Rainy night in Georgia

Joie de Boue


Rainswept Georgia, rainswept front yard.  We were lucky: the only flooding we experienced resulted from a mis-hap Yosef had with a bathroom sink. The already defeated soccer-battered front yard turned dark brown, swam with puddles, its few grasses beaten down in the storm. We'd gone a week without sun. Kids listlessly milled around inside, their soccer practices canceled. Bored, they put Yosef in various head-locks, then wandered on.  Suddenly, an incredible announcement:  schools all over the metropolitan area were cancelled tomorrow, due to RAIN!!  Including the DeKalb County Schools!  My heart sank at the very moment theirs soared with joy.  No school!  Because of rain!  Yosef, Fisseha, and Daniel tore into the front yard, slippery as an iced-over pond. They yelled for Lily to join them, and she did.  They called for Helen to join them and she snuggled deeper under her covers in bed with a good book and pretended not to hear them. Jesse was at the YMCA and Lee was in San Francisco visiting Seth & Molly.

So the celebration was the responsibility of Yosef, Fisseha, Daniel and Lily (and Lily's school wasn't even canceled.)  They ran and slid across the mud; they dragged out the slip-and-slide and slid across that. When the rain slowed momentarily, they turned on the slip-and-slide sprinkler, which allowed them to get the mud out of their eyes. They played football in the mud.  The boys threw themselves with glee into the mud, as if jumping into a swimming pool; then, ever the considerate young gentlemen, they helped (forced) Lily lower towards the ground. Fisseha lay on his back and did snow-angels in the mud.  Concerned that Lily wasn't enjoying the full benefit of the mud bath, they turned their attention to her again, with Daniel lovingly adding gobs of mud to her hair and Yosef giving mud highlights to her face. "There goes the yard again," I thought, not for the first time. But the explosion of joy inspired by the mud-wallowing was not to be tampered with. So I took pictures of it instead. 

Yosef 

helping Lily to enjoy


Daniel

Daniel helping Lily up.  Or down.





Daniel


in mud

Lily tries to escape

Lily fails to escape


She pulls down Yosef

The Mud-angel


The Flying Mud Tackle