Ah, now that is refreshing!

We are finally getting the October we didn't have this year. The weather has been fabulous. It seems a bit odd, though, to be experiencing this lovely weather with the trees completely bare, and no color of fall at all. Not to quibble, though, because I'll take this weather whenever it comes.

Saturday our entire family worked outside to finish all the little projects we couldn't get to in October: cleaning out the gutters, finishing the last bit of sealing the driveway, one last mulching mow over the leaves, cleaning up the gardens for spring, and planting bulbs. Then 5 of the kids and I played catch, with a baseball, which I haven't done in years. My younger kids call playing catch, "Toss the ball", since they have never heard it referred to as playing catch. Way back when, I used to play softball. I was on the Varsity team, and through the years, became a pretty competent. I didn't play in college, so since then, baseball or softball for me has been pretty spotty.

Saturday, my seven year old son got hit in the mouth with the ball when his five year old sister threw the ball to him. He came running up to my husband and I, and was disinclined to toss the ball any more. Out I went, to teach him how to protect his face. Soon, the 11 year old, the 9 year old, the 13 year old and the five year old joined us, and I was throwing the ball to each of them in order, and catching a wide variety of return balls. I haven't stretched and run and jumped and moved so quickly since I can remember. My oh my, what a blast.

I was amazed how even after so many years, my body's memory of how to catch wayward balls, how to throw accurately and hard, how to field an errant bouncing ground ball came right back. I was awesome. I impressed my kids, I know that. I was also amazed how quickly the kids improved their throwing and fielding ability with just a few pointers.

Now for the big question. Yes, I was (and still am) pretty sore. But not as badly as I would have guessed, and since the weather is still quite temperate, we'll be back outside this week, playing and laughing in a way that makes me feel much younger than I have in years.