Friday, February 23, 2007

Muck and Mud and Guck

We have a large section of our backyard reserved for a garden. That means that this time of year we have a large section of our backyard reserved for a mudbox. "What is a mudbox," you may ask? Well, it is a section of the backyard reserved for playing in the mud. Similar to the sandbox. Only with a sandbox, kids sit and play in the sand with toys and their friends and dig to China, then go on about their other outdoor play. They wash hands and need to brush off when done.
However, with a mudbox, the kids go out and sit and play with toys in the mud and dig islands and moats and ditches and riversand dams. They also dig pits and roads and bridges and make more mud factories. But then, they cannot go on with their outdoor play. They need mom, NOW! to help them remove their muck-muck boots and every stitch of clothing in the garage. Then it all needs to be carted to the laundry room and put IN THE MACHINE NOT ON THE FLOOR DON'T TAKE IT UP TO YOUR ROOM WHAT DID I TELL YOU?! Then they need to get to the bathtub without touching the walls and be completely washed head to toe, yes even the hair even if we hate washing hair. How they get that much mud up there I am sure I never really want to know. Then they need a towel and clean clothes. We still have to remember to return the towel to the bathroom to be hung up on the towel rack.
For some reason, mom still is the one who gets to wash all the clothes and remember to put it all in the dryer. This goes relatively smoothly as long as there isn't another load of laundry in the machine when they come inside. Chances of success are also improved if there are no tears about being told to come inside due to dinner time or hitting neighbor kids with shovels.
And I ask myself again, "do I really want to live on acreage?"

2 comments:

PapaCoyote said...

When I was about four or five, my frieds and I made some pretty good looking mud cakes and pies. We set them out in he sun to dry. They were works of are. Haha. We never did try eating one. It worked best when we could lay them out on some nice hot concrete so they baked from both sides. You might be lacking the nice hot concrete.

PapaCoyote said...

When you live on acreage, you don't hear as much. Sometimes it is better not to hear too much. With less input, the computer does not overload so much.