I haven’t talked about it much publicly, but the 4th trimester has been very difficult for me.  Healing from a difficult c-section has been long and painful.  Emotional healing, every more so.  I’m not driving yet post surgery, and staying home all the time has been hard with 4 kids under foot.  Even though we homeschool, we rarely stay home all the time under normal circumstances.  By the time the weekend gets here, the 4 walls of this house are closing in on me.  I gave Jason a long list of things we can do to help me feel better, emotionally and physically, and leaving the house at least once on the weekend is at the top of both lists.  So for the last month, we’ve loaded the kids in the car, grabbed a comfy folding chair and a boppy nursing pillow, packed a picnic and hit a few local parks / lakes.  The first trip out Zachary and I stayed in the car nursing the whole time as I wasn’t able to navigate the hiking trails and stairs yet.  I searched and managed to find a few parks with easier access that I could make it to over the following weeks.  Last weekend we ventured out to Inks Lake and I managed a short hike with the family.  I finally feel like my body is starting to function again and getting out in the sunshine is so good for me emotionally.  Plus the kids had a really fantastic time canoeing with Jason – it was the highlight of our adventure.  Jonah woke up the next morning talking about it and tried to convince me we should go canoeing really quick before Daddy had to leave for work lol.  Most of our vacations for this year have had to be cancelled with the added expenses with the hospital transfer and surgery.  While that’s a big bummer, we still want to instill a sense of adventure and reconnecting as a family with nature during the year.  Our kids call it adventuring and look forward to it all week long.