One Tough Mama

I should probably provide a visual of what I look like before I continue...

I am five feet tall. Maybe 5'1" with shoes. I weigh about 115.

My point is that I am small. I would say I have average strength. I run and hike, but do zero weight training.

This weekend I pushed the envelope on strength. Part of my determination to not have the kids miss out on anything because Dad chose to leave the family.

Saturday I went to Lowes. I purchased a sledgehammer as well as 18 large bricks for my yard. I put the 18 bricks in a cart with the help of a nice store employee. After purchasing the bricks I somehow maneuvered the cart to my car. It got stuck once. Some nice young employees (who looked so young I felt old), offered to help. I told them I had it. Got the bricks home. Unloaded them all and moved them to the backyard. Someone had mentioned Lowes would deliver. But this is something I could do.

I then moved heavy pieces of wood out of my garden and used the sledgehammer to bury the nails that had held the wood in place.

I forgot to mention the 22 mile bike ride earlier in the morning,

Sunday, after taking the kids to a trampoline gym, I took them to REI. There we tried one of the carrier backpacks with my daughter in it. She weighs between 42 and 44 pounds. Probably too big for the carrier. But I managed to get her in there and on my back...to the amusement of the store 
employee helping me. I walked around the store with her on my back. The clerk told me that it would be exhausting carrying someone her size. I told him that yes, it physically would be. But NOT 
carrying her would be exhausting emotionally.

I got home and worked on getting the Trail-a-Bike attached. I was worried about trying it because
biking is one thing. Biking with an extra 55'pounds is another, in the meantime I worked in the garden. Used the hoe and a tamper, started lining up my bricks. Realizing I need at least three more trips to Lowes. Wow.

Actually took my daughter out ON the trail a bike. Tough going up hills but not too bad. She loved it. My son was with us and both kids begged for a "longer" bike ride.

Tonight I took the kids to Lowes for more bricks and we went on another bike ride.

I love the fact that as my kids grow up they will expect that a woman can do anything she chooses. I can already envision my son's confusion upon meeting a friend whose mother was not involved in xeriscaping the yard."wait," he will say. "I thought that mom's build the brick walls in the yard...really your dad did that?"

My kids will know that women (and moms) are capable of anything. And that makes me proud.