spring chores.

The sun is finally shining here in New England, the snow is melting, the mud is ever increasing, and the daffodils are sending up their shoots.  It is glorious.  It is amazing how incredible spring can feel after a long winter.  We feel ourselves being pulled outdoors again into the late hours of the evening.

Yesterday, we spent the evening starting the neverending task of spring cleanup.  As the snow recedes, projects are revealed: leaves and garden beds to rake out, wood piles to move, chicken coops to clean.  The list feels neverending, but the work feels so rewarding.  After a sedentary winter, it feels good to be out in the fresh air moving, lifting, hauling, playing.  Yes playing.  Work this time of year feels a lot like play, particularly when you have three little ones playing alongside of you.

While I was discovering the gross reality of the layering method of chicken bedding through a seven-month long winter, my children were discovering their own muddy spray paint.  While my husband chopped wood for the last of the spring fires to boil sap, my children practiced chopping kindling.  While we hauled and raked, they rediscovered their beloved hiding places.  Work and play intertwined, children working hard at the important task of play. Spring is here!