Simple pleasures ...
Can you see what's in my bucket? Look carefully! Do you see him?! Isn't he cute?
I was working out in the yard this afternoon, digging up dandelions, weeds, and last year's dead leaves, and other unsightly growth from the lawn and flower beds when this cute little toad came hopping into view ...
He didn't want me to catch him and hopped right through the fence and into a pile of leaves. "Not so fast!" I said to myself and then promptly climbed the fence, balanced oh so carefully on the outside air conditioner, leaned way over, and caught him!
I know it's hard to believe, but this little toad made my day. How is that possible you ask? Because it brought me back to the days when the boys and I ~ years and years ago (it seems like forever ago actually) would go hunting! In the summer time when I was a single mom and the boys were out of school and I still had to work, I would get up in the early hours of the morning and get my transcription for the doctors all finished by about 11:00 a.m. Then, we'd pack up some peanut butter-and-jelly-sandwiches, snack crackers, our canteens, a very deep bucket, and our "frog nets" and go on an adventure! There was a nice shallow creek that ran through Townsend Park (Cannonsburg) and that's where we would go to hunt frogs and crayfish. A few times, we brought Jesse's tent along with us and made an entire day of it. I can honestly say that these happy excursions remain as the best memories I have of those years. The boys would run from the car, nets in hand, hollering all the way down to the creek ... but you had to be real sneaky about it because those frogs were FAST! How many could we catch? Who would catch the biggest frog?
I think Shane almost always caught the most! He just had a knack with that net and he was SO determined! Mostly, we were just content to catch a few, hold them, examine their cool skin and color, put two up against each other in a race, see how many we could fit in our pockets, and then we'd return them to the creek at the end of the afternoon. For very little $$ cost, an entire afternoon would lazily slip by with us up to our knees in the water, looking at all the wonderful things God had made ... and for me, it was a sense of complete peace and total happiness! Good and healthy fun, pure joy! So, thanks little toad for the memories! I have him all situated for the night in my yellow bucket with water, rocks, plants and a lid with holes ... he is being taken to Dylan's Field Ecology class tomorrow, where he will be enjoyed by all!
I was working out in the yard this afternoon, digging up dandelions, weeds, and last year's dead leaves, and other unsightly growth from the lawn and flower beds when this cute little toad came hopping into view ...
He didn't want me to catch him and hopped right through the fence and into a pile of leaves. "Not so fast!" I said to myself and then promptly climbed the fence, balanced oh so carefully on the outside air conditioner, leaned way over, and caught him!
I know it's hard to believe, but this little toad made my day. How is that possible you ask? Because it brought me back to the days when the boys and I ~ years and years ago (it seems like forever ago actually) would go hunting! In the summer time when I was a single mom and the boys were out of school and I still had to work, I would get up in the early hours of the morning and get my transcription for the doctors all finished by about 11:00 a.m. Then, we'd pack up some peanut butter-and-jelly-sandwiches, snack crackers, our canteens, a very deep bucket, and our "frog nets" and go on an adventure! There was a nice shallow creek that ran through Townsend Park (Cannonsburg) and that's where we would go to hunt frogs and crayfish. A few times, we brought Jesse's tent along with us and made an entire day of it. I can honestly say that these happy excursions remain as the best memories I have of those years. The boys would run from the car, nets in hand, hollering all the way down to the creek ... but you had to be real sneaky about it because those frogs were FAST! How many could we catch? Who would catch the biggest frog?
I think Shane almost always caught the most! He just had a knack with that net and he was SO determined! Mostly, we were just content to catch a few, hold them, examine their cool skin and color, put two up against each other in a race, see how many we could fit in our pockets, and then we'd return them to the creek at the end of the afternoon. For very little $$ cost, an entire afternoon would lazily slip by with us up to our knees in the water, looking at all the wonderful things God had made ... and for me, it was a sense of complete peace and total happiness! Good and healthy fun, pure joy! So, thanks little toad for the memories! I have him all situated for the night in my yellow bucket with water, rocks, plants and a lid with holes ... he is being taken to Dylan's Field Ecology class tomorrow, where he will be enjoyed by all!
1 comment:
i LOVED this post! it was awesome to picture you and boys out "hunting" and having beautiful days together...
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