building forts, but the rest is fair game.