The gentle pursuits.

The husband instituted a new rule where the boy must spend at least an hour outside on each nice weekend day. I support the idea of this edict (though the fact we have to dictate outdoor play is just too weird) but it's a bit of a pain to enforce. Today, however, I had what I thought was a pretty good idea to pass the time - croquet.

We set up in the back. A bit of a hill to deal with but it was a minor thing. When the boy and I played it was calm and easy. When the hubs came out he kept trying to get the boy to hold the mallet "correctly". Truely the boy holds it very oddly but the corrections made him melt down. Nothing like being put in the position of correcting both of them. (Don't you grab his mallet, tell him what you are going to do. You, calm down he's just trying to help you). Sigh.

In the end I won the practice round against the boy and Hubs took 2 to my one in regular play. The boy had two mini-meltdowns and got halfway through twice, stuck at the third wicket once and only three wickets behind on the last. Our hour of outdoor enjoyment ended up being nearly three. The boy was astonished (as was I) at how quickly the afternoon passed.