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“Rrrummmble!”
“Girls, what’s that noise?” I asked, walking to the back window.
Delaney, my youngest daughter, hopped off her chair, clenching a jumbo-sized red crayon, trailing on my heels. “I dunno know, Mommy.”
Glancing out the window, the bright sunlight permeated on my face. Squinting, I looked right and left, finally looking up. The blue sky shone clear, without a single cloud in sight. I turned toward Delaney, shrugging. “It doesn’t look like thunder or rain.”
“Thunder?” Alena, my oldest daughter, scrunched up her face.
“No, Alena, just relax.” I walked back to the table. “You don’t have to worry it’s not going to storm.” I picked up her coloring page. A giraffe munching on a tree without a smudge of crayon marks over the lines stared back. “Alena, this is beautiful!”
“Can we hang mine?” Delaney shouted, running hers to the fridge.
“We’ll hang them all up.”
“Rrrummmble!”
Squeezing my eyebrows together, I leaped out of my chair, trotting to the front door. “What is that sound?”
I stepped onto the front porch as my heart pounded. “Anton, Robert, get out of there now!” I shouted, darting to the driveway. “What are you doing?” I pointed my finger under Robert’s nose.
“We’re-we’re, huh, well,” Robert mumbled looking at his brother Anton.
Anton bounded out of the over-sized black hefty-duty plastic garbage can. “Mom, we’re taking turns rolling each other down the driveway.”
“In the garbage can?” I held my nose as the smell of yesterday’s garbage – a combination of rotten eggs and even rottener fruit almost toppled me over.
“But it’s dirty in there,” I announced, hiding a smile, taking my familiar pose, hands on my hips with my heels dug in.
Anton bit his lip. “But-but there’s no garbage in there now.”
“There was yesterday.” I sighed. “Let’s get it back in the garage, and you’ll both have to come inside and get washed up.”
With a garage full of bikes, roller blades, balls, and hockey sticks, I marveled at my boy’s desire to play with a dirty, stinky trash can. But these same boys have picked up snakes, climbed the tallest trees, and wanted to jump out a bedroom window into a pool. They have slept with dirty socks in their bed, brushed their teeth only because of my nasty threats, and brought countless bugs and insects into their bedroom – naming them all and claiming them as pets.
Growing up as a feminine girl, with one sister and girl cousins, my boys have really taught me a thing or two. I smile when I think about how raising these boys have been an on-going lesson in life. But the best surprise is knowing that no matter what adventure we find ourselves in, they run over and give me a hug, which makes my heart rumble with love.
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