Red’s friend received a new bike for Christmas, and was itching to take it out. Red, after a couple of weeks of a bad cold and coughing, was not keen to engage in anything like hard physical activity. Smalls was excited to get outside, but had never done this trail both ways without dropping his…
Category: parenting
Why you should slow down and walk around with your kids
Yesterday we all jumped in the car ten minutes before the school bell was due to go, and it wouldn’t start. The battery had died, and no amount of furious turning of the key was changing anything. Luckily, we live barely a mile from the school, and although it was a chilly 28F, we could…
Don’t Fear the Fall Back – Tips to Help Kids Adjust to the End of Daylight Savings Time
I first wrote this post a year ago, lamenting the fact I have young kids who are bad sleepers. Every sleep difficulty we go through, I assume it’s just a bad spell, it will pass, they’ll grow out of it. And yet. Here we are, a year later, and we’ve been getting up in the…
Fall Yard Clean Up – free e-book
In Boise we are deep in yard clean up right now – the leaves are falling faster than we can rake them! I love this time of year, but there’s a lot of work to be done putting the garden in order for the winter, and my husband and I don’t want to hire a…
Snap It Outdoors: Chores
It’s hard to get my kids to help with chores around the house. Isn’t that the same for everyone? There’s lots of grumbling, requests for cash in return for the work, and asking how many minutes they’ve been tidying for now. Show them some chores outdoors, however, and they’re all over it. We baked some…
Me Time: How to practice self-care as a busy mom
http://outdoorsmama.gillhilledits.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/09/Me-Time_-How-to-Practice-Self-Care-as-a-Busy-Mom.png I read this great post on Facebook about self-care. I’ve been thinking about writing something along these lines for a while, but I’ve been struggling with getting it down on paper. Not enough time, maybe?! So start by reading the Facebook post, it says a lot of what I feel. There is a certain…
Snap It Outdoors: Changing Seasons
I’m currently sitting at my computer in a cardigan, leggings, and insulated slippers. On Sunday, it looked like this. My husband and I made it out for a quick bike ride while our sitter watched the kids, and even though I sweated through most of it, I’m glad I did. It’s that change of season…
Teaching Kids Perseverance – or how to stay on that bike!
On our trip to Colorado this summer, we took the boys on a lovely bike ride around South Catamount reservoir, on the road up to Pike’s Peak. It was further than I had imagined, and had more ups and downs than I expected, plus a lot of off-camber biking along the slope down to the…
Why I didn’t write that #techfree post
I wrote a guest post for Kids G.O. Adventure this week, about why I’m an Outdoors Mama. Heather, who runs the blog, had asked me to post about anything I wanted but suggested being #techfree as an option. This is something we are decidedly not as a family, and so I felt uncomfortable using that…
Don’t fall for the ’18 summers’ hype
I’m sure you’ve seen the posts all over social media – you only have 18 summers with your kids before they go to college, better make the most of it! It feels like a cruel dig, if you’re a parent trying to work or stay home with your kids all day, coordinate summer camps, playdates,…