The Great Outdoors

One of the things I miss most about Germany is how normal it is to be outside.  You walk everywhere.  Bikes are constantly whizzing by on the sidewalks.  There's typically no air flow inside (no fans or heat pumps circulating air through an office or home...)  And because the climate is so much cooler, your body craves sunshine and fresh air.  So hanging out in a biergarten when it's 55 degrees is no big deal, carrying your groceries home in the rain is not unusual, and the sounds of kids playing and the wind rustling the leaves is far more likely that than of handheld gaming units or (heaven help us) TVs.

I suppose you could say that we're guilty of trying to live a German life here in the States.  And while I feel like I'm constantly in the car driving the kids around from one place to the next, we're eating healthier, still watching *far* less TV than we used to (only on weekends now... well, the kids are watching less anyway), and we're more active in general.

This week, I've spent a good bit of morning naptimes outside planting fruit trees.

Golden delicious and granny smith apple trees are now in the ground, as is some variety of cherry tree.  (Can you tell we miss our German backyard?)  Of course we have an identical sandbox, and now we have a super duper humongous trampoline that takes up the majority of the 'grassy' area in the backyard.