Sunshine and new mud

When Boy in Black is home, everyone in the household gets recruited to play Ultimate Frisbee. Even in snow or cold rain, he'll tie a bandana around his long hair, grab a frisbee, and start making teams, with no sympathy for anyone who would like to sit in by the fire. In snowy weather, the players straggle back to the house with red, chapped hands. On rainy days, players come back splattered with mud, dripping pools of muddy water on the linoleum as they grab towels and strip off wet pants.

This weekend, we finally had the perfect weather for the sport – warm enough for shorts but cool enough to keep bugs away. So even the fair-weather frisbee players, that is, my husband and I, were talked into playing. I am not much of a frisbee player – in fact, it's hardly fair to put me in the game with tireless teenagers, especially now that so many of them are taller than me – but I enjoy being out in the sunshine with my kids and my extras, watching their dramatics leaps and throws, listening to their banter.

I am not quick at learning different throws or running patterns, mostly because I am far more interested in learning the language of the game. "Stack it up!" Boy in Black will yell. Or "someone mark him!" Boy in Black has always been quick to pick up insider language from any group, from skateboarders to snowboarders to physics majors, and the younger kids pick up the lingo from him.

Boy in Black had lent a black bandana to With-a-Why, and I noticed that the two brothers looked just alike, their long dark hair pulled back like pirates. Of course, With-a-Why is still a few feet shorter than Boy in Black; he is still a little boy.

"You look so cute with your hair like that, " I said to With-a-Why. "Like a little pirate."

The teenagers gave me disgusted looks.

"Way to Mom him," said FirstExtra.

We were playing barefoot in a grassy field filled with puddles, and the sun-warmed mud felt soft beneath my toes as I ran back and forth, trying to guard With-a-Why, who is way shorter but frustratingly faster than I am. Whenever we stopped, I kept looking around at the green grass and the spring sun coming through the bare branches of the trees.

Less than a week ago, this landscape was still drifted in white. How good it felt to feel the sun on my bare legs, to slip and slide in the mud, and know that we have months of warm weather ahead of us.



The muddy feet of Blonde Niece.