So I’m blogging from the grocery store. It’s like the two things I spend the most time doing have collided into one convenient location. I’m surrounded by any number of free-range, organic, all-natural, un-processed yummy goodness and I may or may not be jammin’ out to some tunes while I BLAWG AT YOU.
Does this excite you as much as it does me?
I know I said we were all looking forward to Monday, but I don’t suppose that really guaranteed an easy day. As a matter of fact, it was a bit tough. The morning was rainy and the kids’ exuberance would not be contained inside. Then I read this post and I went ahead and booted my little darlings out into the mud.
And, yea, I still lost my cool 800 times, even though they were outside. I watched Sam pour muddy water on Ellen’s head and felt my head explode a little. I don’t care how dirty I told them they could get, it is NO FAIR adding to the two year old’s already impressive filth. Thank goodness my son readily forgives and forgets my rantings and Ellen wasn’t even perturbed at the muddy baptizing.
Sam did redeem himself in the closet today. After this weekend’s fiasco with the crayon on the carpet, he played very sweetly on his pallet. When I went to get him up, he showed me his “rocket ship.” He’d taken all of Willa’s clothes out of her box and laid them so the snaps were facing out. Those were the many shiny buttons. Then each of his stuffed animals had assigned buttons to “press” to launch the ship.
My kid went to Mars while I dozed to some old Michael J. Fox movie with shoulder pads and synthesizer music. (Which is a bit like a visit to Mars, I guess.) How cool is that?
After naps, the gang headed back outside to hunt down more puddles and mud piles. Here they are when they stopped for dinner. (I fed them two meals outside today since it was actually slightly cooler than Blue Blazes here for once. And yet my dining room floor was still a disaster at the end of the day. Go figure.)
And here’s the trampoline where they played all afternoon. Check out the mud from where they rolled their cars in mud and then made tracks on the mat. Little geniuses.
While I was snapping photos (I used the REAL camera, Abbi, aren’t you proud?), Adam pointed up. “Look, Mommy! Take a piccha of da butter-fwy!”
So I did. And it struck me that I was bogged down in the muck, stuck looking at the dirt and grime. But even the perpetrators of such filth could point out the beauty in the every day for me. Even more, those five little mud-covered bodies ARE my beauty amidst the muck. They may make the dirt, but they make life beautiful.
I guess sometimes God sends butterflies to raise our eyes heavenward. And sometimes He just sends dirty faces.
Either way, it’s lovely.
7.13.2009
Great lesson there! And I love the dangling feet picture; that is just too precious!
7.13.2009
wow “slightly cooler than Blue Blazes”, huh? What’s that like?? I need winter to come… like, yesterday.
o and ps, aren’t you awesome? not only can she shop, but she can blog and shop at the same time….
7.14.2009
This post is just like it’s title. Loved it.
(And if you’re so inclined to link up, it would fit in perfectly as part of Chatting at the Sky’s Tuesdays Unwrapped.)
7.14.2009
this filled my heart… mud and all.
7.14.2009
These words really lifted my heart. I’m working this week on cleaning out years of accumulated junk in my house, and it’s easy to focus on HOW MESSY my kids are. And yet they’re the source of the most beauty I’ve ever seen. Thank you for the reminder!
7.14.2009
This is lovely, too.
7.14.2009
OH THIS MADE ME CRY!!!! What a great post!
7.14.2009
Oh, mama. THIS is beautiful! I love the butterfly shot, too - nice capture! Beautiful and profound reflection on the beauty of every day.
7.14.2009
[...] Lora Lynn found the beauty in the mud, and it made me smile. (p.s. – Lora Lynn wrote another great post last week called [...]
7.14.2009
Hi Lora Lynn,
i found your blog through Boo Mama. I love this post- oh, how true! I also have 5 little blessings… ages 3 and under. Yep- I totally understand what daily life for you is like!
Best wishes to you!
7.14.2009
Great butterfly shot! I’m very impressed…..
7.16.2009
Man that butterfly should be a Vitafam mascot.
7.17.2009
So glad to find your blog while blog hopping today. I love making new friends and finding new blogs.
I enjoyed my visit to yours. http://teresa-grammygirlfriend.blogspot.com/
7.20.2009
[...] forward to hanging out in my closet for an hour during rest time. I told you about his very own rocket ship in my closet. A few days later, we found that he had put some of Willa’s baby clothes on [...]