Modified Yoga

                        My friend and I planned a yoga and wine night the other day. Both of our husbands were out of town at a fast pitch softball tournament so we thought we’d plan ourselves a little night of relaxation. Mind you, we’d been talking and planning this for about a week, and then Friday was here! I was actually really pumped about it, as lame as it may sound, I love nothing more than pretending to be healthy, calm, and cool…so yoga and wine…what’s more healthy, calm, and cool than that? My friend and her son, who is Ben’s age, arrived around 6:45 pm and I had just finished feeding my kids dinner, they actually ate without complaining or crying, drank milk without screaming for juice, and Ben did his part at cleaning up after himself, as much as a 3 year old can clean up, when he was finished.  Ahh, the relaxation has already begun, adult conversation, kids playing in the living room, and Presley would be going to bed shortly! As I continued to make some of my famous homemade salsa, which was going to be our adult dinner, the boys played. We soon started “Toy Story 2” for the boys, I gave Presley a bottle, and by 7:30pm she was in bed! Hallelujah! Our next feat was to sneak down to the basement without the boys noticing so we could pop in our Jillian Michaels Yoga video and have a nice focused 30 minutes of exercise and stretching.

            They noticed. Here comes one, and then the other down the basement stairs. First, they both stood between us and mimicked the exercises that our girl Jillian and we were doing. Very cute, and comical. And then, as we’re in plank position, I felt a 35 pound weight jump onto my back. In the mind of a 3 year old, any time an adult is on the ground with an exposed back it’s obviously time to play “horsey.” The cuteness and humor were fading, and the annoyance was building. I knew it was going to be too good to be true. The more agitated I became, the more Ben and his friend laughed, and the more they laughed…the more envious I grew of Adam sitting at the ball tournament in another state having a 2 day break from parent duties…and horsey duties!  We continued with the video despite our efforts to ward off the little cowboys that would not leave us alone. Rather than stretching, we burned built muscle by keeping our bodies braced for the unexpected impacts of little boys jumping on top of us or trying to wrestle with us! I’d say that’s better than nothing…but I was ready for the next part of the evening. The wine. Once again, I had purchased my favorite...St. Julian’s Concord. Yes, it’s twist off, and yes it’s only $4.99, but it does the trick and tastes exactly like the Welch’s grape juice that we had in our own childhoods. We headed to my new overly sized deck (My husband is so handy!) to sit in the new deck chairs that I had purchased earlier that day. We were again followed by the boys who did a pretty good job of entertaining themselves with a pink rubber ball that they took turns trying to throw on top of the roof and out into the yard. As the adult conversing continued, and it grew darker outside, the mosquitoes arrived, and inside we went. Soon after this, Ben asked to go to bed. My stress was now gone….both of my kiddos were in bed! And oops, the whole bottle wine was gone, that didn’t take long!

            Tiffany and her son decided to spend the night, so of course this means that we could now open up a new special treat that I’ve discovered…Daily’s frozen pouches (alcohol is already inside!) It’s like an alcoholic slushie, it’s certainly something special! My envy of Adam was gone, this was better than dragging the kids and myself to a ball field, spending the nights in unfamiliar hotels, and then having to come home and live out of a suitcase until the next tournament because I am far too busy to unpack…and by busy I mean lazy. I’ll take the  modified yoga any day if I can sit at home in good company, and drink an entire bottle of wine…go ahead Adam…bring on the softball tournaments!

Adam at one of his softball tournaments...I think he'd have a smile on his face if he'd have a glass of wine instead!