My friend Rosemary called on Monday to ask if I wanted to hang out at the Strawberry Festival downtown with her on Wednesday, and I excitedly said YES! So early yesterday morning, I fed the girls breakfast and then gave them a bath. What? Bathing doesn't normally follow every meal at your house? How about just the meals that involve syrup?
I dressed them in really cute outfits, put adorable bows in their hair, and off we drove to complete a round of errands before meeting up with our friend. I stopped off at the library to return some books, stopped off at the church to go over VBS plans for next week, stopped to bottle-feed some orphaned kittens for a busy friend, and finally drove downtown to meet Rosemary.
The unplanned feeding had made me late, and I thought it strange that Rosemary hadn't called my cell looking for me. I stopped in at her workplace to see if she was waiting, but I was told that she had gone to lunch.
Gone to lunch? She's supposed to be finished at noon. And then I wondered out loud, "Is today Wednesday or Tuesday?" The lady at the desk grinned knowingly. "It's Tuesday."
I considered going home, but I had already told the girls that we were going to have a picnic, and they were so excited. So we walked to a nearby flower garden, home to several benches and a "water mountain" as the girls call water fountains, and we unpacked our picnic lunch. A relaxing, quiet time of eating and enjoying the beauty around us hovered over our bench, and the three of us sat contentedly together. Eventually, I stood to throw our garbage away, while Liberty and Mercy followed make-believe paths among the mulch, flowers and boulders. After such an enjoyable experience, I didn't want to return home to vacuum and launder and scrub, and we still had a few hours before naptime.
"Want to go on a sculpture hunt?" I asked the girls.
"YEAH!!!" Liberty screamed as she jumped up and down. Mercy watched her sister's excitement and decided she wanted in on it too. "Yes," she enunciated decisively and seriously put her hand into mine so we could walk down the sidewalk together. We picked up a map of the
Sculptures On The Square and began walking. The fun part of all this is that the sculptures are scattered over several blocks and displayed in very unexpected places, so you have to hunt for them. Also, they are so life-like, that on a sidewalk hosting other passersby, sometimes the sculpture looks like it is just another pedestrian.
The first sculpture stood in the garden with us and was easy to find. The second sculpture - a policeman writing out a ticket - stood two blocks away in front of the police station, fittingly enough. Liberty stared at him, and in a small voice whispered, "He is scary."
"Oh, no," I responded cheerfully, "this is a policeman! Policemen are nice, and they help take care of us. They keep us safe and make sure we are obeying the laws. See his uniform? That's how you know if somebody is a policeman because they wear a uniform like this, and see his hat? And his badge? And look, he has a gun in a holster, and some bullets on his belt. This is a ticket pad in his hand, and he is writing on the ticket because someone disobeyed the law. See? He's good."
"OOHH!" Liberty said with pleased confidence in her voice. "He IS good, Mommy! That's great, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is. Thank you, God, for policemen."
"Yes. And if somebody bees mean to me, then the policeman will pull out his gun and SQUIRT them! Right, Mommy?"
"Ummm, y-yeah..."