Mud, fire and fits of rage: Just another Monday afternoon

It wasn't a bad day until the big kids got home from school.

Things went downhill fast.

I won't name names, but there was screaming and threatening and lots and lots of crying.

Once the devil left the premises and my cooling off mandate was adhered to, I knew I had to think of something really great to get us through the afternoon. It was not a day for meandering from one aimless activity to the next. We needed something big.

"Get your boots and coats. We're going out!" I barked.

"Where are we going?"

"We're going for a walk."

"Where?"

"I don't know. Just meet me in the garage."

They obliged, and in the time it took for them to locate socks, zip their jackets and shove their tiny feet into rubber boots, this is what I thought up.

"Are you ready for adventure?"

"Yeah."

"How about make-believe?"

"What's make-believe?"

"It's pretending. Do you feel like pretending?"

The 5-year-old immediately answered in the affirmative. The 7-year-old thought it over some and then agreed it would be OK to pretend. The baby waited for his siblings' responses, then jumped swiftly on board.

"OK then. You're Laura, you're Almonzo, you're Jack and I'm Ma. We're pioneers and we need provisions for the week. This paper sack is a leather satchel and we're going to hunt and gather until we have enough food and firewood to take back to the cabin. Boys, get your bows and arrows. You'll be shooting the rabbits."

Between the park and our backyard we managed a pretty good afternoon on our make-believe prairie.

On our walk we plucked holly berries, bundled piles of pine straw and harvested onion grass. In the back yard we made good bowls of mud and built a fire. It was fun to pretend to be someone else for a few hours.

I would have gotten great praise for this original idea except that Calvin has been reading some of the "Little House on the Prairie" books at school.

"Hey Mama, this is just like Laura Ingalls. But ... isn't 'Jack' the name of their dog?"

"Yes it is, son. 'Jack' is the bull dog."

"But we've been calling Henry 'Jack'. Doesn't that make Henry our dog?"

 "Yes it does. But please don't tell him that. It will ruin the game and things are going really great right now."

"Yeah. I love playing pioneers!"

And so I've got some mud and smoke to deal with in the laundry room now. Mud and smoke I can handle. An afternoon full of tears and fits of rage would have done me in.