A Puddle-Duckin' We Will Go

There's not a lot I love more than puddle jumping in rain boots.

It's something I have done ever since

my first child was old enough to walk, 15 years ago.

A way to relive your childhood.

Grab a happy kid willing to get wet

(those aren't hard to find)

and off you go.

We have always called it Puddle-Duckin' in our family.

We even go out while it's still raining to do it.

The only rule- no thunder or lightning.

It finally got warm enough around here to rain instead of snow,

so off we went with my camera around my neck.

Today, I grabbed N. and his best girl friend J.,

who lives a couple houses away.

We took a walk around our street and the kids graded the puddles,
proclaiming that the shallow ones were "boring!!"
and so the race was on to find the deepest one.

There is nothing more purely fun and simple than a good mud puddle.
No cares of the world around you as you jump *splash* in a murky pit.
Clothes (and kids) are washable!!
A prize winning puddle, to be sure !!
I like how the rings are around her boot, the leaf floating along for a ride on the waves and the efforts of the grass trying to keep itself above the water, in vain.

"I have puddles in my boots!", called J.

So off we went to get dry clothes

from the waist down.

J. came back

to our house, redressed.

The puddles were admired from a safe distance on the way home

to our little red house under the tall, tall pines.

As we walked, our next door

neighbor drove one way

and N.'s daddy drove the other way.

I made the comment to them both...

"Don't you wish you were in 1st grade?!"

10 Things I Like To Do Outside During Summer

Note: These two little pictures are my own drawings that I did in colored pencil. I matted them this morning with card stock.

1. I really enjoy digging in the compost pile in the backyard and finding lots of wiggly worms busy at work. I have wonderful rich soil under the surface of the compost and the worms are the reason!!

2. This kind of goes with the first one...I think it is fun to get really, really dirty while gardening and then shower all clean with some yummy smelling shower gel.

3. Have you ever just reclined in the grass and looked up into the tree tops? I think it is a very peaceful, almost meditation type, thing to do.

4. Can anyone ever grow out of the fun that is riding a bike? I hope not! It brings so much to your senses.

5. I get a thrill out of finding interesting dead wood branches that fall from our tall trees. Some of them are truly nature's art.

6. I like the smell of the wet dirt after a summer rain. I adore going out to jump in puddles with the kids.  (I just noticed that a lot of these thoughts include "dirt"!!)

7. On rare occasions I get the chance to sit in the shade and read. When I do get the chance, I wish I could change my name temporarily to something other than "MOM!". Sometimes in my lap it's decorating magazines or papercrafting/scrapbooking magazines. Sometimes a non-fiction book.

8. We go to the cemetery and feed the ducks in the big pond. It is a perfect way to clean out all the stale bits and crumbs of crackers, cereal and the like from the pantry. I also like to hang out in cemeteries cuz it's in my blood (read more cemetery posts for that info!)

9. Strangely enough, I like to wash windows. I don't do it as often as I should - but the sparkling satisfaction of clean glass makes me happy and seems to make the house almost smile!

10. The kids and I build "fairy houses" in the front yard in an area where the grass never grows. We use sticks, leaves, moss, ferns, pine needles, shells, stones and other nature things. We have done this for about 10 years. It is like a whole village!! Their friends love to come over and build too.

Red Review

I adore the color red. I don't apologize to anyone for this character flaw. It makes me happy when I see it any day of any year...

* The cookie jar on the high shelf above the danger of a 6 year old boy. It has been around as long as I can remember... with its tole painted flowers and all-over red speckled background. I always hated the way it made the cookies taste old and stale, however.

* A brilliantly colored male cardinal bird when he decides to rest in our tall pines. I am doubly tickled when he brings his best girl along.

* The wonderful smell of apples piled up in a wooden bowl. My Grandma Bubbles always had bushels of apples in her basement and barn. I love when a smell connects a memory!

* My house. Well?... isn't it fitting I should live inside a snug red house?!

* The frame of an Etch-A-Sketch. A very creative yet frustrating toy. I had great fun with mine until it scattered that yukky gray powdery junk all over the kitchen floor in front of the stove while Mom was trying to get dinner on the table!! This is one thing I CAN'T blame my brother for! Guilty party=me. If only we lived in 0 gravity, I would still have that toy. Of course, my kids have one too. I live in never ending fear that it will crash to the floor. Note to kids: don't play with it while I am trying to get dinner on the table.

* Bright, happy tulips stretching tall toward the sun. I was told the story of how I was about 3 or 4 when the neighbor's dog came and knocked me down and bit me as I played among the red tulips along our driveway. I don't remember. I do have the scar... ever so close to my right eye. I also think that part of the story was that my Grandma said she worried about Mom "living way out in the middle of nowhere with no car". Somehow it all worked out alright. Only a few of those same red tulips strain to errupt each year, all these years later. I hold no grudge against those tulips or that dog [ whom, by the way, I'm sure has enjoyed himself long since going to doggy heaven dispite his bad behavior!].

* Weather-worn barns against a backdrop of fall leaves painted by nature...or, even more awe inspiring, [to me, at least] against a backdrop of fresh fallen snow. The kind of snow when it looks like the pines have frosting on their needled branches.

* Crisp red embroidery on soft white linen. {Redwork} I love to draw pictures and then stitch them. I'm sure I must have too many pillows like this. I have a tiny pillow about 5"x7" that my Grandpa embroidered in red. The white fabric is thin and delicate. The best part of this story is that he did it when he was recovering from black smallpox!

* Raggedy Ann dolls may be dressed in different frocks but every Ann always wears red yarn hair. This gal never has a bad hair day!

* Puddle Duck boots. I am a firm believer in allowing kids to go out and jump in puddles! Why not? Growing up quickly and without this opportunity should be a crime! If thunder and lightning is absent- go out with an umbrella and play. I do this even as a grown-up! Arrest me.

* I can't resist a kid on a red tricycle. I don't know why.

* A red Corvette. In my next lifetime, maybe.

* Those ugly little felt elf ornaments with a plastic face [made in Japan in the 1950s] called "knee huggers". I love those in a kitschy kind of way. Also, the fact that my Grandma had some. I have some now that I have picked up along the way while thrifting. They are a high priced collectable going for upwards of 10-25 cents!