The Things We Do

Sometimes I amaze myself at what I'll do for my kids.

Today we took a walk around the lake, and as we meandered along the back side we heard a splash. Tay and Vin caught a glimpse of a fish swimming away just as it passed out of sight. That event brought my attention to a fish swimming {if you want to call it swimming} upside down next to the bank we were at.

"Mommy, is that a real live fish?!" says my 5-year-old.

I felt the call of duty.

I replied with "not for long." as I stepped down and scooped up the poor thing.

I brought it up to the kids so they could get a good looksy. Theren had the guts to touch it, but Vince was a bit more stand-off-ish.  We looked at it's glassy eyes, and the gills as they moved, and the way the "fish skin" changed colors as I moved it from side to side. Both kids were wide-eyed with wonder, and they both thought I was "so cool" for fetching the thing.

Then it died.

I wasn't sure what to do with it at that point. Throwing it back seemed so heartless, but I wasn't too comfortable with carrying a dead fish with us for the rest of the walk. And what would I do with it once we got home? I don't know how to prepare a fish, and even if I did, is it even ok to eat it?? Does it have a disease or something?? {can you tell I've never done this before?}

I ended up calling my mom to ask her opinion and after her consultation, we threw it back into the water.

Tay took a while to believe me when I told her that no, the fish will not come back alive when it gets back in the water, but once she saw it floating upside down, not moving, she quickly turned her back on it.

"But aren't we going to eat it for dinner?"

Ah yes. She's turning into a mountain girl all right. No doubts there.

Vin was pretty much indifferent. He said good-bye to the fish and we continued our walk.

But I was {if even for a few minutes} a super hero for having "catched that real live fish".

I'll take that any day!!