The Shortest Hike on the Schedule

I came up with the brilliant idea of making a daily schedule for my kids to follow. It's not a lie when I tell you they never complain about it. Some part of having an "agenda" makes them feel more comfortable, a day more predictable. The idea of scheduling my kids' day out after they just returned back from a 9 hour post-vacation drive may seem a little harsh and regimented, but I did it anyway. They better get used to it. Landon asked if I was going to change up the schedule every day. I shrugged. I really hadn't thought that far ahead. What usually happens is that I start running out of ideas about 4 days into something like this. Hopefully, we will last more than 4 days. I have a saved note on my phone with possible activities, but I can see us breezing through half of them in about 20 minutes. My mother had the brilliant idea of letting them proposed their own schedule, so I deleted all of the activities for each hour and handed them a blank spreadsheet to fill in. I was pleasantly surprised when it was returned without much edited from my original plan. And no one said, "Sit and eat Oreos while binge-watching Netflix."

Our first day of scheduling was pretty much on task. Around dinner time, we started to fall off, but it was pretty successful regardless of a lackluster evening.  I managed to take suggestions from both kids for our Sunday schedule. I also added my own things like -- go for a hike with Mommy. M decided to join us for it too..... and the kids insisted bringing the dog.
"Is that it?" M says.
"I told you it was short," I replied.
The trail is not a lengthy hike at this park; if you blink or yawn, you might miss it. The goal was to simply get out in the natural world for a breath or two. The kids aren't used to staying home so much, so this was a welcomed break. They begged M to let them go to the store with him. He refused. Guess we are making every effort to stay safe.