Share the Love: Learning how to Raise a Wild Child at the Chicago Botanic Garden {giveaway}

The irony of this post is that I'm going to talk about engaging beyond screens while I'm writing ... on a screen {because that's how you do this writing thing these days, and the world in which we live involves devices and screens}.

Before you think I'm anti-device and anti-screens, let me be real: we have more screens at this house than the one on which I'm writing!

My children use screen devices, and we are not screen-haters or complete screen-avoiders because in reality, you can't live in this day and age without having some access to devices. Screens and devices are embed in our culture. But like many parents who work in the world of technology, we limit screen and device time for ourselves and our kids because we've found that too much of a good thing isn't really a good thing.

I've found my teens are literally surrounded by screens all day long unless we consciously choose to leave devices behind, and my three younger kids vie for screen time often and loudly.

I'm the keeper of the screens/devices, and to be honest, it's a little draining to be in that role, so instead of trying to persuade my kids to give up their electronics or understand the dangers of device overuse, I've decided to try and facilitate a yearning for life beyond devices and screens.

There's an old saying by Antoine de Saint-Exupery that says,"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

So that's exactly what we're trying to do because it's become clear to me that electronic overuse is stealing something from us -- something maybe we don't even realize!

Two years ago my friend Renee wrote quite eloquently about how our lives are a collection of moments and how as we live "we become moment collectors, memory creators and master storytellers of stories that are ours and ours alone." How we engage in our lives and spend our time directly affects how our stories play out in our one beautiful life.

Renee's post resonated with me, as I know it has resonated with many parents, and it came to me at a time in which I could see much of our attention being diverted toward electronics and away from connection with each other and the beautiful things of life, like nature, community and creating.

One of the ways our family has been trying to engage in life beyond screens is through connection time and outdoor time; when we can, we try to roll these two things into one adventure.

Two Mondays ago, on a beautiful sunny day when all of my children had the day off of school and homeschool, we left behind most of the screens (I took mine along to document our day for my quarterly #gardenambassador post, which you are reading right now; thank you!) and headed into the great outdoors at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

It was lovely.

That's an understatement.

Not just the vibrant colors, the rich sounds of spring and the brand new Regenstein Learning Campus but the joy of being together, outside, largely focused on enjoying each other and the blooming beauty of spring and creation was so very life-giving.

Visiting the garden, especially the brand new Learning Campus, was such a wonderful way of engaging in life beyond screens and participating in activities like rolling down grassy green hills, racing siblings obstacle-course style over log stumps and playing tag under the spring-time sun. The kids an I also spent some time sketching the blooming flowers, reading the signs lining the plant-lined paths and laughing with each other as we enjoyed the beauty of the outdoors.

It was just so good for my soul and for theirs that 4/5 of us didn't want to leave the garden; that's a pretty good ratio considering we are a pretty diverse group of individuals!

During our visit, one of the upcoming Garden Talks caught my attention. Scott D. Sampson, who you probably know as the paleontologist from PBS' Dinosaur Train, will be speaking about concepts from his book How to Raise a Wild Child: The Art and Science of Falling in Love with Nature. While I haven't read this particular book, my interest was definitely piqued by his premise of how a child's experiences in science and nature are critical to a child's development.

Sampson's talk is Saturday, May 6, 2017 at 3 p.m. at Alsdorf Auditorium, Chicago Botanic Garden. The cost is $25/nonmember and $20/member. You can buy tickets here!

Speaking of taking time to connect, Sampson's Garden Talk would make for a perfect friend date or date night! The Garden is giving away two tickets to this Garden Talk and a parking pass. You and a date or friend could enjoy the Garden Talk, stroll the grounds, enjoy the beauty of spring, have a picnic ... the options are endlessly lovely!

Simply enter with Rafflecopter and I'll choose a winner by Monday, May 1!

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Disclosure: I am grateful to be a Chicago Botanic Garden Ambassador! My family loves The CBG, and in exchange for sharing about happenings at the Garden, my family receives a yearly membership. All opinions are my own, of course! 

Share the Love: Wonderland Express at Chicago Botanic Garden {2016}

It's an unusual blend when you think of it -- a garden at the holiday time during a typically cold and snowy Chicago winter -- but it perfectly fits together to make one of the best family holiday experiences in the entire Chicagoland.

If there's one thing that pops up on the Christmas bucket list every year, it's venturing over to the Chicago Botanic Garden to enjoy the Wonderland Express and all the festivities thoughtfully crafted by the garden staff.

The Wonderland Express features an elaborately designed indoor model train running through a beautifully landscaped miniature Chicago.

Little ones love the trains so much! Photo courtesy of the Chicago Botanic Garden 

While my youngest kids are always smitten with following the trains as they chug along the tracks and the "snow" that floats down from the ceiling, my older kids and adults are continually impressed by the design of more than 80 famous Chicago landmarks like the Hancock Building, Navy Pier ferris wheel and, of course, especially this year, Wrigley Field.

Aside from the joy glimmering in my kids' eyes as we engage in this family tradition, the best part of the entire railroad experience for me personally is that railroad garden guru Paul Busse and his team at Applied Imagination construct the buildings of natural materials like gourds, pine cones, bark, acorns, pods, seeds, grains and grasses; the Wonderland Express is a truly an artist or art-lover's wonderland!


My art-loving children are also beginning to marvel at the construction materials in the aftermath of their forming, too. They have often left Wonderland Express inspired by nature in their future creative endeavors, which is a huge bonus for this half-time homeschooling and art-teaching mama.

Aside from checking out the Wonderland Express while at the garden and spending time appreciating the beauty of it, the garden also focuses a great deal of energy on other fun winter activities like ice sculpting artists setting up shop outside of green houses and creating lovely sculptures and providing family drop-in activities. One year, our kids made bird feeders to hang in our trees after we enjoyed the Wonderland Express and sipped hot chocolate at one of the cafes nearby the exhibit.

So would you like to check out the Wonderland Express and spend an afternoon or day exploring the Garden? The Chicago Botanic Garden generously is giving away four Wonderland Express tickets AND a parking pass so one family can experience this family favorite tradition!

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Share the Love: Don't Miss the Chicago Botanic Garden's Brand New Regenstein Learning Center Grand Opening {Giveaway!}

Forget the X-Box. The iPads. The Wii and all the screens and games for which my boys beg.

And bring on the hills -- medium-sized and closely spaced together and perfectly padded, green-grassy hills.

Hills {who knew} are apparently the very thing that've been missing all of my boys' childhoods.

We discovered this secret of the hills when we attended last Friday the preview day for the Chicago Botanic Garden's Regenstein Learning Campus' grand opening, and my kids immediately mad-dashed for the perfectly crafted rolling hills that comprise a good chunk of the new outdoor Nature Play Garden. As we toured the outdoor garden, our boys promptly ran to the top of the biggest one ... and began rolling down without abandon in the soft green grasses.

Likely, though, hills and the greatness of the outdoors in general is what's increasingly missing in a great majority of our kids' lives as they grow up in an ever-increasing electronic world, making the unveiling of the Garden's Regenstein Learning Campus even more exciting and, honestly, necessary.

Nestled to the right of the parking lots when first entering the garden by car, the Regenstein Learning Campus is home to the Grunsfeld Growing Garden, The Kleinman Family Cove and the newly constructed Learning Center and outdoor Nature Play Garden. The grand opening, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday September 10 and 11, 2016, is just around the calendar corner, and if you're looking for something wonderful to fill your weekend, this is it!

During opening weekend of the center, the Garden will offer refreshments and free activities like seed play, soil sandbox, watering activities, yoga, make-you-own smoothies, water play and a walk and talk in the Nature Play Garden with the goal of showcasing just a sampling of the 500 classes offered at the Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School.

In addition to the free activities, the Garden also is generously giving away one parking pass so one family here can attend the grand opening of the center for free! See below to enter for the parking pass giveaway.

Here's a little cheat sheet of what to expect when you visit during the grand opening or beyond:

Photo courtesy of the Chicago Botanic Garden

The Nature Play Garden is a sensory-rich outdoor play space thoughtfully and intuitively designed for all ages to enjoy interacting with nature in a hands-on way. Roll down the grassy hills, play in the open grassy areas, splash in the streams of water, climb on the logs and tunnel through the willow tunnel at the Nature Play Garden. It's designed just for that!

The Learning Center is home to learning rooms, the classrooms that house the Garden's preschool and camps, multiple bathrooms, water-bottle filling stations, Chicago-area history and a bee hive! Explore the classrooms, use the bathroom, take a breather and check out the busy bees bustling around their hive in this new building.

The Grunsfeld Growing Garden gives children an up-close view of the growing fruits and as well as the opportunity to help take care for these plants by watering them and tending to them. Often times, family drop-in activities are planned in the growing garden.

The Kleinman Family Cove features 800 feet of shoreline gardens for exploration and observation of flora and fauna as well as stepping stones that visitors can navigate as they explore and enjoy the beautiful waterfront.

And don't forget, mom and dad, to make a long pitstop at the hills; they aren't just refreshing for the kiddos.

Disclosure: My family loves the Chicago Botanic Garden and the great outdoors, so we are thrilled to be Garden Ambassadors, sharing our love the Garden here and across social media! In exchange for writing and sharing, we receive a yearly membership to the Garden so we can continue to explore and learn and grow and share! 


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Share the Love: Chicago Botanic Garden Grapevines & Wines Date Night {Giveaway}

It's one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful of all destinations in all of Chicagoland, so if you've yet to experience date night at Chicago Botanic Garden, I have to tell you -- you must experience it!

The upcoming Grapevines & Wines wine tasting event is a perfect way to experience the beauty of date night at the garden during one of its finest seasons and hours {late spring and sunset}!

Chicago Botanic Garden at Sunset captured via my phone

The following wineries will be attending Grapevines & Wines and offering a unique array of bouquets from around the world:

• Cannonball Wine Company 
• Cass Winery 
• Coopers Hawk 
• Guarachi Family Wines 
• Heritage Wine Cellars 
• Loveblock Purple Wine & Spirits 
• Stone Hill Winery 
• Terlato Wines 
• Villa Graziella Wines 
• Wollersheim

Light fare will also be available for purchase at the event.

Photo Courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden

Because we've so enjoyed the ambiance and beauty of our previous date nights at Chicago Botanic Garden, John and I have been trying to get to a Grapevines & Wines event at the garden for years, and thus far, we've been booked during every tasting so far {kindergarten graduation pulls rank this year again!}

Photo courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden

But! You likely don't have kindergarten graduation that night, and if that's the case, this giveaway is for you!

Chicago Botanic Garden is hosting Grapevines & Wines, Thursday, May 26 from 6- 8 p.m., and the Garden is giving away two tickets to the event so someone can experience indulging in some fantastic wines in the garden's idyllic McGinley Pavilion.

Wanna go?

Just leave a comment with your favorite date-night destination in Chicagoland. The winner will be chosen by Thursday, May 19 and contacted by the garden coordinator who will add the winners' names to the list!

Fine Print: All opinions are my own! I am an ambassador for Chicago Botanic Garden because we love love love this regional gem and enjoy spreading the word to others. Winner and guest must be 21 years of age to attend and bring proof of age along to the event. Parking pass is included!

Didn't win or don't want to wait? Purchase tickets for Grapevines & Wine!

Share the Love: Secret Homeschooling at the Chicago Botanic Garden

Several afternoons ago, the kiddos and I ventured out to the Chicago Botanic Garden to picnic, shoot some photos and do a special, surprise project.

They were so stoked about the surprise project and picnic that they didn't even know what I was doing.

But I'll tell you what I was up to: secret homeschooling.

On the weekends or even weekdays when I need to engage all four of my kiddos meaningfully without it feeling like school, I think up a secret homeschooling plan that couldn't ever be labeled as school work in their minds.

The Chicago Botanic Garden has become one of my go-to places for secret homeschooling. And you don't really actually have to be a homeschooler to do this secret homeschool project; you could just be a person who loves autumn and wants to enjoy the heck out of it with the added bonus of secretly homeschooling your kids on a weekend, nonetheless!

Here's all you need to do a round of secret homeschooling while the whole family enjoys the beauty of autumn at the garden:
-a blanket for sitting
-a plethora of coloring devices
-several large sheets of paper
-one hard surface per child
-one picturesque view beneath a tree or near a bench, like this one:

Present it like this: ok, guys, let's explore and find the most beautiful place we can. Once you agree on a place, we'll start a project! You have 20 minutes - go!

Giving a time limit makes it into a race, so my kids take off quickly and burn some energy before we sit down to recreate our favorite space on paper.

Once they find their "most beautiful place," share with them that you'll come back again to the same exact spot to draw a stunningly different picture during a different season. If your kids are anything like mine, they are motivated by finished product, too, so I offer to take all four pictures and compile them into a large frame for hanging in our home. This also helps for getting them to do their best work!

Though not all of my children love art equally, they enjoy working outside and put quite a bit of effort into their pictures. Well, the bigger three worked and put in quite a bit of effort for about 40 minutes. Our three year old worked and put in quite a bit of effort for about four minutes. She then played in the dirt, leaves and with sticks nearby, which kept her mostly happy and me mostly sane.

So what do they learn?

• they see and understand the changing landscape in a new way
• they gain a clearer understanding of what autumn looks like in our area
• they gain experience using true-to-life colors or shading in a drawing
• they gain experience on how to draw a picture from a scene (perspective) instead of from imagination
• they have a chance to articulate their pictures as they explain them to me

There's more, of course, too, that I'm sure they are gathering with all of their senses! All in all, it was a big win, and I promised the kids another round of this project on a nice winter day for a new view of the same scene.

There's still plenty of beautiful days left! Go enjoy one!

Full disclosure: Because I sincerely love the outdoors, nature and specifically the mission and efforts of the Chicago Botanic Garden, I have partnered with the garden to help spread the word about its events and features. Kindly, the garden provides me with a membership. 

Share the Love: Chicago Botanic Garden during Autumn

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." Ann of Green Gables

I second that. And I'm also so glad I live in a world where there is the Chicago Botanic Garden because it is an absolute gem.

Especially during October.

If you're like me and you cannot get enough of the autumnal beauty, simply don't let yourself miss visiting the garden before all the leaves are fully changed and falling.

I mean, just look!

If not for the pure beauty of seeing the changing landscape and enjoying the lovely October weather, here are some other reasons to get to garden before winter comes:

The Spooky Pooch Parade
Dress your pup in his finest costume and parade him around the garden with the rest of your pack at the Spooky Pooch Parade. This is a must-do for dog-loving families!

The Halloween Fest
Halloween Fest boasts a spooky forest complete with a decorated bat cave, a ghostly model railroad display and a plant and pumpkin giveaway -- perfect for enjoying the beauty of the garden while giving the kids a little Halloween fun!

Date Night!
Don't forget about you! Head off to the garden to enjoy a serene afternoon with your significant other. We've found that walking and talking while surrounded by the beauty of the garden is one of our favorite afternoons away!

Enjoy October, and stay tuned for an upcoming Secret Homeschooling post this Monday about doing some secret homeschooling at the CBG!

Full disclosure: Because I sincerely love the outdoors, nature and specifically the mission and efforts of the Chicago Botanic Garden, I have partnered with the garden to help spread the word about its events and features. Kindly, the garden provides me with a membership. 

Share the Love: Taking the Classroom Outside This Spring at the Chicago Botanic Garden

Last fall we decided to transition our oldest son out of traditional school and into a hands-on school setting that includes homeschooling and a Waldorf-based co-op. It's been an exciting year of learning, growth and development for him and for me!

But when we traded workbooks for real-life experiences, I began to realize that we were going to have to venture out further into the world (and outside of my poor kitchen) to keep exploring -- especially in the realms of biology and ecology. 

We've long been fans of the Chicago Botanic Garden, but this spring we have found a renewed love after taking a nature walk there as part of science "class."

The boys and their friends skipped along the paths, marveling at the different blooms popping up in the spring. 

They intently watched the carp swimming in the ponds during our expedition in the Japanese Garden.

And they excitedly monitored a family of frogs and frog babies hiding out in the grass just off the beaten path. 

What an adventure we had as they discovered spring in a very hands on way! And the conversations we have had in the aftermath have been great as well as its given way to talking about how new life blooms in the spring. 

Of course, we don't have to be homeschoolers to enjoy a nature walk with our kids! Right now the garden is in full spring bloom, and it's a great time to take a day to walk, explore and enjoy. 

Some ideas I'm considering:

• make your nature walk into a scavenger hunt
• bring pads of paper and colored pencils along for budding artists to draw what they see 
• do a gallery display of the different drawings from the garden during spring, summer and fall and invite grandma and grandpa over to hear all about it

Of course, if you prefer programs that are already put together, the garden has plenty this time of year. Here are a few favorites we want to catch!

Fruit & Vegetable Garden Family Drop-in Activities – Daily, May 30 through August 30
Enjoy free summer activities each day during family drop-in activities in the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden. Activities vary from week to week and include Plant Parts, Powerful Pollinators, Super Seeds, Rainbow Garden and Wiggling Worms. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Click here for more information.

Nature Nights – Select Saturdays, May 30 through September 5
Bring a picnic dinner and spend an evening at the Chicago Botanic Garden! Children ages 4 – 10 and their families will explore different areas of the Garden and enjoy a variety of discovery-based activities. Participants will park in lot 1 or 2 and check in at Annex 2 or the Fruit & Vegetable Garden classroom. The program facilitator will lead them to the activity site where they will eat their homemade sack dinners (not provided) and begin the exploration activity. At each Nature Nights, participants will enjoy a short tram ride, plant a take-home plant and conclude the evening by making s’mores at a fire pit. Hours are from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Cost is $26 per chregister and for additional information. The event is held regardless of weather; indoor spaces are used in case of rain.

Click HERE to see more family activities planned at the garden for this spring and summer and check back at the beginning of summer to see what else we're up to at the garden this year!

Disclosure: Because my family loves the outdoors, we are happy garden ambassadors for the Chicago Botanic Garden. We receive a membership in exchange for writing about garden happenings. 

Share the Love: Tips for Visiting #ButterfliesandBlooms at Chicago Botanic Garden

A few weekends ago when it was nice and warm, we took guests visiting from Eastern Europe to the Butterflies and Blooms Exhibit at the Chicago Botanic Garden. With our guests being new to the Chicago area, we honestly couldn't think of a better place to visit. The beauty of the garden never disappoints, and it makes for the perfect place to have relaxed, easy conversations. 

While we were visiting the exhibit we felt like the butterfly whispers! Every time we turned around, another butterfly landed on a party of our entourage.

Planning to visit Butterflies and Blooms at the Chicago Botanic Garden? Keep these tips in mind if you'd like to be a butterfly whisperer, too!

1. Walk slowly. Stand next to flowers. Be calm.
2. Visit on a very warm day. The butterflies are more active when it's warm and sunny.
3. Wear brightly colored shirts if you'd like to be a butterfly landing pad.
4. Don't wear insect repellent!
5. Enjoy!

Note: I am a grateful ambassador for the Chicago Botanic Garden. In exchange for my membership, I write about the garden and help other families navigate the garden through our experiences. What a joy!

Holiday Bucket List: A Guide for Experiencing the Beauty of the Holidays as a Family in Chicagoland {part one}

Each year, my family aims to experience and enjoy life together during the holidays, placing less emphasis on the gift aspect and more on togetherness. This is part one of a series detailing some of our favorite Chicagoland destinations during the Christmas season. Be sure to scroll down to the end; one of our favorite places is giving one family a set of tickets!

Chicago Botanic Garden Wonderland Express
If you've been around here for awhile, you've gathered we are Chicago Botanic Garden enthusiasts. {What's not to love?! The great outdoors, plenty of space to explore and enjoy, winter exhibits to help relieve the stir craziness that sets in!}

Photo courtesy of the Chicago Botanic Garden

While the Botanic Garden is a hot destination for my kids during the spring, summer and fall, they pretty much ask year round how many days are left until we see the Wonderland Express, the garden's holiday-themed train exhibit that sprawls through the indoor atriums.

Photo courtesy of the Chicago Botanic Garden

My boys, now 4 and 6, are absolutely enamored by the entire set up of trains chugging around the tracks of the mini Windy City. When they were younger, they spent most of their time chasing the trains as they ventured along the tracks. Now that the boys are older, they want to explore every single landmark building and discuss each of the tiny replicas along the tracks. John and I not only enjoy the family time with the boys while here, but we also enjoy marveling over how each and every piece of the mini city is made of natural materials like leaves, bark and other elements found in the great outdoors.

Photo courtesy of the Chicago Botanic Garden

The Wonderland Express is well worth any trek you'd make as well as the cost.

When: November 29, 2013 - January 5, 2014
Time: Open daily from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. with few exceptions
Where: Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, IL
More Information: Chicago Botanic Garden

Marriott Theatre for Young Audiences: The Nutcracker

Perhaps you're thinking what I first thought when John and I mulled sharing our love of theatre with the kiddos: no way, no how will my kids sit through a live play!

Last December, when the boys were 5 and 3, we decided to give it a whirl anyway, as the Marriott Theatre for Young Audiences specifically aims its shows for, well, young audiences, by making them lively, beautiful and entertaining. And they do it all in one hour!

Our boys, now 6 and 4, have delightfully experienced three productions, and they have really liked each one {says the surprised mom of two really active, light-saber sporting little boys}. We recently attended the opening-day performance of the Nutcracker. I didn't know how it was going to play out because the Nutcracker my husband and I knew centered all around ballet; however, this story was adapted into a wonderful production geared toward young audiences.

Photo courtesy of Peter Coombs and the Marriott Theatre

The boys enjoyed the music, the story, the animated characters and even the dance! Our youngest kept asking, "Mommy, how do they spin like that!?"in response to some of the ballet dances during the show. While this production of the Nutcracker did feature some splendidly talented dancers, the show wasn't dance-centric. In true Marriott fashion, the production was beautifully choreographed, funny, engaging and featured a wonderfully animated cast that was perfect for small children, older children and adults alike.

Photo courtesy of Peter Coombs and the Marriott Theatre

When: November 8, 2013 - December 28, 2013
Time: Click Here for showtimes
Where: Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire, IL
More Information: Marriott Theatre 

So are you ready to cross a few things off your Holiday Bucket List? How about going to the Wonderland Express this holiday season compliments of the Chicago Botanic Garden?! The lovely people at the Chicago Botanic Garden are giving away a family four pack of tickets for the Wonderland Express as well as a free parking ticket. 

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Stay tuned for part two of the Holiday Bucket List tomorrow. I have another great giveaway planned!

Disclosure: First and foremost, I only work with organizations I really love. I am a Chicago Botanic Garden ambassador who receives a membership in exchange for sharing about the garden on a regular basis. 
The Marriott Theatre invited my family to press day to see the Nutcracker so we could share our experiences with other families. 

Share the Love: How to Sway Your Kindergartener

How do you convince a six year old who wants to go to school for a full day (but can't for numerous reasons) to be happy about leaving his classroom every day at 11:30? 

Easy.

Like this.

If you are local to Chicago, and you're looking to soak up the final days of summer, make a trip to the Chicago Botanic Garden {or perhaps you're like me -- trying to fill long afternoons by blending awesomeness with education for a kindergartener and a preschooler who think every day should be a party ...}

Though the Butterflies and Blooms exhibit, pictured above in the last two pictures, is closed for the season, the outdoor model rail road, also pictured above, is up and chugging along past the landscapes of America, routing past an exploding volcano and gushing geysor. Huge hits, I tell ya. 

And, of course, the gardens are still bursting with beautiful blooms and lots of wildlife that are more than willing to exchange friendship for food -- and, oh, look there's an education opportunity! Don't feed the ducks! God does a great job of providing for them all by Himself -- no matter what that duck tries to tell you, kids!

Disclosure: I am an ambassador for the Chicago Botanic Garden and write several times a year about the awesome things the garden offers for families in exchange for a membership. Why do I do this? Because the garden is a fantastic place for families to enjoy the outdoors and learn about nature through exploration, hands-on activities in the children's garden and exhibits! It's a gem in our very backyard! 

Share the Love: Chicago Botanic Garden {Grunsfeld Children's Garden}

On alternating days, my boys want to be any of the following, depending on their moods:

1. Jedis
2. Pirates
3. Farmers who fix the pigs mud baths and chase the chickens
4. Horticulturist chefs
5. Biologists who primarily inspect dirt and eat tomatoes

Any combination of three more on any given day is optimal, of course, which is why we've spent quite a few days at the Chicago Botanic Garden's Grunsfeld Children's Garden this summer practicing the art of wielding light sabers and shovels while simultaneously exploring the botany and fauna of the Chicago-area landscapes.

The Grunsfeld Children's Garden, a new addition to the garden as a whole this year, was designed to be an interactive, hands-on, kid-centric garden where children can learn about plant life and the corresponding insects that accompany it through the five senses.

Be it sinking their hands into some soil or sorting veggies into their rightful plant family baskets, watering the garden flowers via spray bottle or slicing and dicing wooden veggies, the Grunsfeld Children's Garden features many interactive activities in which little ones can indulge four of their five senses during activity times. {No, guys, we don't EAT the plants at this garden! Back away from the cherry tomatoes! Sorry.}



Through September 30, 2012, activity times at the children's garden run from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays; best of all they are highly engaging and FREE! {Though, the Children's Garden is open for exploring normal garden hours.}

Our boys have immensely enjoyed all of our trips to the garden, and have often remarked about how it's even more fun than romping around and exploring our own sprawling veggie garden.

Even when I make them put away the light sabers while they water the plants {and each other}.

Also, it's gorgeous.



Bonus: Now is the perfect time to go explore the new children's garden because you can still catch the Butterflies and Blooms exhibit {and it's so much cooler out than during this summer's heat wave}. It's open through Labor Day weekend {2012}, and they are hundreds of beautiful, captivating butterflies inside. My boys were mesmerized, and I've never seen them be quite so careful and light footed.

Fine Print: I'm a grateful Chicago Botanic Garden Ambassador. I blog four times per year about garden happenings. My family was gifted a garden membership through 2013 so that we could explore the garden often and share our experiences. As gardeners and stewards of the land, the CBG is extremely close to our hearts, and we share out of a deep love for the work done there; as always, all opinions are mine. 

Everyday Life: Twice

Twice.

I've stumbled twice now unexpectedly into grapevines during the past week.

Which wouldn't mean anything normally except for that this summer it sort of means everything.

Right before the beginning of the year, I landed in the text of John 15, and I just could not get away from it, both literally and mentally.

That text -- it's such a word picture painted so vividly about how we must abide in the vine if we are to bear good fruit.

And it kept following me -- this call to abide in the true Vine in the garden with the Gardener -- in devotions, in the church pew, in others' blog posts, in conversation.

And then one day this spring as I was working on a book about being fruitful and bearing ripe fruit and being kind to ourselves I heard a loud whisper redirecting.

All this talk about fruit, but how does fruit even grow?

In the garden, abiding in the Vine.

We are to live The Vine Life


And so The Vine Life was born.

The first chapters came easily, but since their completion it's been hard-coming in ways that writing normally isn't for me. There's been this stretching and this twisting and this growing and this journeying in the writing of this book that's left me ... tired. Tired and wondering exactly where to go next.

So tired and so wondering that about two weeks ago I put it aside, tabled it so I could pray, clear my head, refocus.

We took a daytrip last weekend to visit my uncle in Chicago; while the boys watched Star Wars on his big pull-down movie screen, I sneaked off to the back porch to sit beneath sun.

And there in the middle of alive and vibrant Chicago just outside the back door of my uncle's second-story flat there were these vines sprawling out across the wooden deck, thick and deep, luscious green bearing growing grapes.

There. In Chicago -- in the thickness of city hustle and busy and concrete a small garden sprawling across the deck, bearing fruit.



There in the most unlikely of places.

The Vine and the fruit in the city.



I meditated all week long on the Vine and the grapes and the fresh greenness wondering if it was divine inspiration to keep writing ... but I didn't pen another a word, still vying for clarity on the next chapters. 

Sunday afternoon we visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to rest and remember His goodness and provision during our Sabbath rest, and we veered casually into the vegetable garden.

Again, I came face to face with more grapevines spread out across the overhead trellises we'd meandered into.



The boys wandered off down the path and John followed after he noticed I was totally transfixed. I stood  there lost in more God-whispers beneath the sprawling vines marveling at their beauty, their strength, their vigor and their shear abundance.




And in the stillness of a late Sunday afternoon in the home stretch of June, I stopped wondering.


I abandoned thoughts about perfect order of chapters and which stories to share


and gazed incredulously at the answer He'd given me not just once


but twice: 

The Vine.


And so in the broken silence, I write


I abide. 

This week, we're sharing our moments at Jade's