Easy Ride...

Today is Thursday. Thursday in my house is Project Day. Sometimes the project is 'sneak in an extra nap', but today's project was a little more ambitious. Today's project was to fix the bikes! We had invested in super thorn resistant inner tubes to replace the shredded sieves decaying in the girls' tires from last year, but they were laying about gathering dust for several months now. It was time to take action (mostly because the boys woke up from their nap before I could manage sneaking in one of my own... sigh!)

I pulled M away from her lessons early (yay Mama!) and had her and D fetch their bikes and our brand new, never before used kiddie cart from the back room. We only misplaced two wrenches, three nuts, and a rubber washer, but we got found them all again and got it done! We changed two inner tubes, hooked up the cart, and added a cupholder to my fancy hybrid Mom Bike. Somehow the boys didn't even meltdown in the process. Knowing my strength is somewhat dubious after suffering a nearly two week major flare-up of Sjögren's, I insisted to the girls that we only go up and down the block a couple of times.

Needless to say, our enthusiasm for our nicely renewed machines got the better of us and we soon took to the open road! Er... well... took to the neighborhood at least. Both girls insisted they were up to a trip to the park, even D who is still on training wheels, so I, like the sucker I am, indulged them. It was a fair ride down. A sunny day, gentle breeze blowing, not too hot, and only about two frustrated explosions from D per block on the way there. But we made it! Bubba (aka J age almost 2), and the girls played, the baby (aka Little Bit) and I sat and made faces at each other, then the wind came up.

If you've ever been to our neck of the desert, you know that the wind around here can be nastier than møøse bites... and everyone knows møøse bites kan be pretti nasti. So we loaded up and headed back riding into the wind with sand stinging our eyes. M, being tough as leather, just pedaled on through, but by this time my legs were getting rubbery from lack of exercise and poor D was being literally blown backward on her bike as she struggled to pedal against the gale! And yet, the stoic mother must never show weakness in the face of a frustrated and panicky preschooler! I therefore encouraged, cajoled, and empathised to my wits end and eventually she got in a good rhythm and pushed on through to make it home again. It was a bit of an adventure, but a good time was had by all.

Still, I'm already starting to regret it this evening. While it's imperative that I get some exercise, my body doesn't always respond to it very well. Joint pains are starting to burn and my arms are so weak that typing on my computer feels almost as hard as pulling that kiddie cart with my bike. Sure, I could've better used my returning energy to, say, get caught up on laundry or tidy the nursery, but boy howdy! was it worth it to get out and RIDE!