Our Dinette Window

". . . the greener a girl's view from home, the better she concentrates, the less she acts impulsively, and the longer she can delay gratification. This helps her do better in school, handle peer pressure, and avoid dangerous, unhealthy or problem behaviors . . . . Based on the study, the University of Illinois issued this informal advice . . . Encourage girls to study or play in rooms with a view of nature . . ." –Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv

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". . . a love of nature, implanted so early that it will seem to them hereafter to have been born in them, will enrich their lives with pure interests, absorbing pursuits, health, and good humour." –Home Education by Chalotte Mason

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We are lacking “good humour” around here and I've officially diagnosed the household with a mean dose of the winter blues. I love the snow, but it's quarantine effects and the lack of essential greens makes me ill-tempered. This week I snapped and decided I couldn't stand the window in our dinette a minute longer.

Now, it’s well-known that I do entirely too much reading, maybe even to the point of a little un-healthy paranoia, but I’ve decided that this window is a detriment to the future of our children and something needed to be done.

This window is mind-numbingly boring and it's the place where we eat our meals every day and often do our school work. It gets more “screen time” than our TV and computer put together and I hate it for two reasons: (a) Because our enormous dog side-swiped the curtain and the entire rod broke off at the bracket and I’ve left it barren for weeks wondering what to do about it; and (b) The only thing you can see outside of this window is a large expanse of white siding—unless you stand directly in front of it and peer to the right, then you can see the side gate, our small rhododendron bush, and bits and pieces of the neighbor’s yard. It is cold, desolate, and boring and completely lacking in anything that even remotely resembles nature. So this week, it became our little project.

Dear husband brought home a bird feeder and I found this cool sheppard’s hook to hang it from. It's a little low but it will work for our immediate purposes. This spring perhaps we'll replace it with a taller post, add a hummingbird feeder, and plant a thin, tall evergreen bush on either side so there's a little green color in the winter.

I found an extra set of brackets for the curtain rod, so I replaced the rod, re-hung the curtains and added some tiebacks (which should keep the curtain from touching the floor and the dog from bringing down the entire system again) and placed my hand painted bench in front of the window.

Now the girls sit and wait for the birds. They can record the types of birds they see, how many, when, etc. in their nature journals and sketch the different types as they come along. They're already practicing their skills of stealth so they’ll not scare away the first birds to visit the feeder (who would in turn tell all their birdie friends not to frequent our establishment for danger of little children).

How long will it be until the first bird finds the feeder? We'll wait and see.