The Creek

We have a creek below our house, or rather down the hill from our house.  We live on a hill by intention.  It's not a large hill, but we're far up enough from that creek that the one hundred year high-water line is no where near even the footings of our house.  It was a fairly even slope when we bought the land, albeit steep. 

When we planned the house we wanted both a walk-out basement and as much back yard as we could manage.  Both of those things required dirt to be moved from higher up on the lot to further down.  We have a nice walk-out basement and we have forty feet of flat back yard that my children (and we) love.  But beyond that, it's a steady and steep drop off to the creek and it's flood plain.

It's really not that far away, but in the summer it's completely occluded by the trees and their green leaves.  In the winter, it's barely visible, but it's close in color to the ground itself and it is nigh-impossible to point it out to someone standing on our deck who doesn't know where it is.

Today, I saw the creek more clearly than I'd ever been able to before, thanks to the snow.  We had upwards of six inches I hear, (although I'd bet it was more like four).  Snow was covering the ground and everything around it, but the creek remained dark and flowing and it was very clearly visible from our windows and porch.  My neighbor who had never ventured down to see it before was surprised how close it was.

We all resolved, for the third year running, that this spring we're going to make a permanent pathway down to the creek so the children can have adventures and get wet and collect rocks and bugs and all the other things kids like to do around creeks.

The Big Boy Update:  The throwing lessons.  This isn't about how he needs to be taught to throw well, like in yesterday's update.  This is how he didn't want to follow the, "no throwing in the house" rule all day today because he was cooped up in the inclement weather.  Again and again he was removed from a situation, made to sit and think about his actions, repeat the house rule of no throwing and it didn't seem to make a difference.  He was spanked, yelled at (I lost my temper and so did daddy) and he didn't get the message.   Tomorrow, hopefully he will get to play outside more in the snow and burn some more energy.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Tonight she was carrying a doll around.  They're all named, "baby" to her at this point.  She held one up to the window after dinner and said to it, "You see that, Baby?  There's the dark."