Good Days

Every once in a while I need a good park trip to remind me how much I love being a mom. All that fresh air and those wide open spaces bring out the best in my kids, which brings out the best in me. 

There’s nothing like a trip to the park after days and days of rain. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday last week brought us a lot of rain, which is rarely welcome in a house with three crazy kids. I started to lose it after the tenth episode of Curious George on Netflix, the fifth time being asked for a snack, and the third dump out of the super hero basket of toys. It’s always that same basket of toys!

At this point, when I’m bending over and piling Spiderman, Thor, and Captain America back into the basket AGAIN, my patience begins to run thin and, for the life of me, I can’t remember why on earth I ever thought I enjoyed motherhood. So I was praising the Lord when the rain let up on Thursday, just enough to make a trip to the park possible.

The boys were just as excited to get out as I was. (Josie had to go to school.) I could see it in their faces, plastered with ear to ear smiles and mile deep dimples.

Another advantage of going to the park after three days of rain is that all the bugs are out. Jamie and I discovered some clusters of bugs (worms? caterpillars? I don’t know. They’re all bugs to me) hiding in the nooks of a climbing rock wall. Jamie felt like he’d discovered buried treasure. He cuddled and coddled the bugs for the next hour, even taking a handful with him down the slide and trying to feed them a piece of his bologna sandwich when we took a break for lunch.

After we exhausted the play power of the swings, the slides, and the worms, we set off on a little nature walk. Much to my amazement, Jamie and Johnny actually did most of their own walking. Jamie led the way like a brave adventurer and even stopped me a few times, insisting he check to see if it was safe so that I wouldn’t get a “boo boo.” Johnny waddled happily behind his big brother, often stopping to admire the sand and sticks in his path. They seemed as if they could walk ‘til they reached the ocean.

We did eventually have to call it a day, but ironically we found ourselves back at the same park again on Saturday. It was nice that Josie was able to join us the second time around.

It is such a joy to be a mom to happy kids. Those smiles and dimples are the jewels in my earthly treasure chest. When we drove away from the park on Saturday and Josie said from the back seat, “We had fun at the park. That was a really fun day!” and Jamie shouted, “Yeah!” in agreement, I felt filled with love and blessings. My cup runneth over. I need good days at the park like these to cling to on those other days when being a mom feels less joyous and more mundane; on days when I am bending over, piling the super hero toys back into their basket for the fourth, fifth, sixth time. In fact, it’s raining right now and….yep, there it goes….I just heard Iron Man hit the floor. Thank God for good park days!