Now it is time for me to Live In Nature with my family! I've grown up, learned a lot/matured and now I'm ready to share my love of nature and the environment with my children. (Read my previous two posts to get a full background of how I reached this point - Growing up in Nature and Maturing in Nature.) Luckily, my three children love being outdoors! Maybe it's genetic, maybe it's not. Regardless, I am going to do what I can to help encourage and strengthen that love of nature! We explore, create, play and restore. Sometimes with the seasons in the Midwest, that can be challenging, but we do our best! 
In the spring, the kids are always excited to get outside and start playing on the beach again or fishing. From March through November, if the weather cooperates you will find us outside! Our oldest, D, loves fishing. And we encourage that as much as possible! As soon as the ice begins to melt off the lake, D wants to get out and start fishing again! We love his dedication! J (#2) is always anxious to start building, digging and playing with his construction equipment on the beach! There's a chance we have a future civil engineer, landscape architect or construction manager on our hands! C (our youngest) just loves being in the mix. She tries to fish with D and build with J. She is also the first one to want to go into the water!
As the trees and flowers come to life and then go dormant in the fall, we enjoy walking around our property checking out what is new and talking about how it all works. I will identify the plants with the children and if they want to pick flowers, I let them! Plus, it melts my heart that my young ones want to pick flowers for me and they are so excited and proud too! We check out all the different leaves, nuts and fruits/seeds that fall from the trees. It's great to be hands on with nature! This past spring we started vegetable seeds inside with hopes of having a successful garden. The children enjoyed helping me set it all up and watching the seeds sprout and grow. However, things didn't go quite as planned with the vegetable garden... (See my Massive Pepper Harvest post)There are creatures galore around here! We have bird feeders that we try to keep filled in the front and in the back and a bird identification book that has gotten lots of use. There are song birds, falcons and water fowl! The kids have fun checking out and researching all the different bugs we find too and since we are on the lake, there are fish! D knows all the species in our lake and many more!
Our family just doesn't stay at home enjoying nature, although we could! The boys play organized baseball, we all participate in water sports, and the children like to do all other sports and activities too! Bike riding, running, basketball, soccer, football and playing tag, hide and go seek and other fun games keep them entertained and happy outside. This summer we explored underground caves, checked out new lakes for fishing and had a lot of family fun! As we travel my husband and I are always pointing out interesting features to the children. Windmill farms, natural sand dunes along Lake Michigan, rivers and wetlands, farms and fields, forests and new development along with many other topics are discussed and explained. In the colder months, there are still fun things to do to keep the children focused on nature. The boys enjoy riding on their little snowmobiles and ice fishing. There are also snowmen to be made and icicles to eat. When we can't get outside the kids will watch PBS nature documentaries and other animal and nature based shows such as Wild Kratts, Dinosaur Train and Octonauts.
Our children have an inherent desire to learn and we do our best to help them understand how systems are connected and how humans impact the environment. We stress the importance of the environment and natural systems and hope that in doing so, we are raising children who care about those things. Even though our children are still young, by their actions, questions and observations it is evident that it is working! They are interested in nature and the environment and tread lightly - stewards of the land already!
My Nature! posts will cover a wide range of environmental topics including much of what I mentioned in previous posts as well as other interests not directly related to my career. I'll be discussing gardening, recycling, rain water capture, landscape maintenance tips, native, introduced and invasive plant species, fishing, hunting, birds and other fauna, spending time outdoors with my family, tips for being outside with kids and more! If you have any type of nature related topic that you would like me to cover, please let me know! I'll be happy to fit it into the schedule.
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