Muddy Reflections

A very wonderful, lovely lady once said...Sometimes life isn't a bowl of cherries its a crock of sh@#!  Well without boring everyone with those mundane moments, I shall simply say no greater truth has been told.  Its been a dousy of a week.  Luckily I am only going to share the very awesome, amazing moment that I shared with the littles yesterday. 

I decided out of the blue that life may be beating the crap out of me but I do know, that one way I have been able to escape and feel better is running.  So I asked Keegan if he wanted to go with me.  He said yes.  No sooner had he said that when Dylan and Kiley came ripping around the corner saying Take Me Toooooo!!!  Running is my escape but tonight I thought what the hell...lets do this!

I made them promise that they would run, not whine and keep up.  But, I told them, if they could do this than I would take them to my favorite secret place.  They were intrigued enough to agree.  We piled in the van and headed to Veterans Park trails.  These trails are amazing and follows a little creek.  I knew the littles would love it.

Now let me set the stage...it is 182 degrees, it has rained for 40 days and the humidity is indescribable.  Sounds like perfect running weather, right?  Wrong.

We get out of the van and begin stretching.  I mean we looked like the cutest little fitness buffs ever!  So we started to jog into the wooded trails.  Everything is grand until the trails turned into a sloppy mess.  I didn't know what to do.  The kids were excited, we were ready but there was literally mud lakes every foot.  I looked at their faces and couldn't turn them down.  We kept on running.

Kiley was the first one down.  She slipped and was covered in mud.  I took a deep breath.  For a moment I almost cursed out loud but then I just didn't.  I made the decision to laugh.  Pretty soon we all were.   We were jogging through mud and laughing our heads off.   Shortly after kileys spill, Dylan "fell".  He fell about three times in a row.  Each fall looked kinds of like a belly flop.  Right after Keegan got a big handprint of mud on his cute cheeks courtesy of mama bear.  We were a family of hippos.  Then we hit the biggest part of the creek.  Here's where things really got funny.  I slid down a hill, almost into the creek covered head to toe in mud.  I couldn't get up the hill.  I kept sliding back down. The kids were busting their guts. 

As I sat in the mud I thought a lot about how expectations for life never really measure up to reality.  In that moment I knew that I didn't have the perfect job, a million dollars or a fabulous outfit but I had the three most filthy, adorable children that ever lived.  They know nothing but love and laughter.  There is nothing sweeter than that. 

I always dreamed these grand dreams growing up what life was going to be.  It hasn't turned out the way I thought.  Today I realized it kind of turned out better.