LESSON SIX

Objective

Enjoy the great outdoors.


Example

It is Sunday. I am exhausted. Being a dad is tiring. I am longing to do dishes and sit down at the computer to work. The demands of all this fun are getting to me.
The teenagers have slept outside in a tent and the little kids are bitter that they have not been allowed to join them. I forget to sympathize and ask what they want for breakfast. Grilled cheese. Cool, easy. I can do that.
I peek out the window and see all that sun and birdage and green green spring grass. I forget that I am a tired mom trying too hard. We make grilled cheese in an assembly line and take tall glasses of lemonade out into the yard. It is a beautiful day. The sun just keeps shining. We eat our sandwiches and then crawl into the tent where we polish off the leftover Easter candy together. I eat peanut butter cups and nerds and jelly beans and Hershey's kisses one after the other. I haven't had such a bad taste in my mouth since the memorable hangover days of my college years.
The wind is picking up and I am about to lose my mind if I don't at least clean the sticky puddles off of the living room floor. We put on music and all clean the house together so that I can relax and be a dad again.
Outside again, the tent blows over with Izzy in it and we abandon the idea of the campsite. Instead Fallon and Amanda haul the canoe off of the motor home and drag it into our cow pond. We paddle around the pond while Izzy cries in terror of man eating snapping turtles. The rain comes and we frolic for a few more minutes before being chased indoors again.
I am enjoying being a dad as only a mom can.
That evening as we watch James Bond and eat cookies for dinner Liam develops a fever. I return to my usual job of soothing and feeding and tucking in bed. Thank god the first weekend is over. I am not sure I can maintain this. How do dads do this fun thing...Is it my attitude? Am I approaching it like a woman...orchestrating everything...seeing even fun as a chore?

Next week I have a new goal... I will try relaxing while I relax.

Homework

Sit outside.

Extra Credit

Stay there and enjoy the sun while ignoring dirty dishes.