Where would you rather be…

…on a beautiful spring day when the sun beckons? 

Trying to strike a balance here, but some spring days, it’s really, really hard.  I should point out that she was only experiencing a “moment” of misery, that lasted, tops, five minutes.  Still.  Do I ever feel like a tyrant when we can hear the birdies cheeping in the background and the schoolwork looms ahead…

I just looked at the timestamps to check that these were indeed taken the same day and should also point out that the tree one was taken two hours before the school one.  That was probably a mistake – getting school “done” first thing usually works around here. I was probably exhausted and lazily having breakfast, enjoying the peace in the house while the kiddies played outside. 

But I should learn:  it’s always harder to call them back in from fun than to release them to have fun after schoolwork is finished.

And I should also point out that she went on to do several other subjects quite happily, including a most successful FLL (First Language Lessons, Book 2) lesson in which we were practicing writing addresses and titles of address and she was inspired to draw these three matching postcards for three beloved relatives.  We were going to send them to any old relatives, but luckily, I remembered in time that Mother’s Day is important to her grandmother.  So we sent them to the two grandmothers and her aunt in Ottawa, who’s also a mama of four. 

Oh, and then we had playtime in the park with friends, and then the kids tagged along to Ted’s pottery class, which is a very rare but amazing occurrence.  So I promise the day actually ended very, VERY well, despite this inauspicious beginning…

How do you deal with beautiful weather when there’s work to be done???