Sometimes I open my text book and I panic. The thought bursts into my mind that I AM TOO OLD TO LEARN… to be more accurate, the thought is more complex and more like I HAVE BEEN A MOM FOR 13 YEARS AND HAVEN’T HAD TO STUDY IN THE TRADITIONAL SENSE AND MIGHT NOT KNOW HOW TO DO THIS ANY MORE! I am sure many parent’s (at home full time and not) have thought parenthood has shrunken or (my personal favourite descriptive) melted ones brain! Or perhaps it is just me (insert d’oh and frowny face here). Mom is gonna carry on though… set an example for the kids… and all that such stuff… but first I close the text book after I have panicked and go for a bike ride.
Each morning I try to get up and take the youngest two kids for a bike ride to insure they have been exercised (kinda like walking the dog) so they will behave while the bigger two kids and mom and dad get busy. The youngest two do not care what my motives are, they are always pumped to go for a bike ride. My seven year old jumps on her mountain bike and clicks her helmet on with gusto. Little man rushes me through setting up his ‘ride a long’ on my pink cruiser and then not too patiently waits till I am seated before he climbs on.
Mom and son push off first, with a customary wobbly this way and that way, then mom’s broken record plea, “Don’t lean to one side Mr. Man! Sit still! Sit centred’!
Which is always followed by his regular response of, ‘I KNOW MOM,” and “I got this”!
Little lady follows behind us, at a greater distance till we straighten out, and we head off to explore our home town. We specifically seek out spots in the alleys and back lanes where mom can find old and odd things to photograph. They are happy to be along and keep the complaining low key even when I make them stop multiple times so I can click my little phone camera. I save the more intense photo shoots, and my big back pack of camera gear for more formal walk abouts. After all, this is to wear the kids out, not me.
We have found lovely old rusted vehicles and perfectly falling apart sheds to admire; clusters of run away perennial patches and on every outer edge of town are endless stretching prairie landscapes to ooh and aah at. Lately the crops are in bloom and the glorious yellows only make the striking blue fields all the more… well striking!
I am not naive, it would take a much more demanding ride to wear out my two munch-kins, half the time my youngest isn’t pedalling so mommy is just haling him around. Littlest lady is almost 8 and a dedicated biker, she managed going to a local lake and back, a 6k ride, the other day just fine on her own steam. I think we all are just glad to get out first thing and wake up for the day this way. Just the three of us exploring and riding and taking pictures. We can be heard singing little ditties louder and louder, giggling and chatting away as we circle the town, taking three times as long by swerving up and down every back alley.
When it is time to head home I remember my text book… with less chagrin though… I really do want to learn what I am studying…
Always Lady Mac an Rothaich
TTFN
