together outside

As we watch the green coming back and the buds beginning to open, we are eager to be outside among the breezes and birdsongs.  After spending the winter reading our books, we emerge from our lessons ambitious to enjoy and name the spring sounds and foliage around us.  Pointing fingers, following flitting birds and calls to 'look over here' bring us from one part of the woods to the other. An empty bag brought to collect treasures quickly becomes full of pine cones and needles, river shells and rocks, feathers and leaves. Only the best will be kept, the rest go back outside. Ideas for homemade pine needle brooms send scavengers for likely candidates. Smelling, listening, hearing and touching all are needed and used to admire and identify the loveliness all around us. It is a wonderful feeling to be in God's creation and know it all serves the purpose to bring glory to its Creator.  He truly is a marvelous Designer and we rejoice in His work.

This is my Father's world,
And to my list'ning ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world,
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas,
His hand the wonders wrought.
~Maltbie D. Babcock