I Exercised More than my Spirituality

I wasn't 100% sure I was going to do this thing I did this morning because playgroups haven't really been my cup of tea since Ramsey and Maren were babies. But the mom starting this one up is a really nice lady with 4 kids all 5 and under whom I see at church, McDonald's play area, swimming lessons, the library, etc. She's been working on getting this thing started for months.

It's a Mothers of Preschoolers Group. It's playtime and fun for the kids but all in a prayerful setting. When she approached me with it over the summer I raved at her idea and wished her much success with it, yada, yada...and I somehow made a mental note that September 7 was the first day of it. Wasn't sure of the time.

This morning something told me to get myself and my kids together to get over there and really give her some support, and I took a stab at the time I thought I remembered it was to begin. I decided to put Alaire in the stroller and Curran in the Sutemi carrier and have a nice walk over--it's 3 blocks away at our church and school. We did have a nice walk, it's only 85 degrees now so you don't die before you actually walk the 3 blocks. We saw Maren on the playground at recess and drew a large crowd of kids who wanted to see Maren's little babies.

The meeting went great. Alaire and Curran were wonderful. The moms were really quiet and shy except for Mary, the leader, and one other mom I sort of know from church. It'll get better with time, I'm sure, as people get to know each other and become more comfortable with praying aloud.

So when it was time to leave I could not get one of the stroller's stinking wheel brakes to loosen up. I tried everything I could think of. No one could really help me, either, because all of us had infants attached to us and toddlers in tow. After at least 10 long, frustrating minutes of fiddling with this darn stroller and darn near losing all my religion which I had just gained so prayerfully, I decided I just had to deal with it that way. 3 blocks was too long for me to try to make Alaire walk at nearly noon when she's tired and ready to nap.

So I looked like a flippin' idiot *shoving* my kid in a stroller the 3 blocks home. Not pushing like a normal person pushes a stroller. The amount of resistance caused by that one locked wheel made me look like I was mowing the lawn for 3 blocks...but on the sidewalk. Add to that Alaire's 30 pounds IN the stroller and Curran's 16 sleeping pounds in the baby carrier, and OMG that was one serious workout. I was never so happy to see my own house as I was today.

And to add insult to injury, Aaron later flipped the stroller over and in about 90 seconds had smacked the brake back into place.

*Sigh*