A Weekend Walk

{Please ignore the fact that I didn't even make my two posts a week goal last week.  Ugh.}

My no-make-up face.  Cue scary music.

It seems like there have been a lot of Plan B (or C or even F) moments lately in my life, where what Joy wants is this, but what actually happens is that way over there.  Like Saturday morning.

I got up and made pancakes for the kids, like I always do.  Then I was going to work out (I know, this is just riveting so far), but when I got upstairs with all my workout stuff on and hair in a ponytail, there was arguing and the usual kind of mayhem that I just push on through and ignore.  Except that Mr. Can't Ignore was home, working on our taxes on the computer that is right in the middle of everything.  Oh, and then, the "middles" asked if we could go to the pool, which is one of those forms of self-sacrifice that is just this much too hard for me to usually do.  See, I love hot baths and showers, and long soaks in Jacuzzis.  But going to a pool, even if it is indoors, that is "heated" to a barely-acceptable-to-the-human-body temperature that I'm pretty sure can't even graciously be called lukewarm, and standing around while being almost jumped on and splashed from every direction, and trying to keep Wyatt's head above the water as mini-tsunamis come crashing towards us and all this plus it's only forty-one degrees outside and drizzling... (*deep breath*)... well, I can't.  It's one of those things I can only seem to bring myself to do if I have a friend go with me.  Lucky for me, it was closed anyway for a swim meet.  Which made my kids all the crankier... which made Matt all the crankier...

Anyway, I could see quickly where we were headed.  In a last-ditch effort to redeem my Saturday morning, I said, "Hey, anyone want to hike to the lake?"  There's this lake about a twenty-minute walk from our house, and we hadn't been there in months.  Suddenly it felt like just the thing we should do.  It wasn't like they all cheered excitedly, but I said we could find walking sticks, and suggested Lilly put her American Girl baby doll in its carrier like I was going to put Wyatt in his... and suddenly people were excited.

Well, not all people.  Matt kept on with the taxes, which is just fine by me, and Jayna was kind of doing her own thing, sewing. (!!)  But the rest of us bundled up and went out into the morning, and well, we had the loveliest time!

First things first, we had to find walking sticks.  Then Wyatt decided he wasn't a baby anymore and didn't need to ride in the Beco, so I (rather reluctantly) let him walk, thinking this was going to really slow things and so much for my getting any exercise.

Not so!  The little dude was bookin'!   There was some serious mud around, and moments when I was grateful for the appliances waiting at home for me to just chuck muddy clothes into, rather than standing around with a washboard and tub and lye... but he only took a few tumbles, and the rest of the time, I was almost running to keep up.

He wasn't about to be left behind by his sisters either, no siree Bob!  

 At the lake, this was our reward.

Quiet.

A light rain falling.

Echoes.  (Somebody especially enjoyed these!)

Solitude.

Except for these two.  I'm not sure if they're swans or some kind of geese?  If someone knows, please tell me.

 All too soon, we headed home to promises of a warm fire and hot drinks.

But something about that walk left a sweet ache in my heart, a longing for more.  The sweet sounds of my kids asking me random questions, the kinds of thoughts that ramble in and out of little minds when they're on a mini adventure.

"Mommy, what was your favorite toy when you were little?"  "Did you play a lot?"  "What did you play?"

I told them about the two frangipani trees (also known as plumeria) where I spent most of my waking hours as a child, trees that were at turns a fort, a hotel, a ship captured by pirates and so much more.  My friends and I had our designated perches, and we would spend the whole day there, talking, playing tag.  The girls told me (again) how they hope there are trees to climb at the next house we live in, and I  said I sure hope so, too (and tried not to think that I might be worried about them falling and breaking something.  Motherhood can just about turn a girl inside out, I think.).

Now it's somehow Monday already, and I'm trying to figure out when we can go again -- wind up that hillside trail through the ferns and tall trees, and get back to those quiet places and still waters.

{The black-framed photos are taken on Instagram.  You can follow me at joyatcaspara or click the link button.}