I don't like outside

I don't like the outside, never have. I wasn't that kid who was sent outside to play, because I didn't want to. I'd much rather play office or store or school inside. We had a fantastic climbing tree in our backyard, I had no interest in climbing it. Mom leaned a ladder against it one time hoping I'd catch the "tree-climbing" bug. That didn't work out.

There are people who can spend their entire day and probably evening too, just hanging out in the wilderness of the back yard. They take great joy in looking at each and every one of their flowers and random weeds. I'm sure it is a source of pride for them, which is great. It's just not at all interesting to me. Nana and Gramps used to have a very nice backyard. I may not have enjoyed it or really liked it, but I can appreciate that it was beautiful. I know they both really loved working in it, making it what it was. There are pictures in mom's photo albums that show me in their backyard posing for the camera by random plants and flowers. What I remember enjoying more though, was her library indoors that had all their books and games.

My parents also had a fantastic yard when I was a kid. Grapevines, apple trees, gigantic garden, all sorts of plants and flowers; it was well over an acre, maybe even two but we never called it anything other than "the yard." As in, go play in the yard! No, I don't want to play in the yard! It's hard to say where or when my aversion to outside started, I just know I've always had it. I would play with the neighborhood kids when a game of baseball was started in someone else's yard or when it was dark, and time to play Ghosts in the Graveyard. Maybe as long as someone else was out there playing with me, it made it better.

These days, as a grown up, I really force myself outside. I want Hannah, and even Eliza, to learn to enjoy the outdoors. It seems that Hannah comes by it naturally, she's always asking to go play in the yard and she loves when we go to the park or the zoo or anything else involving the outdoors. Since Lance and I have had a house, he has always planted a garden because he enjoys working in it. I enjoy knowing we have one, but I'd rather not be *in* it doing anything. Last year, Hannah got to help in the garden and she loved it. Being able to pick and graze as she went, was right up her alley :) She'd ask daily if it was time to pick raspberries or tomatoes.