When I was a kid growing up in the country, we pretty much stayed dirty all the time.  We picked up worms and snakes and drank from the hose and ran barefoot.  We ate wild teaberries and jungled around on grape vines…stuff a kid ought to do, you know?  We currently live in the city so it’s not quite as easy for the kids to explore the woods but I am so pleased when we get out to the cabin.

Abigail has a couple of really great girlfriends that live nearby out there who all like to explore and enjoy all that the woods has to offer.  She ventures over to their place as soon as we get to the cabin and we don’t see her until we ring the dinner bell.  When she finally does come back home, she is filthy and exhausted and absolutely full of joy!

Last weekend, our neighbors were working on some old fence.  They moved some slabs of wood and found four toads and a turtle….the toads were the biggest I think I have ever seen!  In typical fashion, those three girls saved the toads and turtle and made a regular home for the critters.  Each one had a name and, by the time I came around, a label on their personality…

I am so glad that Abigail is not a girly girl, squeamish around such lovely creatures.  I am thrilled that she climbs trees and enjoys the mud between her toes while she catches salamanders near the pond.  I am delighted that she has some fellow girl-explorers who love to spend time in the beautiful creation all around them!