Recharging

Last Sunday afternoon, as we were walking home from church and I was so not looking forward to spending the rest of the day in the house, I completely surprised myself by hearing me saying to Mark that maybe we should go visit his parents that evening. And I was even more surprised by the fact that such an idea made perfect sense. Really, kids were begging for a nap (I could just feel their brain waves getting all scrambled up from being tired, yet I knew they would refuse to nap at home) and an hour long drive would've been perfect for that.
In addition, I was also starting to feel tense from the stale city air, heat and the lack of open space. Yes, I got spoiled during our vacation. Or maybe it just gave me a taste of how much I'd really love to live in a place where I can't stick my hand out of the my kids' bedroom and reach neighbour's camper that's parked in their drive way. (Incidentally, that camper gets randomly turned on almost every day and heavens forbid our windows are a crack open. The fumes give me an instant headache and sometimes send our carbon monoxide detector into a seizure) It would also be nice to have, for a change, a backyard that's bigger than our living room...

Yet, here we are, living in the city, which I used to enjoy much more before the amount of seats in my stroller got outnumbered by the amount of kids. Sure, Maya can walk, and Anya can stay on my back, but what if they get tired, or refuse to follow my perfectly planned out 'seating arrangement'? Then I'm stuck with cranky kids, wherever we are, trying to keep my cool and hopelessly failing. That doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it's nerve wracking enough to scare me away from any future attempts to go on another walk with all 3 imps by myself.

So yes, as much as I love many aspects of living in a city, it just doesn't make much sense to me any more, and I do feel bad for Maya and Elijah who are so painfully familiar with every weed, stick, rock and snail shell in the back yard, that they don't jump with excitement any more when I offer them to go play outside...

So what was this post about? Oh yes, us going to visit Mark's parents. I failed to mention(or remind) that they now live on a farm and if you stand close enough to their new house, all you can see is hills and hills of wild plants, sagebrushes and grass. And the air... oh, you just have to be there, so fresh and incredibly recharging...

Yes, the drive was well worth it and we even scored extra points for having everyone take a nap (even Mark, but not while driving :)