Naomi's Beeg Seester asked her if she wanted to go walk around the lake on April 2.
Naomi said, "Um. The whole lake?"
Her Seester said, "It's 9.5 miles. If I can do it, I'm sure you can. You're always taking those long walks."
"Um. Not that long."
"Well, how far do you think you can go? You can always have the Prince come get you when you've had enough."
"I might be able to do three miles. You going to carry a phone?"
"Yep."
"Well, okay then, I guess."
Things went a lot better than Naomi expected.
After they'd walked three or four miles, they actually started doing some running (at least they called it that).
At the six mile marker, the Prince was called to please bring water.
"Honey, are you going to keep going?" he said.
"I feel pretty good. I think I will" Naomi said.
At the seven mile marker Naomi began to come to her senses, but it was too late.
Who wants to get that close to the finish line and then quit?
She pressed on.
She lived to see this...
...and finished the course.
Well.
I'd love to tell you that was the end of that nonsense, but Beeg Seester liked that whole running thing and she's been getting Naomi out there pretty regularly.
And this week, when Beeg Seester has much weightier things to attend to, Naomi is being all grown up and she's forcing me to be her jogging partner.
Yesterday, about a mile into the run, I heard Naomi saying, "God, it's harder to find coins when I'm running, and I'd sure like to find a coin."
And the conversation continued.
"Let me rephrase that. I am lonely to hear your voice, God, and I'd like to find the coin you placed for me as a reminder that I am still yours, still loved, and You are not far off. I want to love You more."
Run, run.
Run, run, run.
Squat.
"Thank you, thank you!"
I'm glad Naomi found her precious coin.
Guess what she let me do?
Since she was being all grown up and everything, she let me be a kid for the last few blocks.
We like to play this game; we find something in the street to take turns kicking until we've kicked it all the way home.
On good days we find a golf ball, or a nice round stone.
Yesterday we kicked this home:
It was a lot more challenging to kick this all the way home.
I mean, there are rules and everything, and this shape made the game rather difficult.
If the object crosses the center line of the street, that's a foul.
And if it rolls under a parked car, that's a foul, too.
But, if the object jumps the curb and stays there, well, the game is over.
And that is very sad.
I saw Naomi cheat once and put the pinecone back into play after it came to rest on someone's lawn, but I didn't say anything, because I wanted my turn to kick it.
(We work together well that way.)
Naomi also found this on the street yesterday:
She's been collecting pencils from the mean street for quite awhile now.
She finds them just about as often as she finds the pennies from heaven.
When her Chicken Raising Seester sent her the link to this amazing art work done with old pencils (scroll down when you get there)...well.
You can imagine the explosion when Naomi's collection of rescued pencils collided with her plan to have a wall full of alphabet art!
I'm trying to keep her sanity intact.
We went out running again this morning.
And I heard her talking to God again.
"I hate to be piggish, and I am having a hard time asking, but it was so wonderful to recieve that penny from You yesterday and I'd love to be loved again today."
Run, run, run.
Squat.
"Oh! You are so kind to me! Thank you!"
Run, run, run.
"There's a nice round stone."
Squat.
Kick, walk, kick.
"There's today's pencil!"
Squat.
Walk, kick, walk.
It's good to be alive.