Welcome to the Wild and Free podcast, episode 71. I'm Ainsley Arment, and this week we're talking with our good friend Amber Johnston of Heritage Mom blog, all about creating healthy, life-giving rhythms, and the importance of mothers planning time to play.

I matter, and my excitement and enthusiasm about whatever it is I'm pursuing at that time.

It exists within the realm of my family, but it also exists for Amber, the woman.

Tony Weber shares some heartwarming letters she received from her children after completing 33 years of homeschooling.

Plus, the new Earth bundle for the month of April is available right now.

We'll tell you what's inside.

So grab a cup of coffee and join us on the front porch.

Let's get started.

Music Let's get started. Marianne Evans, who went by the pen name George Elliott, once wrote,

We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it.

There's a reason why childhood experiences are best remembered outdoors.

The smell of dirt and air in our lungs, the soft tickle of tall grasses in a field, the breeze

sweeping our hair sideways, the prickles of sweet gumball in our hands, the velvety feel of

a lambsier in the garden. Nature is a gift, a balm, a healer.

It needs no purpose to exist other than pleasure.

And yet it provides so much more.

It is sustenance to our souls and is medicine to our minds.

Every sensory experience of being outdoors awakens our senses and stimulates to our minds. Every sensory experience of being outdoors

awakens our senses and stimulates our nervous systems,

priming our minds to learn and our bodies to regulate.

Our children especially need this while growing,

crawling in the grass, climbing trees,

...