Playgroups and Mud Holes

With the beginning of the new year came a new opportunity for Smiley to get together with a couple of the boys his age in our neighborhood. 3 of the 5 boys go to preschool together on MWF and so after they go to one of the homes to play and eat lunch until about 1pm. Smiley is not one of them but we were invited to join them and take our turn in the rotation. Yesterday was our day to have all the Boys here. It was a lot of fun to see the boys light up at the sight of Smiley's trains. luckily we have enough trains and remotes for everyone to have one although one of them is the airplane which is not the funnest to have so they would trade remotes every 5 minutes. This kept them entertained for almost an hour while I fixed lunch. They all played so well together and it just was one of the pay days as a Mom to see that your son does well with other kids his age. (If I find my camera I'll upload the pics.) Now onto the Mud Hole part of my day. I was so excited last night to get my kids to bed and have a few quiet moments to myself. Got the kids to bed no problems then I decided that Maddie needed to go out one last time so then I could put her to bed as well. (in case any of you are wondering Maddie is our Jack Russell) Well as most of you know we don't let Maddie out unless she is on a leash or other form of containment as she loves to run. Although she is coming back now usually in 10 -20 mins. Well it was cold and I decided that I would let her out and most likely she would come right back in, right? but just in case I did put her short leash on her that way if she did run I would be able to still catch her fairly easily. Well she ran so I waited for 5 mins but because she ran towards the ducks (which she likes to chase the ducks and jump into the water after them and she is not a good swimmer) I decided that I needed to put on my coat and make sure she didn't take a late night swim. When I walked outside I could hear her barking she was in the front yard barking at another dog that was being walked. I attempted to grab her but no luck and off she went again. Well I decided to wait again, and again and again. Finally she was not coming back like she usually would even to check in and I told Sean that we needed to go and find her. We put on our boots and coats got a couple of flashlights and off we went he went one way in the field and I went the other. It is normal for us to have at least an inch of snow on the ground in January, but this year for the past 2 days it has been raining not snowing raining. Which means that the fields are a muddy mess. I had heard Maddie bark from the direction I was headed so I had an idea that she was there somewhere. As you can see in the pictures they have been doing some work in the fields and so a lot of the fences are down which means that it would be that much easier for Maddie to go farther than she would otherwise. Usually she will stay in the fences when she is out in the field except to go back into the subdivision versus towards the river. Also the geese in the field south had been making quite a bit of noise which is not especially normal or out of the ordinary as there is other wildlife around ie foxes. So I kept walking thru this cooridor of mud where they had been working on the sewer line. What you can't see in this picture is that it goes right up to the river. So I keep walking knowing that something is not right. I decide that I need to go check by the river as I see a cat which Maddie loves to chase as well. As I got closer to the river I had to climb down about 2 feet of rocks and then it flattens out again. All the sudden I see what I think was a beaver swim off in the opposite direction (I didn't see exactly what it was but it was big). No Sign of Maddie, thank goodness. I would have had a hard time getting her out of the river if she was stuck. So I decide that instead of trudging thru mud all the way back I will take the trail which is a bit longer but easier walking. Now mind you it is pitch black and my flashlight is not showing me much on the ground except Mud. So I start crossing this 10 ft span where they had been working so the ground is not all that packed and it is going slow but not terrible. I am 3 ft in when my foot gets stuck. I mean stuck and I have already taken another step as I could keep going if I didn't stop right. Well in the process of unsticking my right foot. My left foot sinks to the point I am up to my knees in mud. So I try everything I can think of (without getting to dirty I had on my new jeans and they had just been washed) to get my left foot unstuck all the while trying to prevent my right foot from sinking in that far as well. By this time my hands are caked in ice cold mud the hat that I had on was also caked in mud as I had been using it as a barrier for my hands. I finally give in and realize that either I am going to spend the night there (not really) or I am going to get dirty and get out. Mind you I had been there at this point about 10 mins. So I get on my knees and start pulling nothing. So I sit on my butt and pull still very little movement. After another 5-10 mins of going back and forth I get my left foot out and make my way back to where I had started and start walking mud and all back home which is a 1/4 of mile away. I got to thinking as I was cleaning off my boots today that there are many mud holes in life. Even though we do what we can to avoid them we are not always successful. So when we find ourselves in those mud holes as much as we don't want to get dirty and we do all that we can not to get dirty sometimes it is unavoidable and we have to let go of our pride and dig in with all our might to get unstuck. 2009 was a crazy unpredictable year for us and who knows maybe 2010 will be as well. But I think I have learned that we are all comfortable being clean but we all at some point have to do things that take us out of that comfort zone. I am grateful that Heavenly Father allowed me to get stuck and had the faith in me to get myself unstuck.