Adult Coloring Books or Free Coloring Pages

Adult Coloring Books are all the rage now. Is it worth the money?

By far the most popular book out there.

If you like to color with your kids, or just because, or if you liked to color as a child, then you will probably enjoy coloring these. The pages are more difficult with intricate designs, not simple shapes as with children's coloring books, especially the younger ones. Some children's coloring books can be quite intricate, however! Adults might feel strange coloring cartoon characters, and you won't find any of those in books labeled adult coloring. You will find patterns, mandalas, animals, and plants.

You want to try before you buy? Feel like an entire book is an investment? There are plenty of free pages. FREE FREE   You can search for images and copy paste them to Word and print them out. Here are a few I tried.

You could also make your own with programs that allow you to take your photos and modify them with black and white outlines. photoshop    adobe photoshop elements 
Download fotosketcher 

Coloring provides benefits for kids.. AND adults (Huffpost) (LifeHack).

I know for me coloring provides some down time to relax and think. As an introvert, I need space and quiet time to get inside my head. Coloring doesn't help me work out all the problems. I am too focused on the logical elements of colors and creating to allow myself to completely imagine and discover solutions to problems as when in a dream-like state. It does lower my stress, by providing a relaxing tone. I can better think through problems afterwards. Coloring can take place while watching movies or shows, especially re-runs or movies you've seen before. You can pause to watch the best parts. Besides, it hurts your hand to color for a full 2 hours! Coloring to music may help relax you even more. We used to paint to music in my college art class, to encourage us to really listen and interpret what we heard onto the paper.

The best part for me is, coloring puts me in a 'zone' much like writing. It's the same fountain where stories come from. Sometimes coloring can evoke a story to appear.

Hiking in Turkey Run State Park

It's Spring Break! I really needed these 12 days off..

While many people head toward the beaches and overpay for hotel rooms unless they know someone who lives there, we stayed home. I decided that one of the days I would take my boys hiking through one of our many State Parks. Turkey Run  (pdf. file scroll down and tilt your head to the right to see map) has by far the best hiking trails. It also has a long suspension bridge and plenty of exciting terrain. I knew they would love it and it would be a LOT of exercise.

The plan was to take trail 6 to the cabin and trail 11 to the old church and then come back to the van for lunch. We did trail 6 and decided that was enough hiking before lunch.

Cabin is made of poplar wood.

Lunch break!

We next went to the Nature Center, Alex's favorite part. We digested our lunch and watched some critters through one-way glass, Alex explored the touch table, (mostly the feathers because I showed him how the breaks in the feather fronds can sometimes go back together with a soft touch), and the live snakes and snapping turtle in the exploration room. (I should have changed camera settings more often to get the best lighting.)

Then began the hike. At first, the almost 9 year old claimed to be afraid of heights, but after he realized part of the trail was higher than the suspension bridge, he wasn't afraid any more. We crossed the bridge and Max decided we were going to go on trail 3. He wanted to do the ladders as well. So we took off. Little did I realize this trail was all ravine at the bottom and walking in the creek, then all stairs at the top! I was happy that though my knee grew sore, very sore, I was able to make it the entire way without extreme pain.

The bridge is moving!

One of the smaller sets of stairs. So. Many. Stairs.

We climbed this waterfall.

Smugness.

Finally got to the top, but then there were stairs! 140 of them.

Wet sock. No fun.

Stairs are exhausting. Especially after the hike up the ravine and waterfall.

The ladders! 3 of them like this. We went down. We survived.

Selfie.

Smile!

He kept laying on all the benches..wonder why?

Alex took this picture of the suspension bridge.

He took this one, too.

We were slightly muddy, sweaty, and tired when we finished our hike. We ended the day back in the Nature Center for a rest. Then I promised the boys some fun in the Game Room in the Inn. They enjoyed pinball, skee-ball, air hockey, and the motorcycle game. I let Alex buy a bag of shiny rocks for 3 dollars.

I slept really well!