Exercising our bodies and minds

Every summer, my friend Amy, organizes a running club. It's a running club for our little ones, mostly. My friend measured a field where our kids could run or walk, with four laps equaling a mile. They each get a card with their name on it, and every time they complete one lap around the field, they get a hole punched on their card. The ages of the kids walking or running varied from 2 years to 15, and all of them were giving their best. Gillian, Jefferson, and James, like many other kids, completed a FIVE mile run in under an hour. I thought it was amazing, and Elijah thought it impossible, but there it was, the kids did it. For the first few miles, James ran and walked holding hands with Zoe. Later on, he joined forces with Jefferson, and they were on the lead. Gillian realizing that her brothers were ahead of her, persuaded them to wait on her so she could catch up with them. They were sweet brothers and waited on her, and so they finished the five mile together.

After they finished running, and then played at the playground, I told the children that we had to go. Charlton was making it clear to us that he was ready for his nap. On the way home, I drove by the library and then remembering I had a few books on hold waiting for me, stopped and parked the car. I told the kids we were going to be at the library for just a few minutes because Charlton really needed his nap. My friend Amy and her children had done the same thing as we were doing, had stopped at the library on their way home. What a bunch of exciting people we all were when we saw each other, as if we hadn't seen each other a few minutes ago! Without any need for the spoken word, Gillian and Mary got themselves close to books they liked, reading and sharing favorites, James, Jefferson and Zoe gathered around Amy so she could read to them, Caleb was scouting for his own books, and I approached my favorite area, the books on hold.
After a little while, Zoe wanted Charlton on her lap.

This gave us, Amy and me, a chance to talk without interruption, with the exception of the librarian, who was reminding our kids to pick up the books they had spread throughout the floor. As good mothers that we are, we were kind of embarrassed that are children were reprimanded, but to tell the truth, I thought it awesome that my kids love books so much and feel so very comfortable at the library. I knew they would pick those books up; they were just not done yet. What is really funny is the fact that both of us, Amy and I, are neat freaks, and there we were listening to this guy telling our kids to be more neat! I don't think the kids paid much attention; they were so entranced by the magic world of books, but we rounded them up and got them out of there before you could count to ten. When we arrived home, after putting Charlton down for a nap, we each found our quiet corner and spread ourselves out feeling very comfortable being home and without any one telling us where to put our books. At least till later.