Monday, April 09, 2007

Pastoral Filth


We've entered a wonderful time of year. Wonderful, yet so filthy! I no longer work quite so hard to keep my kids busy and happily engaged in meaningful activity...I just open the back door. They both just run outside and spend hours having an absolute riot just getting dirty. We have lots of (for lack of a better word) "wilderness" in our back yard, and lots of currently unused garden space. This means there are mounds and mounds of soft dirt just begging for playing in. A hose usually gets involved as well. I suppose as a mother I should have qualms about this. They really do get so unbelievably dirty - and their clothes are nearly hopeless - thus, they generally end up naked as well. This time of year this will go on for an hour or two or sometimes three, and then they're so cold and dirty that they come begging for a bath. Thus the cycle begins - from a romp in the back yard, me going out and sponging them off to at least get the clods of dirt off, and then running a hot bath for them to play in for another hour or so. Often, the kids would like the cycle to begin again as soon as it's over. I just can't help loving how much they enjoy being outside, no matter the resulting laundry challenges.

I was going to go on to describe two days last week when the filth got out of control when RAP decided to use the tub as her potty not once but twice in a row...but that seemed like maybe more information than anyone would want....

On a different day last week we got the chance to try out our new kite. It's a really cool kite - a big ornate dragon CTP just went nuts over when he saw it. There was just enough breeze to suggest that we might be able to get it off the ground. We made a quick trip to Sugarhouse Park with the famous kite flying hill (the same hill that's famous for death-defying sledding in the winter.) The kite never really took off. I don't know if that was due to the lack of quality in the kite or the breeze, but it was still fun. And one of those happy moments when you watch your family having fun together and remember what all the filth is for. Yes, I thought a great deal about George Banks.




1 comment:

Carrie said...

hmm funny, we haven't been able to get our kite up either. Maybe it has to do with the kite (of course nothing to do with the lack of experience on the fliers end).